Just picked up my game at PAX this past weekend and had fun playing the quick demo. I have some newbie questions that I was hoping someone could help me with. I ran through a quick "mechanics check" going against The Bareg Threllian Syndicate. The Mission you put out as part of the setup is "Solar Ransom". This will Add tokens during the Requesition phase for any ships *not* in it's sector. During the Battle phase, you Remove tokens for each ship in that sector and when the counters reach zero, the CryoShade appears.
My question is this: What is the best strategy for the first 1-2 rounds? I simulated a two player game and sent the Strike Force ships to a different sector. This put two tokens on the Solar Ransom mission. However, that mission pops ships during the Aftermath phase and any ships that are un-engaged (all of them at the start) may also pop a ship. By the second round, I had four ships in that sector and it was overrun before I even got there. I can't go directly to that sector because it would remove the tokens I put on it during the Setup phase and the cryoshade would pop in round #1. Am I missing something?
Also, what is the best Opposition to go against for first time gamers? I'd like to ease my gaming group into this game, but I'm afraid of giving them a bad taste in their mouth if they fail the game right out of the gate.
I love the game so far, but think I'm missing a couple of important strategies that's keeping me from really "getting" it.
I have a few rules questions, but the rules section for specific cards is down. EDIT-I am an idiot. This is the correct place for these questions.
1)Can one Strike Force Ship (SFS) engage multiple enemy ships? We saw no rule stopping this, but it seemed odd.
2)Can Cloak Drive allow you to engage ships in different sectors (assuming the answer to question one is yes)? Unsure if you engage all ships at once, or one at a time, thus allowing the move to happen before declaring more engagers. Yes, we caught the part about only doing damage to engaged ships in your sector.
3)If the Smart Bomb rules trigger, does it count as having been scrapped at one point for the purpose of other cards that care, or does it replace the scrap effect with it's other effect?
4)Solar Ransom- all effects that are worded like it's Aftermath effect play the card in the sector that card is in, correct?
5)Dimensional Sabotage- it doesn't say it, but we played the card like it used the word Panel after each time it said ship. Correct?
6)Just making sure, but multiple missions can be in the same sector, correct?
I apologize, I misread the forum section for specific errata from GtG (https://greaterthangames.com/forums/galactic-strike-force-rulings) as a place to go for specific card interactions, instead of the official answers section it is meant to be. It is working fine, just no posts there yet.
Hey Ronicus! Hope you had as much fun at PAX as I did.
Do not fear overrun sectors. Well, fear 3 overrun sectors. Then you lose. But as long as you have 1 neutral sector, you have room to work and build. Keep the feet limit in mind (players +2) for the sectors and use that to your advantage. In a 2 player game its 4, so any Opp ship that gets deployed into the sector from either the top of the Opp deck or flipped Station cards after that get scrapped. There are times when theres going to be a ton of Opp ships and it will look grim. But just keep building your ships and mowing them down. It can be quite the challenge sometimes, but when you pull that first win out it feels so good.
I know the rulebook says to start with the Syndicate, but maybe try starting with Technovores. If you want to tone the difficulty down for an intro game, just start with less ships at the start of the game. That's always been a simple nob for me to turn in either direction.
Other advanced tips:
Station Manipulation. Sometimes its not just about buying what you need, but buying so that the Opp doesn't play it in the Aftermath. You cant look at the back of cards, but you can remember the worst ones, like say, Quasar Guns for instance. Flips into Mega Teleporter. You really don't want to see a Mega Teleporter, especially early in the game. So make sure it doesn't flip. If a sector is at fleet limit, and you know for certain 2 cards will flip in that sector, make sure the first two cards will flip ships (so they will be scrapped and they wont be boosts). You can tell by the red symbol on the right side of the station cards.
No. During the Engage event, all players choose their Engagement at once. You can play boosts before and after the Engagement phase, but not during. Each Opp ship may only have 1 Primary Engager and 1 Secondary Engager at a time
No. You would pick you engagment, and then cload drive may move your ship. But since you have already chosen an engagment, you can't choose another.
This is a good question. By the way the card is worded, I would say it does count as being scrapped (for cards that care), but they do get recycled afterward. I could see this being a debatable point however.
I dont have the card in front of me, but if it says "this sector", then it is refering to the one it is played in.
