So … after exploring the contracts it is time to try the “full” module 4. Since I want to get into the weeds, this is going to use the 4G4 victory conditions, requiring the launch of a desperation starshot (or a ton of fuel for a regular one). I seriously doubt I’ll get even a marginal victory, but let’s see.

Setup — I (randomly) get green and decide to use one of the promo ground crew. I pick Heloicentricity, which has the power that (if the crew is present) the rocket can use a 2nd movement, but coasting only. Subtle but powerful (an opponent had it in our game last weekend). Particularly if you have to go through a Hohmann intersection you can burn, stop, then coast … for a free ballerina (at the end of a turn).

T1.1 — These patents … exist. There’s a De Laval Nozzle and matching reactor that gives a 7-thrust/4-fuel consumption 1-Mass rocket. Great thrust, bad fuel consumption. There’s also the “Holmes” contract with a pretty decent payout …. but getting there would be five burns. That’s …. break-even ish, but then my rocket is out of the way. A robonaut with thruster is always a fine start, but the supports don’t line up. I fundraise (putting the delegate in Authority, so I can lobby to cancel an event) and make Subsidized Research the law (which I called Research Grants in my last game’s post). I don’t take a contract¹ (10Aq).

T1.2 — There is an inspiration event …. do I want to allow it? Yes. None of the prior patents are inspiring confidence. This also cycles all three contracts, and I might get a solar sail. Also, I don’t want to lobby right now, in case I have to cancel a budget cut (or something as bad) later on.

I get lucky. I take the Monatomic Plug Nozzle (thruster) and Rubbia Thin Film Fission Hohlraum (reactor). Between the two of them I’ve got a 4 Thrust, 1.5 Fuel Consumption 1Mass rocket. Yes, it needs a radiator, but I could just afterburn each turn. I take them (revealing the Photon Kite Sail and Lyman Alpha reactor). And as for the contracts…

T1.3 — I fundraise (11 Aq) and place the delegate and law in Unity to take the Solar Observation contract (26 Aq). The clock marker goes on 1.9 and I have to get to Icarus.

But I already have enough rocket to get there; the advance covers costs nicely.

T1.4 — Budget cuts, but I lobby (for free, since the law is Unity) and change it to inspiration. I boost my rocket and contract payload (23 Aqua). I need 11 Fuel Tanks (leaving 12 Aq). Actually that might be a touch short for the return trip, but I can reboost the rocket and leave the crew near LEO if necessary. And well …. I’m not planning on paying for FINAO on the way back … The rocket (which has to afterburn) goes from the cycler to L1 to L45s to the Hohman..

T1.5 — I fundraise Authority (so I can cancel the next bad event) (13 Aqua) but switch Subsidized Research as the active law. The rocket afterburns again and goes four burns² towards Icarus.

T1.6 — (Glitch, no effect). The Rocket has to wait for the red season (Icarus is synodic) and I take the Phase Locked Diode Laser (3-Raygun Robonaut, “C” Spectral, 1 mass, 3 Rad-Hard, Requires “e” generator) and the AMTEC Thermoelectric generator (Both “e” and “pulse,” 1M, 3 Rad Hard, “C” Spectral, requires wave reactor and a therm).

T1.7 — I afterburn (for the therm), pay FINAO (9 Aq) to deal with the rapid spin, and land on Icarus. Contract fulfilled, Glory Chit claimed, I turned a 3 Aq profit, plus I get the Shielded benefit (-2 on all flare/CME rolls). Mission control says “Backslaps for everyone!” Back home, I take the Rankin MHD (“e”, 0M, 4RH, Wave/Bomb + 2 Therms Required, “M”) mainly because I want the Mo/Li Heat Pump Radiator. For my next mission I’ll want a bit more efficiency, and the 1M/2R-H for two therms is much more acceptable now that I’m shielded.

T1.8 — (Glitch, no effect). Failure is now an option when leaving Icarus … and there are no backslaps as the die shows a ‘1’. Mission control pauses for a somber moment before quietly shifting that glory chit back to the mat. My hand is now full, so an unscheduled boost takes the rocket, robonaut and AMTEC generator (4 mass, so 5Aq left) to LEO.

T1.9 — Take the Froth Flotation refinery (3M, 5R-H, “D”, requires “e” generator) and the Photon Tether Rectenna generator (“e”, 2M, 2R-H, “V”, modifies thrust).

T1.10 — (Solar flare, but no rocket). Now that I’ve got a robonaut and refinery, it’s time to glance at the contracts … and yup, “Hubris” fits the bill. My next trip is to (say it together) Hertha, which has an unclaimed Glory Chit. So … I fundraise (6Aq) into individuality and make that the law, take the Hubris contract and it’s 8 Aqua advance (14 Aq), set the clock at 2.5.

Boosting is now a free action, so I send up the refinery and Hubris (6 Mass, so 8 Aq left) and add 5 FTs (3Aq) and go to the cycler (using 2FT, leaving 3FT for next turn). With my shielding I’ll be fine … once the season changes. No hurry.

T1.11 — With a thrust of 2 and -2 shielding, even a dr of six means my 2 rad-hard stuff is fine, so I can go to the purple pivot and then coast to the next pivot with my crew thruster (using the faction privilege), this finishes my fuel. I sell the Photon Tether but apparently forgot to take the money, so I’m at 3 Aq³!

T1.12 — (Inspiration). Land on Hertha, (fulfilling the contract, getting me Bailouts), Get the Ceres glory and (say it together) Bust Hertha. (I mean, I expect to bust it when I have a buggy. Asking a raygun to find water on the first try is a big ask).

End of Cycle Thoughts — I have 7 VP, two fulfilled contracts with nice abilities, and a rocket that’s heavy but fuel efficient. I think my best bet is Hygiea (as in last game), as both my robonaut and generator are spectral class “C” so if/when I get that I can at least save a bunch of boost cost (since I don’t need the generator to fly). But with a 3 ISRU I won’t be able to luck into Frederika (etc) as well.

T2.1 — Site refuel on Hertha and fly (via Jupiter-Sol L1) to the Hohmann near Hygiea and (just because I can) coast to the Barycenter.

T2.2 — (Pad Explosion, N/A) — Mission control holds their breath as the die spins and lands on ‘5’. Claim it quickly before anyone questions it.

T2.3 — Land on Hygiea and industrialize (and colonize)⁴.

T2.4 — (Inspiration) Sell the Rankine MHD (6 Aq) …. and notice that a good contract has arrived.

T2.5 — Fundraise (7Aq ), make Unity the law so that I can take the Hexapod Explorer contract (go to a size 2+ unexplored site). I’ll just stop at one on my way to Hygiea. (15 Aqua, timer at 2.10).

T2.6 — (Inspiration) Boost (as an operation) and fuel, leaving 4 Aq and head to Hygiae (with bonus coast get to the pivot just outside).

T2.7 — ET Produce my robonaut (now the Lorentz-Propelled Microprobe, 0M, 3-ISRU Raygun, 3R-H with one re-roll per prospecting op) at Hygiea. The rocket lands at Frederika, which fulfills the contract. That’s another 2VP and I get the insight ability (before researching, I can move one card from the top of a stack to the bottom).

T2.8 — (Inspiration, again). The rocket goes to Hygiea and I ET produce the JTEC H₂ Thermoelectric generator (1M, 4RH, counts as both types, solar modifier). Attach the parts to the rocket.

T2.9 — Site refuel and it’s off towards the Jovian Trojans!

T2.10 — The rocket is moving and I fundraise and switch back to Subsidized research. (5 Aq)

T2.11 — The rocket is still moving and I decide to grab a patent or two. Before choosing I insight the top card off the Freighter deck and get the Rotary Dirt Launcher. It’s an Any/C, which is good enough for me. I take it. (I can’t promote it yet, because I don’t have any augmented colonists … but I’ve got some parts, I just haven’t tracked them yet. Need a colonist…)

T2.12 — Anarchy is here and I lose a delegate in Unity. I prospect Achilles and bust. But ha! I get a re-roll. Bust.

T3.1 — I zip over to Hektor and the Skamandrios Moonlet (well, adjacent. You can raygun prospect through Hazards). I decide to prospect both … which costs me a re-roll. I fail both … and the re-roll? Fail again.

T3.2 — More Anarchy (nobody this time) and now it’s Icarion’s turn … bust and bust again. Granted these aren’t huge sites, but I’ve now failed rolls needing 3/2/2/3/3/1/1/1. That’s a lot of failed rolls. My only success was barely finding water on Hygiae, rolling a ‘5’.

Mission Control requests a pause so that they can (plan the next mission / shift the blame).

A New Day!

It’s a new day at Mission Control. I mean, out in space its the same day, no sunrise or sunset out in the Jovian Belt after another frustrating year. But the clock on the control board says it’s a new day and Mission Control has contemplated the future. We’d still like to find a “D” site, so we can have an ET Robonaut and Refinery (and not have to decomission our rocket), which narrows the prospects. But after contemplating the Jovians Trojans in the Trojan camp our eyes turn to the moons of Saturn.

Hyperion is four burns away and the rocket has exactly four burns worth of fuel. With the crew ability, some of the pivots can be passed in a single turn. Yes, there is a hazard, but we’ll look past that. In fact, the plan is practically set in stone when a Jr. Engineer points out that we have exactly four burns of fuel …. if we take them in pairs. That’s because we have six steps and a fuel consumption of 1.5. If we do the burns 2 & 2, that’s six. If we do them 1 and 3 that’s (due to rounding) 2 + 5 … 7 fuel tanks.

Mission Control — “Screw it, we’ll go to Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 1.”

Everyone — “What ?”

Jr. Engineer — “But that’s smaller and hazardous … We could just pick up a bit more fuel on Icarion …”

Mission Control — “What part of ‘We’ll go to Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 1‘ did you not understand?” (Glares as the Jr. Engineer scurries away).⁵

In good news, accounting also found the 3 Aq that “we” lost earlier, so now the mission has 8 Aq.

T3.3 — The rocket coasts towards CSW1 as I grab (via Subsidized research) our old friends the Collimator Bernal and H2-O2 Fuel Cell.

T3.4 — There are budget cuts, but not for us (thanks to our earlier contract). The rocket coasts a bit closer and I ET Produce the Rotary Dirt Launcher freighter at Hygiea … we don’t have the funds to set up the Bernal, so we’ll need to produce and sell … and the rocket is well out of place.

T3.5 — (Remotely) Prospect CSW1. Mission control awaits anxiously but finally there is Joy in Mudsville, as the roll is a ‘1’.

T3.6 — (Inspiration) FINAO the hazard to land (5Aq) and industrialize CSW1. The rocket and crew will be there a while. The new patents have nothing truly useful (like a ‘D’ patent) but I can wait, I’ve got other things to do…. the next few turns happen quickly, as finally there is a plan. Arguably I could have done this earlier, but the thought of decommissioning the generator prior to using for industrialization was sickening.

T3.7/3.8 — ET Produce the Lorentz-Propelled Microprobe and Microbial Fuel Cells on Hygiea and send them towards earth on the freighter. (There’s also a solar flare, but prior to launch).

T3.9/3.10 — I’ve got some spare operations while I wait for the freighter to make it to LEO, so …. ET Produce Femtochemicals and site-refuel at CSW1 as the Freighter keeps going…there is another inspiration, but still nothing that would help.

T3.11 — Fundraise (6Aq) and switch the law to Freedom (so I can sell two items).

T3.12 — The freighter has passed through the Van Allen belt safely (dr=1) and so I sell both the ET produced items (22Aq).

T4.1 — Boost the Collimator Bernal and H2-02 (which is the white side of the just sold Microbial Fuel Cells) and provide six fuel tanks (2 Aq left!) and they (and the freighter) head to the cycler and rad belt.

T4.2 — (Pad Explosion, N/A) The Bernal (and freighter) go L4s and I anchor the Collimator Bernal as my Home Bernal (decommissioning the H2-O2 Fuel Cells).

