twelve, on 16 April 2018 - 07:14 AM, said:
I think I need to rethink my strategy for this rouND now
I had the same sinking feeling earlier on when I started thinking what I want to do, versus what I can afford.
With regard to building (I assume you want some Infantry to at the least claim both of your adjacent systems fully?): don't forget that the Second of Warfare allows you to build without activating your home system (and the token for it comes from your Strategy pool, though). Also, the Second of Diplomacy will at some point allow you to refresh 2 exhausted planets (whether your home system or colonized planets). Neither will remove Command Tokens, though.
The question is what order these cards will be played in.
I might be totally off (which would be a lot of fun), but:
Timing of Warfare
IH won't get the Warfare secondary, so he couldn't care less when it is activated for the purpose of building.
What he does care about, is that Warfare is a set-up action (+1 movement), so he needs at the least 1 Tactical CT available after playing it - with 3 Tactical CTs in his pool, this means at the latest when he has 1 left.
He also has 2 Carriers, so he's likely looking at
Move ships --> use Warfare on Carrier --> Move ships or
use Warfare on Carrier --> Move ships --> Move ships
If he wants to research, he also needs to have CT for that, and either have
a) Trade played (but not Diplomacy) and at the least 1 Trade Good (as his home system has only 3 production),
![:D](https://forum.malazanempire.com/public/style_emoticons/Malazan/cool.gif)
or have colonized a planet with 1 production and have Diplomacy played before Technology is activated.
If he wants to build (perhaps in addition to research, perhaps foregoing research) it means he needs to move all the ships out of his home system before he can activate it for the build, which means using Warfare and its move before activating the HS.
If he does not want to research but plans a build, then he might still want to have a system (Gwynan?) colonized before Diplomacy hits.
Timing of Diplomacy
For Tatts (who refreshes a system, not planets: as such, it doesn't really matter if he picks Creuss or Star Point-New Albion, both give him 4 production and 2 influence) the preferred order is either Diplomacy --> Warfare for 8 resources to build with in Creuss (that build would likely include at the least a second Carrier that can then still move), or Technology/Warfare --> Diplomacy --> Warfare/Technology, using 4 production for a tech, refreshing a system and also spending 4 points to build with: a Carrier and maybe 2 Fighters?
Basically, Tatts (and most of us) benefit the least if Technology and Warfare are played in the same round, and Diplomacy only in the round after that: he wants to use Diplomacy in between the other two. Trade being activated before Technology can possibly mitigate this, but it's a big maybe.
Timing of Research
Khell has the luxury of being able to see what IH does with Warfare before making his decision.
If Warfare is played immediately, he could use the Secondary of Warfare, then play Technology immediately. Everyone else (except you, as you use the Primary of Technology), would have to choose if we want to pay with production for the secondary of Warfare
or the secondary of Technology, because the Secondary of Diplomacy would arrive after these.
In addition, if Trade is activated before Technology, Khell might (with 2 Trade Goods) even get 2 researches from the Primary, but he'd have to forego Warfare then.
Alternatively he can opt to use the Secondary of Warfare and play a Tactical first in order to colonize a planet on his first action, so that he has 2 planets to then refresh with Diplomacy, one of which is his home planet, after which he can probably still afford 2 technologies.
If Warfare is not played but Trade is played and he has 2 TG, he can gamble that Diplomacy will be used by Tatts to be able to profit from both Technology and Warfare, so he can play Technology and use his Home system and 2 TGs for 2 Technologies, then refresh through the Secondary of Diplomacy to allow him (and everyone else) to also use Warfare.
Everyone is entitled to his own wrong opinion. - Lizrad