Game: Starfarers of Catan

Thread: Re: Encounter clarification

Awakening — 2008-08-23T09:00:54+00:00

I tried contacting Mayfair about this but never got a reply.

If the player having the encounter is the only one adding the bonus then this will lower the value of the scientists as you are only making it better for yourself, not worse for anyone else.

Going strictly by the rules, as you should in any game, this is how it should be played. And not just the pirate encounters but all encounters involving comparing cannons or boosters.

Thread: Re: Encounter clarification

fastfingers — 2008-08-23T06:02:22+00:00

That approach had never occurred to us. It's interesting in that it seems more thematic.

I'd be interested in mentioning the idea that friendship bonuses do not apply to pirate related actions next time we play to see what the table wants to do. Whether this is a coded rule or not I cannot say. Like I said, it feels more thematic, but I'm not inclined to say something like this is a rule just yet.

Thread: Re: Encounter clarification

Red Dragon — 2008-08-23T03:02:04+00:00

MisterG wrote:
I concur with Mr. Wessels. Friendship bonuses are added to both players involved in an encounter. At least, that's the way my group has always played.
I would disagree, going by the spirit of the rules, the races are all in harmony, except for the despicable pirates. The Scientists are "friends" with the player who has the outpost (and therefore the card), they are not "friends" with any pirates. Therefore, the pirates should not get a bonus as a result of one player having a trading outpost with the Scientists. The fact that the Scientist friendship cards are never mentioned in either the encounter card or the almanac description of dealing with pirates is significant. I think the same goes for wormholes and rescue attempts: the star the prince's ship is falling into is no worse just because some other player made friends with the Scientists.

Thread: Re: Flight Rules

Red Dragon — 2008-08-23T02:54:31+00:00

mark_biggar wrote:
most people even play that you can interleaf the movement of your ships. For example, the following seems to be allowed: move one ship to a colony point and peek at the chits, move a different ship to another colony point and peek there, then continue moving the first ship the rest of its movment...
Well, that's technically against the rules. You're supposed to move your ships in order by number of bumps on the nose of the ship, and it has always been enforced whenever it made a difference in the games I've played. You can't even end the first ship's turn on the space the second ship starts, because the second ship is still there. It makes you think a little when deciding which number of ship to build. I always build number 2 first, so I have a choice whether to build the next one with higher or lower priority.

Image

Brother Bart — 2008-08-22T15:21:55+00:00

Fun for the whole family!

Thread: Re: Mix of variants to speed up the game

Philbot — 2008-08-18T17:04:11+00:00

Our gaming group has played Cities and Knights constantly, until we were introduced to StarFarer's recently, so we have been playing that lately. However, we quickly were disturbed by the length of the games and the inactivity of the other players (read as "people were bored"), when it is not their turn. We thought and thought and tested and tested... (5-6 different things), and made two modifications to make the game faster, under 2 hours, and more involved.

1. To get the beginning of the game to move faster we always have two colonies and one spaceport to start the game, regardless of how many people are playing (3-6). We settle the starting systems (with the greek characters), then move outward as required. If there are 5 players, we settle the starting systems and the closest stick-on system. If there are 6 players, we allow putting colonies on: the starting systems, the closest stick-on system, and the two permanant systems closest to the starting systems. This gives everyone 6 planets for production and gets the game going faster. We settle as 123456, 654321, 123456 and you cannot place the spaceport down first.

2. The next thing was to get others involved when not their turn. When playing 3-4 players it is not too bad, but once the expansion is added with 6 players, you don't do much until your turn and there is a lot of waiting.

Similar to Cities and Knights, during the half turns people can build and this keeps everyone involved, you can build and essentially expand, but in Starfarer's you can only build ships and place them next to spaceports, without really expanding. Se we decided to allow movement by paying 1 Fuel card for 2 spots, with a maximum of 3 Fuel cards (for 6 spots). After the person whose turn it is, moves their spaceships, in order those who paid for movement move and colonize as they are able.

This can get very strategic and costly. You have to decide wether to build boosters, which gives you extra movements for the entire game, or move immediately. This also allows one to move a spaceship into position to block someone from settling, or out-racing someone to a spot.

Everyone in our group have enjoyed these modifications, and we introduced the changes to another group we sometimes play with and they also thought they enhanced the game.

Just thought I would share.