This feels terribly late to get a Bernal … but in my last game I didn’t get my first home Bernal until T4.7. I’m disappointed because a decent roll in the Jovian Trojans would’ve sped this up a season, possibly two (and saved 4 Aq on hazards … with another 4 to come!). I’m going to need the Bernal income to get out of CSW1 safely …. also, I finally can exomigrate a colonist.

Stop and take pause.

For augmentations, I have a jar, triangle and battery augmentations available. Nothing terribly useful (but it requires two augmentations to promote my freighter, which is a huge jump in load limit). The top colonist is Malcom (who gets a bonus implant action⁶) … but I also have a BEO Colony; so I could exomigrate from the Spaceborn deck.

That top card is Nano-3D Printers …. so if I took that I’d get a robot I can’t build (since I don’t have an M factory) and a random spaceborn human, plus possibly a better robot (if the 2nd card is a robot). Is that likely to be better than Malcolm? I have no idea … do I need to high-roll so as to catch up? Possibly.

Mission Control (so used to the feelings of hopelessness from the last decade) decides to pause and take stock ….

1. I should have cycled the deck that matches the law, just in case the new contract was something I’d want. ︎
2. A mistake. With weight it had a Net Thrust less than four. But as I paused anyway I could have gone 2 then 2, only spending one more FT for an extra afterburn… ︎
3. At least it’s nice to see that not all of my mistakes are in my favor. My notes went to a new piece of paper, which is why I didn’t notice until typing this up. ︎
4. As a relatively new M0 player (as compared to M12), I forgot that I can add a delegate to the crew’s faction when I colonize … so, I didn’t. ︎
5. As is usually the case, the Jr. Engineer was correct and management was wrong. In their defense, Management was on tilt and possibly drunk. ︎
6. As an industrialist ︎

Previously —  1st Cycle, 2nd Cycle, 3rd and 4th Cycle, 5th Cycle

T6.1 — I promote the Climate Control Bernal at Titan. For exomigration I get Smart Pets and Microgravity Pantrophists. I stare at those for a bit and then realize I can make the Titan to Home Bernal trip in one year¹, so I fly home to convert my Saturn Glory chit and also pick up the colonists.

T6.2 — I fundraise for Freedom and took the Comet Adventures contract, which I can fulfill this turn (thanks to TW thrusters being able to get to Synodic comets out of season). The trip back would have taken two turns anyway (because the Titan flyby is too far to reach, where as coming in you just hit the Jupiter flyby, which gives you the free burns you need). So I swing by Comet Encka and pay the FINAO.

T6.3 — While the rocket flies (again paying FINAO) back I ET produce Smart Pets (chucking Lloyd’s Salvage) at the Titan Bernal.

T6.4 — I prospect Kraken Mare. (There’s also an inspiration event, but it no longer matters).

T6.5 — Using Lab Promotion² I promote Smart Pets to Creeper Neogen.

T6.6 — I have ~35 Aqua, so I pay 20 (+4 FINAO) to complete the Uplift Future to emancipate the robots (I have the Pantrophists there as well).³ This causes the War of Independence, but I’ve timed it so that the war will end next turn. (The first time I triggered this, I had only my printed rules which says it doesn’t end! Ugh. But the living rules said it ends at the next season changeover).

Things are getting done. I could mini-max, but I decide to simply industrialize Sedna for the H-factory and the Exoplanet Hunt Future, which can be done relatively quickly. I have to ET produce the robo and refinery again and pick them up (and bring the freighter along), but that’s 2 turns, then about 8 turns to make it to Sedna. (I have plenty of fuel, thanks to the free mining off Titan). I might be able to squeak out more points some other way, but most of my other Futures would be trickier for roughly the same points.

And … that’s it. I think my score is 21 (pieces) + 45 (Factories) + 11 (Dirtsides) + 6 (Colonies) + 24 (Futures) + 7 (Glory) + 6 (Contracts) so 120 VP.

Thoughts on Contracts — Well, they are relatively accessible and interesting. I’d be willing to play them in an M0 or M012 game (which are what we play locally …). I will likely try a solo game with all of M0124, once I read the rules a few more times.

1. I think. I doublechecked it. ︎
2. (1A5b) “A Promoted and Anchored Bernal is always a valid promotion colony for Colonist, Freighter, and GW thruster cards.” ︎
3. To satisfy 1D1a “In all Futures, both a Human (either Crew or Human Colonist) and the card listing the Future must be Operational and Colocated …” ︎

Previously — 1st Cycle, 2nd Cycle, 3rd and 4th Cycle.

Since I’d previously decided I was going to swap out Bernals, I started aiming for that.

T5.1 — I transferred the Microbial Fuel Cell from the Freighter to the Rocket, which flew to the Home Bernal (at L5s) and Research Grants to get the Collimator Bernal, which happened to be on top. It’s … pretty good. I could use the powersat privilege (with the Pulsed-Inductive thruster, which admittedly is about to be replaced) but in any case, it has a useful power. Because I have a home Bernal and the House of Saud, I also get +1 Aq and +1 Isotope for free (the former at the bank, the latter on Frederika). As is typical, at this point Aqua isn’t much of a problem, so I’ll just note the gains from those.

Thanks to the “Bernals Building Bernals” rule (2A7c), I don’t have to boost it, it just is in L5s … unanchored.

T5.2 — Anarchy hits and I lose a delegate in freedom. Oh No! Anyway… (9Aq, 4 iso). After getting my “free” aqua and iso, I unanchor the Climate Control Bernal. The House of Saud goes back to the deck. As my operation I then anchor the Collimator Bernal (using the Microbial Fuel Cell generator) and exomigrate the Biomechs … who are also Miners. They hop over to the rocket, which now also will tow the Climate Control Bernal out to Hygiea … and beyond. They make part of the trip this turn (using some water to make sure we can pay the two burns). (7Aq)

T5.3 — The rocket makes it to Frederika, so I can use the Biomechs for another isotope site refuel (8Aq, 5 iso) and I swap out the Pulsed Inductive thruster for the CrossFire H-B Focus Fusion.

(Incidentally, the thought occurs to me that much of Module 4’s fun is in the promotion rules, in that you need augmented colonists to promote. That would provide a real check on progress. Perhaps next game). But now I am left wondering what to do …. and in fact I paused for 30+ minutes pondering it (and making lunch). The Climate Control Bernal (which I have with me) wants a cloud to promote and the Thruster future wants an promoted anchored Bernal an H-site (which might be nice) and maybe the Saturn Aerostat is an option. After some thought I think that Titan is a decent place to promote.

For starters, its two turns away (with my TW thruster having 10-12 Net Thrust after spending a fuel, depending on how much its carrying), which makes it convenient enough.

Titan is also convenient because Ontario Lacus (the 9D Plant/Cloud site) will also let me refuel for further out, should I decide to go for Sedna (which is my Freighter’s Future). I don’t have a spare generator to anchor the Bernal (or so I think…) because you can’t use a solar power generator at Jupiter or Beyond, and I’m not sure I can use it for my TW thruster and can’t find the rule. But perhaps one will show up in the patent deck before I have to run back …. and if not, I’ll have to run back for the robo/refinery to get Kraken Mare (the 9V submarine/cloud).¹

With the Crossfire H-B … I could also fulfill the “four flybys in a turn” contract, and probably some others … but I don’t see as to what that gets me, apart from a few VP. So…. To Titan!

But I’ve already moved my rocket and swapped, so I sell the Rankine MHD (11 Aq) and call it a year.

T5.4 — I Regime Change Budget Cuts to Inspiration, in hopes of a D or V generator. I get one, but it’s also solar powered. I stie refuel, convert all the isotopes to fuel, and load the Biomechs and then my rocket takes the red line in Fig 5.1 and I sell the Nuclear Drill (+1 for the bank, -1 for the lobbying, +3 for selling = 14 Aq).

T5.5 — I go to LTO (green line) and park the Bernal there, and fundraise a delegate into Authority, so I can lobby the next event. (16 Aq).

T5.6 — The event is inspiration but no useful generator shows up. I land on Ontario Lacus and prospect (and get the Saturn zone glory). (18Aq)

T5.7 — … and industrialize, taking a cube from unity (20Aq). Since the Biomechs are here, I can site refuel an isotope as well.

T5.8, 5.9, 5.10 — Seeing as how there is no generator in the patent deck, I take the rocket back to Hygiea (and ET produce two things there) and then Frederika (and ET produce one thing there), grabbing any free site-refueling Isos when available (as the Biomechs are travelling with me, so I’m basically breaking even or better each trip). I’ve also been moving the Freighter to Frederika, seeing as how I have no M-patents of note.

T5.11 — I leave Frederika fully loaded and I’ve finally found noticed that rule 2A5c (which states you can’t use Solar power for anchoring Bernal supports in Jupiter or Beyond) has a second sentence that says you can if you have powersat … which I do. I could have grabbed any solar generator and saved a trip … but I needed to come back for the Nanobots anyway (and Freighter?), so I don’t think it’s a big loss. I sell the Pulsed-Inductive thruster. Man, the memories. (27 Aqua).

T5.12 — I convert Anarchy to inspiration (just to see if there are better patents … nope) and then Anchor the Bernal in Low Titan Orbit. With two bernals I get a second colonist so Lloyd’s Salvage arrives (at my Home Bernal). I transfer the Biomechs to the Climate Control Bernal, and they use their site refuel from the Bernal (as per 2C1a) and transfer the isotope to the rocket. (28 Aqua)

At this point I’m at 19 Base VP + 26 for Factories + 8 Dirtside + 4 Colonist pts + 4 Glory + 2 Contracts for 63 points. Now I need to see what futures (if any) I should go for … and the CC Bernal is promotable….

(I should have carried the Freighter out as cargo out to Saturn, in case I decide to go for the Aerostat + Elevator it will be quite useful. Oh well).

1. The 8C Aerostat with zero hydration is more than I can industrialize, at least now. ︎

Prior Solar Cycle — First Cycle, Second Cycle.

When last we left, I’d managed to just industrialize Hygiea (after getting Frederika a few years prior), and acquired patents so that I perform my next industrialization without crippling my rocket. After a rebuilding cycle.

T3.1 — Due to “Solar Cycle Daylight Savings,” we spring forward and skip this turn¹.

T3.2 — Glitch event, but no effect. I ET produce Microbial Fuel Cells (the back of the H2-02 Fuel Cell) on Hygiea and attach it to my rocket. This gives me +1 Net thrust (in addition to making the rocket actually work), but it’s still modified by solar zone.

T3.3 — I ET produce Nanobots and attach it to the rocket.

I took a while to decide if I wanted to upgrade my thruster from the Pulsed-Inductive to the Dual Stage 4-Grid. (Card Reference). The DS4G is much more fuel efficient (and I can live with changing generator types, as the Microbial Fuel Cells count as either). And the DS4G gets a ballerina pivot … but the loss of Net Thrust is crippling. Now that I have some sites, I can refuel fairly quickly. So I decide to leave the thruster alone.

T3.4 — Another non-Glitch, and the Rocket makes a quick (zero burn) jaunt from Hygiea to Frederika to pick up the Femtochemicals that I ET produce this turn. The rocket is rebuilt.

T3.5 — I site refuel as my operation (pictured above after) and take off, but just to the nearby Hohmann pivot for the Hygiea family. It’s a slow trip, but I can’t save time by factory-assisting with the P-I (Frederika is a colony so there is no hazard roll) and paying two burns to shave off a turn to my planned trip to Lutetia. My Net Thrust is 4 (base) +1 (Support) -2 (Ceres Zone Solar Modification) -1 (Weight) = 2 … so even if I paid to burn through the pivot I’d have to stop prior to the burn on the yellow line outside Lutetia.

