My second reaction was to look at the top start worlds and note that they were all worlds that give players early card advantage. The led me to hypothesize that the play on Genie taken as a whole was what I would call "intermediate" level, based on comparisons with the playtest groups' experiences with start worlds. (This is not to say that some Genie players aren't extremely strong or that this won't change over time.)

Now, to give Rob credit, he did go back and take a harder look at the Alpha Centauri data and found that it fared less well in winning % among the stronger players. To me, that was expected. Card advantage is something that is fairly easy for beginning and intermediate players to exploit (as opposed to leeching or explore powers, etc.).

(The emphasis on the last sentence is mine; earlier emphasis is Tom's).

This got me thinking: How do I deal with Early card disadvantage? Well, you stop calling Develop and Settle, for one thing (barring timing constraints, like the need to ensure your military is high enough so that you can leech a settle). Assuming you have card flow a turn or two later, then you will naturally consume/produce to trade, which will tend to balance tempo.

As I've played more, I've become more willing to drop a build tempo to look for a good combination (as compared to just 'increasing card flow'). With the increased variability in two expansions, you can't expect a reasonable card to just appear if you build mediocre cards.

I'll have to think some more about this ... I think I can do it, but I can't explain it well. Or perhaps I'm still an intermediate. Who knows?

There's a computer AI for Race.

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...

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)

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].

The emotional reason? They bore me. Also, I fear change.

The intellectual reasons used to justify the emotional one --

1. They add big, non-granular randomness to the game. (Don't you just love being New Sparta and then seeing the Biggest Military tile not in used? It's like rain on your wedding day). [It hasn't happened yet, but I'm just waiting for player A to win because B and C tied each got 3 VPs instead of B winning because he got 5 VPs.]
2. They reek of chrome. I don't play Cosmic with Lucre, or moons, or reverse hexes, either.
3. I happened to like the prior level of interaction, which focused on role selection. I didn't think we needed a whole lot of cards like "Mining Conglomerate," but now we've six of them in every game.
4. They slow the game down.

Anyway, since Luke H just left a comment in an alternate thread, only to have it's comment period expire, I figured I'd answer it here.

Luke wrote:

Have you considered games with mechanics that are functionally equivalent to worker-placement, but don't have actual worker tokens? The two that always come to mind are In the Shadow of the Emperor and Im Auftrag des Königs. The former has a money system on top of the actions, but just think of that as different number of workers and different costs of actions in number of workers. Actions taken are not available for others, with 1 exception. Seems equivalent to me. The latter uses a very straightforward drafting of 3 actions. The only difference would be physically taking the card vs. putting a marker on the card. Are there any other games like this, with drafting actions?

I only played ITSoE once (3 years ago). I haven't played Auftrag. I guess that doesn't count as "answering", so I'll throw open the question to the floor. Along with any malevolent thoughts you may wish to share.

Terraforming Robots 3 Cost Development (2 VP).
Settle — Draw a card after you settle/conquer a planet.
Consume — Consume a rare good for 1 VP + 1 Card.

Alexfrog, in his card-by-card guide, says:

Terraforming Robots (3) */* Until the expansion is out, this is overcosted. You’re basically paying one extra card for the fact that it says ‘Terraforming’. That makes it harder to make use of. However, it can be good, in military or production strategies that want a brown consume power. Or with New Economy, to score. I’m sure its better in the expansion when there are terraforming cards.

I'm not sure exactly how Alex gets overcosted ... If you develop this, then you spend 3 cards (including this one) to get this out. If you hit this early enough, then you'll probably get your money back from settle rebates. Still, with the "time value of money" earning back your income may not be particularly good. Getting double your cards back is better.

First of all, let's look at the mining worlds. There are 13 brown planets (6 production, 7 Windfall). Of those, exactly one has a consume power — New Earth. Apparently mining planets export, require a destination. Terraforming Robots will be a big interest to Alpha Centauri or anyone going the brown route. The real downside for Terraforming Robots, from Alpha Centauri's point of view, is that it isn't the Mining Conglomerate. The conglomerate earns income faster and triggers many more six developments (Mining League, Trade League; both score for New Economy and Galactic Federation). The conglomerate works less well in a diversified economy, whereas Terraforming Robots are fine with a single mining world. It won't score VP for Mining League, but it does consume efficiently.

The Conglomerate is a "brown pioneer" card. Assuming you have the most mining worlds, you'll get two extra cards per produce, an extra card per trade, and be able to consume with your spare worlds. The Robots are metallic leeches. If someone else consumes, you get a card + VP. You get an extra card whenever you settle, which lets you leech a military sprinter. Neither leeching role is amazing, but opponents tend to stop calling roles where you can leech for huge draws (unless they have a monstrous setup). How much would you have to be getting to call produce if it triggered someone else's mining conglomerate?

As Alex notes, A military strategy will happily play this card. Conquer a world, draw two cards. You'll probably luck into a military world every 3rd turn you do that (or get enough to pay for a six cost development).

Terraforming Robots will improve in the first expansion. I honestly don't remember what the Terraforming Guild does. You can't just slap down the Robots, but they work in a reasonable number of situations. If you've got any mining planets at all and are short of consumption powers, they're dandy, you'll consume an extra good and earn several cards back, not to mention rebate cards. A reasonable middle game card.

Update: I do, however, remember that the expansion contains another development that combines well with this ... Improved Logistics. Since the card hasn't been spoiled (that I've seen), let's just say that it combines well. (I.L. is a game changing card, to be sure).

This thread on BGG mentions what the Terraforming Guild does ... 2VP for each Terraforming card or windfall, and an extra rebate after each settle, and produce on a windfall world.