Tom vs. Bruce
Starchamber: Bruce and Tom slap each other around with virtual cards
Star Chamber is a cross between a collectable card game and a board game, playable online only. Tom and Bruce each used about $30 of cards to construct their own decks, which they pitted against each other in three matches played on randomly selected maps.
GAME 1
The first map is Allocation, which features four artifact planets, two industrial planets, and the Star Chamber, dividing the two homeworlds by a jump-five gateway. Two barren planets allow access to the planets closest to the opponent's homeworld.
Bruce: Ever since I saw George Clooney in Solaris, I've wanted to play a sci-fi game against Tom. Ideally, the game would be just like the movie: there would be pretty things to look at and whether I did anything or not, it would just keep going. We thought X2: The Threat was perfect - except it had no multiplayer. After concocting some crazy scheme to play the game in solo mode and compare scores in the end, Tom had to beg off when the hack he was using made him end up bankrupt. Instead we're playing an abstract game in which you have to think really hard and aren't always sure what's going on. So I guess it's still a lot like Solaris.
Tom: First of all, it wasn't a hack. It was a no-CD crack. Thanks, Egosoft, for foiling my efforts not to have to hunt for the CD every time I want to do a quick energy-cell run at The Hole. Second, Bruce was happy to switch games because he was losing at X2. So, on to Star Chamber. One of the victory conditions is amassing 30 destiny points for a cultural victory. Destiny is a scale that reflects control of artifact planets, as well as heroic actions (i.e., you lose Destiny for playing certain "evil" cards). In this game I'll be playing as the omior, a race of... I dunno, I guess they're supposed to be plants or something. Through some sort of karmic photosynthesis, they generate extra Destiny. My strategy is to quickly grab artifact planets and use my cards to speed up my Destiny income. In my initial draw, I get two druids, featherweight ships that can quickly grab artifact planets.
Bruce, turn 1: The kej are robot bugs that can build fast cruisers. In the game. For all I know, they may be something else in real life. I took an old kej ship deck that I'd used to frustrate Tom in a prior game and tried to make it better. At least, I was supposed to. I instead, I think I made it worse. With 80 cards, it's huuuge. I.ve totally diluted the useful cards with things that generate mana, called tech in this game. Instead of cool shields and armor cards, I'm holding three scientists. I hate scientists.
Tom, turn 6: A kej cruiser with aegis shields is bearing down on my homeworld. If it can take out my base, Bruce can win a military victory, so I channel all my production to build a cruiser and scout for defense. I play Power Broker on my lone-star chamber citizen. This will give him extra voting power when the Star Chamber meets him at the end of this turn. These sessions occur every six turns and allow players to bid on various bonuses, including the Power Play, which gives the winner his choice of a special card. Furthermore, if you win three Power Plays, you've won a political victory.
Tom, after turn 6: Bruce's cruiser was smashed into space dust. During the voting, my Power Brokered citizen took the Power Play. For my special card, I took Tip the Balance, which gives me control of a planet on which we tie for influence. My Citizen with Local Contacts won Alien Support, boosting my Destiny total to 24. My plants have serious political moxie.
Bruce, after turn 7: Tom cleverly manages to ferry a citizen to Zerian under the guns of my kej cruiser by using a scout with infinity drive, allowing it to withdraw from combat once it drops off its passengers. This ties the amount of influence, but then his Tip the Balance card does just that. He also played a druid to blockade my lone artifact planet and speed up his Destiny rate even more. I've hopelessly misplayed this game. I have no choice but to try to win a military victory.
Tom, after turn 8: By pulling away all his ships to rush my base, Bruce completely abandons any attempt at contesting my Destiny income. The rush fails - kej cruisers may be faster, but their guns are weaker - and my omior vegetable men win a cultural victory. We will let a thousand flowers bloom, so to speak.
Score: Tom 1, Bruce 0
GAME 2
The second map is a Q-3 Discovery, an artifact planet between the two homeworlds, among the latticework of barren planets and asteroids. This core of systems is ringed with a long loop of additional planets.
