Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
FredMSloniker
Jan 2, 2008

Why, yes, I do like Kirby games.


Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before!

In 2015, Tau Leader Games released a solitaire print-and-play dice game called Deep Space D-6. In it, you play as the captain of a starship that has been ambused by enemy forces and must hold out until help arrives. Play involves rolling dice, then assigning those dice to perform various actions to eliminate threats and keep your ship and crew intact.

In 2016, on the 50th anniversary of the original Star Trek series, Carl White produced Star Trek: The Dice Game. It uses an expanded version of the Deep Space D-6 rules, changing the game from surviving a single brutal attack to managing your resources to complete a five-year mission. While any one event is less hazardous, the trick is getting all the way through without getting the ship blown up or having some alien entity suck up all of your crew.

The game is available for free from the creator's website, but I recommend going to Board Game Geek to get updated versions of the cards and rules, as well as the Away Team expansion, which adds more of everything, including new rules for sending away teams on missions.

How the game works
The super-brief version of the rules is as follows: each turn, you roll ten dice, then assign them to various stations on the ship. You then spend those dice to complete steps on the Mission Card (you draw a new one for each year of the five-year mission, and, yes, it is a bit confusing that you complete five missions in your five-year-mission), collect Development Cards (which give you various bonuses when collected), defeat Event Cards (which impose penalties until removed), or perform miscellaneous tasks like repairing the hull.

Several things can reduce your dice pool. You can choose to lock dice onto Event or Development Cards until you get enough of the right dice to complete the Event Card or collect the Development Card. Sometimes an Event Card will lock up some of your dice as crewmen are sent to sickbay or possessed by an alien entity.

Last, but certainly not least, any ones you roll are considered threats and are kept until you accumulate four of them. Every time you do, you draw another Event Card... and that's bad.

How this LP will work
To discourage bandwagoning, decisions will not be made by voting. Instead, they will be made by raffle. I'll give everyone some time to call out what they want to do, then randomly select someone and use their choice.

The first choice you need to make is game difficulty. Difficulty has two effects. The first is what our starting dilithium reserve will be. Dilithium is a timer for each year of our five-year mission; if it runs out before we've completed the mission card for that year, we fail the mission, and if we fail two missions in a row, we lose the game.

The second effect is what Year Card we use. The Year Card determines what additional hazards we face as wear and tear eats at the Enterprise. To simplify matters, I've boiled the Year Cards down into a list; you move one step down the list for each year that passes:
  • No effect. Easy difficulty starts here, with a dilithium reserve of 10.
  • No effect. Normal difficulty starts here, with a dilithium reserve of 9.
  • No effect. Hard difficulty starts here, with a dilithium reserve of 8.
  • Repairing the hull costs more. Kobayashi Maru difficulty starts here, with a dilithium reserve of 7.
  • In addition, raising and lowering shields costs more.
  • In addition, healing costs more.
  • In addition, reducing threat costs more.
  • In addition, all damage is increased by one point.
So, what'll it be? Easy, Normal, Hard, or Kobayashi Maru?

FredMSloniker fucked around with this message at 17:17 on May 14, 2019

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

sudonim
Oct 6, 2005
if we choose Kobayashi Maru, can we cheat?

FredMSloniker
Jan 2, 2008

Why, yes, I do like Kirby games.

sudonim posted:

if we choose Kobayashi Maru, can we cheat?

That depends. Can you reprogram the computer? Please do not actually hack my computer or the Something Awful forums kthx.

FredMSloniker
Jan 2, 2008

Why, yes, I do like Kirby games.
Just giving this a little bump, since the forum's so active I suspect folks interested in this thread missed seeing it.

SystemLogoff
Feb 19, 2011

End Session?

Voting for Kobayashi Maru until we die horribly.

Technowolf
Nov 4, 2009




Proposing Hard Difficulty.

Grizzwold
Jan 27, 2012

Posters off the pork bow!
Let's start out on Normal, at least until the goonmind gets a handle on how the game plays.

FredMSloniker
Jan 2, 2008

Why, yes, I do like Kirby games.
I've changed my mind about putting the difficulty level to a vote raffle, because boy howdy, getting this post ready let me know that 'less brutal' than Deep Space D-6 does not mean 'not brutal'. We'll start on Easy and see if we can earn a higher difficulty.

So let's get this party started. I didn't mention it earlier, but we will be playing with the Away Team expansion, so we'll have new and exciting ways to die.

First, let's take a quick look at the board.



(Not pictured: the Away Team sideboard. I'll show it when it becomes relevant.)

To set up, we put markers on Hull space 7 (fresh from the starbase) and on Shields space 0 (we start with shields down, but we'll be able to raise them later). We put a Year Card on the appropriate space; this reminds us of the effects of the current year of our mission, based on the difficulty we chose. (Speaking of, we put a marker on Year 1.) Since we're starting off easy, we put a marker on Dilithium Reserves space 10. Then we put ten old-fashioned six-siders, referred to as Crew Dice, in the Quarters space.

After shuffling the three decks, we draw and display, in order, three Development Cards. These cards are Reassigned, Diagnostic Scanner, and Security Station. I'll explain what those are in a bit.

Last, but not least, we draw the first of (hopefully) five Mission Cards. Now things get interesting.



Year One: The Frozen Sky

Captain's Log, Stardate 1524.3. The Enterprise is responding to a distress call from the planet Antaeus 3. The planet's rotation is slowing for an as-yet unknown reason. If we can't put a stop to it, the planet will become tidally locked, the sun searing one side while the other side freezes.

Each Mission Card has a Mission Event. This is something that happens every turn to make our lives more difficult. In this case, before we even get to roll a Crew Die, we have to send one of them to Sickbay. We'll cover how to get them out again later.

