I'd like to start of apologizing to the people who's name I got confused, as I wrote this whole piece in a day and some details might have gotten lost in the excitement.

Day -5: (From Registration)

So there I was sitting at work, feeling particularity bored surfing the web while waiting for an extensive test suite to finish. When I started thinking what was the name of that other card game, hmmm star something, maybe chamber? As always google comes to the rescue. My knowledge of this game is very limited, all I knew is that its a card game but only a few minutes after typing in Star Chamber knew the following: Most strategy oriented game ever created, but with a steep learning curve, the average gamer is around 28-30 years of age.

The official web page is open in one browser while I'm scanning different game sites for reviews. All in all every single review I read only has positive things to say! So I do wonder why haven't I heard more about this game before? The test suite finished running. But I'm on a mission now, to get the bottom of this! A few hours later, and many more forum posts, and a lot of articles at kitsdb.com the real world comes knocking with guilt and more work but the day's almost up and once I'm home I will be downloading the client!

I break the news to my wife that I've found a new game that looks very interesting, she knows my obsessive nature when it comes to these type of things. She smiles worriedly and asks how much? "Its cheaper then magic", I reply, while heading for the computer. While the client is downloading I browse the forums again and am struck by how supportive and mature this community really is. Not everything is making sense, still too many things that I don't know. But the wealth of knowledge that is willingly shared is very encouraging.

I click PLAY and down the rabbit hole I go.

Coming from Magic Online, and being sick and tired of their crap client and constant server crashes The Star Chamber client is like a breath of fresh air. Maybe not as polished as the Stargate client but for its purpose, the Star Chamber client looks to do what you want it to do.

I start with the tutorials...

• ohh I build ships, now I get it.
• Hmm, this voting business going to be tricky
• Destiny rocket, I get it now..

Time just goes too fast, its already late, time for bed.

Day -4

After yesterdays tutorial session a lot of the forum posts are making sense. I start reading the SC Academy Seminars. Excellent stuff, I'm learning a lot. I introduce myself on the forum and get many encouraging replies. Eventually work is over and I rush home and fire up SC as soon as possible, Jupiter Initiative on easy here I come.

1st try: I build the wrong things, I don't get things to the front fast enough and this Android dude is producing ships like crazy. Need to re-think my strategy, trying to capture something when he is defending just wont work. I ended up going on the attack while he went on attack so we just changed planets, just that now I'm open all the way back to my HW. This moving at the same time, and the risk of over passing each other is a real headache, need to get my head around it.

2nd try: I know where he will come from, I know I can not win a military win, Destiny is probably the way to go. If I can just hold him at bay, but I need all the artifact planets. The AI broke through one of my fronts. My wife looks worriedly at me as I fling curses at the android bastard.

3rd try: AI is very predicable, or it does exactly the same thing every time. This time I know the build order, I know when the special events happen that will give me that little extra I'll have a scout waiting for the space marines to take them to the front and with battle armor not much the AI can do. I win Easily. Destiny win on turn 12. I'm ecstatic. I venture into the Lobby, people are very friendly and they recognize my nick from my forum posts.

Day -3

Last night I had a dream about SC cards, think they were life cards as they had green borders. Am I getting a bit too obsessive? But... but its fun. Today I will not play, need try to control this need.

Something that been nagging at me since yesterday, The number of people in the main lobby, for an online game its was very few. I start a thread outlining my concerns. While waiting for replies I investigate my options for registration. the $80 package or the $30 package? choices choices... I will decide on Saturday. Read a bit more on the forum, and browsing cards at kitsdb.com.

There are a few cards but its not that many, some 1300 unique cards currently. Coming from magic it doesn't feel that bad and knowing that the community will try its best so that you will never have to pay for a common card! Now that's very nice. I will need to see if I can find the Clyde II bot.

I get home end up in front of the computer, But I try to stick to my guns I will not play today, though I can watch some other people playing! These guys played fast their names escape me now I think it was Leto and Zorro but they were old timers, most of the time I did not have time to even read on the cards before the next turn was initiated. It was interesting, I really do have a lot to learn..

There is no real point doing the Jupiter Initiative again and on the forum the common consenses is don't play Skirmish Mode as it will make you a worse player. But there is still so many things I don't fully understand and I don't really want to bug any vet that much just yet. Skirmish mode it is on easy..

Skirmish Mode First Try: Well to put it bluntly, I got my ass handed to me.. not enough citizens to win the votes, over reaching spreading myself too thin and android plays a bit different then Humans. I conceded to the Kej AI on turn 10. Tomorrow I'll try it a bit more.

