The first six turns in a Star Chamber match can be the most critical of the entire game. Brilliant moves or costly mistakes during these early rounds can make or break a match. Before you send that first scout on its way, there are a few things you need to do.

Have A Plan

You should have a pretty good idea of what your game plan will be when you build a deck. It can be a political deck designed to dominate the vote, a military deck used to overpower your opponent, or a destiny rocket made to win culturally. Often a deck is a combination of the above. Whatever your game plan is, you need to know how all of your cards will work together and the best way they should be deployed in order to make your plan succeed. Tip: Test your deck in Skirmish Mode.

Example: A Ferrier deck with Archon and Warmonger coupled with Imperial Battlecruiser and Deflector Scout. This would be a deck designed to dominate the voting without giving up a military presence. Your game plan would be to hold your ground while funneling voting influence into the Star Chamber.

Access Your Opening Hand

Before you choose that first tech breakthrough, assess your opening hand. Sometimes the choice is obvious, like when your get a Scrapyard Scavengers in the initial draw. You will naturally choose Cyber, so that you will have your conqueror the following turn.

Sometimes the choice is not so obvious. In certain situations, you may have to go against your instincts and possibly ditch a card the first turn.

Example: You are using a Droid deck that has a tech curve of 2 Entropy and 6 Cyber with lots of mid to high tech, mono-cyber cards in it. Your opening hand has a Mounted Laser (1E) and several 3C and higher mono-cyber cards in it. Let’s say that there is an artifact planet reachable on turn 1 but after that the artifact planets are scarce and the future of available tech is uncertain. Your first instinct is to choose entropy for your first tech to deploy the laser. What can happen next is, you draw another high tech card and you are stuck with a handful of unplayable cards for several turns. The wise choice would be to choose cyber for your breakthroughs. That way you will be able to play the majority of your cards in hand, while staying on the correct tech path overall. This is not a perfect example because you may have marks or other tech boosters, but the point is; you need to choose your tech based on the first 6 turns, not just the first one.

Rule of thumb for ditching: I usually ditch a card if I know I won’t be able to deploy a card by turn 2. It’s hard to let go of some of those juicy high tech cards, but holding on to them can cost you the game.

Remember your tech breakthroughs in the first 6 turns come on turn 2 and turn 4.

Assess The Map

As we know, not all maps are the same and even the same maps can be different when they have random systems. Most maps have a few planets near your home world that you can safely say are yours, at least early on. The rest of the map is a no man’s land where the battle lines will be drawn. And lastly there is the Star Chamber where you need to be on turn 6. To assess the map identify the following:

1) The best avenue for expansion. Decide which planets you will conquer first and which ones you will save for later. Keep your game plan in mind when deciding which way you will go.

2) The most likely course your opponent will take. Your opponent will be expanding also. Depending on your game plan and your opening hand, you may want to avoid them or head straight for them.

3) Distances to the Star Chamber. You need to count the jump distances to the Star Chamber so that you know how many turns it will take to get there. Hint: Double check the yellow dots in the jump lanes. Zoomed out with entities obscuring the lane it’s easy to mistake a 4 jump lane for a 3 jump lane.

Assess Your Opponent

It is very important to be familiar with the race your opponent is playing. Each race has a different set of abilities, cards and play styles. The best way to learn about each race is to play them or play against them. Other player written articles will also help you gain more knowledge in this area. Remember: Knowing what your opponent is capable of doing is very important.

Example: You are playing against a Zhik opponent. You can expect cards like Sinister Implant early on so you have to be careful how far you expand with that single starting cit. Another example would be the case where you are playing an opponent who is using an Entropy race. Knowing that they may deploy a turn 1 Mounted Laser or a turn 2 Death Ray has to be taken into consideration and you may not want to contest them for a planet that you both want.

Turn 1

Now that you have assessed your position at the start of the game, it’s time to make that first move. Don’t forget to move and don’t forget to build on your home world. This is a critical mistake that new and veteran players make from time to time and will usually cost you the game.

Note: The only time I do not move on turn one is if the map configuration forces me to wait on a conqueror to make my game plan work.

Turns 2 through 5

The next 4 turns of the game are usually dedicated to expansion and setting up your game plan. There are several things you need to observe or keep in mind.