(Insert a scene here from the 'episode' of Dr. McCoy treating someone from Engineering for what looks like a minor injury while he and Captain Kirk discuss possible medical responses to the situation on the planet.)

We start at the first Mission Stage. In order to complete the Mission Card, we need to progress through every Mission Stage in order; we can only complete one Stage a turn, so Sickbay is going to get crowded! To complete this Mission Stage, we need to use two Engineering Dice in a single turn.

So how do we get those dice? Well, in Roll Call (:downsrim:), we roll all of the Crew Dice in Quarters. Of those nine dice, we get:
  • Two ones. These are Threat Dice. Threat Dice go in the Scanners boxes. When those boxes fill up, they return to Quarters, but we have to draw an Event Card. (That's bad.)
  • One two. This is a Security Die. Security Dice go in the Security boxes. If there aren't enough empty boxes for the Security Dice rolled (or for the other types of Crew Dice below), they return to Quarters. That isn't a problem here, obviously.
  • One three. This is an Engineering Die. We wanted two. We have one. This is an issue.
  • One four. This is a Medical Die. This could come in handy.
  • Three fives. These are Science Dice.
  • One six. This is a Command Die. Unlike the other types of dice, there are only two boxes for Command Dice.
Having rolled the dice, we then Report for Duty, which is when we actually put the dice on their appropriate spaces. Then it's time to Deploy. We can take the following actions:
  • A Security Die may be used to return a Threat Die to Quarters (Clear Sensors). (Dice that have been spent also return to Quarters.) We can also use two Security Dice as if they were one Engineering Die.
  • An Engineering Die may be used to repair one point of hull damage (Repair). We can also use two Engineering Dice as if they were one Security Die.
  • A Medical Die may be used to return one Crew Die from Sickbay to Quarters (Heal). We can also use two Medical Dice as if they were one Science Die.
  • A Science Die may be used to move Shields to 5 or 0 (Raise or Lower Shields). We can also use two Science Dice as if they were one Medical Die.
  • A Command Die may be used to change one other Crew Die to a result of your choice (Orders). (The rules don't say if you can change any Crew Die, but based on my reading, I'm going to say this only applies to active Crew Dice, i.e., ones that are at stations other than Scanners.)
  • Event Cards, Development Cards, and Mission Cards can all have associated costs, which are paid in the appropriate number and type of Crew Dice. We pay to remove Event Cards, claim Development Cards (about which, more shortly), and advance Mission Cards.
  • Finally, if we really need a specific Crew Die, we can use any three Crew Dice as if they were a specific Crew Die. (Note that, when we're using multiple Crew Dice as if they were a single Crew Die, that doesn't mean 'send all but one back to Quarters and turn that one to the desired result'! Those Dice are stuck together until they get sent back to Quarters as a unit.)
We can take any or all of these actions in any order we want, and we can take any action as many times as we can pay for it. Any Crew Dice we don't use this turn can be locked in if we think we'll need their value next turn, but otherwise they return to Quarters. (This does not include Threat Dice, for obvious reasons.)

So, what should we do this turn? Well, the following options seem at least somewhat relevant:
  • Spend a Security Die to return a Threat Die to Quarters.
  • Spend a Medical Die to return a Crew Die from Sickbay to Quarters.
  • Spend a Science Die to raise shields.
  • Spend a Command Die to change an unneeded Crew Die to an Engineering Die.
  • Treat three Crew Dice as if they were an Engineering Die.
  • Advance the Mission Card by spending two Engineering Dice. We don't currently have two Engineering Dice, but see above.
  • Put Crew Dice on a Development Card. Development Cards are buffs we can pay for with Crew Dice; some provide a continuous bonus, while others can be used up in an emergency. Unlike Mission Cards, we can pay for Development and Event Cards in installments, leaving the Crew Dice on the card until we either choose to remove them at the end of a turn or finish paying the cost.
    • The Reassigned Development Card is a Tactics card (the relevance of this will be explained when it's, well, relevant) that costs two Command Dice to claim. (Note that those dice return to Quarters once the cost is paid; they're not locked up forever.) It lets you reroll one Crew Die, other than a Threat Die, during Roll Call.
    • The Diagnostic Scanner Development Card is a Technology card that costs three Medical Dice to claim. With it active, each Heal action moves two Crew Dice, not just one, from Sickbay to Quarters.
    • The Security Station Development Card is a Tactics card that costs three Security Dice to claim. It acts as an additional Security box, letting us keep one more Security Die roll.
    A shortened list of the available Development Cards will appear in Mission Status, below. We don't have enough Crew Dice to claim any of these outright, but we could make a deposit.
So, what'll it be? I know what I'd do if I were playing, but would it be the best choice? Well, we'll just have to see.

__________________           __
\_________________|)____.---'--`---.____
              ||    \----.________.----/
              ||     / /    `--'
            __||____/ /_
           |___         \
               `--------'


MISSION STATUS

It is year one of the U.S.S. Enterprise's five-year mission (on easy difficulty.)

Crew assignments:
  • Command: 1/2
  • Science: 3/3
  • Medical: 1/3
  • Engineering: 1/3
  • Security: 1/3
  • Away Team: 0/10
  • Quarters: 0/10
  • Sickbay: 1/10
Threat Level (Scanners): 2/4
Shields: 0/5
Hull: 7/7
Dilithium Crystal Reserve: 10/10

Active Mission Card: Avert Environmental Catastrophe (Away Team expansion).
Mission Event: Move one Crew Die to Sickbay.
  1. Travel: pay two Engineering Dice.
  2. Transport: shields must be down. Pay one Engineering Die.
  3. Scan: Pay two Science Dice.
  4. Repair: Pay one Engineering Die and one Science Die.
  5. Cure: Pay two Medical Dice.
  6. Development: Draw two Development Cards. (Discard the two available Development Cards at the top of the list, then draw two Development Cards and put them at the bottom of the list.)
Active Event Cards: none.

