The Tao of Gaming

Well, a number of responses to Problem #5.

• Frunk & Phil pitched the Genetics Lab and Investment Credits and (after the obligatory waffle) Developed (the mercenaries).

• Lou & Joe chucked Galactic Resort and Rebel Miners, and Explore +1'd.

• Hermit tossed Galactic Resort and Investment Credits and Explored +5'd (looking for military or a great destination).

• Kester relinquished Rebel Warrior Race and Genetics Lab and settled.

• David discarded investment credits and genetics lab, and settles, presumably for the galactic resort. [To me, this seems odd. If you are going to do this you may as well keep the investment credits and chuck the rebel miners. That way, if there's no develop T1, or a develop without explore, you get to drop the credits].

• Jeff & Buddha discarded credits and the resort and explore'd +1.

Brian at the table — This was one of the hardest choices I've seen in ages. I probably spent minutes on this. But I eventually (after writing the hand down) reached the same decision as Frunk/Phil. So, how'd that work out? — Ancient Race traded (of course), and the other two players settled. So you can drop Space Mercenaries and Rebel Warrior Race (leaving you an empty hand, but a good trade next turn) or escape the Doomed world for the Galactic Resort, and have RWR, Rebel Miners + 1 Card & 1 VP.

I went for the Rebel Warrior Race, which is a questionable call. If there had been an explore, this option would be great .. you could settle the RWR and keep Galactic Resort or Rebel Miners ... but there was no explore (as expected).

How would exploring work out? — Tough to say, but there are a number of really good cards you could stumble on. Fleeing to Galactic Resort and consuming it would leave you with your other 3 cards + three more, so even if you hit nothing good now, there are still plenty of decent options (Drop Ships, Several of the sixes, lots of worlds). Exploring also gives the other players (particularly Ancient Race) a shot at a better world.

I'm not sure I like pitching the Galactic Resort and exploring ... now you may miss out on the opening settle (which would be unlucky, but not the strangest thing ever). More likely you'll have the choice of paying for a mediocre world and breaking up your hand anyway, or using the doomed world's power on something worse the resort. I think that exploring should cater to a bad draw.

The other issue with exploring is that your hand really wants to see those mercs on the board, and you didn't get lucky.

In short — I don't like any of the answers. (Perhaps Frunk/Phil would have gone 1b — Mercenaries + flee to the resort].

Grades: I'm giving the Brian/Frunk/Phil option a solid B. I exploring +1 gets an A-. Settling is a B-. Not keeping the Galactic Resort drops you a letter grade, in my book.

The Alien Nightmare Solitaire variant is worth checking out. Tough.

I see in a different thread that Tom/Wei-Hwai could beat this type of setup ~40% of the time. Shows me I have some learning to do...

You are the Doomed World, vs Ancient Race, Earths Lost Colony, and Epsilon Eridini (not a bad place to live).

Your opening hand:

• Galactic Resort (3 Cost Novelty Windfall, Consume for VP+card)
• Genetics Lab (+1 Trade Genes, produce on Gene Windfall)
• Investment Credits (-1 to developments)
• Space MERCENARIES (+1 Mil, Discard up to 2 cards for +1 mil each)
• REBEL Miners (2 Def Rare production)
• REBEL Warrior Race (3 Def Gene Windfall, +1 Military)

Lest I be beset by Malevolent Lifeforms, let me just state that the Race expansion is a most welcome guest. We're back to 3-6 games per session (just without tiles). Lots of new cards are getting discussed on BGG, the homeworlds, Alien Toy Shop, I see chatter about Improved Logistics ... but nobody mentions the Terraforming Guild.

Terraforming Guild -- 6 Dev. Phase III -- Get a rebate after settling/conquering a world. Phase V -- Produce on a Windfall world. 2 VPs per Windfall World, 2 VPs per Terraforming card (including this one).

From my (admittedly limited) expansion experience, T.G. is a harbinger of a huge score. A fair chunk of homeworlds really want a nice, sellable Windfall early, at which point, dropping the Guild becomes quite attractive. It provides very nice income, between the rebates and the additional leeching on a production strategy, it will usually pay for itself and then some. Like Mining Robots or Genetics Lab, developing this when someone else produces and getting a surprise windfall production is a Big Deal. Until now, Trade League was probably the frontrunner for "Development that, dropped at the right time, changes the game." But the Trade League usually scores poorly. The Guild can hit double digits without much effort. Worth paying attention to.

[And in the category of "Things I'd never thought I'd see" -- New Sparta chucking New Galactic Order to play Imperium Lords and Galactic Imperium].