by Nidale

Should I skip the other expansions and go straight for this one?

I play mostly 2 player games.

by alboy01

As the title says, will this expansion be for single player play aswell?

by pdoherty

Saw this at CoolStuff:

"This new expansion for Race for the Galaxy will take the basic game in a new direction. It will not be compatible with any of the first three expansions.
This expansion adds new start worlds, goals, game cards, and rules for galactic prestige to Race for the Galaxy and its first two expansions, The Gathering Storm and Rebel vs Imperium. New solitaire game counters and drafting rules for six players are also provided."

Is it just me or this saying that it's both NOT compatible with the first three expansions, AND compatible with the first two expansions?

by XehutL

Not a single one? That's a shame...

by Kirss

Hi

Does anyone know if this expansion is going to be available at Essen Fair 2012?

Thanx in advance H

by mcmanzi

Ok... spill it.

WHAT DO YOU KNOW !

There's rumors that Rio Grande will not be publishing this expansion?
What's up there?

There's rumors that other game publishers are working on buying / obtaining the publishing rights?
What's up there?

Predictions... will we see this RFtG expansion in 2012 ?

Will we see this expansion EVER ?


up-votes for facts on the case and wild conjecture

by entranced

The known AA cards are a total mish-mash, spread out all over the place, upside down in blurry images, etc. This endeavor is to gather every bit of card info into one clear location. If you have additional information, images or can decipher something we haven't, please let me know. I'll keep this up to date.

Tom Lehmann wrote:

~45 new cards and start worlds to add to (only) the base set, plus a set of action cards and start hand for a fifth player.

* ~45 cards and Alien tokens used to represent the Alien Orb which players jointly map and explore, gaining tokens of various types that provide powers and VPs. There are also five new Explore action cards used to map the Orb (instead of gaining an additional card or greater card selection).
[...]
The expansion plus base set (without the Orb stuff) currently totals 160 play cards and start worlds.

Currently 33/46 known cards (counting duplicate small devs):


The 5 new homeworlds are numbered 5-9 in () after their name.


ALIEN Artifact Hunters (6) - 3/1 civilian barren world
I: see+1, keep+1
IV: consume a yellow good for 2VP



#24 ALIEN Fuel Refinery - 2/2 civilian yellow production world
II: -1 cost to place developments
$: cannot trade goods on this world
V: produce a yellow good


ALIEN Researchers - 6/? development
I: your Survey Teams can move by Jump Tubes
III -2 cost or +2 Military to place yellow worlds
IV: consume a yellow good for 2VP
Scoring:
3 / ALIEN Rosetta Stone World
1 / other ALIEN card (including this one)
1 / Alien artifact? token (______)


2x ALIEN Survey Technology - 1/1 development
I: +2 to Orb movement
III: may place a yellow military world as a civilian world at full cost (with any discounts)


Amphibian? UPLIFT Race - 2/2 military green windfall (chromosome)
[no phase powers]



#19 Designer Species, ____ - 5/3 civilian green production world
IV: consume 2 green goods for 3 VP
V: produce a green good


Feline? UPLIFT Race - powers unknown


Frontier Capital (9) - 2/1 military barren world
II: draw 1 card after placing a development
III: +1 military


2x Galactic Investors - 5/3 development
II: draw 2 cards (after placing a development?)
V: draw 1 card if you have 5 or more developments


Galactic Survey Headquarters - 2/1 civilian blue production world
I: see+2
$: ? +1 to any color trade for __________?
V: produce a blue good


2x IMPERIUM Stealth Tactics - 2/1 development
III: +1 Military; may discard this card from tableau for +3 Military (additional) this phase


2x IMPERIUM Supply Colony - 3/2 development
III: (>)+1 [after conquering a military world, you may conquer a second military world using only excess Military (cannot combine with military->civilian powers)]
V: draw 1
[Note the reminder text gives us additional AA information by omission: there are no civilian->military conversion powers in AA.]



IMPERIUM War Faction - 6/? development
III: may discard a brown good for +2 Military this phase
V: draw 1 card for each brown good you produced
Scoring:
2 / IMPERIUM card (including this one)
3 / Blaster Gem Mines
1 / other military world


IMPERIUM _________ - 1/1? military barren? world
III: +1 military?
V: ?draw 1 card for each IMPERIUM card in your tableau?


Interstellar Trade Port - 5/3 civilian blue production world
IV: discard up to 4 different kinds of goods to gain 1vp and a card draw apiece
V: produce a blue good



REBEL Gem Smugglers - 2/0 military brown windfall
III: may discard a brown good for +2 Military this phase
V: draw for ???


