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Game Info
Year
2024
Collection
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Description
The year is 2037. Your organization is competing to put the first human being on Mars, but the competition is fierce. In Race to Mars, each player will build their own custom rocket and carefully plan their own crew deck that will take them to the red planet. But who will get there first? The race is on!
Race to Mars is a fast-paced racing game for two to four players, where you build your deck from scratch and every decision matters. Will you add another module to your rocket? Should you enhance your crew deck to prepare for the journey ahead? Even what you leave behind is a rich decision as leftover cards will build the game board with the trajectories from Earth to Mars.
And when should you launch your rocket? As fast as possible and try to stay ahead the entire way or do you stay cool and keep building up, hoping that you will overtake your competitors one by one? No two games of Race to Mars are the same, as each game will pose new challenges and opportunities.
—description from the designer
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All mentions
Browse transcript mentions, sentiments, pros/cons, mechanics, topics, quotes, and references.
Total mentions: 2
This page: 2
Sentiment:
pos 2 ·
mix 0 ·
neu 0 ·
neg 0
Showing 1–2 of 2
Video K0cmTHFi9xY
Rahdo Runs Through Top List at 37:18 sentiment: positive
video_pk 84098 · mention_pk 284282
Click to watch at 37:18 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- The greatest race-themed board game.
- Elegant two-phase gameplay (preparation and race).
- High-stakes drafting with meaningful consequences.
- Dramatic and exciting race to the finish.
- Simple, elegant, and dramatic design.
Cons
- Extremely limited availability, making it very hard to find.
- The host apologizes for even putting it on the list due to its rarity.
Thematic elements
- Racing to be the first to reach Mars
- Space, journey to Mars
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Card Drafting — Players draft cards to add to their deck or rocket during the preparation phase.
- Deck Building — Players build their deck during the preparation phase, which represents their crew and rocket capabilities.
- Push Your Luck — Players decide when to launch, balancing preparation with the risk of others reaching Mars first.
- Race game — The second phase of the game is a race to reach Mars first.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- Do you care about this or are you just here for the games?
- Notice that thing right there on top of our car. Uh, guess what's in there? Let me see. I You can see I've already unlocked it. There's my keys. If I pop it open, boop. Hello. There we go. I don't know. There's uh 50 or 60 games in there of various inundry sizes.
- This is another tile lane game. You know how much I love them. It's another entwined drafting game. You know how much I love that.
- I know it's not the prettiest game, but it does have kind of a nice retro50s sci-fi kit vibe to it.
- The entwined drafting escalates in tension.
- The landscape or the moonscape cards you have to play they have to be played in ascending order. So you can't just put stuff wherever you want. So you are creating a vice that you will find yourself stuck in as the game goes on.
- Wow, really surprised me. I mean, I love Sim City style games and all that.
- I love the uh team up here, Steve Finn and Phil Walker Harding. I want to see that combo a lot more.
- It's got a very very tight draft, which honestly I think is best at two players.
- The presentation is very good except for the fact that it's not colorblind friendly.
- Theme is such an important integral element to Euros. And it always breaks my heart when publishers ignore that.
- And that one extra bit attention to detail that so many games ignore in the pursuit of language independence really elevates the game, makes my city that I'm building feel like it has character, like it has a story, like it has a unique identity.
- For me, it's an Azul Killer or most of the other ones in this.
- Do you want just the games or do you want this little uh slice of life?
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video rcU9Pt9K9Cg
Rahdo Runs Through Top List at 46:53 sentiment: positive
video_pk 8891 · mention_pk 26216
Click to watch at 46:53 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- tight, tense mid-to-late-game dynamics
- clever two-phase design
- engaging for space/tech-theme fans
Cons
- availability and distribution considerations for smaller publishers
Thematic elements
- space exploration and colonization
- modern-day Mars race
- epic, high-stakes
Comparison games
- Gaia Project
- Terraforming Mars
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Dual-phase drafting and deck-building — First phase you draft crew and modules to assemble a capable rocket; second phase you build out the deck to propel toward Mars; path and road choices matter.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- Earth Under Siege Flashpoint... captures a stealth game in the way that I want stealth to be captured in a board game.
- Cat Packs is a fantastic little sweet, charming game.
- Race to Mars... two halves; draft for crew, then deck build; it’s so good I reorganized my collection around it.
- Bobblins Rebellion... the goblin cubes are adorable and the engine-building is a blast.
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Transcript Navigation
Showing 1–2 of 2