Active Development Cards: none.

Available Development Cards:
  • Reassigned (Tactics card. Reroll one Crew Die, other than a Threat result, during Roll Call. Costs 2 Command to claim.)
  • Diagnostic Scanner (Technology card. The Heal action moves two Crew Dice from Sickbay to Quarters. Costs 3 Medical to claim.)
  • Security Station (Tactics card. This card acts as an additional Security Crew Station. Costs 3 Security to claim.)

FredMSloniker fucked around with this message at 06:53 on Apr 16, 2019

habituallyred
Feb 6, 2015
Captains Log: Year One of our ongoing Mission.

In response to an environmental catastrophe I Order a Science die to Engineering duties so that we can Travel to the incident.

The planet was... is of great religious importance to many crewmembers. 2 Science die acted as Medical personnel to Heal die in Sickbay, the first of many to reach their breaking point.

An improved sickbay will be vital with the current crisis. So a Medical die left to develop Diagnostic Scanner.

We must remain vigilant against those who would exploit the current crisis. So Security Cleared Sensors.

(Any good as orders?)

Potsticker
Jan 14, 2006


FredMSloniker posted:

I've changed my mind about putting the difficulty level to a vote raffle, because boy howdy, getting this post ready let me know that 'less brutal' than Deep Space D-6 does not mean 'not brutal'. We'll start on Easy and see if we can earn a higher difficulty.

Good plan! I've noticed with a lot of good solo board games there definitely seems to be a trend for Easy/Normal to be pretty challenging and then harder difficulties ramping up pretty quickly as they give you less resources, make rolls more difficult, or shorten various clocks the game uses.

Deep Space D-6 was a pretty good game, and it absolutely shocked me how much better the Star Trek version of it is. It goes a little overboard on the components, but that is absolutely in service to making the game better and not just making it more "Star Trek." DSD6 runs into the problem a lot where it seems like there's always on optimal play to be made and thus it feels like there's not a lot of player choice. Star Trek on the other hand gives you lots of ways to change the sides of your dice and so many different places they can be played that I feel like it's really hard to get into a situation where you feel like you're following a flowchart.

I've never played with the Away Team expansion stuff, so that's definitely something I'm going to keep my eye on in this thread to see how that works.

MaskedHuzzah
Mar 26, 2009

Come now! Look me in the eye and tell me - isn't this the face of a guy you can trust?
Lipstick Apathy
We must complete the mission as quickly as possible before things get worse. We need engineering, but we don't need science right now, and we want to clear off as many occupied personnel as possible to quarters.

Orders
1. Use the command die to switch a science die to engineering.
2. Use the two engineering dies to complete the Travel objective.
3. Convert the two science remaining to a medical die and cure the person in sickbay. We don't need the science, but we don't want to lock them both into development.
4. Use the remaining medical die to work on the Diagnostic Scanner. It will likely be useful down the line. The personnel is locked into development until it's completed, right? Or am I misunderstanding?
5. Use the security to clear a threat.

FredMSloniker
Jan 2, 2008

Why, yes, I do like Kirby games.

habituallyred posted:

(Any good as orders?)

That sounds like a pretty good plan, and MaskedHuzzah agrees with you, so let's do it. We spend our Command Die to turn a Science Die into an Engineering Die, then spend two Engineering Dice to complete this Mission Stage. Using two Science Dice as a Medical Die to Heal our injured Crew Die leaves our actual Medical Die free to go on the Diagnostic Scanner Development Card. (We could have done it the other way around, but this is more efficient.) Our Security Die clears one Threat Die, and we're out of Crew Dice to spend.

As the next turn starts, our Dilithium Reserves drop by one. Dilithium Reserves are refreshed at the start of each new year. If they run out before a Mission Card is completed, that Mission Card ends in failure; fail two in a row, and the show is cancelled the game is over. So we have nine turns to finish the remaining five Mission Stages. Keep that in mind.

The Mission Event then activates again, sending some poor schlub back to Sickbay, and we roll the Crew Dice.



That's one of each kind of Crew Die, plus a second Engineering Die. That gives us the following options:
  • Complete the current mission stage using one Engineering Die, then:
    • Complete the Diagnostic Scanner (using the Command Die to get the second Medical Die) and remove one Threat Die.
    • Remove both Threat Dice (using the Command Die to get the second Security Die) and either heal one Crew Die or partially complete the Diagnostic Scanner.
    • Remove one Threat Die, heal one Crew Die, and partially complete the Diagnostic Scanner (using the Command Die to get a Medical Die).

    With any of these options, we'd have either an Engineering Die or a Science Die left over, which we could save for next turn.

    OR

  • Remove both Threat Dice (treating two Engineering Dice as a Security Die), then complete the Diagnostic Scanner (using the Command Die to get a Medical Die). This would use up all of our Crew Dice. This would not complete the current Mission Stage.

    OR

  • Do something else I haven't thought of. (I wouldn't suggest partially completing either of the other Development Cards, but you do you.)
So. What are our priorities?

__________________           __
\_________________|)____.---'--`---.____
              ||    \----.________.----/
              ||     / /    `--'
            __||____/ /_
           |___         \
               `--------'


MISSION STATUS

It is year one of the U.S.S. Enterprise's five-year mission (on easy difficulty.)

