omg I can’t even… so you plan on winning right? 
as far as i remember the only chance for you not to win would have to be if someone does the mission to Venus or for someone to get to Mars first and sacrifice an Astronaut but it’s obvious this isn’t going to happen. So Venus anyone?
1 Like
Even with all that money, I wasn’t able to launch both the Mars and the Venus missions this year.
1 Like
I mean I could see that you were up to something… but this is somewhat… more than I expected 
What would you have done if there were no moon samples to be brought back? (Afaik at least with the expansions it is entirely possible there are no worthwile samples to take back from moon…)
1 Like
I had various ideas that people were beating me to fulfulling. Please don’t mistake this for any sort of long-term plan!
2 Likes
Sorry for delay. Update should be up tomorrow!
1 Like
Actual Russian expenditure in 1969 was about 6 billion on their space programme. Russia’s gdp at the time was about 90 billion. (Using random google sources)
I think this worlds history is about to become massively skewed.
1 Like
The Extra-Heavy Booster is intended purely for peaceful purposes – putting things into orbit.
We may put Washington DC into orbit as a gesture of goodwill.
3 Likes
Confirmed, that all works.
@yashima is next.
2 Likes
Hello there, so much Blood in other threads…
So let me get a look at the status of my missions.
Do I understand this correctly that my Ceres mission is due back in next year, when exactly will I have the money from that sample? The year after that, right?
And my Phobos mission seems to have got close to where I want it.
- Test Landing:
- I seem to have 2 Junos and 1 probe on earth.
- Buy 1x Juno for $1
- assemble Test spacecraft with 3 Junos and 1 probe to do one more launch to suborbital and then land the probe. I’ll buy off any failure.
- Get “Why not me” to Phobos:
- Fire Stage 2 (1 Atlas Rocket) to get to Mars Orbit (difficulty of 3, remaining payload: 4 =1 Ion Thruster, 2 Junos and 1 Probe as per this post)
- Fire Stage 3 (1 Juno Rocket) to land on Phobos (difficulty of 1 remaining payload: 3 = 1 Ion Thruster, 1 Juno, 1 Probe)
- Collect a sample
- Fire Stage 4 (1 Juno Rocket) to reach Mars Orbit (difficulty of 1, remaining payload: 3 = 1 Ion Thruster, 1 Probe, 1 Sample)
- Fire Ion Thruster (Payload weight 2 = 1 Sample, 1 Probe) to coast back to LEO which takes 3 years at a difficulty of 5 which means the Ion Thruster can just about make it with the payload…
I will then pass for now. But there will be some shopping done before the year is over. My turn is not finished.
1 Like
(Your above assumption are correct.)
1 Like
So with my missions taken care of…
Can we talk for a moment about the state of the game? I have enjoyed this game a lot so far. If this were at a table, this is the point where I would start asking if the game is already over because I feel as if most of the decisions that will impact the final standings have already been made. Can we put the cards on the table for a moment?
- Roger will start his giant mission next year
- I am assuming he is going to Mars to do both missions there
- I am not sure he isn’t also going to Venus
- with all the money and spreadsheets Roger threw at this, his missions are not going to fail.
- I cannot launch a mission to Mars before Roger does
- I can maybe (lots and lots of maybe) launch a mission to Venus that arrives just as the game ends
- I have no idea if @Pillbox or @RossM are capable of launching a man to Mars before Roger does–my gut feeling says you don’t, but obviously I could be wrong
My current VP projections for the game are as follows:
- @RogerBW (Man on Mars, Mars Station) 44 VP
- @Yashima (Man in Orbit, Ceres Sample Return, Phobos Sample Return) 30 VP
- @RossM (Mercury Lander, Lunar Sample Return) 23 VP
- @pillbox (Mars Lander) 7VP
I really don’t want to ruin anyone’s (aka @RogerBW’s) victory lap or concede the game when there is still a race to be had… but if it is already over I’d rather I’d rather go through it all together to confirm that. Of course maybe I am just missing the obvious…
PS: I need to make dinner now… so I’ll check in here later.
1 Like
In most normal games, I’d be happy to continue, but considering @RogerBW strat, I can’t see much changing other than walls of maths.
Happy to concede if others are as well. France would be proud of landing on many space objects first.
(I mean radiation might kill all the astronauts, but it’s incredibly unlikely.)
1 Like
I’m still taking chances in radiation but that’s about it I think. My Venus mission plan can survive Venus being unlandable without killing the cosmonauts.
1 Like
(To clarify - Vepr is going to Mars, next year’s launch is going to Venus.)
1 Like
I can probably offer to send ahead one of my tiny little ion thruster things to scout for you 
There is one in orbit right now. (I only kept it there because I was still considering an actual Venus mission of my own)
So unless @Pillbox has some grand plans for the current year…
Maybe we could just do a kind of wrap-up of things that are already calculated/bought or under way. I for one would like to see Roger’s big mission and how it works out because I have not done much manned space flight in my previous games of Leaving Earth.
And I think that big project should be able to unfurl as planned and wow us 
1 Like
It’s been so long that I don’t even remember what my plan was, but it was contingent upon not having any failures in several untested technologies, so it was quite a gamble.
I’m okay with calling it here.
1 Like
Moreover, the funding available by way of large sample returns has been eye-opening.
It took me by surprise. And I’m really shocked that there’s no mechanism for diminishing returns.
2 Likes
When I first read the rules, I assumed that the payment was only for the first sample of the appropriate kind. It’s been clarified by Joe that it is indeed meant to be per sample without limit (thus the rule change so that you can’t retrieve samples and use the cash to generate another sample-retrieving mission immediately, producing infinite money) but I honestly don’t believe it would break the game if one played it the way I thought it was. (After all, in any given play there may not be any big money samples at all. Indeed, this is the first time it’s come up since I became aware of that clarification.)
2 Likes
@RogerBW Has asked me to see if his Mars mission succeeds. So let’s look a the numbers.
So here’s our radiation!
2 Likes