High Frontier -- the Map Explained

Seeing as how it's so epic and such

To play and or discuss games and games

Moderator: Doug

User avatar
Doug
Has anybody seen my parrot
Forum Elf
Posts: 20552
Joined: Aug 23, 2018

High Frontier -- the Map Explained

Post by Doug » Fri Dec 11, 2020 9:19 pm

Image



Seeing as how this is the most amazing map for any board game ever ever ever, I thought I would take a moment to explain some aspects of it.

High Frontier is a (hyper-)realistic game of industrializing the solar system. The map represents a series of solar orbits and planetary orbits, and the transfers spacefarers would make among these orbits. As such, the planets do not move on the map -- when you are "stationary" on the map, this represents you moving! That is, once around the sun a year. If you are sitting on the Sol-Earth L4 Lagrange space turn after turn, you are "not moving" by the game rules, but of course you are actually moving around the sun once a year. This is also true if you're not at a Lagrange, or wherever you are. So movement among spaces represents shifting from one orbit to another, and not necessarily kinetic movement the way it would in a hex-and-counter game.


High Frontier 01.png
High Frontier 01.png (707.06 KiB) Viewed 837 times


Alright, so let's look at what's going on around the Earth here. First, the Earth is not a space in the game. You can't land on it. You would be able to, but doing so is worthless. So they didn't bother to give you a means of doing that. So what are the spaces? Well, each circle you see is a space. Your rocket moves from circle to circle. One circle says "LEO," and this is Low Earth Orbit. It's the start space for the game, really. Any rocket you build "on Earth" has to be put here to actually enter the game. The circles are connected by lines, and you travel along the lines. If the lines are different colors, this doesn't have a rules meaning. It's just a helpful thing to help you find paths. The red path is a great route to Mars, for example.

Some circles are magenta, and some are not. Actually, I think they're fuchsia, but the rule say magenta. The magenta ones are "burn spaces." To enter these spaces requires thrust. Normally this means you have to burn fuel to enter them. It's possible to coast into them because you have so much excess velocity from something else you did, but the important thing is that the magenta spaces nominally require a burn from your thruster to enter. Magenta spaces here include cycler, GEO, SSO, and the L1 Lagrange.

Some spaces are not magenta -- these do not require a burn to enter. You can enter them for free. Really, you're probably firing attitude thrusters or something, but this is so specious that the game ignores it. After all, each turn is a year. LEO is not a magenta space, so it's free to enter from another space. Sol-Earth L2 Lagrange is also free to enter. All the radiation spaces are free to enter as well. They might kill you, though. But hey they are free to enter.

Some spaces are marked with a parachute symbol and a one-way arrow. These are aerobrake spaces. They are also free to enter, but they may kill you. Aviation! Who knew it was so dangerous.

One space is marked with a +2. This is the Earth flyby. When you enter this space, you get to use the Earth's gravity to give yourself two free burns. So if you're zooming in from somewhere else, and you pass through this, you can aerobrake onto cycler for free, and then finish in LEO. Jupiter's flyby gives you four free burns. The sun's flyby gives you X free burns, where X is your base thrust. Your base thrust might like 15 for a big rocket. That's a lot of free burns -- enough to get you all the way to Titan, for example.

On this part of the map there's also a white thing that looks like a dude in an elevator. That's a spot where a space elevator can be built. Building space elevators is an advanced thing from one of the expansions.

Now if you look at L2 over on the right side of the picture, and follow the red route down, you see it makes a right-angle turn at an intersection. Intersections are spaces. They don't have to have a circle to be spaces. An intersection without a circle is called a Hohmann transfer. If you go straight through an intersection when you're flying through space, this is free. But if you want to change direction at an intersection, you have to make a choice:

1. Use two burns
2. Wait until next turn to leave the intersection for free in any direction

This is because waiting until next turn means waiting up to a year until you're in the most favorable position. Remember, stationary on the map does not mean stationary in the universe the game is simulating.

A few spaces have a seven-pointed star. These spaces are suitable for building a home Bernal, or a space city. These particular spaces weren't chosen for space reasons but for sociopolitical reasons. You can anchor a Bernal somewhere else if you feel like it.