REBEL Mutineers (7) - 2/0 military blue windfall
I: see+1
III: +1 military


REBEL UPLIFT World - 1/1 military barren world (chromosome)
III: +1 Military for each chromosome world in your tableau



2x Scientific Cruisers - 2/1 development
I: see +1
III: -1 cost or +1 Military to place worlds
IV: consume any good for 2 cards


Self-Repairing ALIEN Artillery - 4/1 military yellow production world
III: may discard a yellow good for +3 Military this phase
V: produce a yellow good


2x Sentient Robots (5) - 2/1 military barren world
III: -1 cost or +1 Military to place worlds
V: draw 1


#20 Transit Point - 0/2 civilian barren world
III: -1 cost to place brown worlds
V: lets you move all your brown goods onto it and save them for later [you can consume all of them in one turn if you have enough consume powers]


UPLIFT Researchers (8) - 2/1 civilian barren world
I: see+1
III: -1 cost to place worlds; may place a military chromosome world as a civilian world at full cost (with any discounts)


Wormhole Prospectors - 6/? development
III: flip the top card of the deck, if a civilian world settle it for free, otherwise take it into your hand
Scoring: ?


#21 _________ - 5/3 military brown windfall
III: +2 military
$: +1(?) to brown trades


#22 _________ - 2/1 civilian brown production world
V: produce a brown good
non-phase special power: [looks like "discard a good from this world to _________"]


#23 _________ - 3/2 civilian brown production world
III: draw a card after settling any world
V: produce a brown good


Unknown cards with a tiny bit of information:


#16 Red player Produce action card (presumably red is a placeholder for the 5th player color's action cards). The #'s used above and here are from the numbering on Tom's iPad. Presumably #8-15 are the other 8 action cards for the new color. #1-7 might include the 5 Orb Explore action cards, and 2 other unknowns?


#17 obstructed card with no $/IV/V powers.


#18 obstructed green windfall? with no $/IV/V powers.


And finally these 8-12 minuscule cards which i haven't tried to identify yet.


Sources:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/6266415#6266415
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/872416/info-from-essen-d...
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/1451906
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/1451909
http://www.gamesfanatic.pl/2012/10/23/krotko-o-grze-r4tg-ali...
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/1470233
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/1470235
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/1470237
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/1470240

by KingLear

I don't have any information to share, just a question.
In the publisher section I can see RGG and Ystari listed for now.
Does anybody have any infos on a potential German publisher?
Abacus Spiele used to be the German publisher for the RftG franchise. But there is nothing to see about an upcoming release on their website. :(

by teasel

i love RFTG and play it almost religiously but since i have no opponent i usualy play with keldon AI...

...but since it's pretty clear alien artifact would require more coding than just adding the card and there is also the fact that he's supposedly working with goko to bring the game so is it going to happen?

by jpowelltheowl

Just streamed from GenCon - Jay says that it's at the printers now, and it may make it to the states in September. He said Tom decided to make some rules changes.

by XehutL

Will there be some clear visual difference between AA and GS? I mean the expansion identifier - OR the only way how to sort the card would be AA/GS card list?

According to PL previews the layout seems just the same to me...

by krotok

From one of Ystari's co-worker, communication on TricTrac (french equivalent to bgg): "Alien Artifact will hit the distributor at the end of this week. It should hit the stores end of the next (15th of November)"

As a reaction, some of the french stores put it on sale with the pre-order status... I want to believe that and pre-ordered mine!

Let's keep our fingers crossed!

by VictorVVV

Yellow and Green worlds: http://i.imgur.com/X9MJnT1.jpg (in higher quality than the other images)
Blue and Brown worlds: http://i.imgur.com/U4pmKn7.jpg
6-cost developments and grey Military worlds: http://i.imgur.com/NBs1i2o.jpg
other developments (there are two of each) and Grey Civilian world: http://i.imgur.com/xGEWJTQ.jpg?1

I got confirmation from the author (Tom Lehmann) that I was allowed to share these images.

by VictorVVV

http://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/24926/designer-diary-race-...

by jossar

Many of the cards in AA have very straightforward powers, or somewhat less-straightforward powers that we have seen before on other cards from previous expansions. One card, though, jumps out at me as having a power that is both novel and a potential game-changer: Wormhole Prospectors. I don't have the game yet, so this is all speculative, but my spidey sense tells me that it is going to be a controversial card. Here it is in all its Francophone glory:



According to the invaluable [user=victorvvv][/user] the Settle phase power on this is "Instead of colonizing, you can reveal the top card of the draw deck and then: If it is a non-military world, you place it for free. Otherwise, you keep it in your hand."

I imagine some people will object that the card makes the game swingy and random. You could pull, say, Terraformed World for 6 VP (5 for the world, +1 for it being a non-military world) or Distant World/Merchant World/Bio-Hazard Mining World for 4 VP (2 for the world, +2 for a Trade power). Somewhat surprisingly (to me, anyway), the card doesn't rule out Alien worlds, so you might also get Alien Robotic Factory or Deserted Alien Library. On the other hand, you could get something that potentially interferes with your strategy like Refugee World with its -1 Military or the 0 VP Destroyed World (admittedly, worth 1 to you because it's a non-military world). And, of course, there's a decent chance that you'll flip a military world, or a development, and not settle anything at all.

