Racial Picks

[Luther]

Hey - just thought I would throw this out there - how would people feel about doing actual racial picks next time?  What I mean is - rather than dealing 2 to each and having people pick their fave or the like - how about doing this - have everyone roll, high roll goes first for picking any single race, and last for planet setup, then we go counter-clockwise for races and clockwise for setup.

Normally - if I felt the races were unbalanced, I would argue pretty streneously to keep it random, but honestly, I think most of the races are relatively balanced.  In my book one of the races kind of sucks (Mentak), and two of the races are borderline unfair - though in one case, I have never really seen them played, so I am kind of guessing (Naalu, Sardaak N'or), but the rest are pretty well balanced if you take their whole picture (starting tech, powers, planets, trade agreements) into account.  I just think it would be interesting to either have folks pick a few favorites to get used to, or (in my case) play different races each time - this is the 2nd time I have ended up with the Haccan in 3 games, and honestly - they kick ass, but variety would be right on.  Pat I know feels the same about the L1z1x.

[Derrick Heyoka]

The L1z1x are fucking sick!

Then again THEY aren't the ones that dropped four warsuns on my head.  O_O  LET ALONE A WARSUN SNEAK ATTACK!
WARSUN |\|1|\|J4 !

Anyway... I call the Yssssswhateverarr;lakjsf;dljk;zall. 

[Luther]

The L1z1x are fucking sick!

Then again THEY aren't the ones that dropped four warsuns on my head.  O_O  LET ALONE A WARSUN SNEAK ATTACK!
WARSUN |\|1|\|J4 !

Anyway... I call the Yssssswhateverarr;lakjsf;dljk;zall. 

The L1Z1X are decent, but they have a lot of disads to go with their advantages.  Like - in a side-by-side with the Sardak, they get 1 higher resources to start, 1 lower influence, crappier trade agreements (1/1 vs 2/1), 2 more tech, 1 more command counter, 3 extra fighters, and a dreadnought.  Pretty rank.  The Sardak's special ability, however - is much ranker - they get +1 to everything vs. +1 to Ground Troops and Dreads, and 1 cheaper dread production.  Honestly - it would be a toss-up for me which I picked.

Compare to Barony - Barony has one more influence, one more resource, 2 less tech, slightly fewer ships, and in my book a crappier power (+1 to all ships, or +2 to GC for 1 round for 2 trade goods).  Honestly - arguments can be made for either being better.

And really, looking at all of them - it is like that.  Except the Mentak.  Mentak have 1 less resource, 1 more influence, equally crappy trade agreements, 2 less tech, less starting troops, and a crappier power (IMHO - they get two fire with 2 cruiser/destroyers at the start of combat, and very occassionally steal trade goods - big whoop).

So - honestly - the Mentak are broken.  I think everyone else is pretty fair.

[Derrick Heyoka]

Yeah I wasn't putting anyone up for a banned list or anything, nothing seems to warrant anything like that.  Although I would definitely prefer one resource to one influence (by a LONG shot)... and TWO extra tech early on is a pretty fucking nice advantage I'd say.  O_O

[Luther]

Yeah I wasn't putting anyone up for a banned list or anything, nothing seems to warrant anything like that.  Although I would definitely prefer one resource to one influence (by a LONG shot)... and TWO extra tech early on is a pretty fucking nice advantage I'd say.  O_O

Sure - but +1 to GF and +1 to Dreads vs. +1 to all combat is a no brainer - that gives them, +1 to GF and +1 Dreads, but - far nastier - gives them +1 to PDS' (and they start with Deep Space putridly enough), +1 to Fighters and +1 to Destroyers and Cruisers (and they also have Hylars - so for 1 Resource, they get a cruiser equivalent with pre-combat fighter barrages - yuck).  If you think about it - that is the equivalent to about 4 techs (Cybernetics, half of Gen Synthesis, Hylars, half of Magen Defense Grid, and maybe another half for Dreads).  Since they can get the techs as well - that is really sick.  I would really hate to be neighbors with the Sardak - within two techs (Cybernetics and Gen Synthesis) they can have 5+ cruisers, 7+ destroyers, 4+ dreads (not that I would use them), 6+ Ground Troops, 5+ PDS', and 8+ Fighters.  That is pretty god-damn sick.