Thread: Re: Where are the development cards in space?

Deaddogdays — 2008-08-14T12:53:13+00:00

MisterG wrote:

I am intrigued. IIRC, merchant encounters (and Traveller encounters) only give out trade ships. Perhaps you have a different editon of the game?

It wasn't my copy of the game, but I'll look into this.

Thread: Re: Where are the development cards in space?

kusinohki — 2008-08-14T09:14:59+00:00

Ignore my last post. The rules weren't as explicit as I thought, but it looks like "deal with event" then "move ships" which would include moving any ships you got from the event.

MisterG wrote:

I am intrigued. IIRC, merchant encounters (and Traveller encounters) only give out trade ships. Perhaps you have a different editon of the game?I just looked through all the cards and saw nothing but trade ships. No colony ships to be found.

Thread: Re: Where are the development cards in space?

kusinohki — 2008-08-14T08:38:47+00:00

Deaddogdays wrote:
He gets an encounter and I immediately feel a sinking feeling. Some merchant gives him a colony ship for 3 resources. He immediately places it at a spaceport, moves it, and sets it down for his final point and the win.I need to double check some rules, but I could have sworn any new ships acquired during an event doesn't move until the next turn.

-pause-

Now I'm wondering.... TO THE RULEBOOK!

Thread: Re: Where are the development cards in space?

MisterG — 2008-08-14T08:28:00+00:00

I am intrigued. IIRC, merchant encounters (and Traveller encounters) only give out trade ships. Perhaps you have a different editon of the game?

Thread: Where are the development cards in space?

Deaddogdays — 2008-08-13T13:41:46+00:00

I have never ventured outside of standard Settlers of Catan, so when I was given the option to play Starfarers I was delighted. My first thought was, “Wow, These ships really are cool!” I was expecting Settlers rebranded in space with slightly different mechanics, so I was in for a surprise. I think I realized how different it was about halfway through explanation of play (I found it difficult to listen as I enamored with the ships).

We decided to use the standard placements to speed up the process since we had some newer players. The game started with Robin and me in an early arms race in hopes that we could thwart others well planned strategies with laser! Who doesn’t want to fight pirates in space? Kristen bought boosters, but soon had unfavorable encounters which she soon blamed me, the reader, instead of the dastardly pirates.

Having my ship sufficiently armed, I began to play the game much like one would play a standard game of settlers (maybe not the best strategy). I quickly sat two colony ships down near an ore planet with an 8. Robin occupied the other side of this solar system. Kristen and Neil ventured further out seeking planets with the resources to fuel their galactic empires.

After the third or fourth round, I realized that everyone was gaining fame but me. The two encounter I had throughout the entire game consisted a merchant who thought he was too good for my resources and some pirates who just wanted to trade some stuff. All my cohorts were saving diplomats, blasting hostile pirates, and rescuing ships hurling into suns. How did I ever expect to get ahead? Aliens! I build two spaceports, loaded up on freight capacity, and started pumping out trade ship. I quickly sold 2 victory points and victory points from Robin without even apologizing.

Feeling much like Han Solo at this point, I can nearly taste victory. One more trade ship and I’ll be 2 more VP closer. One successful encounter rewarding me with a fame ring will solidify my win. Neil seems has been stalled at 14 VP for a turn or two and I think he doesn’t have the resources he needs. Robin can’t get the alien’s favor back this turn and I don’t seem him upgrading two colonies. Could Kristen have something up her sleeve? Maybe, but I’m putting that out of mind.

Neil takes his turn and doesn’t immediately win, but I still think he can still win with another fame ring. He gets an encounter and I immediately feel a sinking feeling. Some merchant gives him a colony ship for 3 resources. He immediately places it at a spaceport, moves it, and sets it down for his final point and the win. Final score was as follows:

Neil – 15
Robin – 14
Kristen – 13
Me – 13

Thread: Re: starfarers of catan spaceship components

Dman21224 — 2008-07-25T14:23:20+00:00

You can e-mail them at custserv@mayfairgames.com. GL

Thread: Re: starfarers of catan spaceship components

jmagi — 2008-07-23T19:39:50+00:00

I've been searching the Mayfair site and can't seem to find a link to "contact" or "email them". Will some one please post the link? tx

Image

Toynan — 2008-07-18T10:34:38+00:00

Ready to launch !

