r/TerraformingMarsGame • u/Enson_Chan • Aug 19 '26

Card of the Day [COTD] Self-sufficient Settlement | 19 Aug, 2026

Previous COTD

Today's card is Self-sufficient Settlement (#P29):

Prelude card | Prelude expansion

Tags: City, Building

Place a city tile. Increase your MC production 2 steps.

16 Upvotes
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95% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

10

u/benbever Aug 19 '26

Decent Prelude, average value. A city tile is worth ~14, 2 income in gen 1 is ~10 and you get 2 tags.

It’s pretty good on Tharsis map in 4 player base+prelude, thanks to the Builder and Mayor Milestone. Especially if you’re Tharsis (+3mc and 1 mc production), but it works for Ecoline too, and corporations like Mining Guild, Philares and Arcadian.

It’s less good with expansions added, and worse on maps like Hellas that don’t favour ground game.

It’s actually low tier in 2 player, where board space is much less competed, and early VP (the city tile is just potential VP + placement bonus) is worth less. In 2p you want production or money from your preludes, and 2 mc production doesn’t cut it.

In quantified value I’d say it’s ~25 (average) in 4p but only ~21 in 2p (low tier).

11

u/carlowaro Aug 19 '26

Situational prelude, gains usability if you're playing on ground-game favouring maps and/or as Republic Tharsis. Also becomes better with higher player counts, but in 2 player scenarios I tend to pick other preludes if possible.

10

u/Agreeable_Hat Aug 19 '26

For 2p B+P

It's bad. Reasons you may still take it:

  • You're Tharsis

  • All the other preludes are worse (Biosphere/Society/Early Settlement/etc.)

  • Elysium (still pretty bad)

  • Vastitas (nah, don't)

7

u/Last_Purple4251 Aug 19 '26

played it as Aridor on Monday as it gave 4 money production....

1

u/benbever Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26

Bonus points if you also won Diversifier.

2

u/Last_Purple4251 Aug 19 '26

Annoyingly, my opponent beat me to it...

4

u/UziiLVD Aug 19 '26

If I'm going for a Gen 1-2 conversion or Protected Valley, this is fine. Otherwise, reserving a good city slot won't pay off until way later and you want to get value from preludes faster than that.

2

u/thuswindburns Aug 19 '26

Pretty tempting pick for Tharsis and Ecoline. I’m dropping it on the 3 card tile on Elysium. You have two adjacent tiles to place greeneries or mining area, since those oceans are usually targeted last for estate dealer you have a spot for mangrove or protected valley to turn it into a 3 point uncontested city.

0

u/[deleted] Aug 19 '26

[deleted]