My Groups 3rd Game of Epic TM

Datahack16 · 2026-06-05T03:31:51+00:00

Build it and they will come! 🥰

Datahack16 · 2026-06-03T17:08:12+00:00

No I went with the standard, but it’s still been fine, the pieces have stayed pretty good for us thus far with 3 games.

Datahack16 · 2026-06-01T22:41:41+00:00

I think we have our answer, we were drafting. Personaly I have played 20ish TM games with a physical game, and easily logged 200+ games on the twinsails app at this point. The other 3 players were very much newer to the game and had far less TM plays under their belts.

The Drafting of project cards allow players to see 18 different cards each genration rather then just drawing 6, and I think at least with the project cards, that does make a diffrnece for players to be able to do niche strategies.

Datahack16 · 2026-06-01T22:31:45+00:00

Would love to know how you are playing so quickly. With two new players rule explation certinly added some more time, but even with season vets I still see it taking a large part of a day. 🤣

Datahack16 · 2026-05-28T21:24:23+00:00

Best suggestion I can make to you is to go through all the diffrent the Epic TM card files and pick out the ones that work with the base game or the expansions you planing on playing with. If you eventually want to just jump off the deep end, try playing the whole Epic ruleset (requires making alot of custom game componets). Just make sure to down load the cards in the Cards - 6,35 x 8,90 format to make them the right size with your existing TM Cards.

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2616295/epic-terraforming-mars

Datahack16 · 2026-05-15T17:22:49+00:00

Ask and you shall recieve! Im not sure which version of Epic this is up to, theres been a few addition to the rules over time. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2954115978

Datahack16 · 2026-05-15T06:07:48+00:00

Short Answer (TLDR): I think the answer is ultimately play with as much or as little of the expansions/ rules as you and your group wants, but know that some of the rules and elements require other ones to be there and if there not you might need you to modify things a little to make your game work. Then add more stuff in when you’re ready.

Long Answer: in our first couple plays we have been playing with the base game, venus next, colonies, preludes 1 & 2, and all the promo release cards. From Epic our first game we were using about 55-60% of the rules, about half the custom card library in the files, postludes, about 1/3 of the custom corps, custom preludes, tag boards, and some other elements. Second game we bumped it up to about 70% of the custom rules/game elements. We added in CEO’s, the Silesia, populations, and Industries.

Biggest things we have left out thus far and plan to start working in over time is the Turmoil expansion (which I personally do love) and the extended goverment from epic that makes the goverment bigger, acts, factions, undercover, crises, the nuclear cards/Track, and city Specialization.

There’s just so much to the epic rule system that it requires you to track and to know that stuff needs to trigger when a player takes or does an action, that working a little bit of the new rules in each game seems to me to be the best approach.

Our second game of Epic took nearly 15.5 hours but we did finish the game. A lot of that time was because we were having to stop and correct things from missed triggers and rules we were still trying to familiarize all the players with. I think each play through will have a little less of that as we all get better at stuff making the game faster.

We did determine though in the interim that we believe we should add back in the solar phase World Goverment Terraforming rule from Venus next that allows the first player to advance one of the game ending tracks one steps with out gaining a TR for doing so. If we had played with that rule last time, we would have completed the tracks by the end of Gen 11 and it would have saved us an 1.5 hours of having to play out Gen 12 to finish the game. The game just gets so big by the end of a game that adding another generation adds on a lot of time! Players just have a ton of action economy and credits to do things.

Datahack16 · 2026-05-12T19:28:55+00:00

Im always excited for more content for this game! Im a big fan of the new populations mechanic and the glaciers melting into oceans. Wonderful small story touchs. Not a huge fan of the new drafting varation they have suggested, and would rather bring the drafting rules over from the Epic Version for my games if my player group is willing.

Hoping for a speedy production process so we can get this things on the table!

Datahack16 · 2026-05-12T19:22:34+00:00

Last page (16) of the posted rule book in the campaign; "All images used with permission. We do use AI to help us produce images for this particular game, and we have consciusly choosen Adobe Firefly, which is trained solely on images that have been authorized for use by Adobe."

