Colonising the solar frontier – 2126 (The Final Frontier replay)

 Introduction

The first turn of my solo replay of The Final Frontier.

Narrative

It is now 2125 and other powers have also taken an interest. The Asia-Pacific Association (APA) has stalled after colonising Mars and is building momentum to expand Murrua (the Martian colony).  However this will take several years.

Meanwhile the Northern Union (NU) has solved its production issues and launched two mines – one established on Mars and the other on the way to Ceres.  So far the APA seemed to not see the NU mine of Mars as a threat and happy to co-operate.  The NU colony is ready to go to Mars once the mine is established.

The Organisation of Nations for Economic Prosperity (ONEP) is fired up with space enthusiasm and a research breakthrough on power beaming in recent years allows for expansion to Jupiter, something the other powers do not have the infrastructure to support.  The ONEP quickly put together a mine and send it toward the Jovian system.  Hopefully this will keep them out of the possible tensions that are bound to arise in the inner system.

The Americas Co-operative (TAC) nations commit a greater proportion of their GNP to get the space program off the ground.  This gives them an edge in building capacity and determine to use this to its fullest.  Rather than focus on the tempting target of Mars, they pour all their efforts into Mines on the more costly implementations at Mercury and the Moon.  They were still not operational by the end of the year, but by the time they are completed next year they will be pumping out more resources than any other power, from mines anyway.

Game notes

The year is 2126.

APA (NIL 1) has a GNP of 110 (100 base plus 10 income). Carryover 2BP +2BP for a total of 4BP.

NU (NIL 1) has a GNP of 100 (100 base plus 0 income). Carryover 0BP +12BP for a total of 12BP. 11BP spent on two mines with DST and a colony-2 with DST, leaving 1BP. Move a mine to Mars and now operating.  Move a mine towards Ceres.

ONEP (NIL 3) has a GNP of 100 (100 base plus 0 income). Carryover 0BP +3BP for a total of 3BP. 3BP spent on a mine and a DST, leaving 0BP. Move the mine towards Jupiter.

TAC (NIL 1) has a GNP of 150 (150 base plus 0 income). Carryover 0BP +5BP for a total of 5BP. 5BP spent on two mines and a DST, leaving 0BP. Move the mine to the Moon (non-operational).  Move the mine and DST to Mercury (non-operational).

Colonising the solar frontier - 2121-2125 (The Final Frontier replay)

Introduction

The five pre-game turns for one power of my solo replay of The Final Frontier.

Narrative

Climate change increasingly and unevenly impacted national economies.  This drove tensions already under stress since the 2040s to tip into major hostilities in 2065 that lasted for years.  This was subsequently referred to as World War III.  Actual material damage was limited but the disruption to production, agriculture and supply lines was severe. Much of the northern hemisphere was economically ruined, and southern hemisphere nations did not fare much better.

There was a very limited space footprint prior to 2065.  The hopes of moon bases and trips to Mars were unrealised with the limits being a few space stations and a couple of nations returning to the Moon.

In 2110 the first reigniting of space exploration occurred as nation blocs began to build a presence in Earth’s orbit.  In 2120 a south-east Asia alliance, spearheaded by Indonesia and Australia, jumped the gun on everyone else by commencing a concerted push into colonising the solar system.  The other blocs scrambled to accelerate their programs but it was estimated that the Asia-Pacific Association aka the APA, has at least a three year lead over everyone else.  It was to turn out to be five years.

In those five years, the APA built a mine of Mars and then with lessons learnt on the planet sent thousands of colonists to found the first non-Earth city of Murrua.

At the tail end of the half-decade, the Northern Union (NU), despite running into production delays, had ready to go the infrastructure for two planetary Mines and enough people and shipping for a small colony.  But only enough deep space transporters for two of these.

Situation map (out to Jupiter only)

Note that I ran a small solo adventure set in 2124 using 4 Dice SFRPG.

Game notes

The year is 2121.

APA (NIL 1) has a GNP of 100 (100 base plus 0 income). Carryover 0BP +2BP for a total of 2BP. 2BP spent on a mine, leaving 0BP.

The year is 2122.

APA (NIL 1) has a GNP of 105 (100 base plus 5 income). Carryover 0BP +2BP for a total of 2BP. 1BP spent on a DST for the mine, leaving 1BP.

Move the mine to Mars and now operating.

The year is 2123.

APA (NIL 1) has a GNP of 105 (100 base plus 5 income). Carryover 1BP +2BP for a total of 3BP.

The year is 2124.

APA (NIL 1) has a GNP of 110 (100 base plus 10 income). Carryover 3BP +2BP for a total of 5BP. 5BP spent on a colony-2 and a DST, leaving 0BP. Move the colony-2 to Mars and Murrua is founded.