So to summarize where we are so far, traveling from LEO off of the map following the red route means:

1. One burn to enter cycler
2. One radiation roll to see if you die, which is free
3. One burn to enter GEO
4. Entering L2 is free
5. Leaving L2 by any direction is also free (direction changes are free at any circles)
6. Entering the Hohmann is free
7. Leaving the Hohmann without going straight costs two burns or one year

More to come
It's your turn in Cthulhu Wars
It's your turn in Squirrel Wars
It's your turn in Demon Wars
It's your turn in Wall Street Wars

http://devilsbiscuit.com/

User avatar
Doug
Has anybody seen my parrot
Forum Elf
Posts: 20552
Joined: Aug 23, 2018

Re: High Frontier -- the Map Explained

Post by Doug » Fri Dec 11, 2020 9:49 pm

High Frontier 02.png
High Frontier 02.png (651.54 KiB) Viewed 826 times


Here is Mars local.

Hexes are sites. That is, they are places you can land. Not all of them are "land," though -- Venus for example has a site called "Aerostat Xity," and this represents floating in balloons in Venus's clouds. But sites are places you can come to rest and do stuff.

Mars itself has three sites, because it's an entire planet. Phobos and Deimos only have one site each, because they're just moons. Our own moon has two sites, because it's pretty big.

Each site begins with a code. The North Pole of Mars says "10C." The 10 is the size, which also tells you the gravity. You need a net thrust greater than 10 to land or take off from Mars normally. Little Deimos is just a 1, so you only need a thrust of 2, which well anybody can do that. The C in "10C" means carbon. Mars is a carbon site. This tells you what you can build there, and has to do with victory points as well.

The North Pole also has 4 water droplets on it. This is the hydration, and 4 is a ton. The Aris Mons Caves has 3 drops, which is also a lot although not quite as much. Three drops -- that's as much water as the Sahara Desert! What a bounty of water. In space, everybody is from Dune. Deimos has two drops, which is as much water as can be found in concrete.

Mars also has cloud symbols on it, which means it has an atmosphere.

If you come flying toward Mars from its L2 Lagrange, along the red road, you will enter a burn space, and then LMO, and then a magenta space that has a lander shape. This is a burn space, but the lander shape means you cannot stop on this space. If you would have to stop on it for some reason, you have to rewind and not enter it in the first place.

Between the North Pole and the Arsia Mons Caves, there's a half-lander-burn space. This is a burn space that only costs half fuel. You still can't stop on it.

Now from LMO, instead of entering the lander burn, you could divert and aerobrake onto Mars. Advantage -- your net thrust is irrelevant! If you aerobrake onto Mars, you don't need any particular thrust at all. You land like a plane. Disadvantages -- you still have to roll to see if you die, though. Also, the route to Hellas Basin Buried Glaciers leads through a space with a skull symbol that says "Dust Storms." All skull spaces cause to roll again to see if you die, again. They usually have a text telling you why you died (dust storms). Some asteroids have a rapid spin skull space to approach them. Cue the Interstellar music!

Phobos has a site where you could build a space elevator. This one would actually matter. If it were built, stuff could be moved from Phobos to the Arsia Mons Caves for free with no danger whatsoever.

Mars' three sites have a yellow dotted line connecting them. This means if you have a buggy, you can drive from one to another.

The North Pole aerobrake path has a circle space marked Polar Spin. There's no skull, though, so this isn't dangerous. They're just giving you the full lore.

Now if you have a curious mind, you might wonder, if you can land on a site like you're a plane, can you take off from a site like you're a plane? The answer is yes, if:

- If you have a factory on the site
- If you have fuel stockpiled at the factory
- If the site has atmosphere

This is called "acetylene rocketplane." So it's possible to exploit Mars without ever really conquering its rather significant gravity.

The size number of a site also tells you the odds of the site having anything useful. Mars is a 10, so by the rules it always has something useful, every single time. You have to roll 1d6 and roll equal to or less than the site size when you actually dig into it to find out whether it has anything useful. So, Mars is always useful, and Deimos only if you roll a 1. Certain equipment can give you a roll again, and sites with water drops always have the water listed. They just may not have anything that makes a factory worth any points.

So you can see that a factory on Mars has to be worth something.

