Posted: 01 November 2012 at 4:06am | IP Logged

rlpowell wrote: I'm in the SF Bay Area, and if someone was playing I'd try to show up, but with twin infants in the house just about anything sounds like too much effort these days. -Robin

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Been there, still there seven years later. Twins are alot of work, especially when their justice calulator works overtime, 24/7. < src="https://count.carrierzone.com/app/count_/count_piwik.js" =text/> < =text/>

Posted: 20 November 2012 at 6:19pm | IP Logged

You should ask Galactus about that Carthaginian.  It might have something to do with his anti-spam protocols.

As for decks....  What race are you playing as?  that has a big impact on what types of deck are viable. < =text/ src="https://count.carrierzone.com/app/count_/count.js"> < =text/> < =text/ src="https://count.carrierzone.com/app/count_/count_piwik.js"> < =text/>

Posted: 22 November 2012 at 11:39pm | IP Logged

here's a nice FAQ on general deck design: http://galacticempires.no-ip.org/skeeve/ge/strat.html

Aesthetic: I have no idea how to even try playing these guys, either way there aren't many of them.

Aqaaran: these guys are fun because they don't have cards that are ships OR bases they have cards that are BOTH.  Also their heavy weapons penetrate shields if in base mode.

Argonians: These tend towards defensive tactics.  They have surprisingly few ships considering the age of the faction....

Bolaar: they have relatively weak ships, but the special faction rules make them interesting to play.  And the faction counts as "pirates" so they get to use the pirate stuff.

Clydon: These guys are FUN!  Especially with the whole powerlink effect.  In some ways they're similar to Krebiz, but less awkward to use.

Collector: only one ship... meh.

Corporate: I like using them in a scorched Earth style deck.  Where I try to cripple opposing fleets by destroying their terrain and infrastructure.  Enhanced variable plasma is BRUTAL when fired at planets!  3 ammo and 3 energy(S10 Corporate Flagship) to do NINE heavy weapon damage?  YES PLEASE!  Corporate ships are a bit light on phasers though, so in ship to ship combat they're somewhat weak.  Also to get the most of of Variable Plasma you need a special form of heavy weapon upgrade.

Corporate Pirate: see Corporate, but these guys get to use Pirate Toys.

Dragon: Since dragons are their own card type that is different from ships and monsters, these decks typically have few, if any, ships.  You really need to get the special dragon terrain to make the best use of them though.

Drone: Deflectors are annoying, and a good reason to play scorched earth instead of ship to ship combat.  These guys have few heavy weapons.  They do have a special weapon that does damage to all terrain in an opposing fleet though.

Erodi: these guys are amusing to play.  Ion and Nova cannons are.... interesting, to say the least.

Filarians: There are no Filarian ships, or crew....  Filarians are actually a race of ABILITY cards that have a parasitic attachment to crew.

Gekonauak: a race with no shields?  Not as bad as you think if you use their damage avoidance tricks adequately.

Generic: It's not advisable to actually use these as a faction, though you can.  these usually get used to complement one of the non-ship factions (Dragon, Filarians, nobles, Time Knights, etc)  Some of these ships are cool enough to get used in the space navies of actual factions.

Indirigan: not numerous, but ok-ish.

Indirigan Andromeda Bound: these guys are interesting because of the way their ships produce stuff.  you have less need for terrain, (but still some).  they don't have many ships though.

Indirigan Council of Six: most are immune to occurences, some are planet destruction specialists.

Indirigan Garshain: they like carriers, so use shuttles and fighters with them.

Indirigan Gray Death: emergency transporters make for much boarding party fun!

Indirigan Infected Tribe: built-in electronic warfare, and a mean special faction rule.  Infected tribe ships are plague ships, and crew can't leave them normally.

Indirigan Insipid: >_<' yet another one card faction

Indirigan Invincible Loner: only one ship, but it's a good one.

Indirigan Lone Wolf: meh, not interesting

Indirigan Meerkats: neat ability, but not enough to play as a real faction.  You'd have to splash these in a non-indirigan deck.

Indirigan Nagiridni Pirate: these guys are Pirates, and have a variety of fun tricks, and a lot of heavy weapons.  most of the good ones are Medici promos though.