Bruce, turn 1: That "improved" kej deck was a failed experiment. Bah - scientists! I've gone back to my old deck, and the luck of the draw has handed me the perfect map. All my ships can reach Tom's homeworld in two turns. Time for a kej-crusier rush!
Tom, turn 2: The silica are rock dudes whose ship hulls regenerate. This deck is built around buffing their ships into a powerful fighting force. Unfortunately, my initial draw was clogged with two flag ships and a carrier, which are really powerful and really expensive ships.
Bruce, turn 2: With the flexibility of Raise Shields, Repair Crew, Titanium Plating, and Regenerative Shields in my hand, I push a newly built cruiser up to Q-3.
Tom, turn 3: Bah, he can have Q-3. I'm sending scouts and a citizen along the outer ring to grab artifact planets. This will improve my tech so I can use my flag ships and a carrier to kick Bruce around the map.
Bruce, turn 3: I'm not going to bother capturing other planets or contesting the Star Chamber vote, since this will be over before the first vote happens.
Bruce, after turn 4: I won a military victory by capturing Tom's homeworld. All it required was two cruisers and a scout. Oh, and two citizens, which is all I needed for control after I wiped out Tom's base. Talk about maximum efficiency!
Tom, after turn 4: This seriously lame. Seriously. I mean, come on! This is the lamest thing since blood-lusted ogres.
Score: Tom 1, Bruce 1
GAME 2
Backfield has the players' homeworlds a two-jump and then a four-jump distance from the Star Chamber through a network of four artifacts and two industrial planets. Each homeworld has a local artifact and an industrial planet connected to the opponent's local planets via long treks past barren worlds.
Bruce, turn 1: The ferrier are the intergalactic diplomats of deep space. This deck is going to take a long time to develop, because it's designed to win a political victory while using Peacekeepers - the subcruisers you can win during Star Chamber sessions - to make up for its deficiency. The deck is full of stuff like Rhetoric, which gives you an influence bonus, and Archons, stationary diplomats who can be played directly to the Star Chamber. I'm the Dag Hammarskjold of space, only with a far-less-cool name.
Tom, turn 1: This time, I'm the zhikanii, a race of slugs with purple fringe. However, these are hardworking slugs, since their homeworld gets a production bonus. This far out from the Star Chamber - and with Bruce as the savvy ferrier - I have a political disadvantage. My deck is geared toward augmenting the ships I get from my increased production and then using mind tricks to counter any buffs Bruce might bring into play.
Tom, turn 2: I use a Brian Wipe to shut down Bruce's Rhetoric bonus at the Star Chamber. It's like George Bush getting up to address the United Nations and forgetting what he was going to say.
Tom, turn 3: I play Power Broker to give my Star Chamber citizen extra votes. At this point, Bruce can tie the power play vote, but I have the edge, a token used to break ties. If Bruce wants the power play - and I know he does - he'll be forced to move his only spare citizen to the Star Chamber.
Bruce, turn 4: My hand is being crowded with two Brain Wipes, cards that remove all modifications from a character. To make more room, I play one on my leader to remove Red Tape (a limitation of all starting leaders), reducing its effectiveness in battle.
Tom, after run 4: He just wasted a Brian Wipe, which he could have used to undo my Power Broker! This worries me because it means he's obviously not bothered by the Power Broker. He's up to something.
Bruce, turn 5: I move everyone to the Star Chamber. Tom threw a Confusion on one of my citizens to reduce my votes, but he's outnumbered no matter what he does. He managed to capture an extra industrial planet, but no matter - I'm all politics, baby!
Bruce, turn 6: I Brain Wipe Tom's Power Broker, play Rhetoric for an additional vote, and even manage to throw out an Economic Boom for extra Build points. Great turn!
Tom, after turn 6: I figured Bruce would care least about Alien Support, so I put all my votes there. I'm right. Bruce gets Power Play and the Peacekeeper. I get alien Support for a +4 Destiny. Big whoop.
Tom, turn 7: Bruce's navy is bigger than mine. To address my navy envy, I drop a War Factory on an industrial planet, which gives a production bonus but locks it into building cruisers. I strand Bruce's leader at the Star Chamber with contentment - rendering his fleets leaderless gives me an edge during combat.
