Brian Preston
United States
Indianapolis
Indiana
-
3 player game over lunch. Start world is
Opponents are
and
Starting hand is:
We were playing with goals. I don't remember all of them, but the small one that rewards first to all types of worlds was out, as well as first 3 alien worlds.
What to keep?
First turn phase?
2nd turn plan?
-
David Bresnick
United States
Long Island City
New York
-
I'm pretty new at the game, so this is no sort of sage advice, just a guy who has an idea
My initial play would probably be to ditch the Dropship and the Contact Specialist. I don't see any particular incentive to go Military (plus even if I was going to I'd have to use one or the other), and the other four cards have a pretty good synergy.
The Terraforming Guild works great with the two windfall worlds you have already, and the Galactic Engineers will let you constantly refill that Alien world for huge Consume/Trade income.
A possible first turn - you Explore/+1,+1 to get 2 more cards in hand. New Sparta Settles, and you play Radioactive World, if the Ancient World player uses Consume/Trade, then you at least get 1VP. If they don't you can instead Trade that windfall good next turn to get some serious income.
I would be VERY interested to hear what more experienced players think!
-
Greg Jones
United States
Washington
-
Tough deal. It doesn't look like a good hand for Earth's Lost Colony. No Production worlds, and no Consume powers.
I'm looking at Radioactive World as the most interesting card, which is sad. It's no problem to have one windfall world if you do end up making a Produce/Consume engine. You can build it and it pays for itself after the first Trade. Hopefully it replaces the cards you pay for it with some better ones. Later you can Produce/Trade for a time or two to get some more cards while earning at least a few points from Earth's Lost Colony along the way.
Next, tactics. You're behind the eight ball here. Say you Settle Radioactive World. Too bad, Ancient Race Trades and your good goes for 1 point. Okay, wait for round 2. Too bad, New Sparta Settled a windfall world in round 1 and Traded in round 2. You don't want to have to wait for round 3 to be able to Settle Radioactive World unmolested, and finally get to Trade on round 4. This is what I hate about Earth's Lost Colony, and being up against a windfall homeworld and a military homeworld is the worst case.
Your best bet is naked Trade. Call Trade, even though you don't have any goods. There's a fair chance New Sparta will call Settle. It might go horribly wrong, but hey, your cards are kind of sad here, you need to hope for some luck.
So, that means probably only one other card really matters. Possibly more, if someone Explores or if no one Settles. Terraforming Guild is pretty awesome, and you'll be getting at least one windfall world. Maybe you'll get it out, maybe not. I'd keep Drop Ships and Contact Specialists, as either might be a way to get more windfall worlds.
-
Nick Short
United States
Chicago
Illinois
-
I would also write off military with this starting hand: ditch Contact Specialist and Drop Ships. Then I'd call produce. If NS does settle, you can drop your windfall and consume for a point, then get the good right back for trade. If they don't, you'll get your blue good and no one else will get anything from your produce. Either way, call trade for turn two. If someone settled turn one, you can sell your Brown good for cards. If they didn't, maybe they will this turn so you can sell the Brown good, otherwise, sell the blue good (suboptimal, but at least no one else really profits).
Either way, this isn't an impressive hand.
-
-
-
start hand
First off, if you're gonna do CS or Drop Ships, do either but not both.
I would chuck Drop Ships and Deserted Alien Outpost. CS may get chucked to pay for stuff later on anyways, but keep it for the time being to keep your options open if you want to pursue lower defense military w/o having to build up to high military. Sometimes, you just don't get the mili str
Turn #1
If there was a Settle First turn, I would hold on to TG and settle Radioactive World. I would also "wide/greedy explore".
turn #2
If possible, Consume Trade the brown for 3 cards
Otherwise, continue wide Exploring for more cards.
Consider building some of those devs or settles, but otherwise, just go for TG when you have enough cards for it.
-
Everett Scheer
United States
Madison
Wisconsin
-
Id drop the alien world and drop ships, and settle rad world/trade first turn (keeping TG) in hopes of drawing something worth while, or build towards dropping TG
edit: oops missed this was 3 player, for some reason i thought it was adv. 2er. That means I trade first turn and try to leech a settle first turn. If no settle, dev TG the next. If settle, trade again.
-
Guy Srinivasan
United States
Kirkland
Washington
-
Discard Drop Ships and Deserted Alien Outpost. They're neither cheap enough to hang on to nor named Terraforming Guild. Do not play Settle. If New Sparta chooses his card quickly and looks confident, consider Trade. Otherwise Explore, Develop Contact Specialists, or Produce, depending on which playstyle you're best at.
Personally, I'd Develop Contact Specialists. Among other things it may solicit a failed naked Trade next turn. 
-
JW
Australia
Doncaster
Victoria
-
I agree with throwing away Drop Ships and Deserted Alien Outpost. I'd then call Produce.
Let's say Ancient Race is probably going to Trade, so we concentrate on New Sparta. If NS develops, we develop Contact Specialist, throwing Galactic Engineers. If NS settles, we settle Radioactive World, throwing away CS and Terraforming Guild (I personally feel that Galactic Engineers would give you more options than TG in this case). Our produce would then make a good on ELC, and RW, which lets us Trade on turn 2.
If Settle is not called, I'd call Explore (either one has its pros and cons at the moment) then leech off an inevitable Develop or Settle from Ancient Race on Turn 2. Alternatively, we could Trade, and if someone settles this turn, we drop RW (like what bsushort says) and trade that, if not, then we Trade our novelty good.
