GE - repost from rec.games.trading-cards.misc
CompanionG
From: 113...@cygni.ho.att.com (Nick Sauer)
Subject: Companion Games open house
Message-ID: <D12DD...@nntpa.cb.att.com>
Date: Mon, 19 Dec 1994 15:22:30 GMT
Alan Gopin, Tony Medici, Dave VanCleef and I all took Companion Games upon
their open house offer and drove up to Stamford, NY to visit them. The
trip took substantially longer than we expected (this was due to poor
initial planning on our part, and the weather decided not to help either).
Once we finally got there the trip was pretty quickly forgotten. Carl and
all the people at CG were very nice. They had primary edition GE Basic
Decks and Expansion Packs available. More importantly, they had uncut
press sheets of primary edition GE on the wall to look at.
We also got a chance to look at some of the original artwork for the new
cards that was in the process of being shipped back to the artists. The
artwork tended to be the same size as your standard Magic original artwork
(about 6 by 8 inches or so). However, some pieces were actually twice
this size.
The best part of the trip was getting to play GE with Carl Schulte (the
game's designer). Carl is an extremely knowledgable gamer and very fun to
game with. It took us awhile to get the game started as we had literally
just bought all our cards. We decided to use one person's cards to build
decks just to keep things a little saner. I ended up volunteering my
cards as a) everyone else wanted to be able to easily catalog their cards
as they opened them, and b) I bought less cards than everyone else (making
the opening and sorting time substantially shorter). Once we started
playing things went pretty smoothly. Alan kind of got boned due to a
severe lack of terrain (this was further "helped" by the rest of us
plowing down what little he had out). I got knocked out of the game first
(I kind of screwed up how I handled my ships) when my Sector Headquarters
got opened up by Carl (who was sitting to my left) taking down my last
ship. Also, having a ton of terrain out made me a pretty serious threat
(I would have taken me out as fast as possible). The funniest part of the
game was when Dave used an R/C1 Bar Tender (crew card) to stop an insanity
effect played on one of his crew cards by Carl. The Bar Tender also makes
the target player get drinks for the rest of the table. Carl proceeded to
do this, then stopped and decided that he was going to start a quest to
never be forced to get drinks by this card. So, he played a luck card out
of his hand that allowed him to redirect the card's effect to another
player (Alan was the lucky winner). We had to end the game due to time so
Alan ended up winning (no damage on his Sector HQ and most points in ships
and bases out). It was a really fun game.
I think we were all in agreement at the end of the day that the four hour
trip was well worth it. If Companion Games ever offers another such open
house again, I would highly recommend the trip (I know I'd go a second
time).
Nick Sauer
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Newsgroups: rec.games.trading-cards.misc
From: a...@pegasus.bl-els.att.com (-Alan M. Gopin)
Subject: Re: Companion Games open house
Message-ID: <D12q9...@nntpa.cb.att.com>
Date: Mon, 19 Dec 1994 20:00:54 GMT
I couldn't agree more with Nick's post about our trip to Companion Games.
Carl is a class act all the way, and those of us who made the trip all had
a terrific time. The only things I would add are that Carl obviously
cares about improving the quality of his product. He took extensive notes
during our game of all the questions that came up so they could be
answered in a future issue of the Galactic Empires newsletter, Galactic
Intercom.
Be warned however, that Companion Games HQ is in the middle of nowhere.
The directions say they are off exit 19 of the New York Thruway. That is
like saying that the show that just opened in Cleveland is Off-Broadway.
In fact, they are 40 miles and an hour's drive over narrow two lane roads
that go over mountains off the Thruway.
At least I had the good sense to call home before we left the wilds of
upstate NY at 5:15, three hours later than we expected, and with an hour
and a half longer drive than we anticipated in front of us. My wife was
pissed at me, but under control when we got home. Nick, OTOH, had told
his wife that he would be home at 4:30 and never bothered to call in.
When we got back to my place at 9:00 and he called home, I thought the
phone was going to melt in his hand.
Alan Gopin
a...@cmprime.att.com
-----
Newsgroups: rec.games.trading-cards.misc
From: a...@pegasus.bl-els.att.com (-Alan M. Gopin)
Subject: [GE] Galactic Empires Primary Review
Message-ID: <D12pK...@nntpa.cb.att.com>
Date: Mon, 19 Dec 1994 19:46:06 GMT
A Review of Galactic Empires, Primary Edition:
Summary:
The best multiplayer collectable card game to date. It has high physical
quality, significantly improved artwork over Intro, and tremendous play
value. Buy this game! Then tell your friends to buy it, too! It's a +3
on the Leeper Scale of -4 to +4.
The Fine Print:
The Primary Edition of Galactic Empires: The Science Fiction Trading Card
Game has just come out, and it completely blew me away. Primary makes all
the good things about GE better, and fixes the only weakness of Intro, the
cartoonish artwork. There is one small problem primarily for people who
don't have access to Alpha or Beta cards, a lack of economy-producing
terrain cards.
Primary increases the card count from 91 to 430 and adds two new card
types, Dragons, and Attributes. There are now 11 card types and cards
ranging in value from 1 to 10 in each type. The deck construction rules
have been improved to take into account the new types and players'
individual styles. You are now only required to have 8 of the 11 card
types in your deck, so if you don't like dragons (for example), you don't
have to use them.
The physical quality of the cards is excellent and the new artwork is just
stunning. If you blew off GE Primary because you didn't like the artwork,
be sure to check out the new Primary cards. You will be in for a very
pleasant suprise.
GE was built from the ground up as a multiplayer game and it shows. The
game works for multiple players and the many reaction cards that can be
played during other players' turns insures a high degree of interaction
among the players. When your turn is over in GE, it is NOT time to go
read a book until play gets back to you. Everybody in a game of GE is
involved all the time, and in every game I've played, everyone is enjoying
themselves. GE passes one of my most important tests of a good game in
that it is a game that you will enjoy playing even while you are getting
your butt kicked.
The deck construction rules make sense, and there are a variety of deck
constructions strategies that are viable. This will increase the play
value of the game, because all the decks won't look the same.
The only problem with Primary is the significantly increased rarity of
terrain cards that generate economy points. These are the most important
terrain cards in GE because economy points can be used for just about any
other type of point, most importantly for repair, ammo, and research. I
gave a Primary A Basic Deck and a Primary B Basic Deck to two of my son's
friends so he would have more people toplay with. In those four decks
there was not a single economy point-producing terrain card. If you're
playing against people with Alpha or Beta cards, this makes the game
nearly unplayable without buying a few Expansion Packs. The silver lining
to this problem is that those of us who have lots of Alpha terrain cards
where economy points are common are suddenly sitting on an extremely
valuable commodity.
Alan Gopin
a...@cmprime.att.com