The carbon indicator tells you that C class cards can be built there. Also, factories are worth more victory points the fewer of them there are of that type. The very first C factory is worth 8 points. A second one makes the first one (and the new one) worth only 5 each now. A third would make all three worth 4 each. So if you only exploit part of Mars, another player may come along an exploit another part not only to get some points but also to deprive you of some.
It's your turn in Cthulhu Wars
It's your turn in Squirrel Wars
It's your turn in Demon Wars
It's your turn in Wall Street Wars

http://devilsbiscuit.com/

User avatar
Doug
Has anybody seen my parrot
Forum Elf
Posts: 20552
Joined: Aug 23, 2018

Re: High Frontier -- the Map Explained

Post by Doug » Fri Dec 11, 2020 10:02 pm

High Frontier 03.png
High Frontier 03.png (359.03 KiB) Viewed 820 times


Now, I want to go to Ceres. Ceres is a 6C with massive water. Being a 6, it's always going to take a useful factory.

I come flying in on the blue path, starting at the bottom of the picture.

1. First I go through a Hohmann (intersection). But I go straight, so this is free. I'm staying in the same solar orbit.
2. I pass through a magenta burn space, which of course costs one burn.
3. But then, I need to make a right-angle turn onto a new solar orbit. This is either two burns or a year.
4. Then I need to make another right-angle turn! Once again, this is two burns or a year. Note that this counts as an intersection even though it's a T.
5. A burn to match speeds with the barycenter of the Gefion Family of asteroids
6. Entering the barycenter is now free
7. It's a half-lander-burn to land on Ceres.

Ceres has no atmosphere. It has a subsurface ocean symbol, which allows me to build certain kinds of cards there. Basically, I can have a fleet of submarines on Ceres. I'm only half-joking.

If I had a powerful laser, I could prospect all the Gefion Family asteroids from the barycenter without having to land. Wait, are lasers like that a thing in the game? Yes.
It's your turn in Cthulhu Wars
It's your turn in Squirrel Wars
It's your turn in Demon Wars
It's your turn in Wall Street Wars

http://devilsbiscuit.com/

User avatar
Doug
Has anybody seen my parrot
Forum Elf
Posts: 20552
Joined: Aug 23, 2018

Re: High Frontier -- the Map Explained

Post by Doug » Fri Dec 11, 2020 10:15 pm

High Frontier 04.png
High Frontier 04.png (686.91 KiB) Viewed 814 times


I want to fly by Jupiter on my way to Saturn. This is the fastest route. I come in on the green road from upper right. Oh my God, I'm going to have to pass through four radiation circles. My stuff had better be immune.

I pass through the Jupiter flyby space. This gives me four free burns, which don't really represent burns but rather insane velocity.

I continue left through the aforementioned radiation hazard spaces, and onto a regular burn. Then I have to make a left turn at Albuquerque. This T counts as an intersection and requires two burns or one year.

Up ahead, how weird, there's a right-angle turn but no intersection! Zigzags and right-angle bends like this count as intersections! I have to pay two burns or wait one year to move around this corner. Immediately, there's another, and I have to pay again! Those four free burns from Jupiter's flyby turn out to be pretty helpful along this route. These right angles represent having to successively shift to new, wider solar orbits that serve no other purpose than to go to Saturn. Saturn is way way out there.

Now suppose I don't want to continue on to Saturn. From Jupiter's flyby, I can just, well, not do much. If I want to go to Jupiter L1, I'm going to have to aerobrake like mad off of Jupiter. There are three hazard rolls and a radiation hazard roll just to get from Jupiter flyby to Jupiter L1. But if you think about it, this makes sense, because Jupiter L1 represents cessation of motion relative to Jupiter, while Jupiter's flyby represents fucking hauling ass past Jupiter. So yeah when I approach Jupiter at blinding speed, I'm going to need to Aerobrake to slow down.