(I’m using hf4map.com to grab screen snippets. Lutetia is actual size 4, 1 Hydration)

T3.6 — The “Safe events” keep on coming, as I can ignore Budget Cuts thanks to the Hubris contract I fulfilled in the first cycle. I go through the burn towards Lutetia and stop at the pivot right outside (on the yellow line). I sell the Neutral Beam from my hand for 3 Aqua … (bringing me to 3).

T3.7 — I prospect Lutetia, needing the buggy reroll to get it on the second chance. Thanks to the ROSCOSMOS ability, I get a 4th Aqua.

Then, an inspiration event brings new patents to life!

T3.8 — The Lofstrom Loop Bernal is interesting …. non-doubled boost cost if it’s a home Bernal is nice.² But of more interest is the Fission-heated Steam / Fission GCR Freighter. If I build it on Lutetia and promote it (it’s an Any/M) then it can takeoff and land on larger sites.

Or so I think at the time … but is this another rule I messed up? (This time via careless reading). The purple side says “Your Mobile Factories can liftoff/land on Sites less than size six” … it doesn’t say your freighter can. But digging up an old rules thread and looking at the rulebook, I think maybe it can. (In any case, I played that it can for this game).

In any case, I decide to go for the (possibly cheat-y) Freighter and sell my Hall Effect Thruster (7 Aq) to get under the academia limit.

T3.9 — I research grant the Fission-heated Steam Freighter before it (potentially) disappears.

T3.10 — The event is a pad explosion, which is fine (Nothing is in LEO). Having now grabbed the freighter, I industrialize Lutetia (but do not make it a colony). (8 Aqua). The rocket takes off to make the trip back to the Hygiea family to replace the robonaut/refinery.

T3.11 — I ET Produce the freighter (at Lutetia).

T3.12 — Another Pad explosion (N/A) and I ET produce Nanobots as the rocket arrives and picks it up.

At the end of the cycle I have 13 VP in wood/plastic, 24 VP in factories, 3 VP in glory chits and 2VP in contracts for 42 VP. This was a pretty fast cycle (mostly I ET built a replacement rocket) so I keep going.

Solar Cycle 4

T4.1 — The rocket hops to Frederika as I ET produce Femtochemicals and re-attach. Just In Time Production!

T4.2 — The event is anarchy (which I can’t stop because I have no delegates in Authority) but the purge roll doesn’t cost me a delegate. I promote the Freighter to purple side. The rocket heads for LEO … I could start another factory but “Tick-tock, it’s Bernal O’Clock.” These item(s) are destined for the market to fund the boost cost.

T4.3 — Any Bernal I need is going to need a generator, so I ET produce the Superconducting Adductor (on back of the Flywheel Compulsator that I’ve had for a while) on Lutetia and load it onto the freighter and start moving it towards the L5s Home Bernal site. Is it going to be the Lofstrom Loop?

T4.4 — No, it will not. Inspiration hits. The replacement is the L1 Climate Control Bernal which always makes you first player (which seems … not great even in no solitaire games). The rocket has arrived at LEO and I sell Femtochemicals to get to 16 Aqua.

T4.5 — I take the L1 Climate Control Bernal. (I do not take a support generator, as the freighter is moving another generator into place and that would put me over hand limit in case something important shows up).

T4.6 — I boost the Bernal (-10Aq) and attach it as cargo to my rocket. I need to convert 2 more Aq to fuel to get the Bernal to L5s (once I anchor it, it will be my bank and I can refuel more). I am at 4 Aqua. It’s a quick jaunt over … even at this thrust I’m safe from radiation.

T4.7 — Everything is now in Location, so a few cargo transfers and the L1 Climate Control Bernal is an operational home Bernal. Honestly, I’m not sure this is the best place for it, but given that the yellow line leads to all three of my factories, it seems reasonable. My first colonist is the House of Saud. I’m cube locked, but I can disband a cube in Equality and place it in Authority. There’s a big tie at one, so I leave Research Grants as the active law. But now I have the option of stopping a bad event.

T4.8 — There’s a glitch, but my freighter is co-located with a human (at the Bernal and Rocket, which has crew) so no problem. I start getting that sweet, sweet Home Bernal Income, but convert 2 Aqua to fuel so my rocket can skedaddle, while carrying the House of Saud. (3 Aq). I ET produce Femtochemicals again.

T4.9 — The rocket picks up the chemicals and drops the House of Saud at Frederika. Since H.o.S. is a miner, I get a free site-refuel to top off the tank. As my (non-free) action, I ET produce the Superconducting Adductor and plan to load it onto the freighter (once it gets back to Lutetia next turn). I’m going to have the rocket and freighter meet to swap out generators … the solar modifiers are now a real problem in going further out. (4 Aqua, free income)

T4.10 — There’s a flare, its fine, all my rad-hardness makes it safe at this distance. Also, the inspiration roll that gave me the new Bernal also brought the Dense Plasma H-B Focus Fusion / Crossfire H-B Focus Fusion GW/TW Thruster. Which happens to be D/D. So I take it via research grants (again passing on support³). (5Aq)

T4.11 — I produce the H-B Focus Fusion (black side) at Frederika and since House of Saud is there, I get a free site refuel, so that’s one isotope per turn. (6Aq, 1 Iso)

T4.12 — On Frederika, I promote to the Crossfire H-B Focus Fusion as the Freighter and Rocket meet near Lutetia to swap out generators. I lose +1 Net thrust, but since I’m usually the Ceres zone (and plan on going further out) the -2 (or worse) solar modifier I’m getting rid of is gone, so a net increase. (7 Aq, 2 Iso)

If I’ve done my math correctly⁴ I’m at 15 Wood + 2 Colony points (Bernal) + 24 Factory points (3×8) + 6 Dirtside (Home Bernal) + 3 Glory + 2 Contracts = 52. I might have been able to do a bit more these cycles … I lucked into a convenient GW/TW thruster … as compared to that, my Bernal is … income and points. For Cycle 5 I need to decide where my first non-home bernal is going to be … I haven’t checked what is on-deck; I might very well get my second Bernal boosted, de-anchor the L1 and re-anchor the second as a home bernal, then tow it to a suitable site (The L1’s promoted side gives bonus VPs for dirtsides …coupled with no value as a home Bernal, that seems reasonable as the first one to head out).

If I do that early I should have enough fuel to swap out thrusters and burn, baby, burn to wherever.

1. And also because I accidentally took 13 turns in the prior solar cycle. ︎
2. Module 4 also makes this an Epic Hazard roll to anchor … I’m not sure if I should use that rule, as I’m only playing with contracts. But it the point gets mooted before it matters. ︎
3. Apart from being free (or cheaper), Research Grants ability to let you skip taking support is huge. ︎
4. And that seems charitable ︎

Previously …. in which our hero babysat a Trillionaire … in Space!

T2.1 — After thinking about it, I decide to stop at the Nysa Family Lagrange point so that I can prospect both Hertha and Chaucer. (That doesn’t make it right, though. Probably it costs me a turn, but on the off chance I get Chaucer when I miss Hertha, I’m way ahead). Unsurprisingly, I bust both sites.

T2.2 — It’s anarchy time. Is it anarchy time? I decide no and lobby for Regime Change, because those patents pictured above aren’t doing it for me. (Is Dumbo the worst card in the game?¹) . This brings me to 0 Aqua. The rocket lands on Hertha (picking up the Ceres Glory chit) and refuels.

T2.3 — In looking over the rocket and pathing I finally notice my prior Dry Mass Calculation was wrong, which means I should have spent 6 Aq for fuel (not 5) to get to Hertha (see FN on T1.12 in the prior article). Which means I couldn’t have paid for anarchy, etc. I decide not to retcon everything, but when I Fundraise (to be able to Regime Change again) I pay the water back to cover my “loan,” so I’m still at 0 Aqua. Meanwhile the rocket can get to the Sol-Jupiter L1 in a single burn and stop at the Hohmann intersection besides the Hygiea family. So it won’t need another burn to get to Hygiea, so I’m done refueling and go. (But of course, I’m so busy thinking about the earlier mistake that I don’t realize … until just now as I’m writing it up … that I need to use my crew thruster to get off Bertha and I obviously can’t afford to spend that amount of fuel, so it should have taken two turns. I don’t think I can retcon that. Oh well).

T2.4 — Inspiration again, which is fine by me. The Rocket goes to the Hygiea family barycenter and prospects (via Raygun). I get Hygiea and Frederika, which is also 2 Aqua via the ROSCOSMOS ability. Now I take a glance at the new patents.

T2.5 — OK. I have a plan. I still have to deconstruct my generator (stranding my thruster) no matter which way I go, but if I industrialize Frederika, I can ET produce my Froth Flotation refinery (which is a D) as Femtochemistry there, which means a) less mass I need to boost and bring back from earth) and b) it doesn’t require any supports. So I can industrialize Hygiea faster/cheaper. So I industrialize (and colonize) Frederika first, bringing everything but the thruster and crew back to hand. Via ROSCOSMOS ability, I get a 3rd Aqua.

T2.6 — There are budget cuts, but thanks to fulfilling my Hubris contract, I’m immune. I fundraise (4 Aqua) to “Freedom” and make the Free Trade Act Law (which lets you sell 2 at a time in the solo rules).

T2.7 — I sell the Monatomic Plug Nozzle and D-T Tokamok (that I got on T1.12) for 3 each, bringing me to 10 Aq.

T2.8 — There’s a solar flare, but no rocket. So I’m good. I colonize Frederika and decommission the thruster, bringing my crew to LEO and card to hand.² I boost the thruster, refinery and generator back to LEO (Spending 7Aq) and I need 3 burns to Hygiea, so that’s the rest of my Aqua spent. My crew assembles it all and we go! go! go! But because it’s the red season, there’s a 1/6 chance of the generator failing if we hit the rad belt, so we stop at the cycler.

T2.8 — The rocket moves to the radiation belt (so I can ignore the upcoming solar flare, should it happen) and I ET produce Femtochemistry. Did you notice I forgot to move the turn marker after last turn? I didn’t, until just now. So that was 2.8b.

T2.9* — The Rocket follows the purple line to the pivot and I take the MET Steamer and it’s generator support before (for once in my life) I catch myself. Research Grants is not the active law. (OK, I didn’t notice until next turn, but I backed it up and fixed it!) So I fundraise equality and make Research Grants active. (And get 1 Aqua).

T2.10* — There’s an inspiration event, but I still have a delegate in Authority and I lobby (0 Aqua) and cancel it. Now I take the MET Steamer and the Rocket gets to the Hygiea family pivot. The nice thing is that the MET Steamer can be produced on Hygiea as Nanobots, so now I’ll have a close by ET produced Robo+Refinery that don’t require supports³. Ideally they’d be co-located, but that’s pretty close.

2.11* — The rocket picks up the Femtochemistry Refinery and I grab the Nuclear Drill and H2-02 Fuel Cell. The generator can be ET produced on Hygiea, meaning I don’t have to reboost the thruster and fly back out. (I took the drill just because …. I might produce it and sell it).

2.12* — There’s an anarchy roll, and purge roll of 6 costs me a delegate, but is fine. My rocket hops over to Hygiea and I Industrialize. I don’t get the Aqua (anarchy!) but I’m doing well.

(Excepting if course that this was actually Turn 3.1, which I will now correct going forward).

So, at the end of the 2nd Cycle (ahem), things are looking OK.

I now have eight cards in hand, but with three ET productions I can have a rocket ready to prospect and industrialize … and keep flying!

I have 6 VP on the board, 4 VP in delegates, 16 VP in factories, 2VP for contracts and 3 VP in glory for 31 VP (at the end of 3.1). More importantly, once I clear up some space in my hand I can start going for a 1 Hydration site and/or look at what Bernals/TW thrusters are interesting. Boosting the Bernal is my next real expense, so I’ll probably deliver some ET products to LEO. We’ll see. But in the grand scheme (at least for me), this feels “on track” for the the end of the second cycle.

