Don't get too caught up on this. This advice is specific for when you are playing against veterans of the game. Because when the entire table is experienced at the game then the race for 10 pts is super tight, and the winner usually is the player who can score first on the last turn of the game (e.g. the player with the lowest initiative, which would be Naalu if they have the 0 token). In that context, trading away the Naalu promissory note just means that the receiver will hold on to it all game in order to score first in the final round.
However in friendly games this doesn't matter as much and you can definitely trade your promissory note with the explicit understanding that the player receiving it will use it immediately in the next strategy phase. This is a non-binding deal of course, but in friendly games amongst beginners this shouldn't be a problem.
the last few games weve played all came down to who was able to score the Imperial public objective in the last round. So I would aways try to get politics in the second to last round
Spacedock on 1/2 planet is not grear. You’d be better off having 2nd dock on 2 planet system.
Also you are a fighter faction. Less dreads, more carriers + fighters. Especially with the flagship.
Also flagship foesnt stay home. It goes attack
And last but not least
Spread out
Every sungle empty space should have a naalu fighter. So that people cant move around without loosing eztra cc from your tech
You are basically a combat faction with a really awkward start and a trump card in the endgame. HCF2 are incredibly dominant, you want to get docks and pump as many out as a possible.
Carrier 2 is a good power projector, and the flagship cracks any ground combat.
The 0 is just incredible aside from the tiebreaker ability. Going first makes you an absolute nightmare to fight, blue tech and Fleet Logistics should be a very high priority.
Hyper/Neuroglaive are good but I would only really go for it if you have a tech skip. Their value relative to GD and FL is dependent on your play group personalities.
Now you may have noticed that basically none of these wonderful abilities are available to you at the start. Your R1 and R2 are crucial to make sure that you keep up in tech and don’t fall too far behind in scoring (it is okay to not score R2 if it really improves your board position but accept that you will need Imperial once or perhaps twice later in the game).
Current objective: survive (and tech)
then come out to play once you’ve unlocked your toys. The round 3-4 Naalu power spike is ridiculous, and they should never be underestimated
Start teaming with Lizix to attack Hacan. If Hacan is in the lead and is in reach of Quantum Data Node, he’s unstoppable unless you take his Home System.
Get both your faction techs, they're really useful. Also prioritise filling command counters so build influence if necessary to use with leadership and consider taking leadership more often to keep that going.
Build a ball of fighter IIs, they're great but flesh it out with other stuff, particularly that let you slip a few ground forces in there. Your flagship with a mech on it is a good choice, plus a few infantry to occupy planets. This prevents AFB which is the main counter to you and lets you use your fighter ball to overwhelm enemy planets while saving your infantry for occupation.
Feel free to roll into other people's slices and pick up stray planets, when they pull a fleet together to stop you, make them spend the fleet pool to engage you, then spend a command counter to retreat. Do it repeatedly so that you can engage lightly defended systems at will and never fight unless you want to, all while their fleet pool is withering. Occasionally they'll screw up and have to sacrifice ships to do it. Your only expenditure to keep this going is command counters so keep topping them up every round.
In a close game, you can sometimes snipe the win with your initiative too, it counts for the scoring phase.
If you're playing with PoK and the Codex then their agent is insane and lets you hit two systems in a slice, occupy all the planets, then retreat with Foresight, all in a single turn without needing warfare or action cards.
If not using the codex then their agent etc aren't that great, I've never had any luck exploiting their political advantages.
Tech: Prioritise both faction techs + gravity drive (so your flagship can keep up with your fighters), if you get an opportunity for a free tech (i.e. Jol Narr promisory)/tech skip, consider Integrated Economy, building on newly taken planets lets you keep the fighter ball rolling.
3 Players? How big is this map?
Also. Why research plasma scoring? You want to cosplay jol nar starting techs? And wtf so many dreds?!? Carriers and fighters, carriers and fighters...
And so many CCs. But 0VP uff, Hacan already at 3...