One important point is that the settle power is an optional one. Since the power is such a double-edged sword, whether you'd want to use it will be situational. In the early or mid-game if you're caught flat-footed by a Settle with no worlds in hand, or worlds you can't settle (perhaps because you just used most or all of your cards plunking down a big 6-dev like . . . Wormhole Prospectors) you might use the power so that you don't fall behind on tempo. If your tableau is close to full and you don't want the game to end, you might forgo any settle rather than risk pulling a low-VP world. Or if you're behind and the game is about to end, you may invoke the power as Hail Mary pass.

It's the Hail Mary use that I think is going to bother some people. One line of argument would be to point out that RftG in any version is a card game, with an irreducible element of luck. For that matter, Gambling World has been a card in RftG since the very beginning, although, granted, its power is not as earth-shaking as WP's. I think there's a deeper justification, though. Tom's designer diary talks about focusing the non-Orb part of the expansion on returning RftG to its roots as "super-filler". With that vision in mind, having a lot of potential point swing on the last turn or two of the game isn't necessarily a big deal. The possibility of a big swing can make for tense and exciting finishes, and if it means somebody ekes out a spectacularly lucky win, you can just shuffle up and play some more rounds. In the end, a player who trusts too much to luck will lose more than they win to a skilled opponent.

Where the objection might have more bite is in the Orb scenario, which is intended to be more complex and involved. Without the full rules on how the Orb works, though, discussing whether WP makes Orb scenario too chaotic involves too much speculation even for a post like this. I'll be curious to see how thinking about the card evolves as people get a chance to see how it works out in practice.

by kusinohki

Now that the game is officially printed and out, is there any place I can read the rules? (preferably in english)

by JaapMR

Does Alien Artifacts also include an updated copy of the "Gambling World" card? (which could be used to replace the copy of the base game?)

by MegaGuy

I gotta do something until I get this .

You can find the first arc cards here:
http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/88325388/rftgpics/index.h...
and the second one here:
http://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/24926/designer-diary-race-...
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1071926/images-of-all-playca...

Thanks to the people who posted them. My thoughts are presented with no particular order.

In the first arc, Terraforming cards were scored with a couple of 6 cost developments, and offered unique settle abilities.
In the second arc, all Terraforming cards have some power that relates to Rare goods, similar to Terraforming robots from the base game. I like the fact that the Terraforming keyword have some connection to the Terraformed World card now. This is a simple thing, but it always bugged me.

The new Uplift cards are slightly different from the first arc. There are 2 cards that scores Uplift cards instead of 1, but non that scores Chromosome symbols. Interestingly, there is a start world for peaceful settling of Military worlds with Chromosome, and a regular card with bonus for Military for each Chromosome, instead of the other way around like in the first arc. Other then these 2 powers, Chromosome symbols don't have any more uses such as Clandestine Uplift Lab. The best thing is that there are now Frog and Tiger Uplift races, which are way coolor then the boring insect one, but I do miss the Moles.

In the Alien department there aren't huge changes. Alien toy shop consume power is now in a 6 cost development, which makes it less problematic. Other then that, the AlienUplift path still exists, and there is an option to peacefully settle AlienMilitary worlds, but not as a starting world like in the first arc. The ultimate Alien relics are now puny sentinels, instead of a giant guardian which can squash them with his fingers, but ho well.

There is no longer 6 cost development like Galactic Exchange to score different good worlds. The consume power still exist, so the combo with Diversified Economy is still possible. There is no longer 6 cost development like Terraforming Guild that scores windfall worlds, making windfall spam a little less useful. Also, the only 6 cost development that score "generic" worlds is SETI from the base game. There are now couple of 6 cost development that score non-Military worlds specifically.

Another interesting thing is that the concept of mercenaries vanished, i.e the ability to discard cards from hand to have a temporary boost to Military. This is replaced with some cards that allow to consume specific goods for temporary Military. This will make tableau structure more important for Military strategies.
Military worlds no longer have any powers related to them like Hidden Fortress, but Imperium War Faction is added to Galactic Imperium from the base game to score Military worlds.

The largest thematic change IMO has to do with the Rebel keyword. There are no longer cards that allow to peacefully settle RebelMilitary worlds. The Rebel starting world have Military instead. I like the feel of gathering Rebel worlds to your cause in the first arc, and it's a shame that this concept isn't repeated here. There is a new world that score Rebel cards, and also "tax" them in the produce phase like Rebel Cantina. The only card that have bonus Military against Rebel is Galactic Imperium from the base game, while in the first arc there were a few more.

There are no longer takeovers, and I doubt many will miss them. I did like Imperium Clocking Technology's ability to conquer non-Military worlds though. Speaking of which, there are no longer cards that have bonuses to peaceful settling of Military worlds. I liked the concept of Universal Peace Institute from the first arc, giving bonus for negative Military, even though I never seemed to utilize it successfully.
There are also no longer combine-explore powers, which I have a mixed feelings with. They were sort of complicated and feedly, but also made explore +X/+0 more useful I think.