Longer term strategies would depend on cards obtained from trade or explore. A possible strategy could be cheap military windfalls with CS and TG as the engine and big scorer, or a Produce Consume strategy with appropriate cards.
EDIT: Wrongly typed action; edited turn 2 call after reading bsushort's post.
I'd welcome disagreements to my suggestions, after all, we're all only still learning :)
-
Brian Preston
United States
Indianapolis
Indiana
-
I ended up dropping Drop Ships and Deserted Alien Outpost. I kept Contact Specialist in the hopes of getting cheap military windfalls to go with TG. I chose Explore first turn, as did NS. I think AR traded as expected. I think the Explore got me Diversified Economy and Hive World.
2nd turn someone called Develop, I forgot who, and I played CS and AR played Genetics Lab. Bad for us. I think the Diversified Economy and Hive World got me thinking of pursuing DE instead of Terraforming Guild. There was a settle either 2nd turn (by NS) or 3rd turn by someone else, and I developed Hive World and AR dropped Doomed World. Next Turn I chose Produce, AR chooses Settle and drops Lost Species Ark World, and it was pretty much over that quick. I forget what NS was doing. AR also got Galactic Genome Project around 6th or 7th card in tableau and blew us away.
-
Greg Jones
United States
Washington
-
bsushort wrote: I would also write off military with this starting hand: ditch Contact Specialist and Drop Ships. Then I'd call produce. If NS does settle, you can drop your windfall and consume for a point, then get the good right back for trade. If they don't, you'll get your blue good and no one else will get anything from your produce. Either way, call trade for turn two. If someone settled turn one, you can sell your Brown good for cards. If they didn't, maybe they will this turn so you can sell the Brown good, otherwise, sell the blue good (suboptimal, but at least no one else really profits).
Either way, this isn't an impressive hand.
I like this Produce as a more conservative speculative play than naked Trade. In the worst case, it's no worse off than sitting on Explore +1/+1 for a while (net 1 card per turn for the first 2 turns). In the best case, it's 1.5 cards per turn plus a point. It's still behind naked Trade's best case 3 cards in the first turn, but ahead of naked Trade's 0 cards if there's no Settle.
-
-
-
morningstar wrote: bsushort wrote: I would also write off military with this starting hand: ditch Contact Specialist and Drop Ships. Then I'd call produce. If NS does settle, you can drop your windfall and consume for a point, then get the good right back for trade. If they don't, you'll get your blue good and no one else will get anything from your produce. Either way, call trade for turn two. If someone settled turn one, you can sell your Brown good for cards. If they didn't, maybe they will this turn so you can sell the Brown good, otherwise, sell the blue good (suboptimal, but at least no one else really profits).
Either way, this isn't an impressive hand. I like this Produce as a more conservative speculative play than naked Trade. In the worst case, it's no worse off than sitting on Explore +1/+1 for a while (net 1 card per turn for the first 2 turns). In the best case, it's 1.5 cards per turn plus a point. It's still behind naked Trade's best case 3 cards in the first turn, but ahead of naked Trade's 0 cards if there's no Settle.
Yeah, nice idea about the produce. It's something I'd never thought of as a first-turn play.
-
Eric Jome
United States
Franklin
Wisconsin
-
briforge wrote:
What to keep?
First turn phase?
2nd turn plan?
Keep;
Contact Specialist
Galactic Engineers
Radioactive World
Terraforming Guild
You can guarantee that Ancient Race will play Consume:Trade. The best opening plays for New Sparta are almost always Develop or Settle, but if they think someone else will Develop or Settle, they are likely to hit an early Explore. When they look at you, they will assume you will Develop or Produce (if they are good players) - you have the advantage on the board and it veterans will know that playing Settle will play into your hands.
So, a good New Sparta player will almost certainly not play Settle on turn 1. This leaves perhaps Develop or Explore for them, hoping someone else will Settle.
You should, therefore, play Produce. No other player is likely to benefit - it is unlikely that there will be a Settle... and if there is, it won't hurt you and it is likley the Settled worlds will be windfall worlds for early trades, not likely to benefit from Produce.
If New Sparta Develops, you should play Contact Specialist, discarding Terraforming Guild. If they Settle, you should play Radioactive World, discarding Terraforming Guild and Contact Specialist. If they Explore, congratulate them on giving you a free card.
Round 2;
It is likely that Ancient Race will play Settle or Develop - they just got a handful of cards from Trading. Moreso, New Sparta will likely want to Settle, especially if they developed in the first round, very especially if their development was something that would help with Settle.
You should, therefore, play Consume:Trade. Ideally, you got Radioactive World last round and can sell that for 3 and get 1 point for your novelty on your home world. If you didn't get it last round, you've got a good chance of getting it this round before your action takes effect - this would have been the primary reason to skip a Develop last round if you wanted to skip it - you don't need that Contact Specialist, but it is a very powerful card to get early.
Now you are in a good position, with Radioactive World and your home world, you are well on your way to a produce consume engine.
It's a shame we can't hold onto Terraforming Guild and Galactic Engineers... they are great cards. If you wanted, you could try using GE to pay for Radioactive in front of Terraforming Guild, but this is rarely a sound play as the Guild is so much more expensive.
-
|
|