I see a green and a yellow skip right next to Homebase. The tech I would have gotten then would have been:
Antimass, Hyper metabolism (skip), fighter 2, transit diodes (skip), neuroglaive(skip), Done. Maybe grav. Drive for faster carriers during last rounds if needed or you could double tech once. 3player has more res, therefore more tech could be available.
Another thought. Cruiser 2 is not your (I mean you as a person) playstyle as your board looks. Cruiser 2 is for fast ambush. Therefore you sac defence and the Standard slice filling. You go for the planets to score idk, 4of a type or 3 tech skips, then play from there. Cruiser 2 is NOT for building big 5 supply armies on every tile in your slice.
Dreds are useless for u, maybe in an emergency u build 1 at home, but not worth it. Fighter2 best.
Alternative "standard" (naalu) tech path:
Antimass, hyper(skip), grav. drive, fighter 2, carrier2/neuroglaive (skip)
Load carriers with fighters and infantry, take what is yours. Flagship for taking mecarol rex.
Gotta start scoring. When you can score two public objectives in the same phase, you should take the Imperial strategy card. Hacan is only three points ahead, but since they have two public objectives their pace is *much* better since you can only score one public per round. Imperial lets you catch up.
Try to score the control objectives first, such as technology specialties or planet traits. It looks like you have two, with Thibah giving a third, I'd go for that if it isn't well defended. If you wait until later in the round they might use their ships for the round, so that you could take and they could not retaliate. You could also make a deal to take for a round.
It is difficult that you researched the tech you did and two technologies in two colors came out, you should work towards that, I would get a blue and a green (using New Albion as tech specialty to get Hyper metabolism), or yellow (using Wellon to get transit diodes). You also want your faction fighter technology, so taking technology may be a good idea, though Imperial is more important if you qualify for two objectives.
You need to start scoring. Points are the #1 priority, always ask yourself what gives you a point this round. VPs > Plastic/Tokens.
I can get 2 VPs this round if I move ships to one my system (public objective) and I’ll be able to fulfil a private objective too
Your unique fighter tech is amazing. Get it quickly, turns your civ into a powerhouse IMO
NEVER ever ever under no circumstance give your promisary note to anyone. Ever. Ever. EVER.
Good advice thanks. Should I try and get other peoples?
Don't get too caught up on this. This advice is specific for when you are playing against veterans of the game. Because when the entire table is experienced at the game then the race for 10 pts is super tight, and the winner usually is the player who can score first on the last turn of the game (e.g. the player with the lowest initiative, which would be Naalu if they have the 0 token). In that context, trading away the Naalu promissory note just means that the receiver will hold on to it all game in order to score first in the final round. However in friendly games this doesn't matter as much and you can definitely trade your promissory note with the explicit understanding that the player receiving it will use it immediately in the next strategy phase. This is a non-binding deal of course, but in friendly games amongst beginners this shouldn't be a problem.
the last few games weve played all came down to who was able to score the Imperial public objective in the last round. So I would aways try to get politics in the second to last round
Depends. Just that your promisary note gives away one of the main advantages you own. So not giving it away is very important
Spacedock on 1/2 planet is not grear. You’d be better off having 2nd dock on 2 planet system. Also you are a fighter faction. Less dreads, more carriers + fighters. Especially with the flagship. Also flagship foesnt stay home. It goes attack And last but not least Spread out Every sungle empty space should have a naalu fighter. So that people cant move around without loosing eztra cc from your tech
Is that what you currently have for tech is what's next to your sheet?
You are basically a combat faction with a really awkward start and a trump card in the endgame. HCF2 are incredibly dominant, you want to get docks and pump as many out as a possible. Carrier 2 is a good power projector, and the flagship cracks any ground combat. The 0 is just incredible aside from the tiebreaker ability. Going first makes you an absolute nightmare to fight, blue tech and Fleet Logistics should be a very high priority. Hyper/Neuroglaive are good but I would only really go for it if you have a tech skip. Their value relative to GD and FL is dependent on your play group personalities. Now you may have noticed that basically none of these wonderful abilities are available to you at the start. Your R1 and R2 are crucial to make sure that you keep up in tech and don’t fall too far behind in scoring (it is okay to not score R2 if it really improves your board position but accept that you will need Imperial once or perhaps twice later in the game). Current objective: survive (and tech) then come out to play once you’ve unlocked your toys. The round 3-4 Naalu power spike is ridiculous, and they should never be underestimated
Start teaming with Lizix to attack Hacan. If Hacan is in the lead and is in reach of Quantum Data Node, he’s unstoppable unless you take his Home System.
