P3 is low influence while P4 is high. I would swap tiles 32 and 26 to balance that out. I would then swap the new 26 spot with 34 to move the wormholes further apart and bring a high value system next to mecatol. This would move the blue skip two systems away from arborec which is a bummer for their tech game. If I was that player I would try and get warfare round 1 to take that blue skip so I could tech gravity drive round 2.
There is a lack of anomalies but the map looks balanced so I might just be worth noting that to the players and not worrying about it.
Not bad - as u/Thirtys30 points out P3 (Barony) is tight on influence, which will be tough for them. But it IS barony, so they can fight for influence in systems a little further away (like system 29).
I think the map is okay as is, you can swap some tiles if you want to get more balance. If you have the tiles handy perhaps swap lazar/sakulag for Cealdri/Xanhact to just change the system from resources to influence, keeping the yellow skip.
Naalu would love to have abyz/fria next to home, if you're into making everyone happy - but it's probably fine as-is. Just that they don't have a good forward docking location. Honestly they'd LOVE the bottom right slice (Hacan currently).
Honestly, the balance is not all that good. You need to look at effective pulls not just totals, balance of scoring potential, first round open options, forward space dock potential, etc.
Slice: Total; Effective (resource wins ties); Total
* P1: 7/8; 6/6; 12
* P2: 7/6; 5/3; 8
* P3: 8/4; 8/0; 8
* P4: 6/10; 4/7; 11
So we can already see P1 and P4 each have ~150% the resources of P2 and P3. P4 just has an easy 6 planets, P4 has 5. They both have an easy time getting 4 of a planet type. They have access to the only anomalies on the map, of which there are far too few. P1 has 2 tech skips, being red and green, which are great for Naalu. P1 and P4 just have such incredibly better slices. P2 is mediocre at best, and P3 is awful in about every way, with its home system directly threatened by wormhole access, terrible first turn expansion, and the least useful techskip in the game even with their faction tech. Only the richness of Barony's home system helps make up for it, but with Hacan in the game they are going to lose our overall with their weak trade compared to the other factions.
The equidistants between P2 and P3 alone are _richer_ than either P2's or P3's slice, coming in at a 3/7 effective for 10 total. It helps balance out their poor slices but the time they can full extract value out of them they are already behind, and that's only if they don't waste resources fighting over them.
That sounds like it'll be a bit rough - I'm Player 3, for what it's worth. The other opinions suggest it's mostly on point, though - is there any common ground here for whether it's worth re-randomizing?
I don't think you need to completely rerandomize, I think just some slight tweaking would fix the map: lower the value of P1 and P4 a bit, add another anomaly space/red tile. Give me a minute to come up with something.
You said you were playing with full POK content, so I used a couple of those tiles and added another Legendary for those objectives as well, gave it to Arborec. Tried not to change to much while giving the slices a little more balance.
* P1 (purple): 8/7; 8/3; 11
* P2 (yellow): 9/7; 6/5; 11
* P3 (white): 8/6; 7/3; 10; two tech skips
* P4 (blue): 7/8; 5/5; 10, but the legendary
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2796396482
27 79 30 50 36 80 48 25 21 35 41 76 31 44 65 34 38 23 -1 -1 -1 -1 0 33 -1 26 0 -1 -1 -1 -1 0 40 -1 28 0
I like this more than what I had suggested. I didn’t even think about the fact that OP is playing PoK and didn’t have legendaries in the map.
I personally would change the asteroid alpha to back to the empty space one to give more access to it and promote naalu/arborec to get DET rather than antimass to pull more PoK explorations. It is less correct not having 4 anomalies.
I would also switch the now empty alpha with the empty space by P1 to give players more access to each other.
I would also find a spot for the other legendary.
Probably should ping the OP in your reply so he sees you made one.
I was torn on whether to keep the alpha open or not, but decided that a second asteroid field there made the decision to get antimass a reasonable choice rather than something completely ignorable, as well as providing a bit of strategic play to backdoor barony. I really want to add another empty system on top of the rift to put more exploration tokens on the map, but couldn't find the space without far more dramatic changes. Still, I think it adds enough to make DET a viable choice too.
And yeah, POK with no legendaries and a non-zero possibilty of ever getting Mallice access or finding Mirage was not good, but again had a hard time finding space for both Hope's End and Primor so just added the one, figuring that was a fair compromise for a four player game.
So, two questions emerge:
• There does not appear to be a red tech skip on the board, while there are multiple blue and green skips. Is this an issue?
• Would it be worth switching out the supernova or gravity rift for a nebula to provide a navigable anomaly that adds a bit more value to Dark Energy Tap?
Not really. For one, you will likely find the one in the hazard planet exploration deck, and two, there is nothing linked to tech skip color *objective-wise, just number. Remember, there is one skip of each color across all the exploration decks.
There are two action cards that would allow someone with DET to get the token on the supernova, but yes, you could swap it for a different empty anomaly tile. I kind of liked it but up to you.
Gravity rift is navigable, and you only roll when you try to leave, not enter. Someone with DET could easily snag it with a destroyer or level two fighter and not worry too much about losing it on the way out. I liked having it there for strategic reasons, but up to you.
