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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.

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

Not in the base game. There's an expansion with optional rules that allow it under certain circumstances. (But you can still only take over military worlds.)

Well, what the heck good are my Plague Worlds and Malevolent Lifeforms if I can't sic them on a nice, unsuspecting Artist Colony or Galactic Resort?

Pssst - Connie is the Evil Empire. Pass it on!

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Pssst - Connie is the Evil Empire. Pass it on!

Pfft, like that's news. Meanwhile, I have everyone's orders for Phase III. omnis wants no part of this. No world for him.

askye settles Empath World. This is a non-military Green windfall world, costing 1 discard. However, with Replicant Robots, that cost goes to 0. Empath World, aside from starting with a Green good in place, reduces askye's military strength by 1, to -1. Alpha Centauri renames itself the Hippie Empire.

Connie plays Lost Alien Warship. This Yellow windfall world adds 2 to her military strength, for a total of 5. It's good to be the Evil Empire. However, this is a military world, and it takes 5 strength to settle it in the first place. Connie does so by discarding her New Military Tactics.

chrismg chose this Phase, and settles Pirate World (yarr). Yon world be a 3-strength military world; chrismg settles it via Contact Specialist for 2 discards (the rest of his hand), making use of the pirates' well-known love of negotiation. This is a Blue windfall world. chrismg chose this Phase, so he draws a card after settling.

Phase IV is next.

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Phase IV! omnis has 2 Blue goods and 1 Brown good. He consumes the Brown good on Terraforming Robots for 1 VP and 1 card, and one of the Blue goods on Epsilon Eridani for the same. The last Blue good goes to Consumer Markets for 1 VP. Total: 3 VPs and 2 cards.

For askye, I have a correction. I put her down as choosing Phase IV ($); in fact, she chooses Phase IV (x2), to double her VPs from consumption. She has just one Consume power, so she consumes the Comet Zone good on Prosperous World for 1 VP. That gets doubled to 2 VPs.

Connie chose Phase IV ($), and trades her new Yellow good for five cards. However, her new Export Duties adds 1 to that; she draws six cards. She has no Consume powers, so the Green good on Malevolent Lifeforms remains there for another round.

chrismg consumes the good on Earth's Lost Colony for 1 VP. He has only one Consume power, so the goods on Spice World and Pirate World stay where they are.

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That concludes Round 6, so it's time to crank up Round 7. Everyone, please send me your choice of action card.