Saturday, March 31, 2012

EmDo Expansion - Planets

As I posted last time, I have been looking at the current incarnation of the cards for the EmDo expansion. Today I took a closer look at the new planets to see how I felt about them. for reference, here's the details for the new planets:

New Planets
Hostile Planets: Cost- 1 Destroyer, effect- 1 Fighter icon.
I really like these. Thus far I've been saying you can only use them once per turn - that's sort of how the other icons work (but admittedly only because you never had the opportunity to count them more than once in a turn). But I'm beginning to think that's too fiddly. It would certainly make them more powerful, but would it be TOO powerful to use them more than once in a turn (for example if you attack 2 different planets in a turn, via War Path, or one in your Action phase and another in your Role phase)? Also, I believe I only have 3 of these (one of each type). Should I make another 3 (so 6 total)? Or is 3 enough?

Civilized Planets: Each of the Civilized planets has the Peace treaty effect on it. I like these. I believe I have 6 of them (2 of each type). I might like to decrease the cost of at least half of them - I think I've increased the average planet costs a little too much. So maybe 3 of them are worth fewer points and only cost 3, while the other three are worth more points and cost 5?

"Action" Planets: There are 6 planets which each have one of the basic actions on it:

  • Draw 2 cards
  • Attack 1 Planet
  • Settle 1 planet
  • Produce 1 Resource
  • Trade 1 Resource for 1 Influence
  • Remove up to 2 cards in hand from the game
I like these, and have been able to make good use of them, especially in combination with Double Time. But I wonder if their effect shouldn't be amplified a little bit - why not make them the Improved versions..? At least some of them, like the Survey and the Produce action seem so weak on their own. However, every time I have this thought, I decide in the end to keep them as-is.

In looking at the planets again today I think I've decided the following:
Hostile Planets: I'm debating the merits of using the fighter once per turn vs once per Action/Role. I'm not sure which is easier to explain and I'm also not sure whether more than once per turn would be too good or not.

Civilized Planets: I changed the Colonize cost of three of the planets to 3, leaving the others at 5 to Colonize.
Action Planets: I have reduced the Colonize cost of those planets to 4 instead of 5. I didn't mean to increase the average planet cost as much as I did, and 4 is probably closer in value to a Destroyer anyway. I think I have decided to keep the effects as they currently are.

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