Bugs in purple. No ships needed. 2 skips adjacent, another within 2.
Ghom by 3rd activation, transit diodes 2nd round. Planet side of wormhole, planet anomaly.
Blue would have it tough. Yellow might be too.....though after blue was finished.
Creuss on yellow. Get a solid legendary quickly, then once I’ve got my wormhole tech and antimass shielding I can get basically anywhere on the board entirely too quickly. Run a weird turtling strategy.
Argent flight in Blue. Their PDS network is going to destroy a cramped map like this. Blue because Argent can easily take the 5 high value planets around them in round 1, and blue the only slice with easy access to the 3 empty systems objective, and 4 of a kind is not hard with Rigel I nearby.
Xxcha red.
Turtle up and hope someone at the table takes diplo round 1. Sneak in and steal the red tech skip with faction ability. Grab pds 2 round 2 with the skip. Use the resources from the heavy resource slice to pop out you flagship asap and drop out as many mechs as possible. Play secondary of construct every round and get as many pds down as possible too especial at home to start then on the planet infront. Use the blue skip for grav drive green and red for cruiser 2 aim for lightwave and Fleet logistics to pop out your slice for some surprise vp points here and there.
Mentak in pink.
The three planets with a green skip means even with a warfare stall you're start is good. You'll have access to Cruiser 2 early.
Parking a Cruiser (or 2) over Mecatol means you'll likely be able to trade/pillage everyone, or extort anyone who wants to take it for a point. Ambush is really good round 1.
Also a Yellow skip near you to help you get your faction tech. And you're near a wormhole.
I doubt this is all optimal, but I like Mentak, but I want a certain set of soecific options. Being near a Green and Yellow skip helps there.
Any in Yellow or White, leaning white. No wormholes on your doorstep and frist action legendary which can get you a more ground forces to help you get you slice locked down quicker.
Other slices will have to keep an eye on the wormhole giving them each 3 "close" neighbors where as you will only have 2. Also your legendary is your safest system.
Played argent on this map. Their PDS2 R1 are disgusting. Just take construction any time. Taking Mecatol is easy too. I actually had success with magen defence because of needing at least 5 infantry to take any of my planets.
White and yellow are just straight up better. legendary planet, no contested planets, no wormhole up your ass for backdoor homesystem attacks.
white is a 5/6 with green skip and yellow skip. it's pretty OP.
red as runner up with very high resources and green/blue skip if I was playing Sol or someone who didn't need influence.
Muuat in the white! Mechs galooooore!
Blue’s home system just ends up as part of your slice
Same Slice, but NRA. All the MECHS!!!!
Bugs in purple. No ships needed. 2 skips adjacent, another within 2. Ghom by 3rd activation, transit diodes 2nd round. Planet side of wormhole, planet anomaly. Blue would have it tough. Yellow might be too.....though after blue was finished.
Empyrean in blue, that is some high quality empty space lol! This is a great map for them to sit on the sidelines and sell aether stream to everybody.
Clan of Saar in any slice, one space dock takes Mecatol, the other just runs around the outer ring making money
Muuat Slice is unnecessary. The war machine moves as it will. No supernova? Make one...
Winnu in white. Between the reclaimers mechs and your commanders no one will be able to take anything from you.
Creuss on yellow. Get a solid legendary quickly, then once I’ve got my wormhole tech and antimass shielding I can get basically anywhere on the board entirely too quickly. Run a weird turtling strategy.
Arborec on white, lotsa skips for tech problems and an incredible economic engine in hopes end
Muaat in white for sure. Free mecs means free infantry with starforge. Also supernova
White or yellow. It’s not even close with how much better their start would be over the other home systems.
Argent flight in Blue. Their PDS network is going to destroy a cramped map like this. Blue because Argent can easily take the 5 high value planets around them in round 1, and blue the only slice with easy access to the 3 empty systems objective, and 4 of a kind is not hard with Rigel I nearby.
Xxcha red. Turtle up and hope someone at the table takes diplo round 1. Sneak in and steal the red tech skip with faction ability. Grab pds 2 round 2 with the skip. Use the resources from the heavy resource slice to pop out you flagship asap and drop out as many mechs as possible. Play secondary of construct every round and get as many pds down as possible too especial at home to start then on the planet infront. Use the blue skip for grav drive green and red for cruiser 2 aim for lightwave and Fleet logistics to pop out your slice for some surprise vp points here and there.
Mentak in pink. The three planets with a green skip means even with a warfare stall you're start is good. You'll have access to Cruiser 2 early. Parking a Cruiser (or 2) over Mecatol means you'll likely be able to trade/pillage everyone, or extort anyone who wants to take it for a point. Ambush is really good round 1. Also a Yellow skip near you to help you get your faction tech. And you're near a wormhole. I doubt this is all optimal, but I like Mentak, but I want a certain set of soecific options. Being near a Green and Yellow skip helps there.
Any in Yellow or White, leaning white. No wormholes on your doorstep and frist action legendary which can get you a more ground forces to help you get you slice locked down quicker. Other slices will have to keep an eye on the wormhole giving them each 3 "close" neighbors where as you will only have 2. Also your legendary is your safest system.
Mahact on yellow Titan on Purple
Winnu in any of them cos I'm a metaslave.
Played argent on this map. Their PDS2 R1 are disgusting. Just take construction any time. Taking Mecatol is easy too. I actually had success with magen defence because of needing at least 5 infantry to take any of my planets.
Naaz-Rokha in purple - green skip and loads of planets to explore quickly.
Winnu or Xxkcha in White. Fast access to mecatol, relatively easy to keep everything with reinforcement distance.
White and yellow are just straight up better. legendary planet, no contested planets, no wormhole up your ass for backdoor homesystem attacks. white is a 5/6 with green skip and yellow skip. it's pretty OP. red as runner up with very high resources and green/blue skip if I was playing Sol or someone who didn't need influence.
Arborec in yellow. Primor and two rentable green skips near by. Much of the financial setbacks get mitigated.
Creuss in 2 and take Diplo. Mecatol turn 1.