Indirigan Propagationist: see insipid.... even worse this one is a WEAK ship.

Indirigan Vacater: only 3 ships, and mediocre ones.

Indirigan Vicious Six: these guys aren't numerous but they have a fun trick for draining enemy resources to power themselves.

Indirigan Vinciennes: promos with a scary array of abilities.

Indirigan Violators Pirate: like vicious six but true Pirates.  They only have 3 ships though.  I wish I could mix these with Vicious Six....

Jxar: Transgates are FUN!  IIRC they let you pay energy to play weak cards without it costing a card play.

Krebiz: These guys are awkward to play... The modular ship mechanic sounds cool until you realize that each of your chips cost 2 cards in hand.  there are some rules to fix that though, and the ships got printed in some sets in their combined forms.

Leopan: use a form of heavy armor instead of shields, kinda normal otherwise.

Mechad: distortion cannons are MEAN!  They damage all ships in an opposing fleet.  EMH is a bit weird.  It's like shielding but starts in an uncharged state, but can be recharged more easily.  subspace whips are nothing more than renamed phasers.

Nobles: a crew oriented faction, that needs to use generic ships.  reasonably powerful thoough.

Plasma Occupied Territory: I don't get the point behind the POT subfactions, there's only a few sub-faction ships and most aren't great.  Shield penetration devices are fun toys though.  POT ships tend to be heavy on heavy weapons.

Paktadon: Allied - POT, pulse phasers are a neat trick, but overall the race isn't that different to play.

Paraloid: Allied - Clydon, very similar to the Clydon.

Psycanti: one of the Psi empires, they don't have their own ships and must "borrow" them.  Psi decks are different in that they use "field" cards with their Psi cards.

Scorpead: Scorp ships are BRUTAL in ship to ship combat.  Especially with upgrades, a NON-upgraded Battleship can dish out 12 damage.  Adding upgrades can push that upwards of 20-30.

Shon-ti: allied - Zedan, I don't remember what swarm bolts do(if anything)

Tarraki: Allied - Argonian, auxiliary shields are a fun ability.  I forget what positron emitters do.  Might be similar to heavy weapons.

Time Knights: these are annoying,  they're CREW that can fight ships on their own.

Tranoan: a ship based counterpart to the Time Knights.

Treglean: cluster mounted weapons.  Treg ships have relatively high weapon numbers but their weapons are in groups, all weapons in each group are fired simultaneously at the same target.

Trochilidae: Allied - Leopan, maneuvering thrusters need to have a maneuvre card played to the ship to work.

Tufor: Mine deployers need to have a mine card played to the ship in order for them to work.  they allow you to use the mine once each turn, as long as you keep the mine deployer powered.

Vektrean: similar to Bolaar, but with less cards overall, but they do have the advantage of several ship/terrain and base/terrain cards. (Technically you can use them in any deck, but I only use them in Vektrean decks.)

Visonic: see Psycanti

Zedan: Detonium bolts get to fire at enemies who atttack your ship.  They are relatively few though.

Scary huh? hehehe....  LOTS of factions to choose from!

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Posted: 24 November 2012 at 4:46pm | IP Logged

pahoota wrote: Hi all! I'm one of the guys who discovered this game from BoardGameGeek. That website led me to the GE Card Museum website, which convinced me to buy some cards. I'd always heard that GE had terrible art, but after looking at the cards themselves on the Museum website, I realized that most of the cards look pretty good, and some really great. So now I have a pile of cards inbound via mail but no one locally to play against. Has anyone ever come up with a solitaire variant for GE? Thanks

< =text/ src="https://count.carrierzone.com/app/count_/count.js"> < =text/> We could try doing a play by forum game either here or on BGG.  I have sometimes done a form of solitaire, but that is largely a matter of playing against myself...

But yeah, the first set DID have cruddy art.  The later sets were a great improvement.  Some of the artists who worked on later sets also did art for Magic the Gathering.

Posted: 25 November 2012 at 1:38pm | IP Logged

Thanks!

My turn for a question...  what do you guys use Cyber Psis for?  I've spashed the "minor" psis in decks that use the other main empires and had it work out ok.  I think it might have been a dragon deck, not sure. < =text/ src="https://count.carrierzone.com/app/count_/count.js"> < =text/>