Post by Gilvan Blight on Mar 28, 2010 15:56:49 GMT -5
The Brink of War (which requires both previous expansions) adds Galactic Prestige, which is woven throughout the entire expansion.
Galactic Prestige represents the relative standing of each player’s empire and is gained by placing certain cards (with that symbol) or using various powers. With the appropruate powers, prestige can be spent to attack, enable certain powers to be used, or become cards or VPs. In addition, the Prestige Leader (the empire with the most prestige) receives a bonus each round and any unspent prestige at game end is worth 1 VP apiece.
We also added a benefit for getting just a single prestige, namely being able to use the new “one-shot” Prestige Opportunity action card that every player starts with. By spending a prestige, a player can get a “super” action once per game (for example, turning Consume:2x into Consume:3x for one round). This action card also has another use, namely, Search, which doesn’t require a prestige, so players who don’t earn any prestige can still benefit from it.
Despite adding new explore powers in the expansions, the card variance was still too high, so we added two new mechanics: draw then discard powers (in which a player draws two cards, then discards one card from hand) and search.
A player may search once per game, flipping cards from the deck to find a card that matches a selected category. There are nine possible search categories, so a player who needs just a bit more Military, for example, could search for a development granting +1 or +2 Military, while a player pursuing an Alien strategy could search for an Alien production or windfall world. When the player finds a matching card, they can either take it in hand or continue searching. If they continue, they must take the second matching card they find. The other flipped over cards go into the discard pile, so searching also increases the odds that the deck will reshuffle in games with just a few players
The second expansion, Rebel vs Imperium, introduced takeovers, in which players could, under certain circumstances, conquer a military world in another player’s tableau. The Brink of War extends this mechanic, portraying the descent of a galaxy further into warfare.
Full article:
www.boardgamenews.com/index.php/boardgamenews/comments/designer_preview_race_for_the_galaxy_the_brink_of_war/
Galactic Prestige represents the relative standing of each player’s empire and is gained by placing certain cards (with that symbol) or using various powers. With the appropruate powers, prestige can be spent to attack, enable certain powers to be used, or become cards or VPs. In addition, the Prestige Leader (the empire with the most prestige) receives a bonus each round and any unspent prestige at game end is worth 1 VP apiece.
We also added a benefit for getting just a single prestige, namely being able to use the new “one-shot” Prestige Opportunity action card that every player starts with. By spending a prestige, a player can get a “super” action once per game (for example, turning Consume:2x into Consume:3x for one round). This action card also has another use, namely, Search, which doesn’t require a prestige, so players who don’t earn any prestige can still benefit from it.
Despite adding new explore powers in the expansions, the card variance was still too high, so we added two new mechanics: draw then discard powers (in which a player draws two cards, then discards one card from hand) and search.
A player may search once per game, flipping cards from the deck to find a card that matches a selected category. There are nine possible search categories, so a player who needs just a bit more Military, for example, could search for a development granting +1 or +2 Military, while a player pursuing an Alien strategy could search for an Alien production or windfall world. When the player finds a matching card, they can either take it in hand or continue searching. If they continue, they must take the second matching card they find. The other flipped over cards go into the discard pile, so searching also increases the odds that the deck will reshuffle in games with just a few players
The second expansion, Rebel vs Imperium, introduced takeovers, in which players could, under certain circumstances, conquer a military world in another player’s tableau. The Brink of War extends this mechanic, portraying the descent of a galaxy further into warfare.
Full article:
www.boardgamenews.com/index.php/boardgamenews/comments/designer_preview_race_for_the_galaxy_the_brink_of_war/