Exodus: Event Horizon

The Fastest Way to Travel
about 7 years ago – Mon, Feb 20, 2017 at 09:38:48 PM

Ladies and Gentlemen!

Did you ever think that you would like to move around the merciless void of Exodus even faster? Well, now you can! Here's a new mechanism that will make your games even more flexible - and deadly!

Enjoy the read, and have a great day!

Jump Gates

Event Horizon introduces the concept of a new type of component — structures. Jump Gates are utility structures which can be created with a Build Ships Action. However, you may not build more than 1 Jump Gate per Build Ships Action. Even though Jump Gates are constructed using the Build Ships Action, they do not count as ships.

Jump Gates never move and cannot be destroyed. When built, a Jump Gate can be placed on the player’s Home Planet hex or in any other hex where the player has one or more ships.

A player can never place a second Jump Gate in a hex where they already have a Jump Gate. However, Jump Gates belonging to separate players can be present in each hex.

At the end of any Conquest Stage, each player may activate one of their Jump Gates to move one or more of their ships from a single hex anywhere on the board to the hex occupied by the Jump Gate.

While they do not serve as a replacement for faster drives, the obvious movement benefits they provide cannot be denied. You may be tempted to place one Jump Gate on your Home Planet and the second Jump Gate in the hex farthest away from your Home Planet. Even though this is a certainly a useful strategy, there are several other placement possibilities which give you a greater tactical advantage.

Tips for Using

Jump Gates appear simple and straightforward, but require forethought and planning. You must consider your overall strategy, as well as the strengths/weaknesses of the other players, where they are seated around the board, proximity to desirable planets, your own drive speed, etc., etc. …

The more players (i.e. the larger the board), the more useful Jump Gates become. However, since you only have access to two, their placement becomes even more important to consider the larger the board is. They are not a must for every game or every player.

By the time you wish you had a Jump Gate, it is too late.

Alone Against the Stronghold
about 7 years ago – Sat, Feb 18, 2017 at 06:22:43 PM

Ladies and Gentlemen!

Today we have a short update for you. This time Rainer discusses playing the Centaurian Stronghold scenario solo.

Enjoy the read, and have a great weekend!

Solo Play

Some call solo play ultimate freedom! You set the parameters, and you are in complete control over your own destiny!

By now, it should come as no surprise that the solo mode of the Centaurian Stronghold scenario is, in fact, true solo mode. There are no dummy players, no artificial player AI, or anything like that. It is just you against the game!

To be completely honest, the rules governing solo play have essentially already been covered, in the update where we looked at fully cooperative play.

Solo play follows the normal rules for the fully cooperative mode of the Centaurian Stronghold Scenario, except using a special 1-player board setup.

All other aspects (number of Turns, win conditions, etc.) remain the same.

In solo mode, you choose what type of experience you want. You have complete freedom to choose which modules to include. Feel free to experiment with different setups. Do you want to play with the Leaders module? Feel free to choose any Leader you want; or use the default deal-2-pick-1 setup. Perhaps you want to track and compare your final scores each time you defeat the Centaurian Stronghold scenario?

Yes, solo play is the ultimate freedom! Enjoy the full Exodus experience, with or without whatever expansion content you like. Challenge yourself. Achieve victory, or suffer defeat at the hands of quality cardboard!

Centaurian Stronghold: Almost a Team
about 7 years ago – Fri, Feb 17, 2017 at 03:12:37 PM

Ladies and Gentlemen!

Yesterday Rainer was intoducing you to the intricacies of the fully cooperative mode for the Centaurian Stronghold scenario. Today, it's time to take a closer look at how things work when you're almost a team... but not really.

We hope you enjoy the read and - as always - have a great day!

Semi-Cooperative Play

As with cooperative play, Event Horizon introduces a true semi-cooperative game experience. There is no traitor or unknown victory/loss condition. This is a pure and straightforward case of all players vs. each other and the game.

Whether you are playing the Centaurian Stronghold scenario cooperatively or semi-cooperatively, the object of the game remains the same: Destroy all Centaurian Warship Squadrons and the Centaurian Stronghold megastructure before the end of the game.

Just as in cooperative mode, the players collectively lose when the last Centaurian Warship Squadron token is placed on the board or if the Centaurian Stronghold remains undefeated at the end of the final turn of the game.

So what are the differences between fully cooperative play and semi-cooperative play?

