The British Terraforming Mars Open will return with it’s 3rd installment, which will include all official promos.
- Date: Saturday October 24, 2026
- Time: 10:00 – 20:00 GMT (Registration starts at 9.30)
- Location: Reading, UK
- Address: Whitley Wood Community Centre, 28-35 Lexington Grove, Reading RG2 8UG
- Entry Fee: £15 per participant
- Rounds: 3
- Places: 48
- Players per table: 4
Links: Account Registration Tournaments
Overview
This tournament is intended to be a friendly tournament for experienced players of Terraforming Mars.
We will play 3 rounds over the course of the day, with prizes being awarded to the top 3 players overall and a wooden spoon prize.
WhatsApp Group
It’s reccommended you join the WhatsApp Group for tournament participants. If you wish to do so, please email britishopentm@gmail.com and you will be sent an invite link.
Travel
The tournament is held in a community center on the outskirts of Reading, easily accessible from the M4. There are also bus links from central Reading. There are both a Holiday Inn and a Premier Inn within 20 mins walk of the venue.
Scoring
Scoring will be simple with 5 points for a win, 3 for 2nd place, 2 for 3rd and 1 for 4th. In the event of a tie on the leaderboard, the player who faced the more difficult opponents will be ranked higher.
The margin of victory or number of VP scored are irrelevant to how the leaderboard is calculated.
Website
The registration and scoring systems are integrated with the Dutch Open Terraforming Mars website, here you can customise your profile and view results and stats.
Rules
We will be playing the base game with preludes 1 and all promos with the exception of those designed for Venus, Colonies or Turmoil. In addition there will be a fan-made tournament promo (yet to be released) which each participant will receive a copy of along with the current season promo from Fryx.
The tournament will also include the fan-made tournament promos from the last 2 tournaments (pictured below)
Games will be strictly limited to 2 hrs 30 mins per round.
Alternate direction card drafting will be in effect, but starting hands will not be drafted. We will be playing with the ‘extended start variant’, so each player will be dealt 10 Project Cards, 3 Corporations and 6 Preludes. They will then choose 1 Corp, 2 Preludes and buy any Project Cards as usual.
Maps
The maps will be Terra Cimmeria, Utopia Planitia Tharsis
Terra Cimmeria–
The Cimmeria map does not have the Noctis region, so Noctis City may be placed without its restriction. It does, however, have four volcanic areas where tiles like Lava Flows may be placed: Albor Tholus, Tyrrhenus Mons, Hadriacus Mons, and Apollinaris Mons.
Milestones:PLANETOLOGIST – 2 Earth tags, 2 Venus tags, 2 Jovian tags. Replaced with: TERRAN – 5 Earth tags.
ARCHITECT – 3 city tags.
COASTGUARD – 3 tiles adjacent to ocean.
FORESTER – 3 plant production.
FUNDRAISER – 12 M€ production.
Awards:
Electrician – most power tags.
Founder – most tiles adjacent to special tiles.
Mogul – highest total production of all resources except M€.
Zoologist – most animal and microbe resources.
Forecaster – most played cards with requirements.
Utopia Planitia–
The Utopia map lacks volcanos and the Noctis region, so the tiles from the cards Noctis City and cards that place tiles on volcanic areas (for example Lava Flows) lose their placement restrictions and may be placed on any nonreserved area.
Milestones:
MANAGER – 3 special tiles in play.PIONEER – 3 colonies in play. Replaced with: THAWER – Raise temp 5 times
TRADER – 3 different types of resources on cards (e.g. different kinds of microbes only count as 1 type of resource).
METALLURGIST – 6 steel production and titanium production combined.
RESEARCHER – 4 science tags.
Awards:
Suburbian – most tiles along the border of the map.
Investor – most Earth tags.
Botanist – highest plant production.
Incorporator – most cards played with a cost of 10 M€ or less.
Metropolist – most city tiles.
Prizes
Spring ’26 prizes/trophies
2025 prizes/trophies
The players who come in the top 3 overall will Each in turn get to choose one of the main prizes – yet to be announced
A wooden spoon prize will also be awarded
BYOBG
Due to this tournament being played with all promos, we have taken the decision to provide the majority of the games ourselves.
However, if you have a copy of the base game with Prelude 1 and all promos up to and including the 2025 pack, Then it would be much appreciated if you could bring this.
If you are able to do so, please send an email to britishopentm@gmail.com or contact Paul via WhatsApp.
Creating an account
For new users, you need to register for an account here !
You will receive an email entitled ‘[Dutch Open Terraforming Mars] Login Details’ – please check spam if you can’t find it.
Afterwards click on the home icon at the top when you have finished editing your profile.
After creating the account
Registration for the British Open Tournament is now live on the events page. Simply scroll down until you find it. Please use the national flag at the top of the webpage to translate to your language, if this doesn’t work for any reason please use your browser’s built in translation tool.
Please note! The system will ask you if you are able to bring a copy of the game and maps. Please just ignore this and contact us directly if you are able to bring a game with all promos.
Payment instructions
After you have registered you will be required to pay the tournament fee of £15 via bank transfer, please do this promptly and INCLUDE YOUR USERNAME ON THIS SITE as the reference.
Arrival at the venue
Registration will start at 9.30 and we are aiming to start round 1 dead on 10:00AM. So please aim to arrive by 9.45, allowing ample time to set the games up.
You will register online when you arrive at the venue via a QR code.
Please check you can log in prior to arrival.
Also it will help us out if you can fill in your full name on your profile.
Facilities
The venue has a kitchen, where tea and coffee making facilities will be provided.
An hour will be given for lunch (longer if your game finishes quickly) Unfortunately there are no food places close by, however if you are coming by car then there are options for lunch within a short drive.
As we are against the clock, the break between games 2 and 3 will be much shorter, so it likely won’t be an option to leave the venue to buy food during this break. Feel free to bring food with you though.
Instructions for the day
Prior to arriving please check you can login on this page https://britishopentm.com/events/
When you arrive, please collect your 2 complimentary promos for attending the event. Please then scan the QR code and login to that page, this will register you as having arrived. (WiFi is available in the hall)
(An event organiser can register your arrival if you cannot access the page for any reason.)
Once we are ready to start, the system will tell you the table number you are assigned to for the first game.
We are hoping to get the tournament underway at 10am sharp, so ideally everyone is situated by 9.50 so I can run over the format and the games can be set up.
Registration starts at 9.30, but feel free to come earlier if you want to help setting up the venue.