Thread: Re: starfarers of catan spaceship components

Glen Oakland — 2008-07-17T21:06:29+00:00

Thanks for all your replies about starship of catan components. Will take the plunge and see if it will handle my kids. And as long as I can keep pieces form falling on the floor, and out of the dog's mouth, all just be just fine. Cheers.

Thread: Re: starfarers of catan spaceship components

Aetheros — 2008-07-16T18:04:08+00:00

I kept forgetting to look into this. My copy is 8 years old and sees play once every 3 or 4 years. I emailed today and had a response with a promise of free rings within 4 hours.

Thread: Re: starfarers of catan spaceship components

ipgyst — 2008-07-16T13:17:54+00:00

If these gray-colored rings do not come with your copy of Starfarers, you will be able to write to Mayfair or Kosmos and receive them for free. Once you have them, breakage is a non-issue and you will be able to play and enjoy Starfarers as long as you like.

Thread: Re: starfarers of catan spaceship components

sirkerry — 2008-07-16T13:17:02+00:00

rjpomeroy wrote:
The new Mayfair edition includes the ring for attaching the boosters and that breakage issue has been resolved.
The other prevalent, but far less discussed issue, is that the tips of the rockets (where you slip the fame rings on) are quite fragile and sometimes arrive broken on shipment.
Two of four were broken in the set I purchased. The owner of the FLGS where I purchased mine (props to the Games Keep in West Chester PA) cracked open a copy and replaced them for me, he also assured me that Mayfair was aware of the issue and willing to replace the rockets.

Yep, I recently purchased the Mayfair edition and it did indeed have the ring attachment. I also had one the tips on the mothership break off while removing the cap to place a fame ring (or whatever they're called) and tried contacting Mayfair about buying a replacement mothership and was told that they don't have any replacements available.

Thread: Re: starfarers of catan spaceship components

rjpomeroy — 2008-07-16T12:45:07+00:00

The new Mayfair edition includes the ring for attaching the boosters and that breakage issue has been resolved.
The other prevalent, but far less discussed issue, is that the tips of the rockets (where you slip the fame rings on) are quite fragile and sometimes arrive broken on shipment.
Two of four were broken in the set I purchased. The owner of the FLGS where I purchased mine (props to the Games Keep in West Chester PA) cracked open a copy and replaced them for me, he also assured me that Mayfair was aware of the issue and willing to replace the rockets.

Thread: Re: starfarers of catan spaceship components

agashamirv — 2008-07-16T10:47:16+00:00

Mayfair has given them away in the past, so I would guess they're now included in the new editions.

Thread: Re: starfarers of catan spaceship components

Grimwold — 2008-07-16T10:19:34+00:00

They released a set of plastic rings that go around each of the mother ships for the boosters to clip in... they are much more robust. You could get them as a (free?) "upgrade" if you had the original edition. I'm guessing that later editions of the game come with these...

]]>

Thread: Re: starfarers of catan spaceship components

Tanakor — 2008-07-16T10:19:24+00:00

There is a new "attachment" for the rocket, that prevents the breaking:
]]>
I ordered mine from Kosmos and I believe that they are now standard in new copies of the game. But I have no idea if Mayfair has introduced them.

Your question would propably yield more (and better) answers, if you re-posted it in the general forum of Starfarers of Catan itself.

Edit: Just saw, that you only registered today. Welcome to the geek, Glen!

Thread: Re: starfarers of catan spaceship components

Nikku — 2008-07-16T08:55:44+00:00

Yes they do unfortunately.

On almost all of my rockets the part where you clip on the engines break after a couple of games. Maybe they fixed this in recent editions, because I own an old german edition.

Thread: Re: A Long Time Ago in A Catan Far Far Away

xguild — 2008-07-09T13:11:04+00:00

Keep in mind also that there actually is a 2 player game called StarShip Catan that is a sort of adapted version of this StarFarers. Its actually quite good, albeit not as elaborate.

Image

DaMarsh — 2008-07-01T23:29:29+00:00

Starfarers of Catan played in the CABS board room at Origins08

Thread: Showing the old 'uns how it's done

harris_family — 2008-06-27T14:12:50+00:00

This Thursday the gang of four was down to what is turning out to be a regular triumvirate (reminder to self: ask Ian what the heck he's doing in Yorkshire so much nowadays?). As my eldest daughter (18) was at a bit of a loose end she asked to come along to the session. I'm all for bringing in new players so, of course I agreed.

