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The suspense! The Excitement!

Dang it, I gotta get back to work.

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Right, Phase II (Development). Bring out your diamonds.

Laga chose this phase. She plays Pan Galactic League for 3 discards, getting -1 cost for choosing Phase II and -2 cost from Galactic Federation. This 6-cost development gives her -1 military strength, and in Phase V, she draws 1 card for each Green production or windfall world in her layout. At game end it's worth 2 VPs per Green production or windfall world, plus 1 VP per military world, and a bonus 3 VPs for COntact Specialist. It's currently worth 2 VPs; but it also adds 2 VPs to the value of Galactic Federation.

omnis also chose this phase. He plays New Economy for 4 discards (extra -1 cost from Investment Credits). This card gives him a card draw every Phase IV (Consume). Its point value at game end is 2 VPs per development with a Consume power, plus 1 VP per world with a Consume power. It's currently worth 7 VPs.

chrismg passes.

Connie plays Research Labs for 3 discards (-1 cost from Investment Credits). This lets her keep an extra card when exploring, can consume a Green good for 1 VP and when producing, draw 1 card for each Yellow good produced.

Connie and omnis now have 11 cards in their layouts.

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Phase III (Settle).

omnis passes.

But Connie chose this phase, and she plays Damaged Alien Factory. This is a 3-strength military Alien production world. As such, it adds 3 points to the value of Alien Tech Institute. With this card, her layout reaches 12 cards. This is the final round! Connie then draws 2 cards, getting a bonus card from Terrafroming Robots.

Laga plays Mining World for 3 discards. This is a Brown production world (adding 2 points to the value of Mining League), which lets her draw 1 card when she produces on it. She then draws 1 card from Terraforming Robots for settling a world.

chrismg plays Star Nomad Lair. This is a 1-strength military world, which he can play thanks to his 1 strength from Imperium Armaments World. It's a Blue windfall world, that lets him look at 1 extra card when exploring, and gives +1 card when trading the good from this world.

With that play, chrismg now has 5 Blue/Brown worlds, pulling ahead of omnis. omnis loses the 3 points he'd acquired for equalising.

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We finish with Phase V (Produce). Alas, these goods will go unconsumed. They may come into consideration if there's a draw between two players - if two (or more) players finish on the same score, the players each add together the number of cards in their hand plus the number of goods on their layout. Tie-break goes to the player with the higher total.

Connie produces 2 Brown goods and a Yellow good. (She needs to discard from her hand to produce on Damaged Alien Factory.) She then draws 1 card from Research Labs, for producing a Yellow good.

Laga produces 1 Blue good and 2 Brown goods. She draws 3 cards - 1 each for producing on Comet Zone and Mining World, and 1 from Pan Galactic League because she has one Green world in her layout.

omnis produces a Blue good on New Survivalists. He also gets to produce on one Blue windfall world, thanks to Free Trade Association. He produces on Rebel Sympathisers, which gives him 1 card draw.

chrismg produces 1 Blue good, 1 Brown good and 1 Yellow good. He then draws 1 card for producing on Gem World.

And with that, the game comes to an end. Wrap-up to follow. Did omnis hold onto his lead, or did the loss of points from the "most Blue/Brown worlds" goal leave him vulnerable?

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Here we go with the final points tally. We now have four categories of points:

Consumption VPs
Connie Neil: 10
Laga: 2
omnis: 8
chrismg: 9

Consumption wqas a popular pastime this game, with most players scoring a decent chunk. At game end there were 19 VPs left in the pool and 13 goods on people's layouts. It's likely that if the game hadn't ended this round, it would've ended next round for running out of chips.

Layout Value
Connie Neil: 19
Laga: 8
omnis: 11
chrismg: 9

In layout value, there was a clear winner. Connie's layout was worth 8 VPs more than second place. The usual way to get a high-value layout is through military strength, allowing a plsyer to get valuable Rebel and Alien cards. However, non-military Alien cards are pretty valuable too. Connie's layout had a distinct Alien tilt.

6-Cost Developments
Connie Neil: 9
Laga: 11
omnis: 20
chrismg: 3

Connie and chrismg both managed one 6-cost development. chrismg played Galactic Renaissance, which rewards consumption. The game ended before he could take full advantage of that direction. Connie's card, Alien Tech Institute, fit well with her layout. She ended the game with four Alien cards.

In the world of 6-cost developments, one particular card is king, and that's Galactic Federation. This card makes them affordable, with a -2 cost discount; and it's worth 2 VPs for every 6-cost development played. However, to work its magic, it really wants to be played early. Laga got Galactic Federation down, but only managed to play one more development thereafter. Still, with three 6-cost developments (as well as Galactic Federation, there was Mining League, which rewarded Brown worlds; and Pan Galactic League, which rewarded Green worlds), this was her best category.

But the honours here go to omnis. Like Laga, he managed three 6-cost developments. However, they were more profitable. He had Free Trade Association, which rewards Blue worlds (he had four such worlds); Galactic Survey: SETI, rewarding Explore powers and worlds (8 total) and New Economy, rewarding Consume powers (he had 5).

Goals
Connie Neil: 6
Laga: 6
omnis: 9
chrismg: 5

This is a new category; this is the first game with goals. There are two "Most" goals, worth 5 points each, and 4 "First" goals, worth 3 points each. Total of 22, yes? But in this game, the total over all players was 26. The reason is that many of the "First" goals were claimed by two players simultaneously. In fact, omnis leads here, having claimed 3 of the 4 "First" goals; but every single time, he shared it with another player.

One goal went unclaimed - Most military strength. Connie was the clear leader on 4 strength, but you need at least 6 to get this goal. Alas, in the later rounds there were no cards to increase her military strength that came into her hand. So close, yet so far.

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Putting them all together:

Connie Neil
Victory Points: 10
Layout Value: 19
6-Cost Developments: 9
Goals: 6
Total: 44

Laga
Victory Points: 2
Layout Value: 8
6-Cost Developments: 11
Goals: 6
Total: 27

omnis
Victory Points: 8
Layout Value: 11
6-Cost Developments: 20
Goals: 9
Total: 48

chrismg
Victory Points: 9
Layout Value: 9
6-Cost Developments: 3
Goals: 5
Total: 26

VP Pool: 19

omnis wins! In the end there were 4 points in it. If Connie had managed to grab the "Most military" goal, she would have taken line honours. At the other end of the field, Laga's plays added 8 points to her score in the final round, to nudge in front of chrismg.

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Wow! That's a high scoring game.

Except for the whole military thing, I think I'm getting the hang of the game.

Good game folks! And many thanks to our great GM!

I just wish I could claim a strategy. I just see what I get first and run with it.

Great game! Thanks, billytea.

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Congratulations to omnis for a hard-fought victory, and to everyone for a most entertaining game. How did everyone find the goals? Did they add to the game?