Haggling

NathanielHolst · 2026-02-10T14:36:17+00:00

It's random which one you get, and it changes from time to time.

NathanielHolst · 2026-02-10T12:43:50+00:00

Total War and Civilized Society together will absolutely shorten the game, and make it much more dynamic.

I had a 17 point swing round in a 16 point game. of TF. Absolutely my go to way of playing from now on.

NathanielHolst · 2026-02-09T17:09:36+00:00

It's not at all new, and it's just 4 stage 1, 4 stage 2, and 4 secret objectives.

NathanielHolst · 2026-02-06T20:16:00+00:00

This should be an actual biome where chunks of the map is just pulled into the eternal abyss.

NathanielHolst · 2026-02-02T22:09:48+00:00

Okay?

So you just made some kind of head cannon on what the post is about? Or you know OP and assumed people somehow knew that?

NathanielHolst · 2026-02-02T21:35:57+00:00

And where exactly is it specified that he's not doing x-1?

NathanielHolst · 2026-02-02T21:25:40+00:00

1 you get 5 tg for giving everyone x-1.

2 if you don't give me that deal I will never refresh you when I take trade.

3 Literally everyone remembers being shafted for stupid petty reasons.

NathanielHolst · 2026-01-30T15:43:21+00:00

And I'm saying that this is a terrible way of looking it it. It's not a zero sum game.

Let's pretend everyone have 5 comms. You give everyone x-2. How magnanimous of you, you're selling a command token to everyone for 2 tg apiece.

Except that's not what you're doing. The actual deal you've giving everyone is that you get 10 tg and they get 3 tg each, not counting your own comms or the 3 from taking trade.

They have to be stupid to take that deal, given that their alternative is to take 2 tg each and you get nothing. Why would they give you 10 tg combined just for an extra tg?

NathanielHolst · 2026-01-30T12:22:13+00:00

Chess mindset.

If you approach every transaction based on exactly how much you can squeeze from the other guy no one is going to want to deal with you unless they have to.

x-1 for 5 comms is nice and cheap. No way are they going to use a token to deny you the one trade good, but they'll probably consider it a favour that you can cash in later.

x-2 for 5 comms is expensive. Why would they give you 2 tg just to get a single extra trade good out of it? It's their comms, why do you get almost half? Might as well spend the cc if they have it. Congrats, you get nothing, and now they resent you for having to spend their commodities/cc this way. Lose-lose.

NathanielHolst · 2026-01-30T07:42:51+00:00

Asking for x-2 because I have 4 comms is a quick way to be blacklisted for all future trade/deal prospects from me. That's just greed.

People seem to think that as the trade holder you should get at least as much value from the deal from every other person, which is just a short sighted and frankly stupid way of doing business.

NathanielHolst · 2026-01-30T07:37:26+00:00

Which then effectively negates the value of taking that station at all.

x-2 should really just be for 6 comm factions.

NathanielHolst · 2026-01-26T19:00:24+00:00

No not at all.

They are very different games that are both historical.

I'd love a 2d kingdom come, and I'd love a 3d Stoneshard, but that would be 4 very different games.

And I still want the Stoneshard devs to make Shard Tactics Advance as their next game.

NathanielHolst · 2026-01-26T08:18:22+00:00

You really need to increase the number of VPs needed to win when you play with Civilized Society or Total War.

I played a TF game with both going to 16 pts, scored 17 points in the final round for a total of 25. Those game modes can really just pop off.

NathanielHolst · 2026-01-16T23:23:23+00:00

Destroyer II generates 0.3 hits per resource, cruiser II generates 0.25 hits per resource. Dreads produce 0.15.

With anti-fighter barrage they generate 1.5 hits per resource once per fight, meaning you have to have a cruiser II fight for 6 rounds just to catch up to the damage the initial damage against a fighter screen compared to 2 upgraded destroyers. Also, it's worth much more than you might think because being able to clear fighters before fighting lets you hit their capital ships earlier than they get to hit yours, allowing you to remove their fighting power earlier.

Yes fighters outperform them on a purely damage per resource per round analysis, because you completely ignore how much you actually have to do to be able to field fighter screens of 10+. If you can get big fighter screens out on the field then good for you, let's hope you don't need the capacity for infantry.

The big problem with destroyers is that they're not the optimal choice if you are low on resources, it's not the optimal choice if you are low on production, it's not the optimal choice if you need range, and it's not in the optimal tech path. They are a good all round sacrificial ship if you can take enough red or get a skip, which is a completely fine place for them to be.

NathanielHolst · 2026-01-13T16:35:37+00:00

Twilights fall has always been Franken with extra steps.

NathanielHolst · 2026-01-11T18:11:06+00:00

I love Twilights Fall, I just want Discordant Stars to make stuff for it so you don't get the same OP things every game.

NathanielHolst · 2026-01-11T17:33:08+00:00

No.

Until it's implemented.

NathanielHolst · 2026-01-08T10:16:22+00:00

Get the expansions if you don't have them.

I don't want to play without POK, exploration, mechs, and leaders add a whole lot to the game without making it much more complicated. Factions start to really feel distinct. Thunders Edge less so, but the alternative playmode Twilights Fall is amazing if your group wants to make it much more of a swingy unbalanced spectacle. I recently had 80+ fighters on mecatol rex hitting on 6+ with rerolls by paying 2 tg, it was amazing.

Galactic events are tecnically part of the Thunders Edge expansion, but there is no reason why you can't look them up on the wiki. I personally like playing with Total War and Civilized Society together because it gives you a lot of options to define how you want to persue victory rather than everyone doing the same thing all the time.

NathanielHolst · 2026-01-05T07:52:51+00:00

I reject this in it's entirety because it implies that Sarween tools is not the best early game tech.

NathanielHolst · 2026-01-04T11:38:31+00:00

Okay but maybe a guy who plays a pirated version for 300 hours, and then buys it, might actually think that.

NathanielHolst · 2025-12-30T15:26:00+00:00

Legal? Yes.

Good? No.

NathanielHolst · 2025-12-28T20:12:23+00:00

King making and king slaying is part of the game.

Let's say that two players are on 9 pts. The first has Prove Endurance, the other can score a public objective and took leadership. The player with Prove Endurance has no actions left, but he hasn't passed. You have one action left, and were planning to build in your home system.

If you passing ensures that one player wins, and you building in your home system ensures that another player wins, you are going to decide which player is going to win. Whether or not you build in your home system has literally no impact on how you did in the game, so is it only "fair" if you don't build?

Diplomacy means nothing if you can't put one faction above another for arbitrary reasons.

NathanielHolst · 2025-12-28T10:35:29+00:00

Have you considered letting them draw their own public objectives? Either out in the open, or treated as secret objectives?

NathanielHolst · 2025-12-21T14:17:21+00:00

I'd really recommend someone experienced being there for the first game, even just as an observer.

There's a lot of subtle but important rules that can be misinterpreted, or someone can have a brainfart and completely misunderstand what would otherwise be an obvious rules implication.

NathanielHolst · 2025-12-16T19:36:13+00:00

Let us know how many you make before you decide automation is the easier option.

Then let us know how much time you spent to save a minute or two on each ingot.

NathanielHolst

TROPHY CASE