First Time Questions

Other Games Galactic Strike Force
21

A Vigilance ship boosts by Conclave should have no trouble scrapping ships in the battle phase by the 2nd Round. When talking pure Energy, no Strike Force ship will rival Vigilance, and Conclave can give out temporary shield boosts for the Battle Phase or when you think you might be taking a good deal of energy damage during aftermath flipping. 

Both the Claw and Wrath have crazy movement and can well handle themselvs in sectors and bolt if things get too hairy. Finding a Cloaking Drive for Wrath early can be HUGE to 1) mill through her deck at blinding speeds 2) protect her energy until her shields can take things head on. If you play her right and draw lots of cards during the [R] and [I] phases, she builds faster than just about anyone. Buy as much as you can with her since you can mill through it so fast.

In the battle phase, Hit and Run/Deadly Focus with Ramming Speed for Claw can snipe off most Opposition ships outright. Focus on his Weaponry and keep his shields in a healthy place (around 4-5 on average). Claw loves suicide missions, so send him in, do your thing, then bolt out of the sector if you think it would be too dangerous to stay there.

Claw and Wrath's movement allows you manipulate the sectors station cards you abandon easily, so you can kind of plan exactly what the Opp will flip in the Aftermath and tailor you game plan accordingly. If the sector you are trying to lock down gets too hairy, Use Goated Pursuit and move all those Opp ships into the abandoned sector! Clumped up Opp ships means less bad stuff flipping in the Aftermath, but it makes the endgame a little rough, so use the free time to keep building.

EDIT: In this case, putting Wrath, Vigilance and Conclave in one sector with 3 ships and sending Claw into the sector with 2 ships might be your best bet. The first sector wont flip any cards in the Aftermath that way, and If Claw can scrap one ship and engage the other off the bat, none flip there either (or just 1 in the worst case senario). Your first 2 rounds will really set the tone of the game. Do everything you can to minimize the bad stuff while you keep chipping away and building up.

Once you play a few games, you will start remembering which station cards flip the worst Opp sides. For me, If I see Quasar Guns on the board somewhere and its in danager of flipping, you best be sure I will try and buy that up regardless of whether I need it or not (it flips into Mega Teleporter) Use this knowledge to your advantage. (I can't in good faith recommend cheating, but if you need to peak at the Opp sides while learning the game, I personally wont hold it against you)

22

Why can't you look at the flip side of cards in the offer?

23

I had an awesome game with Uxshenti’s Wrath recently where we did exactly what you’re suggesting, Foote. We ended up with 18 or 19 Syndicate ships in one sector while we cleared the others. Bjarlspire ended up trapped there for most of the game, but we rescued him eventually. If I recall correctly, Uxshenti ended up with 55+ energy and one-shotted the boss.

Long story short, that strategy really works.

24

Haha! Wrath's Goaded Pursuit is stupid strong like that, especailly against the likes of the Syndicate (freeing up prices and such is a huge boon). It's almost to the point for me where If I'm playing with Wrath I gotta force myself into Elite Mode. Her ability to dictate where the Opp ships end up, and drawing more cards as she moves them, is silly at times. She gives the Strike Force breathing room to operate.

There is a downside however. Especially when facing Opps like Nyotan or UFGD. By moving all Opps into one sector and packing it well past the fleet limit, you run the risk of having way more Opp ships on the board than normal. Clear a sector to early on Nyotan and your stuck playing mouse and running from the Dragon during the Travel phase and you will have trouble setting up. Packing all the UFGD ships in one sector and you will get totally overwhelmed as they have a ton of movement themselves and extra ways to deploy.

It's nice to hear of some wins. Glad I could offer some tips and tricks that worked out. I have the least experience with the Syndicate of all the Opps.

Also, if anyone happens to have gotten the expansion, there are a BUNCH of options that open up in many different directions as well we could talk about.

25

The Volneth expansion? I’ve got a copy. What kind of options were you thinking about?

26

Volnethian Reclaimators are good options to let flip in sectors you wont be in early since they can engage Opp ships for you and reduce the amount of bad stuff flipped in the Aftermath. They are much better used this way early. Toward the middle and Endgame, they can become a burden just because of how they auto-engage.

