[PBEM] Stellar Languish

[Tamas]

Russian base Mir has been built in Earth orbit, we are now Turn 2.

Off to Grumbler for the Build phase.

It is, by the way, usual to see a flurry of building activity early on and then to run out of money for the later part of a decade. Maybe at a later stage it is worthwhile to reserve money and see what you'll most need to spend it on, but I don't think there's much point holding off this early.

[Habbaku]

Habs let me know if you want to build that orbital base at Earth and I'll set it up, then we launch Turn 2 with Grumbler's Build Phase.

Everyone ok to commit to a 24 hours turnaround from Turn 2?

Works for me, yeah.

[celedhring]

Can't promise 24h, stuff sometimes does happen. But I'll take my turns quickly.

[grumbler]

My builds are done, I believe japan builds next.

[Tamas]

Also, to reflect on what Berkut was writing on Discord: since we are still getting used to Vassal, and as more stuff will be actually happening with the new units being built, please make sure to post a summary here of what your move was.

[celedhring]

Japan tries to bounce back from its setbacks and spends the entirety of its space program budget planning 3 uncrewed and 1 crewed mission.

[crazy canuck]

Do I need to be on discord?  Why can't we just post everything here?

[Habbaku]

Do I need to be on discord?  Why can't we just post everything here?

Same question. I don't mind using Discord for quick rules Q&A, but not posting the turns here is really weird.

[Tamas]

Yeah we need to keep this thread as the official way to communicate. Discord is great to ask rule questions when doing your turn, chatting away etc. but every turn should be posted here.

Now, with Celed done, we need to hold on a bit as some moves might have been lost in the shuffle. I'll review the replays in a couple of hours and try to fix things.

[crazy canuck]

I admire your patience with us Tamas 

[Berkut]

I am really liking this game.

The only issue I have with it (or maybe concern is a better word since I don't really know yet) is that it feels like it might be 7 parallel solitaire games...

[celedhring]

There seems to be a decent amount of player interaction later on, with space battles, blockades and shit.

[Tamas]

I am really liking this game.

The only issue I have with it (or maybe concern is a better word since I don't really know yet) is that it feels like it might be 7 parallel solitaire games...

It's a legit concern to some degree, however, in my experience of solo-testing it with up to 4 sides is that the wide open spaces become less so with each turn. Depletions during explorations will occur and the prime (easily reachable and high yield-low risk) exploration spots will become less and less feasible as their explore value decreases.

Industrial exploitation is much more limited especially with early and mid-game tech, and players flocking to the same lucrative resource deposits can find their efficiency decreased by initiative order, etc.

Competition is more indirect I think that's a fair comment, but it's there. And if we do manage to progress this, I'll be interested to see how much use we give of war and diplomacy. That's the part you can never properly simulate in a solo test.

[Tamas]

There seems to be a decent amount of player interaction later on, with space battles, blockades and shit.

Yeah, I would expect so. What I really liked in my solo plays is seeing this sort of traditional 4X style game flow starting to play out within the solar system - Wide open spaces at start then players increasingly start to brush up against each other, and then really be in each others' way.

[Berkut]

I had read some comment about how China is and should be very agressive and blockade and such, to deny VPs to others.

Which is fine...but I don't see how it helps China to deny VPs to someone else in a 7 player game.