I know she's played (and enjoyed) Starfarers of Catan before so that kinda settled what to bring along. I think this one plays best with 4 (3 is the only other option, without expansions) if only because you get more 'produces' between turns and so you get more cards in hand.
We did the usual 'advanced' set-up where you semi-randomly place the starting planets and then take turns in placing your 3 initial colonies. A while back, we decided it was fairest NOT to do this in order 1234, 1234, 1234 rather 1234, 4321, 1234.

What soon became apparent 4 turns in was the importance of placing wisely. The temptation (certainly for me!) is to go for 'frequency' (i.e. 6 and 8 numbered planets) rather than going for a spread of the 5 resources. I found myself with a relative glut of 'ore' and a severe 'food' shortage. On the other side of the table, the position was reversed with Ralph. Of course, trading is the obvious answer but it often turned out that the 'spares' weren't available at the same time. As a consequence of having *lots* of the wrong cards I found myself with big (and consequently, vunerable) hands. Sure enough, I threw 7's when I was holding 11 and 12 cards. That meant a huge loss of resources having to discard half on both occasions.

Anyway, what with 'farmer Ralph' and his handfuls of food, me and my ore mountain and Alan with the saddest looking, unexpanded mothership I think I've ever seen in front of him it was Lauren who was creeping steadily into the lead almost unnoticed. She was on 12 VPs when it suddenly became apparent that she had a colony ship AND a trade ship on the wing! Two turns later, one colony (1 VP), one friendship chip (2 VP) and it was curtains for the 'old guard'! Oh well, good fun anyway.

Thread: Re: Encounter clarification

MisterG — 2008-06-16T22:09:59+00:00

I concur with Mr. Wessels. Friendship bonuses are added to both players involved in an encounter. At least, that's the way my group has always played.

Thread: Re: Encounter clarification

Awakening — 2008-06-16T11:19:51+00:00

The encounter cards themselves only states the boosters and cannons and not the friendship cards. Only the almanac specifies the use of friendship cards for the player having the encounter. Also the cards themselves specifies that the added bonus applies to your starships and not to your mother ship.

Thread: Re: Encounter clarification

fastfingers — 2008-06-16T10:52:35+00:00

We play as if the extra cannons or boosters that come from the Scientists' cards are no different than those added by the individual user. From my point of view there is no difference between a player investing in added cannons, for example, and doing a trade with the Scientists and getting a cannon boost technology.

Therefore, we count them for both players involved.

Thread: Encounter clarification

Awakening — 2008-06-16T10:05:59+00:00

I just went through the rules and one thing wasn't clear. The player who has the encounter gets to add the friendship bonus of their scientist cards as according to the almanac, but it does not clarify whether the player who represents the pirates (or whatever) should add their cards as well. Now, logic says that he should not but neither the rules nor the almanac clarifies this.

Thread: Re: limit on number fame rings?

Awakening — 2008-06-16T09:52:33+00:00

Well, here's a question for you. If you play 4 players and 2 players get 11 rings, does that mean the other two have to be content with 9 since the rules states there are only 40 rings available?

My copy actually came with 41 rings

Thread: Re: Were there changes between the German and English versions?

MisterG — 2008-06-03T03:32:37+00:00

I don't have my U.S. edition rules in front of me, but a quick scan of the translation you posted, Paul, indicates that a player with less than nine points still gets a bonus resource card even if they roll a "7"; I don't recall that the U.S. edition allows that.

Thread: Re: Shaking your rocket

MisterG — 2008-05-31T09:42:04+00:00

To be honest, my group found out otherwise after we'd played enough times to break virtually every mothership in the game. We also found it very irritating that static electricity would often cause the balls to refuse to fall into the bubble. We finally realized that all we needed was a single d6 to generate the same results.

How so? Quite simple: take a standard d6, use a Sharpie (or whatever marking implement you prefer) to color in a pip on the 1, 2, and 6. When making a ship/movement roll, the colored pip indicates an encounter roll; the 3, 4, and 5 indicate "clean" movement without an encounter. When rolling to generate an encounter card result, the pips are ignored. A 1-5 roll is what it is, while a 6 roll is treated as a 3 roll. All of this conforms precisely with the probabilities of the colored balls falling into the bubble, without ANY of the associated drawbacks (like breaking the motherships). We use our poor, broken ships strictly for racking up boosters, cannon, and freight rings. Oh, yes, and all but one of our motherships has lost its nose, so we simply keep fame rings displayed in front of us, next to whatever alien influence cards we have.