Some ships (read: Marrots Folly especially) can get a massive amount of artifacts. They can be used to give all the SF ships a crazy amount of Weaponry at once or gant temporary imortality as long as you have artifacts to burn.

The expansion makes the game a little easier in the endgame in my experience because of these things, but my sample size playing with it is pretty small. 

 

27

Is looking at the other side considered cheating, though? I was under the impression that since all the piles are face up, everything is public knowledge. Not to mention, if x always flips over to y, the only difference between checking the other side and committing it to memory is flipping into a game killing card an unfortunate number of times.

I also don't think checking stacks, at least in this game, makes the game too easy. About halfway through a trial game with my brother (after a long, drawn out game the previous night trying to teach five friends that ended in defeat) he suggested we start checking and the game got INFINITELY more manageable- it was still a hard fought win, but we were able prematurely stop things that would've drawn out the game to the point where it would've stopped being fun. Plus, there's still the chance that you may run out of credits before you can stop the bad card, maybe sacrifice buying the thing you wanted in order to get the thing that'll keep everyone alive, etc.

28

There was quite a bit of back and forth on this point during playtesting. The players focus should be on buying awesome techs and boosts to upgrade their ship. Ultimately thats where a big strength of this game lies. Spending  time focused on the flip side of those cards during [R] can detract from that feeling of upgrading and can often contribute to a feeling of "analysis paralysis". For me personaly, I always had much more fun playing when I was more focused on how to min/max the build speed of each SF ship than spending 30 minutes looking at the backs of each station card and trying to put a puzzle together. Maximizing Ship efficiency is just as effective of a winning strategy. 

You have a lot of information at your disposal without looking at the flip sides. Remember the red symbol on the right hand side of the station cards tells you if its a Ship or Boost. Thats more than enough valuable information to make informed buying decisions while keeping the focus on your upgrades. In most cases you are going to prefer more Ships flipping in the Aftermath than Boosts anyway right? 

[quote="xmegadudex"]

I also don't think checking stacks, at least in this game, makes the game too easy. About halfway through a trial game with my brother (after a long, drawn out game the previous night trying to teach five friends that ended in defeat) he suggested we start checking and the game got INFINITELY more manageable- it was still a hard fought win, but we were able prematurely stop things that would've drawn out the game to the point where it would've stopped being fun. Plus, there's still the chance that you may run out of credits before you can stop the bad card, maybe sacrifice buying the thing you wanted in order to get the thing that'll keep everyone alive, etc.

[/quote]

By "checking stacks", what do you mean exactly? Do you mean looking through all 5 cards in any particular station deck? Yeah, you totally can't do that either  :smiling_imp: . Thats a bigger one than looking at the flip side of Station cards for me. 

Basically both of these smaller issues boil down to one larger issue. You should not be able to plan how the entire [TRIBA] will play out at the start of each [T] phase. There were builds during playtesting where that was totally the case and it really hurt the pacing. Gamers are funny creatures. Regardless of whether a particular strategy is fun, boring, tedious, or simple, they will always gravitate to the easiest way to win. If you can plan out everything ahead of time, it just becomes an easily solvable jiggsaw puzzle you put together right? You're gonna take the puzzle route every time if it means easier wins, but whens the last time you saw a jiggsaw puzzle up on the hot list of BBG?

With all of that said, if you gaming group prefers to house rule some things a little differently and has a ton of fun doing so, don't let a silly thing such as "rules" stop you.

Edit: Also, keep a look out very soon as I am preparing a large write-up on the demo setup we used to teach the game at PAX East this year. It might help when introducing the game to new players

29

I know my group definitely considered what was on the back of the cards in the station during the Requisition phase.  We sometimes tried ignoring the backs of the cards and just building our ships up with the best cards for the situation, and in some games it it worked while in others it didn't.  The more you play the more you'll get a feel for what concerns need to be addressed against each opposition deck in each sector.

30

Station Manipulation is still a very large part of the games strategy. I guess my point is though that you don't need to know the exact Ship or Boost that will be flipped to be effective with that manipulation.

