Terraforming Mars: Standard Projects: City

Standard Projects

All Standard Projects were used to determine the value of a VP and form the "Actual" cost/value for a given item. However, here we will evaluate each individually to determine the value of the City Standard Project.

City

A city may be created for 25mc. In return, it will generate 1mc per turn, plus a bonus resource if placed on particular areas of Mars. Looking at the lowest cost can provide some insight into the value of the basic city. For this analysis, the city will be built on a non-benefit tile and not adjacent to a greenery tile.

A city built on Turn 1 will provide a maximum of 10mc. Thus, the final "value" of a city is -15mc if not built on a special tile. If built on an "average" turn, it will generate only 4.5mc.

Cost: 25

Production: 1mc

Max Value: -15mc

Avg Value:  -21.5mc

Building Locations

The first thing to improve the value a city is to look at the specific locations on Mars. The best location will vary depending on the map. The maps were evaluated in an earlier article, providing an average return.

Map

Basic:    +2.82mc

Hellas:   +2.78mc

Elysium:+2.95mc

For all intents and purposes, it is possible to say the value is 3mc.

Greenery Value

The city value at 2 greenery tiles is 11.

Every Greenery tile adjacent to a city provides that city with a 1VP bonus. The maximum possible is 6. Thus, the value of a city increases more based on the greenery tiles. The chart below shows the breakdown of value based on the number of surrounding greenery tiles.

The break even point for getting one's money back on the standard project occurs just over the 2 Greenery mark. Therefore, a city must be adjacent to at least 3 Greenery tiles to turn a 'profit'.

General Statement

Looking at just the city value without any other terms, can lead to some poor decision making. Many times it is necessary to review the overall board positioning and other strategic considerations. That said, its important to understand the absolute basic value of the city to truly understand the depth of the decision being made.

Corporate Bonus

Corporations will be looked at in depth later, but it is important to mention a particular corporation when speaking of cities, Tharsis Republic. Tharsis Republic grants a double income for placing a city and an additional 3mc immediately. Adding in all the benefits, Tharsis building a city on turn 1 will generate a 1mc benefit to the player of Tharsis. Overall, this is minimal in comparison to other options available to the player.

Turn 1-Tharsis
Cost to Build	-25
Regular Income	+10
Tharsis Income	+10
Tharsis bonus mc	+3
"Average" map	+3
Final Value	+1

Perhaps most important, Tharsis can begin to benefit from even a single Greenery tile. However, its important to realize the basic value drops off twice as fast for Tharsis than for other corporations. If Tharsis builds a city on turn 2, it will generate a return of -1mc. The chart below compares the value of building a city by turn for a basic player, and for a Tharsis player.

Tharsis vs non-Tharsis player city value comparison by turn

Conclusions

Building a city using Standard Projects on turn one is an expensive operation. The action by itself will probably not return a profit. Tharsis Republic will see a 1mc return for if the city is built on Turn 1, but typically there are much better investments to be made.

Adjacent Greenery tiles increase the value of a city dramatically. Therefore, it is the placement of greenery tiles which better dictates the value of a city rather than the income returned from the city.

Without additional cards and/or effects, a city on Mars is not practical. However, as soon as a city can be placed adjacent to 3 Greenery tiles, it becomes instantly profitable. Even on turn 10, a city adjacent to 3 greenery tiles breaks even instantly.

From an efficiency standpoint, placing a city is generally not a good decision without adjacent greenery tiles. Even then, there are typically more efficient options available than the Standard Project to generate VP. As the cards will show, most players can perform better decisions than placing a city down.

Tharsis Republic can consider placing a city down adjacent to a greenery tile a profitable decision until turn 8 of the game. After that, there is a minor loss of ROI if it is a single greenery tile. Placing a tile next to 2 greenery tiles will always return a profit to Tharsis, but the amount will differ based on the game turn.

This analysis looks at placing Standard Project city from an efficiency standpoint (i.e. mc/VP). Viewed in this light, placing city is mostly loss unless placed next to 3 or more Greenery tiles. However, Strategic considerations (such as map access, blocking opponents, etc.) may override this advice, but it is necessary to understand the value the player is giving up when to properly place a value on that strategic city placement.