Also — how many mistakes do I make in a normal game and not notice? Sheesh. (I’m not even talking about rules I get wrong, but rules I get right and just … mess something up. I suppose it’s bound to happen in a game as fiddly as this).

1. Yes. I had to double check the black side to make sure it wasn’t one of those “ugly ducklings that turn into a swan.” Timberwind is no prize, either. Five thrust, Three fuel consumption is “meh” compared to many white-sides, even if the mass/rad hardness numbers are good. ︎
2. I could have easily done this on T2.5, but usually its safer to wait until the last minute, in case plans change. Like if I could have ET produced a generator, refueled and flown back with spare fuel … but the patents aren’t there. ︎
3. 0 Mass, 1 ISRU buggy is nothing to sneeze at, either. ︎

As part of my piece meal approach to learning Module 4, I set out a solitaire game using M4’s Solitaire Political Assembly & Contracts. (I originally started to add the new colonists deck, augmentations and the exodus stuff, but then changed my mind). I did in fact play an earlier game with just the Solitaire Political Assembly, and I quite liked that.

My last few solo games had used the “You only see half of each patent deck” and “You start with a faction privilege, but don’t get home Bernal income until you have both a Bernal and a Factory” variants, and I rather liked that, but you could get hosed with some wildly inappropriate die rolls (and patent decks), so I’m using the Mod4 “You start with full patent decks” but keeping the faction privilege. I’m not playing any particular Solitaire game … I’ll just score normally.

I get ROSCOSMOS as the unit, so I start with delegates in Authority and Centrism. Authority is nice (with Regime Change¹), because you can lobby when it’s inactive and the spent delegate counts for both lobbying and Regime Change. So you can cancel a budget cut/flare/pad explosion AND cycle the patents, or keep a really juicy patent on top. Yes, you spend time fundraising, but it’s a good trade.

T1.1 (Solar Cycle.Year) — The Initial Patent Deck is … to put it mildly … not great. I fundraise (10 Aq) and put a delegate into Equality and (since it’s tied) make Research Grants² the active law. Research Grants is quite powerful. I’ve already run a solitaire game (using just the M4 solitaire assembly) and between Research Grants and Regime Change I was able to do quite a bit more³ than I usually do in a 7-Cycle Game. (Some decent early patents and claim rolls also helped).

T1.2 — I roll the anarchy event and so I lobby to invoke Regime Change (9 Aq and lose the Authority Delegate) and let’s see what other patents are available…

These are also not great, but a smidge of a plan is starting to take hold. Since Research Grants are still active I take the Pulsed Inductive Thruster and Radio Isotope Stirling Generator (for free).

T1.3 There are now the Hall Effect Thruster and Flywheel Compulsator cards on top of their decks. I take those, too.

T1.4 Budget cuts, and I can’t over-ride it. Oh well, goodbye Radio Isotope Stirling. But that also means that the contracts haven’t rotated. I fundraise and put a delegate into Individuality (10Aqua) and make Launch Contracts the active law. Not because I love it (Boosting as a free action instead of an operation is … OK), but because that lets me take the “Hubris” contract. I get 8 more aqua but have to deliver some guy and let him be the first to set foot on a site in an unexplored region⁴.

T1.5 Boosting is a free action, but it still costs 8 Aqua to boost the trillionaire, Pulsed Inductive thruster and Flywheel Compulsator into LEO, load up six fuel tanks (so I’m down to 4 Aqua) and send the rocket from LEO to the cycler. (My stuff could make it through the radiation belt, but the trillionaire might not, so I’ll use the crew thruster next turn). I still have an action, so Fundraise to a) put a delegate in Authority and b) switch the law back to Research Grants (and get an aqua, so 5 Aqua).

T1.6 — The event is Budget Cuts, so spend an aqua (4Aq) and lobby Regime Change to switch that to Inspiration.

That Solar Sail would have been lovely a turn or two earlier (although the Trillionaire has 2 mass, so maybe not). I move the rocket into the rad belt (with the crew thruster, so that no roll can hurt my cargo/client). Since I have the Flywheel, that Robonaut and Refinery are both useful. Sure, neither is great, but Beggars can’t be Spacemen. I take the Neutral Beam + Optoelectrick Nuclear Battery.

T1.7 — Rocket take the red path (stopping at the Hohman). I don’t really want a solar flare, so I fundraise back into Authority. (5Aq). (I’m beginning to think that Regime Change is too good, maybe it should just cancel an inspiration or add inspiration to the existing event … not cancel it as well. How do you Regime Change a Coronal Mass Ejection?)⁵

T1.8 — The event is Pad Explosion, so … nothing. The rocket reaches Deimos, so I drop off the trillionaire (you’d think he’d want a return trip), grab the glory chit. I take the Froth Filtration refinery + the In-core Thermionic Generator (which was revealed after T1.6).

T1.9 — The rocket starts the return trip and I sell the In-core … (8Aq)

T1.10 — Inspiration roll, and I sell the Optoelectrick Nuke (11 Aq). Rocket still heads back.

T1.11 — I boost the Robonaut and Refinery (6Aq) as the Rocket returns to LEO, and I get a ticker tape parade.

T1.12 — I fuel up the new rocket (-5 Aqua, leaving 1Aq)⁶ and send it out to (where else?) Hertha.

Yes, it’s heavy (and I’ll need to use the crew thruster to land). Yes, if I don’t bust Hertha⁷ I’ll have to deconstruct every thing and re-boost. But perhaps there will be better patents available by then.

I take the Monatomic Plug Nozzle thruster and D-T Fusion Tokamok reactor. Man those research grants have saved me a ton of money. (If I don’t bust Hertha, I can start trying to ET produce a rocket with the Plug Nozzle …. and if I do, I can sell it).

End of Cycle — By the rules of M4, I can move the seniority disk to where I please, but it seems to me that the best VP will always be the “1 per claim disk” (since all the others are 1VP/something else, which is usually harder to get). I think I’m going to just roll a die and let it get placed randomly, but those VP seem like an area to tinker with.

It’s solitaire, after all.

So — how did the M4 help? Quite a bit. I’ve got 5VP (2 from Hubris, 2 from the Mars Glory Chit. and the rocket on the board). I’ve boosted a much heavier rocket than would be possible without Research Grants and the 8 Aq from the contract. Granted, most of those 8 Aqua went towards fuel tanks, but a) not all of them and b) I’m also immune to Budget Cuts for the rest of the game. (And if I were playing with augmentations, I’d have a chit to implant).

Is the Solitaire Assembly too good? It might be. But I had a fair number of earlier solitaire games where I’d simply get murdered in the first cycle by a bad roll (budget cuts if I didn’t boost, pad explosion if I did) and those are frustrating. It feels like it might be a bit too much control. One option would be to put in an NPC delegate (via d7 roll) on a non-event turn, so the active law wouldn’t be totally under the player’s control. But for now this game, I’ll just leave it.

Second Cycle, coming soon….

1. Remove a delegate to change an event to inspiration, or cancel an inspiration event. ︎
2. So instead of paying 1/card; I can get 1-2 cards free, or 3 cards for two aqua. The cards have to be supports of the main, as normal. ︎
3. Including two promoted Bernals (Ganymede and Dione) and three completed futures (Liberated Robots , Anti-matter research, and Supreme Cult). 130-ish VP, IIRC. ︎
4. And presumably listen to him during the entire flight. ︎
5. Perhaps its cost should go up each solar cycle, stop an early devastating bad roll, but get more expensive. ︎
6. As I was doing Solar Cycle 2 I noticed that my Dry Mass was 11, not 10, so I should have spent 6 Aqua, not 5) ︎
7. And Chaucer, since I have a raygun 2. Although it’s arguable whether I should take the time to try that simply land on Hertha so that I can refuel and go … if I bust. Still considering it. ︎

Played another game of HF4A (with M012 and the Promo Crew Packs). According to BGG, this was my 11th game of HF4A (not counting solitaire) and I have two dozen games of 3rd edition, so I’m not exactly a newbie, but as always there were a few rules questions and outright mistakes. I’m not comfortable with the politics module (M0) at all, but mostly I messed up by not noticing that one of my supports gave a -2 thrust to my rocket¹. Since I (mostly) used a crew rocket to land/take off the real issue was that I was getting to and from my destinations 1-2 turns faster each time, which probably compounded my achievements nicely.

(I also forgot that Factory Assists require a hazard roll, unless you have a colonist, and didn’t wake up to that until about the halfway point of the game).

But mostly I actually kept my nose in the rulebook when it wasn’t my turn, so I think I got most of the (fairly tiny) rules correctly, or at least noticed them after the fact.

I’ve been slowly upping my rating on HF4A. It has a learning curve (and … if you only play every few months, a “forgetting curve”). It’s rules are complex … maybe not “Magic Realm” complex, but enough that you can’t just jump in. And yet … it really does capture something great. I think it’s another point in favor of the argument that you cannot compress great games. I don’t think the rules are perfect …. after my last game I think I’m ditching the rule that makes start player use a cube, but overall it’s a great sandbox.

and I’ve finally gone ahead and rated it a ’10.’ Hopefully my next dozen games won’t take a half-decade. (And I still have to learn the M4 rules, but I might never play with them. I doubt I’ll use M3). And I think I’m going to try and play at least one solitaire game a month just to keep the rules fresh in my mind.

Still, I did manage to:

• Get an early Solar Sail to Khufu and back while assembling/boosting my “actual” rocket for my first mission.
• Built a first rocket that didn’t require deconstructing rocket supports when industrializing². (My first rocket was actually pretty much my only rocket … but forgetting about that -2 thrust made that much easier).
• Have two Bernals, included a promoted dirtside. (I think the latter was legal).
• Built the Mars Space Elevator
• Emancipated the Robots (but we ignored the Casus Belli).

Update — And I should mention that one other play built the Uranus Aerostat — Cordelia Space Elevator. (I “almost” did that in a solo game a few months back, before I realized the freighter couldn’t get to Cordelia except as cargo)….

1. I think I did notice when I built it, but then I promptly forgot a turn or two later after I used the “crew thruster through the radiation belt” maneuver — which really ought to be given a name. ︎
2. This is one of those little details that can make your game go so smuch smoother ︎

I’ve now played High Frontier, 3rd Edition, High Frontier 4 All and I owned Rocket Flight (aka Lords of the High Frontier). I’ve never played 2nd Edition, but as far as I know, there was no second edition, but I’m sure a comment will correct me. I’ve gone from “indifferent” to “suggest” back to “indifferent” and I’m back to “suggest.”

Not a blanket suggest …. I see a yearly game that involves all of the expansions¹ and that 10 hour behemoth is not for me. High Frontier has a snowball growth. The first exo-factories give you better patents (hopefully) which means your second rocket has first opportunity to explore and exploit key sites.

This may not be true of the most experienced players (several of which are in that yearly game). but it’s certainly true at my level and in one of my three games so far this year I busted site after site in my first hour, squandering my early launch advantage. If I had rolled well, though, I would have snowballed in a positive way. Like many of Phil Eklund games, HF is more simulation than game, with scoring tacked on. That sounds too harsh — the scoring scheme is actually reasonable. Quite often the ‘winner’ is the person that objective observers would say “Yeah, that space agency did the best.” But me personally, when I’m getting snowballed, it’s can be a bit of a drag. Three hours is often enough to determine that.

There is also the brain-burn factor. High Frontier isn’t as complex as Magic Realm, although the fact that its in the same conversation is telling. No, High Frontier’s brain burn is the paradox of choice. In the Realm, you start of with a world where you are going to wander around for a bit … the great treasures could be anywhere. Sure if you are hunting dragons you will have some preferred destinations, but the early game is exploration. In space, we’ve got decades of exploration done before the first mission launches. The map is known, and cosmically complex.

