Terraforming Mars Turmoil Expansion Guide
Terraforming Mars: Turmoil adds a political system that affects every generation. Players place delegates into the Terraforming Committee, compete for party leadership and Chairmanship, and plan around Global Events that are visible before they resolve.
What Turmoil adds
- The Terraforming Committee board
- Delegates and party leadership
- Six political parties
- Ruling bonuses and policies
- Global Event cards
- A recurring Terraform Rating revision
- New corporations and project cards
The six parties
The Committee contains Mars First, Scientists, Reds, Greens, Kelvinists and Unity. Each rewards different tags, production patterns or terraforming priorities when it becomes ruling party.
Delegates and party leaders
Players place delegates into parties to compete for influence. The player with the most influence in a party controls its Party Leader, while the dominant party determines the next ruling government.
Chairman
Political control can also place a player’s delegate in the Chairman position. The Chairman matters for influence and final scoring, so committee investment can convert into points as well as short-term policy advantages.
Global Events
Global Events are revealed in advance. A Distant Global Event becomes a Coming Global Event and later the Current Global Event, so players can see major economic or board effects several generations before they resolve.
This turns Turmoil into a forecasting system rather than a purely random event deck.
TR revision
At the beginning of each Turmoil phase, after production, every player loses 1 TR. This recurring revision means corporations must keep earning value instead of relying on early TR indefinitely.
Ruling bonuses and policies
When a party rules, its one-time bonus and ongoing policy can reward specific tags or actions. For example, some governments favor building, plants, science, heat or off-world tags.
Endgame
When the game ends, do not perform another Turmoil phase. During final scoring, Party Leaders and the Chairman can contribute victory points according to the expansion rules.
Who should add Turmoil?
Turmoil is best for experienced groups that want more interaction, forecasting and rules overhead. It changes each generation more significantly than Prelude or alternate maps.
Related guides
Publisher rules
Expansion rules checked September 2026.