Haha I actually got to ask Christopher about Dimensional Sabotage! I thought the same thing you did. We were wrong, and in the coolest way possible. Lets say you have 2W/5D on your ship panel with the Detonative Patch tech installed (grants 2D and has a scrap effect wich removes 2 energy from a ship of your choice). You can use Dimensional Sabotage on anyone, but you choose to use it on yourself. It takes ALL of your W and ALL of your D and swaps them. In this case, you would end up with 7W/2D on your ship pannel. In this exchange, the energy gets removed from the Detonative Patch, which scraps the tech, in turn triggering its scrap effect. Thats the potential power of Dimensional Sabotage. Use this power wisely
Oh yeah. There totally can be more than one mission per sector.
Paul, don't feel shy about jumping in with official confirmations to answers. We know there will be lots of great questions like these, so a FAQ is likely to be useful, but if our skilled and experienced playtesters answer all the questions before a designer does, then I'll have nothing to put into it.
BTW, I'm considering the answer to #5 Dimensional Sabotage to be the first official item in a GSF FAQ. "I asked Christopher about it and he totally told me it worked like this" is good enough for me.
Yes, I second this. Lawd knows I am prone to mistakes, and theres still some things I'm not totally 100% confident on either, especially when it comes to:
Icon Resolution (do they trigger simultaneously or consecutivly in order of player choice).
Like, if an Orc Lancer moves during [T] into a sector with a [T] icon removing 1E from all ships, could you work it so the Lancer moves then takes the damage, or would he be ineligable since he started the Travel phase in a different sector? Rulebook seems to say they are consecutive, but just making sure.
Station Card Aftermath resolution. Do you go sector by sector resolving first to last before going to the next sector? Or can you resolve first card in station 1, then first card in station 2, then 2nd card in station 1, 2nd card in station 2, ect. if that would be more advantageous? (I assume it is the former)
Bounties with non-strikeforce bonuses. Take the Technovore Swarm with a bounty that prevents cards from flipping in the Aftermath. If the Swarm is scrapped by an effect coming from a source other than a Strike Force ship, would the bounty effect still go off? Obviously if the bounty was 1D for instance, no one would get that shield, but other effects are not as clear cut.
Here are official answers to these questions, passed down from on high! (i.e., Christopher and I both had the exact same answers before even discussing them)
First, all of Foote's answers are cannon and correct from his previous post except for #3. Smart Bomb says "if it would be scrapped", which replaces "scrapping" with the "recycling", so the card is never actually scrapped.
Regarding Foote's questions:
1) Consecutively in the order of player choice, but new icons that come out during this event do not trigger during it (NOTE: This last bit is pretty much the exact opposite of SotM).
2) Technically you can resolve them in any order, so something like this would technically be legal: 1st card from Sector 1, 1st and 2nd cards from Sector 2, 2nd card from Sector 1, All 3 cards from Sector 3, 3rd card from Sector 1, 3rd card from Sector 2. However, it rarely makes a difference.
3) The bounty would not still go off. The bounty only goes off if a ship is scrapped when destroyed by a strike force ship (either through battle damage, or through a card that removes energy).
I also find it a bit strange that the Smart Bombs don't end up synergizing with Bombardier's Aptitude or Explosive Repurposing. I'm not sure if I'd call Grey Hammer OP, though. Having played most of the characters personally now at least once, I think Grey Hammer ended up performing the worst in my hands. He's no match for Uxshenti's Wrath or Vigilance for late-game power, nor Kharachar's Claw for early-game.
I picked up GSF at PAX east and have tried it twice with 3 friends and we have ended up calling it quits twice (the second time we lost the game in 3 turns). We tried syndicate both times and were quickly overwhelmed by ships. None of us had the chance to play at the PAX demonstration table and are convinced there is something we are doing wrong, but can't for the life of us figure out what it is.
1. We quickly become overwhelmed with opp. ships due to it taking multiple turns to completely remove energy (shields and weapons) from each.
2. In syndicate there seem to be opp ships coming in from all sides (the first mission, several ships that flip station cards during different phases etc). During our second play through we ended up on the 3rd turn with 4 opp ships in one sector, 6 in another and 9 in the last (not counting all the ships scrapped due to the sector ship limits). The buildup was caused by ships moving due to their T and B actions.
3. we've been following the battle instructions from the book that compares attack to shields and subtracts the difference from the engaged ship, which means multiple turns to kill even the weaker opp ships.
We understand that the game is supposed to be hard (we like difficult games), but between the constant loss of tech due to flipped cards, spawning opp ships and the multiple turns it takes to kill each enemy ship is causing my friends to believe the game impossible. Anyway, I was hoping you guys could tell us what we are missing that's turning this into a quick swamp.