Even ignoring anything past the asteroid belt², your first mission has plenty of options limited by hydration, distance in burns and/or time, landing thrust …. and also preferences relating to spectral type and risk management. Then you have to calculate fuel, and High Frontier’s ingenious implementation of Tsiolkovsky’s rocket equation take some time to think about. Even initiates with a few games under their belt (such as myself) have to ponder mission planning.

After about three hours, I’m tired.

That being said, I’d like to learn the Bernal and TW thruster rules (some modules in HF4), so I watched the heavy cardboard rules video (and am watching the playthrough) and I’ve set up a solo game (of HF3) which I might play off and on. A solo game has the “I can get up and come back to it tomorrow” advantage.

So, High Frontier is back into the suggest rating. I’ve re-caught that particular bug.

1. Possibly including expansions still under development ︎
2. Possibly a mistake, and I also typically ignore Mercury and Venus (a definite mistake) ︎

Nine score and seven weeks ago, I have inaugurated a new irregular series on my blog assessing the merits of UK prime ministers (illustrated through the lens of a single board game each). The rating system seemed robust enough to apply it to other countries/leaders (at least if they are more or less democratic). Thus, we branched out to American presidents, German chancellors, and even a German president. Today’s subject is another US president – Abraham Lincoln, our first rated subject from the 19^th century. And which game could be more appropriate for him than the first real political-military game of the American Civil War – For the People (Mark Herman, GMT Games)?

The Rating System

Some caveats ahead: The presidents will be rated by the knowledge of their time. If they or their contemporaries could not have known about the effects of something, I will not use my hindsight to mark it as a mistake of theirs. The assessment is focused on their conduct as president, but includes their life after holding the office (in which they will still be regarded in the public eye as (ex-)presidents).

Now, to the system itself: There are three policy field categories (foreign, domestic, and economic policy) and three more general ones (vision, pragmatism, integrity). A president can earn from one to five stars in each category (for a total sum of up to 30). In detail, the president is assessed as follows:

Foreign policy: Did the president increase US influence in the world and the security of Americans at home? Did the president wield US power responsibly and with positive results for the regions affected (the latter counting for a greater deal in times of US power being great)?

Domestic policy: Did the president increase the liberty of Americans to express themselves and to participate in the political process? Did the president promote domestic security and shape the framework for fair justice dealing with offenses?

Economic policy: Did the president facilitate the prosperity and economic security of Americans (including in the mid- and long-term)? Was the president’s economic policy based on mutual benefit of those involved or did it unduly burden one side?

Vision: Did the president have an idea of what the United States and the world (the latter counting for more in times of US influence being great) should look like beyond the immediate future? Did the president’s policies steer the United States (and, if applicable, the world) in this direction?

Pragmatism: Did the president succeed in seeing his policy through from inception to completion? How well did the president manage the support from Congress, society, the administration, the media (the latter counting for more in more recent years)?

Integrity: Did the president understand the office as a means to benefit himself, special interest groups, the entire country, or another community? Did the president respect the boundaries of the office?

Lincoln’s Life

Beginnings on the Frontier

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, as the son of Kentucky frontier farmers. The family moved around often during his childhood – first to Indiana, then Illinois. Lincoln received little formal education. He worked on his father’s farm and as a hired laborer from his youth on. However, he loved reading and yearned to escape physical labor by self-improvement – thus, he jumped at the chance to work as a store clerk (and later, store owner), postmaster, and, finally, taught himself law from books and passed the bar to practice as a lawyer.

Lincoln ran for the Illinois state legislature in 1832 and was narrowly defeated – as he proudly noted later, it was his only defeat in a popular election. Two years later, he was successful. During his eight years in the state house, Lincoln focused on supporting the infrastructural development of the state – railroads, canals, and the state bank to finance these projects.

The dominance of the Democratic Party in Illinois left little room for Whigs like Lincoln to be elected to national office. Lincoln thus waited until it was his turn in the Whig party candidate rotation to try for the US House of Representatives in 1846. Lincoln went to Washington where he attacked Democratic president James K. Polk’s war against Mexico. The Whig rotation meant that he could not run for re-election. Lincoln resumed his law practice and gloomily assumed his political career was over.

Lincoln vs. the Expansion of Slavery

The Mexican-American War ended in a resounding success for the United States – and in an expansion of slave-holding territory in the south which upended the Missouri Compromise of 1820. Instead of being bottled up in the south, slavery now seemed on the advance. The proponents of the “peculiar institution” saw their chance to export it to the territories, new states, and enforce their customs in the free states of the north as well. The possible expansion of slavery electrified its opponents as well, and the territories in the west – especially Kansas – soon became embroiled in a violent struggle over their status as slave-holding or free.

Lincoln was elected to the Illinois state legislature again in 1854, but declined to take his seat to stand for election to the US Senate (then elected by state legislatures). As he failed to obtain a majority, he struck a pact with anti-slavery Democrat Lyman Trumbull and had him elected on a cross-party coalition of Whigs and Trumbull’s small faction of anti-slavery Democrats. A political re-alignment was near.

When the new Republican Party formed, united in its opposition to slavery, Lincoln abandoned the sinking ship of the Whig Party. He stood again for election to the US Senate in 1858, this time against Democratic heavyweight Stephen A. Douglas who had made his fame as the evangelist of “popular sovereignty” – the position that the federal government should neither allow the expansion of slavery to the new states and territories nor ban it, and instead leave the decision to be decided in local referenda. Lincoln followed the immensely popular Douglas on his campaign trail and got him to stand in a series of debates against Lincoln. While Lincoln lost the Senate election once more, the debates elevated him to national standing as a moderate opponent of slavery with great intellectual and rhetorical capabilities.

Elected by the People

Lincoln’s moderate stance – he opposed the expansion of slavery, but did not call for its abolition in the slave states of the American South – was a liability in the new Republican Party if they just wanted to make a statement for their supporters. Yet when the dominant Democratic Party which had won six of the last eight presidential elections fractured over the question of slavery (Douglas’s platform of Popular Sovereignty gained a majority, but not the required two thirds of the delegates; the southern proponents of federal enforcement of slavery outside of the South bolted from the Democratic convention and nominated John C. Breckinridge as their own candidate), it became an asset – for the Republicans now played for victory. Lincoln was nominated as the Republican candidate, beating the party’s more radical heavyweights such as Governor Salmon P. Chase (Ohio) or Senator William H. Seward (New York). As the pro-slavery field fractured even further (John Bell ran as the candidate as the Constitutional Union Party which had the same views on slavery as the southern Democrats, but opposed their flirt with secession), the Republicans were suddenly the frontrunners. While Lincoln only won 40% of the popular vote in the election of November 6, 1860, he was ahead in all the populous free states of the north which gave him an easy victory in the electoral college (180 of 303 votes). John Bell had carried three states for 39 electoral votes with only 13% of the popular vote; Stephen Douglas only 12 electoral votes even though his 29% of the popular vote placed him second behind Lincoln. Yet he had been crushed in the north by Lincoln, and in the south by John Breckinridge who had only received 18% of the popular vote, but carried eleven slave-holding states in the south for 72 electoral votes.

Lincoln was only a moderate opponent of slavery, but that was still likely to mean that he would end the federal practice to enforce slavery in the new states and territories as well as the free states (as when fugitive slaves were returned from the free states to their erstwhile masters). That thought put southern slaveholders in a frenzy. South Carolina declared its secession from the United States on December 20, 1860. Six other states followed suit in the next weeks. The seven proclaimed a new country, the Confederate States of America, on February 4, 1861 – one month before Lincoln had even taken office.

Any attempts to save the Union before Lincoln’s accession failed. Lincoln himself made a conscious effort not to provoke the southerners, he was also fiercely aware that their position was that of a political minority, having just been soundly defeated by the electorate, and that he could not act “as if I repented for the crime of having been elected, and was anxious to apologize and beg forgiveness.” Constitutional Unionist Senator John C. Crittenden proposed to enshrine slavery in the US constitution to allay the fears of the slavers. These constitutional amendments could not gain a majority in Congress, as the Republicans were unwilling to use their electoral victory to enact their defeated opponent’s platform, and the southern Democrats were bent on secession.

Entering the White House, Lincoln found a mess. His predecessor James Buchanan, a pro-slavery Democrat, had done nothing to prevent secession or reign in the secessionists. Parts of his administration had even helped the secessionists before their terms in office ended. Lincoln himself dared not act to boldly to quash the secession as he (falsely) believed that the majority of southern whites supported the Union and would rise up against the secession. As that did not happen, the only committed Unionists in the South were representatives of federal institutions – most notably, the army. The secessionists seized army installations, where they could, and sieged them, where they couldn’t: The shots fired at Fort Sumter, a fort in the harbor of Charleston (South Carolina) which its commander refused to hand over to the secessionists, marked the beginning of armed insurrection to the United States – the American Civil War. Encouraged by the brazen action further south, four more states (including the all-important Virginia) joined the Confederacy.

Limited War to Save the Union

Lincoln now walked a dangerous tightrope. The secession could only be put down by military force, but he needed to apply it in a way which would not make the Union look the aggressor lest the slave states which were still in the Union (Missouri, Kentucky, and Maryland) seceded as well. Lincoln managed these border states with a deft hand. In Missouri, the local unionists and the US forces overcame the secessionists. Lincoln left Kentucky deliberately alone until a Confederate invasion swayed the state in favor of the Union (and US forces defended it against the Confederacy). Maryland, the most crucial of the three for its position (it provided the only connection of Washington, D.C., to the rest of the Union), was put under tight control by the US military. Lincoln dispensed with the writ of Habeas Corpus to allow for a more effective control of secessionists there.

With the border states secured, the Union needed to put down the Confederacy. That proved to be a daunting task: While the Confederacy was far inferior in terms of manpower and industrial production, it only needed to hold out long enough for the war to become so unpopular in the North that the Union would seek a negotiated end to it. The Union, on the other hand, had to force the Confederacy into surrender by destroying its armies and taking its territory. This asymmetry is reflected in the victory conditions of For the People: The Union player can only win (the campaign game) by dragging Confederate Strategic Will all the way down from 100 to 0. The Confederate player, on the other hand, has other avenues of victory: Having more than twice the Strategic Will of the Union player will do, as will lowering Union Strategic Will under 50 in fall of 1864 – when Lincoln would be up for re-election.

Lincoln was thus on a timer. The Union needed to win decisively, and soon. Yet the first offensive toward the Confederate capital Richmond (Virginia) was repelled. Lincoln consequently approved a massive expansion of the army, the naval blockade of the south, and a multi-pronged approach into the Confederacy (not only in the east, but also through Kentucky and along the Mississippi River) – preparations for a long war.

Lincoln studiously avoided any infractions against slavery in the early phase of the war (and when his generals, such as 1856 Republican presidential candidate John C. Frémont, overstepped their authority in that regard, sacked them). Yet as no southern Unionist movement arose to challenge the Confederacy, Lincoln’s belief in the unionist leanings of the white Southerners dwindled. By 1862, he had grown convinced that the still undecided war had broken out to serve a larger purpose – the end of slavery. Thus, he slowly racked up anti-slavery measures. Slaves taken from Confederate owners were treated as contraband of war, not to be returned. Slavery was abolished in D.C. (with the former slaveowners compensated), and banned in the territories. And by late 1862, Lincoln had changed his views on the relationship between slavery and the Union altogether: He no longer thought that respecting slavery would convince the South to re-join the Union, but that attacking slavery would weaken the Confederacy internally and sap its external sources of support and would thus help to end the war and restore the Union.

Total War: Emancipation and Union

A more sweeping statement on slavery was thus necessary. With one military disappointment after another (excepting Ulysses S. Grant’s victories in the west), it would look like an act of desperation, though. Lincoln needed a success. The marginal Union victory in the battle of Antietam (which repelled a Confederate offensive on Union territory) on September 17, 1862, was as good as it would get – and so Lincoln proclaimed that the insurgent states had until January 1, 1863, to re-join the Union. Otherwise, all slaves living in states in rebellion would be freed. Of course, that had no immediate effects – after all, the thus emancipated slaves were in territories under Confederate control – but it forced the Confederacy to increase the effort to keep their slaves from running, and it effectively precluded the European powers Britain and France (pro-Confederate from the point of view of their economies and power politics, but strictly anti-slavery) to recognize the Confederacy.

