Star Realms: Frontiers 7

Previous:
Next:
Tags

After a short walk up to Payn’s and down Vallejo stairs, we grabbed a quick game of Frontiers. This is game 7 of Frontiers by itself, and game 42 from the Star Realms series.

I managed to get a bit of synergy on Blobs, opponent did not get much synergy at all, at one point having 3 different factions down at once. He was sort of going for Federation (Blue), but wasn’t able to rebuild authority faster than I could strip it from him.

Something which occurred to me during this game is to load up on Explorers early in the game when there are better odds for drawing more than one in a hand. In this game I bought two explorers mid-game, arguably later than optimal, but I did draw three of them into a hand, which allowed to purchase an expensive outpost.

Previous:
Next:
Tags

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.