First, there are a lot fewer rules changes compared to basic Exodus: Proxima Centauri. In fact, the semi-cooperative game mode does not alter or remove any basic rules. It just adds the concept of the Warship Squadrons and the Centaurian Stronghold as if adding any other module in Exodus: Event Horizon.

Please be aware that defeating the Centaurian Stronghold will immediately trigger the end of the game (so I guess that is one alteration after all).

Because semi-cooperative play involves competing against the other players and the game itself, the Centaurian Stronghold and its Warship Squadrons are not quite as deadly as when playing the game fully cooperatively.

The players will have one more Turn to build up in preparation for the onslaught by the Centaurians. The Stronghold will first activate on Turn 4, then every Turn thereafter as normal. Each time the Centaurian Stronghold activates, more Warship Squadrons will still be deployed on the board.

The shield bonus is reduced in semi-cooperative play, giving the players a much more reasonable chance of defeating the common enemy.

There are also significant rewards for anyone who defeats a Centaurian Warship Squadron. That player immediately scores 7 VP. (No rewards are given directly from the cards themselves.)

Even though the players will need to defeat Warship Squadrons individually, they can attack the Centaurian Stronghold together (since the Stronghold can be attacked from any hex adjacent to the Stronghold hex).

… and that’s pretty much it!

The idea behind cooperative and semi-cooperative play was to keep the rules as similar as possible between the two game modes. It does not matter if you try the fully cooperative mode or the semi-cooperative mode first. You will be able to switch between all game modes (competitive, cooperative, and semi-cooperative) without ever feeling like you need to relearn a different game despite the vastly different experiences offered by these game modes.

With regards to the Centaurian Stronghold scenario, the rules for fully cooperative and semi-cooperative play are laid out side-by-side in the rule book, allowing you to choose which game mode to learn first, and to spot differences at a mere glance.

When playing the Centaurian Stronghold scenario in the semi-cooperative mode, each player must carefully weigh their options and how they plan each Turn. Without cooperation, the players will collectively lose to the relentless Centaurians. But how much cooperation is sufficient to quash the alien threat while not sacrificing personal victory?

The moment the Centaurian Stronghold is defeated, the players can collectively celebrate their triumph over the game itself. However, at that point final scoring will also immediately take place. Will you find yourself defeated by an opponent, or will you stand victorious over all? Only by uniting against the alien threat and by boldly standing up against the Centaurians will true victory be yours!

Centaurian Stronghold: Rules of Engagement
about 7 years ago – Thu, Feb 16, 2017 at 09:16:15 PM

Ladies and Gentlemen,

today we take a deep dive into the intricacies of the fully cooperative mode of the Centaurian Stronghold, as Rainer explains more of the rules changes for the cooperative and semi cooperative game modes.

Fully Cooperative Play

Now that we have looked at the threat that the Centaurian Stronghold poses, let us look at how this impacts game play. As you know, the Centaurian Stronghold scenario allows you to choose whether you would like to play a fully cooperative game (all players vs. the game) or a semi-cooperative game (all players vs. each other and the game).

In general terms — all rules for Exodus: Proxima Centauri remain unchanged (more on this below). If you are playing with Edge of Extinction or Event Horizon, all those rules also remain unchanged.

As you can see — Exodus: Event Horizon allows you to customize the Exodus game experience to your liking and then choose whether you would like to play the game competitively, cooperatively, or semi-cooperatively (or even solo, which I will cover in a future update).

Just so it is clear — if you want to play a competitive game, you will be playing without the Centaurian Stronghold scenario. If, on the other hand, you wish to play a cooperative or semi-cooperative game of Exodus, you must play with the Centaurian Stronghold scenario, since this scenario governs the rules for the AI of the game itself.

Since the Centaurians prefer not to play nice, they are also automatically bringing on board the Centaurian Resistance and Centaurian Outpost modules, just to make the game as challenging for you as possible.

As you might imagine, turning an otherwise highly competitive game like Exodus: Proxima Centauri into a fully cooperative game experience was a remarkable challenge.

I did not want cooperative play to feel “tacked on” or like a poorly conceived variant. It was important to retain as much of the Exodus feel as possible. Players already familiar with Exodus: Proxima Centauri game play (with or without its expansions) should be able to jump right into a cooperative game with minimum rules to learn. I especially wanted to avoid any re-learning of rules as much as possible.

However, since cooperative play is, essentially, a totally different game, a few changes were unavoidable.

