Monday 27 August 2012

Techs as instruments

Tonight Sam and I had plans of writing, but at the same time, Sam had brought Ascending Empires with him. I was easily swayed to play the flicky game of intergalactical invasion. We set up, with it sitting snugly on my table and began well.

I thought it was quite evenly matched at first, comparing my spread of different tech levels to Sam's specialisation, but before long I discovered that his level four in grey technologies gave him effectively two goes to my one, and I saw him speed off into the distance. And when you're in space, "into the distance" is a very long way.

I think this was the first time that I've played when someone got level four grey so soon, since it rendered the game unplayable. By the end, I was grimly watching him fly about and then perform another action, leaving me largely trapped where I was. I can't see me playing Ascending Empires any time soon. Not now that I know it's busted.

Got a nice pun out of it, though.

1 comment:

  1. I'm not sure I agree it's busted, but with two players the level four grey tech did seem an extraordinary advantage. As level three gives you 4 movement points, it was possible for me to launch, fly out and blow up Andrew's spaceship, then return to the same planet and land again. And then have another turn.

    I think with 3 or 4 players there'd be more competition for planets for a start, and if one player did get level four tech at least there'd be two opponents to counter-balance it. With two it could become a game within a game - who (if anyone) can get to it first?

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