Had we known the fragility of the motherships from the beginning, we would never, ever have bothered shaking them at all. In fact, I might well have never bought the game in the first place. Poor production design on Mayfair's part, I'm sorry to say. Worse, the recesses meant to hold the boosters break quite easily, although to Mayfair's credit, when I emailed them about it, they promptly, cheerfully, and quickly mailed a set of much more durable plastic rings that slip over the body of the mothership; we've never broken one of those. One can only hope that if there's ever a future edition of the game these problems will be remedied.

All that said, I think Starfarers is a remarkably clever variant of the Settlers theme. My group has played it many times, including several house variants we've come up with.

Thread: Re: Great game (though cheap gamepieces)

Goodsound — 2008-05-13T10:55:51+00:00

thepogoman wrote:
Great game (though cheap gamepieces)

Please don't mistake fragile with cheap. Actually those motherships are amongst the most expensive game pieces ever seen in a board game.

Thread: Re: Great game (though cheap gamepieces)

Lakoda — 2008-05-09T14:21:06+00:00

I completely agree with the OP. My copy of the game came with the rings, but I still find the mother ships to be too fragile - my only significant complaint about the game. I have had the nose break on several of them. Driven by that, and boredom I made this to work around the issue.
]]>
Cole.

Image

Lakoda — 2008-05-08T14:37:11+00:00

New Starfarers Player Aid; no need for fragile Mother Ship

Image

matthewjhoskins — 2008-04-10T02:53:30+00:00

I could have played Pandemic instead...

Image

Aljovin — 2008-04-07T00:16:55+00:00

Starting colonies

Image

Aljovin — 2008-04-07T00:16:07+00:00

Game in progress

Image

Aljovin — 2008-04-07T00:15:39+00:00

The end is near!

Thread: Re: Great game (though cheap gamepieces)

thepogoman — 2008-03-26T12:41:35+00:00

Thanks for the info! I emailed Mayfair last night about it.

Thread: Re: Great game (though cheap gamepieces)

Liumas — 2008-03-26T06:14:00+00:00

ltux wrote:
Mayfair noted this problem years ago, and they offered replacement booster rings (made out of sturdier plastic). I requested them long after the initial offer was made, and I received them promptly.
Absolutely - what Larry said. We didn't play mine until we had the replacement rings. The latest versions will come with the replacement rings in the box, but you'll still be able to get them on the side.

Thread: Re: Great game (though cheap gamepieces)

ltux — 2008-03-26T05:17:01+00:00

Mayfair noted this problem years ago, and they offered replacement booster rings (made out of sturdier plastic). I requested them long after the initial offer was made, and I received them promptly.

Thread: Great game (though cheap gamepieces)

thepogoman — 2008-03-26T04:57:41+00:00

I recently picked up a copy of this game while it was on sale and have to say that it is great. My friends and I really enjoyed it, and I will definitely play it many more times.

My one complaint is the cheapness of the plastic used for the motherships. We managed to break off several of the tabs while trying to attach or remove boosters before eventually deciding to just stack them next to the ships. My friend also managed to break one of the tabs that holds on the colored cap on the nose of the ship. All this in the course of two games; had I payed full price I would have been pretty annoyed. Anyway, has anyone else had problems with this?

Image

mexilplif — 2008-03-24T03:05:02+00:00

Its still anyones game.

Thread: Re: Playing German version

bigfluffylemon — 2008-03-12T13:37:34+00:00

We play the same way. Never had any trouble. We just have a sheet with all the translations on, and number the cards to match the translation.

Thread: Playing German version

King Zombie — 2008-03-12T13:09:35+00:00

How easy it is to play the German version of this if you only speak English?

I've got the translations,etc from here but don't want to paste up the cards. Will using translations slow the game down a lot or is most of the text mainly background and the functions of the cards easy to work out?

