Mike Haverty
United States
Owasso
OK
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The first of several big space opera games hits the CCG Journey this week, courtesy of Johnny B. and the fine folks at Tanga.
The Game
I knew of EVE because I am (or was, really) a fan of massively multiplayer online games (MMOG). I think EVE is the sort of hard SF setting and gameplay that I could really get into IF I had the time and inclination any more. The CCG actually had some decent ratings/comments when it came out but we were in our CCG lull at the time, so we never checked it out.
Until now.
*duhn duhn*
The Decks
I didn't know Johnny B. had bought a set off Tanga until he handed me a 2p starter. Each starter comes with a pair of 55-card pre-built decks from two of the four different races. We just played with them as packaged and did not add any booster cards to them. Actually, each deck comes with extra home region cards (you only use 1) and outer regions (you only use 3) so that you could mix it up a little, but we used the recommended home + outers listed in the rulebook for each of the pre-built decks.
The Play
We actually have two and half plays of this for this report. We met up at lunch with John's starter but weren't able to complete a game in the time we had, though we played enough to get the hang of the rules. We then met a few days later, again at lunch, but were able to complete a game that time (although it was short with an anticlimactic ending, which you'll see). Finally, John gave me 5 boosters to go with my starter and we tore them apart and built our own decks to try against each other.
The game is deceptively simple, mechanically, but the flow feels rather different from other CCGs, which is what contributed to us not finishing our first game. The primary victory condition is simple: destroy your opponent's starbase, represented by a home region card.
Each player starts with a home region/starbase in play the provides some basic income and has a shield (defense) value. Each player also has 3 outer region cards that are separate from the play deck; these can be played (by paying their costs) to the table to create outer regions. They are all considered table-wide unique, so a 2p game may have from 0 to 6 outer regions in play, depending on how many get used and if there are any duplicates. Once in play, a region card never leaves play. Control is based exclusively on who has ships there; playing one of your outer region cards simply creates an uncontrolled region until you (or your opponent) moves a ship there, though you always control your home region, I suppose because that card also represents your starbase at that location.
Location cards are played into regions; each region indicates how many locations it can hold, ranging from infinite (home regions and some outer regions) all the way down to 0 (the only card effects in such a region is what is printed on the outer region card itself). Locations generally provide income and some have a mineral rating that indicates they can be mined for additional income. Control of a region grants control of all locations in that region, too, so it seemed like players would be fighting over regions regularly.
So far, so good. A slightly unintuitive mechanic here are the movement rules. Moving a ship between regions is called warping and you are free to warp your ships around however you like on your turn. There is no movement allowance, no tapping or other restriction on utility, no distance. You can move any of your ships from any region to any other region in play however you like, the only restriction being that if they enter an enemy controlled region (by definition, his home region or an outer region where he has a ship) it becomes an attack and they cannot leave it until the battle phase. You can take actions before and after moving, including after initiating an attack, until you are satisfied with your actions.
John mentioned before we even started that he'd read up a little and that a common "complaint" people had was that it was easy to lose the game by not defending your home region. Since all ships can go anywhere, it behooves you to maintain some kind of defense in your home region so that the enemy cannot simply warp a bunch of ships in and blow up your starbase without you even firing a shot back. That seems to make sense and we both thought, Okay, defend your starbase, we get it. I don't think we really felt that was a valid complaint -- it's like saying it's too easy to lose in chess if you don't defend your king 
So, you expand your income and play ships to increase your control, gather income, and attack/defend. What's different? Duration, assembly and commands. Many cards have little tabs along the edges. News cards (i.e., events) have duration tabs. For example, Stubborn Mechanic can be played instantly to give a ship +2 shield. It has three duration tabs (I, II and III), so it is played with the Duration III at the top; at the start of the controlling player's turn it will be rotated 90 degrees (clicked, as in City of Heroes) so it becomes Duration II, then I the next turn, then discarded. It's a neat, simple way to produce events of variable duration without using tokens, and some news cards have no duration tabs (one time effect) or an infinity symbol on the tab to denote a permanent effect (until canceled somehow).
