by Michael Eckenfels, 3 June 2019
after a hiatus during our Origins coverage, we’re back!
Last time, I played an Edge card to take a double move, which I used to greatly upgrade my HQ board, and also granted me another Contract; that’s five Contracts now fulfilled. If a sixth one is acquired, the era will end. That is more likely to occur instead of running out of cards; my draw deck is now halfway depleted and the Competition’s deck is maybe a third depleted. Since the ‘4 Asteroid Bases’ Contract can’t be done, that leaves ‘2 Bases beyond Uranus,’ of which the Competition already has one. Besides that, I really need to get that 1st Beyond marker!
But, instead, now join me in cringing as I draw the Competition’s Action…
COMPETITION’S TURN
It’s Callisto, which has a BanzaiCorp base. I have to draw another card.
This time, it’s an Adaptation card, specifically Sensory Focus. They get another Profit for being the first to grab that card, dagnabit. The score is now 33-32 with me one point in the lead.
They also remove Offer 2 and 3. That Antimatter Patent had been on the board for a while, and it’s a shame it goes away now, but it can’t be helped.
I restock the two Offer card spaces, and get Clone Forge (Produce 1 or Genetics 1) and Mobile Labs (Research 2 or Explore 2). Not terribly exciting, but not awful cards either.
BC’S TURN
I’m now finding I need to get some serious Move points so I can get to the Oort Cloud, or perhaps Pluto. It’s a Hail Mary play right now, but I’m hoping I might be able to leap frog out there and then build a couple of Bases, and hop to the Oort Cloud. Since the end game is so close now, seeing as how the Competition might at any time draw a Site card that’s past Uranus, they’ll get that last Base and end the era.
I only have 17 Move points, though. Part of my gamble in going to Saturn was knowing I’d have to come up with a helluva lot of Move points to get from there out to Uranus and beyond; heck, from Saturn’s moons to Pluto costs 24 Move points (25 if I move my team from Titan)! No way I can do that now, so this turn I unfortunately have to spend a Research Action and grab three cards.
First, I grab the Offer 1 card, which is a Fusion Drive (Move 8 or Explore 3). As there are no other Move cards in the Offers spaces, I’m going to take a chance and draw two cards from the deck.
Unfortunately, neither are Move cards. One is Hack (Research 2 or Edge) and the other is Zero G Factory (Build 4 or Produce 1). The Edge ability of the Hack card lets me discard it to grab an Offer at the start of the Competition’s turn, if I want.
The replacement Offer 1 card is yet another Closed Gas Core Nuclear Drive (Move 3 or Shielded Move 2). I’ll have to think about what to do next, but it all might depend on what the Competition does, now…
COMPETITION’S TURN
First, I draw Ganymede, which has a BanzaiCorp base, so that’s discarded and I draw another one.
Whew. I was worried I’d get a Pluto card. But in this case, Offers 2, 3, and 4 go bye-bye, just like that. The Planteers era icon (the Saturn-looking icon on the Competition’s Action) indicates, for this era, they gain a Profit for each Genetics card discarded, but they also lose one Profit for each Revelations card discarded. Heh-heh – there’s one of each so this move cancels itself out, and the Competition gains nothing this turn.
I draw three replacement Offer cards from my deck, and get:
- Quantum Leap (Research 2 or Revelation 1)
- Antimatter Prototype (Build 5 or relocate any one of my teams from the Inner Solar System to any Site)
Not terribly impressive draws; the Antimatter Prototype isn’t as important now as it might have been before.
I have one more Offer draw to make, and it comes up as an Edge card, darnit.
This Sabotage card requires I remove one of my teams NOT at one of my Bases, and relocate it to a Site with one of my Bases. Grumble. That’s my Titan team – I’ve dithered so long and not built a Base there that it means I gotta move my team there.
Now, I’ve been looking in the rules to see if I can have two teams on one Site. I don’t see why I could not, but it suddenly dawns on me that it might not be a bad thing to move my team back to the Jupiter Region. Though the Move cost is actually about the same whether from there to the Oort cloud, or from Saturn to Pluto. I’ll have to figure this out during my turn…
BC’S TURN
Oh, wait…it IS my turn.
The replacement Offer 4 card was Mobile Labs (Research 2 or Explore 2), in case anyone was wondering.
I have 25 total Move points – 6 in my HQ and 19 total across three cards in my hand. It’s 27 Move points from Ganymede (where my Titan team relocated) to the Oort Cloud, but “only” 23 Move points from Dione to the Oort Cloud. I’m going to do that. I have a bad feeling the Competition is going to draw a Base Action around Triton or Pluto here in the near future, simply because I’ve not seen many more of them come up yet!
The Move Action might only cost 23 Move points, but I have to spend all 25 of them to get them out there…well, it’s worth it to get that 1stBeyond marker. You’ll learn more as to why in the next era, Starfarers.
I tuck the 1st Beyond marker safely on my HQ board.
Okay, the era can now end without me worrying too much about it. Though I would like to score that last Contract to increase my lead – we’re way too close score-wise for comfort right now.
COMPETITION’S TURN
I first draw Ganymede, which has a BanzaiCorp base and is therefore right out.
This one, though, is unfortunately a go.
They have a team on Triton, so that means first we reveal an e2 Discovery tile…
And with yet another Exo-Microbes Discovery, they gain 2 Profit immediately, which ties the score 33-all.
I draw a Research Base for this Site, which does nothing; it grants the Competition one Profit IF they’re behind in score. Since it’s tied, they get squat, thankfully.
But they DO get that last Contract, too – the one that pays out for getting two Bases beyond Uranus. Bastiges. That pays out 3 Profit, so they’re now leading, 36-33.
It also means that’s a one-two punch for ending the Planeteers era. We’re headed for Starfarers now, and that’ll be in the next episode of this AAR. Until then, thanks once again for reading!
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