Crew assignments:
  1. Threat Level (Scanners): 2/4
  2. Security: 1/3
  3. Engineering: 2/3
  4. Medical: 1/3
  5. Science: 1/3
  6. Command: 1/2
  • Away Team: 0/10
  • Quarters: 0/10
  • Sickbay: 1/10
  • Diagnostic Scanner: 1/3 Medical Dice
Shields: 0/5
Hull: 7/7
Dilithium Crystal Reserve: 9/10

Active Mission Card: Avert Environmental Catastrophe (Away Team expansion).
Mission Event: Move one Crew Die to Sickbay.
  1. Travel: pay two Engineering Dice.
  2. Transport: shields must be down. Pay one Engineering Die.
  3. Scan: Pay two Science Dice.
  4. Repair: Pay one Engineering Die and one Science Die.
  5. Cure: Pay two Medical Dice.
  6. Development: Draw two Development Cards. (Discard the two available Development Cards at the top of the list, then draw two Development Cards and put them at the bottom of the list.)
Active Event Cards: none.

Active Development Cards: none.

Available Development Cards:
  • Reassigned (Tactics card. Reroll one Crew Die, other than a Threat result, during Roll Call. Costs 2 Command to claim.)
  • Diagnostic Scanner (Technology card. The Heal action moves two Crew Dice from Sickbay to Quarters. Costs 3 Medical to claim.)
  • Security Station (Tactics card. This card acts as an additional Security Crew Station. Costs 3 Security to claim.)

FredMSloniker fucked around with this message at 17:38 on Apr 16, 2019

inflatablefish
Oct 24, 2010

FredMSloniker posted:

  • Complete the current mission stage using one Engineering Die, then:
    • Complete the Diagnostic Scanner (using the Command Die to get the second Medical Die) and remove one Threat Die.

With any of these options, we'd have either an Engineering Die or a Science Die left over, which we could save for next turn.

Let's do this, and save a Science Die so we can use it next turn to science the science.

Do we get a bonus for finishing the event with spare dilithium, or is it an advantage to hold off on the final step so we can activate our development cards?

FredMSloniker
Jan 2, 2008

Why, yes, I do like Kirby games.

inflatablefish posted:

Do we get a bonus for finishing the event with spare dilithium, or is it an advantage to hold off on the final step so we can activate our development cards?

You don't get a bonus for finishing the mission early, but you don't want to stick around; every turn means you're getting hit by the Mission Event and potentially rolling Threat Dice. That said, there is one reason to linger. The last stage in this mission completes itself, but it does so by forcing you to discard the oldest two available Development Cards (in our case, the ones at the top of the list) and draw two new ones (which will go at the bottom). So if we want Reassigned and/or Diagnostic Scanner, we need to get them before the mission ends.

FredMSloniker
Jan 2, 2008

Why, yes, I do like Kirby games.
Oh, also! One thing to consider is that, with the Away Team expansion in play, we may want to have a spare Crew Die and not save it. After all, we need warm bodies to actually send down to the planet...

e: actually, lemme cover that right now. With the Away Team expansion, after a Mission Card's Transport phase is completed, and after the Cleanup phase (used Crew Dice go back to quarters, completed Development Cards are collected, et cetera), you pick at least two Crew Dice and put them on the Away Team side board. This is like the Enterprise board, except it has two Stations for each of Science, Engineering, Medical, Security, and Command, and none for Threat. They go into the Away Team pool.

The following rules apply when an away team is, well, away:
  • Away team Crew Dice are rolled and assigned before shipboard Crew Dice are. Like shipboard Crew Dice, they can be left locked into an Away Team station if unused; otherwise, they return to the Away Team pool.
  • Rolling 1 on an away team Crew Die is not a Threat Die but a Wild Die, and can be used for any result.
  • As far as I can tell, there's no rule against away team Crew Dice performing actions like Heal or Repair Hull.
  • Mission Stages may only be completed with away team Crew Dice.
  • Event Cards with the Starship icon only affect, and can only be completed by, shipboard Crew Dice.
  • Event Cards without the Starship icon, as well as Development Cards, can be completed by either or both sets of Crew Dice. However, away team Crew Dice may not be locked onto these cards, so the Event Card or Development Card must be completed that turn. The away team Crew Dice return to the Away Team pool during cleanup.
  • Away team Crew Dice sent to Sickbay become shipboard Crew Dice.
  • You can recomplete a Transport phase (instead of completing the current phase of the Mission Card) to add more dice to the Away Team pool. (Gotta replace those redshirts somehow!)
  • The away mission ends, and all away team Crew Dice return to Quarters, if a second Transport phase is completed (some Mission Cards have two) or when a Mission Card is completed or discarded.

FredMSloniker fucked around with this message at 19:40 on Apr 16, 2019

MaskedHuzzah
Mar 26, 2009

Come now! Look me in the eye and tell me - isn't this the face of a guy you can trust?
Lipstick Apathy
Continuing on the same basic plan as last time,
1. Use the Engineering die to complete the Transport objective.
2. Use Command to convert the remaining Engineering to Medical. Use the two medical to finish Diagnostic Scanner. We expect to have 2 people in sickbay next turn, we can get them out then.
3. Use the Security die to clear a Threat. This leaves us with a science die to hold on to, I guess.
4. Allocate 3 dice for the Away team. They can do anything the shipboard dice can do for now, and can't become a threat.

EDIT: What does adding an additional security station net us? The ability to hold another die between turns?
EDIT 2: Commands updated.

MaskedHuzzah fucked around with this message at 22:06 on Apr 16, 2019

habituallyred
Feb 6, 2015
So saving the science die we expect to have left over could not go toward mission completion? Ouch. How the hell do you beat the game on Hard then?


Complete the current mission stage using one Engineering Die, then:

Complete the Diagnostic Scanner (using the Command Die to get the second Medical Die from engineering) and remove one Threat Die.

FredMSloniker
Jan 2, 2008

Why, yes, I do like Kirby games.

