Our first attempt at game one was scrapped after a single round due to confusion over the rules. A week has now gone by and I've poured over the rulebook and the forums here. Now that we're ready to give it another shot, how can I set up the game to make it as uncomplicated as possible? I remember reading somewhere that even though the rules say use Bareg Syndicate for your first game, that that was a bad idea. What opposition should I use? What sectors and what ships would be good to use for a 3 player game?
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Technovores are a good start IMO. The trade location (reduced prices) and any location that gives a boost to low energy ships should be very beginner friendly.
"Deja-fu? You've heard of that?"
- Lu Tze, Sweeper, Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett
I actually found using the sector with less station decks very helpful for my first game. You can let it get overrun and not have to worry about it too much because the opposition will only be flipping one station card per round no matter how many unengaged ships there are. Having the easy choice to leave that sector alone for a while made the early game a little less overwhelming.
Why only one flip per round? Isn't it that each unengaged ship flips a card, with a maximum of each pile flipping once? So, with two or more unengaged ships, both piles will flip each round, no?
Spiff's SotM site: www.spiffworld.com/sotm
Once it's overrun it goes down to one pile.
Where does it say that? The most I've ever seen written about what happens when a Sector is overrun is this:
Nothing about changing how many piles flip each turn.
Spiff's SotM site: www.spiffworld.com/sotm
Spiff, look at the Kolvarian Wastes Sector Panel. The Contested side only has 2 station card piles. It doesn't get a third. On the Overrun side, it tells you to remove the first pile totally. While Overrun, the Wastes will only have 1 station card pile. Regardless of how many Opp ships there are, since there is only 1 pile it can't flip more than 1 card in the Aftermath.
There is one sector in particular that has this condition: 2 stations on its Contested side and only 1 station on its Overrun side... though I forget what the name of it is at this time.
I used this sector on my first game and just let it get overrun while we concentrated elsewhere as we built up our ships. I think having only one station card flip instead of three really did give us a bit of breathing room to get the hang of the game.
Kolvarian Wastes! Exactly. I couldn't remember the name of the sector. If we're putting together a recommended starting game (or multiple), I would definitely recommend including it for the reasons that jagarcio mentioned.
It can be a double edged sword though. Yes only flipping 1 card is a great help, but you are also very limited to what you can buy and whats avaliable as you are taking away a lot of options which will ultimately slow down building. Trying to Contest that sector once overrun is not as easy because of it.
Ah, got it. I thought grysqrl was referring to some game-wide rule that Sectors only flip one pile when they're overrun, not just that that particular Sector is special.
Spiff's SotM site: www.spiffworld.com/sotm