RftG

Everyone has made their choice. Phase IV (Consume) is next. chrismg and omnis have no goods, so they stay out of it.

Laga has a Blue and a Yellow good. She has no Consume powers that can do Yellow, so it remains untouched. She consumes the Blue good on New Survivalists for 1 card.

Connie chose this phase. She has three Green goods, all on windfalls. She chose to trade one, for 4 cards; she consumes another on Earth's Lost Colony for 1 VP, and then runs out of Consume powers that can do Green.

RftG

Phase V (Produce) is last.

chrismg produces a Blue good on Gem World, and then draws 1 card. He also produces a Brown good on Rebel Fuel Cache, even though it's a windfall world, thanks to Galactic Engineers.

omnis chose this phase and produces on 1 windfall world. He produces 2 Brown, 1 Green and 1 Yellow. Then he draws 1 card from Comet Zone. He produced more Brown than anyone else, so he gets 2 cards from Mining Conglomerate. He also produced 3 different colours, so he draws 3 cards from Diversified Economy. That makes a total draw of 6 cards.

Laga also chose this phase, and produces 1 Blue good on a windfall world with 1 Brown good on Rebel Miners.

And that concludes the round. (Administrative note: we exhausted the deck in the process. I've reshuffled the discards.) Everyone, please send me your choice of Action card for Round 10.

RftG

End-of-round summary:

Round 9
chrismg
Layout
Epsilon Eridani (Non-Military World)
Public Works (Development)
Rebel Fuel Cache (Military Brown Windfall World) + good
Galactic Trendsetters (Non-Military World)
Galactic Engineers (Non-Military World)
Expedition Force (Development)
Gem World (Non-Military Blue Production World) + good
Interstellar Bank (Development)
Terraformed World (Non-Military World)

Cards in Hand: 6
Victory Points: 6
Layout Value: 15
6-Cost Developments: 0

omnis
Layout
Alpha Centauri (Non-Military Brown Windfall World) + good
Expedition Force (Development)
Comet Zone (Non-Military Brown Production World) + good
Diversified Economy (Development)
Plague World (Non-Military Green Production World) + good
Mining Conglomerate (Development)
Alien Robotic Factory (Non-Military Yellow Production World) + good

Cards in Hand: 8
Victory Points: 2
Layout Value: 12
6-Cost Developments: 0

Laga
Layout
New Sparta (Military World)
New Military Tactics (Development)
Former Penal Colony (Military Blue Windfall World) + good
Export Duties (Development)
Star Nomad Lair (Military Blue Windfall World)
Terraforming Robots (Development)
New Survivalists (Military Blue Production World) + good
Alien Robot Sentry (Military Yellow Windfall World) + good
Space Marines (Development)
Rebel Miners (Military Brown Production World) + good

Cards in Hand: 8
Victory Points: 0
Layout Value: 12
6-Cost Developments: 0

Connie Neil
Layout
Earth's Lost Colony (Non-Military Blue Production World) + good
Spice World (Non-Military Blue Production World) + good
Contact Specialist (Development)
Empath World (Non-Military Green Windfall World)
Reptilian Uplift Race (Military Green Windfall World)
Free Trade Association (6-Cost Development)
The Last Of The Uplift Gnarssh (Military Green Windfall World) + good

Cards in Hand: 9
Victory Points: 4
Layout Value: 6
6-Cost Developments: 4

VP Pool: 36

Not much change from last round; just more goods and 1 more VP consumed.

RftG

Here are the Action cards for Round 10:

chrismg: Phase IV (x2) - Consume (double VPs)
omnis: Phase IV (x2) - Consume (double VPs)
Laga: Phase II - Develop
Connie Neil: Phase III - Settle

Everyone, if you haven't put in COs for Phases II and III, please do so now.

RftG

We have some orders. Now, Laga chose Phase II. After she plays her development, she'll have 11 cards in her layout. If she plays a world in Phase III as well, she will reach 12 cards and trigger the game end after we resolve this round.

chrismg passes on Phase II. It earns his disdain. Well, not quite. Interstellar Bank still means he gets a card draw from it.

omnis, on the other hand, is diving right in, playing Merchant Guild. This is a 6-cost development, so he tosses 6 cards to play it. This card lats him draw 2 cards each Phase V. At game end, it will give him 2 VPs for each production world in his layout. He has three such worlds, so it's worth 6 VPs at the moment.

Laga also has her eye on the sixers. She plays Galactic Imperium for Evil Empire status. As she chose this phase, she only pays 5 discards. This card gives her +4 military strength, but only when playing Rebel military worlds. At game end, it'll be worth 2 VPs per Rebel military world and 1 VP for each other military world.

