Star Trek Ascendancy w/ Expansions

My friends and I recently played a game of Star Trek Ascendancy, a game of galactic expansion and civilization development in the Trek-verse. I had just bought the new Ferengi and Cardassian expansions and we were all eager to try them. We were hoping for a 4-5 player game to get most or all of the factions in play. Alas, difficult availabilities pared our players down to the minimum 3.

It became quickly clear that everyone wanted to play the Ferengi. With the aggressive capitalism in the game, they rely on literally buying their way to victory ('Merica!)

We were on a bit of a time crunch, so I just passed out the starting turn order cards and we selected factions in that order. One of my friends got the #1 and took Ferengi. The other friend got the #2 and decided to try his hand at the Cardassians. That left me with the Federation, Klingons, Romulans. I'd played the Federation twice and already seen how the Klingons operate so I decided to go with the Romulans.



For the sake of speed, we decided to use Extra Resources, Starting Advancement, Starting Project, Focused Research, and Unrestricted Trade Routes to give everyone a boost and make things go faster.

The Ferengi was a little anxious at having to go first, due to his inexperience with the game. Nevertheless, he got off to a good start by discovering an asteroid field with 4 Production slots.  The Cardassians found some empty planets, but his exploration trajectory was markedly in my direction. He also found a few phenomema but he decided to ignore them after losing his first ship.

I spent all my starting research tokens on upgrading my shields. I ended up being frustrated by research for most of the game as I always spent my token income on Projects, so I never earned enough to build more Research Nodes. I did find the Guardian of Forever Discovery which gave me a free Advancement.

After a few turns, the Cardassian and I were a single space lane connection away from First Contact. I comissioned a starbase at my closest system and left a Battle Fleet to defend it. In addition, I made sure Romulus had maxed out its space lanes, so he couldn't easily connect to it. I also had a few Military upgrades including Cloaked Mines. I had also gained an Ally card that allowed me to uprgrade my weapons. By the time the Cardassian was in striking distance, he realized it would could be costly to attack, so with my urging, he decided to head towards the Ferengi.

Well that turned out to be a mistake because as soon as his fleet moved on, I moved in with mine. I took his system in an Invasion and got a Starbase along with it. In addition, I cut his territory almost in half. Not the most auspicious first contact, but at this point the Ferengi had a plentiful supply of Production tokens, so my one victory hadn't turned things in my favor. I offered the Cardassian a Trade Agreement exchange and agreed not to take any more of his territory.

If it seems like I'm leaving the Ferengi out of this, it's because he just sat there in his sector of the map colonizing mostly empty worlds and building a ton of Production and Research nodes. He also upgraded his shields and discovered 3 low level phenomena.

Apologies for the few pictures. I only remembered to take some halfway through.

Under this circumstance he was clearing one advancement almost every turn. He had some cool ones, but his most annoying was The Bigger the Smile, the Sharper the Knife that let him pay Production to exhaust Military advancements. As I was his most dangerous rival, he turned them on me, taking away nearly all my advantages in battle.

Eventually, the Cardassian connected with the Ferengi and the two exchanged Trade Agreements. With everyone connected, the Ferengi, once frustrated at having to be the first player, now used his massive Production and Research facilities to outbid us in the turn order. I drew the Cardassian Armistice Accords, which let me and the Cardassian trade planets. We did, then promptly invaded the exchanged systems. A very short lived peace accord.

At this point, I had a difficult choice to make. I had 4 Culture nodes, so if I got a 5th, I could shoot my way to Ascendancy, hopefully before the Ferengi did. But the most available Culture node was right next to me in Cardassian territory. I launched a fleet at the planet, quickly dispatching the one ship guarding it. I launched an Invasion, then watched my plan completely fall apart as my ships leveled the planet in a Total Annihilation. The Cardassian was not pleased, the Ferengi laughed his ass off, and all I'd done is betray my rival for ultimately no reason. Fortunately, there was another Culture node adjacent to one I had just destroyed... on Cardassia Prime. I launched another Invasion and the same thing happened. My fleet leveled Cardassia Prime, at the expense of the Culture Node I was trying to take.

It was a shocking turn of events to say the least. The Cardassian fleet had been decimated and all his shipbuilding facilities captured. I could have finished him, which would have turned it into a slugging match with the Ferengi as I tried to go for a Military victory. Alas, I have a soft spot for eliminating players, so I chose to spare him and returned to my original plan of Culture nodes. On the following turns, the Cardassian commissioned a new starbase at one of his outposts, built a new fleet, and drove me off Cardassia.

At this point, the Cardassian was caught between the two other rivals. The Ferengi told him, rather bluntly, the he couldn't win, so it was just a question of who he wanted to side with. As I had leveled his homeworld, and betrayed him, I knew I wasn't winning that argument.

I spent the Culture tokens that I was saving to build a new Culture node, but while I was doing that, the Ferengi got to 4 Ascendancy. Now it was a race with the Ferengi to sabotage his Production before he bought his way to victory. The choke point to his territory was Bajor and he assembled a fleet there to hold it. I sent my fleet to try to take it, but it was too late. In one turn, he pulled in 20 Production tokens, plus the one Culture token from his homeworld, and victory was his.

Final Thoughts:

• Ferengi: In an odd role reversal, the Ferengi player operated much like the Federation would, thematically speaking. They did a lot of exploring through uncontested space, avoided conflict, mined phenomena for research, and used some Tech to sabotage their rivals. The Ferengi victory was achieved by conquering a vast territory of mostly empty space and then incentivizing rivals to be at peace with him. The Ferengi thematics really come into play in how they interact with rivals. Gaining their rivals trust paves their way to an Ascendancy victory without every having to betray those rivals. They still benefit from whatever deals they made with the Ferengi. The Ferengi just benefit more. It should go without saying, never trust a Ferengi. 

• Cardassians: The Cardassian player had it a little rough. They only encountered one Warp Civilization they could invade for their Culture bonus. Their forced labor penalty was a problem b/c they couldn't spread their fleet out as much, and actually left the systems with only Research and Culture undefended. Had they been playing Federation with the same draw of planets and phenomenon, they probably would have done better, especially since the Federation and Ferengi often "out-peace" their rivals. A Cardassian player can probably overcome their Production penalty, but it means staying isolated longer in order to build up weapons, shields, and fleets. They are supposed function much like the Klingons, as a military check on the others. As I mentioned before, my friend was expanding his territory towards me, almost in a straight line, which put me on the defensive and led to my making a pre-emptive strike when he was still vulnerable. Had he built up his territory more, and came at me with overwhelming force, it might turned out differently. 
• Romulans: In my opinion, the Romulans greatest strength in this game is flexibility. They can use their First Strike and a couple other Advancements to go for a Military Victory, or they can remain isolated and research their way to Ascendancy. I did learn from this game that the decision has to be committed to as much as possible. All players have the choice of researching either weapons/shields or Advancements and that decision is even more pressing for the Romulans who get Culture tokens from their Advancements. I made the mistake of not building Research nodes and thus it was a constant drip feed on my research tokens. I'd say the lesson is to conserve the early Research tokens for nodes, then when it becomes clear what the other players will be doing, advance either Military or Ascendancy agenda. 

Hopefully next game we'll have all the factions in play to see how they interact with each other. I suspect the Federation and Ferengi will get along well, while trying to defend their borders from the Cardassians and Klingons, with the Romulans waiting for the opportune moment to strike. 

On the other hand, with the Borg coming soon, the fate of the Alpha Quadrant may be very different.