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In case you‘re a fan of the colonies expansion: What makes this version attractive to you? I just played it for the first time in person, and all it seemed to do was drag out the game. One player built a massive engine with expansion-related cards and agonized about every decision because the effects were so complex.
Anything I might be missing?

Well i like it because it enables some absolutely obscene combos, but if you want a proper competetive game then not rebalanced colonies don't really cut it

I've played quite a lot with colonies (even more than the base game), so here are their pros and cons in my opinion:

Pros:

1)You can pull off incredibly powerful turns, and usually every player gets such turn. Compared to colonies, a -5 discount on everything is not that scary

2)The order of playing cards starts to matter a lot and rewards precision and knowledge of the deck, though the game slows down a bit.

3)There's always something to play. Almost all your money gets used each turn.

4)The microbe + animal combo becomes much stronger (especially with the promo card Meat Grinder: blue card, costs 5 MC, has a building tag; provides 2 MC every time you gain an animal resource).

5)Very high scores are possible. Our record is 175–354.

6)Earth becames extremely strong

7) 100+ MC or 10+ TI prodaction is not uncommon

Pros or cons depending on the player (I like #1 #2 and OK to #3 #4):

1)Terraforming becomes unviable; engine building gets a major boost. In particular, heat production is useless, and plant production is only as part of a bio combo or with crazy discounts.

2)Games last longer. My stats for 2-player live games: 3.5–4.5 hours with colonies + Venus, 2–2.5 hours for a standard game.

3)Manutech is crazy OP

4)As a result of point #1 and the addition of very powerful cards, games become less competitive.

Cons:

1)Because terraforming is not effective, games can become very one-sided, and there's no way to end them quickly. After 25+ games, we even started conceding to finish early.

2)Playing with 4+ players is impossible; 3 players is also not great.

3)Due to the large number of blue cards, there are situations where one player has passed, but the other still plays for another 15 minutes. In a game where my opponent scored 374, I passed and then helped him finish his last turn — it still took over 30 minutes, and the whole game lasted about 7.5 hours.

4)Early energy production can be too good

Andrei3009 wrote: ↑09 May 2026, 21:23 I've played quite a lot with colonies (even more than the base game), so here are their pros
[…]

1)Because terraforming is not effective, games can become very one-sided, and there's no way to end them quickly. After 25+ games, we even started conceding to finish early.

2)Playing with 4+ players is impossible; 3 players is also not great.

3)Due to the large number of blue cards, there are situations where one player has passed, but the other still plays for another 15 minutes. In a game where my opponent scored 374, I passed and then helped him finish his last turn — it still took over 30 minutes, and the whole game lasted about 7.5 hours.

4)Early energy production can be too good

Thanks for the detailed info! That confirms this expansion isn’t for me.

In general I enjoy T Mars where a dedicated terraforming strategy has a good chance of success in 2p. That doesn't seem to be the case in colonies; one reason I don't enjoy that expansion.

Every version of TM has S tier cards; the ones from Colonies seem to be particularly egregious. Sky Docs, most of the extra trade fleet cards ? Spin something. I've only played like twice sorry. Very overpowered.

The planets (err colonies) don't seem balanced between them; Pluto appears to be way too strong?

If I were to play colonies expansion I would suggest the house rule changes that I've heard some folks (I've read a bit online, BGA, BGG, discord) use to keep the game less 'swingy' - Trading twice on your first gen / turn is not allowed, and perhaps ban Pluto. Otherwise, we may as well be flipping coins or playing 'war' with cards. Low chance that skill expression overcomes the powerful Pluto and OP cards available etc.