Space Empires 4x - Session Report and Game Description #1!
Tonight my friend and I played our first session of SE4X. Heh.
We played the standard 2-player map. Each player has some "Home Systems" markers to explore. These are *fairly* safe, and generally are planets to colonize, and ore to mine, and each player has 26 of these hexes.. In this setup, there are 34 "Deep Space" hexes, which are more dangerous, with more ways to get Lost in Space(LiS), and more things that can take out your ship. The mining, however, is richer, and there are derelict ships, which can give you a free tech if towed back to a colony you control, and that's a prize worth fighting over. Every Colony you control gives you Command Points, which are used to buy ships, defenses, and technology upgrades.
In the first few turns, since everyone is so far apart, each player races across their Home System, discovering planets, and Mining opportunities. Each "round" consists of three normal turns, then an Economic turn. During a turn, there's Movement(where each ship controlled by a player moves one hex), then Combat(if ships share a hex), and then Exploration, where unknown tiles are flipped and resolved.
In our game, both James and I discovered two planets near our home system, and had colonies there by turn three. A colony ship becomes a Colony simply by moving onto a hex containing a planet. In the first round of existence, a Colony only gives 1 Command Point. After the 6th round(2nd Economic Phase), the colony flips and produces 3, and eventually 5 CPs.
Exploring deeper, James lost two ships to bad luck with his Home System tiles, and I lost one. Ships are hidden from your opponents, as well as the technology you've purchased. It was obvious by Round two that James had opted for a speedy fleet. The first upgrade to movement, for instance, allows your ships to move 1,1,2, on each turn instead of the standard 1,1,1. There's also tech that allows you to sneak a peek at a hidden tile before moving.
After the 3rd round, we'd pushed towards the central area, and explored the dark reaches of Deep Space. I found a derelict ship(Space Wreck), and used a Mining ship to tow it back to my colony, and was rewarded with a hull upgrade tech for free. All larger ships require this upgrade, which can be very expensive.
On round 4, James bid 2CPs to determine first player. With this advantage, he was able to reveal the last few Deep Space hexes before I could move there. He revealed another Space Wreck, and a short skirmish ensued. Ship upgrades are kept secret until used, and I discovered he was ahead in military tech. However, after exchanging salvos, I retreated back towards my home.
James was upgrading his technology, and I began building Shipywards(SY) to build bigger ships. But since SYs and Hull Tech are not cheap, I was a bit slower to get my defenses up. His faster ships invaded my side of the map, and initially were pushed back, because I'd built several heavier ships. But since I had fewer ships, I could not defend everywhere at once, and his armada then rushed my flank, and I began to lose Colonies. It was at that point I conceded, since I was definitely on the decline.
Here's a picture taken right before the tide turned against me. I'm the green player:
From left to right: Chulak is my home system, and I have a ShipYard there. There are three Green colonies adjacent to mine, and one has a non-combat Mining ship parked there. My right-most Colony has a stack of 3 Cruisers. The majority of my fleet is at the top right, and James spent his turns outrunning me. His red ships share a hex with a Mineral, worth 5 CPs if towed back to one's Colony systems. There's a Nebula on the upper right, which makes battles bloodier.
Initial thoughts: Ever play a game the first time, and can't stop thinking about it? SE4X is that kind of game. It's actually very simple. The Econ phase and all early turns can be played simultaneously, which greatly speeds things up. I think the game is amazing, and was worth the wait.
Things to try next time:
Mrechant Ship Pipelines - Essentially Trade Routes, that produce CPs.
Carriers/Fighters - Mass combat, fighters must be transported via Carrier
Raiders: Can Cloak, and move through enemy ships without stopping, unless they have Scanner technology upgrades.
Mines: Slow-moving, dangerous defensive units
Aliens! : They defend their planet in Deep Space to the death. All DS planets are "Barren", which require a Terraforming Upgrade. Since DS planets are nearer enemy systems, they are great to use as a launchpad for attacks.
Doomsdays Machines: Powerful Death-Stars that wander around Deep Space, and attack all players.
As you can see by the length of this post, I'm super-excited to play again!
grabbed it and the miskatonic expansion for Arkham so i could get the free shipping. now i need to lay off game purchases for a bit. really. i mean it this time!
Fortunately fighting him was easy. His combat task (2 skulls) wasn't too difficult and he doesn't have a lot of life. We killed him without much trouble at all.