The Emancipation Proclamation is a crucial event in For the People as well (which sets the game apart from earlier Civil War games, which focused almost exclusively on the movement of armies and made at best cursory references to slavery). It is one of the very few mandatory events – if the conditions are met (a Union battle victory), it must be played for the event. While it lowers the Strategic Will of the Union (reflecting the unwillingness of many northerners to fight a war for the Black people of the South), it hurts the Confederacy much more – not only in terms of Strategic Will (a further penalty will be applied henceforth every round), but also by removing some military forces (which, presumably, either are kept back to guard plantations, or cannot be supplied anymore as the fleeing slaves shrink the southern economy).

Lincoln was also done with his earlier attempt at limited war in another respect: US forces in the crucial eastern theater had been commanded by General George B. McClellan since July 1861. McClellan had mishandled them at almost every opportunity, and even when he succeeded (such as Antietam), he squandered his advantage by failing to pursue. Even his political value to Lincoln – McClellan was a high-profile Democrat – could not save him now. Lincoln sacked him, continuing his search for a general who would act aggressively, deliver battle to the Confederacy, and victory to the Union – going in succession through Ambrose Burnside, Joe Hooker, and George G. Meade.

Sacking McClellan is something that a Union player at For the People might also want to do – while McClellan’s battle rating of 0-2 (offense/defense) is not too bad, his strategy rating of 3 means his forces can only be moved when spending a powerful 3-value card – bad for any US president who means to go on the offensive! Yet McClellan’s high political value (10) makes it painful for the player to relieve him of his command, as it will incur a steep Strategic Will penalty.

1863 would mark the turning point of the war. The Confederacy meant to undermine Union morale by another large-scale incursion into Union territory. On July 1, 1863, the Confederate and Union main armies clashed at Gettysburg. After three days of bloody battle, the Confederacy retreated. One day later, Grant took Vicksburg (Mississippi) and thus put the entire Mississippi River under Union control, cutting the Confederacy in half.

Yet the war remained unpopular in the North. Only two weeks after the victories of Gettysburg and Vicksburg, riots against the draft broke out in New York. Lincoln had the draft momentarily suspended and quietly resumed a month later.

With only one more year until the presidential election, time was running out for Lincoln. The Democratic Party of the North, always split between the supporters of the war to re-establish the Union and its opponents, adopted a pro-peace platform… and selected George McClellan, whose incompetence had done so much to prolong the war, as their candidate. Lincoln had no problem securing his nomination (his control of the Republican Party was by now complete) and left it to the convention to select his running mate. They opted for Andrew Johnson, a Democrat who supported the war.

Political and Military Victory

If the Union did not win great victories in 1864, Lincoln’s chances for re-election were slim. Yet there were reasons to be optimistic: Lincoln had placed Grant in command of the eastern theater, whereas Grant’s former subordinate William T. Sherman now headed the forces in Tennessee, ready to invade Georgia. Grant slowly wore down the Confederate forces in Virginia which could not bear the attrition. In the meantime, Sherman had taken Atlanta – a psychologically invaluable success which shifted the electorate’s mood in Lincoln’s favor – and marched on Savannah. Lincoln was re-elected with 55% of the popular vote and 212 of 233 electoral votes.

Now the great tasks of restoring the Union and abolishing slavery had to be brought to conclusion. While Grant and Sherman kept advancing, Lincoln worked to turn emancipation from a wartime measure to a constitutional right: The 13^th Amendment would end slavery in the United States. The amendment showed not only Lincoln’s acumen in dealing with Congress, but also how much the country had changed – Lincoln had lost the 1858 Senate election on a much more moderate position than what was now to become part of the US Constitution. In his second inaugural address, Lincoln interpreted the war as a punishment for the nation’s original sin of slavery, but expressed hope for the nation to move forward together.

The Confederacy collapsed under Grant’s and Sherman’s campaigns. Confederate General in Chief of the Armies, Robert E. Lee, surrendered on April 9, 1865, with other commanders following suit. The Reconstruction of the South with the eventual goal of its re-admission to the Union and the integration of the former slaves into American society were now Lincoln’s chief tasks. Yet before he could begin to deal with the requirements of peace, he was murdered by the Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865.

The Rating

Foreign policy

Lincoln left foreign policy largely to Secretary of State William H. Seward, yet intervened where necessary (for example, when the seizure of British mail ship Trent which carried Confederate envoys threatened to spark a crisis or even British intervention, Lincoln calmed the storm by releasing the envoys). He successfully forestalled foreign recognitions of the Confederacy (except by fellow slave-state Brazil), let alone military intervention on behalf of the Confederacy.

Domestic policy:

Lincoln recognized slavery as the chief obstacle to liberty in the United States. First tentatively, then boldly did he abolish the practice, resulting in the freedom of four million people. While he has been attacked for his alleged infractions on individual freedoms (most notably the suspension of Habeas Corpus), Lincoln used these measures in moderation. That Lincoln never even considered postponing the 1864 election (which he full well knew could end both his presidency and his policies) because of the war is the strongest testament to Lincoln’s deep respect for the rule of law.

Economic policy

Lincoln regarded economic policy as the prerogative of Congress and did not interfere with it. His own economic policy was concerned with the organization and financing of the war effort, in which he was largely successful (even though it must be said that the economic basis of the Union was much stronger than that of the Confederacy).

Vision

Lincoln’s vision of the United States was that of a country which was no longer “a house divided against itself.” While his own preference would have been to contain slavery and let it extinguish by itself in the South, the secession both enabled and required him to take firmer measures. Besides ending slavery, Lincoln laid the foundations during the Civil War for the United States to be a unified country, largely centrally administered, rather than a collection of individual states, and thus prepared the country’s 20^th century predominance. Not least of all, Lincoln’s unmatched rhetorical prowess allowed him to interpret political events in memorable language which shapes American thinking until today.

Pragmatism

Lincoln was a Washington outsider. Before his presidency, he had only spent two years in federal politics. Still, he quickly developed a productive working relationship with Congress and his cabinet – all the more remarkable as Lincoln’s Secretaries were not selected for their loyalty and subservience, but came from the heavyweights which had competed for the 1860 presidential nomination (including Secretary of the Treasure Chase and Secretary of State Seward). Lincoln’s legacy is remarkable as well: He established the nascent Republican Party as the dominant political force which would win twelve of the next 16 presidential elections.

Integrity

Lincoln respected the boundaries of his office and did not attempt to extend his influence into areas which were thought to be Congress’s province. The goodwill he extended to people of the most diverse backgrounds and convictions is legendary. Lincoln placed himself at the service of the Union – a nation he came to understand as larger than before, including four million heretofore disenfranchised slaves.

Overall

Abraham Lincoln faced challenges like no other American president. The secession and Civil War were both a struggle for survival of the United States against those who would not accept the democratic process and a moral crucible which would resolve the awkward question of slavery after 80 years of failed attempts to skirt it. Lincoln met these challenges head on and with resounding success. He jumps to the top of the ranking – and it’s not even close.

1. Abraham Lincoln 28/30
2. Franklin D. Roosevelt 25/30
3. Friedrich Ebert 25/30
4. Winston Churchill 25/30
5. Robert Walpole 24/30
6. Willy Brandt 23/30
7. Konrad Adenauer 22/30
8. Harry S. Truman 21/30
9. John F. Kennedy 17/30
10. Hermann Müller 17/30
11. Wilhelm Marx 17/30
12. Ludwig Erhard 12/30
13. Paul von Hindenburg 10/30

How would you rate Lincoln? Let me know in the comments!

Further Reading

For an accessible biography of Lincoln, see Gienapp, William E.: Abraham Lincoln and Civil War America. A Biography, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2002.

For a “biography of the mind” of Lincoln, situating him in the intellectual currents of his time, see Guelzo, Allen C.: Lincoln. A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2009.

For an overview of how Civil War games treat the causes of the war, slavery, and emancipation, see Wallace, Alfred: The War in Cardboard and Ink. Fifty Years of Civil War Board Games, in: Kreiser Jr., Lawrence A./Allred, Randal: The Civil War in Popular Culture. Memory and Meaning, University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 2014, pp. 175—89.

As a big fan of High Frontier, one of my regrets for this years GoF is that I didn’t get to try Leaving Earth. (And in a teeth-gnashing development, Mrs. Tao played it and liked it!) Well, we had a game day last weekend, and one of our coworkers owns that as one of the games in a tiny collection (he’s more a rocketry history enthusiast). So a copy arrived!

I missed that game, too.

But we borrowed his copy and I read the rules. There’s much to like:

• The genre feels right. I could do without the entire chance that you get to Phobos and say “That’s no moon!” but hey — the 50s were days of wonder (from a Space Race perspective). And the bureaucratic nature of the space agencies …. lovely. Losing unspent budget is one of the more delicious rules I’ve encountered0.
• Graphically beautiful. ‘Nuff said.
• Like High Frontier, Leaving Earth models fighting Tsiolkovsky’s rocket equation well. There is math (that’s unavoidable) but its understandable. To run a big mission you have to expend a lot of rockets and you need stages.
• Fun research rules: For each tech you get you build a deck of three cards (without looking). Whenever you use the tech shuffle up and flip one an get a success or failure (major or minor). Rockets that fail may not fire (minor failure) or have a rapid unscheduled disassembly (major). If you drew a bad card, you can get rid of it for $5 ($25 is your yearly budget). If you drew a good card you can get rid of it for $10! Why do that…. well, if you never get rid of it, can you really be sure your rocket won’t fail when it’s the final stage of a Mars probe … where nobody is around to fix it (or after you’ve spent 5 stages getting it there?) — If your deck only has one success card, you get rid of it for free. Between $10-$25 (plus costs for parts expended in testing) you can prove a technology. Or you can just keep using it and slowly gaining confidence that the deck is all successes (but never knowing for sure). It’s a risk/reward.
• More risk/reward. Send an astronaut on a mission or not? They aren’t cheap to train (thematically correct that they aren’t free … but let’s be real, it costs millions of dollars to train them, not 20% of NASA’s yearly budget) but they all have benefits (converting specific major failures to minor failures, for example) …. but if they die that’s negative VP.
• As for the math …. The rules provide good example missions, including one involving leaving stuff behind in orbits and re-joining with it (which requires a technology). Leaving Earth’s (LE) mechanisms differ from High Frontier’s (HF), but like synchronous orbits you arrive in the same place.

So I setup a solo game and worked through an easy mission (winning) then a harder set of missions (failing).

And here’s where I started to feel the big difference. In HF, you can play a variety of missions and rules. The scenario may guide you, but it may not. In LE the missions change the game in the sense of “Well, the superpowers have decided that sending a probe to Mars is more important than a manned lunar mission, so let’s do that, boys!” but you are always working from the same (common) set of parts. Your Juno/Atlas/Soyuz/Saturn rockets stay the same from game to game.

HF forces you down different paths. A game where you build a solar sail driven raygun robonaut will naturally play out differently than your E-M buggy. It drives your mission and paths. More subtly, you can tweak your fueling and time vs fuel costs to  a much greater extent. LE does have this by combining rocket stages, but even by the third game this felt somewhat repetitive and while looking up a rules question  I stumbled on a “Book of Missions” that just laid out “Well for this mission the following stages are optimal.” (I didn’t read it, but just glanced at it).

I then tried two multiplayer games (with the TaoLing). Tense games. But I’m also less enthusiastic than I was pre-rule reading.

