by ghbell
Hello,We played a game last night, 3P. It took not quite 1.5 hours.
We had a layout of Hydran, Magellan, and Lyra.
First turn, was pretty standard with some explore actions, and some research action. Magellan bought the neutron bomb early since it is so cheap, Lyra positioned itself to build a monument first upkeep.
The interesting thing here is that on first explore, Magellan pulled the Ancient Hive. Very bad as that could remove Magellan from the game. So, Magellan explored a 2, and pulled an ancient homeworld. Ugh there too. So Magellan explored one more time, but it had to share a border with the Hive. Magellan finished the turn by building a cruiser to fight if needed against the hive.
Turn 2 was more of the same, with Hydran turtle researching and Lyra turtle building. Magellan was forced to deal with Ancients all up in their business.
Best part of turn 2 was the Sentient Hull. That came up, and Hydran passed on it to get 2 other sciences. Magellan bought that in a heart beat. Sentient Hull rocks against ancients, and they are pretty dang good too, against people. The Sentient Hull saved Magellan I think that game.
Turn 3 Magellan built another cruiser and upgraded and crushed the Ancient Hive, killing all 3 cruisers there without a casualty. 3 Sentient Hulls did that trick. He also picked up Advanced Robotics, which Hydran already had. Hydran and Lyra turtle explored, finishing off the ring 3 tiles, Lyra pulled BOTH supernovas. Lyra also pulled an Ancient Homeworld on the flank it shared with Magellan.
Turn 4 saw Magellan kill the Ancient homeworld, and then explore towards the center. Discovery tiles were becoming abundant for Magellan, and their fleet was growing, adding a Dreadnaught. The turtles kept researching and turtling, slowly spreading towards the center and towards the flanks via ring 2. Hydran got the Quantum Grib by spending all science, and then killed an ancient after some build and upgrade actions. Lyra built a dreadnaught too. Lyra lost a Supernova this turn.
Turn 5 saw Magellan take the Ancient Homeworld near Lyra, and the discovery was an ancient cruiser. Magellan also bought the diplomatic fleet development. Magellans advance stalled as Lyra had built in such a way to make it very tough to attack. Hydran explored towards the center.
Turn 6 was sort of a stalemate round as flanks were secured and research actions were taken. Magellan was able to buy Advanced Economy after buying artifact key for 20 resources. Shard Hull was pulled by Magellan after that, making their Dreadnaughts very formidable. Lyra researched and upgraded Starbases with Positrons and Plasma Missiles, thereby making it very difficult to attack.
Turn 7 was the big round as Magellan moved onto and took the center with a set of big dreadnaughts. Hydran was very low on materials and couldn't prevent it. Magellan had a fleet of cruisers to send in as well, if Hyrdan would have tried. The Sentient Hull was huge there too, giving bonus to hit, as well as nice hull stacking with the Shard Hull. They had Phase Shields and Plasma Cannons too. Very tough ships.
So, at the start of turn 8, the Magellan had huge VP on the board with NICE systems, and Lyra and Hydran we left wondering where it all went wrong. Both were mineral starved while Magellan had 4 Cruisers and 2 Dreadnaughts spearheading their fleet. Magellan had 20 minerals waiting to be spent as well. So, Hyrdan and Lyra conceded as they believed even working together they could not win.
This game shall forever be known to me as the Magellan can overcome anything game. After that first round, I REALLY thought I would end up as kingmaker at best, and I ended up being dominant. That is a testament to the power of Magellan as they are versatile and can go down any path required by the game. OF COURSE, the Sentient Hull helped!