If the cards were not double sided, there would be no question that you can't look at the underside of cards on the table right? You don't look at the top few cards of the Villain deck of SotM (or most deck based card games) just to see whats coming so you can plan the best moves a few turns ahead of time. Station decks are ment to be viewed the same way. Just instead of solid and uniform backs, they have Strikeforce Techs and Boosts printed on them.

31

Sounds like a GSF play guide along the same lines as the hero guides we've got for SotM might be a helpful thing for someone to write, once we get closer to the day most people get their copies of the game.  I hate the idea of everyone cracking open their brand new game and getting smashed repeatedly by a game that's too difficult for people who haven't figured out the deeper strategies yet.

32

I guess I've been a cheaty cheater, then :stuck_out_tongue: Glad to nip that habit in the bud.

Although, I do have another question about checking decks: are you allowed to look through your own? I vaguely remember someone else asking this during a game demo at PAX and that being ok (since the decks are face up, and unlike the station/mission decks, don't have information on the other side), but I want to be certain going forward.

33

No you can't look through your deck either. Just like any other deck based game.  But you still have the advantage because you can plan the order of what you buy and how many you buy. There are only a handful of effects that force a deck shuffle. 

Also a note about looking through station decks. Have you played Marotts Folly yet? Looking through those decks would kinda kill his gambling theme. 

34

Ah- wish we had played with that one, I imagine it would've cleared things up much faster.

Thanks very much for the clarifications!

35

We had a rather odd question come up last night as we were stompping through a 2 player game against the Syndicate.

We were in a Sector with a Blockade and a Smuggler. During [T], we Strike Force Tactics'ed the Blockade, whos bounty prevents station cards from "flipping" this round. Will the Smuggler still put the last station card "into play" during [R] or does the Blockades bounty prevent that?

36

My friend received this game a couple days ago, and we played for the first time last night.

I hate to say it, but I was crushingly disappointed.  I love SotM, but here, the number of tokens, opposition ships, missions, and events you have to keep track of is ridiculous.  Add that to the fact that we never felt like we had the slightest chance of winning (our first game was aborted before it even started since we were playing as we were reading the rules, and one of the two players was eliminated on the first turn), and I'm sorry to say, it just isn't fun.

We plan on giving it another shot because we both wanted to like it so much, and after reading some strategies here, I'm wondering if we did some things wrong.  Hopefully someone can provide some advice.

1)  We turned over a bunch of Mercenary ships early on.  These ships move to the sector with the most Strike Force ships and then take a point of energy from the ship with the least energy.  There's no way to stash these ships in other sectors and wait to get tough enough to take them out since they move to wherever you are.  So, even if they're not engaged, they just take energy from the weakest ship every turn, and that's horrible in the early game if there are multiples.  Am I understanding this correctly?  Do they take energy even if they don't move (i.e.,they're already in the sector with the most SF ships)?

2)  I think Foote mentioned earlier that Vigilance should be able to scrap ships starting in Turn 2.  How is that possible?  If I understand the rules correctly, battle and then damage is detrermined by subtraction and then subtraction.  So, if an enemy ship has weapons 4 and shields 4, a SF ship would have to have weapons of 12 to scrap it in one shot, right (12 weapons - 4 shields = 8 damage, 8 damage - 8 energy)?  I think Vigilance starts with weapons 3, so how could it possibly be scrapping enemy ships by turn 2?

3)  Someone mentioned a SF ship "likes" to run through its deck quickly.  How is that possible?  Aren't you just drawing 4 cards every turn?  I assume there are cards that allow you to draw other cards, but absent that, there's no way to go through the deck faster, right?

4)  Unless you happen to draw a tech from your starting hand, you effectively can't install a tech on your first turn, right?  Anything you requisition gets put at the bottom of your deck.  I'm sure there are a few cards that change this (I saw one in the Vigilance deck, I think), but this is the norm, correct?

5)  Someone said they had a ship with weapons 55 by the end of the game.  I don't see how that's possible.  The highest we ever got after playing for about 2-3 hours was maybe 8.  Other ships, missions, and events did so much damage that we could never get ahead and actually do damage to enemy ships.