A few game-changer cards are now gone. Improved Logistics is replaced with the slightly weaker Imperium Supply Convoy. This will prevent non-Military tableaus from settle-rushing. Terraforming Project allows a one time bonus settle to peaceful tableaus, which remind me of Rebel Sneak Attack power from the first arc, which gave a bonus conquer. The Sentient Robots starting world offers a mix of peaceful and non-peaceful settling powers.

The second missing game changer from the first Arc is R&D Crash Program. This was as close as it get to development version of Colony Ship/Doomed World/New Military Tactics. Coupled with the fact that Galactic Developers is replaced with Frontier Capital as a natural starting world for dev spam strategy, this will make it much harder to get 6 cost development without a decent engine.
I have a suspect for a game changer in the new arc: Transit Point, which is cheap card that let you hoard Rare goods. This will change the dynamics of choosing the actions, as you could call produce without fearing of waste. This will also make it useful to have odd ratio of consume powers to worlds with goods.

BTW, I'm aware of Warmhole Prospectors, but it's power is kind of similar to the one of Gambling World, and I never use it.
It's encouraging that I only needed help to decipher 3 icons: Warmhole Prospectors, Transit Point and Imperium Supply Colony. I will miss some cool and useful powers from first arc like Pan-Galactic Research/Black Hole Miners, Hidden Fortress, Galactic Scavengers, Retrofit and Salvage Inc, and Psy-Crystal World. Ultimately though, I think it's for the best.

by theflint

[poll=127822]
vs

by Tom Lehmann

I first wrote a "secret history" for the Brink of War expansion; here's one for Alien Artifacts.

Rebooting Race for the Galaxy

In the last of the first arc's expansions, The Brink of War, I pushed RFTG's complexity and deck size about as far as it could go. I (and many others) do enjoy playing RFTG with "all the bells and whistles", but it was no longer either a quick "super-filler" nor something easily taught to new players. It was time for a reboot.

One advantage of reboots is that you get to tell different stories. Since the first "arc" of expansions depicted the descent from galactic expansion to the brink of full-out warfare, this time I wanted a non-war theme.

What about exploration? What if a large Alien Orb was discovered in deep space? Each empire would have to decide how much effort to put into exploring it and deciphering its secrets, to reap the benefits of long-lost Alien Overlord technology, versus simply ignoring it and expanding their own empires.

I sketched out an exploration game, with a "board" constructed from overlapping cards, and decided how it would tie into the card game and, in turn, how the card game would affect it. I then put this orb game aside and concentrated on designing and testing a really solid set of "reboot" cards.

I view RFTG: Alien Artifacts as "two games in one". First, it's a full expansion that offers new strategies and rebalances older ones, while being easy to learn: just add the new cards and go. Second, the orb game forces players to manage two different arenas of play to win. I spent lots of time developing both versions.

Designing the Cards

Since the orb game involved new rules, I wanted the expansion cards to be easy to learn by players who had only played the base game. This led me to design cards which mostly use base game powers in new ways.

Consider Mercenary Guild, a defense 3, 2 VPs Novelty windfall world with +2 Military. It's useful as a "stepping stone" between medium Military (enough to conquer it) and big Military (enough to conquer high defense Rebel or Alien worlds). It's simple; anyone who's played RFTG can figure it out.

Which would you rather have: it or Rebel Warrior Race (a 3 defense, +1 Military, Genes windfall world)? Early on, I'd take Rebel Warrior Race (to trade the Genes good for cards), while, in the mid-game, I'd take Mercenary Guild (when I'm often more interested in building up my Military).

Or, consider Imperium Stealth Tactics. This 2 cost, 1 VP development combines +1 Military and New Military Tactics' power: discard from tableau for +3 temporary Military (+4 Military total on the round you discard it).

Again, simple to learn, but it presents an interesting choice if you are considering whether to build it or Expedition Force (+1 Military, draw1 Explore; 1 cost) or Space Marines (+2 Military, cost 2) from the base set.

If you never use IST's"one shot" power or score its Imperium keyword, then it is over-priced compared to them. But, if that one-shot +4 Military enables you to place a high defense Alien world that neither of them could conquer, then IST might well be worth building.

Of the 30 new powers, 18 are simple variations of base set powers. For example, Consume 2 Genes goods for 3 VPs is a variation on Consume 2 goods for 3 VPs.

5 powers are simple extensions of base set concepts. Discarding an Alien good for +3 temporary Military isn't in the base set, but the concept of expending a good in Settle to gain a benefit isn't difficult for players used to turning in goods for VPs or cards during Consume.

2 powers apply only in the orb game, so that leaves just 5 new powers to figure out when encountered (all have text explanations), plus the concept of choosing from two start worlds to begin the game. That's it. This allows players who have played and enjoyed the base game to move on to Alien Artifacts as soon as they want to.

