These are “super” early, just observations I’ve had that could easily be wrong.

We are in the early stages of discovery (at least I am) where it’s difficult to evaluate some cards because you need to see them interacting with other cards. In particular the Near/Far Frontier worlds have some big swings.

• Taking a non-military start world is fine. If you have the lowest military for a few rounds, that’s OK and likely a bonus point or two.
  • But you’ll have to jump on the train, at least before wave starts.
• But don’t forget that there’s an automatic settle on T1, so if you can call trade that might be right.
• After a few games, I don’t think the Frontier Worlds are overly powerful, because even if you get something, it may not be something you want or that will synergize.
  • That being said, they are decently powerful and can provide a path to victory.
  • They are also more fun to explore, so the meta seems to be “Frontier Early, Frontier Often.”
  • Because of this, leeching those “Frontier Settle” calls will be important … more important than leeching Develop. This does benefit having at least a few points of military (to drop the 2 defense uplift worlds or a 1-2 defense world that boosts military) or having a small production world or two.
• Similarly, temporary military is an OK defense early … but you’ll definitely want some for Fronter Conquest. Half those homeworlds say “Ignore your numbers¹, you need X temporary military” (where X is 2/2/3/4/6).
  • There a several “Spend a rare for +2 military” cards, often on rare worlds. Those are nice, better than “discard this for +3” because you can re-use them.
  • The Far Frontier Run-Amok Robots damages a world for +6 Military. ²
• Don’t under-rate Defense vs Xenos! Particularly by the time you’ve repulsed and are dealing with retribution you’ll want a few points (and more is better). (The first card that caught my attention was Frontier Isolationists, because it gave me +6 Defense vs Xenos!)
  • Almost half the retaliation cards are “your military + your Xeno military + #” You simply can’t be better, those cards cancel all your “regular” military, but a few points of Xeno Defense will go a long way.
• Having a world (or two or three) you can afford to damage for little/no cost is fine. Sometimes you don’t want to spend cards/goods defending … taking the damage is fine and you save the goods for your Frontier Settle / Conquest.
• A random consume power sometimes means getting a point (or card) or two and …. losing your temp military for defense or offense next round! That temp military (particularly on offense) can be worth 10+ points!
• I’m not sure I’ve seen a winning strategy, but I do think “Big Military/Xeno Military” and “Frontier Settle/Conquest every other turn” without much card draw is a trap. An oh-so-tempting-trap … but even if you catch a world every turn, they tend to not build an economy.
• Consume x2 still exists …. with worlds that consume 2 goods for 3 (or 4!) points. Getting up to 8+ points before doubling is much easier, also because there’s no 12 card limit to tableaus.
• Because of this (OR conquering all the Xeno’s systems OR surpassing the Conquest Value) I suspect the game often ends with tableaus of ~16-18³ cards. (That is likely very meta-dependent).
• There is no also a “Produce every turn and ship the extra goods to the war effort” strategy. Particular in the early game when you aim for the 5 point award and also (perhaps) messing up opponent’s timing for when the game transitions⁴. You’ll want to earn a few cards while doing this and spend a turn here or there developing/frontier settling/consuming, but you get the idea. I don’t think this is dominant, but you can have implicit collusion tilt the balance.

Some Notes on the Frontier Decks

Note — Both decks are exactly half black (worlds you buy) and half red (worlds you conquer).

• The Near Frontier Deck is 18 cards
  • For the black worlds, the costs are 1/1/1/2/3/3/4/4/5
  • If you have 3 Mil and 2 XenoMil then you can conquer any of the red worlds. If you have 2 Mil and 3 XenoMil, there is one you can’t (Pirate Lair)
  • If you can only handle half the cards (ie, you have 5 cards in hand but no military) your odds of drawing 3 unplayable worlds are about 10%
  • New Sparta could call Frontier Settle on T1 and get a playable world 19 times out of 20⁵. Anyone else is about 17 times out of 20. And if anyone calls explore (and you get a card) the odds go up. Just FYI.
• The Far Frontier deck is 28 cards
  • Black Worlds cost 5/5/5/5/6/6/6/6/7/7/7/7/8/9 … so if you can afford a 7 card world you have decent odds
  • Red Worlds defense are 6/6/6/6/7/7/7/7/8/8/8/9/9/10
  • Roughly half of each defense number has the Xeno keyword (so military vs Xeno applies)⁶.

1. Although you still need a base of 9 military vs Xeno to try a conquest ︎
2. Much like Malevolent Lifeforms in the base game, I love me some Run-Amok Robots. ︎
3. Rules Note — You can start conquering the Xeno homeworlds once you have a Far Frontier world (and enough military) well before the 16+ card alternate requirement. ︎
4. Having a good development in hand for the first turn of the second half is something to keep in eye on. ︎
5. You can handle 8 of the cards assuming you are willing to dump your hand, and New Sparta can also hit the 3 cards that are “2 defense” ︎
6. But not the 10 defense card, it’s Alien. ︎