by Belthus
I was the Sol player mentioned in this post. Great session report!
MillertimeRC wrote:
Sol attacked me at the Palace and although I lost, he committed all of his units, not understanding that the victor still loses all committed units. That cost me 4 units to his 14. :whistle:
When I first announced my move, I committed all my units because I didn't understand the rule. Then everyone generously agreed to allow me a take-back. For my second try, I committed almost all (not all) of my units because I knew in advance (through ally Jol-nar's ability) that your offensive card would kill my leader, and I wanted my total to be high enough to beat your units-plus-leader total (not to mention any defensive card). But then you won the battle with a traitor card, which killed everything on my side and left you in control of the base.
The final battle phase began, and what we didn't expect was that Jol-nar had held a Graviton Negator for nearly the entire game. This is a card that is played at the beginning of a battle phase on any area where you have at least one unit. It destroys the shield on that area, making it vulnerable to bombardment. The navy fleet was three sectors away and the Sol player confirmed that the next bombardment card was a +5.
In the end there was nothing else to be done. He destroyed the shield, the entire sector would get bombarded on the very last phase of the last round, making that area neutral and giving Sol the win. Their alliance shared a three-way victory. :cry:
This raised a few cries, probably as to be expected. Hacan felt that the entire game (which ran about 3 hours) came down to a single card. In essence that is true, but I feel like it was still the play by Jol-nar that really won them the game. He held that potentially powerful card until the very end and then used their alliance's combined abilities to know the fleet's movement in advance, then moved a single unit in as that was all that was needed. To me it was a bitter loss but not a cheap one.. I think they earned it.
In the end there was nothing else to be done. He destroyed the shield, the entire sector would get bombarded on the very last phase of the last round, making that area neutral and giving Sol the win. Their alliance shared a three-way victory. :cry:
This raised a few cries, probably as to be expected. Hacan felt that the entire game (which ran about 3 hours) came down to a single card. In essence that is true, but I feel like it was still the play by Jol-nar that really won them the game. He held that potentially powerful card until the very end and then used their alliance's combined abilities to know the fleet's movement in advance, then moved a single unit in as that was all that was needed. To me it was a bitter loss but not a cheap one.. I think they earned it.
Jol-nar initially conceived of the Graviton Negator attack as nothing more than a final gesture of defiance before Hacan's (and ally Letnev's) special victory. Only when Jol-nar revealed his intentions was I able to point out that wiping out all units on that base would satisfy one of Sol's special victory conditions (and the other part was already secure). So though Jol-nar deserves credit for the plan, having victory as a result was serendipitous because we weren't familiar enough with the game to be as strategic as your report claimed.
On the downside, I personally do not like a lot of hidden information in games. Rex pushes that limit for me, with the almost unknown strategy cards and unknown traitor cards. I do think it adds a lot to the game so I'm willing to overlook that. Some players did not like how random the game felt at times, with entire armies getting eliminated because of a traitor card or when a strategy card eliminates a leader, turning the tides of battle.
The hidden parts typically outweighed the known elements in a battle. Often the units were mere props, necessary only for playing the cards that would really determine the battle's outcome. Of course, as the player of Sol (with its strengths lying in deploying units, not getting cards), I may be biased.
By the way, I think that the game lasted closer to four hours (circa 6:30 - 10:30). Experience would cut that time down, but the 120 minutes mentioned on the main Rex page here at BGG seems unlikely for all but the most dedicated fans. I might be willing to give it another try, but the opportunity cost (i.e., what else might be played in that time) is a factor.