Terraforming Mars Venus Next Strategy: The Fourth Track

Venus Next is another expansion you will meet at tournament tables. Tournaments such as WBC have used it in later rounds, and it changes the game’s shape more than its rulebook length suggests. The key is one line: Venus is not an end-game condition.

How Venus Next works

From the Venus Next rulebook:

• The Venus track goes from 0% to 30%, in 2% steps, so it has 15 steps. Each step gives 1 TR, like any global parameter, and it stops giving TR once maxed.
• Bonus steps: raising Venus to 8% lets you draw a card. Raising it to 16% gives an extra TR.
• Air Scrapping is a new standard project: 15 M€ to raise Venus one step, for 1 TR.
• The game still ends when temperature, oxygen, and oceans are maxed. Venus does not need to finish.
• New cards: 49 project cards and 5 corporations. Floaters are a new resource, collected on cards like microbes and animals. The Venus tag marks Venus cards.
• Hoverlord, a new milestone, needs 7 floaters on your cards. Venuphile, a new award, goes to the most Venus tags. With them, there are 6 of each, but still only 3 claimed and 3 funded.

The Solar Phase. After production each generation, check whether the game is over. If not, the first player, before player order shifts, acts as the World Government. They raise any one non-maxed global parameter one step, or place an ocean. No TR or placement bonuses go to the first player, though cards that trigger on the change, such as Arctic Algae, still trigger. The rulebook offers skipping this step as a variant for a longer game, but WBC 2025 made it mandatory for time.

TR that does not speed the end

Here is the strategic heart of Venus. Raising temperature, oxygen, or oceans gives you TR and also moves the game toward its end. Raising Venus gives you TR and leaves the clock alone.

That suits engine players. If you want a long game, Venus is the place to collect TR without shortening it. A player ahead on points may prefer to spend the same money on the Mars tracks to end the game sooner.

Compare the prices too. Air Scrapping costs 15 M€ for 1 TR, and Asteroid costs 14. Asteroid is cheaper, but it moves the clock. Pick based on which game you want.

The World Government step is a free move

Each generation, one player gets to raise a parameter for nobody’s TR. That is a small but real lever on the shared clock. As first player, you choose:

• Push a Mars track if you want the game shorter.
• Push Venus if you want to leave the clock alone. Venus steps are not end conditions, so this step can be spent there with no effect on the game’s length.
• Close a window. Raise the parameter that makes a rival’s low-requirement card unplayable.
• Open one for yourself. Raise the parameter your own card is waiting on.
• Mind the bonus steps. The rulebook gives all bonuses from this step to the World Government, not to you. Moving a track onto a bonus step this way means no player collects it.

Because the first player rotates, you get this choice in turn. Plan for the generations when it is yours.

Floaters and Venus cards

Floaters live on cards, like microbes and animals. Many Venus cards collect them or spend them for effects. Hoverlord rewards 7 floaters. If your corporation or early cards collect floaters, keep the milestone in mind early, since the race for it can be quiet until someone claims it.

Venus tags also have a requirement side. Many Venus cards need the Venus track high or low, like Mars cards with oxygen. The same timing rules apply.

Venus with other expansions

At a tournament table, Venus often comes with Prelude and Colonies; WBC’s semifinal and final use all three. The World Government step plus faster Prelude engines can make the game short. Expect fewer generations than in a base game, and apply the math from how to value a card with that in mind.

A Venus checklist

Each generation, ask:

1. Do I want this game long or short?
2. Is Venus TR or Mars TR the better buy for me right now?
3. When I am first player, which parameter helps me most and my rivals least?

Venus Next is available from Stronghold Games. It needs the base game.