MaskedHuzzah posted:

Continuing on the same basic plan as last time,
Send the Security and Science dies down in the away team (since that's a two person minimum if I'm reading correctly).

Assigning crew to an away team happens after Cleanup, so we'll have every Crew Die that gets used available.

quote:

EDIT: What does adding an additional security station net us? The ability to hold another die between turns?

That, and the ability to assign another Security Die after Roll Call. Remember, if you roll four Security Dice, but you only have three Security Stations available, one of the Crew Dice goes back to Quarters.

habituallyred posted:

So saving the science die we expect to have left over could not go toward mission completion? Ouch. How the hell do you beat the game on Hard then?

:shrug:

inflatablefish
Oct 24, 2010
This seems to suggest that the best strategy would be to put all our dice on the Away Team since they then can't generate Threat. Which of our Development Cards are Starship only?

Also: in what order do dice take effect? Our Away Team Security Pool is a maximum of two - are we able to spend those two on a card, then use a Command Die to change another die to a Security Die and spend that on the same card?

inflatablefish fucked around with this message at 22:13 on Apr 16, 2019

FredMSloniker
Jan 2, 2008

Why, yes, I do like Kirby games.

inflatablefish posted:

This seems to suggest that the best strategy would be to put all our dice on the Away Team since they then can't generate Threat. Which of our Development Cards are Starship only?

Development Cards don't have that feature, only Event Cards. Also, many missions have 'Draw an Event Card' as the Mission Event, which would make having everyone on the planet surface unwise. This one doesn't, but Crew Dice will still get sent to Sickbay. It's up to you.

quote:

Also: in what order do dice take effect? Our Away Team Security Pool is a maximum of two - are we able to spend those two on a card, then use a Command Die to change another die to a Security Die and spend that on the same card?

Whenever you have to do more than one thing - resolve multiple Event cards, spend Crew Dice on multiple actions, what have you - you get to choose the order. That said, the Stations only limit the Crew Dice you can keep after Roll Call and before Cleanup; you could use the Command Die first, then the Security Dice. You just can't keep more than two rolled Security Dice or lock more than two into their Stations.

FredMSloniker
Jan 2, 2008

Why, yes, I do like Kirby games.
It looks like everyone's in agreement at least to Cleanup, so no point in raffling. We spend an Engineering Die to complete the current Mission Stage, then spend our Command Die to turn the other Engineering Die into a Medical Die. Then we spend both Medical Dice to complete the Diagnostic Scanner Development Card and the Security Die to clear a Threat Die.

Cleanup rolls around; the Crew Dice on the Diagnostic Scanner return to Quarters, as do all the Crew Dice we've used, and we collect the Diagnostic Scanner. This also means we draw a new Development Card.
  • Medical Tricorder (Technology card. Add two bonus Medical Dice to one Challenge, then discard. Costs 2 Medical to claim.)
Even if you can only use it once, that's a pretty good card. You get to store the effect of those Medical Dice for when you need them, and you get the Crew Dice back to do whatever. We have some time before it gets rotated out, too. (Note that, even if we had any Medical Dice right now, we couldn't use them; we have to wait until next turn to work on any new cards.)

So, we now have seven Crew Dice in Quarters - eight if we send the Science Die back too - and we need to put at least two on Away Team duty. How many should we send? And should we keep the Science Die? inflatablefish wants to save the Science Die and send seven Crew Dice on the away mission; MaskedHuzzah also wants to save the Science Die, but only wants to send three Crew Dice. habituallyred hasn't weighed in on this issue, and of course anyone can make or change plans and hope to get their choice raffled.

__________________           __
\_________________|)____.---'--`---.____
              ||    \----.________.----/
              ||     / /    `--'
            __||____/ /_
           |___         \
               `--------'


MISSION STATUS

It is year one of the U.S.S. Enterprise's five-year mission (on easy difficulty.)

Crew assignments:
  • Threat Level (Scanners): 1/4
  • Security: 0/3
  • Engineering: 0/3
  • Medical: 0/3
  • Science: 1/3
  • Command: 0/2
  • Away Team: 0/10
  • Quarters: 7/10
  • Sickbay: 1/10
Shields: 0/5
Hull: 7/7
Dilithium Crystal Reserve: 9/10

Active Mission Card: Avert Environmental Catastrophe (Away Team expansion).
Mission Event: Move one Crew Die to Sickbay.
  1. Travel: pay two Engineering Dice.
  2. Transport: shields must be down. Pay one Engineering Die.
  3. Scan: Pay two Science Dice.
  4. Repair: Pay one Engineering Die and one Science Die.
  5. Cure: Pay two Medical Dice.
  6. Development: Draw two Development Cards. (Discard the two available Development Cards at the top of the list, then draw two Development Cards and put them at the bottom of the list.)
Active Event Cards: none.

Active Development Cards:
  • Diagnostic Scanner (Technology card. The Heal action moves two Crew Dice from Sickbay to Quarters.)
Available Development Cards:
  • Reassigned (Tactics card. Reroll one Crew Die, other than a Threat result, during Roll Call. Costs 2 Command to claim.)
  • Security Station (Tactics card. This card acts as an additional Security Crew Station. Costs 3 Security to claim.)
  • Medical Tricorder (Technology card. Add two bonus Medical Dice to one Challenge, then discard. Costs 2 Medical to claim.)

inflatablefish
Oct 24, 2010
Oops, let me clarify - if I'm reading you correctly, we can only complete the Scan task using Away Team Science Dice, so saving one on the ship wouldn't be much use because we have nothing to spend it on. I vote to send all 8 dice on the Away Team. If we need anyone back on the ship, we can get a trickle back via the sickbay anyway (and can somehow heal them using Away Team Medical Dice!)

