OrcaCon 2025 - Day 2

Way more people were here for Saturday, which makes sense but I guess Friday skewed my perception for how many people would actually be coming to the convention. The free play tables were filled with people playing games and it was interesting to see what was getting played.

My first game I played solo, For All Mankind. I was pulled in by the art style and the concept of expanding in space, but a lot of it is lost when playing solo.

The pros and cons of using bots for missing players, because the game requires 4 players, is that they're very easy to operate but their turns are super wild as their action(s) are just a d6 die roll as well as the actions that they can just do for free. Such as just building outposts for free, getting research for free, and being difficult to interact with when they get certain tech.

The simplicity of the bots is a double edged sword: easy to execute, impossible to plan for, which means there's very little strategy so as a player you're just reacting to whatever the heck they do. Compare that to the implementation of the Ghost in Dwellings of Eldervale or the Unity from Andromeda's Edge where its still a d6 based roll but you as a player are informed of the possibilities of what kind of actions the bot will take. Obviously that's most complex than needed for a game of this weight, but it matters for comparison in terms of good solo versus bad solo implementations.

Often I had to take "nothing" turns and tactically wait, gathering resources, and let them fight each other as they targetted whoever was in the lead. At the very end I positioned myself in a way that as long as the bots didn't do anything to me I could swoop in for the win. It just didn't feel satisfying in the early game where I kept feeling behind as they took up all the research and had essentially fortified outposts on planets.

Considering there's take that sabotage through Espionage cards and tactial nukes to remove players from research tech and outpost buildings, I kind of realized early on that this game isn't really for me. Which is a shame because the graphics look really nice and clean and the fact that planetary distance matters seemed like an interesting mechanic. Clearly this game was made with player trading, negotation and interaction, and that's just not something you can model in solo play.

Met up with some friends, they perused the merchant hall. I ended up getting two gifts for people.

Our game we played was Cosmic Encounter, which was a first play for two of us including myself. Ended up picking the Warrior faction which I felt was really cool since they continually get experience as the game continues.

The game got close but what ending up cinching the victory for me was getting this ridiculous cheat card. While the other two players were busy talking about something for Palworld and guilds, I casually picked up and looked through the discard pile a few times and quickly decided on picking out a 40 Combat card that’s as played very early on in the game. My opponent had a nifty Flare card where on odd value summed result that it would subtract his card from mine but the difference was too great. After claiming victory, I very clearly asked if we all agreed it was the end of the game before revealing the card that enabled my subterfuge. I felt bad but it was a way to end the game that was going on for quite some time, probably longer than what I know one player would have liked.

I can see why it’s a highly regarded classic, there’s a lot of asymmetry with the game between faction powers and card abilities which makes every game highly variable. However I also agree that some design choices with the game are a little frustrating, like not having choice if Negotiate is your only Encounter card or the timing for refilling your hand.

I am a little sad that we didn’t get to play anything else afterwards, in some ways I feel bad that I invite my friends to these paid conventions and they don’t really get a whole lot out of it other than just the merchants. It was my first time here so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Probably best in the future to only mention the bigger conventions so that they get their money’s worth.