James Fung
United States
Berkeley
California
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My roommate D---- likes the BGO Extended 2.0 expansion; I personally prefer the original game. In the expansion, there are some really over powered cards, and the person who gets first crack at them gains an advantage. So the game becomes less about building an empire than the luck of the card row delivering cards at the right time.
In the beginning. Anyway, I went first. Confucius was in the 3 civil action (CA) region, so I left it for turn 2 and grabbed Frugality. D grabbed Moses and a yellow card. I get Confucius and Pyramids, for our usual CA battle. Confucius is arguably the most overpowered Age A card now. You know how Aristotle gives a light bulb when you can spare an action to draw a technology? Confucius gives you one per Religion per turn. I got 11 early science out of him. That's overpowered. Anyway, I'm busy building 2 Religion but never get around to my 2nd Philosophy because I have to complete the Pyramids before Age I ends. This is because D got the first Iron, as well as the first Alchemy. Meanwhile, I've spent my science playing Code of Laws, Warfare (wanted a 3rd MA), and Cartography (I would eventually seed 6 colonies). The other Iron and Alchemy came late, so my infrastructure was not good when Age I ended.
Coming of age. On the other hand, D isn't doing so hot either. Despite losing a yellow token to me from Uncertain Borders, he builds a Phalanx. He also likes having 4 mines, so his yellow token footprint is huge. Then he loses half his CA from Rebellion and loses 2 yellow tokens from the end of Age I, so he's facing civil disorder. He decides to eat one turn of civil disorder in order to draw Irrigation and Bread & Circuses. Then he passes up Constitutional Monarchy and takes another turn of civil disorder to grab Ocean Liner Service (he really loves that wonder) and Breakthrough; remember I've stuck him to 4 CA so far. Meanwhile, even though (for the first time in a long while) I'm at considerably lower strength than him (3 v. 7), he's not drawing any military cards so I can safely ignore the threat of being aggressioned. Instead, I can spend my trickle of science on Alchemy (mostly built with yellow cards, since I have 6 CA) and then Iron. Soon, D fixes this problem by sacrificing his entire Phalanx to get Developed Territory (I). I wanted the 3 science, but he really wanted that yellow token. And sacrificing 3 units helps fix civil disorder too.
You can keep a good man down. It looks like I'll get Transcontinental Railroad, so I skip Iron and grab Coal at 3 CA and pick up Constitutional Monarchy, having already picked up Republic earlier. Meanwhile, since he can't spare the workers to put into military, I'm playing events that will make him lose population to trigger the colonies I've seeded. I get 3 more colonies this way. In fact, he triggered the second one, leaving me with nothing to sacrifice if a colony should come up. So on my turn, I simply aggression him: Sabotage his Ocean Liner Service that he's spent 3 precious CA building and was hoping to save his poor food production. At least he picked up Irrigation that first turn he had civil disorder.
Oh Captain, My Captain. Finally 5 of the Age II leaders come out in a clump. I'm leaning toward James Cook (I expect to get my 4th colony soon), but D is really hurting for CA, so I take Newton. D also got the 2nd Scientific Method (I let the first slip because I was still saving light bulbs to pay for a government after playing Coal) and had accumulated a lot of science. This let him get Justice System for his 5th CA (I'm still at 6 CA). Age III ends and first thing I do is trigger Iconoclasm, which kills Newton. So I finish the Transcontinental Railroad and pay 3CA for Revolutionary Idea (II).
I can already see the ending. Democracy slides onto the cardrow on his turn, so he pays 3CA for it. However, he also spends down to 12 science by playing Scientific Method. It's clear what I must do: Spy his down to 7 science so he can't revolution next turn. Meanwhile, I finally have enough science to play Republic. That gives me enough CAs to build Multimedia, grab Oil for my railroad, and start tending to my long neglected food production, mostly through yellow cards, but upgrading to Irrigation helps, and I have 9CA. D's sick of being aggressioned; he has the rock, but not the food to build an army, so he take Gandhi and the first Computers. I take Internet and the second Computers.
Wonderwall. The next turn, there's no way for me to finish Internet and claim First Space Flight, so I build 2 Computers and 3 Multimedia, threatening to take First Space Flight next turn. D spends 6CA to take Fast Food Chains, build it (17 culture), and grab First Space Flight. That's more like it. Hollywood is already gone, so I only have to max out Internet.
About time you showed up. This gives me time to grab technologies for when Einstein shows up, including playing Military Theory so I can theoretically aggression D again. However, he sees this coming and builds a Knight. With Gandhi, he's probably been tossing aggressions and wars and saving defense cards, so this is probably enough. Luckily, I can play some lucrative events instead. Einstein finally shows up 2nd to last turn. I start playing techs I've been collecting, as well disbanding my last unit to build a Movies; don't worry, I'm still ahead 11 strength to 3.
On the last turn, I trigger Impact of Architecture too early (only got 18 culture to his 12); after this turn, I would have gotten 24. Anyway, I get finish a 36-point Internet, build a 2nd Movies, upgrade to get 18 culture from Impact of Industry, and pop a couple more workers of Impact of Population. Meanwhile, D builds Air Forces and, combined with his Bread & Circuses, edges me out in strength. Except he didn't play Impact of Strength but Impact of Competition. He also caps it with a 21-point First Space Flight. However, I do get 10 points from Impact of Science (I'm producing 27 to his 5). End scores: 237 to 120.
Analysis. Where D went wrong was likely his bad handling of the end of Age I. I think he was at 2 Iron, 2 Bronze, 2 Alchemy while I was at 3 Bronze, 1 Philosophy. Furthermore, I didn't have enough science to pay for Iron, Alchemy, and Knights. Even with 6CA, I didn't have enough stuff to spend it on, and the yellow cards weren't being that cooperative. Had D simply tamed his civil disorder and make his aggression threat actual, I probably would have played Knights before Iron. Instead, he let me have both Age II governments, though I let Justice System slip through. Then he sac'd his entire army to get a colony... Yeah, the game was won (and lost) in those few turns.
And even though we both were in Despotism at the start of Age III, my science-starved civ took off like a shot once I switched to Republic. I think this my 3rd highest scoring game ever. Having an early Multimedia and some yellow cards helped, as did having Transcontinental Railroad with both Coal and Oil to fuel growth. As did having 4 colonies. As did not having to worry about military for most of Age III.
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