Day -2

All the response to my concerns of the continued existence of this game have been somewhat relieved

Yes there are few people playing but they are dedicated, Yes a lot of of people were lost to Stargate but they will probably come back to some degree, and hopefully Sony has realized what a great game this is and will keep it just based on that fact. Another good thing is that the core components used for server/client are used for Stargate as well and as such there is little maintenance required specifically for SC. So I'm feeling hopefully and this more or less solidified my decision that I will invest in a registration package at least.

Idle moments at work are spent contemplating on how I should proceed with the AI, 15 build points.. scouts costing 6, best option is probably 1 scout and 2 citizens, and go for Findor first, then continue down to Ubetta, followed by a quick trip to Grennel and then back, and hope I can get a scrapyard scavenger in my hand from start to get the conquer stuff going. It never hurt to get some peace keeper cruisers either.. and the kej scouts and are really weak, I should be able to kill one with one of my scouts. Especially if I can boost it a bit.

Skirmish Mode Try 2: By turn 10 its pretty even, I made a few mistakes. I still take too many risks and am leaving to much open but I did get my peace keepers and I did win the power play, but he is producing a bit more destiny them me. At turn 13 I made a mistake, very annoying when you drag a fleet, intend for only part of the fleet to actually go, but it sent all the fleets. I noticed too late and I feel my board control slipping. Turn 15 I concede.

Try 3: AI is predictable, I play safe, expand slowly but surely. focus a bit more on getting votes, and making sure my back doors are closed and secure. Scrapyard Scavengers and External Targeting Sensors make one of my scouts into a really nasty piece of work. Soon I'm standing on the doorstep of his HW, but before I get to invade, I notice that my destiny is already at 20. The android cruiser might cost a bit but they are really powerful, makes the peace keepers look like sissies. I wanted to win a military win but Destiny beat me to it.

Once you beaten the AI there is no point playing it even again really. It's just too predicable, It will do the same thing again and again. But I do think its a good second step to take after finishing the tutorials as you will be playing on a real map and have all the three victory conditions to work towards. Possibly you could replay with the goal of getting a different victory then before. Beating the AI three times once for each victory conditions is not a total waste of time and could be quite educational.

Again its too late.. really need to get some sleep.

Day - 1 -- Friday!

Lunch break was spent going through 3 starter packs and checking every card at kitsdb.com, slowly building up my card knowledge. There are some decent cards in those starters. Which race to play first?! After playing the Android in the skirmish mode I feel a bit partial to them, and I do like the big nasty ships. It will probably be my first race to play.

I still cant get over how friendly and helpful people are in the main lobby (and the forums). How willing these vets are to show a noob how to do things, makes me feel very welcome. Watched another game, then went through the whole Kit vs. Wuppin A Commented Game article, educational.

I finally did it, I played my first game! it was with the practice deck but still! I was unlucky and I ended up with Kej! and I don't really have any clue how to play them. It lasted until turn 10, first loss was a fact. This, of course, was expected and with some help from my opponent, Silvergryphen, I learned some more. Again, as I tend to do, I over stretched and ended up with nothing, to many risks. I'm coming to learn that rarely pays off.

One big factor for this is that Alert Crew Status makes a big difference. If you let him come to you or if you go out hunting him. Hunting has its place of course, as long as you don't expose yourself too much. Tomorrow I'll buy my galactic pack!

D-Day

Last night my dreams again were swamped with SC strategies and cards, not sure if I won any games or not though.

Its 9 am, wife is busy on the treadmill for another hour so I have some time before breakfast. With credit card in hand I fire up the client and click the Store, select my Galactic Registration Package.

$14 in taxes!! arrgghhhhh the pain.. while cursing the EU laws I suck it up and just click proceed. A few seconds later my previous empty collection tab swells with new stuff! One at the time I excitedly open starter packs. I know what I will get so my attention is on the 3 extra rares for each pack. I'm still too new to know if what I get is actually good or not but as I go through I do have a few oooooo, aaaaaa, and bleeehh's.

I then start on the 15 boosters, maelstrom first then ATOK. I look at the cards but in my noob eyes I'm sure I'm missing the point of many of these cards but its very exciting.

The hour went by very quickly and I still have 5 Decent boosters to open! but it will have to wait.

A few hours later the pull is too hard to resist and the last 5 Decent boosters are ripped open in a quick frenzy. With Ender's Deck building Seminar in one browser window I have a go at the whole deck building business. Of course I pick the androids as my race and follow the steps for how to build a deck. 30 minutes later I have something, it is pretty horrible, I'm sure. But Hey, I'm a noob!

