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.

Monday, November 10, 2014

Babylon 5 CCG Strategy... using marks


Well we call it strategy, but its as much tactics as anything (still calling it strategy though).  In teaching the game to a little over a half dozen people, I get quite a few questions about marks.  I like Strife Marks (and as a mostly Narn, or at least military, player, I appreciate them).  However they create quite a bit of confusion.  So here's a very basic guide to using the various marks to your advantage.







Strife Marks 
These are pretty straightforward (again, why I like them), every one of these a character or fleet has adds 2 damage to any attacks. Reminder: when you are attacked, they take damage from Strife Marks too.  Weapons, Enhancements, and Groups are usually the easiest way to add these to supporting cards... though aftermaths and events can let them in too.

Pro-tip: If your tension is below 3 (or some rulesets, below 4... but I recommend highly playing with 3) with the faction in question, you cannot attack during a conflict unless given permission by a card in play.  So if you're planning on stacking up massive Strife Marks, make sure your faction will be able to use them.  Also, if someone's threatening the use of Strife Marks and you're at "tension 1"... ignore them.



Destiny Marks
Almost always a good thing.  These are the kind of marks that trip new players up.  By themselves, they do nothing (well, they look pretty in the bottom left corner of the card).  However, other cards allow them to do all types of things.  Examples: add power, add to stats, score Major Victory, score a Standard Victory, provide opposition, purge to repair/return to hand/heal, etc., sponsor certain characters, discount to costs, as I said, all types of things.

Pro-tip:  Either use them very lightly to unlock one or two nice little bonuses or go all in. Destiny Marks should either consume less than 5 cards in your deck, or be a/the major mechanic that makes your deck tick.  If you try to go in half way, all you're doing is diluting whatever else your deck can do.  It's good to have a backup, but backups need to be clearly subordinate to your deck's primary strategy to win.



Doom Marks
Almost always a bad thing.  Much like Destiny Marks these do nothing unless another card comes into play that activates an effect.  Things like taking damage, rotated for no effect, opposition to your own conflicts, influence spent for no gain, forbids use of other cards, discarding cards in hand, purging other marks, can come from Doom Marks.  Though not necessarily the opposite of Destiny Marks, they kinda are.  There are a few cards that can use these to a positive effect, but they are few and far between.

Pro-tip:  Use with caution as these guys usually cannot be purged or converted (there are exceptions).  You'll probably get away with it the first time you take a ton of Doom Marks to gain other benefits in game.  However, once you do this (or see someone else do it), be aware that the meta will shift fast.  Everyone will start tossing in a few cards to make Doom Marks hurt (and there are plenty).  I'd actually recommend only including a card or two that punishes Doom Mark usage until you see it used to good affect in a game... after that, salt to taste.



Sub-Faction Marks (Shadow/Vorlon/Conspiracy and more)
Again, typically do nothing unless another card says different.  These marks are usually a major part of your deck... or not in it at all.  Most of the time either purging them or accruing them allows other cards to come into play.  If you're wanting to bring in Drakh, Shadows, Vorlon, Nightwatch, Psi Corps, and probably something I'm forgetting, you need to be able to generate these marks in excess and quickly.  Typically agendas and events are your best bets for these.

Pro-Tip:  Consider cards that will provide a means of producing these marks every turn for your starting hand.  If your entire deck is fueled by a given sub-faction mark, you need to get on building them up on turn 1.

CAUTION!

Beware: For all the above marks, just knowing how to get/use these isn't enough.  Know what cards can be used to put the hurt on someone who uses them... they're out there and you need to either plan on them hurting you, or plan on using them to slow down others,

2 comments:

  1. Something you said is sticking with me.
    "Pro-tip: If your tension is below 3 (or some rulesets, below 4... but I recommend highly playing with 3) with the faction in question, you cannot attack during a conflict unless given permission by a card in play."

    Where is that rule stated? It is stumping me!

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  2. It's under the rules for Home ambassadors. While there was quite the debate if this was a rule change for just infra-race attacks or for attacks in general (I'm actually in the former camp, when talking RAW), I've swallowed my objections as I've seen it play out.

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