During development, the hard part was coming up with good card concepts, not fine-tuning new powers. I began with a set of 40 different cards (plus 6 duplicate developments) that eventually became 39 cards (and 7 duplicates). 17 cards never changed. Two cards were merged and another two were replaced. The rest were revised by varying amounts.

The five new start worlds changed due to designing the New Worlds promo set of six new start worlds while testing Alien Artifacts. This promo set was given to Goko for a limited time to help promote their online version. We swapped several start worlds between the two sets to better balance each one.

Sentient Robots provides both a 1 cost Settle discount and +1 Military. How useful is this flexibility, especially when some 6-devs score for either military or non-military worlds, but not both?

Alien Artifact Hunters was Joe Huber's entry in the first card contest. It appears specialized for Aliens (it consumes an Alien good for 2 VPs), but is actually generally useful due to its Explore power (which keeps another card).

Joe suggested draw 2, keep 1, which was fine when this card wasn't a start world (since its 3 cost is fairly pricey for a "gray" world). As a start world, it had too much card selection given the extra cards kept. Reducing it to draw 1, keep1 fixed this. (And players do still buy it from hand during play.)

Rebel Mutineers was added after two cards moved to the promo set and I wanted a +1 Military Novelty windfall world. To differentiate it from Former Penal Colony, we gave it Explore draw 1, the Rebel keyword, and removed its VP. Thematically, I envisioned the space equivalent of Pitcairn Island settlers from the Bounty who would then join the Rebels, while the artists gave it a more urban look.

Uplift Researchers began with a +2/-2 Gene worlds' Settle power, which was too specialized. So we changed this to a chromosome-only pay-for-military power plus a separate, generally useful, -1 cost Settle power. These powers have a nice synergy. It took a while to find this solution, but I'm quite happy with it.

Frontier Capital combines a development power with +1 Military. We tried -1 dev cost, but this was too weak during early rounds (when its owner is often selecting Develop to place 1 cost developments, resulting in no benefit). Draw 1 was too powerful, with +1 Military, for a start world. Draw 1 after placing a development worked.

One advantage of a reboot is that I'm not bound by the earlier expansions. I can make both Frontier Capital and Sentient Robots 1 defense military worlds, which increases their synergy with military 6-devs, without worrying about them being immediately taken over (which I couldn't do if Alien Artifacts had to be compatible with Rebel versus Imperium).

(In the first arc, this "takeover concern" forced many "military" start worlds to be non-military worlds.)

Reducing their defenses made these worlds more useful as "building blocks" when they are not start worlds.

Since Alien Artifacts is a self-contained "arc", I wanted to use all the keywords (Uplift, "chromosome", Rebel, Imperium, Terraforming, and Alien) introduced in the base game.

Besides Uplift Researchers, five cards refer to Uplift. Two of them, Amphibian Uplift Race and Arboreal Uplift Race, are familiar 2 defense, 2 VPs Genes windfall chromosome worlds.

The Rebel Uplift World is a 1 defense chromosome world that provides +1 Military for each chromosome world in tableau; another nice "building block" for military paths.

The Uplift Alliance is a 6-dev that rewards both Genes and Uplift strategies. In the orb game, it also scores 1 point extra for chromosome artifacts.

The Alien Uplift Chamber is a 6 cost Alien windfall world that scores 2 VPs per Uplift card in tableau (like ? 6-cost developments). It synergizes nicely with Uplift Alliance and supports a yellow/green strategy with +2/-2 for settling Genes worlds.

Originally, this card cost 5 and was either too specialized or too powerful when its "combo" occurred. To fix this, we added a draw 1 Produce power and raised its cost to 6 (since it's an Alien world, we didn't have to worry about it being placed cheaply via Colony Ships).

Turning to the Rebel and Imperium keywords, since direct military takeovers aren't in this expansion, I decided to portray these factions as rivals stockpiling resources and armaments in preparation for future conflict.

To convey this, I gave both Rebel Resistance and the 6-cost development Imperium War Faction Produce powers, drawing a card for each Rebel military word in tableau and each Rare good produced, respectively.

Similar to the Alien Uplift Chamber, the Rebel Resistance is an 8 defense world that scores 2 VPs per Rebel military world in tableau. Sometimes, it scores very well; other times, you might conquer it for just its Produce power to leech off a produce/consume empire.

One goal with Alien Artifacts was to "promote" specialized cards from the base set, such as Blaster Gem Mines and Imperium Armaments World, both non-military rare worlds. Imperium War Faction's Rare Produce power synergizes with them and scores for Imperium cards, military worlds, and Blaster Gem Mines, as well as having a Settle power to discard a Rare good for +2 Military.

I further underscored this connection between Rare goods, blaster gems, and Military by adding Imperium Blaster Gem Depot, a 5 defense Rare windfall world that provides +2 Military and +1 Trade for Rare goods.

I eventually combined two cards together to make Rebel Gem Smugglers, a 2 defense Rare windfall world with a Settle power to discard a Rare good for +2 Military and a Produce power to draw 1 when a windfall good is produced on it.