Tom, turn 8: I'm guessing Bruce is heading toward Volcanis, my homeworld. If so, I'm fine. I'll have more cruisers waiting, and I have a production lead, even though he just dropped a second Economic Boom on his industrial planet. My hardworking slugs and additional industrial planet will eventually outpace his short-lived booms.
Tom, turn 9: He's got me boxed in with two forces coming at Volcanis from different directions. I can easily hold him back; my zhikanii warlock's leadership and the Alert Crew bonus for defenders gives +4 to each of my attacks, down to the lowliest cannon shot. He must be trying to split my fleet up.
Bruce, turn 10: Något gick fel! I got impatient and tried to end the game in one move by attacking Tom's homeworld. It worked before, right? Apparently this time, there was something with the leaders, how they help you in combat and whatnot. I didn't watch the new Battlestar Galactica, so how should I know - it sure wasn't in Solaris.
Tom, turn 11: What a grand battle. You can re-create this battle at home! Take an egg to represent Bruce's fleet. Now go outside and find a brick wall to represent my fleet. Then throw the egg at the brick wall. That's what this battle was like. I'm moving my triumphant fleet toward the Star Chamber in time for the next turn's voting session. Now that his fleet is smashed, I'm tempted to simply attack his homeworld, but he may be able to rebuild before I get there.
Bruce, turn 12: At the Star Chamber, Tom has five votes to my eight. I need to win the power play and the Peacekeepers to rebuild my fleet. This will again leave Tom with Alien Support Destiny. He's very close to pulling off a cultural victory. Fortunately, I have the equivalent of an ace waiting up my sleeve: a card called Propaganda.
Tom, after turn 12: Bruce knows his only chance for victory is political, so I knew he'd go for Power play. I let him have it, squandering six of his votes. This secures Alien Support for me, which will tilt the destiny balance even more in my favor. Since it's my second Alien Support, I get +8 Destiny this time. This gives me a total of 23 Destiny and actually puts me within a few turns of a cultural victory. "You love me," I tell the adorning aliens. "You really, really love me."
Tom, turn 14: If I were more conservative, I'd cluster my citizens on the Star Chamber in anticipation of keeping Bruce from securing a political victory with a third Power Play at the end of turn 18. But, it's late and Bruce keeps whining in the chat window about being sleepy. Fine, I'll just run around and grab the artifact planets for a quick cultural victory so that Bruce can lose and go to bed sooner.
Bruce, turn 14: There are a couple of ways to defend a homeworld: Use ships, or even cheaper, build lots of citizens so the enemy can't control the planet. I protect my homeworld by storing up Build points for citizens. In the long run, this is a losing strategy, but I'm trying to hold out until the vote on the 18th turn.
Tom, turn 15: I had a scout trying to slip past his homeworld to grab an artifact planet just beyond it. Bruce held it in place and destroyed it by playing a Tractor Beam. Where's the card that sends in Obi Wan to shut it down?
Bruce, turn 16: Tom's got me on the ropes with all the Destiny he's earning from artifact planets. Without a fleet, I can't contest them. But I can shut down his attempt at a cultural victory with Propaganda, a card that reduces his influence by one on every planet in the galaxy. Every planet in the galaxy. That goes for ones he doesn't own, too, so it puts him in the hole if he lands on any new planets. The effect lasts three turns, which takes us right through the final vote.
Tom, turn 17: Propaganda? What the hell kind of card is that? I drop from 24 Destiny to 14 in one turn. The aliens that used to love me are swayed so easily by one little card? Screw their hearts and minds! Time for the military victory! My fleet will reach Bruce's homeworld the same turn as the vote. A military victory trumps and political one, so I'll still win.
Tom, after turn 18: Suddenly, Bruce cranks out a boatload of citizens at his homeworld, depriving me of my military victory. Absolutely unfair! I smashed his base, so I should win regardless of how many sniveling citizens he has cowering on the planet below!
Bruce, after turn 18: Tom has six votes plus the tiebreaker. I have eight. I have to steady my mouse with both hands, but I successfully click on the Vote button without screwing anything up. Game over.
Final Score: Tom 1, Bruce 2
-From Computer Gaming World