by Michael Eckenfels, 5 August 2019
BC’S TURN
Last time, the Competition gave me a thwack by taking a Breakthrough card and clearing out all the Offers, as well as following that up with an Edge that screwed up my infrastructure.
Ugh, that really hurt. Now I am faced with needing to take an Upgrade Action to replace that loss in my HQ. Which means, I’ve been forced to take a step backwards – yet one more thing I need to do.
The CEO of BanzaiCorp is ticked off. I’m going to ignore that little move and just finally get one thing out of the way – building a Base on Alpha Centauri. I spend the intrinsic 3 and my two Build 5 cards for 13 Build points, to place a Refinery there. With that Exotic Asteroid Belt, that means a Produce Action would net me 3 Profit for that Site.
This also gives me two options for moving forward – one is I can move my team out of there, on to other things. The other is building a Colony. I don’t have to have a team present in order to do that, thankfully.
That also leaves me with my Matter Manipulators card (Move x2 or Build 4, Infra) in my hand, which I can still play as an Upgrade Action to my HQ.
COMPETITION’S TURN
I draw Kapteyn’s Star for them, which is empty, so a Competition team gets plopped down there.
That’s eight star systems with Competition teams in them. Six other star systems do not. The odds are starting to fall to the fact that they might be building soon.
BC’S TURN
I’m playing my Clone Forge card from my hand, for its Genetics Action. I also am playing my Evo Accelerators card for its Genetics 2 action, making my Genetics marker move three spaces, completing an ‘orbit’ and moving two more spaces. I get to choose an Adaptation Progress card. I’m choosing the Star Children card, which lets me deploy a fourth team to the board, on any star system with no team already present.
I’m putting them on Wolf 1061 (better than Wolf 359, amirite? …hello?)
(ed note: don’t worry, we laugh at the funny ones)
Not too bad that I got to deploy a fourth team to the board, and advanced my Genetics marker quite a bit. Now I need to ponder whether or not I want to do a Revelation Action soon to tip that marker one orbit and get yet another Progress card. If I get seven of them, I can grab 4 Profit as a Contract reward.
For now, it’s the Competition’s turn…
COMPETITION’S TURN
I draw Epsilon Eridani, where the Competition already has a team. This was going to happen sooner or later.
In this particular star system, they place Discovery tiles.
One of the Secondary Discovery tiles is, of course, a Special Discovery – meaning it is discarded and a Primary Discovery tile is drawn instead.
And it’s an Alien Culture Contact tile. Which means, we have to draw ANOTHER tile, this time from the Alien pile.
Figures that the first one to discover alien life in the galaxy is the bloody Competition!
This alien race is named the Philes. Besides 2 Profit for the Competition’s discovery of them, they get another Profit for the Exotic Life tile they just drew. That gives them 43 Profit to my 37; they’re pulling ahead much too quickly.
BC’S TURN
Right now I think my two biggest choices are whether I do an Explore action in Wolf 1061, or a Revelations action to grab another Progress card. I can’t build anything nor do I want to trust my luck with the cards in getting more Build points.
Best to give me at least the option to explore and stake a claim. I use my Antimatter Surveyor card for its Explore 4 action, and when combined with my Probe Network’s Explore x2, that gives me 8, more than enough to pay the cost of e7 in that star system.
Another damn Anomaly, which while it grants me 2 Profit it means yet again another star system with an increased Build cost. Great. Well, the Habitable tile is nice too…that’s another 2 Profit for a total of four this turn. That narrows the gap considerably between BanzaiCorp and the Competition – the score is now 43-41 with them in the lead.
Since I only have four cards now in my hand, I draw another, getting Antimatter Lifter (Move x3 or Build 4).
COMPETITION’S TURN
First, I’m playing my Hack Edge card, to draw a card from the Offers. I’m taking the Genome Accelerator card (Research 2 or Genetics 1), as this will let me get another Progress card for the Genetics side of things.
I catch a break here though. I draw Alpha Centauri, which has a Base of mine there. In this case, the card is discarded, and the Competition’s turn ends – whew, a little breathing room. One thing I’m learning about building Bases quickly means the Competition might ‘lose a turn’ thanks to this function. I need to remember that for my future games!
BC’S TURN
Even with that Antimatter Lifter card and its Build 4, that only gives me 11 Build points total. Thanks to the Anomaly in Wolf 1061, the cost of building Bases there is 12. Of course.
If you’re wondering, and you may have figured out, these costs are for the entire star system and all Sites there, not just per site. I pay that one cost and it’s done throughout the whole star system. Thankfully!
I’m going to discard my Analytic Excavators card for its Revelation 1 action, giving me a full orbit for my Revelation marker and earning me a Breakthrough Progress card. I take the Infra Transfer Breakthrough card, which allows me to do a free Upgrade action at the end of my turn. It also gives me 2 Profit, tying the score at 43-all.
I’m immediately using that effect to play my Matter Manipulators card (Move x2 or Build 4) to that vacated spot on my HQ.
Not too shabby. The auto-upgrade means one less Action I need to worry about, if I happen across a nice Upgrade card.
Since this left me with four cards, I drew a decent Antimatter Booster card (Move x3 or Shielded Move x2, which remember, I have the Radiation Resistant Adaptation Progress card, so I don’t need to worry bout no shield’n no more). It’s also an Infra Upgrade card, though that isn’t looking like something I’d like to add to my HQ any time soon.
COMPETITION’S TURN
I draw Kapteyn’s Star, where the Competition of course already has a team.
That’s one Primary and one Secondary Discovery tile…
Fortunately neither of them give the Competition instant Profit, but…DUUUUST, bro!
Anyway…that just gives them another star system they’re that much closer to colonizing.
BC’S TURN
Again I hate to do it, but I really want to get some Bases built in Epsilon Indi. That means a Research Action, and drawing three cards from my deck.
Unfortunately, my draws were as good as a dog’s chances in orbit. I managed to get:
- R&D Network (Research 2 or Explore 3)
- Survey Miner (Explore 3 or Produce 1)
- Star Scanner (Explore 4, Infra)
A whole lotta “not at all what I need right now!”
COMPETITION’S TURN
For the Competition, I draw Ross 780, which has no team present.
That’s fortunate for their turn…no Bases nor Colonies built by the Competition…yet.
And that will end Part 18. Thank you for reading and join us next time when BanzaiCorp builds a Death Star and takes out half the galaxy (wait, that’s another game, not this one).
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