As I write this, I am about to reach the one-year mark of playing Star Chamber. I remember he misconceptions I had when I first started and the simple tricks that I was able to learn easily. Anyone who has been playing Star Chamber for a month or two will probably have already learned most of the information in this article. Still, it is a fairly quick read and I imagine that players who are only sort of new might still gain something. Let's begin.

Conquering

In order to conquer a planet you must have more, I repeat, more influence than its current controller does. Even if you have ships at the contested planet and the opponent doesn't, the original controller keeps the planet when influence is tied.

Weapon Types

Having more weapon types is a good thing. This is mostly because of alert crew status giving a +2 damage bonus to every weapon fired. Therefore, playing a modification that gives +3 beam damage, such as Mounted Laser, on a Cruiser (which doesn't have any beam weapon yet) can actually provide the cruiser with +5 damage per shot when it has alert crew. Since beam weapons fire twice, a single Mounted Laser can do a total of +10 damage in combat when defending. This would not be the case if you play a Mounted Laser on a scout, since it already has a beam weapon.

The order of firing is important too. A ship that is destroyed before firing a shot is not nearly as good as one that gets all its shots off before it dies. For this reason, in my book, Torpedo damage is the best type of damage since it fires first. Missile is good since very few defensive mods exist that reduce its damage. Conversely, beam is probably the weakest of the damage types since so many modifications (example Beam Reflector) help to reduce its damage to other ships. Beam is probably the most common damage type as well, which explains why there are so many cards that counter it. Cannon is special in that it is the only weapon type to fire 3 times… although it does fire dead last and therefore requires your ship live long enough to use it. Keep all this in mind when you are trying to estimate the outcome of battles.

Surprise

Timing when you play a card is very important. A modification does not sound like it acts as quickly as a zap, but in reality the name is unimportant as both act as soon as they are played. Therefore, waiting until the exact turn you expect combat to occur and then playing a weapon mod is usually a good idea. If the opponent knows your ship has a Proton Cannon and will blow theirs up, they aren't going to enter combat with you. Waiting denies them this information.

A zap that does direct damage to a ship such as Space Debris is also worth waiting to use. If you play it on the first turn their scout will have time to regenerate its shields and render the use of your card pointless. Even if they do not regenerate their shields in time to meet your forces, they will be able to see if they have enough hit points to survive combat or not. What you should do instead is wait until an opportunity occurs where 5 more damage will actually kill a ship! Then this card can make a significant difference. One example that happens to me often is when my opponent has 2 citizens loaded onto an enemy scout coming to conquer a planet where I have one scout sitting. Since my scout can only do 12 beam damage and theirs can take 15 damage they are not worried. If you play Space Debris on the turn they arrive at your planet they will take 5 damage, then the 12 from your scout, and blow up. Good-bye enemy scout and citizens!

Using jump modifications such as Engine Upgrade to surprise an opponent is also very handy since they will not expect your cruiser to make that 4-space jump this turn! This helps with voting, conquering, and combat.

Killing a voting persona on the same turn of a vote can potentially let you kill a citizen that has been modified for extra votes eliminating their personaand a useful card from their deck. For example using your Brain Burrower on turn 8 to kill an unmodified citizen at the Star Chamber is not nearly as good as killing that same citizen on turn 12 after your opponent played Power Broker on turn 10. Similarly, holding onto that Power Broker until turn 12 can keep your opponent from knowing exactly who to try to eliminate.

Deck Building

First, this is not Magic: The Gathering. Decks are not everything. In fact, whenever a veteran player describes Star Chamber to a guest in the forums, they often mention that board play, not their deck, is responsible for over half their wins. So don't obsess over building the perfect deck. That said, a solid deck is still important. Many other articles have been written about deck building so I am going to stick to what I think are the basic principals.

Deck Size

Most people who have been playing Star Chamber a while shoot for decks between 40-45 cards. This gives a player a fairly consistent draw and lets them plan ahead for what cards they will expect to be getting. Larger decks are not totally uncommon but the 40-45 is a good rule of thumb.

Tech Curve

Use cards of various tech costs so that you don't have to sit on your expensive hand for 4 turns before playing a card or have your deck "fizzle out" late in the game since all your cards only cost 2-3 tech. While it is true that high tech cards win games, cheap cards can keep you in the game long enough to win. While you are still new, try to have one third each of high, medium, and low tech cards. Another thing to keep in mind is to pay attention to see if you are going to use one of the two techs a lot more than the other. If you have a clave deck that uses almost all life-tech cards, Sabotage might not fit well into the deck's tech structure since it uses 4 entropy.

Double Use Cards

Some cards have two potential uses, such as Imperial Summons and Sun Bloom. They both have a good trait and a drawback. Therefore, depending on the situation, you can use them on your own entity or on an opponent's. Try to be creative!

Splashing

Splashing is a slang term for adding cards that use tech outside of a race's native two techs. It requires the use of tech-producing cards such as Mark of Cyber and/or the conquering of artifact planets to get a splash tech. I would suggest new players not splash until they have gotten their feet wet in Star Chamber first (pun very much intended). Once you are more used to the mechanics of the game, go ahead and splash 1-2 tech into your decks and enjoy the full flexability the game has to offer.

Playability

In my mind there is a spectrum of general usefulness vs. specificity for every card. A card like Bergauldt Rays will be useful against almost any deck since practically every deck you play against will have persona or ship mods in it. Also, a card such as Mounted Pulse Gun is always useful; since it can push a scout past the 15 damage needed to kill another scout and can give a cruiser a new weapon type. Cards like Scapegoat are good, but not that useful to draw if you already have war declared. Then there are cards like Peacekeeping Advocate that are very useful but only if your deck is directed towards winning the peacekeeper vote. In a deck that is not built specifically to use lots of peacekeepers should probably not use Peacekeeping Advocate. As a new player, I would try to stick to cards that are not situational until you are a bit more experienced. Later you can try some crazy combinations and teach us vets a thing or two!

Outside of Playing

Common Cards Free

Get free commons from us nice veterans. Whenever we have more than 4 of a common card, we give it away. Don't feel funny taking them or even asking for them! It is just part of how our community works. If you take advantage of this excellent part of our community that catch is that you commit to passing on the tradition to the next set of new players that come along.

Trading

Use the card list in Kit's Trade Database to see the approximate value of your cards before you trade. I would estimate that about 98% of the players online today would not take advantage of a new player in a trade. Just to be safe from that last 2% though, check the value of your cards before you commit a trade.

Use the Forums

If you have any question about Star Chamber at all, post it on the forums. It is a rare occurrence for no one to respond to you within a few hours. We like to help with technical problems and strategy questions. Just ask!

Beg, Borrow, and Steal Ideas

No need to reinvent the wheel. Copy other peoples' ideas and feel free to ask them why they did certain things in-game. Again, I suggest using the resources available on Kit's website to get other peoples' opinions and ideas about different cards and decks. Once you get a foothold in the game you will be creating new ideas too! but in the mean time go ahead and borrow from the vets.

I humbly hope this was useful for someone. If you have any questions feel free to private message me in the forums or while I am online. Good luck and have fun!

  -Wuppin