by ghbell
So, this is actually a report on 3 games. The game that matters to this report is the second game, and I will actually present that to you last...So.... Our set up in all 3 games included Ancient Homeworlds and the Ancient dreadnaught in the galactic center. This was also the first set of games that I ever used the 2012 Christmas Rocket set. Pulsar and Supernova were also in the game, as was virtually all of the RoTA stuff, so basically everything was in this game.
First game he was Magellan and played a very strong game, winning handily. I played as Rho Indi and I just couldn’t seem to muster enough fire power. I had a nice run in the beginning spreading out and taking on some ancients, but I lost a couple cruisers in the process and I couldn’t find enough worlds to make my economy roll. I was essentially material starved and struggling to recover from my unlucky losses. RIS need to bring the fight, and I tried to do so, but paid the price. The Magellan were similar in power, but they were slowly accumulating Discovery Tiles, which inherently drive that OOOH so strong and flexible Magellan engine.
Amongst their discovery tiles were the Axion Computer and Ion Missiles, the Pulsar Discovery that does one damage to all opposing ships in the battle, and the regeneration tile that gives a Gauss shield as well. His dreadnaughts were very strong.
I also made a mistake in thinking I could buy rockets with materials and it turns out that you need to use money instead. That little circle looked like it was brown to me, and darn it if the rules don’t say money about 10 times. He bought one rocket on the rocket phase and I bought none as I had no money.
Long story short in game one, he pushed on the center in about round 6 with his fleet and lots of power. His Ion Missiles were all at +5 to hit and so the center didn’t even get to fire back. I had just managed to kill the Ancient Cruiser homeworld the previous turn, so I was out of position to counter/jump his attack in the middle. Turn 7, he mobilized against me with neutron bombs, and I didn’t have enough firepower to defend, and I was also very short on materials meaning I couldn’t defend build. I conceded to the victorious Magellan.
I will skip Game 2, and jump to game 3 for now. In game 3, he played Rho Indi and I played as Hydran. I got a first turn Advanced Robotics, which was lucky, and then we both slowly expanded. This game was a pretty normal explore, build, and then fight game. In this game, we both got the Pulsar tile, which was fun. The Hydran were able to science up pretty well. I filled one track and then nearly filled another, but I got victory from all 3. I also managed to get the quantum grid rolling too. The key thing in this game was the Neutron absorber.
Neutron Bombs are super powerful, no doubt about that, and when The Absorber came up, I bought it immediately. I badly placed it though, as that cost me a VP. I could have had 2 5’s and a one in VP, instead I had a 5, a 3, and a 1 on my Tech track. At the end, the absorber is what saved me as it defended 2 hexes and my population lived when he raided because he missed when trying to kill my population.
The weird twist in this game was that I had no guns. The only weapon I was able to buy was the Flux Missile. Plasma Cannon came up 1 time this game, and he was able to get it first. Literally no other weapons came up and as such, his ships were much stronger than mine. I had massive initiative advantaged, but he just added hull to counter my spit-wad guns, and then mobilized. I managed to stall him by making a run on the center and bottlenecking there.
He waited a turn too long to attack and when he killed my ships; he wasn’t able to kill the population. As part of that attack, he also attacked in 2 of my inner systems as he flew right by me once he had me pinned. I inflicted minimal casualties, taking grave losses, but he only cleared/captured one system. That was that then, and the final score here was Hydran 43 and the Rho Indi 39. The center tile was key here, and of course the Neutron Absorber.
Game 2 was the story I wanted to tell, and it was some of the biggest BUNK in the history of bad luck. This will be short and sweet: I was Hyran and he was Eridani. Hydran’s first turn was a usual double research, blah blah blah. Then I explored and drew an Ancient Hive. I thought this was good luck… So we roll on first turn clean up and it moves to my home world. Yuk. So, my second turn was devoted to mustering fleet to fight this damn thing and then upgrading that fleet. Fight it I did, but wrecked my economy to do it as the actions required basically prevented me from exploring and colonizing.
Third turn I decide to bring the fight to the Hive with 2 cruisers: my thinking being that my newly minted 2nd cruiser would be enough with what I had, and of course I lost all, killing none. Boy was that dumb.... should have just sat and waited a turn for it to move, or me to build.... Patience Iago, Patience...
Fourth turn I am building, and then at the end of it, the stupid Hive moves onto my homeworld again. 2x this game I roll that BUNK.
Of course my economy is in a shambles due to this and all I can do at the beginning of the fifth turn is build a single dreadnaught. I then upgrade it to improved hull and an extra electron CPU. I still have that first interceptor, so, I have 6 total Hull there. (The interceptor had improved hull on it from the previous turns) I also have that extra electron CPU on my dread, so I need 4’s to hit with it. I rolled zero hits as the ancient ship proceeds to crush my fleet. It eventually kills all my ships there--8 hits, and I hit it ZERO times.
It neutron bombed my home system. Needless to say I conceded that game. That is the first time I ever saw an Ancient Hive smack a home system like that. That sucked to be me. I hope all of you enjoy that as much as my buddy did. This game reminded me of Galaxy Truckers and I epically failed to run the gauntlet.