From Jupiter L1, I can consider approaching the various L2s of Jupiter's many cool moons. Note that I could have reached Jupiter L1 via other routes that wouldn't have involved insane velocities.
It's your turn in Cthulhu Wars
It's your turn in Squirrel Wars
It's your turn in Demon Wars
It's your turn in Wall Street Wars

http://devilsbiscuit.com/

User avatar
Doug
Has anybody seen my parrot
Forum Elf
Posts: 20552
Joined: Aug 23, 2018

Re: High Frontier -- the Map Explained

Post by Doug » Fri Dec 11, 2020 10:26 pm

High Frontier 05.png
High Frontier 05.png (538.35 KiB) Viewed 811 times


There are a million ways to get to Pluto. But since they can all be broken down to "You used Neptune" or "You didn't use Neptune," the game only has to depict two. This is the one where you didn't use Neptune.

What a crazy thing! Each zig counts as an intersection. This is because you have to keep changing to a wider and wider solar orbit 11 times. So you have a choice. You can make 23 burns, you can take 11 years, or you can do some combination of the two.

Late game, when the players are building godlike technologies, they're making terawatt thrusters that have a net thrust of like 15 and use half of one unit of fuel per burn and stuff like that. These put Pluto in reach in "only" a few years.
It's your turn in Cthulhu Wars
It's your turn in Squirrel Wars
It's your turn in Demon Wars
It's your turn in Wall Street Wars

http://devilsbiscuit.com/

User avatar
pterrus
Sentient Keyboard
Sentient Keyboard
Posts: 4645
Joined: Sep 12, 2018

Re: High Frontier -- the Map Explained

Post by pterrus » Sat Dec 12, 2020 2:19 am

So Agricola is kind of an objectively tricky rule set, but I have found in practice that it's easy to teach because everything kind of makes sense within the farming theme. The plow, sow, harvest sequence would be really fiddly if this were just an abstract but because everyone kind of gets how plants work it's easy.

I bring this up because reading through your description of how moving around works in this game, it made sense to me and seemed like a really clever way of simulating it. But that's because I already have a grasp of orbital mechanics! I bet if I tried to teach this to people who were used to dudes on a grid it probably wouldn't stick as well, like trying to teach Agricola to a hypothetical person who didn't know how plants work. How is your group finding it?

User avatar
Ashenai
Forum Elf
Forum Elf
Posts: 10522
Joined: May 29, 2019

Re: High Frontier -- the Map Explained

Post by Ashenai » Sat Dec 12, 2020 10:18 am

I think the rules are very cool! And I have only a vague understanding of orbital mechanics, better than a total layman but probably not by much.

What I'd like to know is how interactive is this game? Everything you've said so far is about players interacting with the board; is there any actual player-to-player interaction, or is it one of those simultaneous solitaire point race games?

User avatar
Doug
Has anybody seen my parrot
Forum Elf
Posts: 20552
Joined: Aug 23, 2018

Re: High Frontier -- the Map Explained

Post by Doug » Sat Dec 12, 2020 3:33 pm

That's a great question

Alright, so, there's no interaction in the mere flying around through space. Or that is, almost none. I could be nice and let you use my factory to launch off a site, but that kind of thing almost never happens.

But the economic parts of the game, researching and developing cards, has the interaction among players. All researching cards is an auction.

There are six patent decks:

Thrusters
Robonauts
Refineries
Generators
Reactors
Radiators

And whoever takes a card off of the top of one of these decks is going to be the only person who can build that thing. The things have different stats, so for example, maybe the thruster on the top of the deck has a base thrust of 3 and uses 1 fuel per burn, and maybe Steve and I want that one -- meanwhile, Jeff doesn't want that one, he wants a thruster with at least a 5 base thrust.

On your turn, you can declare an auction for the top card of any stack. As the initiator, you have four advantages:

- You win all ties
- You start the bidding
- You can start the bidding at 0
- Anyone else who wins pays you. You pay the bank if you win

We go around in turn order until someone wins the auction. You're bidding units of money, which by no coincidence are represented by 40-ton tanks of water in low Earth orbit. This is the only money in the game. Each 40-ton panzer of water in low Earth orbit is 1 money. It's also 1 fuel.

The winner gets the card, and puts it in their hand. Your max hand size is normally four, and if you already have four cards in your hand, you cannot initiate auctions or bid on them. However, it's easy to get rid of cards from your hand in this game, and in fact you can sell the cards in your hand back to the bank for 3 each. That's 3 money -- but people don't say "3 money" when they're playing, they just say "3." This is slow however because selling one card uses an entire turn, which is a year.