 

Like I said, I'm hoping we're doing something(s) wrong because otherwise this game feels like math homework designed to kick you in the unmentionables.

37

Oops, requisitioned cards go on the bottom of your deck? We were putting them directly into our hands...

38

I'm no expert at this game, having only play two games so far (solo using two ships each game), but here's my take on a few of these points:

When do these ships travel? (Sorry, don't have it down by memory yet). If it's during (T), then those actions happen first, then the Strike Force ships can travel to their sector of choose, basically doing a chase around the sectors. If it's during a different phase, (B) for example, you'll need to get tricky using techs or boosts that allow alternate phase travelling in order to avoid those ships.

  1.  I think Foote mentioned earlier that Vigilance should be able to scrap ships starting in Turn 2.  How is that possible?  If I understand the rules correctly, battle and then damage is detrermined by subtraction and then subtraction.  So, if an enemy ship has weapons 4 and shields 4, a SF ship would have to have weapons of 12 to scrap it in one shot, right (12 weapons - 4 shields = 8 damage, 8 damage - 8 energy)?  I think Vigilance starts with weapons 3, so how could it possibly be scrapping enemy ships by turn 2?

One of my games I was scrapping cards first turn using Claw and his Ramming Speed. Another Strike Force ship that can scrap ships in the first turn or two is Grey Hammer using his bombs which each take off 2-3 energy from an opposition ship, quickly stripping down the defenses for heavy hitting. Don't have experience with a good portion of the other ships to see if there are other tricks that can do this.

Note: Just re-read and saw you referred specifically to Vigilance. My recollection of my first game is Vigilance has multiple boosts (that recycle) that add one attack and draw a card, plus a couple of techs that add attack. With a decent starting hand, you can legitimately start chiseling away at ships and overcoming their defenses.

  1.  Someone mentioned a SF ship "likes" to run through its deck quickly.  How is that possible?  Aren't you just drawing 4 cards every turn?  I assume there are cards that allow you to draw other cards, but absent that, there's no way to go through the deck faster, right?

For me, this is referring to how many turns it takes to get completely thru your deck, not how many cards you get each turn. If I have a deck of 12 cards I'll get to every card after three rounds; if i have a deck of 20 it'll take me 5 turns. So the fewer cards the faster you'll run thru your deck. Referring to my above example, Grey Hammer probably wants a slimmer deck to get more usage out of his bombs as they'll come back into play more quickly.

In other words don't dilute your deck with weak/so-so cards so you can get to your money-makers faster.

  1.  Unless you happen to draw a tech from your starting hand, you effectively can't install a tech on your first turn, right?  Anything you requisition gets put at the bottom of your deck.  I'm sure there are a few cards that change this (I saw one in the Vigilance deck, I think), but this is the norm, correct?

Again, I've only played twice, but I'm assuming each Strike Force ship each have a good ratio of boosts:techs, but I guess there's a chance you won't draw any techs.

And yes, you are correct in that recquisitioned cards get placed on the bottom of your deck (unless you have an ability that lets you do otherwise).

  1.  Someone said they had a ship with weapons 55 by the end of the game.  I don't see how that's possible.  The highest we ever got after playing for about 2-3 hours was maybe 8.  Other ships, missions, and events did so much damage that we could never get ahead and actually do damage to enemy ships. Like I said, I'm hoping we're doing something(s) wrong because otherwise this game feels like math homework designed to kick you in the unmentionables.

I'm my games, my two ships were roughly around 20 attack power each late game. While 55 might be possible, I wouldn't consider that the norm. IMO, 8 is way to low for it to be the highest you ever got to. Not saying that can't happen, just don't think it will ever happen in a game you have a legit chance of winning.

 

Anyways, hope this helps clear up any questions you may have been having and that you are able to better enjoy the game. For me, I like the game, but need to get some more plays in before I see if it stays in that category or jumps up into"love it".

39

Glad to know my wife and I weren't the only ones! It seemed a bit too easy putting them directly into our hands.

Makes more sense with the game mechanics that they are recycled.