BigKahuna said:

What house rule or rules do you implement?

I made a homebrew expansion that actually became kind of our gaming bible after a while, but of all the things we changed the Sardek N'orr racial ability is the one we always loved the most.

In any case its a racial ability addition.

"When you control a player home system (The System and All Planets) during the status phase you earn 1 victory point.  If you also control Mecatol Rex you earn 2 victory points during the status phase instead".

Generally speaking this has made the Sardek N'orr extremly playable, in fact its kind of almost become a top tier race now.  While at the same time you don't really make any adjustments to your style of play with the race, they are an aggressive, war race, but you are now rewarded for being such with it potentially leading to a win.  The general strategy is to claim someones homeworld and hold on to it for as long as possible to earn those extra points.  Each status phase you get one and if you can manage Mecatol Rex at the same time you can concievably pull a conquest victory.  Still war is tough and unpopular, thus far no one has managed a win with them despite the change, but certainly everyone in my group agrees that its possible.  It is not easy to win with any race afterall.

BigKahuna said:

Okay, sounds interesting, in my three player game I nearly won with the Sardakk N'orr.  It was the last strategy phase, and I had 8 points, I went for the Imperial card but the Xxcha player played his Public Disgrace card and made me give it back.

BigKahuna said:

If someone controls both Mecatol Rex and a player home system, they only earn 2 points?  Or do they earn 3 points?

BigKahuna said:

Hmm, that's an interesting addition. I'll have to propose that to my group next time we play.

adamwehn said:

You earn 1 point for controling A Home System

You earn 2 points if you control a home system and Mecatol at the same time

You earn no points just for controling Mecatol

As to a 3 player game with the Imperial Strategy card.   I honestly can't speak to that, I have no experiance with 3 player games at all and we abandoned the Imperial Strategy card years ago.  So Im not sure how that would play out in that enviroment. 

 What would be the result if the other players f*** up completly and allow the N'orr to take 2 HS plus MR and keep hold of them until the status phase? 2VP? Or 3VP?

BigKahuna said:

The other players in the game would have to make sure the N'orr player cannot make a dash at the end of the Action Phase to nab a home system and/or Mecatol Rex right before the Status Phase.

Also, a question ... It appears the N'orr can fulfil this race-specific objective multiple times in one game. This is a little different than the way the public or secret objectives work ... Is this difference intentional?

Just reading about the proposed new N'orr ability conjures up images of a potentially bloody game where someone's home system is the battle ground for a back and forth fight or a game where folks guard their home systems even more jealously than normal. I know my youngest son who likes the N'orr especially when he has War Suns on the board along with picking the Warfare II strategy card would be on the absolute warpath to take over home systems with this new ability - he'd love it!

By the way, I really appreciate the very streamlined and dead simple homebrew/houserule suggestions folks make for this game that are at the same time thematic and generally fair. It speaks well about how much the fans of this game really understand it.

Fnoffen said:

It sounds easy on paper but I have played this game for a very long time and I have never seen a game in which a player manages to claim two seperate homesystems and hold on to them to the status phase without pulling off some pretty impressive and extrodindary gameplay.  If you can manage that, you very well may deserve to win.  This however is not a regular occurance even with the Sardek N'orrs combat advantage. 

You have to consider three things here as well.

1. You cannot gain any victory points if you don't control your homesystem.  Hence you really need to hold on to three systems to pull this off.

2. The logistics of having fleets seperated like this make it very difficult to support these locations, so generally you claim the system, hold on to it until the status and likely lose it on the following turn.  At least that is my experiance with the rule so far.  When you claim someones homesystem and start earning victory points, there isn't a player at the table that isn't going to be trying to stop you.

3.  You generally can't pull this off until the late game.  The Sardek N'orr are stuck with relatively bad starting conditions and ultimatly everyone at the table knows that at some point you are going to make the attempt.  Their job of earning victory points the traditional way is not made any easier either, so you are still going to find yourself generally falling behind.

Its a powerul ability but it takes a lot of skill and strategy to pull it off.  Even with this ability we haven't seen a Sardek N'orr victory at our table, but several times it has been very close.