Power Of The Day -- Macron
Hadsil
Tokens Worth Three
You have the power of mass. Each of your tokens has a value of 3 when
determining challenge totals. They only count as 1 for consolation and
defensive rewards. You may put up to 4 tokens onto the cone as
normal.
HISTORY: Coming from a gargantuan planet, the Macrons are accustomed to
tremendous atmospheric and gravitational forces. Power comes so
naturally to them, they scoff at the fragile intelligences they crush
on their way to universal dominance.
FLARE
Phase 3, 6
Wild: As an ally or offensive player, you may put as many tokens in the
cone as you have bases, including bases in your own system.
Phase 8
Super: Each of your tokens counts as three for consolation and rewards.
PULSAR
Phase 3, 6
Con: Macron may only put one token onto the cone. The token is worth
four.
Phase 6
Pro: Your tokens are worth 5 each.
Eon/Avalon:
No changes to my modified version.
Experience Rating: Novice
Cosmic Monopoly
When you land on your own property of a color property, you may
purchase to increase it by one house, max a hotel. You do not need to
have a monopoly of the color group. If you do have its monopoly, you
do not have to build evenly in this way or normal purchase of
buildings. In long version, for using your power in this way and
sharing the property, you are considered to have sole control with
respect to the property as a monopoly, even if someone else has control
of the entire color monopoly.
Commentary: This is a combat power. Macron, in its original version,
is a power that is both strong and weak. Its strength lies in its
combat value; its weakness is the vulnerability of its tokens and few
defensive rewards. Macron is tough to defeat when it is defensive
player and a guaranteed 4 challenge points when on the cone. That is
an advantage not to be overlooked. However, because Macron can only
put one token onto the cone it becomes very vulnerable to various token
removal effects, which happen more frequently than when Assassin just
happens to be in the game. Also, only getting one defensive rewards
card when other defensive allies get 4 limits you in card resource
acquisition.
Especially now that my home made game components are added to my set,
Macron became more vulnerable with its isolated tokens and less access
to the plethora of new flares, edicts, pulsars, etc. I therefore
changed Macron to be able to put four tokens onto the cone just like
any other player. I kept its tokens at a value of 4 each. During play
test, though, that did prove to be very unbalancing. I could see why a
limit was needed. Which ever side Macron allies on wins. At the
suggestion of comments made by several people in the newsgroup I
lowered the value of tokens to 3, still strong enough to be worth the
power yet not too strong to monopolize the challenge. Having +12 on
the cone with four tokens is superb. It would still be up to the
players not to be too dependant upon this factor and constantly ask
Macron to ally, allowing him many bases and cards.
I would now say that original Macron is a victim of my own
modifications to my set. Using only canon Cosmic Encounter game
components, Macron as originally worded (token value of 4, limit one
token on the cone) works just fine. The number of token removal
effects is fairly few, and while not getting as many cards as other
players during the game is a factor, for what is available Macron is
not losing much. Macron's strength can been experienced clearly in
the online game at cosmicencounter.com (free plug ;)). With the various
powers and cards I have added to my set, the value of getting cards has
increased. Macron loses more than it gains.
On a side note, unless it was a typo, I disagree with the Mayfair
rulebook that having the power combo Amoeba/Macron, as Macron is
originally worded, is a conflict. The idea behind that reasoning is
Macron's limit of one token on the cone, thus Amoeba can't be used. I
say Amoeba can be used. All players already have a limit to the number
of tokens they may put on the cone, namely 4. Amoeba can certainly
ooze in more than 4. Macron's limit just happens to be of a lesser
amount. There's no reason why as Amoeba the player can't ooze in more
over this lower limit. Therefore, Amoeba/Macron is a super combo.
Gerald Katz
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