Assembly works in a similar manner. Ships are paid for when played, but they are placed in your starbase under construction with the appropriate assembly tab along the edge; each turn it is turned one step closer to completion, until it enters play once it starts the turn at Assembly I. Bigger ships generally take longer to assemble, and any number of ships can be under assembly at the same time. I like this quite a lot; seeing what ships your opponent has in the pipeline can cause you to alter your plans.
Commands make use of the edge tab system as well. A small scout ship might have Patrol 1 listed on an edge tab; you can give that ship the command to Patrol by simply turning it so the Patrol tab is at the top edge. Printed in the card's text box is a definition for Patrol 1: during the target step (of a battle), you can force 1 enemy ship to target this ship. Other commands include Ambush X (deal X damage at the start of the withdraw step), Mining X (this ship produces income equal to X times the location's mineral value), and Trade X (generate X income, only while located in an outer region). Of course, some ships have multiple commands and you'll have to choose which one to make active -- do you want that scout ship on Patrol to protect other more valuable ships in the region, or do you want it Mining for extra income?
(Side note: movement in this game is very similar to a game design I've been working on for a long time, and the commands are similar to those used in a friend's game design, haha. I guess they are good/interesting ideas.)
That's the bulk of the game. Our first (incomplete) game was spent getting a handle on basic card play, realizing the implications of instant/free movement on your turn, building up income, etc. We came nowhere close to having enough firepower to go destroy a starbase before we ran out of time.
Our first full play was a bit meatier. We used the Caldari v Gallente starter, with me taking the Caldari. This game featured more skirmishing, where one of us would attack an outer region just to drive away the enemy ships, and then in turn be driven away the following turn. The way battle works is that there is a withdraw step during which either side can warp away, after any defending ships with Ambush active have done their damage. For example, a common scenario would have a ship with Ambush 3 controlling an outer region, which would be attacked by a couple ships with shields of 4 or higher. The defending ship would hit for 3 damage from ambush, then rather than sticking around to finish off an attacking ship during targeting/damage steps (and be destroyed itself) it would withdraw. The battle phase happens after the management phase (main phase, basically) so the attacker does not have time to activate his own commands, such as putting the erstwhile attackers into ambush or patrol mode. This sort of outer region hijinks would happen periodically to reduce enemy income (counted at the start of the turn) or nullify a beneficial ability from a region.
This game saw the play of a region called Metropolis with the text: enemy ships cannot warp into your home region unless he pays you 4 isk per ship you have here. In this game our income was fairly low, so Metropolis was frequently the site of a proxy war for us, each attacking it to take control and act as a buffer to dissuade the enemy from attacking our home region. In the end, though, I made the classic blunder and left my home region undefended, not paying attention to the fact that John's ship in Assembly I (meaning it was coming out next turn) would boost his attack strength high enough to destroy my starbase. It was, as expected, anticlimactic and entirely my own fault.
We each made our own decks, though, for our next go round, which was much more exciting. I made a Caldari deck with a raiding theme. One card I pulled from a pack was a common called Thukker Pirate Haven, which lets me steal 1 isk from my opponent each time one of my ships hits his starbase. Even if it took a lot more firepower to destroy a starbase, I thought that many small ships would let me jump in, tag his starbase for some cash, and then withdraw. In fact, I was counting on him not keeping much of a defense up while I had just small ships in play. I also had Advanced Shipyard which reduces the cost of all ships by 1 isk each, and a rare Perch of Persecution that lets me name a card if I hit my opponent's starbase, then look at his hand and discard all copies of the named card. These cards had "weenie deck" written all over them, so that's what I tried to build. I supplemented it with some forced discarding and a smattering of bigger ships for the eventual big attack, and some news removal (man, I was already hating that Stubborn Mechanic).
