I’ve been playing Terraforming Mars since the week it was released, when I drove forty minutes to a game store that got their shipment early because I couldn’t wait two more days for my pre-order to arrive. Worth it? Absolutely. That weekend, I played seven games back-to-back with different groups, trying every corporation I could get my hands on. My wife Linda thought I’d lost my mind a bit, but she also knows that when I find a game with interlocking systems this elegant, I tend to get a bit… focused.
Nearly 200 plays later (plus another 80-something on the digital version during business trips), I’ve developed strong opinions about corporation selection that occasionally cause friendly arguments during our game nights. “No, don’t take Thorgate just because you have two power cards in your opening hand!” is apparently not something you should yell in a restaurant, as I learned during a memorable game at our local brewery’s board game night. The waitress gave us concerned looks for the rest of the evening.
The fact is, your corporation selection is the single most important decision you’ll make in Terraforming Mars. It shapes your entire strategic direction and, when paired with the right project cards, creates compounding advantages that can be the difference between a mediocre final score and a dominant performance. I’ve tracked scores across my plays (I keep a small notebook specifically for this—yes, I know it’s a bit much), and the correlation between appropriate corporation selection and final game position is remarkably strong.
But here’s the thing about corporation selection that many players miss: it’s not just about picking the “best” corporation. It’s about synergy—choosing a corporation that maximizes the value of your initial cards AND aligns with the game state created by other players’ choices. Corporations that might be mediocre in some circumstances become powerhouses in others.
Take Ecoline, for instance. In a standard game, their ability to place greenery tiles at a discount seems merely good, not amazing. But add in the Venus Next expansion with colonies that reward plant production, plus an initial hand with a few plant-generating projects, and suddenly you’re looking at a corporation that can create runaway scoring advantages through production and tile placement synergies. I watched my friend Mike score 127 points with Ecoline in exactly this scenario—a full 32 points ahead of the second-place player.
The corporations in Terraforming Mars broadly fall into a few strategic categories: production engines, terraforming specialists, card-draw engines, and specialized economies. Understanding which category aligns with your opening hand is step one of effective selection.
Beginner players often gravitate toward corporations with strong starting production like Mining Guild or Thorgate because the immediate economic advantage feels good. And they’re not wrong—production is essential. But the corporations with less flashy immediate benefits and stronger long-term synergies often outperform for experienced players. I’m looking at you, Inventrix and Saturn Systems.
My personal favorite corporation—though I’ll happily play any of them—is probably Teractor. Their discount on Earth tags creates opportunities for incredible economic efficiency, especially when you can grab key cards like Earth Office or Earth Catapult early. My highest ever score (152 in a three-player game) came from a Teractor game where I had Earth Office by generation 3 and managed to play 27 Earth-tagged cards over the course of the game. Each of those cards effectively generated additional MC through the discount, creating a compounding efficiency that my opponents simply couldn’t match.
But I’ve also had Teractor games where I drew almost no Earth tags after the initial hand and struggled to find my footing, limping to a fourth-place finish. That’s the beauty and challenge of corporation selection—you’re making a strategic commitment based on incomplete information. You know your initial hand, but not what you’ll draw later.
This uncertainty is why I recommend a hybrid approach to corporation selection—choose a corporation that both strongly synergizes with your opening hand AND maintains flexibility for pivoting as the game evolves. Corporations like Inventrix (with their flexible tag requirements) or UNMI (with the straightforward but powerful TR bump action) can serve as safety valves if your primary strategy faces obstacles.
Let’s walk through how I evaluate corporations for specific opening hands:
If you’ve drawn multiple energy production cards, Thorgate becomes an obvious contender. But don’t just look at the immediate discount—consider whether those power projects lead somewhere strategically valuable. Are they stepping stones to heat production for late-game terraforming? Do they enable specific power-hungry cards you also hold? The discount is just the beginning of Thorgate’s value proposition.
I played a memorable game against my neighbor Jeff, who chose Thorgate with four power cards in his initial hand. Seemed like a no-brainer, right? But those cards were mostly small energy bumps without strategic direction. Meanwhile, I took Phobolog with just two aviation cards but a clear path toward Jovian multipliers. The game wasn’t even close—I outscored him by nearly 40 points because his corporation choice amplified tactics without supporting a coherent strategy.