Thread: Phalluses in Spaaaaaaaace (Why I would play this again)

hseldon — 2008-03-03T00:25:37+00:00

This game is as silly as the Muppet Show, but not in a good way. My wife and I owned the original German version and spent a ton of time on translating the cards, making little stickers for the translations and playing it several times. Then we hid it away and pretended we never owned. Finally sold it when we moved from San Francisco.

Then our friend Cameron pulled it out (phallus reference #1) at our game group the other night. Chrissy rolled her eyes, I shrugged, our buddy Mark laughed at us, Chris was also interested, so we said, what the hell. We told the story of our first plays and as Chris and Cam were excited about shaking their rockets (PR#2), Chrissy and I consented and started the be foreplay (PR#3). Once the board was set up and we reviewed the rules, off we went.

I was pretty happy with getting carbon on an 8 and getting fuel on a 6. Little did I know that these numbers were going to be pretty meaningless for critical parts of my game. I had no real trade good numbers and remembered that trade colonies were pretty sweet, so I arose (PR#4) to the challenge of getting some (Pr#5) ASAP. I blew my stack (PR#6) of resources for an early trade ship and headed off to the nearest aliens as well as a trade good planet. I could not add any speed to my ship so it took me two turns to get there and the trade planet was a three. Joy. There was an 8 ore next to it, but I could not settle on a 3 and so I pulled out early (PR#7). I was able to settle on the 8 ore and a 10 carbon as my trade ship made it to the aliens. I took the get an extra carbon card, figuring on making a space colony quickly. I was now impotent (PR#8) as all my ships were spent (PR#9). Then I did not see another carbon for four turns. You need three to make a space colony. I had none. Zero, zip, nada. The free cards were not turning up carbon, the 8 and 10 were nowhere in sight. Of course when I planted my seed (PR#10) and settled twice in one turn, I became the points leader. I had also had some positive encounters along the way and was getting pretty famous. This was very helpful as the sevens were rolled and my cards were vanishing.

Cam was busy playing by himself (PR#11) as he was not getting ahead (PR#12) and was losing out on the encounters constantly. Chrissy was building steadily and launching new ships around and had made more friends with aliens and was scoring some friends with benefits (PR#13) points. Chris had built up his mother ship and was cruising around with many ships, settling all over the place, built a lovely space port and then scored with my aliens (PR#14) causing me to lose two points and getting the free cards again. There was my carbon. Not on the 8 or 10, but on the free random card.

I built my space port and quickly put out (PR#15) some new ships. Now things were rolling and I had added cannons, boosters, freight rings to my mother ship. I was still having a trade good problem and could not get any to build a stinking trade ship. So I headed out to score on (PR#16) some virgin (PR#17) planets that others could not settle on. I snagged some points by evicting pirates and was rewarded with new numbers of 10 and 11. Joy. But things were headed in the right direction for me. Too bad there were other players though.

Chris had yanked his ship (PR#18) so many times that he was getting pretty famous for it. That and the amount of planets he landed on were becoming a problem. Not for him though. He had the bonus trade good card, the 1:1 trade good trading card and fat numbers on trade goods. Yeah, he was scoring left and right (PR#19).

Chrissy had settled everwhere after some nice alien space warps and was settled in with two different aliens. I always knew she wasn't picky. I mean, she married me and now she is shacking up with aliens and stealing my cards.

Cam seemed to be enjoying himself (PR#20) and seemed like he could not get his ships out of the docks (PR#21) and score on any good planets. He landed on some double baggers (PR#22) and could not get much in resources.

By the time Chris had 14 points, I could only get up (PR#23) to 13. He scored a few cards again. And again on the next roll and we figured he would on his turn. Chrissy hoped for some encounter that would allow her to steal one of his cards or something, but it was futile and he built a space port on his next turn without picking up any of the cards he got on the final roll.

Will I play this again? Probably. The plastic bits are cheap and tacky and the whole mother ship expansions and ball dropping are so ridiculous that it really hurts the game for me. There was really no need for any of it. Much like my references throughout this session report! There could have eaily been another way to indicate ship upgrades (card flips, like city upgrades?) and the meeples are just lame. The ideas behind the game are fine, the encounters are ok, although a little repetitive. Still, I upgraded my rating of the game to a 5 and if Cam desires to whip this out (sorry) at game night again, I would join that table. Maybe after peeking at another table first though.

