HF4A 42 - My First Claim (15)

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I was feeling extra motivated this morning, so I fired up another game right after the end of the previous. The games themselves don't take all that long. Writing everything up adds a fair bit of time.

The patent deck didn't serve up anything tasty in the first half cycle, so I ended up making a multiple trips to Mars with the Photon Kite Sail. No big deal, really, Mars is such a common destination, I prefer to go elsewhere. However, in a competitive game, sometimes going to Mars might be the right thing to do.

Turn 1

  • Current hand:
  • Operation: Fund Raise: Move delegate from Honor to Centrist
  • Starting Aqua: 6
  • Net Δ Aqua: 1
  • Ending Aqua: 7
  • Active Law: Centrist
  • Score: 0
  • LEO: Crew

Notes: Space X crew for this game. Not especially useful in solitaire.

Event: Inspiration.

Turn 2

  • Current hand:
  • Operation: Fund Raise: Add delegate to Centrist, move delegate and Active Law to Equality
  • Starting Aqua: 7
  • Net Δ Aqua: 1
  • Ending Aqua: 8
  • Active Law: Equality
  • Score: 0
  • LEO: Crew

Turn 3

  • Current hand:
  • Operation: Research: Free Electron Laser, Bubble Membrane, Flywheel Compulsator
  • Starting Aqua: 8
  • Net Δ Aqua: -3
  • Ending Aqua: 5
  • Active Law: Equality
  • Score: 0
  • LEO: Crew

Notes: All totally meh so far, but good for Free Market.

Event: Glitch, no effect

Turn 4

  • Current hand: Free Electron Laser, Bubble Membrane, Flywheel Compulsator
  • Operation: Research: Phase-locked Diode, Catalyzed FIssion Scintillator
  • Starting Aqua: 5
  • Net Δ Aqua: -2
  • Ending Aqua: 3
  • Active Law: Equality
  • Score: 0
  • LEO: Crew

Notes: I need a decent thruster.

Turn 5

  • Current hand: Free Electron Laser, Bubble Membrane, Flywheel Compulsator, Phase-locked Diode, Catalyzed Fission Scintillator
  • Operation: Fund Raise: Add delegate to Equality, move delegate to Individuality.
  • Starting Aqua: 3
  • Net Δ Aqua: 1
  • Ending Aqua: 4
  • Active Law: Equality
  • Score: 0
  • LEO: Crew

Notes: This game is going slow, there is a Sail at the top of the thruster deck which is useless to me.

Event: Solar Flares

Turn 6

  • Current hand: Free Electron Laser, Bubble Membrane, Flywheel Compulsator, Phase-locked Diode, Catalyzed Fission Scintillator
  • Operation: Free Market: Phase-locked Diode
  • Starting Aqua: 4
  • Net Δ Aqua: 3
  • Ending Aqua: 7
  • Active Law: Equality
  • Score: 0
  • LEO: Crew

Turn 7

  • Current hand: Free Electron Laser, Bubble Membrane, Flywheel Compulsator, Catalyzed Fission Scintillator
  • Operation: Fund Raise: move delegate from Centrist to Authority and change Active Law to Authority.
  • Starting Aqua: 7
  • Net Δ Aqua: 0
  • Ending Aqua: 7
  • Active Law: Authority
  • Score: 0
  • LEO: Crew

Notes: Bah. Going to get the sail and do Mars, will have to make two trips.

Event: Pad Explosion, discard delegate from Authority to force an Inspiration.

Turn 8

  • Current hand: Free Electron Laser, Bubble Membrane, Flywheel Compulsator, Catalyzed Fission Scintillator
  • Operation: Free Market: Catalyzed Fission Scintillator
  • Starting Aqua: 7
  • Net Δ Aqua: 3
  • Ending Aqua: 10
  • Active Law: Authority
  • Score: 0
  • LEO: Crew

Notes: Help pay for 2 Aerobrakes.

Turn 9

  • Current hand: Free Electron Laser, Bubble Membrane, Flywheel Compulsator
  • Operation: Research: Photon Kite Sail
  • Starting Aqua: 10
  • Net Δ Aqua: -1
  • Ending Aqua: 9
  • Active Law: Authority
  • Score: 0
  • LEO: Crew

Event: Pad Explosion, no effect

Turn 10

  • Current hand: Free Electron Laser, Bubble Membrane, Flywheel Compulsator, Photon Kite Sail
  • Operation: Fund Raise: Active Law to Individuality
  • Free Actions:
    • "
    • Boost: Free Electron Laser, Bubble Membrane, Flywheel Compulsator, Photon Kite Sail
    • Cargo Transfer: build rocket."
  • Movement: Move to Cycler.
  • Starting Aqua: 9
  • Net Δ Aqua: 0
  • Ending Aqua: 9
  • Active Law: Individuality
  • Score: 0
  • LEO: Crew, Free Electron Laser, Bubble Membrane
  • Rocket: Photon Kite Sail, Flywheel Compulsator

Notes: One burn at a time, hope I make the belt roll successfully.

