The Game


Babylon 5 was an incredible science fiction TV series that first aired in the late 90s. It had 5 successful seasons, several TV movies and a spin off series, Crusade. The series centered around the ambassadors of 4 major galactic powers, the "space UN" headquarters (space station: Babylon 5), and the men and women who ran this diverse city in space.

The CCG allows 3-7 players to recreate and retell their own possible Babylon 5 saga by allowing each person to either take on the role of one of the major political powers (either via their ambassador to B5 or their home faction) and attempt to dominate the other factions using diplomacy, intrigue, military, or access to fearful and deadly ancient powers. With several expansions, the CCG really is one of the best (if not the best) war/intrigue games ever made.

Thursday, November 6, 2014

B5 CCG Lunch Game #2, Third AAR... what are the stat's on the Warleader's Fleet again?!




A few more excellent rounds in our lunch game.  I finally put an ultimatium on the table... "get out enough diplomacy to stop Power Politics, or I win".  They took me seriously after I rammed a Power Politics through and tapped the Narn Homeworld for +3 influence.  Combine that with Councilor Na'Far's +2 power from having tension 1 with Humans and Minbari, and I'm sitting at 17 power... one more round like that and I would have won.  So now Warleaders, Ministry of Peace workers, and Centauri notables suddenly found sponsorship.  Meanwhile on only 10 influence, the Centauri have developed a solid cast, Warleader Shakiri and his fleet are flat out impressive and Neroon is spending 16 influence a turn (an impressive and powerful 2nd place showing for the new guy), Psi Corps is reeling from a Centauri Gunboat diplomacy (and needs to get some more cards in play soon... locations and telepath groups... where are you?).



I did build all three of these decks, so its interesting to see them in play.  However, Bester just needs to be aggressive, so its a poor pairing with its player.  Neroon is the deck I wanted to really see do well, and it is (yippee!), so there's some vindication there.

Refa is a little frustrated, as Sheridan has a vehicle to get the Combined Fleets into play and the Warleader's Fleet all look very OP to him.  He's looking at his thought-to-be a juggernaut Centauri conquest deck, and lamenting the lack of fleets over military 10 (what until he see's the Grey Council Fleet).  I'm trying to explain to him that a War deck doesn't need/want the big fleets, as you aren't running Border Raid or the like anymore.  You want many small fleets, that way enemy fleet attacks are blunted by the mechanics of the game and with a salvage yard, you can recycle those military 5 multiple fleets all day.  Not to mention, with the Centauri ability to make enhancements global, those +1 Modern Refits, and Establish Bases, and Lifepods, become even greater force multipliers on weaker/cheaper fleets... but he's not seeing it and instead is trying to build a Gather the Rebels Shadow deck... sigh... time to break out the old pure Narn War deck and show the kid how it's done.  Sad thing is, the Centauri are actually better at it too.  Oh well

As for my peace loving Narns: I need to get a few more fleets out, just as a deterrent for Minbari military conflicts (I have them at tensions 1, and once someone figures out the ruining that will help someone else win the game, I'm in trouble).  Also worrisome, I don't have any conflicts in my hand. I know that I have about 15 in the deck, but until I have them, I only have Power Politics to build with and that shouldn't be an option anymore (though I could wait until the Humans and Centauri all place conflicts and then activate one myself... if nothing else it's paying 9 influence to keep them from using characters as they want).  I also played a rather pointless card, Thenta Makur... I've got everyone's tensions at 2 or below, and I think I can hold them there for quite awhile.  Who am I going to be able to attack with all those new-found strife marks?
  



In other news:

I just got 4000 more plastic sleeves (for under $20, I might add, name brand ones too), so I can finally get the entire collection protected.


I did find this promising Dilgar War Fanfic (disclaimer: I've not read it yet... so caveat emptor), I hope it proves to be interesting.

Also, while I use Vorlon Space and it's Card Finder for all my card gallery needs, I also found this   Russian B5 CCG gallery.  Looks like an excellent backup.

No comments:

Post a Comment