Stronghold Games will release the first expansion for Jacob Fryxelius’ popular economic territory building game Terraforming Mars, Hellas & Elysium, in June. Stronghold also shared exclusive news with ICv2 on publishing plans for all four expansions and a little history on development.

Swedish publisher Fryx Games’ Terraforming Mars was released worldwide on September 28, 2016 (see “Stronghold Games Takes on The Red Planet”). Stephen M. Buonocore, President of Stronghold Games, told ICv2 his company was involved in development of the game very early on. “Fryx Games wanted Terraforming Mars to release at Essen in 2015.  Stronghold Games, who was their selected partner for Terraforming Mars, since we have worldwide distribution, passion for the industry, and great brand recognition, did not feel the game was ready.  We spent the extra year doing development with Fryx Games on Terraforming Mars.”

“During that additional year, Fryx Games also continued working on the four expansions that they had in mind, and two of them were essentially ready at about the time of the base game's release,” he said.  “Therefore, Stronghold Games is very confident in the schedule of getting these four expansions released as there was plenty of additional development time to work on them.”

The first expansion, Hellas & Elysium, includes a double-sided game board presenting two new areas of the Red Planet. Elysium takes place on almost the exact opposite side of Mars from where terraforming began.  The area consists of vast lowlands for oceans to the north and dry, mineral-rich development in the south.  Hellas includes Mars’ south pole and the enormous Hellas crater which would make a perfect lake. Each map includes a new set of Milestones and Awards. MSRP was not announced.

Terraforming Mars: Terraforming Venus (title tentative) will follow in October 2017. The third (untitled) expansion, will arrive in mid-2018. The fourth expansion (also untitled) is planned for early/mid-2019.

Stronghold will be releasing Coal Baron: The Great Card Game in February (see “'Coal Baron: The Great Card Game'”).