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.)

RftG

Last game, I made some comments about the importance of card flow - making sure you were drawing a decent number of cards. You can do this by playing cards that give you bonus card draws in various phases (for instance, in the second-last round, omnis drew 6 cards when he produced). Another way to draw cards is by trading, which leads into a topic I thought worth covering - the goings-on of Phase IV (Consume). I think this is the most complicated of the five phases, but it's also a pretty important one. Here are some notes on what happens in it, and how players can use it.

Each player has two Action cards for Phase IV, with different bonuses. Let's put them to one side and assume someone else chose Phase IV. What do you do for your consumption? Consuming needs two components - first, you need a good to consume. (The goods turn up in Phase V and come in four different colours.) Then, you need a consumption power on a card in your layout to consume it. (Consumption powers are shown on a card next to the "IV" on the left-hand side.) Your role is to play matchmaker between these two groups.

Conceptually, imagine this. You gather up all the goods lying around on your cards. Arrange them in any order you want. Then, one by one, you take each good and assign them to one of your Consume powers. You keep doing this until there's no longer any way for you to put another good on a consumption power. (If you have any goods left over, they stay where they were produced. If you have leftover room on any consumption powers, it just doesn't get used this turn.) Then, you take each good you assigned to a Consume power, put it on the discard pile, and take the stated reward for consuming it.

One important point: if you can consume, then you have to consume. It's not voluntary. You can't just say "No, I'm saving that good for later".

So that's consumption:

1. Take all of your goods and arrange them in order.
2. One by one, assign them to your Consume powers, until there are no more possible matches.
3. Discard the goods and collect the consumption rewards.

Let's return to the Action cards. Because there are two things that Phase IV can do for you, and the two Action cards line up pretty neatly with them.

First and foremost, consuming gets you VPs. It is one of the two major ways you can earn points in the game. If you get set up with a few production worlds and Consume powers to match, you can earn some nice points. Produce one round, consume the next. Rinse, repeat.

Once you're ready to do so, you want to choose Phase IV (x2). That bonus doubles your Consume points. Doing this, you can be earning 6, 8, 10 or more VPs every two rounds.

The second thing that Phase IV can do is give you cards. If you choose the other Phase IV Action card, you get to do something new. Before you go ahead and consume, you can pick just one good and trade it for cards. This is an entirely new thing, and gets its own powers in its own row on cards, the row marked "$". (This row appears just above the "IV" row - trading happens before consuming.)

When you trade, you discard the one good you're trading, and draw cards for your hand. The number of cards varies by the kind (colour) of the good you trade. Blue is cheapest, Yellow most expensive. If you don't hvae other powers that give you card flow, trading may be your best option to draw more cards.

Trading is a bonus. Only those players who chose Phase IV ($) get to do it. Once all such players have made their trade, then everyone goes ahead and consumes as normal.

So, in summary (and why it matters), players choose Phase IV for one of two reasons. If they want cards, they choose Phase IV ($). They get to trade a good and draw multiple cards. If they want points, they choose Phase IV (x2) and can potentially earn high points.

If anyone has any questions, just let me know.

Very interesting! Thanks again for being a most excellent GM, BT. I think I might be starting to get the hang of this game.

I may have just had a documented case of "impulse buy" and picked up an Xbox One. But I got it on sale! Only $255! I couldn't resist.

RftG

Time to open discussion on game 3. With two games completed, I propose that in this one we move to the standard rules for the set-up - that is, every player gets dealt a starting world and a random hand of six cards. They discard two of the cards and start play with the four remaining. This will replace the pre-determined starting hands that we've used for the first two games.

I also propose that we bring in the first expansion, The Gathering Storm. Not all of it (specifically, no additional rules or anything) - just the extra cards. There are scans of them located here: [link] For the most part, they're not particularly more complicated than those in the base game, though there are one or two exceptions. Of those 24 new cards, four of them are additional starting worlds. That means our players could draw any one of nine different worlds.

I'd like to add these cards for a few reasons. I think the expanded deck is a bit more balanced, with a couple of holes being plugged. The deck would last longer before being reshuffled. And we wouldn't just have the same four worlds playing against each other every time.

So, questions:

1. Who's in? (This is an important question.)
2. Are you on board with receiving a random starting hand instead of pre-determined?
3. Are you ok with adding the new cards from The Gathering Storm?

Vote here or via email.