There's another dimension to the auction -- some cards need supports. For example, a certain thruster might require a generator. When you win the bid on that thruster, you also get the top generator card for free. Ironically, you get the top generator card even if it's the wrong kind of generator for that thruster. So that thruster is worth more at auction than it should be, because you get a free card along with it.

----------

Another interactive aspect of the game is the political track. There's a political track with six ideologies. You can use turns to put delegates onto the political track, and when one of the ideologies switches to having the most delegates, it becomes the ruling ideology. Each ideology has a rules effect along with it. For example, if the Equality ideology is winning, then all cards in the stacks can be bought for 1 instead of holding an auction. You don't get any free cards along with them when you do this. However, if the Freedom ideology becomes ascendant, then the above is no longer true, and you go back to having to auction cards, and also, cards can be sold from your hand two at once for 2 1/2 each (which is less money but saves time).

The six ideologies are:

Freedom
Honor
Unity
Authority
Equality
Individuality

There's also a Centrist spot, which means that none of the six ideologies holds sway right now. When Centrist is ascendant, the players have mishap insurance against launch accidents.

Each of the six ideologies also affects the VP scoring at the end of the game if it is ascendant at the end. Equality for example makes human colonies in space worth 1 more point each. Freedom makes factories in space worth 1 more each instead.

----------

The third way you interact with other players is by perpetrating felonies against them.

Under certain circumstances, some players can commit felonies. The felonies are:

- Letting a crew that's not doing so well just die in space. This teleports the crew card back to LEO, which represents a whole new crew.
- Using someone else's factory without their permission to refuel, factory land, or factory liftoff.
- Claim jumping.

The third one is the most important. Suppose you go to Mars, and you prospect all three sites. You automatically succeed, and put claim disks on all three sites. You're now the only player who can build factories on those sites. Except, I come along, and I can commit felonies. Well then, I can claim jump you, and turn your claim disk into mine. To do this, I need:

- I need a human there
- I need you not to have a human there
- I need you not to have a factory there
- I need some power or condition that allows me to do felonies

If I have all four, I can just take your claim disk and turn it into mine.

Who can do felonies?

- There are events in this game, and one of the events is Anarchy. During Anarchy, everyone can commit felonies. This represents some sort of war back on Earth.
- Each faction has a power in this game, and one of the factions has the faction power that it can do felonies all the time.

----------

The fourth interaction is indirect. Whenever I make a factory of a certain type (carbon, metal, stone, etc.), this makes all other factories of that type worth fewer points. This bottoms out at dropping to 4 points each, from having started at 8. So your only carbon factory in the solar system is worth 8, but then when I make one, yours is now worth only 5.
It's your turn in Cthulhu Wars
It's your turn in Squirrel Wars
It's your turn in Demon Wars
It's your turn in Wall Street Wars

http://devilsbiscuit.com/

User avatar
Ashenai
Forum Elf
Forum Elf
Posts: 10522
Joined: May 29, 2019

Re: High Frontier -- the Map Explained

Post by Ashenai » Sat Dec 12, 2020 3:58 pm

Damn, that is cool. I kinda wanna commit some felonies now.

User avatar
Rylinks
her skirt got quite a lot smaller,
but her heart is still the same
size it was before
Forum Elf
Posts: 12359
Joined: Jun 13, 2018

Re: High Frontier -- the Map Explained

Post by Rylinks » Sat Dec 12, 2020 4:18 pm

alright seems pretty straightforward who wants to PBF

User avatar
Ashenai
Forum Elf
Forum Elf
Posts: 10522
Joined: May 29, 2019

Re: High Frontier -- the Map Explained

Post by Ashenai » Sat Dec 12, 2020 4:19 pm

a little intimidated by that board, but yeah I could give it a shot

User avatar
Rylinks
her skirt got quite a lot smaller,
but her heart is still the same
size it was before
Forum Elf
Posts: 12359
Joined: Jun 13, 2018