Connie plays Replicant Robots for 4 discards. She now gets -2 cost to play any non-military world.

At this point, player scores range from 16 (the lowest) to 21 (the highest). Phase III is next.

RftG

Phase III (Settle) is up.

chrismg comes off the sidelines to play Bio-Hazard Mining World for 3 discards. This Brown production world also gives a 2-card bonus when trading Green goods.

omnis passes. Playing Merchant Guild was exhausting!

Connie chose this phase, and plays New Vinland. With Replicant Robots, it costs her nothing. This is a Blue production world that can consume a good for 2 cards in Phase IV. As she chose Phase III, she draws a card.

And then we have Laga. Does she end the game? ...She does, adding Rebel Warrior Race to her collection. This is a military world with 3 defence, well below the 9 strength she can bring against it. It's a Green windfall world, and increases her military strength by 1. More importantly, it brings her layout to 12 cards. We have Phase IV to go, and then the game will end.

Score update: scores now range from 19 to 23. 4 points separate first and last.

RftG

Here we go, Phase IV. chrismg chose this phase, and opted to double his consumption points. He has 1 Blue and 1 Brown good. He consumes one on Galactic Trendsetters for 2 VPs and the other on Epsilon Eridani for 1 VP and 1 card. Doubled, he earns 6 VPs.

omnis also chose this phase for double points. He is sitting on four goods - 2 Brown, 1 Green and 1 Yellow. He can consume one of each colour on Diversified Economy for 3 VPs. The remaining Brown good goes on Mining Conglomerate for 1 Vp. Doubled, his haul is 8 VPs.

Laga has 5 goods - 2 Blue, 1 Brown, 1 Green and 1 Yellow. What she doesn't have is a lot of Consume powers, and consumption can't happen without them. She can do 1 Blue good on New Survivalists for 1 card, and the Brown good on Terraforming Robots for 1 VP and 1 card. Total: 1 VP and 2 cards.

Finally, Connie has 2 Blue goods and 1 Green good. She consumes the Blue goods on Free Trade Association for 1 VP and 1 card each; the Green good goes on Earth's Lost Colony for 1 VP. Total: 3 VPs and 2 cards.

And that's the end of the game! We'll be adding up the final scores next.

RftG

As with the last game, the Evil Empire of New Sparta only earned 1 VP from consuming. The other players all consumed a fair bit, but not as much as in the first game. Connie picked up some consumption points in five different rounds, but just on a drip feed.

Consumption VPs
chrismg: 12
omnis: 10
Laga: 1
Connie Neil: 7

Layout value was less variable this time around, with the top score - chrismg - getting 17 VPs. That happens to be the difference between first and last for this category in game 1. Laga's military strategy largely relies on getting high-value Rebel and/or Alien worlds, but they were sadly absent from her card draws, leaving her with 14 VPs.

Layout Value
chrismg: 17
omnis: 12
Laga: 14
Connie Neil: 9

Last game, chrismg played three 6-cost developments; this game, he was th only player to have none. The others each got one 6-cost development into their layout - Merchant Guild for omnis (production worlds), Galactic Imperium for Laga (rebel worlds) and Free Trade Association for Connie (Blue worlds).

6-Cost Developments
chrismg: 0
omnis: 6
Laga: 9
Connie Neil: 6

Next up, we'll put it all together.

OK, so consume and lay things out. Got it.

RftG

Here are the totals:

chrismg
Victory Points: 12
Layout Value: 17
6-Cost Developments: 0
Total: 29

omnis
Victory Points: 10
Layout Value: 12
6-Cost Developments: 6
Total: 28

Laga
Victory Points: 1
Layout Value: 14
6-Cost Developments: 9
Total: 24

Connie Neil
Victory Points: 7
Layout Value: 9
6-Cost Developments: 6
Total: 22

Connie is in fourth place with 22 points. By game end she could produce-and-consume for 8 VPs and 3 cards each time, but ran out of time to use it.

In third is Laga's New Sparta. She did well out of Galactic Imperium, but couldn't find the high-value military worlds to boost her layout value. (If she'd been able to find the Rebel Homeworld, she would have either drawn or won outright.)

omnis, last game's winner, missed out by 1 point this time. He built a well-diversified production engine, but was just outdone by:

chrismg, our winner! He had no 6-cost developments; but twice he double-consumed for 6 VPs apiece to out-consume all his rivals; and his layout likewise outdid all comers, thanks to a high-value Terraformed World.

In the end though, there was just 7 points in it between first and fourth (and just 1 between first and second). Congratulations to chrismg for taking a close game. (Congratulations too to Epsilon Eridani, which has been the winning starting world in both games so far.)