RogerBW's Blog

More Star Trek Ascendancy 20 November 2021

Second of what I hope will be an ongoing revived series of face-to-face games.

I think I'm getting the hang of the setup: starting (generic) resources at each player seat, piles of faction-specific bits in the middle of the table. We got a little crowded, but I think it worked. (In an ideal world, I'd have 40 inches diameter of circular playing surface, with more space outside that for the player areas… that's slightly wider than the table I have.)

For the first time at once of these events, everyone had played before, though it had been a while for some of us. Factions were Cardassian (me), Romulan, Federation, Ferengi and Vulcan. (And I think I've now played every faction in the game.)

This was a remarkably low-conflict game. We all expanded, built resources, and perhaps didn't keep a very close eye on what others were up to.

(Enhanced colour with "dynamic range optimisation" mode on the camera.)

In the end I caused the only battles, rampaging out to snabble some of my bonus Culture points for successful planetary invasions – but came up one Culture short as the Romulans, who'd been hoarding the stuff, jumped from 3 to 5 Ascendancy to pull off the win.

I'm still loving this game. I'm not sure exactly why it should work so well for me when e.g. Twilight Imperium left me relatively cold, but everything seems to mesh well, and there's a lot to do that isn't sending starships to ravage your enemies.

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  1. Posted by J Michael Cule at 11:42am on 20 November 2021

    I certainly wasn't paying attention to what you were up to. Otherwise my fleet would have been covering my system closest to you rather than gadding off for science points. You just did nothing until the end.

    The fact that the Romulans pipped us both (I too would have reached five Ascendancy in the next turn) sort of softens the blow. A very, very little.

    I do find the enclosed space of the game a little thematically weird but I suppose it has to be.

  2. Posted by RogerBW at 02:21pm on 20 November 2021

    Everybody expects the Cardassians to be blundering about invading everywhere. So naturally one has to subvert that expectation. (Similarly the Klingons can do quite well at building up resources without fighting everyone they meet.) I think that may be one of the reasons I like it, because you have more options than the obvious choice.

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