Turn 11

  • Current hand:
  • Operation: Fund Raise: Delegate to Authority.
  • Movement: Move to GEO, belt roll 4 - 1 thrust is 3, with rad hard 4 is a pass.
  • Starting Aqua: 9
  • Net Δ Aqua: 1
  • Ending Aqua: 10
  • Active Law: Individuality
  • Score: 0
  • LEO: Crew, Free Electron Laser, Bubble Membrane
  • Rocket: Photon Kite Sail, Flywheel Compulsator

Notes: Small favor, pass the belt roll, pick up a glitch.

Event: Glitch, marker on rocket.

Turn 12

  • Current hand:
  • Operation: Fund Raise: Delegate to Centrist
  • Free Actions:
    • Cargo Transfer: Outpost 1 with Flywheel Compulsator, glitch roll 6 for no effect.
  • Movement: Move to LMO, pay FINAO to Aerobrake to Arisa Mons Caves.
  • Starting Aqua: 10
  • Net Δ Aqua: -3
  • Ending Aqua: 7
  • Active Law: Individuality
  • Score: 0
  • LEO: Crew, Free Electron Laser, Bubble Membrane
  • Rocket:
  • Freighter:
  • Kalpana:
  • Stanford:
  • Outpost 1: Flywheel Compulsator

Turn 13

  • Current hand:
  • Operation: Research: Hall Effect.
  • Free Actions:
    • Boost: Photon Kite Sail.
    • Cargo Transfer: build rocket.
  • Movement: Move to Cycler.
  • Starting Aqua: 7
  • Net Δ Aqua: -1
  • Ending Aqua: 6
  • Active Law: Individuality
  • Score: 0
  • LEO: Crew, Bubble Membrane
  • Rocket: Photon Kite Sail, Free Electron Laser
  • Freighter:
  • Kalpana:
  • Stanford:
  • Outpost 1: Flywheel Compulsator

Notes: One burn at a time. The Hall Effect thruster is a C site with a pretty good inner system black side, it's something I'd probably pick up in a long game.

Event: Glitch, marker on rocket.

Turn 14

  • Current hand: Hall Effect
  • Operation: Research: Metastable Helium
  • Movement: Move to GEO, belt roll 4 - 1 thrust is 3, with rad hard 4 is a pass.
  • Starting Aqua: 6
  • Net Δ Aqua: -1
  • Ending Aqua: 5
  • Active Law: Individuality
  • Score: 0
  • LEO: Crew, Bubble Membrane
  • Rocket: Photon Kite Sail, Free Electron Laser
  • Freighter:
  • Kalpana:
  • Stanford:
  • Outpost 1: Flywheel Compulsator

Notes: Metastable Helium is really good on its own given the eXotic reactor. It can be almost as good as a Gigawatt thruster because it doesn't require isotope, runs on Aqua.

Turn 15

  • Current hand: Hall Effect, Metastable Helium
  • Operation: Prospect: automatic on Mars, glitch trigger roll 2 for no effect, Arisa Mons Caves claimed.
  • Free Actions:
    • Cargo Transfer: add Free Electron Laser to Outpost 1.
  • Movement: Move to LMO, pay FINAO to Aerobrake to Arisa Mons Caves.
  • Starting Aqua: 5
  • Net Δ Aqua: -4
  • Ending Aqua: 1
  • Active Law: Individuality
  • Score: 1
  • LEO: Crew, Bubble Membrane
  • Rocket: Photon Kite Sail, Free Electron Laser

Notes: I don't recall the last time I did multiple trips. For this game, I probably could have shaved off a few turns had I just went with the first sail. But I really wanted something more interesting than Mars again. Without powersat to help drive the sail, it's really hard to find a stack light enough to be efficient.

Event: N/A

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What to play next?

Deciding what to play next is always a tough call when faced with a closet full of games, all of which were purchased with intent to play. Here's one I'm dealing with the decision.

  • Something New: this means both something new to me and a game which has been published recently, within the last two or three years.
  • Something Classic: I've acquired a number of games properly considered "classic" which haven't yet been played. The current example would be PanzerGruppe Guderian.
  • Something Again: mastery requires constant practice, which means playing games many, many times to allow nuance to appear.
  • Something Vietnam: as I'm on a Vietnam binge. I don't have all the Vietnam games ever published, but I can say that I have a lot of them, and probably more than most people.
  • Something Obscure: as it's fun to poke around in the dustier corners of game design.
  • Something Different: break away from the same old publishers and try a game from one of the new kids on the block. Or, conversely, dip into legacy with a classic tried and true.
  • Something Light: once in a while it's nice to actually finish a game all the way through in one sitting, in an hour or two.
  • Something Heavy: if possible, it's nice to set up something big and complicated which can be left out for days or weeks or even months, for a leisurely stroll through a very large or long game.

There are surely many more ways to choose, but the above method keeps me busy enough, helps me get both breadth and depth into my play, and provides me with a sense of progress.

The odd man out

When there is an odd man out:

  • Have a solo game ready to play.
  • Keep score or advise on a game in progress.
  • Referee a game in progress.