Re: High Frontier -- the Map Explained

Post by Rylinks » Sat Dec 12, 2020 4:21 pm

im willing to run it pending figuring out how to make pictures of the board

User avatar
Ashenai
Forum Elf
Forum Elf
Posts: 10522
Joined: May 29, 2019

Re: High Frontier -- the Map Explained

Post by Ashenai » Sat Dec 12, 2020 4:31 pm

Not sure if he's even interested in running it, but Doug should get right of first refusal imo

User avatar
Rylinks
her skirt got quite a lot smaller,
but her heart is still the same
size it was before
Forum Elf
Posts: 12359
Joined: Jun 13, 2018

Re: High Frontier -- the Map Explained

Post by Rylinks » Sat Dec 12, 2020 4:32 pm

i am also willing to play in a game

User avatar
Juri
We're Knights of the Round Table
We attack each turn if able
Typewriter Monkey
Posts: 9999
Joined: Aug 23, 2018

Re: High Frontier -- the Map Explained

Post by Juri » Sat Dec 12, 2020 5:26 pm

i refuse to understand this game under any circumstance
Image

User avatar
Juri
We're Knights of the Round Table
We attack each turn if able
Typewriter Monkey
Posts: 9999
Joined: Aug 23, 2018

Re: High Frontier -- the Map Explained

Post by Juri » Sat Dec 12, 2020 5:27 pm

that said thank you for showing it to us
Image

User avatar
Jeb Bush 2012
Posting Automaton
Posting Automaton
Posts: 2520
Joined: Jun 24, 2020

Re: High Frontier -- the Map Explained

Post by Jeb Bush 2012 » Sat Dec 12, 2020 6:03 pm

Ashenai wrote: Sat Dec 12, 2020 4:19 pm a little intimidated by that board, but yeah I could give it a shot

User avatar
Doug
Has anybody seen my parrot
Forum Elf
Posts: 20552
Joined: Aug 23, 2018

Re: High Frontier -- the Map Explained

Post by Doug » Sat Dec 12, 2020 7:07 pm

Ashenai wrote: Sat Dec 12, 2020 4:31 pm Not sure if he's even interested in running it, but Doug should get right of first refusal imo
Uh

There are a lot of challenges

The main one being, what about all those cards, how do we represent them

Second, that's not all the rules!
It's your turn in Cthulhu Wars
It's your turn in Squirrel Wars
It's your turn in Demon Wars
It's your turn in Wall Street Wars

http://devilsbiscuit.com/

User avatar
Doug
Has anybody seen my parrot
Forum Elf
Posts: 20552
Joined: Aug 23, 2018

Re: High Frontier -- the Map Explained

Post by Doug » Sat Dec 12, 2020 10:08 pm

Oh shit looks like there's a Vassal mod already
It's your turn in Cthulhu Wars
It's your turn in Squirrel Wars
It's your turn in Demon Wars
It's your turn in Wall Street Wars

http://devilsbiscuit.com/

User avatar
Doug
Has anybody seen my parrot
Forum Elf
Posts: 20552
Joined: Aug 23, 2018

Re: High Frontier -- the Map Explained

Post by Doug » Sun Dec 13, 2020 1:25 am

http://www.vassalengine.org/wiki/Module ... tier_4_All

I would like to see Rylinks run this
It's your turn in Cthulhu Wars
It's your turn in Squirrel Wars
It's your turn in Demon Wars
It's your turn in Wall Street Wars

http://devilsbiscuit.com/

User avatar
Doug
Has anybody seen my parrot
Forum Elf
Posts: 20552
Joined: Aug 23, 2018

Re: High Frontier -- the Map Explained

Post by Doug » Sun Dec 13, 2020 1:57 am

High Frontier 4 AllMap.png
High Frontier 4 AllMap.png (3.17 MiB) Viewed 720 times

High Frontier 4 All Patents.png
High Frontier 4 All Patents.png (801.41 KiB) Viewed 720 times

High Frontier 4 All RfG Patents.png
High Frontier 4 All RfG Patents.png (200.89 KiB) Viewed 720 times
It's your turn in Cthulhu Wars
It's your turn in Squirrel Wars
It's your turn in Demon Wars
It's your turn in Wall Street Wars

http://devilsbiscuit.com/

User avatar
Doug
Has anybody seen my parrot
Forum Elf
Posts: 20552
Joined: Aug 23, 2018

Re: High Frontier -- the Map Explained

Post by Doug » Sun Dec 13, 2020 2:00 am

I think the Vassal mod looks great

In the first image, you can see a busted comet site around Earth 8:30. On the moon, the white player has made two claims and has a rocket there. Red has a rocket in LEO. Purple is on the way to Mars, and that rocket is highlighted because it's the last thing I had selected.

