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Does normal mode IN GALACTIC STRIKE FORCE seem a bit easy?

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penta
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Does normal mode IN GALACTIC STRIKE FORCE seem a bit easy?

It just seemed to me that normal nose seems a little easy. Did I just get lucky draws or am I wrong?

Spiff
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Are you talking about a single game? Against which villain, in what environment, with which heroes? Need more info. 


Spiff's SotM site: www.spiffworld.com/sotm

penta
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I was talking about gsf.  It was a 2 player game against the technovore

Silverleaf
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Probably best to specify GSF in the title then, so people know what you're talking about.


Just assume I'm always doing that.

Damn it, Ronway!

Karrde
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Did you come to your conclusion after a single play through? If so, you may want to try a few more times before stamping "too easy" on it. A sample size of one is not reliable. If you still think so after a dozen games, then you have a solid argument.

But then, you're the type of player elite mode is there for!

 

To expand on Spiff's query for more info, which ships were you using?

Foote
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penta wrote:

It just seemed to me that normal nose seems a little easy. Did I just get lucky draws or am I wrong?

It's hard to know if you misplayed anything. But GSF is not an easy game at all.

You played against the Technovores. Who were your ships? What were your sectors? What made the game feel so easy for you?

If the game still feels easy, try playing with Elite mode icons activated. Then if thats still too easy, play where the win condition is to kill the flagship AND clear the board. Then add the extra 1W/1D to each deployed Opp ship for the full ELITE MODE experience. You shouldn't win very many games at that point cheeky

MigrantP
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There are a lot of easy mechanical mistakes you can make that cause the game to be easier. For instance..

  • Buying cards and putting them into your hand instead of on the bottom of your deck.
  • Putting scrapped cards (boosts or techs) on the bottom of your deck instead of the scrap pile.
  • Calculating damage wrong and doing too much damage to enemies, or destroying them early.
  • Missing the activation of some or all phase actions on cards.

I'm sure there's plenty more.. the mechanics of the game can be tricky to get right, and it's not obvious you're doing it wrong.

 


Lead Bit Flipper, Handelabra Games
Developer of Sentinels, Bottom of the 9th, and Spirit Island

penta
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No, I think we did things right. scrapping things that didnt ay recycle.Not missing activation. He had the dwarven ship with the 5 defence and I was one of the elven ones. 

 

I figured I need to kick in Elite mode. 

Sentinels felt the same way for me. I'll give you an updated report once I get some more plays in.

 

all in all, i have played a few games, I think at least half a dozen already. Like i said, i'll let yall know.

Foote
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penta wrote:

No, I think we did things right. scrapping things that didnt ay recycle.Not missing activation. He had the dwarven ship with the 5 defence and I was one of the elven ones.  I figured I need to kick in Elite mode. Sentinels felt the same way for me. I'll give you an updated report once I get some more plays in. all in all, i have played a few games, I think at least half a dozen already. Like i said, i'll let yall know.

1. Are you having fun?

2. I can't play normal mode anymore. Straight up elite mode for me (well, minus the extra energy. That's the sweet spot for me anyway. Ymmv)

sgising2
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My friends and I are big sentinels fans, play it all the time.  We think we like GSF, but there is one big problem... we have never lost.

In fact, not only have we never lost a game, we've never even had a ship die.  Even on elite, no casualties.  I've double and triple checked rulings, we're playing it right.  The opposition seems to have no answer to: put all opposition in the same zone, keep the strike force out of that zone, buying things for a few turns.  The ship limit and lack of strike force ships makes almost all of the effects of the opposition meaningless.  By turn 8 Vigilance has 35 attack... then lure boss and kill in one hit, proceed to mop up.

We've had to intentionally play without the artifact expansion, because shrewd collector and artifact intensity is so ridiculous (last game we played with it I played the elf assassins and had 55 attack when I went to kill the Laser Dragon).  We also try to not play with Uxshenti because of her ability to drag all enemies around at will, or Vigilance because she ends up with so much attack without even trying.

 

So yes, I do think normal is too easy.  And elite may be too easy as well.

Foote
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Are you calculating damage right and removing your energy and their energy at the exact same time?

there could be little things you're missing but it's hard to tell with no extra info. 

And you thing singularity is easy on elite mode? How?

ships rarely ever blow up. You're gonna lose by all the sectors overrunning. And yeah Wraith really takes that threat out (hence my house rule on goaded pursuit only affecting her and 2 other ships)

Idk. I havnt had your experience of too easy. 

sgising2
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One tricky part with these kinds of threads is the ease with which mistakes can be made in GSF, but I'm strongly confident we aren't making any.  We're damaging simultaneously, scrapping boosts and techs (to the trash, not to the decks), making sure not to play boosts in the middle of events, doing the "letter" events first each turn, etc.

It's interesting that you say the way one loses is that all sectors get overrun.  In our games there is always a moment around turn 3 when things look quite dire, but we've always pulled it off in the end.  Perhaps we were closer to loss than it feels.  At this point there is almost no tension in our games since we've collectively lost the fear of failure, but even one loss would restore it.

I'm not sure we've tried singularity on elite, we've only played about 15 games or so, and usually with at least one or two new players with us.

I think we might try the goaded persuit house rule.  I've also considered using a sentinels style approach to the "letter" events, where the order is dictated by the layout, not player choice.  One factor in the ease is that a lot of the opposition effects can be played in an ideal order so that they have almost no impact (e.g. "No ships may leave this phase" triggers before "this ship travels to sector with fewest ships").

Foote
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During the flip event they resolve from 1st card to third card in order. That has screwed me over in the past. 

Donner
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Make sure your damage calculation is subtracting shields from weapons to determine how much actually goes through.  So if you have 8 weapon energy vs. a ship with 4 weapon energy and 4 shields, you will only destroy the 4 shields (8 - 4 = 4 damage gets through the shields, removing 4 tokens from their shield energy first).  

Also, any cards that say remove X energy from a ship always remove it from shields unless the ship has no shields.


"Deja-fu? You've heard of that?"
- Lu Tze, Sweeper, Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett