[Terraforming Mars] Strategy #5 - Momentum 

Thanks !

I agree early terraforming of the temperature can be used to accelerate the game towards another card's precondition, but it still accelerates the game! If you've already invested resources in terraforming, you have less incentive to invest in anything else later in the game. So early terraforming often not quite "forces" you down that route, but certainly incentivises it. I've found that in any one game, it's unlikely for the victorious player to have both done a lot of terraforming and have a big engine. It's one or the other that dominates and then they have only invested in the other strand when clearly profitable. I for example play quite aggressive terraforming games when I don't have a good engine plan from quite early on. I'm the serial terraformer I refer to in the video!

What would you say is the benefit from delaying showing Europa? I managed to put jovian lanterns either way first generation since I had a titanium source.

@@MrHypocrism I would say that hiding Europa could let you see another multiplier from draft, or just more jovian in general. Plus, 25 (get 4 back )mc to play the card and 12 mc to lay an ocean is not cheap. Also easy for opponents to snag oceans to deny you best usage of your card, since you can use it only once per gen. Europa´s greatest strength is the multiplying effect I think. Research Coordination is a super card in a long game, it solves many problems with tag restrictions and therefor saves a lot of money.

@@MrMartinnoren I see that, however in this game we weren't drafting - it was 3 player with a new player & I don't put in the draft in that context. The main point of playing europa straight away in this context was to get a jovian tag on the board so that I could play Jovian Lanterns from turn one. If I'm going full engine creation, I'm going all for it! I also welcome hate drafting - if I'm such a threat that people have to choose to deny me a jovian tag rather than take a card beneficial to themselves, that's a bonus in my book! I've drifted away from the hidden jovian strategy that I've highlighted in other videos.

It is tough to do so, but possible. The main distinction is to view terraforming as an engine - you're creating an engine to terraform, as opposed to an engine that generates points only. The downside is that terraforming has a ceiling in that it gets to a point where you cannot terraform that track any further, and so is prone to waste in the last few generations. If everyone else is building point engines, I would diversify and not over-invest in the terraforming parts of my engine.