Space Cats Peace Turtles

291: Fog of War w/ Brassbird (feat. The Stars Beyond with Absol)

We're in full prep and travel mode for our Portland live show and Hootenanny, but we have a special treat for you! We've been a part of a couple of "Fog of War" games recently and decided to bring resident Fog of War Weird Bear Correspondent Brassbird in to help us make sense of this very odd game mode. It's an adventurous, cutthroat, thematic way to play and there are a number of ways to try it out!
Also, Matt and Absol read the first short story from The Stars Beyond, A Ghost of a Chance and are here with reactions and analysis. It's the first extended universe story we've read that wasn't written by Tim Pratt, so it's time to see how other author's handle our beloved franchise.
00:00 Fog of War with Brassbird
52:05 A Ghost of a Chance with Absol
Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com
 
To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

290: Spirit Guides - Vital Strength of the Earth and Thunderspeaker

NEW GAME NEW THEME. We've dabbled in Spirit Island as a show so far, but it's time to fully take the plunge. We've been practicing as some specific factions and we now come to you as two novices hoping to help you get started with two of the base game factions Vital Strength of the Earth and Thunderspeaker. Some of you definitely know more of us, but this episode is primarily geared to the people that don't yet! But also, this is the kind of episode where you get to jump over on the discord and roast us over the coals for all the things you think you know better!
0:00 - Vital Strength of the Earth
1:02:17 - Thunderspeaker
1:55:56 - Twilight Imperium Homebrew Review - BradleySigma's "Resonance Cascade" agenda
1:59:06 - The Agenda Phase: Nick asks: “What do you look for in a slice when Milty Draft?”
Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com
 
To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

289: Super Argent Flight Guide

It's time to get back to trusty ol' faithful. Argent Flight just have a lot of things that make sense and go well together. Despite that, they've actually had a bit of a rocky history in competitive play. However, that rockiness is generally in relation to wins, but not necessarily total points scored. That's right, it's time to talk about how to reliably not stall out at 9 points as one of the more defensive factions in the game.
0:00 Argent Flight Overview
39:32 Problems and Strengths
46:56 Technology
1:02:35 Trading
1:14:26 Early Game
1:30:28 Mid and Late Game
1:57:45 Homebrew Review - Absol's Neural Motivator
1:59:50 The Agenda Phase - Eagan asks: “is fighting to be elected for Search Warrant worth it? Are there some factions that are better with it/need it more than others?”
Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com
 
To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

288: Ranking Factions Goodest to Evilest

The Galactic Council finally got to vote on an episode again and they've chosen a very very odd one. Hunter and Matt are not ethicists or philosophers and yet we are tasked with ranking the 25 TI factions on the basis of their morality. Some of this will be based on their established lore, but some of it will be based on mechanical and strategic implications. Anyways, this is really stupid and please take none of it even remotely seriously.
Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com
 
To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

287: Super Naaz-Rokha Alliance Guide

Hey look! It's a really good faction. That doesn't mean we can't sit around for 2 hours and talk about the "best" ways to win games as the Naaz-Rokha Alliance. Sometimes it's fun to crush your opponents with friendship and kindness, okay? Open your heart up to kissing that little goblin on your back.
0:00 - Component Overview
40:29 - Strengths and Technology
1:16:41 - Economics
1:32:30 Round 1 Strategy Cards
1:46:10 - Mid and Late Game
1:59:15 - Homebrew Review - Baldrick:  An unnamed Green tech. ACTION: Exhaust this card to discard 1 AC or 1 SO. Then, draw a new card of the same type.
2:00:54 - Agenda Phase - Furniture Damage: "Which factions do you think have the strongest flavor? And do their in-game mechanics reflect that strong flavor?"
Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com
 
To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

286: First Edition First Look

One project we wanted to tackle this year on the show was doing more to explore the history of this game we know and love. So to start that journey, we wanted to learn to properly play Twilight Imperium: First Edition from way back in 1997. It's the game that launched this franchise as well as Fantasy Flight Games as a company and we were curious how many elements are central parts of the TI DNA. Turns out...it's pretty good! Go figure!
1:06:07 Homebrew Review - Absol's Relics
1:13:12 Agenda Phase: Lucreitiel "How much of the meta do you think is "truly" best practice for the game, vs how much is simply evolved against only what is "considered" current best practice? Do you think if we could magically totally reset everyone's knowledge of TI strategy that we'd eventually arrive at the same meta, or would different strategies and then counters become dominant?"
Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com
 
To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

285: What is the Midgame?

Listen, y'all. I don't know what to tell you. Sometimes you've got questions and we've got answers. Sometimes we ask questions because we secretly have answers we think are clever. And sometimes Matt asks a question thinking he'll find an answer along the way and that answer never really turn up. The concept of "the midgame" is referred to in a lot of our commentary and faction guides, but it's hard to say what we specifically mean by that. So we THOUGHT it'd be good to try and define that and offer up some strategic advice for your Midgames. But it turns out asking the question was a bigger challenge than we planned for...
0:00 The Early and Late Game
34:04 The Midgame
1:09:54 Homebrew Review: wekker: Action card: Facsimile Fabrication
1:14:41 The Agenda Phase
ElBlastoDo you think that there's a strategic advantage to being nice in TI (washing, letting score for little-no cost, etc)?
MerkiHow could the game be changed to have a 6pm game complete in 4-5 hours? Losing the least amount of the TI experience.
BigAlCupachinoWhat pie do you buy yourself and what qualities do you look for?What pie would you buy for the other if heading over to their place?
Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com
To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

284: Super Mahact Gene-Sorcerers Guide

Prepare to KNEEL! It's been two years since we last approached the topic of Mahact, and so much about our understanding of Prophecy of Kings has changed. So it's time to set the record straight, especially as we've seen Mahact's win-rate skyrocket in the last year or so. What makes this faction so complicated and how can you best control the reins?
0:00 - Mahact Component Introduction
40:53 - Problems, Tech, and Economics
1:16:39 - Round 1 Strategy Cards
1:27:03 - Mid Game and Late Game
2:09:22 - Homebrew Review - TimeThief: Alternate Space Docks
2:14:17 - The Agenda Phase - Seras: "Given an unlimited budget, where would you hold an IRL tournament finals?"
Keep an eye out on this feed for an upcoming Tournament Recap bonus episode!
Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com
To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

283: Learn to Learn: Spirit Island

It's our first strategic foray into Spirit Island, but we're still rookies over here. But we've got a good grasp on how the game is played now and we'd like to relay our experience of learning the game to you. Hopefully we can provide some tips to getting started but mostly we want you to not be intimidated by the many many words that Spirit Island is going to throw at you. But stick around if Spirit Island isn't for you, because we have a prolonged TI topic about being kind to each other and a small handful of Tournament Recaps!
0:00 - Learn to Learn Spirit Island
1:13:08 - The Agenda Phase: Visioness - I want to hear about strategies to mend relationships when things get heated in a game.
1:35:18 - Tournament Recap: Qualifiers 7, 8, 10, 11, & 12.
Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com
 
To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

282: Our Friend Dane

There's no codex or expansion or rules FAQ. Sometimes we just want to talk to our friend Dane and learn more about him and force him to be our friend. And we figured you all would want to be his friend to, so you get to listen in as we chat about his roots in board game designing, his love of Final Fantasy, and we also force him to answer a whole slew of strange TI design questions! It's a fun episode, y'all!
Dane's 5 Year Anniversary Portrait: https://twitter.com/FFGames/status/1603819802648248325?s=20&t=LNXTnyvA6_A2OW5ffv-RxQ
Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com
To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/