Thread: Re: Mix of variants to speed up the game

mvettemagred — 2008-02-16T14:07:13+00:00

mvettemagred wrote:
I've recently acquired Starfarers and played two games (one 3-p and one 4-p). My friends and I really enjoy the nice marriage of theme and gameplay, but we all agree it drags out a little too long. Most of this "extra" time is spent early in the game, as players are resource starved, while at the same time trying to build ships and colonize more planets. Both games took about 2.5 hours.

After digesting the variants on this site and discussing them with my friends, here are the mix of variants we feel will speed up the early stages of the game, while not severely altering the game overall:

1. A tweak on the "no reserve pile" variant. You still create the reserve pile per the rules. However, players with less than 7 VPs can either take one resource of their choice, or take two resources from the reserve pile. Players with 7-8 VPs may take one resource from the reserve pile. Players with 9+ VPs get no bonus resources.

This tweak allows players a choice early in the game when they're low on resources. If they just need one resource to build something and keep the game moving, they can take it. Otherwise, they might prefer two random resources, as it builds their hand faster and provides trade bait.

2. A tweak of the "empty space" variant, detailed on another post. Black ball on the bottom = encounter. Black ball on the top means the player can choose to have an encounter or not.

We plan to try these two together in our next game. I'll post the results here.

Update:
We tried variant #1 in a 4-player game on 15Feb2008, and the "take one" option was only used twice by me, and not at all by the other players. It just seemed that taking two unknown cards was always the better option. Next time, we'll eliminate the reserve pile and allow players with less than 7 VPs to take two cards of their choice from the bank.

Variant #2 came up several times in our game on 15Feb2008, but each time the player decided to have the encounter. There was only one time that a player seriously considered not having the encounter, but he went for it anyway. I think we'll keep this option, but it really didn't save any time.

We also used the 5-6 player expansion to have more planets to colonize, and to have the Travelers race to establish trade with. All of these variants together didn't shorten the game at all. It took us 2.5 hours to play the game. As posted above, we're going to eliminate the reserve pile next time and allow players to pull two resources of their choice from the bank when they have less than 7 VPs. I think this will help speed up the early part of the game. We all enjoy this game, but need to get it down to 2 hours or less.

Thread: Re: Speed Up the Game- Forget the Resource Reserve Pile!

beckeykevin — 2008-02-15T21:02:28+00:00

Yes to every comment.

I find trading to be OK in basic Settlers. Players know exactly which resources were produced, so they will hopefully not be asking for Wood every turn, since it is obvious that no one has rolled any Wood production for the past 12 turns!

Unfortunately in Starfarers, the resources from the Resource Reserve Deck are hidden. Therefore players will more likely ask for a particular resource EVERY round for there is no way of knowing if someone has it or not! Trading takes forever using the basic rules.

Thread: Re: Mix of variants to speed up the game

mvettemagred — 2008-02-15T11:28:44+00:00

Thanks for the insight, Jon. I'm looking forward to trying this out.

Thread: Re: House rules:

Droch — 2008-02-14T21:25:07+00:00

Ah...but having the lowest position still has an advantage of giving the player the first pick of the cards and requires fewer freight rings. In games that I've played, the freight rings is a real limitation for at least some of the players. Also, getting that boost from the card early in the game still warrants building trade ships early.

As for one racial card at each base, we did that to give the game a different flavor. Since planet chips are hidden until you explore them, so too are the cards at each base. I understand that a lot of people wouldn't like this change, but our group found it to be exciting. We have played a lot of Starfarers and need a change of pace.

Thread: Re: Mix of variants to speed up the game

JonnyG — 2008-02-01T02:53:36+00:00

First time we played, we missed the creation of the reserve pile in the setup. So when we took our extra card every turn we picked the resource. This seemed to work well, people could get that mission resource. And it cuts off before they get real close to winning.

Thread: Mix of variants to speed up the game

mvettemagred — 2008-02-01T02:28:07+00:00

I've recently acquired Starfarers and played two games (one 3-p and one 4-p). My friends and I really enjoy the nice marriage of theme and gameplay, but we all agree it drags out a little too long. Most of this "extra" time is spent early in the game, as players are resource starved, while at the same time trying to build ships and colonize more planets. Both games took about 2.5 hours.

