My fifth game with my brother, although our first with 2-player rules.

I got New Sparta, while my brother got Alpha Centauri. I got some military cards right from the start, so it looked like a blitz-settle strategy was doable.

Unfortunately, my brother got just the cards to counter my strategy.

By his fifth card, he had Replicant Robots (-2 to settle) and Terraforming Robots (+1 card in settle phase). And, don't forget his Alpha Centauri (-1 to settle rare worlds).

My brother settled several cheap worlds with these cards, setting up a small produce-consume engine (4 VP on 2x). However, their powers were truly felt in the last two rounds. I had built 7 cards and had to end the game quickly, but I played right into my brother's hand.

In the second last round, I choose settle 2x. My brother chose develop, consume 2x VP.

I built a cheap development and settled two worlds. Only two more cards to go!

Unfortunately for me, my brother developed Mining League (produce: 2 rare -> 3 VP) and managed to settle two worlds, thanks to his robotic cards. What's worse, they were both windfall worlds, and he managed to consume them fully, giving him 10 VPs. In contrast, I only managed to get 2 VP (no doubling).

In the last round, I settled 2x again. Again, my brother was able to settle two worlds cheaply.

I finished 23 to his 37.

I hesitated from settling once I saw his robotic cards, but somehow I didn't manage to put out consume worlds until the last few cards.

To rub salt into the wound, my brother claimed that he only saw one 6-point development card, and it happened to be Mining League, which he got +5 VPs out of it.


Edited: changed "By his fourth card" to "By his fifth card".