RftG

Ok. The item I forgot to take into account is this: with the plays last round, Laga now has 5 developments in her layout. Connie still has 4 (as does omnis now). That means Laga has overtaken Connie, and takes the "Most Developments" goal!

RftG

End-of-round summary:

Round 11
Goals
Greatest Infrastructure - Most Developments (Connie, Laga)
Greatest Military - Most Military Strength
Galactic Status - First to play 6-cost development (omnis, Ryan)
Innovation Leader - First to have a power in each phase (Connie)
Galactic Standard of Living - First to 5 VPs (Ryan)
System Diversity - First to have a world of each colour (Laga)

omnis
Layout
Old Earth (Non-Military World)
Prosperous World (Non-Military Blue Production World) + good
Expedition Force (Development)
Terraforming Guild (6-Cost Development)
Smuggling Lair (Non-Military Brown Windfall World) + good
Genetics Lab (Development)
Pre-Sentient Race (Non-Military Green Windfall World) + good
Galactic Survey: Seti (6-Cost Development)

Cards in Hand: 4
Military Strength: 1
Victory Points: 3
Layout Value: 8
6-Cost Developments: 12
Goals: 3

Connie Neil
Layout
Ancient Race (Non-Military Green Windfall World)
Public Works (Development)
Artist Colony (Non-Military Blue Production World) + good
Investment Credits (Development)
Refugee World (Non-Military Blue Windfall World)
Galactic Renaissance (6-Cost Development)
Export Duties (Development)
Galactic Bazaar (Non-Military Blue Windfall World) + good
Empath World (Non-Military Green Windfall World)
Lost Species Ark World (Non-Military Green Production World) + good

Cards in Hand: 6
Military Strength: -2
Victory Points: 5
Layout Value: 12
6-Cost Developments: 4
Goals: 3

Ryan
Layout
Alpha Centauri (Non-Military Brown Windfall World) + good
Comet Zone (Non-Military Brown Production World) + good
New Earth (Non-Military Brown Production World) + good
Mining League (6-Cost Development)
Mining Conglomerate (Development)
Destroyed World (Non-Military Brown Windfall World) + good
Colony Ship (Development)
Deserted Alien World (Non-Military World)

Cards in Hand: 4
Military Strength: 0
Victory Points: 19
Layout Value: 10
6-Cost Developments: 8
Goals: 6

Laga
Layout
Damaged Alien Factory (Military Yellow Production World) + good
Space Mercenaries (Development)
Former Penal Colony (Military Blue Windfall World)
Space Marines (Development)
Reptilian Uplift Race (Military Green Windfall World)
Galactic Federation (6-Cost Development)
Rebel Colony (Military World)
Mining Robots (Development)
Volcanic World (Non-Military Brown Production World) + good
Galactic Imperium (6-Cost Development)
Rebel Base (Military World)

Cards in Hand: 4
Military Strength: 4
Victory Points: 2
Layout Value: 18
6-Cost Developments: 14
Goals: 8

VP Pool: 19

Laga added 17 points to her score over the round. She is now 1 point behind Ryan, vying for first place! 2 points separate omnis and Connie. Everyone, place your orders.

RftG

Round 12 begins. Here's everyone's choices:

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

We start with Phase II (Develop).

omnis plays Colony Ship for 2 discards. He can discard this in a later Phase III to play a non-military, non-Alien world at no (other) cost.

Connie plays Free Trade Association for 4 discards. This is at -2 cost, for choosing the phase and for Investment Credits. She then draws 1 card from Public Works. This 6-cost development lets her produce on a Blue windfall world in Phase V, and she can consume up to 3 Blue goods on it for 1 VP and 1 card each. Its value at game end is 2 VPs per Blue production world plus 1 VP per Blue windfall world, plus 2 VPs for a couple of specific cards. Its current value is 4 VPs.

Ryan plays Improved Logistics for 3 discards. This card lets him play two worlds when Phase III is selected instead of one.

Laga plays Imperium Lords (Evil Empire!) for 3 discards (-1 for choosing the phase, -2 for Galactic Federation). This card has a Phase V power. She draws 1 card per military world in her layout. At present that would mean 5 cards. Its value at game end is 2 VPs per Imperium card plus 1 VP per other military world. Its current value is 9 VPs. it also increases the value of Galactic Federation by 2 VPs.

Imperium Lords is the twelfth card in Laga's layout. The game will end this round.

RftG

Phase IV is the last phase.

omnis chose this phase, and opted for double points. He has 3 goods. He consumes 1 on Propserous World and 2 on Old Earth for 3 VPs; doubled, he clears 6 VPs.