I love the art for Rebel Gem Smugglers, which portrays marsupial aliens whose child in pouch openly wears a set of blaster gems as they go through customs.

To underscore the theme of preparing for future conflict, I added Imperium Fifth Column, based on an earlier suggestion by Don Woods. It is a 1 defense world that provides 1 card during Produce for each Imperium card in its owner's tableau, as well as +1 Military (yet another card that helps +1 Military worlds get started).

Imperium Stealth Tactics, discussed above, was added to provide military "glue" to smooth out Military growth strategies. Giving it the Imperium keyword sharpens the decision to use its "one-shot" discard ability if its owner also has a card in play that refers to Imperium cards.

Having Alien Artifacts be a reboot let me revisit tableau tempo without being limited by the Gathering Storm card Improved Logistics.

Imperium Supply Convoy is a cost 3 development that allows a player to settle a second military world after conquering a military world, using only excess Military beyond that used to conquer the first world.

ISC also provides a card draw during Produce, which represent the arrival of new "supplies" and reinforces the theme of "stockpiling" for a future conflict.

Terraforming Project is a cost 3 development that plays with tableau tempo differently.

Similar to Colony Ship, it can be discarded from tableau to place a non-military world (or a non-Alien military world when combined with a pay-for-military power) at 0 cost. However, this is in addition to any (or no) Settle action. Thus, it allows a player to swap a development for a world without reducing tableau size while gaining a small discount.

Its higher cost, compared to Colony Ship, reduces its discount; its real advantage is to place two worlds in a one Settle phase. This is particularly useful to speed a transition to Produce/Consume when an opponent is strongly pushing Develop.

To sharpen the decision of whether to use Terraforming Project, the Terraforming keyword was added to it, along with a Rare windfall production power. To make it less attractive when unused compared to Colony Ship, it is worth 0 VPs.

Terraforming Unlimited is a 6-cost development that scores for the Terraforming keyword, other non-military worlds, Terraformed World (in the base set), and Alien Science tokens (in the orb game). Its powers are +1 Explore, -1 Settle cost, and Consume 1 Rare good for 2 VPs. Its consume power supports Rare strategies, while its scoring and Settle discount supports non-military tableau building.

Its Settle discount was originally -2, but this was far too strong.

Terraforming Colony is a 5 cost Novelty windfall world with a deficit spending power for 1 VP and a nice Consume power: consume any 1 good for 1 VP and 2 cards. If built on the final turn by a player who chose Consume 2x, it is worth 5 VPs (comparable to Galactic Trendsetters and Terraformed World); the issue is whether you have any windfall production to exploit it fully if you build it earlier.

It was originally worth 3 VPs, but I reduced this to 2 VPs after adding the Terraforming keyword to it.

The Alien developments were a bit tricky as they form a major link from the cards to the orb game.

Alien Survey Technology is a 1 cost development with an Alien pay-for-military power. In the orb game, it adds 2 Movement to its owner's survey team(s).

Alien Research Ship is a 4 cost development with +1 Explore, +1/-1 to settle "yellow" worlds, and an Alien windfall Produce power. In the orb game, it gives a player a second survey team (which is very powerful if done early enough).

Are these cards too specialized when not playing the orb game? In practice, they worked ok since there is no other Alien pay-for-military power in the game and because Alien Artifacts includes no generic windfall production powers. The last also promotes Galactic Engineers and Alien Rosetta Stone World from the base set.

Alien Researchers is a 6-cost development that is -3/+3 to settle "yellow" worlds and can consume an Alien good for 2 VPs.

It scores extra for the Alien Rosetta Stone World, Alien technology artifacts (in the orb game), bit scores just 1 VP for other Alien cards. As such, it scores less than Alien Technology Institute when built near game end. An AR player needs to build it earlier use it to score lots of VPs and Settle settle valuable worlds. This gives it quite a different feel from ATI.

Besides the orb-specific development powers on these cards, the "regular" game also affects the orb game via high Military being needed for survey teams to pass through beam barriers.

High cost/defense Alien worlds are easy to add to RFTG. Due to the no-Alien restrictions on Contact Specialist and Colony Ship, they are never easy to place, so they can be quite powerful and high-scoring. Besides the 6 cost Alien Uplift Chamber, discussed above, Alien Sentinels is a 9-defense, 9 VPs, Alien windfall world.

This world is "dominated" by Alien Guardian in Brink of War (an example of power creep in the first arc), but this wasn't a concern since the expansions are not compatible with each other.

Low-cost Alien worlds are trickier to design, since Alien goods sell for so many cards.

Alien Fuel Refinery is a 2 cost, 2 VP Alien production world with a "no-trade" restriction, plus a -1 dev power. Of course, its no-trade restriction can be circumvented with either Black Market Trading World or Trade League...

