Too much military might

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SPAMN
Posts: 1
Joined: 09 May 2020, 02:12

Too much military might

Post by SPAMN »

Just played 1 game tonight and the game balance seem broken. The game seems to favor the military player approach/strategy as there seems to be a good quantity of high-VP military worlds to go around. Going non-military is not an option, it seems to be the best strategy. It was too easy as the other players opted out of this option. If the development tiles line up good (major developments, it is even better. Also, the benefit of the military is that it is not spend, every turn you get back the same military you had, it does not burn out (not realistic that you can run wars without casualties...) unlike the $ worlds that you spend $ to settle. So sad but true, it is military might or bust... So given that, it is a very linear strategy, the rest of world types and development tiles are just for color...
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Rsabbado
Posts: 2
Joined: 12 September 2021, 03:11

Re: Too much military might

Post by Rsabbado »

I guess claiming unbalance based on a single gameplay is not the way to go.

The game is a race. There are many variables to consider. Developments you may need to fulfill your plans might be taken by other players. Planets you also need might never come to your hands, either because other players got to it first, or because they never show up (or show up too late) in exploration actions.

Military planets are in a reduced number, comparing to non-military. Military producing planets are even more scarce.
The game is about planning your race observing your environment and the tools that are available.
I'm in no way a New Frontiers expert, but i have a few hundred games of Race for the Galaxy to my name, and in the 2 games of New Frontiers i've played, my decision was "I'll try to go for what I'm given at the start", so I don't waste time going against the flow, just to get what I WANT, instead of what I CAN get.

In my first game I tried to go military, as my initial planet was a +2 military, but other players eventually went for it, and fighting for good military planets without a backup plan was a bad idea. I ended up last in this game.

In my second game, I was given a Rare Windfall Planet with discount to Settle Rare Planets. I looked at my oponents and none had a Rare planet, so I decided to go for a Rare planet strategy, and it payed off, since I was the only one going for it. I came 2nd on this, with 0 military. The player who came 1st had 4 military by the end, but he got only 2 points out of the military planets he had. The 3rd and 4th players were both full military, and still couldn't reach me, maybe because they kept competing with each other.

So, there are many good strategies to this game, but even though it seems like there is a "killer" one, the competition for resources could make your otherwise "killer" strategy go south pretty badly.
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