Much as in Slay the Spire (or Dominion) a strategy can be good or bad depending on the other cards in the pool. Here is where I am at after my 5th Full Counterstrike game.

In general — Production worlds have priority over military windfalls (beyond the first you often drop to trade on T1). Production worlds that earn a card while producing are the highest priority. +Military and +Xeno Military (and +Xeno Defense) can be nice to have, depending on how far you are into the invasion process. But a “repair during production” power is fine, particularly if you have a windfall/grey world that has a power you are OK with being intermittent.

The reason? Apart from the “Produce and ship goods to the war effort” points; in Counterstrike there are many worlds (often frontier) where you consume two goods for three points (or one good for two points) and you want to take advantage of those in the late game. A “consume x2” for 12 is a big deal in base Race. Here 20+ is easily in reach. ¹

Because of that, early Frontier Settles are prioritizing purchase, not conquest. Obviously you have to take what you are offered, but still. I’m happy to go with 5 cards in hand, no matter my military rating … half the cards are playable now. (But two military drops the odds of a complete miss). BUT … I’m wary of this if I’ll be out of cards for multiple turns when I drop my hand. (Have goods ready to trade when you Frontier Settle … or that will earn some cards someone else trades. Or have a few spare cards).

As you move into the 2nd half and the automatic development phase in the 2nd half, you’d like to be able to either boost your strategy and/or shore your your military with a card you can play (while calling something else).

Murdering Xeno Homeworlds is nice, but you can earn plenty of points just going your own way and racking up points. 18 Points with Merchant Guild² or the card that gets you 1/3rd of your consume chits, etc is also possible. Obviously if you have a huge military and enough temp military you can just go conquest, but it’s not mandatory. I’m not going to drop a small +3 Temp Military just so I can murder a Xeno next turn unless I have nothing better to do³ and one big conquest every other turn is only keeping pace with the consume x2 every other turn … and if that guy is produce 4-6 cards (via consume and produce) he’s probably leeching on your settles.

(The seven point award for “most homeworlds” is nice, but so is the seven points for “most consumption.”)

1. In my tableau last night: Good for 2VP, Alien+Novelty for 3, Genes+Novelty for 3, Rare for 1 + a card. Two goods for 2+2 Cards. ︎
2. Particularly the 2nd edition copy, which is 2/production and 1/good. ︎
3. Also, becuase you can only Frontier Settle/Conquest every other turn, it’s OK timing wise. ︎

These are “super” early, just observations I’ve had that could easily be wrong.

We are in the early stages of discovery (at least I am) where it’s difficult to evaluate some cards because you need to see them interacting with other cards. In particular the Near/Far Frontier worlds have some big swings.

• Taking a non-military start world is fine. If you have the lowest military for a few rounds, that’s OK and likely a bonus point or two.
  • But you’ll have to jump on the train, at least before wave starts.
• But don’t forget that there’s an automatic settle on T1, so if you can call trade that might be right.
• After a few games, I don’t think the Frontier Worlds are overly powerful, because even if you get something, it may not be something you want or that will synergize.
  • That being said, they are decently powerful and can provide a path to victory.
  • They are also more fun to explore, so the meta seems to be “Frontier Early, Frontier Often.”
  • Because of this, leeching those “Frontier Settle” calls will be important … more important than leeching Develop. This does benefit having at least a few points of military (to drop the 2 defense uplift worlds or a 1-2 defense world that boosts military) or having a small production world or two.
• Similarly, temporary military is an OK defense early … but you’ll definitely want some for Fronter Conquest. Half those homeworlds say “Ignore your numbers¹, you need X temporary military” (where X is 2/2/3/4/6).
  • There a several “Spend a rare for +2 military” cards, often on rare worlds. Those are nice, better than “discard this for +3” because you can re-use them.
  • The Far Frontier Run-Amok Robots damages a world for +6 Military. ²
• Don’t under-rate Defense vs Xenos! Particularly by the time you’ve repulsed and are dealing with retribution you’ll want a few points (and more is better). (The first card that caught my attention was Frontier Isolationists, because it gave me +6 Defense vs Xenos!)
  • Almost half the retaliation cards are “your military + your Xeno military + #” You simply can’t be better, those cards cancel all your “regular” military, but a few points of Xeno Defense will go a long way.
• Having a world (or two or three) you can afford to damage for little/no cost is fine. Sometimes you don’t want to spend cards/goods defending … taking the damage is fine and you save the goods for your Frontier Settle / Conquest.
• A random consume power sometimes means getting a point (or card) or two and …. losing your temp military for defense or offense next round! That temp military (particularly on offense) can be worth 10+ points!
• I’m not sure I’ve seen a winning strategy, but I do think “Big Military/Xeno Military” and “Frontier Settle/Conquest every other turn” without much card draw is a trap. An oh-so-tempting-trap … but even if you catch a world every turn, they tend to not build an economy.
• Consume x2 still exists …. with worlds that consume 2 goods for 3 (or 4!) points. Getting up to 8+ points before doubling is much easier, also because there’s no 12 card limit to tableaus.
• Because of this (OR conquering all the Xeno’s systems OR surpassing the Conquest Value) I suspect the game often ends with tableaus of ~16-18³ cards. (That is likely very meta-dependent).
• There is also the “Produce every turn and ship the extra goods to the war effort” strategy. Particular in the early game when you aim for the 5 point award and also (perhaps) messing up opponent’s timing for when the game transitions⁴. If you have a few worlds that earn a card when producing, this is strong. I don’t think this is dominant, but you can have implicit collusion tilt the balance.