In fact, just looking at how badly we can game the system here... what if we plan to complete Steps 3 and 4, buy the Medical Tricorder to hold in reserve (which will let us complete Step 5 whenever we want to), then keep all our crew on the Away Team (generating no Threat) getting us extra Development cards while we use up our spare Dilithium?

MaskedHuzzah
Mar 26, 2009

Come now! Look me in the eye and tell me - isn't this the face of a guy you can trust?
Lipstick Apathy

inflatablefish posted:

Oops, let me clarify - if I'm reading you correctly, we can only complete the Scan task using Away Team Science Dice, so saving one on the ship wouldn't be much use because we have nothing to spend it on.


I didn't read it as "only away team dice can be used for the event", so if that's true I'd keep 2 people on the ship + 1 in sickbay and 7 people on the planet.

FredMSloniker
Jan 2, 2008

Why, yes, I do like Kirby games.

MaskedHuzzah posted:

I didn't read it as "only away team dice can be used for the event", so if that's true I'd keep 2 people on the ship + 1 in sickbay and 7 people on the planet.

While the Away Team is active, shipboard Crew Dice can't be used to complete Mission Phases, so inflatablefish is right. However, we have one Threat Die in addition to the Crew Die in Sickbay, so you only have eight Crew Dice you can allocate. Do you want to send six down, keep one on, or...?

FredMSloniker fucked around with this message at 03:30 on Apr 17, 2019

habituallyred
Feb 6, 2015
6 crew to planet Doesn't look like trouble is imminent so might as well focus on the planet.

I actually misread the away team explanation and thought that only 2 crew members could visit the planet per transport. :eng99:

MaskedHuzzah
Mar 26, 2009

Come now! Look me in the eye and tell me - isn't this the face of a guy you can trust?
Lipstick Apathy

FredMSloniker posted:

While the Away Team is active, shipboard Crew Dice can't be used to complete Mission Phases, so inflatablefish is right. However, we have one Threat Die in addition to the Crew Die in Sickbay, so you only have eight Crew Dice you can allocate. Do you want to send six down, keep one on, or...?

Curses! I did overlook the threat die. 6 to planet, then - if I understand it correctly, this means that there isn't enough crew on the ship to generate enough threat for a random event this turn, so that's less of a worry.

FredMSloniker
Jan 2, 2008

Why, yes, I do like Kirby games.
Well, it looks like we once again have a consensus. We assign six Crew Dice to the away team and leave the rest on the ship.

Next turn rolls around; the Dilithium Reserves tick down again, and another Crew Die heads to Sickbay. (I assume you want to send a shipboard one there.) We then roll the away team Crew Dice...



...and the shipboard Crew, er, Die.



Well, that's unfortunate. Still, looks like we have the Crew Dice to clear things up. We could spend both Science Crew Dice to advance the Mission Card, spend a Medical Crew Die to Heal both Crew Dice in Sickbay, spend a Command Die to turn the Engineering Die into a Security Die, and spend both Security Dice to remove both Threat Dice. Is there any reason not to do all of the above?

__________________           __
\_________________|)____.---'--`---.____
              ||    \----.________.----/
              ||     / /    `--'
            __||____/ /_
           |___         \
               `--------'


MISSION STATUS

It is year one of the U.S.S. Enterprise's five-year mission (on easy difficulty.)

Shipboard crew assignments:
  • Threat Level (Scanners): 2/4
  • Security: 0/3
  • Engineering: 0/3
  • Medical: 0/3
  • Science: 0/3
  • Command: 0/2
  • Quarters: 0/10
  • Sickbay: 2/10
Away Team crew assignments:
  • Wild: 0/10
  • Security: 1/2
  • Engineering: 1/2
  • Medical: 1/2
  • Science: 2/2
  • Command: 1/2
  • Away Team pool: 0/10
Shields: 0/5
Hull: 7/7
Dilithium Crystal Reserve: 8/10

Active Mission Card: Avert Environmental Catastrophe (Away Team expansion).
Mission Event: Move one Crew Die to Sickbay.
  1. Travel: pay two Engineering Dice.
  2. Transport: shields must be down. Pay one Engineering Die.
  3. Scan: Pay two Science Dice.
  4. Repair: Pay one Engineering Die and one Science Die.
  5. Cure: Pay two Medical Dice.
  6. Development: Draw two Development Cards. (Discard the two available Development Cards at the top of the list, then draw two Development Cards and put them at the bottom of the list.)
Active Event Cards: none.

Active Development Cards:
  • Diagnostic Scanner (Technology card. The Heal action moves two Crew Dice from Sickbay to Quarters.)
Available Development Cards:
  • Reassigned (Tactics card. Reroll one Crew Die, other than a Threat result, during Roll Call. Costs 2 Command to claim.)
  • Security Station (Tactics card. This card acts as an additional Security Crew Station. Costs 3 Security to claim.)
  • Medical Tricorder (Technology card. Add two bonus Medical Dice to one Challenge, then discard. Costs 2 Medical to claim.)

Rorahusky
Nov 12, 2012

Transform and waaauuuugh out!

FredMSloniker posted:

Well, that's unfortunate. Still, looks like we have the Crew Dice to clear things up. We could spend both Science Crew Dice to advance the Mission Card, spend a Medical Crew Die to Heal both Crew Dice in Sickbay, spend a Command Die to turn the Engineering Die into a Security Die, and spend both Security Dice to remove both Threat Dice. Is there any reason not to do all of the above?

I see absolutely no reason to not do exactly that. We have the resources to deal with it now, and it would be best to do so while we can.

Technowolf
Nov 4, 2009




Rorahusky posted:

I see absolutely no reason to not do exactly that. We have the resources to deal with it now, and it would be best to do so while we can.

