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On Sunday, we got the main gang over to try out Space Corp. Mark and I had tried it before, which helped confirm that it was likely the group would like it (we were right), and gave a leg up on teaching it.

We got through the end of Mariners by lunch, with taking a somewhat shaky lead. Dave had initially kept up, but then fell behind, with Mark and Jason trailing in between, but Dave managed to land two of the contracts at once at the end, and the profit put him back at the front. Only he and Mark had any producing sites at the end of the era to save as legacy production. I had concentrated on the Lagrange stations to grab that contract, and eventually got the 1st Beyond marker (I was actually tied with Dave at the end, but counting that as 3T, as if we were ending the game there, would put me ahead).

I’d also managed to get two Genetics actions, but couldn’t find life to build a Bio station for a third (I learned to concentrate on that if I got a chance after the first game…). Mars was pristine until near the end of the era, when everyone converged on it (except me, I just couldn’t get there in time). And the era ended from a lack of cards, with only about 3-4 contracts done (this seems to be usual).

After lunch, we dove into the Planeteers era, Mark had taken 2nd Beyond, so the pair of us duked it out for control of the asteroids. At one point, I screwed up, left a site before building the base, and that let Mark get three bases and that contract. By that point, competition had heated up around Jupiter, and I’d sent my second team to Saturn. I was slow enough developing there, that I only got two bases, but the second one was a secure base to grab 3T.

I also managed to stay ahead on adaptations, grabbing Cooperative Empathy early in the era, and abusing it for the rest of the game. As the era wound down (we could coast along on existing infrastructure a long time after the deck ran out), Dave managed to get himself into the Oort Cloud for 1st Beyond, while I followed with 2nd a while later. I managed to get two exploration upgrades (e1->e2, e2->e3; sadly not on the same draw), and found Alien Artifacts, which helped get me close to a breakthrough, but I never managed one in that era. The final bit of drama was the exploration of Umbriel turning up Pirates, which Jason didn’t have cards to deal with (the B+2 penalty), especially in the one move left after the passing started.

I didn’t take notes, and should have. I won by the end-of-game scoring, though Dave was still right behind me, and Jason wasn’t far behind. Mark ended up holding Time cards too long, and had three with nothing to do with them, and was trailing all of us in terms of profit.

I’m Blue, Dave is Green, Mark is Yellow, and Jason is Purple.

There was still a decent amount of time left, though I knew it wasn’t enough to finish Starfarers, but we pressed on to see the early bits of it anyway. Dave managed a decent colony in in Alpha Centauri, but had to give up a team to do it, while the other two pressed on to Wolf 1061 and Groombridge 1618.

I repeated my early double (Time) move to Epsilon Indi and Epsilon Eridani. I found a Primitive Culture in Luhman 16, but never could manage the Build 12 for bases there. I did hurry things through a bit so that I could build a colony at Epsilon Eridani right before we had to pack up for the day.

Mark had also scattered his teams around, though he only got a chance to explore and build in Lacaille 9352. Jason sent a pair of teams to Groombridge 34 and 61 Cygni, hoping to have a colony built to provide a nearby bonus by the time the second was ready to develop. However, he got an alien culture, which turned out to be the Phobes, who sent the team back to Earth.

Afterword

As expected, it did well with the group as a whole. I think we certainly can do a full game in one day, just not the first time out. We may even want to start with Planeteers next time to make sure there’s plenty of time for Starfarers to finish.

Everyone agrees that Cooperative Empathy is just way too annoying/good. Always being able to leech off someone else’s infrastructure without worries of giving them profit just bends the incentives too much. I mean, I tend to be an infrastructure guy, but once I had it, I never upgraded again, as there was just no need during all of Planeteers, and not a lot of need in Starfarers. The main suggestion is for it to be more cooperative, and a two-way street. That is, using anyone else’s infrastructure is free for you, but it’s also free for everyone else to use yours. I don’t think that’ll really solve anything, but it moves in the right direction.

Mark also has Ventures, which we will need to contemplate adding in, though I think I’d like the group to get in a full Starfarers era first. But that’s without knowing exactly what it adds into the mix.