My main concern was that I only had one copy of each of these cards, so I chose the Venal Tower version of the Caldari starbase to use with this deck (players with upgraded starbases may draw an extra card each turn). Since I planned on upgrading early for the card draw, I also chose a high-income outer region called Scalding Pass which destroys all your ships at the end of each turn if you don't have an upgraded starbase. My second outer region was Lonetrek which lets you pay double for a new ship to make it enter play fully assembled; I thought since most of my ships were smaller/cheaper ships, I would be in a position to "hasten" my ship deployment to support the raiding theme. Finally, Moon of Ndoria provides X income, where X is the number of ships you have there -- again supporting my weenie deck type. John made a Minmatar deck heavy with mining -- I knew he'd be doing a lot of mining because he seemed to think that was a neat mechanic during our previous play, heh.
My deck actually functioned quite differently in action. My early draws got me some of my smaller scout/mining ships with 0 attack, enough for me to play Moon of Ndoria and control it for added income, as well as a couple Veldspar locations (cheap income producers) into my home region. John didn't play any outer regions and instead played every location he drew into his home region. For some reason, I don't think I was expecting that. The home regions can all hold an unlimited number of locations, so it makes sense that one could just play all the locations there and only have one place to defend. This was already starting to make my weenie raid theme look ineffective.
We actually left each other alone quite a bit initially. I saved up enough isk to upgrade my starbase and start drawing 2 cards per turn. This gave me a little positive feedback loop as I was able to then get more locations out for more income to play more cards. My income was around 22-24 isk per turn by the mid-game, so I started skipping income for an extra card draw (something allowed in the rules). I finally got some of my bigger ships out: a battlecruiser called the Ferox (a beefy 8/6, but with the drawback that starbase damage can be canceled by discarding a card from hand) and a logistics cruiser called the Basilisk that lets you pay isk to give damage absorption to a ship. I sent these and a couple light frigates into John's only controlled outer region (Metropolis again) and chased away his ships, losing a 2/3 Condor in the process.
Since the battle phase is at the end of the turn, one cannot activate ship commands after attacking, so I chose to withdraw my small fleet on John's counterattack without harming any of his ships. I quick-built a Heron on my next turn (using Lonetrek's regional ability) and had it join my cruisers on the attack into Metropolis again. The Heron is a 1/3 frigate with two attack abilities: Warp Scramble 1 (prevent 1 defending ship from withdrawing each battle phase) and Target Jam 1 (prevent 1 defending ship from using a command). This let me prevent 1 Ambushing ship on the attack, and then pin a ship down while John withdrew the rest to his home region, destroying it. John used a couple news cards (Adaster's Disaster) to destroy the Ferox, which hurt, but I quick-built another frigate and attacked his home region -- not with enough firepower to threaten his starbase, but sufficient to pin and destroy one of his mining ships before he withdrew everything to his dock. Unable to destroy the starbase means you must withdraw, however.
At that point, I thought (and I think John thought the same) that I was en route to victory. I controlled 3 outer regions to his none, had huge income when I chose to collect it rather than draw an extra card, and had some decent ships on the table. I spent a couple turns digging into my deck trying to get a few more offensive ships so I could attack his home region, while he quietly queued up some ships for assembly. This is where I probably lost the game, however.
I had built another Heron and a couple other frigates, which looked like a helluva fleet to me, so I attacked. He had several ships out with Ambush active, including the Caracal, a cruiser with Ambush 8 (!). With a pair of Herons, however, I thought neutralizing two of the Ambushes would let me punch through. In restrospect I should have actually counted up what he had before attacking, but my M.O. appears to be reckless attacks so off I went. Yes, I neutralized two of his biggest Ambushing ships with the target jam abilities, but he still had 10 or 12 points of Ambush to hit me with -- ouch! And then instead of withdrawing, I stuck it out and destroyed the Caracal and another couple ships, but lost most of my fleet and withdrew the rest when it was apparent I couldn't scratch his starbase with what I had left.