Agreed.

inflatablefish
Oct 24, 2010
So leaving crew on the ship generated Threat? You know, guys, I hate to say I told you so, but... (that's a complete lie, I love it.)

But yeah, your plan's pretty much a no-brainer, let's do that. Hopefully next turn we'll be able to get some Development in.
EDIT: let's also keep sending shipboard crew to Sickbay rather than Away Team crew.
EDIT EDIT: Can the Reassigned card only be used for shipboard crew, or also for the Away Team? If it's shipboard only then it'll always carry a risk of rolling Threat.

inflatablefish fucked around with this message at 16:19 on Apr 17, 2019

MaskedHuzzah
Mar 26, 2009

Come now! Look me in the eye and tell me - isn't this the face of a guy you can trust?
Lipstick Apathy

Rorahusky posted:

I see absolutely no reason to not do exactly that. We have the resources to deal with it now, and it would be best to do so while we can.

I concur. This round's tied up pretty neatly.

FredMSloniker
Jan 2, 2008

Why, yes, I do like Kirby games.

inflatablefish posted:

EDIT EDIT: Can the Reassigned card only be used for shipboard crew, or also for the Away Team? If it's shipboard only then it'll always carry a risk of rolling Threat.

All Development Cards work equally well on shipboard and away team Crew Dice.

We carry out the plan outlined in the previous post. The Threat Dice and the Crew Dice in Sickbay all return to Quarters, while the Crew Dice on the away team return to the Away Team pool. We advance the Mission Card, and then it's time for the next turn. The Dilithium Reserves are depleted, a shipboard Crew Die goes to Sickbay, and away team Crew Dice are rolled -



- and, unfortunately, we roll one more Medical Die than we can keep. The extra one returns to the Away Team pool. Then we roll the shipboard Crew Dice -



- and get no whammies.

So. We have a Wild Die on the away team. The rules specifically state that we can use it on any Away Team Station, non-shipboard Event, or Development Card, which means we could put it on, say, the Medical Tricorder, but not use it to Heal (because we'd have to assign it to a Medical Station first, and those are full). Not that this is a problem; just making the rules clear.

To complete the current Mission Phase, we need an Engineering Die and a Science Die, both of which must come from the away team Crew Dice. Equally unfortunately, we have neither - but we do have that Wild Die, and we can use the shipboard Command Die to turn one of the away team Crew Dice into the other. (AFAIK, this is just as legal as away team Crew Dice Healing shipboard Crew Dice.)

If, for some reason, we choose not to advance the Mission Card, we can instead spend an Engineering Crew Die (see above) to repeat the Transport phase and send more Crew Dice down to the planet surface.

Whether or not we advance the mission, we have three Development Cards we could claim. Getting the Medical Tricorder (and Healing the Crew Die in Sickbay) would be simple, but either of the other two would demand enough resources to keep us from advancing the Mission Card.

I, personally, would go for using two away team Medical Dice to claim the Medical Tricorder, using the shipboard Medical Die to Heal the Crew Die in Sickbay, using the shipboard Command Die to turn one Away Team Security Die into an Engineering Die, using the away team Wild Die as a Science Die, and using the away team Engineering Die and the away team Science Die to advance the Mission Card. Alternately, we could do as above, but lock in the shipboard Medical Die instead of using it this turn. Do you prefer either of those, or do you have your own suggestion?

__________________           __
\_________________|)____.---'--`---.____
              ||    \----.________.----/
              ||     / /    `--'
            __||____/ /_
           |___         \
               `--------'


MISSION STATUS

It is year one of the U.S.S. Enterprise's five-year mission (on easy difficulty.)

Shipboard crew assignments:
  • Threat Level (Scanners): 0/4
  • Security: 0/3
  • Engineering: 1/3
  • Medical: 1/3
  • Science: 0/3
  • Command: 1/2
  • Quarters: 0/10
  • Sickbay: 1/10
Away Team crew assignments:
  • Wild: 1/10
  • Security: 2/2
  • Engineering: 0/2
  • Medical: 2/2
  • Science: 0/2
  • Command: 0/2
  • Away Team pool: 1/10
Shields: 0/5
Hull: 7/7
Dilithium Crystal Reserve: 7/10

Active Mission Card: Avert Environmental Catastrophe (Away Team expansion).
Mission Event: Move one Crew Die to Sickbay.
  1. Travel: pay two Engineering Dice.
  2. Transport: shields must be down. Pay one Engineering Die.
  3. Scan: Pay two Science Dice.
  4. Repair: Pay one Engineering Die and one Science Die.
  5. Cure: Pay two Medical Dice.
  6. Development: Draw two Development Cards. (Discard the two available Development Cards at the top of the list, then draw two Development Cards and put them at the bottom of the list.)
Active Event Cards: none.

Active Development Cards:
  • Diagnostic Scanner (Technology card. The Heal action moves two Crew Dice from Sickbay to Quarters.)
Available Development Cards:
  • Reassigned (Tactics card. Reroll one Crew Die, other than a Threat result, during Roll Call. Costs 2 Command to claim.)
  • Security Station (Tactics card. This card acts as an additional Security Crew Station. Costs 3 Security to claim.)
  • Medical Tricorder (Technology card. Add two bonus Medical Dice to one Challenge, then discard. Costs 2 Medical to claim.)

inflatablefish
Oct 24, 2010

FredMSloniker posted:

All Development Cards work equally well on shipboard and away team Crew Dice.
Does this mean that the Security Station could be used to let us have 3 Security Dice on an Away Mission? That's pretty valuable.