Gray's Hammer LOVES to buy techs with scrap effects though. When you can, be sure to prioritize them and use them as scrap fodder. Greys Hammer is very powerful and can strip the shields clean off of most ships before damage calculation. Use this to your advantage.
This is not totally uncommon, especially if you are flipping some really bad stuff in the early Aftermath phases.
A few things: Are you keeping the Fleet limit in mind? Its #players+2 for each sector. Any ship deployed there after that limit (not moved there) gets scrapped. There is little difference between 3 unengaged ships in a sector and 8 unengaged in a sector as it flips 3 cards regardless. On that note, some ships have great mobility past the Travel phase. Try and buy up cards from the sectors that you DONT want the Opp to flip. In an overrun sector, if possible, make sure that most of the cards flipping are ships and not boosts (remember the red icon on the right side of station cards is your hint there). If the sector is at the fleet limit, those ships get scrapped and not deployed.
If someone is playing Wrath or the Claw, a great strat is to just move the bulk of ships into one sector. Yes, it will get overrun, but your goal early in the game is not to keep all sectors neutral (largely thats very hard to do), its to stay alive and build up until you can start wiping things off the board.
Knowing that you wont keep all three sectors neutral changes your teams first travel phase. If you spread out thin accross all three sectors to start, your going to have more cards flipping in the Aftermath than you would if you concentrate your efforts. Going up against the Syndicate, I recomend to abandon the sector with the starting mission, at least to start. If you take a more methodical and measured approach instead of just trying to clear the board as quick as possible, you will be in a better position late game to make a run at the Flagship.
Shield techs. They are SO important for many factors. Make sure you are replenishing your shields in your deck. Techs like High Tension Plates and others that negate damage are very useful as well!
Play to your ships strengths. Basillios for instance, loves buying Techs, but too many Boosts will slow your building down. Wrath needs to keep moving to mill through her deck quickly. Claw loves solo missions in sectors. Warbeast loves as much Weaponry as you can muster, while the Spire needs to be feed Shield techs to convert into Weaponry and general Tankiness. Each ship has their preference for what they love to buy, try and find those quirks out. On the other side of that coin, buy what you DONT want the Opp to flip, dont always just blindly buy what you need personally.
Remember, as long as you have 1 sector not overrun, you have room to gather and build your ship. If you need to, let 2 sectors overrun. The goal is to survive long enough to weather the initial storm and then go into those nasty sectors guns blazing. You are a small strike force up against legions of forces.
It is supposed to look very bad at times. Don't give up! It's never quite as bad as it seems, and with some smart play you will get ahead of the curve. Seriously, quitting in the middle will never net you a win.
If the Syndicate is a little too much to handle off the bat, I strongly encurage playing against the Technovores. The Syndicate will deny your strike force ships of a lot of stuff, from their blockades to high prices. They are like the Megaopolis environment from SotM in that sense. Technovores will deny you less, and good general strategies might present themselves easier. Thats just my opinion.
If your group is still having a bunch of trouble, try starting the game with less ships, or start with less shields. Yes, these are training wheel options. But its better to start with training wheels than to fall down constantly and not want to try again.
Sorry for the overlly general advice. If you can provide anything more specific I can try and help more. (Pydro EMP tech is a MUST buy for any ship. If you have the expansion, let the Reclamators flip in Opp heavy sectors. They will engage Opp ships for you)
I am sure that others can chime in here with some thoughts/advice, but here's mine!
1) A common starting "mistake" that I've seen is trying to control all three sectors. It seems like a good idea at first, but you quickly become overwhelmed everywhere. Instead, focus on locking down one or two sectors at a time; you don't lose until all three sectors are Overrun, so if one or even 2 go, you are still doing just fine.
2) You didn't mention this, but occasionally newer players forget about the Fleet Limit (Players +2); once a sector contains that number of Opposition ships, any more that attempt to deploy in that sector are discarded. This prevents things from getting *too* crazy and unmanageable.
3) If you are having trouble with destroying ships quickly enough, try using ships like Kharachar's Claw or Greyhammer, which have abilities that let you take out ships quickly at the start of the game.
Spring boarding off of Pauls 3rd point, Tharendim to a lesser extent is also great at scrapping ships early if you can wittle their shields down a bit first. Take advantage of these early scraps! They will save your butt later!
In our last game we played with Vigilance, Uxshenti's Wrath, Kharachar's Claw and Conclave of Niphon. We were spread out out between 2 sector's (accepted that the sector with the syndicate starting mission was a lost cause). We were paying attention to system limits, but just couldn't keep up with the spawn rate.
