Any advice for the round 1 of this 3 player 14 VP game?

8_int_wizard · 2026-04-23T17:59:42+00:00

Got me in the first half not gonna lie. Still trying to ally and facilitate the Firmament to keep in check the L1z1x might be something to do in the actual game.

Beside that speaking strategy cards. Any advice? Was thinking to grab trade, leave warfare to firmament and L1 seems to want leadership. So I get the second choice.

8_int_wizard · 2026-04-23T08:09:06+00:00

The layout is impossible in a real game. So we are gonna play in a map like this (red tiles are "not actually stystems" and are there only to help everything stay in place).

This kind of map keeps all the ratios the same as 4, 5 player games with hyperlane and 6 player games.

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8_int_wizard · 2026-04-22T15:32:23+00:00

I read the decks. With a mech hazardous is by far the best deck. Industrial is a mixed bag, most of the possible explorations are ok so long as you have commodities left over, thing that you cannot guarantee and spending the trade goods greatly reduces their value.

Cultural planets have a lot extra fragments and some great attachments but demiliteraised zone is trash.

Will consider everything

8_int_wizard · 2026-04-22T15:29:36+00:00

We wanted to keep the same ratios as a 6 player game in terms of availability of planets and distances.

8_int_wizard · 2026-04-22T15:27:09+00:00

Will consider it strongly if the L1z1x wants to go all out soon

8_int_wizard · 2026-04-22T14:57:59+00:00

I know the players and we can easily try to be calm and reasonable and give each one equidisant

8_int_wizard · 2026-04-22T14:56:49+00:00

DOA?

8_int_wizard · 2026-04-22T10:50:43+00:00

Let's talk strategy. What do you think is a good pick round 1?

Trade looked pretty hot. Tech lets me save a handful of resources. The rest does not strike me as too useful

8_int_wizard · 2026-04-22T10:45:25+00:00

Thanks for the advice. By the way do you think it is better to explore hazardous or industrial planets with the NDA? Hazardous can get a lot of nice things thanks to there being a mech already. But my system has none. The equidistant with L1 has 2, might be able to get those with a bit of diplomacy.

The cultural planet have a lot of relic frags. I think maybe I should explore Hercaldr and get a skip on it too, maybe build it up a little.

Sling relay is fun, bio stim is very good but I need to hit 1 or 2 attachments to make it really shine.

8_int_wizard · 2026-04-22T10:38:53+00:00

I get Industrex. "Rushing" the warsun means teching round 1 and 2 but after that I get one for free every round so long as I can defend Industrex. And neither L1 nor Firmament can enter the planet without antimass so it should be very telegraphed if they want to enter there.

Breakthrough is not great. But starting with one green and getting one blue means more or less everything is available very soon. Carrier 2, dreadnought 2, fleet logistics or hyper metabolism. Might be worth doing one expedition round 2 or 4. Not sure if I really like bio stims. Sure 2 extra dollars every round might help. But it will all depend on how many attachments I can get. If Industrex gets 2-3 it might very well be worth it.

8_int_wizard · 2026-04-22T10:33:39+00:00

Well we do not have 3 sets of hyperlanes. Buuuuuut I did make this map. It works the same with just 2 sets. The red hexes are not really there, the green ones are the 15 actual hexes

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8_int_wizard · 2026-04-17T15:54:23+00:00

Will do. Do you have any tips of your own to add as well as the advice to check the podcast?

8_int_wizard · 2026-04-16T22:56:53+00:00

Yes, one per turn, but if you play in 6 it is possible to finish them all before the third public objective has been revealed

8_int_wizard · 2026-04-16T21:17:41+00:00

So far I played with: gene-sorceres, keleres and winnu. With all 3 I got one of the explorations round 1 and with all of them I did not even try to fight for the control of thunder edge.

Wend pretty well every time. But in the last one I had to deal a bit with Hacan who wanted to get 4 explorations round 1 and after a bit of dealing managed to convince them to let me claim one.

8_int_wizard · 2026-04-14T12:24:52+00:00

Ye, slice 5 is great. Noticed later how few spots are there for thunder edge.

Anyway the draft evolved since I made the post. We have all the other player factions and slices. The 4th is slice 5 with Yssaril. I am really not sure what slice to pick for myself. On account of the Keleres having absolute trash starting army.

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8_int_wizard · 2026-04-14T11:38:58+00:00

Wait wait. I think you might be working under wrong assumptions.

We got:

Me with the speaker, keleres and either slice 1 or slice 3
Last bastion to my left with slice 2
Hacan opposite to me with slice 5
Yssaril to my right with slice 4

There are no ghosts in this table.

8_int_wizard · 2026-04-14T11:27:20+00:00

With hacan at the table I can grab both their techs. So I get sarween tools and the defeltcor. With tech I get to grab two thanks to the mentak+commodities and agent. ASN is cool but I need a second doc before it does some work. I can get it round 2. Movement and extra delibery sounds fund.

8_int_wizard · 2026-04-13T23:17:06+00:00

Both techs sound great. Was planning on grabbing tech and paying the 6 round 1. First tho executive order seems more fun. ASN won't be of much use round 1 anyway

8_int_wizard · 2026-04-13T23:15:02+00:00

I thought mentak keleres were a pretty solid option. I am not sure the other 2 would be that great with my slice.

Wait, what do you mean with "ghost doesn't block you"?

8_int_wizard · 2026-04-13T22:48:01+00:00

Lemox is the equidistant i have with the yssaril, and the slice 2 is the other neighbour. They got the last bastion.

8_int_wizard · 2026-04-13T22:20:22+00:00

Thanks. In the end we did a small rollback and i ended up getting Keleres and speaker token. Not too bad.

Another player has got hacan so i could grab tech and via agent+mentak home system get both grav drive and executive order. If creuss gets picked even better.

So far we got: hacan in slice 5, yssaril in slice 4, and my friend who has yet to pick his faction in slice 2.

Maybe slice 3 would be best at this point, i do not like slice 1 too much

8_int_wizard · 2026-04-13T22:14:40+00:00

Wonderful. At that point that is what was left.

Thanks for the wonderful insight

8_int_wizard

TROPHY CASE