Self-Repairing Alien Artillery is a 4 defense Alien production world with a Settle power to discard an Alien good for +3 Military. It implicitly asks, "Do you want to use its Alien good to gain cards via Trade or temporary Military?" It is worth only 1 VP, so its owner must successfully leverage it during play. This card took a couple of versions to find, but I'm quite happy with the result.

Turning to the non-military worlds, Galactic Survey Headquarters is a familiar 2 cost, 1 VP Novelty production world with "something extra": Explore draw 2 and +1 Trade from this world only. Given the small number of cards with Explore powers in both the base game and Alien Artifacts, its Explore power is surprisingly useful.

In each expansion, I try to add a few new "strategy in a box" cards.

Galactic News Hub is a cost 4 Novelty windfall world with the Produce power: draw 1 card if its owner produced more Novelty goods than any other player. This is similar to Mining Conglomerate's power in the base game and can generate interesting player interactions.

GNH also consumes 2 Novelty goods for 3 VPs. Paired with any Novelty production world, GNH can be a quick produce/consume engine. Before testing, I was concerned that it might be too powerful (a la Alien Toy Shop from the Gathering Storm), but being cost 4 and Novelty based is fine.

Interstellar Trade Port is a 5 cost, 3 VPs Novelty production world with a Consume power to trade up to four goods of four different kinds for 1 VP and 1 card apiece. This is a powerful consume power, but you have to assemble enough different kind worlds to make it work. Now, the Novelty production world -- ordinarily the cheapest of the four -- is often the most expensive…

In the base game, Rare strategies sometimes fail due to a lack of Consume powers. Tranship Point is a 0 cost, 2 VPs world that reduces the cost of settling Rare worlds by 1 and can store any number of Rare goods on it (any Rare goods in its owner's empire are moved to it at the start of Produce). Now, a player can stockpile Rare goods and then Consume 2x them later repeatedly, after placing the needed Consume powers.

Originally, this card cost 1, but this strategy turned out to be very specialized, so I reduced its cost to 0. As with Pilgrimage World in the base set, sometimes you will play it for just 2 VPs. This stockpiling can be useful for the two powers in this set that discard Rare goods for temporary Military.

Jumpdrive Fuel Refinery is a 3 cost, 2 VPs Rare production world that draws 1 card after placing a world. This variant on the base set Rare worlds that draw 1 on Produce emphasizes tableau building instead of produce/consume. This world works quite well in mixed Military/discount Settle strategies.

Ore-Rich World is a 2 cost, 1 VP Rare production world with the option, when placed, for its owner to discard a card to place a good on it. It effectively serves as both a production world and an "honorary" windfall world. We tried various versions of this during testing, but this was the simplest and cleanest.

Some testers were bothered by this card dominating Volcanic World (a vanilla 2 cost, 1 VP Rare production world from the first arc's Gathering Storm expansion). Since Alien Artifacts is a reboot, incompatible with that expansion, this isn't a problem.

There are two non-Uplift Genes worlds.

Deep Space Symbionts, Ltd. is a 3 cost 1 VP Genes windfall world with a -1 Develop discount and a thematic and artistic nod to John Varley's short story, Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance.

Designer Species, Ultd. is a 5 cost, 3 VPs Genes production world with a Consume 2 Genes goods for 3 VPs power.

This initially had a Produce power to draw1 if its owner produced the most Genes goods (similar to Galactic News Hub, discussed above). This was too powerful, as not enough players typically produce Genes goods to result in interesting rivalries. Removing it balanced these two cards relative to each other, given their different kinds of goods.

Wormhole Prospectors is a 6-cost development that rewards Trade strategies, has +2 Trade, a "Deficit Spending" Consume power, and the most complicated power in this set: its owner may optionally, as their Settle action, reveal the top card from the draw pile and, if it is a non-military world, place it for free or, if not, add it to their hand.

Wei-Hwa, of course, had to immediately try this card and promptly revealed just about every high-cost, non-military card in the deck! Sigh.

Subsequent testing revealed that this power wasn't broken. The risk/reward calculation of using it versus simply placing a less useful card already in hand often makes for a tough decision. It does add luck that some players will dislike, but I believe this reflects its inspiration: the late, great Fred Pohl's novel Gateway.

Scientific Cruisers is another nod to SF and a certain enterprising Captain (which I did not explain to the art team). Like Sentient Robots, it has both +1 Military and 1 discount Settle powers. It is cost 2, 1 VP, +1 Explore, and can Consume 1 good for 2 cards.

I originally tried this at 1 good for 1 VP and a card (to represent obtaining valuable samples), but this was too strong. The final version is still quite flexible and useful early on. When you are able to make good use of both its settle powers, its a bit underpriced.

In Military paths, do you build this card or Imperium Stealth Tactics (both +1 Military, +2 cost)? Would you rather have the Explore draw 1 and consumption leeching or the Imperium keyword and option for an additional +3 temporary Military?

For Develop strategies, I wanted something interesting and different, not just another low cost card that gave development card flow. Galactic Investors was the result: cost 5, 3 VPs, draw 2 cards after placing a development, and draw 1 card for each 5+ cost development in tableau on Produce.