If your hand contains city-building potential, Tharsis Republic can be devastating. Their bonus for city placement compounds throughout the game—each city not only gives you an immediate MC bump but increases the value of every future city for ALL players. This creates a fascinating incentive where you want to build cities early and often, while other players might try to delay their urban development to avoid feeding your engine.
My wife Linda has become frighteningly good with Tharsis Republic, to the point where our game group now practically holds a draft to determine who has to sit to her left when she selects it. Her approach typically involves rushing at least two cities in the first generation, using the placement bonuses to bootstrap her economy, then transitioning into a heavy greenery strategy to maximize tile scoring. The last time she used this approach, she placed seven cities over the course of the game. Do the math on those bonuses, and you’ll understand why we’re all a bit afraid of her Tharsis Republic games.
For players who draw research-heavy hands, Saturn Systems or Inventrix create strong foundations. The ability to capitalize on science tags (Saturn Systems) or flex requirements for global parameters (Inventrix) can accelerate your development curve significantly. I particularly like Saturn Systems when I’ve drawn cards with multiple science tags like Research Coordination or Viral Enhancers, creating compounding discounts.
At a convention tournament last year (yes, I’m that guy who enters board game tournaments), I faced an opponent who combined Saturn Systems with an opening hand containing both Research Coordination and Research Outpost. By generation three, they were playing science-tagged cards at ridiculous discounts while accumulating VP from tech-tile adjacency. I actually applauded when they closed out their final turn—the engine was that elegant.
The financial corporations like Interplanetary Cinematics (starting with 30 MC plus steel) or Mining Guild (starting with increased steel production) require careful evaluation. Their advantage is flexibility—more resources immediately means more options for your first generation plays. But without specific synergies in your project cards, you may find that dedicated corporations outpace you in the mid-game.
I’ve had mixed results with these corporations, finding that they work best when my opening hand contains a mix of opportunities without a clear thematic direction. In those cases, the additional resources let me establish multiple strategic threads and then commit more heavily based on what I draw in the first few generations. It’s a “keep your options open” approach that can be surprisingly effective in highly competitive games where direct strategic conflict is common.
What about the expansions? The corporations from Prelude, Venus Next, and Colonies each introduce new strategic angles that can dramatically impact optimal selection. Colonies corporations like Valley Trust or Polyphemos create unique economic engines that interact with the colony track in ways that can generate massive advantages with the right setup.
I once played Polyphemos in a game where Luna and Callisto both appeared as colony options, giving me trade bonuses that perfectly complemented my titanium-heavy project cards. The resource conversion efficiency let me terraform at nearly double the rate of my opponents. My friend Dave still brings up that game with a grimace, particularly the generation where I elevated the temperature twice and placed three ocean tiles in a single turn.
Venus Next corporations add another layer of strategic consideration, particularly with corporations like Morning Star Inc. that can capitalize on Venus tags for both economic and scoring purposes. If you draw Venus-oriented cards like Giant Solar Shade or Stratospheric Birds in your opening hand, these corporations can create focused strategies that generate substantial points while contributing to terraforming requirements.
Perhaps the most important and often overlooked factor in corporation selection is the meta-game—what corporations and strategies are your opponents likely to pursue? If everyone at the table gravitates toward heat production and temperature raising, the relative value of corporations that excel in other terraforming areas increases. If you’re playing with expansion boards that make oceans particularly valuable, Tektor’s ocean-placing discount becomes more strategically relevant.
This contextual evaluation requires familiarity with both the game and your specific play group. In my regular Thursday night sessions, I know that Pete almost always prioritizes greenery placement while Sarah tends toward card-draw engines. This knowledge influences my corporation selection—sometimes toward direct competition if I have the cards to support it, but more often toward complementary strategies that can capitalize on the board state they’re likely to create.
After all these plays and all this analysis, the most important piece of advice I can offer is this: your corporation is a tool, not a straitjacket. The best players adapt their strategy based on what they draw, what their opponents do, and how the board develops—regardless of their initial corporation choice. I’ve seen brilliant comebacks from players who faced poor draws but found creative ways to leverage their corporation’s abilities in unexpected directions.
The magic of Terraforming Mars lies in these adaptive challenges, the constant puzzle of extracting maximum value from the intersection of your corporation, your cards, and the evolving Mars board. And honestly, that’s why it remains in my top five games after all these years—each play presents a new strategic puzzle that never quite repeats.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go convince Linda that we absolutely need to play “just one quick game” before bed. I’ve got a theory about Ecoline that I’m dying to test…
Leave a Reply