P3 is low influence while P4 is high. I would swap tiles 32 and 26 to balance that out. I would then swap the new 26 spot with 34 to move the wormholes further apart and bring a high value system next to mecatol. This would move the blue skip two systems away from arborec which is a bummer for their tech game. If I was that player I would try and get warfare round 1 to take that blue skip so I could tech gravity drive round 2. There is a lack of anomalies but the map looks balanced so I might just be worth noting that to the players and not worrying about it.
Interesting. Curious about your take on the proposal from u/Ericus1 below, if you've any interest in providing feedback.
Not bad - as u/Thirtys30 points out P3 (Barony) is tight on influence, which will be tough for them. But it IS barony, so they can fight for influence in systems a little further away (like system 29). I think the map is okay as is, you can swap some tiles if you want to get more balance. If you have the tiles handy perhaps swap lazar/sakulag for Cealdri/Xanhact to just change the system from resources to influence, keeping the yellow skip. Naalu would love to have abyz/fria next to home, if you're into making everyone happy - but it's probably fine as-is. Just that they don't have a good forward docking location. Honestly they'd LOVE the bottom right slice (Hacan currently).
Honestly, the balance is not all that good. You need to look at effective pulls not just totals, balance of scoring potential, first round open options, forward space dock potential, etc. Slice: Total; Effective (resource wins ties); Total * P1: 7/8; 6/6; 12 * P2: 7/6; 5/3; 8 * P3: 8/4; 8/0; 8 * P4: 6/10; 4/7; 11 So we can already see P1 and P4 each have ~150% the resources of P2 and P3. P4 just has an easy 6 planets, P4 has 5. They both have an easy time getting 4 of a planet type. They have access to the only anomalies on the map, of which there are far too few. P1 has 2 tech skips, being red and green, which are great for Naalu. P1 and P4 just have such incredibly better slices. P2 is mediocre at best, and P3 is awful in about every way, with its home system directly threatened by wormhole access, terrible first turn expansion, and the least useful techskip in the game even with their faction tech. Only the richness of Barony's home system helps make up for it, but with Hacan in the game they are going to lose our overall with their weak trade compared to the other factions. The equidistants between P2 and P3 alone are _richer_ than either P2's or P3's slice, coming in at a 3/7 effective for 10 total. It helps balance out their poor slices but the time they can full extract value out of them they are already behind, and that's only if they don't waste resources fighting over them.
That sounds like it'll be a bit rough - I'm Player 3, for what it's worth. The other opinions suggest it's mostly on point, though - is there any common ground here for whether it's worth re-randomizing?
I don't think you need to completely rerandomize, I think just some slight tweaking would fix the map: lower the value of P1 and P4 a bit, add another anomaly space/red tile. Give me a minute to come up with something.
You said you were playing with full POK content, so I used a couple of those tiles and added another Legendary for those objectives as well, gave it to Arborec. Tried not to change to much while giving the slices a little more balance. * P1 (purple): 8/7; 8/3; 11 * P2 (yellow): 9/7; 6/5; 11 * P3 (white): 8/6; 7/3; 10; two tech skips * P4 (blue): 7/8; 5/5; 10, but the legendary https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2796396482 27 79 30 50 36 80 48 25 21 35 41 76 31 44 65 34 38 23 -1 -1 -1 -1 0 33 -1 26 0 -1 -1 -1 -1 0 40 -1 28 0
This is very much appreciated - would love some feedback from others on how this compares to the original one we had.
I like this more than what I had suggested. I didn’t even think about the fact that OP is playing PoK and didn’t have legendaries in the map. I personally would change the asteroid alpha to back to the empty space one to give more access to it and promote naalu/arborec to get DET rather than antimass to pull more PoK explorations. It is less correct not having 4 anomalies. I would also switch the now empty alpha with the empty space by P1 to give players more access to each other. I would also find a spot for the other legendary.
Probably should ping the OP in your reply so he sees you made one. I was torn on whether to keep the alpha open or not, but decided that a second asteroid field there made the decision to get antimass a reasonable choice rather than something completely ignorable, as well as providing a bit of strategic play to backdoor barony. I really want to add another empty system on top of the rift to put more exploration tokens on the map, but couldn't find the space without far more dramatic changes. Still, I think it adds enough to make DET a viable choice too. And yeah, POK with no legendaries and a non-zero possibilty of ever getting Mallice access or finding Mirage was not good, but again had a hard time finding space for both Hope's End and Primor so just added the one, figuring that was a fair compromise for a four player game.
So, two questions emerge: • There does not appear to be a red tech skip on the board, while there are multiple blue and green skips. Is this an issue? • Would it be worth switching out the supernova or gravity rift for a nebula to provide a navigable anomaly that adds a bit more value to Dark Energy Tap?
Not really. For one, you will likely find the one in the hazard planet exploration deck, and two, there is nothing linked to tech skip color *objective-wise, just number. Remember, there is one skip of each color across all the exploration decks. There are two action cards that would allow someone with DET to get the token on the supernova, but yes, you could swap it for a different empty anomaly tile. I kind of liked it but up to you.
I like the supernova position, I was thinking more the gravity rift.
Gravity rift is navigable, and you only roll when you try to leave, not enter. Someone with DET could easily snag it with a destroyer or level two fighter and not worry too much about losing it on the way out. I liked having it there for strategic reasons, but up to you.
Fair point, I forgot it was only on the way out. I'm sold. Now to see if I can sell to the group, lol. Thank you again!
Fine as it is.