In Space, No One Can Hear You Scheme.
I'm using my Ferrier deck, which I haven't really tested against the AI. The idea is that I'll focus on their mental powers, using Mind Labs and Orbital Research Labs to boost my "mana" production. I'll rely on Dream Eaters and Contentment to slow down the other player. I've even used the online trading function to grab a few rare Ruined Plans and Bribery cards to round out my deck's dirty tricks.
So now I've jumped into a ranked match with someone who has a couple hundred games under his belt. Within a few turns, I've already managed to miscount my travel time and blow my Ferrier advantage. They start with an extra citizen at the Star Chamber, where you vote every six turns to try to win bonuses. But my opponent used a scout with an Energy Boost to ferry a bunch of influence out there at the last minute.
And now he's got a sizeable fleet bearing down on my homeworld. They'll blow right through my base, so I need to start organizing either a defense or a diversion. Ferrier mind powers aren't terribly useful against rampaging cruisers.
But while I'm looking through my hand, looking over what's been played on the board, and running the numbers in my head - let's see, I can get a cruiser and two scouts to his main artifact planet by turn-12, but won't be able to build a spare citizen on my industrial planet by then, so - ack, the turn ends!
Damn default games and their 90-second turn timer. This is one of the hardest parts of ranked games, because by the 10th turn, there can be a whole lot going on. With three victory conditions, each approached from a very different direction, Star Chamber is a tricky exercise in thinking on multiple levels at once.
"Ugh, this timer is killing me," I type into the chat window. "I'm afraid I'm just going to concede. GG. You totally got me and I don't really know my deck that well." I know this last is a weak excuse, bit it's not entirely untrue.
He's completely understanding, and offers to restart another game without a timer. The Star Chamber community is nothing if not gracious. It's what you'd expect from a group of guys eager for someone, anyone, who's new, even if it means patiently waiting minutes at a time for me to puzzle over what I'm going to do next.
The problem with Star Chamber is the problem with any CCG: namely, finding the right people to play with. On any given night, there are up to a dozen people hanging out, most of them pretty accomplished. You'll usually find some lonely soul parked in the mezzanine chat room with a game wistfully open and waiting. And he's usually ranked.
The developers of Star Chamber are veterans of the online CCG scene. The small number of players notwithstanding, they're doing a great job of keeping the game alive with tournaments, expansions and promotional cards. There's no danger they're going to fly by night. In fact, they're often online, playing.
But the best way to come to Star Chamber is also the best way to come to any new CCG: with a friend who's also new to the game, who will fumble along with you as learn the rules, the cards, the combinations, the exceptions and all those ins and outs that make CCGs such a fascinating juxtaposition of chaos - the shuffled deck - and order - the rules.
What you've got with Star Chamber is a little more order than usual. It's a turn-based strategy game played on a map of planets, which right away suggests certain approaches. You accumulate points on your home planet to buy ships, which move around to fight other ships and ferry around the citizens that control the planets. As the games progresses, you build up "mana" to play your cards, which tweak the games dynamics. You'll boost your ships with leaders, shut down an opponent's control of a planet for a turn or drop neutral monsters in your opponent's way.
But one of the first things you'll notice about Star Chamber is that the cards are just a sideshow; this is just a strategy game with a CCG tacked onto the side. What's more, the different races have only a minimal effect on the game. For instance, the Silica have regenerating hulls instead of shields, while the Humans get a free citizen at their homeworld every six turns, Big Deal.
But one of the next things you'll notice about Star Chamber - and this won't come until you've got a few games under your belt - is that you're wrong. The basic strategy game is streamlined enough that it's ultimately all about the cards. Each race can accumulate two "colors" of "mana" as the game progresses; this determines the cards you can play. And because the board game mechanics are knife-edge precise, anything that throws off the balance - whether it's cheap titanium plating on a scout or the Ixa's cruisers with torpedoes instead of missiles - is going to reverberate throughout the rest of the game.
There's a practice mode to help you test and tune decks, but the AI won't play any cards. This doesn't give you a good sense of how the games plays, but it does let you poke around freely to feel how the cards change the basic mechanics. Try an android deck and trick out your ships with Engine Upgrades, Plasma Missiles and Proton Cannons. Use a Ferrier deck to counter your opponent's political maneuverings at the Star Chamber. Or resort to a cheesy Omior deck that rakes in extra destiny for a quick cultural victory.
You can sample Star Chamber for free. Just download the client from starchamber.net and play turn-limited trial games with any of five premade decks. If you decide to build your own decks, the pricing is about what you'd expect from a CCG, $20 will get you a pre-built starter deck and 10,15-card boosters. Additional boosters are $2. Rare cards aren't as powerful as in some other CCGs because they're still dependent on the dynamics of the basic board game. Rare cards also aren't as hard to get because of the robust options for online trading. At any given time, there are more than a hundred pending trade offers.
I'm still very much a casual Star Chamber player, but I've made a couple of decks I like and I have a few friends at my skill level who are usually up for a game. But unlike other CCGs, I also have the option at any time to try my hand against some gracious veterans who will teach me valuable lessons, like the fact that my Ferrier deck doesn't work that well. Yet.
- Tom Chick. Inquest Gamer, March 2005, Pages 80 & 81