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A Billion Suns - first trial game.

"We call to order ths shareholders meeting to discuss the events at Crusiouses I."
"Oh please do get on with it, I have a business to run!"
"It has come to our attention that you purposely use company resources to attempt to gain a foothold in the system, and that during the course of events, it cost the company 17 credits. Care to explain yourself?"
"Nope. Now go away!"
"As shareholders, under the company mandate and charter, we have the right to reiew the CEOs actions on all dealings that cost the company money, as stated in section 5, paragraph 17, subsection C"
"Are you honsetly telling me you have read the charter that far?"
"Indeed we have."
"You really should read Section 18 paragraph 9, subsection Q then"
*Off camera rustling*
"The CEO is entitled to free ice-cream at the company canteen on a Tuesday?"
"Pistachio this week."
"That is hardly relevant, now returning to the matter in hand, the events at Crusiouses I"
"I had sprinkles too. But I paid for those,"
"We understand there were three extant contracts in the system. A rescue operation as the eleventh moon underwent nuclear bombardment, a mining contract and a Rhexus Pearl in system. Hardly glorious."


"I even bought Dorian in accounts a cone, he had real strawberry. You know how much those cost these days!"
"You positioned two jump gates, one at minimum distance from the moon, the other equadistant to two mineral rich asteroids and the Pearl?"
"I also bought the entire mailroom a choc-ice each"
"Can you answer the question?"
"Whatever, it sounds about right."
"You hired three medium utility ships, and sent them straight at the Rhexus, do you know a) how costly that is? b) How dangerous that is?"
 

 "Have you ever looked at the company pansion plan for death in service. I really would take a close look if I were you!"
"Are you threatening me on record?"
"No, I am stating that the pension plan is very generous."
"It did not worry you that McAndrew corporation brought on a recon scout, two fighter wings and a light utility? That was a lot of ships in one area."
"Why? The contract was to scan for the pearl, we did that. They did not have enough mass to win the scouting rolls, their fighters were too  light. His light utility was tasked with mining asteroids, the Pearl was ours unless his fighters blew us out the area."



"I put it to you that you had three perfectly good mining vessals, but instead you endangered their crews by sending them into a time and space anomoly."
"And I put it to you that nothing ventured is nothing gained! They all used Red Alert and that mitigated damage from the dangerous space and the fighters. You know all the crew were given a bonus too"



"McAndrew corporation brought in a GUNBOAT on the eleventh moon! It practically tore our fighter wings apart that you sent to retreave the lifeboats."
"The Mc Andrew's did not even bring on a jump point near the moon initially! We had already given two of the three lifeboats clear directions how to safely jump out, and they paid us well for it. Almost enough to buy Dorian seconds next week!"


"And then lifeboats got away cleanly, with no loss of life."
"What of the lives of our fighter pilots?"
"You really do not understand how drone ships work do you?"


"Care to explain why you failed to capitalise on the mining contract?"
"Not really, the asteroids were so spread out that it just wasn't going to make our money back quck enough."
"But you still paid for a GUNBOAT to take on a light utility that had mined ore. It damaged it but did not destroy it. That's piracy!"
"Is it? I must buy the gunboat's captain a cyberparrot then! If he had succeeded then he would be being praised right now for liberating that ore."
"Your pale attempt to catch the light utility failed, and it jumped to safety with 4 credits worth of ores!"
"Well, that's a shame, Jenkins on the door will only be able to have a small cone next week then."
 

"You even LOST a jumpgate to fighter fire! How many credits did that cost us!?"
"Actually, apart from loss of face, none. We had a spare. So, nevermind eh!"
"The whole expedition was a proposterous waste of time and company resources. You spent 17 credits, the McAndrew Corporation spent way less than that, and clearly knew what they were doing and you did not! I move to an immediate motion of no confidence in our CEO!"
"If I may..."
"No, the vote is open now."

 

"I will wait then. Oh look, they're done, would you like to torment me with the results before I launch this afternoon 's trading on the Cyrus stock exchange?"
"The results of the vote are...
Oh...
Overwhelmingly in confidence in you."
"Thank you're, I knew it would be. Mainly because in your botched attempt to unseat me, you forgot three key facts. If I had been able to defend myself against your tirade.
1) Over the three turns, I recouped all available credits from the Pearl, netting the company 12 credits. I spent 9 credits on the medium utility ships, and three on the gunboat, which if it had succeeded would have paid for itself.
2) The rescue mission netted us 8 credits out of a possible 12, for an expenditure of 5 credits.

This totals 20 credits profit against 17 spent, so 3 credits to the good. It pays to keep Dorian from accounts onside you know."


 "Thirdly: If you had really read up on your paperwork, you would know I control 51% of the stock for all perpetuity, so your shareholders vote was fairly pointless as I am the shareholder. Now unless you want me to REALLY explain that death in service clause, go and find yourself something more useful to do."

So, our first game thoughts.
It is a very different game, not just line-up and blast each other out the void, but random scenario driven and you have to react to each scenario differently and plan how it will pay you best. You have to harbour and spend resources carefully, using the minimum to get the job done. If Neil had contested the Rhexus Pearl, or if he had brought in his jumppoint at the planetoid, I could have lost massively! The Rhexus is definitely the hardest scenaro to understand in the book, maybe we should have rolled something different next time! It produced a lot of headscratching about how to score it (thanks to everyone on the Facebook group who confirmed we did play it right). Neil made a couple of mistakes in his fleet pick, such as using Mass 0 fighters to try and scan the Rhexus, and as this is measured in mass x scanning vessals those 0 mass fighters were not helping him, which meant I was getting the reward each turn, hence why I brought in three medium utility vessals to ensured I took it. On the other table half, I knew my fighters could get to the lifeboats frst, so I lost the middle points one to Neil (4 because these points go in order, not random). The main question was do I still benefit from the lifeboats if Neil blows my fighters apart (the answer was yes). The mining contract was never going to pay for the big initial spend I made, Neil had contested it. I would have needed two more medium utility ships at 6 credits, and I'm not sure they would have reached both asteroids in time to mine them and make a profit, so I took a big risk in abandoning that contract. Neil was right to get his light utility for the mining, but it took him two turns to blow the asteroid and then recover the ore, he only just made it out with my gunboat hounding him down. Otherwise it all worked well for me. Initially I thought the replacement jump gate cost you, but since I have had this clarified, and it is free. Will I play it again? Absolutely. 

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