This is what it looked like:

Android Deck 1

Android	Entropy	Cyber
2x Asura Model	1x Medal of Triumph	2x Medal of Freedom
1x Omega Trooper	4x Mounted Pulse Gun	2x Ularium Enrichment
1x Character Assasin	2x Nano-Pulse Warheads	4x Scrapyard Scavengers
1x Daemon Nu (Dark Hammer)	2x Prevarication	1x Ularium Booster
1x Ardent Executioner	2x Iconoclasts	1x Front Line Summons
2x War Dog	2x Gunrunner	2x Jamming Screen
2x Flanking Cruiser	3x Spoilage
2x External Targeting Sensors

The regulars in the lobby were more then ready to help me get started, and I was soon in my first game with my own cards. I realize that SC has lots of maps.. a lot..

My first game with my own android deck was a short and messy affair which I would like to forget, and I no longer care to play Android. Its time to try another race. From my reading people are saying good things about the Clave so they are my next race to try. Into the deck builder again.

Clave Deck 1

Clave	Entropy	Life
4x Battle Totem	2x Medal of Triumph	1x Medal of Valor
1x Rearguard General	4x Mounted Pulse Gun	4x Advancing Horde
1x Gate Crasher	2x Nano-Pulse Warheads	1x Trained Administrators
1x Roving Warlord	4x Mauling Crew	1x Nomadic Horde
2x General Nargha (Living Legend)	2x Assault Frigate
1x Ilkhan Rorvist (Voice of Reason)	1x Spoilage
2x Bushwhacker

I've also decided for the next couple of games I will only play on the Rivals Twin's map just so I can get a feel for the map and the progress from there.

A few seconds later my second game commenced. Silentsound1 proceeded to highlight my noobness with his common ground deck, though he was good all the way through and very patient as I tended to use up the whole 200 seconds for each turn. Again my main losing point was board play and a few silly mistakes, I know I didn't have a chance in the SC but my first goal was to try to do a bit better on the board, but at least I feel I'm learning something.

Silentsound1 not only offered lots of advice but also some cards! So that swelled my card pool by some 40-50 cards! most of them Clave oriented so I had another go with the deck builder! This time focus was on Clave, again using Ender's formula.

Clave Deck 2

Clave	Entropy	Life
2x Battle Totem	3x Medal of Triumph	1x Heroism
2x Bushwhacker	4x Mounted Pulse Gun	1x Space Algae
2x Clave Cruiser	2x Gunrunner	2x Medal of Valor
2x Clave Scout	4x Mauling Crew	2x Advancing Horde
2x Grunt	2x Gamma Ray Burst	2x Nomadic Horde
2x The Nargha Maneuver
2x Gate Crasher
2x General Nargha (Living Legend)
2x Rabble

One last game for the day.

This time Wuppin was my opponent, I think I was doing reasonably well, of course Wuppin was playing a starter deck, but not sure my deck was any better anyway. Unfortunately around turn 10 I had to conceed! My wife was giving me angry looks, and for a good reason, 20 minutes later we were suppose to be on our way to a wedding and I was still sitting unshaved in shorts and a t-shirt.

Day 1

I didn't feel I had given my new deck a fair spin yet, so back to the Lobby and a search for a willing vet that can stand my slow play. Again the helpfulness in this community is just mind blowing. Seconds later I have a new game! This time against silvergryphon playing a common ground deck. I know I'm getting better, I can feel it, but my board play is still lacking and it ends on turn 18 by a power play victory.

On to the next game!

Another newish player Donegals5th agrees to game, new map again, takes a bit for me to get my bearing but Donegals5th's Silica deck rips through my cards like a shredder on steroids. I just can't keep up, and after a failed attempt at his HW, defeat is just around the corner. Turn 17 its all over, my HW ripped to pieces. I really liked the Ionized Hull modification he played, gets difficult to destroy a silica cruiser with 150 hull! My clave deck really need some ship removal!

Again silentsound1 came to the rescue telling me to check up on Demolition Squad, The Nargha Manouver and Timebomb. Luckily I do have all these cards! But I need more help with this deck of mine and I remember on kitsdb.com there is an article called: Making the Jump from NOOB to New Player and a suggested clave deck that start out as the clave starter. I don't have all the cards that are there but I give it a try, substituting similar cards where necessary.

