I'll admit I'm really winging it and reading the advise and looking at cards and thinking "sounds fun too try??"

In other Game News is anyone playing Hearthstone World of Warcraft's collectible card game? I've been playing it for awhile it's "free" in that it doesn't cost anything but you can pay for extra packs (and earn gold) so kinda like in app purchases.

They started this new Tavern Brawl thing that runs for 4 days and has odd rules. I found that sometimes it takes me about 2 days to figure out what's needed to win but once I do I can get pretty good at it. Well good enough I'm winning more than losing.

RftG

Everyone has chosen their action card for Round 5:

omnis: Phase V - Produce
askye: Phase II - Develop
Connie Neil: Phase II - Develop
chrismg: Phase IV ($) - Consume (Trade)

This round will have Phases II, IV and V. No exploring and no settling.

Phase II is first, and at the start of the round, omnis and chrismg both draw a card, thanks to their Interstellar Banks. Cards are going out now. I have some COs from people; if I don't, please let me know if you play a development, and if so, how you pay for it.

RftG

Orders are in for Phase II. omnis and chrismg both pass on playing a development.

askye plays Replicant Robots. This rather nifty card gives a 2-card discount on the cost of playing non-military worlds. Normally it costs 4 discards; however, askye chose Phase II, so she gets to knock one off. Also, she has Investment Credits, which takes another 1 off the price. She discards 2 cards to play it.

Connie plays New Military Tactics. Again. There are two copies off this development in the deck; Connie had played the other one of these before. You can only have one copy of any development in your layout, but she had previously discarded the other one to play Malevolent Lifeforms. So this card is new new Military Tactics, I suppose. With the 1-card discount for choosing Phase II, this card costs nothing.

RftG

Phase IV is next. omnis and Connie don't have any goods to consume, so they don't do anything. askye has a good on Alpha Centauri. She consumes it on Prosperous World for 1 VP.

chrismg chose this Phase, and chose to trade one good. He has a Blue good on Earth's Lost Colony. With the trade bonus from Spice World, he draws four cards, going out now.

RftG

Finally, omnis chose Phase V. Everyone has production worlds.

omnis produces two Blue goods. As he chose this Phase, he also produces one Brown good on his windfall world.

askye produces one Blue and one Brown good.

Connie produces one Green good.

chrismg produces two Blue goods.

omnis and askye also draw 1 card for producing, going out now. That concludes Round 5. Time to choose action cards for Round 6! Everyone, please send me your choices.

RftG

End-of-round summary:

Round 5
omnis_audis
Layout
Epsilon Eridani (Non-Military World)
Rebel Fuel Cache (Military Brown Windfall World) + good
Interstellar Bank (Development)
Terraforming Robots (Development)
Gem World (Non-Military Blue Production World) + good
New Survivalists (Military Blue Production World) + good

Cards in Hand: 6
Victory Points: 1

askye
Layout
Alpha Centauri (Non-Military Brown Windfall World)
Investment Credits (Development)
Comet Zone (Non-Military Brown Production World) + good
Prosperous World (Non-Military Blue Production World) + good
Replicant Robots (Development)

Cards in Hand: 2
Victory Points: 2

Connie Neil
Layout
New Sparta (Military World)
Former Penal Colony (Military Blue Windfall World)
Malevolent Lifeforms (Military Green Production World) + good
New Military Tactics (Development)

Cards in Hand: 4
Victory Points: 0

chrismg
Layout
Earth's Lost Colony (Non-Military Blue Production World) + good
Interstellar Bank (Development)
Contact Specialist (Development)
Spice World (Non-Military Blue Production World) + good
Avian Uplift Race (Military Green Windfall World)

Cards in Hand: 9
Victory Points: 1

VP Pool: 44

RftG

Choice for round 6 are in! We will resolve three Phases this round, being Phases II (develop), III (settle) and IV (consume). Choices were:

omnis: Phase II - Develop
askye: Phase IV ($) - Consume (Trade)
Connie Neil: Phase IV ($) - Consume (Trade)
chrismg: Phase III - Settle

Phase II is first. omnis and chrismg both draw a card at the start of this Phase. Everyone, please let me know if you will play a development, and if so, how you pay for it. (I suggest you put in COs for Phase III at the same time.)

RftG

Phase II (develop) is ready to go. omnis plays Consumer Markets. This lets him consume up to three Blue goods for 1 VP each, and in Phase V, he can draw a card for every Blue good he produces. He chose this Phase, so he pays 4 cards, at a -1 discount.

askye passes on developing.

Connie plays Export Duties for 1 discard. This lets her draw one extra card when she trades. (She chose Consume (Trade) this round, so Export Duties will get an early workout.

chrismg plays Galactic Federation. This is a 6-point development; he discards 6 cards to play it. It gives him -2 on the cost of playing any development. At game end, it will be worth 2 VPs for every 6-point development he has, and 1 VP for every other development.

Phase III (Settle) is next. Anyone who hasn't put their orders in yet, please do so.

I got in a game of Race for the Galaxy this afternoon, against Ryan. He decided he wanted to try a new game today. It was fun, he had New Sparta while I got Epsilon Eridani. He tried out a military strategy while I went for produce-and-consume. Sadly, he couldn't find good military worlds fast enough, though he did get down a couple of very good 6-point developments for a total of 17 bonus points. But I had time to accumulate 25 VPs from consuming, and added two 6-point developments of my own for 22 points. (One was Galactic Renaissance, which adds 1/3 of the VPs from consumption to your score and also gives points for each of three specific cards. When I drew it, I happened to have one of them already in my layout and one in my hand. Very lucky.)

Ryan loved it. It's the sort of game he likes, where you can build something (without worrying about whether your opponent is going to mess it up). Plus, he likes puzzling out complex systems. Maybe tomorrow, we'll try a game with his Mummy too.

Unlike Ryan, I was kind of hoping for a chance to use my military power to snag a good producing world from someone else.