1) Keep track of your opponents Tech. You can do this by clicking on the player’s info box to get a drop down. It will show you how much of each type of tech they have selected along with other useful information. Knowing what tech your opponent has allows you to determine which cards he can not play and gives an idea about which cards he could play.

Example: You are playing against a Zhik opponent. You check his tech and see that he has 2 Mind and 2 Cyber. This is an indicator that he probably has a Sinister Implant or a Confusion.

2) Do not over or under expand. Not getting enough industrial or artifact planets can be detrimental especially if it causes you to get behind in destiny. Over expanding and stretching yourself too thin can be just as bad. Your opponent can come in behind you and seize your valuable assets or cut your starting scout off from your other forces.

3) Try to keep influence on your planets whenever possible. Not only will it give you full production on the planet, it will help keep your opponent from trying to overtake it. Sometimes it’s even useful to loiter on a newly conquered indy just to be able to build a cit on the following turn in which you plan to move on.

4) Always be wary of a home world assault. Some maps like Pioneers are tricky, making a HW assault easier than it appears. Some players will catch you off guard while you are out expanding and make a rush to your HW. I don’t recommend always leaving a ship on your HW, but you should always be prepared to defend it. Identify possible attack routes to your HW and watch your opponent’s moves. If he has a few ships nearby and isn’t expanding normally, he may be getting ready for the assault. Remember, one good cruiser with a couple of cits is all it takes to assault an undefended HW.

5) Prepare for the vote. One of the biggest mistakes a new player makes other than forgetting to build on turn 1 is to ignore the vote. Before you make your first move you should have an idea of how much influence you will take or deploy to the Star Chamber. Circumstances often change your plans but you should always try to have adequate influence for the vote even if it means giving up a planet. You can always retake it later, especially if you get a Peace Keeper.

Turn 6

This is the turn of the first vote. It can set the stage for the rest of the game. You should have cits and voting heroes on the way or ready to go to the Star Chamber on this turn. Here are a few tips for having a successful vote.

1) Make sure that you know the number of turns it takes to get to the Star Chamber for each ship transporting influence for the vote. I always count backwards from the voting turn and have it in my mind which turn I need to leave by.

2) Always bring as much influence as possible. It’s always a good idea to leave influence on your planets but sometimes it’s necessary to use the cits holding down planets for the votes.

3) Make sure you can get to the vote. If you and your opponent have ships and persona in the same system, cards like Tractor Beam and Sabotage can still prevent you from making that all important jump to the Chamber. Having two ships in your travel group is one way to make sure you will make the vote.

The Vote

We all like to sweep the vote but this is usually not what happens. Winning even one category or preventing your opponent from sweeping the vote can still be considered a minor victory. There is no set way of voting and each vote can be different. Try to guess what your opponent will do and vote accordingly.

During the first vote most players go for either Peace Keepers or Power Play. Keep this in mind. Also, don’t become predictable. If you are known for voting in a single category all the time, players will hone in on that and wreck your day. Mix it up and be spontaneous. Sometimes you want to spread your votes out amongst the 3 categories and sometimes you want to use all your votes in a single category. Either way, you will keep your opponent guessing.

More Useful Tips

1) The edge. Remember that the player with the edge deploys and moves first. He will also shot first in battles where leadership is tied or non existent. Also the player without the edge gets the Power Play Tie Breaker.

2) Destiny. Don’t ever let destiny get out of control, especially when playing against the Omior. Always keep an eye on destiny and try to take measures before you get too far behind.

3) Double check your moves before hitting Go. In casual games where time is not a big factor I like to recheck my moves before I hit go. With all the clicking going on you can accidentally change the course of ships or forget to group passengers with their transports. Double checking will ensure that each ship has the right destination and cargo. Remember that ships with different speeds travel as fast as the slowest ship in its travel group. Also if one ship is transporting all of the persona and it dies, the persona die with it. I recommend grouping multiple ships for transport whenever possible.

You are now ready for your first 6 turns of a Star Chamber match. These guidelines are generally useful throughout the entire game. Remember to build and move on your first turn, don’t over expand, watch your home world at all times, and don’t forget the vote.

Gl & HF…AlienProbe