Star Realms Frontiers and Star Fleet Battles

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Was at a loose end during the afternoon, and rousted up Josh for a couple of games. He had just received Star Realms Frontiers, so we gave it a go. It has this interesting "double ally" mechanic which I think is unique to the Frontiers set. Maybe also scrapping from the trade row for Blob damage. Not sure about that one.

I made an error when using the trade row scrap by putting the scrapped card in my discard pile then playing it. I may have botched the double allow on that card as well, not sure. In any case, while it was a notional win for me, I'm not claiming a win as I botched the card play so badly. I'm sure we'll play many more times.

Star Fleet Battles

Josh picked up Star Fleet Battles probably over a year ago, but had not had any success getting through the rules. For this game, I showed him how to get going on these sorts of games, which is more or less just get going. Don't worry about getting things right, or developing strategy, or pretty much anything other than very basically following the turn sequence, moving, and shooting. It won't be right, but it will help for understanding the general game play.

So we grabbed a couple of ships. I took the Federation, Josh took the Klingons. We played 4 or 5 turns, learned the rudiments of moving, how the impulse system worked, and a little bit about phasers and shields worked. We called it a game there, fairly well satisfied that we have an entry point into the rules now.

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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.