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.

And that's all I have to say about the game, really. I have more to say about next game, namely: would people like to include cards from the second expansion, Rebel vs Imperium? YOu can see all the cards from this expansion here: [link] Among other things, there are three new starting worlds and six new 6-cost developments. Including them mostly keeps the game the same, but there are some things to consider.

1. The new cards are more varied, which is generally a good thing. Some of the powers are a bit different from previous powers. For instance, Hidden Fortress is a 5-defence military world. It adds 1 to your military strength for each military world in your layout. HF is your fourth military world? your strength just went up by 4. (I will of course provide explanations where necessary.)

3. Aside from the variety angle, there's also some power creep. It's balanced - the more powerful (and/or valuable) cards are also more expensive. For instance, there is now an 8-defence military world (Alien Monolith) and even a 9-defence military world (Rebel Stronghold). There are more expensive/valuable/useful non-military worlds too. So, power creep. That's likely to see rising scores.

4. Rules are mostly unchanged, but there are two exceptions. First, there's a new Explore power. Usually, when you Explore, if you pick up two cards you both like, you can only keep one. However, if you have the new Explore power in your layout, you can keep both, by throwing out a card from your hand instead. Basically, when you do Explore discards, you can substitute cards from your hand to keep more of the cards you just drew. (This might be a bit tricky to visualise, but it's easier to pick up during play.)

There's also a change to how starting worlds work. At present, at the start of the game, you get a random starting world, over which you have no choice. The second expansion brings the total number of starting worlds up to 12, and changes the rules. Now, at game start, everyone gets dealt two worlds, and can choose the one they like best. I like this rule change, as it gives players more control over their starting position.

Summary: the new cards will increase variety and options, and hopefully make it easier to find something to do that feels worthwhile. In particular, you'll get a choice of starting world, instead of being stuck with what you're dealt. But it may also increase the need to brain. Everyone seems to be handling the goals pretty well, so I think you can probably cope with the cards getting a bit more complicated. How do you all feel? Specifically:

1. Who wants to be in the next game?

2. Would you like to add in the cards from the second expansion, or play again with the same cards as last game?

RftG

Sure, I'm up for braining with new cards.

RftG

I'm in but I'll happily sit out if we have new players who want in.

I like the new expansion, especially getting a choice of starting worlds.

I'll jump back in - I haven't played with these rules before.

RftG

Excellent! That means that this game, we will have five players:

Connie
Laga
omnis
chrismg
Ryan

I'll need to make a few modifications to my game file to expand the number of players. However, once that's done, I'll send out the card draws and we'll get underway.

RftG

We are now ready to start! Everyone has made their choice of starting world, appearing in the starting summary:

Round 0
Goals
Propaganda Edge - Most Rebel Military Worlds
Production Leader - Most Production Worlds
Overlord Discoveries - First to 3 Alien cards
Galactic Riches - First to 4 goods
Uplift Knowledge - First to 3 Uplift cards
Innovation Leader - First to have a power in each phase

Ryan
Layout
Rebel Cantina (Non-Military World)

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

Laga
Layout
Galactic Developers (Non-Military World)

Cards in Hand: 4
Military Strength: 0
Victory Points: 0
Layout Value: 1
6-Cost Developments: 0
Goals: 0

omnis
Layout
New Sparta (Military World)

Cards in Hand: 4
Military Strength: 2
Victory Points: 0
Layout Value: 1
6-Cost Developments: 0
Goals: 0

Connie Neil
Layout
Imperium Warlord (Non-Military World)

Cards in Hand: 4
Military Strength: 0
Victory Points: 0
Layout Value: 2
6-Cost Developments: 0
Goals: 0

chrismg
Layout
Epsilon Eridani (Non-Military World)

Cards in Hand: 4
Military Strength: 1
Victory Points: 0
Layout Value: 1
6-Cost Developments: 0
Goals: 0

VP Pool: 60

Everyone except Laga chose their military-themed starting world. Laga chose her non-military starting world option.