The space race is heating up once again, and governments have issued their challenge: develop a viable Mars program in four years. The catch, your government will only supply a fixed amount of funding per year. The rest of your budget, and the success of your mission, depend on the success of the projects you fund. But be careful, you’re not the only one in this race!

The winner of the race is the player with the most victory points. Points are awarded for progress in each of the 8 mission objectives. A bonus is given to the first and second players that completes the entire objective. The game is played over a series of four program years, after which the government funding ceases.

In the first program year, players spend their Space Bucks (Spucks) on funding research in their 4 space station experiment bays. In the following years, players fund projects to further their mission objectives and provide additional funding for the next program year. Research topics reduce the cost of corresponding projects. In the base game, action cards can be played to help your program as well.

4 Years to Mars is card-based with individual player boards to track mission objective progress. The game can be played solo, cooperatively or competitively.

In the cooperative game, all players are working together to complete the 8 mission objectives before the end of the four program years. In order to advance a mission objective, players must work together to fund projects that create sets of mission objective icons. For example, in a five player game to advance your rover mission objective once, you will have to have a set of five cards with mission objective icons. Unlike sets for the competitive game, cards can be used for multiple icon sets.

In the single player game, the goal is also to complete the 8 mission objectives before the end of the four program years. But, some cards are removed from the market after every round so you must plan for the next year.

All of the projects in the game are based on real NASA projects and products.

-description from designer

4 Years to Mars

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