Silentsound1 offered to help play test my new deck. It started out good, I was lucky and got a good starting hand and I was conquering from turn 2. I got a peace keeper at the first vote but lost the power play. My board play was going pretty well, felt I was at least keeping up with my opponent. But as I lost the second power play vote, my options were running out fast. The The Nargha Maneuver saved me a few times but my only option was to do a full assault on his home world, even though I knew it was pretty futile, I had to try. So off the fleet went. My nomadic hoard had 5 influence then some additional 3 citizens, 2 cruisers, 3 scouts and an additional scout that would arrive one turn late, but that scout had a demolition squad. Turn 16, only 1 cruiser and 1 scout survived they are pretty badly hurt and he still had some 4 ships there and more on the way. He now has more or less total board control. Turn 17 my scout with the demolition squad arrives, together with my battered cruiser and scout they make a last effort. The cruiser is destroyed, one scout goes down in flames. But on round 10 of combat my demolition squad steps up and randomly selects his home world station! BOOM it goes.

All of the sudden there is a message saying You win! I'm like WHAT?!

My opponent is as flabbergasted as I am, with him having 5 other ships the chance of the demolition squad actually picking the station is pretty slim, still it happened. It just doesn't get more lucky then this.

I go to bed, still smiling.

Day 2

After Yesterday's surprise win I modify my deck a bit more.

Clave Deck 3

Clave	Entropy	Life
2x Demolition Squad	2x Medal of Triumph	2x Medal of Valor
2x Battle Totem	4x Mounted Pulse Gun	2x Nomadic Horde
2x Bushwhacker	4x Gunrunner	1x Veteran Leader
2x Clave Cruiser	4x Mauling Crew
2x Clave Scout	2x Agressive Pilot
2x The Nargha Maneuver	2x Iconoclasts
2x General Nargha (Living Legend)	1x Threat of Violence
2x Gunner	1x Broken Pact
2x Roving Warlord	1x Secret Police
2x Time Bomb

I didn't have to wait for long until someone agreed to take me on, warning Ken that I'm a new player and will use up the timer in most cases we had a go at it. He brought out an Ixa deck and and we started the game, on yet another map I have never seen before. We both are expanding slowly growing our destiny and production. I focus most my power on citizen production I just really want to win the first vote, I need to declare War!

Unfortunately he playes Heart of Drahl early on. But by the time we get to turn 6 I have 2 more citizens than him. I leave them all in Power Play, not daring to risking it. He picks up some destiny and a peace keeper but I have the galaxy at war! I keep drawing useful cards, and harass his home world and neighboring planets by deploying Gunrunners he kills them pretty quickly but they do leave a mark. Around turn 10 board control looks pretty even, we have the same amount of artifact planets and same amount of industrial planets, but of course any citizen I kill out in the field he gets one more influence in the SC! Thanks to that Heart of Drahl. It's a big problem. Once turn 12 comes around I have 9 citizens in the SC while he has 6. Unfortunately one of his has 6 influence! Luckily I have a nice card in hand that will at least prevent him from getting more peace keepers, Broken Pact.

I try to win the Power Play but he has it solid and managed to pick up another +8 destiny as well. So we are now 1 each in power play but -3 vs 5 in destiny. I take a chance while he is defending on another front to sneak in two cruisers next to his home world capturing one of his artifact planets but a few turns later I pull back he just has too much defense at his HW. I did earn some destiny though, and I'm constantly now producing more destiny than him. But I hardly notice it, my attention is firmly planted on two fleets that are trying to push him back, with moderate success.

But after playing both a Clave Cruiser and General Nargha (Living Legend) I feel I'm starting to gain control of the area. Turn 18 is here. Board play is tied, possibly a slight advantage to me. But he has the SC in a firm grasp. Even though I've been trying to produce citizens I can not rival his numbers. But my firm focus on board play I've totally lost track of destiny! and I see that I actually have 8. I know he will go for power play and peace keepers so I put all my votes on destiny. If I can just hold my artifact planets and possibly snag one or two of his. The vote goes as I expected, I now have 12 destiny.

I see an opening, 3 of his artifact planets are only held by one citizen and they are on a route with only one jump between them. My cruiser and bomber and three citizens will conquer these fast enough, of course I will start losing them two turns later when he realizes what I'm doing but it might just be enough. By turn 21 I have 26 destiny, butterflies are very active in my stomach I'm approaching my first victory. I lose one artifact planet but I capture another. I press Go and hold my breath. Unless he has some serious destiny card I have won. The destiny counters are ticking back and forth and mine end up at 32.

I won my first game!

The euphoria is quite overwhelming. Even if I lose the next 30 games this win has shown me it can be done!