My plans to play against Spite for Pydro's event #11 were derailed when I got home and saw my copy of GSF waiting for me. Unfortunately, due to time restrictions, I didn't finish my attempt at a solo game, and I'm not sure how likely it is that I'll play this solo in the future. I am definitely looking forward to trying it out with some friends though.
On to the questions: I was trying the Technovores to start, and after setup I really didn't look at the flagship card until it went into play. The Deployment section of the flaghip card, on its Impending side, has a {T} event - should I have been activating that event each turn's Travel phase, even though the flagship wasn't actively deployed yet?
Secondly, is there a reason for two different energy icons? E.G. on Unconventional Style in the deck for Marot's Folly, the last line says "If it does, prevent that {E} removal and then remove {E} from Marot's Folly." The two icons are different though. The first one has the white starburst in the center of the green triangle, which is what I was expecting. The second has something like a green shield inside the green triangle. A number of other cards had that second {E} symbol as well, and I didn't find a reference or explanation for it.
Thirdly, the Vicious Technovore {A} event says "If the top card of any of this Sector's Station Decks is a Tech, scrap it. This Ship gains {W} for each card scrapped this way." The three top cards were techs so they all got scrapped. The next top cards were also techs. Should I have kept scrapping techs from the top of the Station Decks until only Boosts were present?
The one with a star means “any” as opposed to a specific amount. In this case “if you lost any Energy prevent it then lose one.”
No, just the initial top ones. This is where GSF differs from SotM. In SotM, actions continue until a phase is over, so if something new is added during the phase, it will activate. In GSF, this doesn’t happen. All of the effects are set from the initial activation. Here, you only see the top three cards at the activation of the icon, so even if things change, only those cards will be relevant to the ability.
I'm not a big fan of the icons with a star, personally. It's really hard to see from any distance which one it is, and it's a bit confusing. It's not at all obvious, and not explained anywhere in the rulebook.
I think it is, because I remember looking it up, but I think it was in the middle of some explanatory text in the combat section or something, so I had to trawl through a bit and find it.
The star icons make a lot of sense to me, but I understand why they can be confusing and agree that all of the icons are a little difficult to distinguish (I probably would have used solid color backgrounds for all the icons). I recall (possibly incorretly - I don't have it in front of me to reference) the rulebook having a very theoretical explanation, but not a demonstration of application.
Here's a Technovore specific rules question: Some of the Technovore ships have bounties which let you scrap another ship in the sector who have shields equal to 1 or 0. If there are multiple of these ships, with their shields low, can you chain the bounties? Or does a bounty killing another ship not trigger the bounty on the second kill?
Okay. So I was going to ask about the official rules, which seem to contradict your answer, but I looked up your FAQ/re-write of the rules, and the bounty section here makes it a lot clearer. The bounty effect does not trigger off of energy removal AND scraping of the Opposition Ship. It triggers off of just the Opposition Ship being scrapped and it being a Strike Force Ship that cause the scrapping.
It is maybe still ambigious because someone could argue that a bounty effect scrapping an Opposition Ship is not a Strike Force Ship scrapping the Opposition Ship.
Alright cool. That'll save an argument or two around the table. I felt our last game was a little too easy with Tharendim and two EMP weapons lowering shields, then chain blowing up the Technovore. Although killing 4 ships in one combat round was very satisfying...
Hey good day! after reading this thread It helped me to understand more about the game. I am happy to learn more about it and the tips are very helpful.