FredMSloniker posted:

I, personally, would go for using two away team Medical Dice to claim the Medical Tricorder, using the shipboard Medical Die to Heal the Crew Die in Sickbay, using the shipboard Command Die to turn one Away Team Security Die into an Engineering Die, using the away team Wild Die as a Science Die, and using the away team Engineering Die and the away team Science Die to advance the Mission Card.
I'd go with this - I don't see much point locking in that Medical Die, we may as well get it used so it goes back to our pool. We'll lose a Crew Die from Crew Quarters to Sickbay leaving us with 3, so we can't max out Threat in a single roll no matter how unlucky we are - if we could then there'd be an argument for leaving some crew sick!
And I still think that we ought to drag our heels and use up some of our spare turns before we complete Task 5 - once we have the Medical Tricorder there's no risk of failing that task so we can take it close to the wire.

FredMSloniker
Jan 2, 2008

Why, yes, I do like Kirby games.

inflatablefish posted:

Does this mean that the Security Station could be used to let us have 3 Security Dice on an Away Mission? That's pretty valuable.

That wasn't my intent, but I double-checked the rules just to be sure. Your original question was about the Reassigned card, which says, "Reroll one Crew Die during Roll Call, other than Threat results." Security Station, by contrast, says, "This card acts as an additional Crew Station." There isn't much in the way of clarification on either. (Both are base game cards, so they don't take Away Team rules into account.) My personal ruling on these cards would be:
  • The Away Team rules say that you roll and assign the away team Crew Dice before you roll and assign the shipboard Crew Dice, but that both of these things happen during Roll Call. Therefore, you roll your away team Crew Dice, then choose whether or not to use Reassigned, then assign your away team Crew Dice, then roll your shipboard Crew Dice. If you didn't use Reassigned on your away team Crew Dice, you may now use it on your shipboard Crew Dice; you may not use it on both (because you're still in the same Roll Call event), and you may not use it on your away team Crew Dice after rolling your shipboard Crew Dice (because those Crew Dice have already been assigned).
  • Security Station, and other 'additional Crew Station' cards, provides an additional shipboard Crew Station. I could maybe be argued into letting it be used, instead, as an away team Crew Station, but that would have to be chosen when the Development Card was claimed - no fair swapping it back and forth.

quote:

I'd go with this - I don't see much point locking in that Medical Die, we may as well get it used so it goes back to our pool.

The point would be to use it next turn to get two Crew Dice out of Sickbay guaranteed.

quote:

And I still think that we ought to drag our heels and use up some of our spare turns before we complete Task 5 - once we have the Medical Tricorder there's no risk of failing that task so we can take it close to the wire.

That is, of course, an option.

MaskedHuzzah
Mar 26, 2009

Come now! Look me in the eye and tell me - isn't this the face of a guy you can trust?
Lipstick Apathy
I'm going in a somewhat different direction with my suggested orders:

1. Use the Engineer Die and convert two Medical dice to Science to clear the Repair objective.
2. Use the two Security dice and the Wild die to take the Security Station Card.
3. Fix the person in Sickbay with our remaining Medical die.
4. Use the Command die to start on the Reassigned development card.

Technowolf
Nov 4, 2009




MaskedHuzzah posted:

I'm going in a somewhat different direction with my suggested orders:

1. Use the Engineer Die and convert two Medical dice to Science to clear the Repair objective.
2. Use the two Security dice and the Wild die to take the Security Station Card.
3. Fix the person in Sickbay with our remaining Medical die.
4. Use the Command die to start on the Reassigned development card.

Seconding this

FredMSloniker
Jan 2, 2008

Why, yes, I do like Kirby games.

MaskedHuzzah posted:

I'm going in a somewhat different direction with my suggested orders:

1. Use the Engineer Die and convert two Medical dice to Science to clear the Repair objective.
2. Use the two Security dice and the Wild die to take the Security Station Card.
3. Fix the person in Sickbay with our remaining Medical die.
4. Use the Command die to start on the Reassigned development card.

Slight problem with that: the Engineer Die is shipboard, and you can't use shipboard Crew Dice to complete Mission Objectives while an away team is deployed. What you can do if you want the Security Station Card is treat two away team Medical Dice as a Science Die, use the away team Wild Die as an Engineering Die, complete the Mission Stage with the away team Engineering and Science Dice, use the shipboard Command Die to turn the shipboard Engineering Die into a Security Die, use the shipboard Security Die and the away team Security Dice to complete the Security Station Development Card, and use the shipboard Medical Die to Heal the Crew Die in Sickbay. That completes all of your objectives but starting on the Reassigned Development Card. Would that be acceptable?

MaskedHuzzah
Mar 26, 2009

Come now! Look me in the eye and tell me - isn't this the face of a guy you can trust?
Lipstick Apathy

FredMSloniker posted:

Slight problem with that: the Engineer Die is shipboard, and you can't use shipboard Crew Dice to complete Mission Objectives while an away team is deployed. What you can do if you want the Security Station Card is treat two away team Medical Dice as a Science Die, use the away team Wild Die as an Engineering Die, complete the Mission Stage with the away team Engineering and Science Dice, use the shipboard Command Die to turn the shipboard Engineering Die into a Security Die, use the shipboard Security Die and the away team Security Dice to complete the Security Station Development Card, and use the shipboard Medical Die to Heal the Crew Die in Sickbay. That completes all of your objectives but starting on the Reassigned Development Card. Would that be acceptable?

That would be more than acceptable, thank you. I hope to get a better handle on all of this for future missions.

inflatablefish
Oct 24, 2010
How do you treat two away team Medical Dice as a Science Die? I thought it took three dice to do that?

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

FredMSloniker
Jan 2, 2008

Why, yes, I do like Kirby games.

inflatablefish posted:

How do you treat two away team Medical Dice as a Science Die? I thought it took three dice to do that?

You can turn Medical Dice into Science Dice or vice versa at a 2:1 ratio. You can do the same with Engineering Dice and Security Dice.

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply