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.
School just started back up. Brain is in anxiety mode. I'm going to pass this round.
Tomb Raider
Somehow, I've been (mostly) disciplined, and only played a couple hours a night, and didn't stay up until dawn AND finished the game in about a week. Finished the story with 78% finding everything. I've gone back and got that up to 98%. There's a small handful of challenges not found. A mushroom, one of the cairns and mines, a stupid sun thingy. I think that's it. 61% of the achievements. Biggest thing missing are the multiplayer achievements.
RTFG
I'm in! I will try very hard not to hold up the game.
