High Frontier 4 All (6) Space Diamonds (5)

I’m pretty well hooked on High Frontier. The Space Diamonds variant is fast-playing and let’s me do the funnest part of the game which is mission planning and movement.

We’re back to Space Diamonds for another round of the inner solar system, out to Ceres zone this time as this is a rocket game instead of a solar sail game.

Here’s the missions:

Green:

1. Be the first the refuel 13 steps on the same site without lifting off.
2. Claim the discovery chit on comet Hartley 2.

White:

1. Claim the chit on comet Borrelly.
2. Claim the discovery chit on comet Holmes.

First, let’s lace in some chores, starting with getting a load of laundry cycled.

Mission planning

Before getting going, it’s smart to plan out how to acheive the missions.

Green: going to Comet Hartley, and needs to refuel as a separate mission. These can probably both be done at Hartley. I’d give Green the edge in this game as White needs to go to two sites to acheive both missions, which is necessarily going to take longer than visiting one site.

White: needs to visit Comets Holmes and Borrelly to complete missions. Since Green is going to need to sit and refuel on the same site for a while, this might tip the game back to White. We’ll see.

White is moving first this game.

Turn 1

White has 3 burns to spend, and will take the Blue Route out to the Hohmann past the Ceres turnoff. It picks up a burn at the Mars flyby. That’s pretty cool.

Green gets to the Hohmann right before the comet, will be able to land next turn.

Turn 2

White burns twice, stops at Runaway Ice Crystallization, rolls 6 for no effect (and nothing to lose anyway), lands on Comet Holmes. Finds D Life 1.

Green burns once, stops at Runaway Ice Crystallization, rolls 2 for no effect, lands and finds D Industry 1.

Turn 3

Time for both machines to refuel.

White refuels for 3 steps going to wet mass 8 so it can retain 3 burns. That was the operation, now take the move, Ice Crystallization hazard roll 5 for no effect. Burn twice to move to Hohmann.

Green needs to sit on Hartley 2 for 4 turns… fuel up to wet mass 6 1/2.

Turn 4

White can burn 3 times to get to Outbursts hazard, roll 4 for no effect and land on Borrelly finding Life 1. If White books it back to LEO, he wins this game. Green has to stay on Hartley 2 for another 3 turns.

Green fuels to wet mass 10 1/2. This is going to be ridiculous.

Turn 5

White does not need to fuel and moves to Ice Crystallization hazard, roll 1 to lose the chit, continue to the Hohmann at Comet Phaethon.

Green refuels to wet mass 14. Yikes! Will move next turn.

Turn 6

White burns all the way to LEO to get first player points.

Green takes one more step of fuel, now has 4 thrust, roll Ice Crystallization hazard 6 for no effect, burns through the pivot to Sol-Mars L3. Home next turn.

ALT Endgame 1: Green moves to pivot for Hygiea family.

Turn 7

Green burns 3 times to get to LEO scoring 3 points.

ALT Endgame 2: Green lands on Hygiea for C Drop 1. Bummer.

Turn 8 (alt)

ALT Endgame 3: Green can only make it back to L5s, this is where an afterburner might be nice! A couple more burns and it might well have been a green win. Also, had the chit been a bit better, would have helped.

Score:

White:

• Mission 1: claim Comet Hartley 5.
• Mission 2: Claim Comet Borrelly 5.
• First home: 4
• Chits total: 1
• total: 15

Green:

• Mission 1: claim Hartley 2 for 4.
• 13 steps of fuel on one site 5.
• Chits total 1
• second home: 3.
• total: 13.

Not bad. Someone who didn’t understand the map or fuel really well, playing as White might have ended up dawdling somewhere and losing the game.

AAR

I’m pretty sure Space Diamonds has a lot of luck baked in, namely, a big dependence on mission and rockets. But I don’t know how to reduce the luck to get better balance. All in all, it serves it purpose of teaching movement really well.