The patent deck widget shuffles for you when you need it to, and has both sets of patents, core rules and the simpler Race for Glory rules
It's your turn in Cthulhu Wars
It's your turn in Squirrel Wars
It's your turn in Demon Wars
It's your turn in Wall Street Wars

http://devilsbiscuit.com/

User avatar
Rylinks
her skirt got quite a lot smaller,
but her heart is still the same
size it was before
Forum Elf
Posts: 12359
Joined: Jun 13, 2018

Re: High Frontier -- the Map Explained

Post by Rylinks » Sun Dec 13, 2020 3:08 am

do you know if there's any duplicate cards, or is it just one of each of these: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... pEdZ3DSHLM

User avatar
Doug
Has anybody seen my parrot
Forum Elf
Posts: 20552
Joined: Aug 23, 2018

Re: High Frontier -- the Map Explained

Post by Doug » Sun Dec 13, 2020 3:35 am

Definitely only one of each card. 12 thruster cards total -- you're seeing 24 because it's showing you the front and back, each odd number being a front and each even number being the corresponding back of the previous odd
It's your turn in Cthulhu Wars
It's your turn in Squirrel Wars
It's your turn in Demon Wars
It's your turn in Wall Street Wars

http://devilsbiscuit.com/

User avatar
Doug
Has anybody seen my parrot
Forum Elf
Posts: 20552
Joined: Aug 23, 2018

Re: High Frontier -- the Map Explained

Post by Doug » Sun Dec 13, 2020 3:46 pm

High Frontier 4 All Thruster Example.png
High Frontier 4 All Thruster Example.png (80.19 KiB) Viewed 688 times
High Frontier 4 All Thruster Example 2.png
High Frontier 4 All Thruster Example 2.png (83.36 KiB) Viewed 688 times


Above you see an example of a thruster card, and its reverse.

Cards have a white side and a black side. The white side is vanilla, and the black side is delicious expensive chocolate. When you win a card at auction, the card goes in your hand. You own both sides of the card. But when you put the card into play, you can only put one side of it into play.

The white side of the card is the earlier technology or weaker side. To put the white side of the card into play, you simply have to boost the card off of Earth into LEO. You do this by paying the mass of the card, which in this case is 1. So you win the card at auction; later you pay 1 more, and put the card from your hand (which represents things you own but haven't built) into LEO. Cards can be in LEO even if they're not part of a rocket. They're just floating there, waiting for you to use them for something. Since this is a thruster, it can be part of a rocket, or could even be a rocket all by itself (if it had a generator, see below). Although, being a rocket all by itself doesn't have much value, because it can't claim sites or build anything.

This thruster has a base thrust of 3 and uses 1 step of fuel per burn, which is really good gas mileage. This thruster only weighs 1 mass, which is also good, and has a rad hardness of 4, which again seems good to me. This thruster also requires a generator in order to function -- that's the orange circle under the rad hardness. When you bought it at auction, it came with a free generator card, although not necessarily the right type of generator (because you just got the one that was on top of the generator deck regardless of what it was).

This thruster's thrust triangle is blue, like most of them on white cards, which means its fuel is water. The top of the thrust triangle has an afterburn symbol with a 1 in it, which means that you can increase its thrust each turn if you pay 1 extra step of fuel (the number is the cost, not the gain in thrust -- if the gain in thrust is other than 1, there will be a plus sign, and I believe this is only true of the more advanced GW thrusters). So its thrust can be 4 instead of 3. It has a push symbol between its thrust rating and its fuel rating, which means you can make it go faster by firing a laser at it from a site. Most people don't have access to that early game, although the Europeans always do, because that's their faction power.

Finally, there's a V in a hexagon on the card. This is just showing you that the back of the card is a V-spectral-type gadget. The front, white side of the card doesn't have a spectral type.

