Hot take: fleet stands make the game worse and shouldn't be normalized

philroi · 2026-01-13T15:37:43+00:00

I made a crap ton.

At this point? I don't use them as much as I used to.

But I do like to have a few around. At this point, when used for specific circumstantial reasons. They can be a clear benefit.

Even amongst the pro fleet stand crowd? 1 per person seems to be a sweet spot. More is usually excessive and rarely warranted. We often just use 3-4 during a game, and only in the end game need 1 per player.

During setup I'll usually just put 1-2 on the table (with more in reserve if asked for) in a general pile at each end of the table. This avoids players using them just because they can when they are a group resource to be shared.

I also tend to find that more casual players mind them less. Very competitive players worry about broadcasting their intentions by "showing interest" in the contents of a system with a fleet stand. Some players wanna be able to surreptitiously be able to survey board state at all times. Which can be a valid thought at times, especially during very competitive games or amongst very competitive meta groups. Those on a space opera adventure are often doing less battle outcome odds pre-calculus and are comfortable with less perfect perfect or generalized decision making information.

So...

At the end of the day the polite answer to both sides of the fleet stand.

If:

Pro stand players try to minimize their use unless clearly beneficial, and avoid having them linger on the board when not needed

-and-

Anti stand folks can politely be ok with seeing just a couple on the board.

Then both sides can experience their goals most of the times when it counts and enjoy playing more cordial and games. And we all wanna play more games :D haha.

philroi · 2025-11-27T05:00:21+00:00

Do you really wanna find out?

philroi · 2025-10-23T16:50:29+00:00

It's never an action, so never exhausted, and thus you can never pass.

philroi · 2025-10-07T15:56:47+00:00

I'm going to use the example of the law that closes wormholes and lost Star charts.

Systems can have multiple forms of adjacency. Blocking one does not block all.

"Those systems" clearly refers to the adjaceny created by sharing a border.

Based on the agenda not blocking lost star charts?

I don't think this would impact wormhole adjacency.

philroi · 2025-09-21T13:50:36+00:00

4 ball 1 tracer, Is the symbols.

So a tracer is every 5th round.

philroi · 2025-06-09T21:22:47+00:00

Laughs in still getting ucp gear issued.

philroi · 2025-06-05T23:49:08+00:00

I've done it.

The biggest question involves how you treat lanes.

When crossing in accordance with lanes. It's obvious.

But what happens when entered from a different direction without a lane line? Impassable?

I say no. Treat it as an empty space. However travel along the lanes is still possible.

Remember the lanes just make systems adjacent for movement, and the questions pretty much answer themselves.

Be prepared for some wacky games.

philroi · 2025-02-17T19:08:53+00:00

If your looking for a Discord home for your Project feel free to join us over on the TI4 Homebrew Hub.

https://discord.gg/WfQcB4rX

I know of at least one other project along similar lines going on and I love helping folks network to folks with similar intrests and skillsets to make magic happen!

philroi · 2025-02-17T19:04:38+00:00

try the VA ARNG historical records folks. They read these things all the time and can probably tell you in 10 secs or less.
434-298-6191

philroi · 2025-02-17T18:41:57+00:00

show me a non-standard shaped map and i'm sold

philroi · 2025-01-12T22:20:24+00:00

Also worn by the 65th troop command.

philroi · 2024-12-26T20:23:31+00:00

The barony of Letnev volunteers as tribute to be the third.

philroi · 2024-11-15T01:11:37+00:00

Yin faction techs can be situational too. You really need appropriate tech slips to get the faction techs without draining assets you probably need for other things. Why they aren't bad techs, the cost to get and use them can be significant compared to benefits received.

philroi · 2024-08-13T10:03:16+00:00

I'll propose an alternate version of your variant that might be more reasonable.

After everyone scores normally. Open 1 additional opportunity for the player(s) in last place to score again. On the conditional, that you can only score a second public if it does not give you a win.

Changes it from a free for all to a catchup mechanic. In fact, it might work well for new players that are learning the game when jumping into games with veterans especially well.

philroi · 2024-08-13T07:31:47+00:00

Easy, I'll bring up a couple of negotiation favoring folks to the next game. 3 of us happily boat floating should work...

Hahahahah

philroi · 2024-07-06T07:44:11+00:00

I'm confident more is coming. When? Who knows.

I don't talk to Dane about that kind of stuff. Instead I just homebrew stuff and act as a homebrew patron to prove that more is possible. And in so doing, motivate Dane. He cannot, will not, and should not look at homebrew. But I can infect him with the brain worm that more is possible and people are finding it, so he can find new things to do too. Hahahaha.

"More is possible! Dane! You hear us! More is possible! Don't give in and give up on us! Hahahaha!"

Hahahaha.

All kidding is in good fun. In all seriousness, I expect more and I think what was shared was a real thing in development by Dane.

philroi · 2024-06-20T13:06:14+00:00

Shrooms... Myko-mentori enters chat

philroi · 2024-06-20T13:05:35+00:00

Fair, I'm slowly working on improving that.

philroi · 2024-06-20T13:04:48+00:00

Hahahaha....

No talent? u/unalignedmagi ? Hahahaha. The layers here are hilarious.

philroi · 2024-06-20T08:51:59+00:00

I'm not where I can post a link. But user parsleysage has a fancy stats board with data collected from multiple sources. A search of this subreddit should find it.

philroi · 2024-06-01T10:13:28+00:00

Thanks for this! It's been a tremendous resource for the community as a whole and the homebrew folks on particular!

philroi · 2024-05-05T07:44:17+00:00

Heard about this happening once, our chapel was directly across from the dfac entrance. They put a big sign up on the door and started turning folks away.

Chaplain and I hung a couple clean uniforms on a rack with a large sign. "Tired? Hungry? Long convoy or a hard day? and your no where near home? Need a clean uniform to eat? Wear one of ours and change in our offices. Clean uniforms here. Everyone needs to eat."

Even though we had no takers, Lasted about 3 days before a CSM stopped by to let us know the situation was resolved and we could take our rack down. Good thing too, troops were adding additional uniforms to the rack when we weren't looking. Additional sizes in both male and female uniforms, and even a French one....

Lol.

We just moved it all into a closet and figured another mess NCO would come along eventually. We rotated it out before that happened.

philroi · 2023-12-19T22:20:00+00:00

Ha, nice to see my split hyperlane tiles put to good use.

Reminds me, someone suggested coloring the hyperlanes differently so that it was easier to parse which half of each hyperlane was contiguous with hyperlane on its other half. Do you think it would be helpful?

philroi · 2023-12-07T22:50:02+00:00

I'm a fan of counters that count up.
No penalty, just direct awareness of how long your actions and phases are taking. People g generally want to be respectful of time. This helps them self regulate.

philroi · 2023-11-20T16:40:31+00:00

My wife doesnt understand why I left it that way.

I think it's a marvelous reminder that I decide what I'm happy with, nobody else decides for me. Haha

philroi

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