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Phase III (Settle).

Connie plays Galactic Bazaar for 3 discards. This is a Blue windfall world. It also gives her +1 card when trading a Blue good, and in Phase IV, she can discard 1 card for 1 VP. (With Galactic Bankers, she could do up to 3 cards.)

Ryan passes. Playing that development was exhausting!

omnis plays Spice World. This is a Blue production world, that gives +2 cards when trading a Blue good.

Laga plays Interstellar Prospectors. This is a Brown production world. It gives her +1 card draw when Exploring, and in Phase V, she can produce on a Brown windfall world (in addition to producing on this card itself). She then draws 1 card for choosing this phase.

chrismg plays Rebel Convict Mines. This is a Brown windfall world. It lets him discard 1 card from his hand to boost his military strength by 1. As it's a Rebel card, it also adds 2 points to the value of Rebel Alliance.

That's it for Phase III, and we have some goal movement. Both Connie and omnis played a Blue world, bringing their Blue/Brown total to 4. But Ryan did not! He falls behind the other two, and no longer picks up 3 points from this goal. (Connie still claims 5 VPs and omnis 3.)

Time for a big Consume to end the game.

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Connie has just one Consume power that takes goods. She consumes 1 good for 1 VP. She also has 1 card left in her hand, which she discards on Galactic bankers for 1 VP. Total of 2.

Ryan has some Consumption power now - he could, theoretically, consume up to 9 goods, if they were the right colours. He consumes a Blue, Green and Yellow good on Diversified Economy for 3 VPs. He consumes his Brown good on Imperium Blaster Gem Consortium for 1 VP and 2 cards. Finally, he consumes the remaining Blue good on Galactic Exchange for 1 VP and 1 card. Total: 5 goods for 5 VPs and 3 cards.

omnis chose this phase, and opted to double his points. He has 3 Blue goods, which he can consume on Earth's Lost Colony, Public Works and Galactic Studios for 3 VPs and 1 card. He also picks up a bonus 1 VP from Galactic Salon, just because. Doubled, that means he consumes 3 goods for 8 VPs and 1 card.

Laga has two colour-coded consume powers, and fortunately her goods are a match. She consumes 2 goods on Plague World and Mining Conglomerate for 2 VPs and 1 card.

chrismg has just the one Consume power. He consumes 1 good for 1 VP and 1 card.

And with that, as chrismg has 13 cards in his layout, the game ends! It's a close result - there's just 1 point separating first and second, and 1 point between third and fourth. Results to come shortly.

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Gulp t burp

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As usual, we'll break the points out by category.

Consumption VPs
Connie Neil: 5
Ryan: 9
omnis: 17
Laga: 4
chrismg: 3

This is omnis' main strength, fittingly given his starting world of Earth's Lost Colony. However, by game end Ryan had overtaken him in consumption potential at least (baseline consumption of 5 VPs vs 4).

Layout Value
Connie Neil: 10
Ryan: 16
omnis: 13
Laga: 10
chrismg: 27

This one, of course, belongs to chrismg. Military strategies tend to dominate here, as high-defence military worlds have the highest values in the game.

Status Developments
Connie Neil: 12
Ryan: 13
omnis: 0
Laga: 0
chrismg: 13

There's quite the gap in this one. Status developments were thin on the ground this game, with only four played. Neither omnis nor Laga got one on the table. Ryan and chrismg were particularly fortunate here, in that they both managed to draw the single most valuable status development for their particular layout.

However, you'd have to say Ryan was especially fortunate. He only picked up Galactic Exchange about two rounds before the end of the game, and it was worth 5 VPs more than any other card on offer for him. Conversely, chrismg got Rebel Alliance in his starting hand, and held onto it for the entire game. That gave him the option of shaping his layout to maximise its value. Also, any of Galactic Imperium, Imperium Lords or Imperium Seat (there's a bit of a theme developing here) would have been worth almost as much to him.

Goals
Connie Neil: 8
Ryan: 6
omnis: 6
Laga: 5
chrismg: 0

Last game, Laga dominated the field here. This time around the points were more evenly spread.

Next up, we'll put it all together.

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So let's see where everyone lands.

Closing Summary

Connie Neil
Victory Points: 5
Layout Value: 10
6-Cost Developments: 12
Goals: 8
Total: 35

Ryan
Victory Points: 9
Layout Value: 16
6-Cost Developments: 13
Goals: 6
Total: 44

omnis
Victory Points: 17
Layout Value: 13
6-Cost Developments: 0
Goals: 6
Total: 36

Laga
Victory Points: 4
Layout Value: 10
6-Cost Developments: 0
Goals: 5
Total: 19

chrismg
Victory Points: 3
Layout Value: 27
6-Cost Developments: 13
Goals: 0
Total: 43

VP Pool: 25

There's just a single point in it, but:

Ryan wins!

chrismg is in second place with 43. omnis' final consumption binge just edges out Connie for third place.

Wow! It was close a round ago. That's quite a last round.

Good game everyone! Congratulations to Ryan!!

And special thanks to our Game Master extraordinaire, BillyTea!

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This time I had military strength but no military assets.

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thanks again, billytea!

I never did figure out a plan for this game. Well played, everyone else!

It did feel like it zoomed by a lot faster. Not sure if that was us all responding in a timely manner. Just felt like less rounds. I know I didn't develop fast enough. I was feeling the pressure that the end was near, so I was going to focus more on phase IV & V for the rest of the game. And just as I formulated that adjustment, it was the end of the game.

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it zoomed by for me too.