Stronghold Games and Fryx Games are producing Terraforming Mars:  Prelude, the third expansion set for the popular board game, with plans to release it this August.

Terraforming Mars:  Prelude is set before the corporations begin the transformation of Mars depicted in the main game (see “Stronghold Games Takes on the Red Planet”), allowing them to customize their corporations.  Each player is dealt four “Prelude” cards from which they select two bonuses to improve their corporation or get a head start on their terraforming operation.  In addition, the expansion offers five new corporations for players to play, as well as seven new project cards that focus on the earliest stages of the terraforming process.

The new expansion was designed by Terraforming Mars’ creator, Jacob Fryxelius, and includes 47 cards.  As an expansion, it requires a copy of the base game to play, and is fully compatible with all other expansions, including the recently released Venus Next (see “Expansions for ‘Dark Moon,’ ‘Terraforming Mars,’ ‘Flamme Rogue,’ More”).

In related news, Asmodee Digital is developing a mobile app version of the game, expected to be available later this month (see “‘Mansions of Madness,’ ‘Dized,’ ‘Codenames,’ ‘Terraforming Mars,’ ‘Fighting Fantasy Legends,’ More”).