Firstly, a minor launch failure on your first rocket is wonderful. You chuck it for $5 and the minor failure (unlike success or major failure) does not use up the rocket. So, you are ahead of someone who has a success but pays $10 to thin out their deck to prove it. (You are up $5 and a rocket). This — coupled with the paranoia of even after 5-7 checks wondering (what if there’s a disaster lurking in the deck) makes proving out nice. I’m not sure how I feel about this. There are some catchup rules, but there’s also some snowballing. I can’t claim this is a dealbreaker (since I play HF).

Secondly, this is much more a push your luck game. Which is fine, but it’s a push your luck brain burner that’s slow. So in my last game I made a relatively low-risk play of sending up a mechanic to orbit with two capsules to earn the “Space station” mission. No, I hadn’t tested life support, but the deck is 4/6th successes, 1/6 minor failures and 1/6 major failures (I didn’t know this at the time, but I knew it was roughly 50+% success). In order to fail I had to draw two major failures (since I had the money to pay to remove the first failure, it would not be redrawn). I rolled snake eyes (1/36…actually slightly less likely because cards not dice) and so my 6 VP for first space station became negative 2VP (death) and  a bunch of time and money lost. On the other hand, I then later did a daring “Don’t test everything, let’s just have a Soviet-style run for the Moon” and risking 3 years budget on unproven rockets and I got a yahtzee. So, it balances.

BUT …. dice versus cards. If I get a bunch of bad cards, that means that other people are getting less. Compare that with HFs hazard dice. A minor point, perhaps (and HF is a longer game where everything can hinge on a roll, so that’s not a downside). You never have to make a roll in HF if you don’t want to, and any events that happen happen to everyone. They may hurt someone much more than another, but it feels linked.

I do have a few nitpicky rules which could be more thematic / better. (Surveying takes no time and is practically automatic. Rockets that fail during a suborbital phase can be recovered. Life Support is assumed for single year missions, it should really be called multi-year life support).

But what keeps coming back to my head is that even after a handful of games the missions felt predictable. “Oh, I’ve seen that before.” There only real combinatorics of the game are weight and mass. Even without the support module (or the other more complex ones) HF had more surprises after a dozen games than LE did after three. I suspect there is an optimal opening, and for the missions nobody says “Well, what patents do you have?”. And there are no faction differences.

It seems unfair to blame LE for not being High Frontier, but the heart wants what the heart wants. I like calculating space missions more than the average gamer, and I’m always on the look for solitaire games, but after 8 hours of this I’m nowhere near the same level of enthusiasm.

I am far from writing LE off — I spent a fair chunk of this weekend playing it — but it does not appear to threaten to displace HF in the long run.

Rating — Indifferent plus, I’m willing to explore it a few more times. The rest of my family is looking at acquiring a copy, so I may have an opportunity.

(This was originally published in incomplete form. I hit “publish” instead of “save.” Lots of updates since then).

I remember playing Fugger, Welser, Medici dand realizing the basic game was too … basic. (I later relayed this to Frank and he said “it wasn’t for gamers like us, that’s what the advanced game is for.”)

High Frontier isn’t exactly the same thing. You need at least one basic game to learn the mechanics. (I needed lots). Jumping straight into the advanced game is optimistic. Even adding only the support module ridiculously increases the number of moving parts. But even for slow people such as myself the basic game does seem too basic after a few plays.

It ends just after it gets going. Industrialize a second colony, you are done (or almost). After the first few games,  TaoLing and I played “longer” extended games to seven colonies, where you might get something like a claim on Sycorax, but our most recent 7 colony game took …. 40 minutes. We’ve started adding advanced modules.

The basic game is not without interest, so some thoughts.

• This is a race game. Only one action a turn, but also space travel in addition. If you start your trip a turn or two earlier that can be a big advantage because its hard (but not impossible) to make up time later on.
• One rule I was taught wrong is that you can’t bid if you have three (non-crew) cards in hand. It turns out you can bid if you have less than four (so, three is OK).
• My big mistake in my early games: buying random cards, then trying to make something work. Most cards are good for something, but trying to figure out what is hard.
• In general, Robonauts before Refineries. Makes sense — Robonauts prospect. Yes, you can use your ISRU 4 crew but here’s the list of ISRU 4 sites inside of Jupiter: Mars (10 gravity, ugh), Ceres (a good target, although 6 gravity probably means you’ll need your crew) and eight inconvenient size-one sites (which aren’t near anything). It’s not a great list. Even an ISRU of 3 opens up a lot of options.
• If you only looked at the asteroid belt for your first mission, you’d probably be right. (For your first game narrowing your decision space is a good idea). If you are playing to seven (or some higher number depending on # of players, which isn’t a variant) you can start looking at Jupiter’s moons or even more distant.
• Remember — the map represents delta-v. Sites on opposite sides of the board but in the same belt are surprisingly close (in terms of number of burns and turns). You can run from Lutetia (a 3M-3 hydration site) to Hertha (ditto) for two burns in a single turn (via Sol-Jupiter L1 burn). Think of the board as “energy bands.”
• There is no “C” class refinery, FYI. Type D and S sites are much rare (in the basic games) so those cards are slightly less useful.
• Weight matters, but less with good fuel efficiency. A nice rule of thumb I found on BGG states “Your wet mass/dry mass ratio will need to be roughly equal to your fuel single-burn fuel consumption (or better).” So if you have the Metastable Helium thruster (5 Mass, 5 Net Thrust * 1 fuel per burn), then your wet mass doesn’t have to much exceed your dry mass, so you can get a heavy robonaut and refinery and still go tooling around for 4 water. But if you get the Mirror Steamer (0 Mass, 3 Net Thrust * 4 Fuel per burn, Solar, Push) you are going to have real trouble if your dry mass gets above three-ish, so you’ll probably need two trips. Bid up the 1 fuel/burn cards.
• Getting your first factory ASAP is a big deal. It provides:
  • 8 free water for refueling. Even if your robonaut and refinery can’t be built, you can take a turn to refuel and send your (now light) rocket back to LEO to pick them back up instead of having to re-boost and refuel the rocket.
  • ET production. Not only are the black side of cards better (much, much better), you get a card out there a few years in advance, save the cost of re-boosting, etc.  ET producing a robonaut to prospect for your second factory (using your on-site thruster) is a big deal. If you have a robonaut and refinery of the type you just colonized, it’s probably a winner. (With both for Vs, aim for Vesta, which at size six means you can’t fail the prospecting roll, and only has a half landing burn. Getting both Ms aim for Lutetia then Hertha, for a 75% chance of a claim. Ds and Ss

Common planning pitfalls to avoid:

1. Can you land? Remember, your net thrust must exceed the sites size. Some ways to get around this (if your main thruster isn’t good enough).
   • Afterburning.
   • Size games. Take everything, drop a part in orbit to lower a size class (increasing net thrust). Leave the first part on the site,take off, pick up the last part. (Dropping off and picking up is a free action, but you can’t pick up in the middle of a move).
   • Use your crew to land. It costs no fuel (if there isn’t a lander burn). Vesta and Ceres with their half lander burns are reasonable. (If you have to pay a full lander burn, your main crew’s rocket may be prohibitively expensive).
2. Will you be able to take off? (This mainly applies to aerobraking). You can easily trap yourself if you use your crew to go someplace like the moon. (If you can’t take off, you can turn your crew into a colonist and get some VP).
3. Do you have enough fuel? Seems obvious, but don’t forget fuel for afterburns. Size tricks may cost you some fuel as well
   • Consider Demos (or some other high hydration site) for a turn or two of refueling. Particularly if you have a low ISRU, you can get a lot of fuel that way. Seeing a ‘pit stop’ at the (already busted) Demos to refuel was my first “aha” moment.
4. Do you have the ISRU rating to prospect the site (or refuel)? (Even after ten games I’ve still just said, “Oh, I’ll go there” and then realized my robonaut couldn’t cut it because I was so focused on fuel/thrust/etc.

Sites of Interest

The training book’s guide is good and worth reading for your first few games. Some thoughts:

Planets are Hard. You can go for Mercury (North Pole) or Mars but you’ll need 11 thrust (or aerobraking rolls). But those are basically one way trips unless you can build a factory. For those, you’ll need a crew with a 10 Net thrust and afterburn. You could also just send down a robonaut and refinery, but the advantage of getting your first factory is basically negated because you can’t really ET produce or use the factory to refuel unless you have a powerful crew rocket. On the other hand, these can be a guaranteed second factory.

The moon is easier, but you’ll need a good ISRU.

Ceres is a sure thing with four hydration, requires only 7 thrust (usually within the reach of a basic game crew) and only a half burn. Depending on your thruster you may need to stop at Demos. Vesta is also a sure thing but slightly farther away and requires an ISRU of 2. (To compensate, its a V world, which is likely to score better and will have a few refineries that can be ET produced there).

Thrusters

In the basic game the most important thing is Fuel per burn, because lower means you can go farther. High thrust is nice (because that lets you land on more places, or maybe get there a turn or two earlier) but you often get around that by taking your crew and using it (assuming no lander burns, or maybe a half burn). In the advanced game the worse rockets are balanced by needing more supports, or worse rad-hardness, but in the basic game? Nope.

If you ordered thrusters by FPB in the basic game, you’d be close to right. (Ignoring the solar sails, because 0 net thrust is a problem).

Key is [#Mass, Thrust * Fuel per Burn (After Burn cost, Class), P = Push, S = Solar]. I’m not going to worry too much about the advanced (black) side because you won’t for your first games.

In rough order of worst to best:

Photon Heliogyro / Photon Kite Sail [0M, 0*0 (-,C) Solar] — Basically the same. Not really useful in the basic game (said the guy who almost never goes inside the earth orbit]. You could use these to get maybe a free burn if you are a small light ship, so perhaps I shouldn’t discount this.

Mirror Steamer [0M, 3*4(2,D) SP] — Zero mass, but 4 fpb. Ugh. The one thing that’s nice is that you could boost this with a robonaut and leave really early, take a pot shot at Demos and refuel. But the problem is that the mass savings from boosting are (in the basic game) a one time savings. You’ll be paying for fuel the rest of the game. Also, this can’t land too many places.

Ablative Plate [4M, 2*2(1,V) P] — Two fpb isn’t bad, but nothing else is great. High mass, low thrust. If you get the black side you get a mass reduction and a thrust increase, but its nothing to write home about. You’ll almost certainly need to take your crew to land anywhere. The rare case where low fpb isn’t great.

Cermet NERVA [2M, 7*4(1,S)] — OK, terrible Fuel per Burn (fpb), but the 7 thrust means you can land on Ceres or Vesta (which are sure things], but you are likely making two trips. If you can flip this you lose one thrust (but can afterburn) but your fpb drops to 2, which makes this pretty good.

Hall Effect [2M, 3*2(-,C)P] — No afterburn and a low thrust means you’ll need your crew, but otherwise good.

Mass Driver [5M, 4*3(-,M)P, Dirt] –This is heavy, 3 fpb isn’t great, but being a dirt thruster compensates. You can always grab 10 fuel anywhere (dirt rockets refuel at ten and ignores ISRU rating!) so you really only need to pay to get to Demos and then jaunt out. If you flip this over you go to 3M 2*0.5, which basically means you never run out of fuel, but you’ll need another rocket to land most places.

De Laval Nozzle [4M, 5*2(2,M)P] — Decent thrust, decent fpb. Can even land on Ceres or Vesta (often taking two trips).

Ponderomotive VASIMR [3M, 3*1(1,V)P] — Compare with the mirror steamer. You pay 3 more mass, but you save so much fpb.

Metastable Helium [5M, 5*1(1,V)] — The king of rockets. Yes, its heavy. But 1 fpb rules. If you flip it over you’ll drop some mass and your fpb goes to a ridiculous 1/3rd, but even unflipped its a workhorse in the asteroid belt. With 5 thrust (maybe 4 or 3 due to weight) you can often make a hohmann pivot every turn and gain a lot of time. And you save time by taking your robo+refinery in one trip. Letting this go cheaply is a mistake.