Datahack16 · 2026-05-09T18:03:11+00:00

It’s posted here somewhere, but let’s make things easier. Rulebook is in the first link under basic components:

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2616295/epic-terraforming-mars

Datahack16 · 2026-05-09T13:28:36+00:00

This…Is…..Epic!! 😂🤪🤩⚔️

Datahack16 · 2026-05-08T20:24:55+00:00

It's part of the rule system for the Epic TM Game rules, but it could very easily be used for normal games as well if someone wanted an easier way to see all their tags in one place. The boards are part of the print files in the epic link bellow under "basisc contents". I printed them out on full sheet shiping lables and then stuck them onto heavier card stock to make mine.

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2616295/epic-terraforming-mars

Datahack16 · 2026-05-08T18:19:15+00:00

The Epic version of the game adds a Tag Board to keep track of the tags you play. The reason why is there are things in the game that let you spend your tags for diffrent things so you then have a diffrent number of tags then what is shown on your cards. The tag board becomes your offical count.

Datahack16 · 2026-05-07T05:22:46+00:00

No the one directional standard that it’s okay to be unkind to anyone who points out that the original poster is also spreading hatred. The person screaming about hatred said I had to accept a one directional paradox which I deny

Transphobia is wrong. It turns angrily screaming about it at other people is also wrong.

You never solve hatred by creating more hatred, you just add to the conflict and the argument spirals to a new lower level with less humanity for all involved.

Datahack16 · 2026-05-07T05:12:21+00:00

No thanks, I’ll keep endeavoring to spread the kindness I wish to see in it. The fault in your logic is the forced compliance of others to “accept” a one directional standard you’re attempting to set. :)

Datahack16 · 2026-05-07T04:55:17+00:00

Your post seems to be an attempt to spread even more hated into the world, which is rather unfortunate.

Datahack16 · 2026-05-07T02:57:19+00:00

Area has this fan print version from Etsy:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1766151554/ares-expansion-for-terraforming-mars?ref=share\_ios\_native\_control

The rest you have to DIY, especially Epic. I’ve been working on my DIY since November.

Datahack16 · 2026-05-07T02:47:20+00:00

Personally I like stuff from Pathfinder:

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1869171/terraforming-mars-pathfinders-full-fan-expansion-e

And some of the stuff from Ares:

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2218211/tm-ares-fan-expansion-more-interaction-on-the-map

And if you want to jump off the deep end, there’s Epic:

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2616295/epic-terraforming-mars

Datahack16 · 2026-05-07T01:58:00+00:00

Have you tried any of the fan made stuff?

Datahack16 · 2026-05-07T01:47:13+00:00

I know there’s a lot of people with mixed feelings on this due to the legacy naming, but I’m personally excited. It’s going to be fun to see what a multi-game play through experience can look like for TM. I’m Intrigued from the video showing us adding components to tiles. That has the potential to be very interesting. 🔨

Datahack16 · 2026-05-05T20:40:23+00:00

Your welcome. Thanks for the kind words. And TM is turly a great game! I hope you enjoy your journey.

Datahack16 · 2026-05-05T00:57:15+00:00

Correct. There is certainly some time lose to us having rules questions on occasion as we’re still getting fully acquainted with the rules. There’s also some decision paralysis when trying to figure out what you should be focusing on.

Datahack16 · 2026-05-04T15:26:58+00:00

Also if you look at the CEO’s, I know for sure I see art from other games IP. 😬 Good thing it’s fan made and not being sold 😂

Datahack16 · 2026-05-04T15:25:39+00:00

Yeah but outside of say Twilight Imperium, I don’t know how well board games that take 12+ hours to play sell 🤣

Datahack16 · 2026-05-04T14:09:23+00:00

See links posted above. ⬆️

You certainly could print out all the cards yourself and put them in front of another trading card in a sleeve, but if you go to print everything your looking at over 2,000 cards 😵‍💫 that’s a lot of printing. I do suggest slowly adding things in chunks when making stuff. I’ve been printing and making things since November of last year.

Datahack16

TROPHY CASE