----------

The back of the card, the black side, cannot be put into play from your hand by boosting. You must build the card off Earth.

The spectral type of this card is V, which means that it must be build at a factory on a V site. Remember how the sites have letters? V stands for "vestoid," and was named after the asteroid Vesta. It's made of igneous rocks that don't have a lot of carbon compared with a C type. Anyway, you need a factory on a V site to build this thruster.

This thruster seems much the same as its white side, but there are differences. It has a higher rad hardness. It has a big V, which as we said tells you where it can be built. It has a solar symbol, which means its net thrust is tied to proximity to the sun. This thing isn't for going to Pluto. Finally, its thrust triangle is grey instead of blue. This means that it can use dirt as fuel. Dirt is available for free at any site, in any amount desired, and so this thing can refuel from any asteroid, any moon, and so on.

This side also doesn't need a generator!

----------

Although you can only put one side of a card into play at a time, you can decommission nonhuman cards anytime you want, which puts them back in your hand. This means that you can use the white thruster from this card, and when you're ready to produce the black side, return the card to your hand and produce the black side.
It's your turn in Cthulhu Wars
It's your turn in Squirrel Wars
It's your turn in Demon Wars
It's your turn in Wall Street Wars

http://devilsbiscuit.com/

User avatar
Rylinks
her skirt got quite a lot smaller,
but her heart is still the same
size it was before
Forum Elf
Posts: 12359
Joined: Jun 13, 2018

Re: High Frontier -- the Map Explained

Post by Rylinks » Sun Dec 13, 2020 3:48 pm

my next question is: are these all core cards or are there any that are expansion only (obv e.g. the entire bernal stack is from a module but like, are there expansion cards mixed in with the core radiators or w/e)

User avatar
Doug
Has anybody seen my parrot
Forum Elf
Posts: 20552
Joined: Aug 23, 2018

Re: High Frontier -- the Map Explained

Post by Doug » Sun Dec 13, 2020 4:08 pm

Rylinks wrote: Sun Dec 13, 2020 3:48 pm my next question is: are these all core cards or are there any that are expansion only (obv e.g. the entire bernal stack is from a module but like, are there expansion cards mixed in with the core radiators or w/e)
No, thankfully. No cards are mixed in. Each deck comes entirely from the core game, or from an expansion.

The core decks, the only ones you care about if you're not playing expansions, are:

Thrusters
Robonauts
Refineries
Radiators
Reactors
Generators

The Terawatt expansion is:

Freighters
GW Thrusters (black on the front, purple on the back)

The Colonization expansion is:

Bernals
Colonists
It's your turn in Cthulhu Wars
It's your turn in Squirrel Wars
It's your turn in Demon Wars
It's your turn in Wall Street Wars

http://devilsbiscuit.com/

User avatar
Doug
Has anybody seen my parrot
Forum Elf
Posts: 20552
Joined: Aug 23, 2018

Re: High Frontier -- the Map Explained

Post by Doug » Sun Dec 13, 2020 4:24 pm

I have made you a bounty of files

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

Begin with Read Me First, but then proceed to Core Rules. Don't bother with Space Diamonds or Race for Glory, as those will just confuse you with their simplifications if you're not going to play them
It's your turn in Cthulhu Wars
It's your turn in Squirrel Wars
It's your turn in Demon Wars
It's your turn in Wall Street Wars

http://devilsbiscuit.com/

User avatar
the_zoomies
Attaboy! You finished my labyrinth and I'm proud of you!
Let's party like it's 1899
Posts: 1999
Joined: Nov 26, 2020

Re: High Frontier -- the Map Explained

Post by the_zoomies » Fri Dec 18, 2020 2:38 am

This is such a cool thread, but what was your impetus to make it?

User avatar
Doug
Has anybody seen my parrot
Forum Elf
Posts: 20552
Joined: Aug 23, 2018

Re: High Frontier -- the Map Explained

Post by Doug » Fri Dec 18, 2020 2:41 am

It came up in another thread but I can't remember which one
It's your turn in Cthulhu Wars
It's your turn in Squirrel Wars
It's your turn in Demon Wars
It's your turn in Wall Street Wars

http://devilsbiscuit.com/

Post Reply