Robonauts

Buggys let you get a re-roll or multiple sites (on a planet), so that’s nice. Missiles have a built in thruster (Uusually with terrible fpb, but in this case you save an auction and a part, so you could buy this and start scooting around early to make a bunch of pot shot claims and then buy/send a refinery later). And Rayguns let you go for multiple sites from orbit. Unlike thrusters (in the basic game) there’s lots of differences between robonauts.

There are a few different ‘classses’ of robonauts:

• The 4 fpb missile. These are good to grab as a first card if you can launch and run to Demos (etc) to refuel and go get a claim, planning on getting a thruster and refinery later.
• The rayguns. These let you hit a bunch of asteroids at once.
• The oddballs (including buggies).

A quick note of sites: C are common, M aren’t common, but there are a few good targets. There are many S targets but they tend to have lower hydration (often zero). V and

[#Mass, type-ISRU (Type) ]

In alphabetical order:

Cat Fusion Z-pinch Torch — 3M, Buggy-2 (D).  Decent mass, decent ISRU.  Turns into a higher mass ISRU 0 Missile.

Explosive Gas Dynamic Laser — 3M, Raygun-2 (S). Improves to 2M Ray-0

Flywheel Tractor — 2M, Buggy-3 (S).  Improves to 1M Buggy-1.

Free Electron Laser — 5M Raygun-1 (S). Don’t let the 5 mass worry you (I mean, unless you have a 3-4 fpb thruster). If you get the Free Electron Laser you may want to go to the Karin cluster and hope to get one of Karin-a, b or c. That’s a 50/50 shot in one turn (you can raygun produce without going onto the hazard roll). If you get the claim you can ET produce this (as the Wakefield E-beam Missile with a quite decent 4*2(2) dirt rocket, but it becomes a Missile-1.

Kuck Mosquito — 1M Missile-3, 10 * 8(2) (V). The Mosquito pairs nicely with Ablative Plate or other low net thrust thruster, in that you only use this for the landing. You save weight on crew, its mass is low. If you happen to build it on a V planet, you can ET produce the Ablative Laser, which is a 3 * 1(3, push) Missile 2 with no mass. No raygun, but it can hop around quickly.

MET Steamer — 3M Missile-2 5*4(1) Push (C). This guy is a reasonable first buy. Buy, boost, fuel, go to Demos to potshot and/or refuel. By itself it can make a run at Ceres (small size for +1 thrust, afterburn for another). You’ll need another rocket to bring the refinery, but then you can ET produce the Nanobot, a zero mass Buggy-1.

Neutral Beam — 5M Raygun-2 (S). Slightly inferior to the Free Electron Laser, but this does flip over to the a 3*1/2(1) Missile.

Nuclear Drill — 2M Missile-3 5*4(1, Push) (M). Like the MET Steamer, this can be used as an early scout, planning on bring a rocket+ refinery later. This is an odd card in that the black side has a much higher mass (5), but it does become a Raygun-0 (while still having a thruster), which means you can scout a bunch of small asteroids (like the Koronis group) in one go.

Phase-Locked Diode Laser — 3M Raygun-3 (C). A very good robonaut, because there are lots of C targets, and it flips over to 0M.

Rock Splitter — 3M Buggy-4 (V). Buggy is good, but ‘4’ is bad. You could claim 2 Mars sites, I suppose. But there has to be a worst robonaut.

Solar-pumped MHD Exciplex Laser — 5M Raygun-2 (C). Doesn’t the name just roll off the tongue and fall like lead to the floor? This is another one of the 5M rayguns, and this one flips over (Quantum Cascade Laser) to a 3 mass ray-0. Ray-0 is great, and as a ‘c’ type card, this is the easiest to get.

Tungsten Resistojet — 2M 5*4(1) Missile-3 (M). Another decent “early thruster explorer.”. This flips over to a decent 4*2(1) Push missile-1.

Refineries

In the basic game, basically you just want to get one. If it matches your target, that’s nice. Mass 3 is nicer than mass four, but unless you have a bad fpb its not a huge deal.

They’ve just released 0.15 (up to 0.15.2 for some bugfixes). I’m sitting here waiting impatiently for it to download. Nuclear power, rebalanced combat, a ‘marathon’ mode (critical items take a lot more materials to build), and prebuilt settings for various styles of play….

It is a sign of good sportsmanship on my part that I didn’t skip gaming to download it yesterday (when it released), but that’s only because I’d promised that I’d teach High Frontier.

Update — It’s slower going (7 types of science instead of 4 — and purple science is no longer “stuff you get for free by killing natives”). I’ve got a horrible spaghetti maze because I haven’t been looking ahead. I should probably punt, but my goal is to use this base as a starting point for a big base, so its ok. But I do like many things:

• Flamethrowers are still good, but much more expensive. Bullets have been buffed, because they were terrible.
• Infinite science (even if some of it seems to be a bad deal, like mining productivity).
• Lots of quality of life fixes (showing oil patches underground, etc).

I need to get logistics bots for this factory. It’s not pretty. Gotta find a new copper patch, too. Have basically run out.

(Update — Fixed some typos, fleshed out thoughts, added links. Also, I don’t wish to imply that Mombasa or Jump Drive are bad. I like both. I use them because I played them during the same week).

During my time at the Gathering, I played 31 games. Eclipse, Colonists and 3 plays of High Frontier took roughly 21 hours. The remaining 26 games took about 20 hours.

I spent my first two games of High Frontier doing terribly. I earned 1VP apart from Heroism (aka “The Challenger Explosion card” aka “Pity Points”).

Suppose winning just involved earning VPs at a fixed rate (ignoring opponents). It takes about 40 VP to win High Frontier, so I would ‘win’ after four hundred hours of gameplay.

Let’s flip that around. Wins/hour. For those first two games I earned 0.0025 WPH.

Among the other games I played were Mombasa and Jump Drive. For Mombasa I earned about .7 WPH, since I generated enough VP to win in my game, which was about 1.5 hours. A nice rate. My Jump Drive rate was 4 WPH for the Gathering, slightly higher than my typical 3 wins per hour. But I taught the game twice.

So, for 10 hours of High Frontier (roughly 1/4 of my gaming time) I was arguably the least effective game-player in all of the gathering. I’d have to go to ten gatherings to eke out a single win. (I have some true anti-skill in that game. But I did eventually get a bit better). Apparently I did OK in my only game with second edition (although it left me cold), but we did the fast start, so I may have randomly gotten a good setup.

Of course Wins Per Hour is a somewhat ludicrous idea. Isn’t it? It seems obvious, but winning isn’t the problem. And we routinely praise games for being “tight” or “fast” or having a high decision density.

I was already pondering the similarities between High Frontier (the current hotness) and Factorio (the current hotness is not necessarily a singular). I mean, they both have Rockets, but there were other similarities. I’d been thinking about it (vaguely) even before Jeroen asked me to pitch Factorio to him over breakfast. One of the random thoughts I blurted out was its old school scoring. (It was a long pitch. In my defense, I had previously warned him that if he asked about Factorio he should set aside a day for my answer).

Anyway, old school scoring. Launching one rocket (aka “Winning”) gives you a score of …. one. Its like how the original pinball machines had scores like 1-2-3 for each bumper, but now you get a million points for simply launching the ball. But after you get on the scoreboard in Factorio, you can keep going.

Factorio is optimization, but you are free to decide what to optimize:

1) Speed (the speedrun: how fast can you win?)

2) Throughput (how many rockets per unit time can you get? This can be subdivided to a final sprint, ignoring the setup time, or over the lifetime of your game).

3) Size (How small a factory can you get a rocket out of. This is currently a challenge on Reddit. Yes, these rockets would take roughly one year of real time to be built, but they are ludicrously small factories).

There are others. People play without using robots (or just logistic robots, or just personal robots), or without lasers, or trains. Some play peaceful, some play Deathworld. Factorio has a victory condition, but people often ignore it. You can keep playing after you win. It’s a sandbox. You make what you want. I’m watching “The Belt Diva” on youtube, and its like watching Bob Ross. Happy little conveyer belts. She wants to build a mega base. I have no idea if she’ll launch a rocket. Does it matter?

Mombasa is not a sandbox. Neither is Jump Drive. You could argue that High Frontier isn’t a sandbox either, it has VP and end game conditions, but the standard criticism again Eklund’s games is: “Great simulations with arbitrary endgame/VPs attached.” (The latest edition of High Frontier’s scoring seems reasonable and at about the right time).

Ignore the victory conditions for High Frontier and just play with the system and it would still work. (Also true of American Mega Fauna, or other games like Seven Ages. You could just tell people to play in the best interest of their species/nation and not the actual victory conditions).

You could add self imposed conditions on your game. Only use solar sails, or “try to get out to Neptune with only basic cards,” or “Make the Kessel Run in 7 parsecs.” For any Eklund game, you could take a reasonable goal (“Expand your species,” “Become President of Mexico,” “Kessel Run”) and if you achieved it, who cared what the VPs said?

High Frontier feels like a sandbox (much like all Sierra Madre games).

Can you do that with a Euro? I suppose you could just say “I’m trying to maximize my red cubes and not VP” But that seems silly. The goal is to maximize VP.

Objectively, there’s no difference. You lose, the other players win. You may throw the game by being silly. But in a sandbox game it feels acceptable.

You might not even mess up the other players. (If you didn’t mention you had mentally altered your victory conditions, they might not even notice, assuming you chose something ‘reasonable’) We’ve already quietly accepted the premise that in a sandbox game the VPs are somewhat not the point when we criticize the poor victory conditions in otherwise good games.

We wouldn’t play a Euro similarly broken. Wouldn’t make sense.

I once knew someone who built a Magic deck with 58 islands, 1 mountain and 1 fireball. (Several of my readers should remember him). The point was to build a deck that could theoretically win (if you drew the mountain, the fireball, and then managed to play 20 lands). He’d pull this deck and lose and lose to people who often did not notice that their opponent never did anything except play islands. He was truly Andy Kaufman, CCG player.

Or perhaps Stanley Milgram.

When I’m losing a game like High Frontier (or Combat Commander, or Seven Ages, or Here I Stand), I may flounder and grasp for a way out of my situation, but I feel perfectly happy just exploring the system even though the time invested is well out of proportion to what I’d normally give to a game.

I’ve dismissed countless games after one play (or less), games I’ve won included. Games I won especially. Those tend to fail the test of time (unless everyone was new).  A game where I can beat experienced players probably isn’t that deep, or has too much luck.

Whereas games I lost repeatedly include Titan, 18xx, Magic Realm (counting dying as a loss), Chess, Go, Bridge.

Clearly, I’m not optimizing my wins per hour. Knizia has that quote….

When playing a game, the goal is to win, but it is the goal that is important, not the winning

Pretty Zen, but I get (and approve) the idea. Those guys who crushed that sub-sub-Mendoza line Magic deck and chortled and kept playing it again and again to rack up wins? Not great gamers.

But is the goal really to win? Usually, yes. When I played American Megafauna with non-existent or terribly wrong Victory Conditions, I don’t recall having less fun. In High Frontier I started out trying to win. Mainly I was trying to do something constructive. A Winning-adjacent goal.

Some play games to explore systems, but that requires a system worth exploring. Which is not to say that Mombasa or Jump Drive’s design is not deep. Just (relatively) transparent. You can argue about the best path to winning, but that path is well defined. With Combat Commander or Magic Realm or High Frontier, you aren’t sure what’s going to happen, and sometimes the joy is just in unlocking the secret or even seeing that rocket take flight. In fact, defining the direction of the path is surprisingly hard … the player that did best may be the one that lost, according to the rules. It’s like that old Supreme Court definition of pornography. You know who won when you played it. Who cares what the rules said?

Its like watching your factory grow, then deciding what you want to optimize next.