Mission: Red Planet rules - 3 players

Mission: Red Planet by Bruno Faidutti & Bruno Cathala is one of their best loved boardgames, boasting a 7.5 score on boardgamegeek.

The game was designed for 2-6 players, but 66% of people agree it works best only with 4 players. Only 8% consider it best for 3 players, and only 7% for 6 players

Why?

Mission: Red Planet is built on 2 main battlegrounds -

• Fighting to successfully launch your astronauts to Mars

• Fighting over territories on Mars.

With fewer than 4 players there's too little interaction on both battlegrounds. There are fewer "cross effects" between the character cards that send astronauts to Mars, and there's enough space on Mars for everyone to live peacefully.

With more than 4 player there's so much interference between the character cards and moves on Mars, that play becomes random.

Basically the game is optimized for about 40 moves (4 players, 10 moves each).

Red Planet poll. Source: boardgamegeek.com

Solution

Always use 4 ship docks, no matter how many players.

• 3 Players rules - each player may play 1 additional character card once on turns 1-3, once on turn 4-6 and once on turns 7-9, bringing the total moves to 39 (= 3 x 13). Players do not need to reveal if they played 1 or 2 cards, until the relevant cards are called for. For example, a player may choose to play on turn 5 both an Explorer and a Soldier.
  

• 6 Players rules - each player plays only 7 of the 10 allowed moves, bringing the total number of moves to 42 (= 6 x 7). Players do not declare that they's skipped the turn. This will be revealed only after calling all numbers.
  

• 5 Players rules - same as for 6 players, but each player plays only 8 of the 10 allowed moves, bringing the total number of moves to 40 (= 5 x 8).

Coming up...

Mission Mission Mission: Red Planet - how to make those mission cards 10 times more exciting