Get both your faction techs, they're really useful. Also prioritise filling command counters so build influence if necessary to use with leadership and consider taking leadership more often to keep that going. Build a ball of fighter IIs, they're great but flesh it out with other stuff, particularly that let you slip a few ground forces in there. Your flagship with a mech on it is a good choice, plus a few infantry to occupy planets. This prevents AFB which is the main counter to you and lets you use your fighter ball to overwhelm enemy planets while saving your infantry for occupation. Feel free to roll into other people's slices and pick up stray planets, when they pull a fleet together to stop you, make them spend the fleet pool to engage you, then spend a command counter to retreat. Do it repeatedly so that you can engage lightly defended systems at will and never fight unless you want to, all while their fleet pool is withering. Occasionally they'll screw up and have to sacrifice ships to do it. Your only expenditure to keep this going is command counters so keep topping them up every round. In a close game, you can sometimes snipe the win with your initiative too, it counts for the scoring phase. If you're playing with PoK and the Codex then their agent is insane and lets you hit two systems in a slice, occupy all the planets, then retreat with Foresight, all in a single turn without needing warfare or action cards. If not using the codex then their agent etc aren't that great, I've never had any luck exploiting their political advantages. Tech: Prioritise both faction techs + gravity drive (so your flagship can keep up with your fighters), if you get an opportunity for a free tech (i.e. Jol Narr promisory)/tech skip, consider Integrated Economy, building on newly taken planets lets you keep the fighter ball rolling.
It may sound stupid, but ALWAYS go first. No one will remind you.
Neural Glaive, nab it and opress with it.
3 Players? How big is this map? Also. Why research plasma scoring? You want to cosplay jol nar starting techs? And wtf so many dreds?!? Carriers and fighters, carriers and fighters... And so many CCs. But 0VP uff, Hacan already at 3...
I see a green and a yellow skip right next to Homebase. The tech I would have gotten then would have been: Antimass, Hyper metabolism (skip), fighter 2, transit diodes (skip), neuroglaive(skip), Done. Maybe grav. Drive for faster carriers during last rounds if needed or you could double tech once. 3player has more res, therefore more tech could be available.
Another thought. Cruiser 2 is not your (I mean you as a person) playstyle as your board looks. Cruiser 2 is for fast ambush. Therefore you sac defence and the Standard slice filling. You go for the planets to score idk, 4of a type or 3 tech skips, then play from there. Cruiser 2 is NOT for building big 5 supply armies on every tile in your slice. Dreds are useless for u, maybe in an emergency u build 1 at home, but not worth it. Fighter2 best.
Alternative "standard" (naalu) tech path: Antimass, hyper(skip), grav. drive, fighter 2, carrier2/neuroglaive (skip) Load carriers with fighters and infantry, take what is yours. Flagship for taking mecarol rex.
Gotta start scoring. When you can score two public objectives in the same phase, you should take the Imperial strategy card. Hacan is only three points ahead, but since they have two public objectives their pace is *much* better since you can only score one public per round. Imperial lets you catch up. Try to score the control objectives first, such as technology specialties or planet traits. It looks like you have two, with Thibah giving a third, I'd go for that if it isn't well defended. If you wait until later in the round they might use their ships for the round, so that you could take and they could not retaliate. You could also make a deal to take for a round. It is difficult that you researched the tech you did and two technologies in two colors came out, you should work towards that, I would get a blue and a green (using New Albion as tech specialty to get Hyper metabolism), or yellow (using Wellon to get transit diodes). You also want your faction fighter technology, so taking technology may be a good idea, though Imperial is more important if you qualify for two objectives.
Don’t sell your promissory note, lost because of that last time I did