Babylon 5 CCG blog, focusing on gameplay, deck building, and reviving this excellent OOP game
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.
I finally have every Narn card and every techno-mage (fleet or character), so that's fun. It just amazes me that Psi Corp is the expansion that one cannot find any boosters for anywhere. I've also got the sneaky feeling that I probably have 10 of the missing cards, I just haven't counted/filed them correctly.
Argh! the Psi Corps cards, so tough to get at any reasonable cost. Anyone wanting to sell an Emperor Mollari, let me know about it. Here's some B5 mod action:
We got a few more turns in on the lunch game: Long story short, I'm a jerk. I left one conflict uncontested and then dropped the above on it at the end of the turn... 21 opposition dropped with one card... lols. The other card I generated support with Elizabeth Trent... after having Genius Loci hop into it, doing damage to everyone. Tap a homeworld, and 19 influence. Now they brought a bunch of stuff in, and I'm holding a planet (they don't follow the blog, don't tell them)... but if think I'm just going to build up fleets and try to hasten the Shadow War. Unless it targets a card I hold, I'll probably even let them steal a little influence here and there.
As to the Saturday game, we ran out of time, but I feel confident that we'll have one this next Saturday. Looks like three players for sure, maybe 5 if I'm lucky (I like the bigger games).
As a parting note, if you've not seen this, I recommend it highly for any B5 fans, unfortunately though some rough language, so its pulling gold out of slag... beware:
Yeah, no Narns in my Narn faction, just 5 Techno-mages and a Banker... so weird
A few more turns (3 or 4?) on the lunch game. Predictably Londo the Gambler and G'kar the Techno-mage are going head to head. Its kinda broke down into two games, Narn vs Centauri (the two veteran players) and Minbari vs Narn (learning player and veteran). Unfortunately for the Human player (also learning) his cards just aren't coming up.
Londo: Got some of his heavy hitters in, Refa's up into the Inner Circle, and Emperor Turhan with his Imperial Telepaths are up and firing. I tried to block his Hunter, Prey (which gives him an auto Intrigue 2 on all future conflicts), but stuff got real. Galen and Genius Loci jumped in with both feet... Refa attacked them and Londo supported the conflict along with Turhan (thus all the damage tokens). Arthur has been a big help to him getting cards. With two cards that can generate intrigue conflicts as an action, this deck is always doing something every turn.
Delenn: Now with 11 power and 10 influence (benefited from a Narn Legacy Conflict), He's got a solid Inner Circle and good supporting cards, Vorlon influence is at 11 (I actually want the Shadow War, so I'm kinda helping subtly, much to Londo's dismay).
Sheridan: Now an Extra Conflict John Sheridan (just need conflicts now), and with a captain and a won conflict successfully pushed through (at 11 influence), he's just sitting on every great late game, 12 cost, card you could want. Hopefully the low cost quantity over quality cards that are everywhere in this deck start coming up soon. He's got no more conflicts in his hand... just waiting on the right cards to come up!
G'Kar: Well what a weird set of 3/4 turns. Played Faces in Stone on the first of the turns and was able to get Blaylock, Isabella (who got demoted last turn), and Genius Loci all in (and Genius Loci into the Inner Circle). I pushed through two Well of Forevers (cheap, I know) and an Isabella's Quest to gain 2 more influence, along with another pair of conflicts, I was able to get up to 15 influence and spending 18. I'll drop one planet next turn and then focus on guiding the Humans up to 15 influence too (its a learning game after all, and I'm in a spot to just sit back and build supporting cast and let the others fight it out). G'Kar will just play power broker for now. I did look at Londo's deck and discard Prime Minister Mollari (evil, I know), but what good G'Kar can pass on keeping Londo in his place?
Things learned: When it happens, Legacy decks can get OP... I've got 5 Techno-mages in play (G'Kar is one now). My Narn deck is too thick, I can't get any good non-Legacy cards in my hand (even with Isabella giving me extra draws)... I need to make hard choices and cut it down to 70 cards (which I'm not good at doing). Luckily the Legacy deck is keeping me in the game... I've also got two Portraits of the Past in my deck somewhere... at this rate I might use them both if they come up (lets me recycle my Crusade Pile... hello more Wells of Forever). Also, as said before, I really need to emphasize shuffling decks well to new players.
In other news... I'm still cataloging my 4k extra cards I just acquired (see a couple posts below), but I also got a little something for me. I don't know how rare this is, but I'm thrilled to have it.
So, while thinking of this, here's a vid in memory of Andreas Katsulas
and this epic tribute too
Upcoming: going to try and get a veterans only game together this Saturday. I'm going to try my 60-ish card Neroon-Ranger One military deck. Sounds like a Centauri war deck and a Psi Corps deck will be waiting for me... maybe a Non-Aligned worlds deck and a Shadow deck too