At round start, Connie had just one power to consume goods (on Public Works), and was looking at a 1 VP haul. But Free Trade Association lets her consume the two Blue goods for 2 VPs and 2 cards. Galactic Bazaar lets her discard 1 card from her hand for 1 more VP. Total haul is 4 VPs and 2 cards.

Ryan also chose this phase, for double points. He consumes two goods on Mining League, one good on Mining Conglomerate and one good on New Earth. Total is 5 VPs and 1 card, becomes 10 VPs and 1 card.

Laga has just the one Consume power, on Rebel Colony. She consumes 1 good for 1 VP.

And that concludes this game. Unfortunately, it's now midnight here. I'll need to wrap up the points in the morning.

RftG

Ok, let's get into the wrapup. Just before I do, the number of VP chips remaining in the pool are now -2. That ends the game too.

As usual, I'll break out the points into the different categories.

Consumption VPs
omnis: 9
Connie Neil: 9
Ryan: 29
Laga: 3

Ryan ran away with this category. He was fortunate to build a produce-and-consume engine quite early, and was able to consume for double points three times. At the other end, Laga was running a military strategy, which typically is poorly placed for consumption.

Layout Value
omnis: 9
Connie Neil: 12
Ryan: 12
Laga: 18

On the other hand, military strategies tend to lead to better layout values. High-defence military worlds are also typically high-value worlds. Her two Rebel worlds alone were worth 10 VPs.

6-Cost Developments
omnis: 12
Connie Neil: 10
Ryan: 8
Laga: 25

But Laga managed more than just a straight military play. She got Galactic Federation down relatively early, and used it to play two killer 6-cost developments. GF itself ended worth 9 VPs. So was Imperium Lords, while Galactic Imperium was worth 7.

The other players managed a good boost here too. omnis got 6 points apiece for Terraforming Guild and Galactic Survey: SETI, while Connie scored 6 for Galactic Renaissance and 4 for Free Trade Association. Ryan's 8 VPs came only from Mining League; however, this card also accounted for the bulk of his consumption.

Goals
omnis: 3
Connie Neil: 3
Ryan: 6
Laga: 8

Laga never quite made it to 6 strength and the "Greatest Military" tile. She could have done - she had Lost Alien Warship in her hand for a while, which adds +2 strength - but even with the 5 VPs from the goal, the 6-cost developments were better plays. But she did claim the "Most developments" tile. The "First" goals were fairly evenly spread.

So, Laga was the comfortable leader in three of the four point categories; but Ryan was the runaway leader in consumption. Who ended in front will it be Evil Empire or Chocolate Empire?

RftG

The closing summary:

omnis
Victory Points: 9
Layout Value: 9
6-Cost Developments: 12
Goals: 3
Total: 33

Connie Neil
Victory Points: 9
Layout Value: 12
6-Cost Developments: 10
Goals: 3
Total: 34

Ryan
Victory Points: 29
Layout Value: 12
6-Cost Developments: 8
Goals: 6
Total: 55

Laga
Victory Points: 3
Layout Value: 18
6-Cost Developments: 25
Goals: 8
Total: 54

VP Pool: -2

There was just 1 point in it, but at the end, the game's newest player held on.

Ryan wins!

At the other end too, just 1 point separated third and fourth place. Connie just held on to pip omnis.

Connie just held on to pip omnis.

I live to pip

from leader to loser. Such are the fortunes of war.

Congratulations Ryan! Good job!

Good game to Laga & Connie as well.

Of course, we couldn't do this without the tireless work of our awesome GM. Thanks BillyTea for be our game runner.

Well played Ryan, well played.

I am proud of myself for coming so close but Ryan very much deserves the chocolate crown.

thanks again for running the show, billytea!

Ryan thanks you all. He is dropping hints that with Easter just a fw days away, that "chocolate crown" is an idea worthy of actualisation. Congratulations too to Laga, whose score of 54 is higher than any score in any previous game.

With that in mind, my comments are fairly brief this time around.

• Ryan ran a textbook produce-and-consume strategy. Note that he didn't actually consume for points until round 8. (Of course, from then on he chose nothing but produce and consume.) It takes a bit of time to set up a consume engine.

• However, he would not have won if he hadn't been able to play odd developments and worlds while he was doing his consume thing. Primarily that's about card flow. His P&C engine also generated a few cards per cycle - three on Produce, one on Consume. Card is a very useful add-on to a P&C strategy.

• I must also note that he got lucky. He got good Brown cards (and related developments) early on, which worked nicely with his starting world. you can improve your odds of finding good stuff with good card flow, but ultimately it's still luck of the draw.

• Moving to Laga, she ran a good military strategy, but note that she also did very well with her developments. Her 6-cost developments added 25 VPs to her score, the highest total for that category by any player yet. There are 6-cost developments that work very well with military strategies.