Game Setup Changes

When distributing the Turn Order cards for the first turn, randomly determine the starting player and give them the Chancellor card. Distribute the remaining Turn Order cards clockwise from the Chancellor and in ascending numerical order.

Return the "C" Vote token and all CP Value Vote tokens to the box as they will not be used.

Upgrades and Technologies related to WMDs will not be used. If a Political card makes reference to WMDs, the card should be immediately discarded, and a new card drawn in its place.

If a card or effect would cause you to lose VP, for each VP you are instructed to lose, you must instead pay one of the following amounts of resources: 5 CP, 2 Axinium, or 2 Phasium. You must pay resources, if possible.

If a Political card or Event would instead cause you to gain VP, for each VP you are instructed to gain, you may instead choose to gain one of the following amounts of resources: 3 CP, 1 Axinium, or 1 Phasium.

Gameplay Changes

In cooperative play, there are no Elections, no WMDs, and no Player Combat.

As a result, during the Upkeep Stage, the Turn Order cards are simply passed counter-clockwise. Additionally, during the Political Decision step of the Council Stage, only two Political cards will be revealed. The players vote using their A/B tokens only. The CP value tokens are not used.

The players will have just a few Turns to build up in preparation for the brutal onslaught by the Centaurians. The Stronghold will first activate on Turn 3, then every Turn thereafter. Each time the Centaurian Stronghold activates, more Warship Squadrons are deployed on the board.

Even though you do not need to engage the Warship Squadrons right away, they will begin moving across the board, pursuing the players, immediately after being deployed. Of course, the following Turn, more waves of Warship Squadrons will be deployed, adding to those already on the board. Remember — if all Warship Squadrons are ever on the board at the same time, the game is immediately lost!

You do not have to keep track of whether a Warship Squadron was deployed on Turn 3 or 4 — whenever you engage in combat with these Warship Squadrons, their strength is determined based on the current Game Turn. To determine the strength of a Warship Squadron, you will draw a number of Resistance cards as indicated by the Warship Squadron Strength Chart, combining the cannon strength and shield power listed on the card, and adding the shield bonus granted based on the current Game Turn.

In this example, we are fighting against a Warship Squadron during Turn 6 of the game. We drew two Level 2 Resistance cards and one Level 3 Resistance card, as indicated by the chart. Each Warship Squadron token in this hex has a cannon strength of 13 (4+4+5) and a shield power of 14 (2+2+3+7; the latter based on the current Game Turn). We will battle according to normal rules, except:

• Before assigning any hits inflicted by the Warship Squadron damage roll, each player participating in the combat suffers 1 damage.

Once we have engaged the Squadrons in battle, we keep fighting them, one at a time, until either:

• All Warship Squadron tokens in this hex have been defeated, remembering that we can only defeat one per combat round.

OR

• All player ships participating in this combat have been defeated.

Since this is a cooperative game, players can freely coexist in the same hex and will not be fighting each other. We can therefore combine our strengths against the Centaurian Warship Squadrons.

Even if we are victorious, in cooperative play we gain no direct reward from defeating the Warship Squadrons. Our reward is simply the successful elimination of an alien threat, bringing us one step closer to winning the game!

If the Warship Squadron combat ended with player victory and there are no more Centaurian Warship Squadrons anywhere on the board, we can now attack the Centaurian Stronghold itself! As long as there are any Warship Squadrons remaining on the board, the Centaurian Stronghold cannot be damaged.

Combat against the Stronghold is very similar to combat against the Warship Squadrons. However, we do not reveal any Resistance cards for the Stronghold. It has a fixed cannon strength of 8 and a shield power of 8, plus the shield power bonus based on the current Game Turn. We will battle according to normal rules, except:

• Before assigning any hits inflicted by the Stronghold damage roll, each player ship participating the combat suffers 1 damage.
• The players only score successful hit on results of 6.

The Centaurian Stronghold is a most formidable and relentless foe! When playing a fully cooperative game, it is very challenging for the players to win.

During play testing we would devote hours to just running combat simulations in order to find the right balance between punishing difficulty and satisfactory “trying to win”.

