What am I doing wrong?

Other Games Galactic Strike Force
#1

I got the game yesterday and my son and I are enjoying it.  I have played 3 times:

Gray Hammer and the Warbeast vs. the Syndicate.  Took a long time (about 2 hours) - strike force ships never really in danger.

Gray Hammer and Vigilance vs. Technovore.  Easy - won in 30 minutes.

Uxshenti and the Claw vs. Technovore.  One stike force ship badly damaged in a sacrifice play to defeat the flagship.

We won all three times, all by defeating the flagship.

Before I got the game, I watched Tom Vasal's glowing review, including his testimony that this game was *hard* and that he had yet to beat it.

In fairness, I have a lot of SotM experience (which at least makes learning the game a touch easier), I read that forcing the Syndicate's flagship is the easiest way to beat them, and I've also read that the Technovore may be the easiest opposition.

So is that it - and rough times await me ahead? Or are there some common rules that are often missed or played wrong that is allowing all these wins?

Don't get me wrong; I enjoy the game (and my son loves it).  But I get antsy if I can win a co-op three times in a row in my first three plays.

#2

Sometimes the strat is gonna come easy to you. 

Bump up the difficulty a bit by just adding in the elite mode icons. That's my preferred method for most games and it's a great sweet spot. Try that and report back

#3

Some things that are easy to do incorrectly and make the game easier (there should be a list of these kept somewhere):

  • Requisitioning cards into your hand, instead of to the bottom of your deck (recycle).
  • Recycling blue boost cards instead of scrapping them.
  • Recycling destroyed techs instead of scrapping them.
  • Missing TRIBA start of phase icons (especially easy on the opposition "impending" card and sectors).
  • Using boosts during events (e.g. install a tech, use a boost, install a tech) instead of only between events.

 

Without seeing you play it's hard to know if all the rules are being followed. Even stuff like making sure the station decks flip, monitoring the fleet limit, etc are easy to miss. There's a ton going on in the game all the time.

#4

Thanks for this, especially that list, MigrantP.  I know that I likely missed the occasional start of phase action, though I doubt any of them were critical, and I'll have to read a bit more on boosts, because that last one sounds like something I might have done.  But again: I don't think it would have changed much.  The 1st 3 I'm all good with. 

#5

We've had two games and they both took at least a couple of hours - I think the first game took about three but we figured it'd take a while as it was our first game so we were just learning the rules and stuff. How the hell do people manage to have a game that only lasts half an hour, lol...we probably spend about that long on the round or two!

#6

I've played half a dozen games or so now and they've all been pretty easy. I primarily attribute this to most of the games being 2-player (which your games have been) - I just don't think the 4 starting opposition ships pose much of a threat unless your draws are all really bad. You'll flip two station cards in the first Aftermath. I suspect that a 6-player game, where you probably flip 6 station cards in the first Aftermath will feel more dire.

Does anyone who has played more games have thoughts on balance for number of players? I thought about adding one or two opposition ships (or, of course, using Elite mode).

#7

I'd much rather play Elite Mode than run two ships simultaneously personally. But then again, any solo game I fire up is two ships on Elite.

#8

I meant adding one or two more initial opposition ships without adding more players.

I'm definitely with you on not running multiple ships. SotM is easy to play solo; there's just way too much to keep track of in this.

#9

I think I have been doing something wrong with my group and decided to ask in this topic instead of creating a new topic. Is the list attack and defense value on a card the max that can be on a ship? For example the warbeast starts 5o and 1d if I play the tech that adds 1 offense when you install this gun, does it change to 6 on the card and one extra offense added to the side?

#10

The listed value is the initial value. There's no max. Have you looked at the GSF FAQ that's stickied in the forums? 

 

#11

I did, its good but doesnt expand to much beyond what is in the book. Are there any rules for engaging the flagship, we played it like a normal ship, so only 1 primary and 1 secondary, but this slows down the game a bit.

#12

The values on the panel are the intial values. When you add an Weapon Tech, you put it on the side of the panel, but you do not add another token to the panel itself. Your total W is equal to your Weapon Techs and what is on the panel. Placement is very importatn, since you remove Energy in a specific way.

Flagships have the same rules and normal Opp ships.

#13

I know about the actual card itself, but there is a staion card that is a offensive tech, cant come up with the name right now because I am at work, but it is a 1 offense card, and its install effect says when you install this tech, gain offense, is that placed on the ship itself, which foote cleard up. As far as the flagship, that is a bit disapointing, it limits some strategy, it seems like you can build up one super offense, and one super support, then go in there and destroy the flag, I hope in future, they release boss fleets of multiple ships you need to take down to win. I say this only having beater 2 factions.

#14

What do you mean by "super support"?

#15

Presumably "one ship that is really good at supporting the other ship", while the other ship is the one with all the guns and serves as the Primary Engager. This worked pretty well in our last game as Ja'Ph' was playing the Bjarlspire and had that card where he was allowed to redirect all damage to him. I was in Uxshenti's Wrath with pretty low shields but as many guns as I could find :D.

#16

That is pretty much what I was getting at, that strategy is very strong, if the Spire has enough armor, the attacker has little to fear. Before I say this, know that I love the game, but as it stands, the best way to win is to power up 2 ships, one offense one defense, then have them go fight the flagship, since only 2 can engage, any more ships beyond that will only be for righting grunts.

#17

The best way to win most games will be to kill the flagship, unless your playing a 2 player game with Hammer and Claw, in which case you could easily clear the board in fair circumstances. Thats just part of the game. SOMEONE has to tank the Flagship, and some ships are just better at that aspect (Vigilance, Basilieos) than others (Grey Hammer, Warbeast), and whoever does it will need a large does of [W] and a healthy [D] count. Thats not really a strategy, thats just the nessessity in trying to take a Flagship down.  

Once you kick in Elite Mode, you will see your priorities start to shift since you can't just focus down the Flagship while ignoring everything else. I totally recomend Elite Mode.

#18

Good to know, currently doing a Advanced mode challenge in sentinals with my group, and still learning strike force. The down side is the space fantasy seems to be a bit with 1 or 2 v 1 in a flagship fight, or giant space spider or space station size ship. Normally you would need 2-3 ships for a boss style ship. But maybe that will change in elite.

#19

I forgot about this thread.  I've played a couple more times, not using the Elite icon.  Both were against the UFGO (I think I got that acronym right).

The first time, my son and I lost hard.  We were overrun fairly quickly.  Based on my OP, I was pretty pleased to lose.

Then I thought about the game and went back for a solo run against them.  Once again, as noted earlier in this thread as a good strategy, I forced the flagship out, built up enough weaponry to take it on and went to town.  It took a couple hours but I won.

I have to try the other two enemies and then I'll open the expansion.

#20

The expansion really adds a lot! In my experience, especially in a 2-3 player setting, the expansion makes the game easier in a lot of ways. Artifacts are SO helpful, from gaining huge bursts of energy, to shielding damage, and Reclaimators can be left to flip in abandoned sectors where they will engage Opposition ships for you!