Star Realms: Frontiers 8

Oct 31 2025

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Had a nice visit with one of my usual opponents for Star Realms, and we put his copy of Frontiers on the table. Neither of us had played in quite a while.

I went first, and the first few rounds seemed pretty average, than he got a great run of low cost high value cards which would put me in the hurt locker really fast. Fortunately, I got a run just like it very soon afterwards. I then managed to snag a couple of high value Blob cards like Hive Queen, along with a couple of Trade cards which helped me boost authority from it’s low of 6 points. At the last round, he pulled a hand of scouts, and I pulled Hive Queen and a bunch of cards which let me draw more cards which gave me ally synergy and double synergy and I think I dealt 30-40 points of damage to knock him out. He would have eliminated me on his next hand for sure.

Great game!

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.