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Mars Needs Mechanics

#125854BGG ↗

2013 · 2-4 players · 45min · weight 2.00 · 390 ratings

v2 v3 v4 wide v4 deep

BGG raw

ID
125854
Name
Mars Needs Mechanics
Year
2013
Rank
15996
Min players
2
Max players
4
Playing time
45
Min playtime
45
Max playtime
45
Avg weight
2
Num weights
34
Bayes avg
5.53255
Average
5.72851
Users rated
390
Num owned
860
Wanting
21
Wishing
118
Num comments
160
Fetched at
Wed Apr 29 2026 05:34:56 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
Mechanisms (2)
Commodity SpeculationSet Collection
Categories (2)
EconomicScience Fiction
Description (996 chars)

Game description from the publisher: London, 1873 – The Royal Academy of Space Exploration has announced its intention to launch a mission to Mars by year's end. In its quest to claim, fully explore, and map the great red planet, the Academy is holding recruitment competitions for various positions on the crew. A position central to the crew's mission, the Astronautical Engineer must be resourceful and efficient in his construction of various mechanisms and ship maintenance. In Mars Needs Mechanics, players represent engineers and tinkerers from all over the Empire who have come to compete for this prodigious opportunity. Starting the game with only 30 cogs (currency), players will utilize unique game mechanisms that emphasize timing to collect sets of components and build steampunk mechanisms aimed at earning even more cogs. At the end of the competition, the engineer with the most cogs will earn his place as Astronautical Engineer on the crew of the H.M.S. Victoria VII.

LLM v2 (wide)

Not yet enriched at v2 (wide pass).

LLM v3 (deep)

Not yet enriched at v3 (deep pass).

LLM v4 wide (controlled-vocab primitives)

Not yet enriched at v4 (wide pass).

LLM v4 deep (archetype fit)

Not in the v4 deep-pass top-20% slice.