Originally, I tried this with just draw 1 after placing a development, but it lacked enough "oomph". Changing this to 2 cards definitely worked. This card is almost like Galactic Federation, but without its scoring potential. It sharpens the decision of whether to continue building infrastructure or to "stretch" and place a 6-cost development instead.

Galactic Expansionists rewards both dev strategies (scoring 1 VP per development) and production strategies (scoring 1 VP per production world), while supplying generally useful powers: draw 1 during Develop, draw 1 after placing a world, and Consume 1 good for 1 VP. It can support almost any strategy, but works against the tide of selection, synergy, and specialization that tends to win many RFTG games.

GE is just one of two cards in this set (along with Terraforming Colony) that provides any "generic" consumption for VPs. This is intentional.

One complaint about the first expansion arc was that many base set cards got overshadowed by later expansion cards. Some of this is almost inevitable "power creep" -- which I've tried to really tone down in Alien Artifacts -- but some of it was due to adding developments with Consume powers that rendered cards such as Gambling World, Outlaw World, Expanding Colony, Terraformed World, and even Tourist World or Galactic Trendsetters, far less valuable.

By omission -- not including certain powers, such as generic consume powers or windfall powers -- I could rebalance the importance of some base set cards, effectively "promoting" them to become more valuable in the new arc.

To "promote" other cards, I used VP rewards in 6-cost developments or created synergies between their powers and new powers in this set. One challenge Alien Artifacts poses for experienced players is whether they can revisit their earlier base game card evaluations in this new play context.

[p]Revisiting the Orb

The new cards worked well. Mostly, they were not too complicated for fairly new RFTG players, while still offering interesting new takes on familiar concepts for experienced RFTG players. The three design sub-themes (efficient specialized consumption, cost discounts, and combining military with non-military) give this set a distinct flavor.

I originally sketched out the orb game, then turned to developing the AA card set, figuring I'd get the process of fine-tuning them done before returning to the details of the orb game. After the cards had mostly settled down, I turned the AA cards in to the artists so they could work on the illustrations while I finished the orb game.

However, it then became clear that the art team wouldn't get to Alien Artifacts for at least another 6-9 months, due to other commitments.

At that point, I moved to other projects (to pay my bills). When the art team was ready, I was now tied up with other projects and unavailable. When I was finally available again, what I expected to be a quick process of finishing the orb game turned into an unexpected long slog.

The big snag was that my earlier plays had all been with constructive players. When testing the orb game with destructive players, it turned into a mess. I then spent some time analyzing the tempo of orb games under both constructive and destructive play, as well as different ways that new cards could be added to the orb.

In addition to new cards being played by players, I had always wanted some orb cards to be placed unexpectedly. Otherwise, each player tends to go off in a different direction and not interact very much.

Originally, these extra orb cards were placed by the next player clockwise, but this proved too frustrating with destructive players. Eventually, we moved to a scheme where players got to play these "extra" orb cards themselves, with the restriction that these new cards couldn't be attached to the orb card that the survey team triggering this new card placement was currently on.

This produces incentives for other players to enter areas that another player is in, while providing a stronger incentive for players to play constructively (since they now often want to play cards to connect the orb card their team was on to nearby orb cards with artifacts).

We also removed some walls to open up cards so that they could more easily both abut each other and changed the restrictions on how orb cards could overlap each other. With these changes, the orb game became robust with respect to destructive play.

At this point, finishing the orb game was down to fine-tuning and stream-lining everything and then getting it to the now-impatient art team and publisher for production. However, after being delivered to the printer, another snag was hit; namely, the custom Space "meeples" took longer to produce than expected, delaying an already late publication.


Final Thoughts

During testing, I noticed several splits in my potential audience.

Some players who played just the new cards missed the scoring opportunities (goals, prestige, various 6-dev combos) from the first expansion arc. For them, the orb game was more interesting than playing with the expansion cards alone.

Other testers just wanted to play RFTG as a quick "super-filler" with the new cards. These players got very impatient with the additional time that the orb game added (even though this extra time does come down significantly with experience), but enjoyed exploring the new strategies in the cards: discounts, efficient specific consumption, mixed military and non-military powers, and new approaches to tableau tempo.

In between these extremes, some players enjoyed the orb game as a change of pace, but didn't want to play it all the time. These groups would often play one orb game, followed by two non-orb "closers".

My hope is that many groups will gradually migrate to this last style of play and come to appreciate both the new strategies in the cards themselves and the tension between two quite different arenas of play available in the orb game.

For myself, I'm quite happy with Alien Artifacts. New players, and those who mostly play RFTG as a quick "super-filler", can easily enjoy the new cards by just adding them to the base game. Those who want a new experience -- and who don't mind some additional rules and extra length -- can play the orb game.

I believe I achieved my "two games in one" and "reboot" design objectives with Alien Artifacts. Enjoy!