Some Notes on the Frontier Decks

Note — Both decks are exactly half black (worlds you buy) and half red (worlds you conquer).

• The Near Frontier Deck is 18 cards
  • For the black worlds, the costs are 1/1/1/2/3/3/4/4/5
  • If you have 3 Mil and 2 XenoMil then you can conquer any of the red worlds. If you have 2 Mil and 3 XenoMil, there is one you can’t (Pirate Lair)
  • If you can only handle half the cards (ie, you have 5 cards in hand but no military) your odds of drawing 3 unplayable worlds are about 10%
  • New Sparta could call Frontier Settle on T1 and get a playable world 19 times out of 20⁵. Anyone else is about 17 times out of 20. And if anyone calls explore (and you get a card) the odds go up. Just FYI.
• The Far Frontier deck is 28 cards
  • Black Worlds cost 5/5/5/5/6/6/6/6/7/7/7/7/8/9 … so if you can afford a 7 card world you have decent odds
  • Red Worlds defense are 6/6/6/6/7/7/7/7/8/8/8/9/9/10
  • Roughly half of each defense number has the Xeno keyword (so military vs Xeno applies)⁶.

1. Although you still need a base of 9 military vs Xeno to try a conquest ︎
2. Much like Malevolent Lifeforms in the base game, I love me some Run-Amok Robots. ︎
3. Rules Note — You can start conquering the Xeno homeworlds once you have a Far Frontier world (and enough military) well before the 16+ card alternate requirement. ︎
4. Having a good development in hand for the first turn of the second half is something to keep in eye on. ︎
5. You can handle 8 of the cards assuming you are willing to dump your hand, and New Sparta can also hit the 3 cards that are “2 defense” ︎
6. But not the 10 defense card, it’s Alien. ︎

Finally got my copy of R4TG:XC. Some brief thoughts (having only played the Frontier Game as a prototype last year).

• The difference in card sizes is annoying, but what are you going to do? The new cards are marked anyway without sleeving (because of wear and tear … I originally thought the border had changed color had changed, too; but on closer inspection my old cards have simply faded). I may sleeve, but that would be incredibly annoying to shuffle (and store). I don’t think I can get XI+XS into a single box even if the cards aren’t sleeved, though.
  • If I Sleeve I could also put more distinctive backs for each card type … the “Near Frontier” and “Far Frontier” worlds took me a double- and triple- take to tell them apart. (Or I could not sleeve those cards).
  • I might use a different box to shove both sets together.
  • How much effort I do (sleeving/boxing/storing) depends on how often I think I can get it to the table. I tried to get a few games of Race up over the last year, but it got less than a Dime. ¹
• The Frontier Game is “A smidge more race” where you play to 15 cards in a tableau (or break the bank at 15VP/player). IIRC the scores were something like 75-74, and the Frontier Worlds seemed like Bombs. I got a “Oh, I’m definitely going to win” card, then my opponent got an “Oh, he’s definitely going to win” card.
• I hadn’t realized the Full counterstrike game was 90 minutes. After reading Chris Farrell’s review I want to follow the Alan Moon Adage from one of his columns in The General — “A true gamer does not play anything less than the full game with all the rules. No introductory scenarios.” But I’m not sure any locals have played any full Xeno Invasion games (and I think I only have a half dozen).