Do not worry! While the strength of the Centaurians may appear overwhelming, the game is definitely winnable. You will likely not win every game, and especially not on your first try. The more familiar you are with Exodus: Proxima Centauri, the better you will fare against the Centaurian Stronghold. The better the players work together, the better you will do against the Stronghold. Make wise use of your Actions and Reactions. Build a strong economy. Buy the most powerful cannons and shields you can afford. Plan for the best, but prepare for the worst. If your ships are defeated, you may well need to rebuild an entire fleet on the following turn. Take advantage of various Political laws, executive decisions, and resolutions. Do not underestimate the benefits you can gain from defeating regular Centaurian Resistance ships. But also, take care not to become overwhelmed by the power of the Warship Squadrons. Make sure you understand the rules governing their movement and targeting priorities.

You can come out ahead! The faith of humanity lies in your hands! We trust you!

Exploring the Void - Part 1
about 7 years ago – Thu, Feb 16, 2017 at 09:31:20 AM

Ladies and Gentlemen!

It's a new day, so it's time for a new update from Rainer. It's a meaty one, so it should provide you with enough information to carry you over until we delve into the Centaurian Stronghold. 

As always, have a great day - and an enjoyable read!

Exploration and New Challenges — Part 1

Exodus: Proxima Centauri is commonly referred to as a 4X game, and rightly so. It possesses the typical attributes you would expect in a 4X game of any genre — epic game play proudly borne by the pillars of the 4X genre — eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate.

Expansion is prominently featured in Exodus as the players colonize new planets and scatter their fleet across the solar system.

Exploitation of resources is a core aspect of Exodus, resources without which you cannot accomplish anything.

Extermination of your opponents’ ships and the Centaurian Resistance is key to achieving victory.

Let’s just come out and say it — Exodus: Event Horizon adds Exploration to Exodus: Proxima Centauri. In fact, there is an entire module devoted to this aspect, with several other modules to enhance exploration in the game.

This is not at all a complaint about Exodus or an attempt to “fix” anything. Instead, it is all about enriching the experience for you as a gamer.

First, let’s begin the game with all hexes face down! That’s right! All hexes (except the central hex or player starting planets) are placed face down during setup. Although the general distribution of resource types will remain the same as before, you will have to discover where certain resource types are located.

If all planet hexes begin the game face down, will the unknown locations of CP, Axinium, and Phasium be a hindrance?

They do not have to be. In fact, they should not be. Smart use of Trading (and Advanced Trading) can ensure that you have the resources you need. Improved drive Technologies will enable moving across the board more quickly once desired planet types have been discovered.

Before the game begins, you may also secretly look at one of the face-down planet hexes adjacent to your Home Planet. This allows you to make an informed decision about which planet to colonize first.

Adding the New Planets module to the mix will enhance exploration in two important ways:

• You will have unknown exotic planets to discover and exploit!
• You will be able to choose the type of one planet adjacent to your Home Planet as part of game setup.

Alright! Tell me more about how exploration will actually function in the game!

Whenever one or more ships end their movement on a face-down hex, reveal the hex by flipping it face up, then draw an Event card and resolve its effect. If two or more players ended their movement on the same hex, the Event affects all players (unless the card says otherwise). After the effect of the Event has been resolved, place any resource dice and other tokens as applicable.

The Event deck contains three types of cards:

• Boon — a purely positive effect which directly affects the player(s) who first explored the new hex. In rare cases, a Boon may affect all players.

• Bane — a mostly negative effect which directly affects the player(s) who first explored the new hex.

• Neutral — an effect that can sometimes be positive, sometimes negative, and sometimes not impact you at all.

Each Event is accompanied by a little bit of story, explaining what just happened. No single Event is game breaking. At best you will gain a victory point or receive a useful positive effect. At worst, you may lose a few victory points or receive a hindering negative effect. Just so it is absolutely clear — any Bane will have a mildly stronger negative effect than the equivalent Boon.

Remember — you have a choice. You can choose to take a risk and hope that the impact of any Bane Events is minimal, and plan accordingly. Alternatively, you can research the Sector Scan Technology and ignore the effects of all Bane Events! Keep in mind — Sector Scan only protects you against specifically marked Bane Events. Negative effects potentially caused by Neutral events cannot be avoided.

As an added benefit, Sector Scan also allows you to ignore the effects of Planet Debris. Since a face-down hex now indicates an unexplored sector of space, Planet Debris tokens will be used to mark planets destroyed by Graviton Rockets. Flying through a hex with Planet Debris can potentially damage your ships.

We are very pleased with the enhanced game experience and the added thematic effects provided by exploration.

Venturing into the unknown is sure to be both exciting and surprising. However, the unknown dangers will also require good planning and adaptability for all players.

In part 2 we will look at additional challenges introduced in Event Horizon.