On Mars

On Mars tasks players with establishing a self-sustaining colony on the red planet, managing resources, constructing buildings, developing technologies, and completing missions that push the settlement toward independence. Designed by Vital Lacerda with art by Ian O’Toole and published by Eagle-Gryphon Games in 2020, it represents one of the heaviest and most ambitious designs in Lacerda’s catalog. Players split their time between an orbiting space station and the Martian surface, with different actions available in each location.

Community opinion on On Mars is more divided than most Lacerda titles. Devoted fans call it his magnum opus and one of the finest heavy strategy games ever made. Critics describe it as a game that buckles under its own complexity, where the struggle to learn the system overshadows the experience of playing it. The truth, as usual, sits somewhere between those poles, but the intensity of feelings on both sides speaks to how much the game asks of its players.

The Production Quality That Defines On Mars

The interconnected systems are On Mars at its best. Mining minerals provides the raw material for generators. Generators supply power for water extraction. Water feeds greenhouses that grow plants. Plants fuel oxygen production, and oxygen keeps colonists alive to work the mines. Each link in the chain depends on the others, and building a colony that functions efficiently requires understanding how all these systems interact. When you finally see the full picture and start executing plans that leverage these connections, the game delivers a strategic experience that few others can match.

Splitting time between orbit and the Martian surface creates a compelling structural choice. Actions available in orbit include acquiring blueprints, developing technologies, and picking up supplies. On the surface, you construct buildings, recruit scientists, welcome arriving ships, and explore with your rover. A shuttle moves between the two locations on a predictable schedule, and managing when to be where adds a layer of logistical planning that feels uniquely appropriate for the Mars colonization theme.

Technology development provides meaningful progression throughout the game. Investing in different tech paths opens up new capabilities and efficiencies for your colony. The tech trees create divergent strategies, so players pursuing different technological priorities end up with colonies that look and function very differently. This drives replayability and makes each game feel distinct.

Thematically, On Mars delivers more strongly than many heavy euros. You feel the challenges of establishing a colony on a hostile planet. Resources are scarce, infrastructure builds slowly, and every advance toward self-sufficiency requires careful coordination. The science fiction setting isn’t just window dressing. It informs how the game’s systems interact and why certain actions work the way they do.

On Mars’ Rules Problem

Learning On Mars is its most significant barrier, and it’s a tall one. The rulebook is dense and struggles to communicate the game’s interconnected systems in a linear format. Players who tackle the rules cold report needing multiple readings before feeling confident enough to teach the game, and even then, first plays are full of confusion and rule lookups. Understanding individual rules isn’t the hard part. Seeing how everything connects is where the struggle lies.

Complexity exceeds what some players consider reasonable. On Mars packs an enormous number of systems, subsystems, and conditional rules into a single experience. For the audience it’s designed for, this density is the point. For anyone else, it’s an impenetrable wall. The game has virtually no on-ramp, and introducing it to someone unfamiliar with heavy euros is likely to produce frustration rather than enthusiasm.

Session length compounds the learning problem. Sessions with newer players can stretch well past the listed playtime, and even experienced groups need two hours or more. For a game that also demands significant setup time and a lengthy rules explanation, the total time investment for a single session is substantial.

Player interaction, while more present than in some heavy euros thanks to shared colony construction and area majority elements, still leans toward the indirect side. Most of your attention goes to your own plans, and meaningful interference with opponents is limited. Players who want confrontation will find On Mars too focused on individual optimization.

The Commitment Question for On Mars

On Mars requires more from its players than almost any other game on the market. The rules overhead is heavy. The first few sessions will be rough. The time commitment per game is significant. None of this changes the fact that, underneath the complexity, there’s a remarkable design that rewards deep engagement. The question isn’t whether On Mars is good. It’s whether you and your group are willing to put in the work to get there.

Most players who make it past the learning phase report that the game opens up dramatically and becomes one of their favorites. The problem is that the learning phase itself is enough to stop many groups from ever reaching that point.

Should You Play On Mars?

On Mars is for experienced heavy gamers who have already worked through other complex titles and want something that pushes the boundaries of strategic depth. It plays best at two to three, where the colony develops with enough competition to stay interesting without extending the game beyond reasonable limits. The solo mode offers a challenging experience for players comfortable with the system.

Skip this if you’re not already fluent in heavy euro conventions, if your group struggles with long rules explanations, or if you need games that deliver a satisfying experience on the first play. On Mars demands patience, repeated sessions, and a willingness to struggle through confusion before the reward appears. For those who make the investment, the payoff is enormous.

The Verdict on On Mars

On Mars is Vital Lacerda’s most ambitious design, and it mostly lives up to that ambition. The interconnected systems create a colony-building experience where every resource, building, and technology feeds into something else. Getting through the learning phase is a genuine challenge, and the rulebook is a significant barrier. But players who persist will find one of the most thematically rich and strategically deep heavy euros on the market. It’s not for everyone, and it knows it.