I’d just like to be clear so I know where we are going forward, I’m sorry if this is stating the obvious: you can’t hegemonise a rival system without clearing any defending ships first? And you can’t hegemonise a trade partner’s world unless they agree to it?
I must say I thought hegemony was a bit overpowered without this… I could have 30 ships defending the homeworld but a trade partner can fly in and take the planet? I was rather surprised it was possible.
So did I, I’d been through the whole move in PMs with Roger because it seemed weird.
My present understanding is:
General rule: you need to be the only power with ships in a system in order to invade or hegemonise it.
More specific rule: if you hold someone’s TA, you can do those things in a system their ships are also in, if they agree. If they don’t, you fall back on the general rule.
I agree. I think some confusion might also arise from “Hegemony is not an Attack.”
This doesn’t affect either of the rules above, but means that if you have someone’s trade agreement and they have a system with no ships in it then you can Hegemonise it without betraying them. i.e. you do not have to return their trade agreement when making the attempt.
Right, and that seems fair - from my perspective you’re leaving the world undefended, although I agree it’s not an attack.
And generally the turn after, revoke of trade agreements usually happen as a result… it is the first initial try that starts the process.
I have to admit, I’m finding the “Vulcans can’t colonize” to be a more frustrating constraint that I would have thought.
Just checking, but you do know that Vulcans can colonise uninhabited worlds by spending 1 Ascendancy (instead of the usual 1 Culture)?
Also any uninhabited world, not just one where they have a ship.
Wait. What?
Yes. Can’t invade or hegemonise your worlds if your Ascendancy is lower than theirs, but they can Colonise anywhere uninhabited for 1 Ascendancy.
So wait.
Turn one. Federation discover two worlds.
Turn one. Vulcans colonise both of them!
Yes, that’s a possible thing – for two Ascendancy. (As long as there isn’t an unrevealed Exploration card in either place.)
I haven’t played with the Borg before (well I’ve only played once before) but there seems a lot of luck in that the Borg disproportionately disadvantage some players and barely affect others? Maybe that’s not how it will pan out and I’ll confess I stopped exploring to avoid this… I’ll be interested to see how we all feel after the game.
If they’re there from the start, then (at least under the UCR ruleset) they walk all over whoever finds them first. I’m still not sure I have a good answer for this.
The last game we played here was the first time I’d played with them, and we used a very conservative method to make sure they didn’t turn up early. By the time they did turn up a couple of Romulan fleets was all that was needed to trivially destroy a Borg Cube with minimal losses.
The advancement projects that you can get after blowing one up looked pretty powerful, although I’ve only seen about 3 (and haven’t looked in the appendix at the others).
So it seems that if they turn up early they are terrifying but later on they might actually be beneficial to find and destroy for upgrades?
I suppose it feels like a thing that really helps players that are already ahead - the tech bonus for easy destruction of Borg cubes feels like a good example of that - whereas perhaps a more fun expansion would be one that makes it a little harder for those already ahead. I’m not sure how that would work, though, but I’m not a game designer. Maybe the Borg could target those with highest total production, or highest ascendancy, or something? A bit of a late-game leveller. But I’m just spitballing (I don’t really know what this phrase means but I’ve heard it in similar situations).
Okay. Are we ready to start a new game?
I’m prepared to try the next one blind (though it’ll mean no actual game thread, everything happening in PM). Preferences for either?