The year is 2125.

APA (NIL 1) has a GNP of 110 (100 base plus 10 income). Carryover 0BP +2BP for a total of 2BP. 

Colonising the solar frontier - Setup and Background (The Final Frontier replay)

Introduction

This is the setup for the solo four power The Final Frontier replay. Th is the pre-game setup as per the rules.  The next post will introduce the game with some background narrative.

The four powers

1. Player 1 APA Asia-Pacific Association
2. Player 2 NU Northern Union
3. Player 3 ONEP Organisation of Nations for Economic Prosperity
4. Player 4 TAC The Americas Co-operative

Setup

I am going to go with something similar used in “To theStars!” and each power will be a siloed spend for the pre-game 10 BPs (build points).

Pre-game investment

1. Player 1 – APA. 5 turn lead.
2. Player 2 – NU. Buy only units: 2 x Mine, 1 x Colony-2, 2 x DST (Deep Space Transport).
3. Player 3 – ONEP. +2 NIL increase for a starting NIL of 3.
4. Player 4 – TAC. +50GDP for a starting GDP of 150.

Starting Positions and player order

APA. GDP 100. NIL: 1. Units: none.  5 turns before any other power.

NU. GDP 100. NIL 1. Units: 2 x Mine, 1 x Colony-2, 2 x DST.

ONEP. GDP 100. NIL 3. Units: none.

TAC. GDP 150. NIL 1. Units: none.

Power plans

These are here to help me with the initial turn moves, build and colonisation goals for the different poswers.

APA: The APA has 5 turns of movement and build points.  Mars is the key planet in the inner system and so the APA initial focus is developing on Mars.

NU: With ships ready to go the NU can diversify and will focus on Mars and the Asteroids with a goal of expanding further with increased NIL.

ONEP:  A NIL 3 means they are the only power able to go beyond the asteroids.  They will focus on the Jovian system.

TAC: A GNP base of 150 means they will produce more build points.  This means they can chance investing more initially for a long term payoff.  Therefore they will aim to develop Mercury and the Moon that require significant investments to be operational. 

Introduction to the The Final Frontier replay – Colonising the solar frontier

Introduction

This blog is to replay the boardgame The Final Frontier: Man’s Expansion into the Solar System with modified movement rules. I will be running it in a spreadsheet and PowerPoint and aim to play a turn a week or two.  It will be with 4 powers and all done solo.

Background

I have been looking for a game to satisfy my itch for solar system colonisation for 20 years.  I have dabbled with using Godsfire (too complex), Sword in the Stars variations, Rocket Flight and a few of my own (don’t ask, they were all bad.).  Recently I was relooking at my variation on Sword and the Stars and came across an HTML file I had found in 2002 that was an early draft of the rules for “The Final Frontier”.  I was aware of it in swirling in the back of my mind but seemed to remember it was too complex.  It isn’t so I bought the game as I was determined to use it.  It is what I was looking for, mostly.  The mostly was because I have been enamoured with the Rocket Flight Delta-V map and wanted to use something similar for the game.  All I did was create a condensed Delta-V map of the solar system and then used the Final Frontier rules, almost entirely unchanged.

The replay “To the Stars!” on boardgamegeek is an absolutely fantastic replay – 60 turns of goodness. And boardgamegeek also has this review.

Rules and Map changes

The map is a condensed Delta-V map that is about 6-12km/s per square.  I guessed at most of it.  The rules are The Final Frontier except:

• Movement is always 1.  Can go past the asteroids at NIL 2 and past Saturn at NIL 4.
• Asteroids do not slow movement.
• There is one asteroid – Ceres – with resource level 2 that can have colonies. It has no water so requires two investments to be operational but with these special rules: A mine only require one investment and the Ceres Mine produces 1d6 as per asteroids.  This makes investing in asteroids an earlier option as you could colonise Ceres and use it as a base to produces mines for the other asteroids.
• Movement between Jupiter’s moons and Saturn’s moons is not “free” and requires a DST for moving.
• Each turn is 1 year.

Other notes

This is the fourth game I have played facilitated by the spreadsheet.  Game 1 I cannot remember why I stopped when I did.  Game 2 I stopped when I got distracted by other things and by the time I got back to it I could not remember enough about the game to continue 😊 Game 3 was 25 turns and even got in a bit of combat but got distracted again.

I am also thinking of tracking escalating tension levels between the powers so if it reaches a certain level they may attack, or at least build defensive units.  e.g. if one power builds on Mars and then a second power does, increase tension.  If the second colony becomes larger, increase tension further. 

Next post will be the setup.