I was pretty sure I was screwed at that point. I couldn't remember how many offensive ships I had left in my deck and I knew my deck was much thinner than his due to all the extra card draw I had been doing -- if I didn't mention it, you lose if you can't draw a card from your deck when required. I kept putting out small frigates to build up but John had gotten his Scythe out. This Minmatar-only cruiser has the ability to send itself back to assembly to do 2 damage to any enemy ship. John used this ability several times to destroy any Shield 2 ship I got out, which really hurt my chances of building up enough firepower to go after his starbase again.
Since I knew I'd lose on decking, I spent a couple turns building up big cash and then going all out with card draw using any method I could, hoping I could then flood enough ships out to attack and win before decking out. It came down to my last turn coming up 1 Attack power short of having enough to go after his starbase, though that assumes John didn't have any tricks up his sleeve, like another Stubborn Mechanic to prop up the Scythe on defense or something. So, I've started my EVE career with an 0-2 record, heh.
The Verdict
Damn you Tanga! I wish I had played this game before Tanga had its last EVE sale, as I would definitely have bought one or two sets of cards. We both really enjoyed this game, enough that I will probably push Babylon 5 and Firestorm sessions back further in the queue as we enjoy this one for a while. EVE doesn't really do anything revolutionary but has lots of nice little things that work well for it. It seems like I need to pay more attention to ship special abilities, during deckbuilding as well as before making rash attacks. Each faction has at least one alternate-win-condition starbase, too, plus an outer region called EVE Gate that lets you win after accumulating 10 turns of control, so there are other deck strategies to try out. I just wish I had more cards (it's on my want list now).
My rating after 2.5 plays is 7.5 and I look forward to more deck-building and plays.
Notes on the Journey
Congrats to the Netherlands and Spain on their World Cup final. Although I was rooting for Germany, I'm happy to see that it will be a country hoisting the trophy for the very first time on Sunday.
Total plays (plays since last report).
World of Warcraft = 33
Magic = 20
Game of Thrones = 13
VS = 11
Harry Potter = 7
The Spoils = 6
Doomtown = 6
Warhammer = 4
Mystick = 4
Conan = 4
Jyhad = 4
City of Heroes = 4
Epic = 4
Warlord = 3
Lord of the Rings = 3
BattleTech = 3
EVE = 2 (+2)
UFS = 2
Doomtrooper = 2
TMNT = 2
Legend of the Five Rings = 2
Shadowrun = 2
Star Wars = 2
Netrunner = 1
Myths & Legends = 1
Cyberpunk = 1
Gridiron = 1
Wyvern = 1
Spycraft = 1
Kingdom Hearts = 1
Echelons = 1
OverPower = 1
Hyborian Gates = 1
Arcadia = 1
Fantasy Adventures = 1
On the Edge = 1
Shadowfist = 1
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Cameron Chien
United States
Rancho Cucamonga
California
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I play the online game, so I'm a bit biased in that regard, but I'm no stranger to CCGs and just like you I really like some of the things the EVE CCG does. It's too bad it never got off the ground, but it's an excellent game.
Cameron
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Kerry Harrison
United States
Katy
Texas
There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch
Meep. Meep. Meep.
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Thanks for the
review writeup, now I really want to try this game.
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One place to start getting cards:
http://www.stuckakid.com/product_info.php?products_id=2349
$5 for a starter pack (two decks, precon, meant to be played against each other).
I also have some starter decks that I probably don't need (and they remain unopened). If there's a request for it, I'll put them up on eBay. Or if you live in the St. Louis, Missouri area, well meet up and do this off the grid.
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John Fiala
United States
Denver
Colorado
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Tanga's doing a new sale on Eve cards right now.
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Kerry Harrison
United States
Katy
Texas
There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch
Meep. Meep. Meep.
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jcfiala wrote: Tanga's doing a new sale on Eve cards right now.
Wonderful, and me with no extra funds for games at the moment. 
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Mike Haverty
United States
Owasso
OK
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sirkerry wrote: jcfiala wrote: Tanga's doing a new sale on Eve cards right now. Wonderful, and me with no extra funds for games at the moment.
Ditto, dammit.
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