After digesting the variants on this site and discussing them with my friends, here are the mix of variants we feel will speed up the early stages of the game, while not severely altering the game overall:

1. A tweak on the "no reserve pile" variant. You still create the reserve pile per the rules. However, players with less than 7 VPs can either take one resource of their choice, or take two resources from the reserve pile. Players with 7-8 VPs may take one resource from the reserve pile. Players with 9+ VPs get no bonus resources.

This tweak allows players a choice early in the game when they're low on resources. If they just need one resource to build something and keep the game moving, they can take it. Otherwise, they might prefer two random resources, as it builds their hand faster and provides trade bait.

2. A tweak of the "empty space" variant, detailed on another post. Black ball on the bottom = encounter. Black ball on the top means the player can choose to have an encounter or not.

We plan to try these two together in our next game. I'll post the results here.

Thread: Re: House rules: "empty space" + trader tweaks

Octavian — 2008-02-01T02:19:15+00:00

The least intrusive way to speed up play, IMO, is to give players 2 random resource cards each turn instead of the usual 1.

-MMM

Thread: Re: House rules: "empty space" + trader tweaks

mvettemagred — 2008-02-01T01:49:45+00:00

My friend and I have recently played two games of Starfarers (with other players), and have been discussing tweaks to speed up play. We like the "empty space" variant, and plan to use it next time.

However, I don't understand the purpose of giving each racial homebase a card from each race. The purpose of having each race have a focus to their cards is to make players choose between going to the homebase that has the cards they need most, going to the homebase where they can get easy VPs, or going to the homebase where they can steal 2 VPs from another player. Using your variant, it doesn't really matter which homebase you go to, until you need to steal VPs from another player. To me, this takes too much of the theme out of the game.

Also, the reason ties go to the lowest position is to incent players to build trade ships early in the game. Otherwise, all players initially would build colony ships in a race to find and colonize the good numbers. There would be very little incentive to build any trade ships until most planets had been colonized. This would make games too repetitive, I think.

Thread: Re: A Long Time Ago in A Catan Far Far Away

Darth Headbutt — 2008-01-31T03:21:49+00:00

Dredry Toenail wrote:
You don't think playing with 2 players would be fun? I've played the two-player version using the rules posted by Steve Wessels (fastfingers) and found it very satisfying. Nobody dominated the game and it was a race to the end. Games can last around 2-3 hours. The 5-6 player expansion is used for these rules and you are limited to only placing one settlement per player in each star system so you are forced to expand out across the board. Resources come fairly quickly so you can build ships and explore faster than in a 3 or 4 player game. I suggest checking it out if you only have one player who wants to play a game with you.

Thanks for the tip. I checked out the two player version. It looks like it could be worth trying.

Thread: Re: A Long Time Ago in A Catan Far Far Away

Dredry Toenail — 2008-01-30T15:17:30+00:00

You don't think playing with 2 players would be fun? I've played the two-player version using the rules posted by Steve Wessels (fastfingers) and found it very satisfying. Nobody dominated the game and it was a race to the end. Games can last around 2-3 hours. The 5-6 player expansion is used for these rules and you are limited to only placing one settlement per player in each star system so you are forced to expand out across the board. Resources come fairly quickly so you can build ships and explore faster than in a 3 or 4 player game. I suggest checking it out if you only have one player who wants to play a game with you.

Thread: House rules: "empty space" + trader tweaks

Droch — 2008-01-28T18:19:41+00:00

We play with the "empty space" tweak that I've seen on this board: black ball on bottom = encounter always occurs, black ball on top = player chooses to have or not have an encounter. Our group is of the opinion that encounters are a little too frequent, this rule has worked out well.

The other tweak requires the expansion: each trader has one card from each of the races. At the beginning of the game, one card from each race is randomly dealt to each of the traders. These remain face down, and players cannot look at them until they have a trade ship on one of the landing spots. They may "peak" at the cards, just as you get to peak at the chips on planets as you pass by. The player may then land the trade ship or continue to another one. Instead of one random card from each race, you can also make it completely random.

Also, for determining who gets the +2 VP chip, ties go to the player that has the HIGHEST position. Previously, landing on lower positions gave you a better pick of the cards, required fewer freight rings, AND made it harder to lose the +2 VP. This tweak makes it easier to dethrone a player who lands first.

Image

fenolin — 2008-01-09T18:25:09+00:00

Catan all-in-one:starfarers adapted:board up to 4 players