Full review later (hopefully). Open thread for XC thoughts.

1. Joe Huber played 50 games of Acquire during its Fiftieth anniversary, I note that next year is Race’s 20th Anniversary. ︎

---

 

 

Oh man, oh man, it’s time that we ask you (yes, you) to tell us (yes, us) what your favourite games are, because for one time a year, it doesn’t matter what we think about games, but you better be ready to tell us what you think about games. A lot of you did, so here it is, the listener top 20! Before we ask you to do all the work, we talk about Emberheart, Gods & Mortals, and Feya’s Swamp.

If you don’t want to miss an episode, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts/Google Podcasts/Stitcher/Spotify, or add our RSS feed to your favourite app. Reviews and subscriptions really help us and would be greatly appreciated! To download the episode directly, click here.

If you’d like to discuss anything in the episode, please do so in the comments below, visit our BoardGameGeek guild, join our Discord, or Facebook Group! Any feedback is also always helpful. If you’d like to show your support for the show, we also have a Patreon with some fun rewards, and a merch store!

Timecodes:

01:30 – Emberheart
14:11 – Gods & Mortals
23:46 – Feya’s Swamp
33:38 – Listener Top 20
37:14 – A Feast for Odin
37:55 – Agricola
38:32 – Terraforming Mars
39:17 – Guards of Atlantis II
40:09 – Concordia
42:05 – Tigris & Euphrates
43:16 – Blood on the Clocktower
44:00 – El Grande
44:47 – The Castles of Burgundy
46:12 – Inis
47:38 – Race for the Galaxy
48:06 – Arcs
49:08 – Ark Nova
49:30 – Root
50:06 – Innovation
51:11 – Spirit Island
52:05 – Ra
52:51 – Brass: Birmingham
53:26 – Dune: Imperium
54:04 – Hansa Teutonica

Thank you to Heart Society for generously letting us use What’s On Your Mind, Kid? from their album Wake the Queens.

If you don’t want to miss an episode, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts/Google Podcasts/Stitcher/Spotify, or add our RSS feed to your favourite app. Reviews and subscriptions really help us and would be greatly appreciated! To download the episode directly, click here.

If you’d like to discuss anything in the episode, please do so in the comments below, visit our BoardGameGeek guild, join our Discord, or Facebook Group! Any feedback is also always helpful. If you’d like to show your support for the show, we also have a Patreon with some fun rewards, and a merch store!

Timecodes:

01:30 – Emberheart
14:11 – Gods & Mortals
23:46 – Feya’s Swamp
33:38 – Listener Top 20
37:14 – A Feast for Odin
37:55 – Agricola
38:32 – Terraforming Mars
39:17 – Guards of Atlantis II
40:09 – Concordia
42:05 – Tigris & Euphrates
43:16 – Blood on the Clocktower
44:00 – El Grande
44:47 – The Castles of Burgundy
46:12 – Inis
47:38 – Race for the Galaxy
48:06 – Arcs
49:08 – Ark Nova
49:30 – Root
50:06 – Innovation
51:11 – Spirit Island
52:05 – Ra
52:51 – Brass: Birmingham
53:26 – Dune: Imperium
54:04 – Hansa Teutonica

Thank you to Heart Society for generously letting us use What’s On Your Mind, Kid? from their album Wake the Queens.

The post BGB Podcast #358 – Our Listeners’ Top 20 Board Games of All-Time 2026 appeared first on Board Game Barrage.

Tom Lehmann is one of the sharpest card game designers in the biz. Responsible for highly regarded engine builders such as Race for the Galaxy, Jump Drive, and Res Arcana, he has branched off to ply his trade in the somewhat creaky deckbuilding realm. The result is a mashup of traditional aspects riffing on Dominion…

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