Hi all. New to the forum, and new to the game as well. My group has played two games of this fantastic game, and we are due to play the third this weekend. Up until now we haven't used any of the optional rules, and were thinking of giving some a go. Are their any you would strongly suggest using, or on the other hand any that you feel take a little away from the game. I personnally could play this game forever, but there are some of the group that lose enthusiasm for games that last too long. We have managed to complete both our previous games, but don't want to risk an enthusiasm drain if they add too much onto the game time.

Leaders are a neat addition that can bring some pretty fun moments to a game, plus admirals in dreadnoughts/flagships makes them quite threatening due to the +1 movement.

Space mines are another small addition that are fairly benign in terms of game change. Most times we forget that they're available.

I have played only a few games as well, one of which we used Distant Suns. I highly recommend playing with this variant, as it adds a random element to conquering planets for the first time. If you don't get the chance to play the game very often though, I wouldn't recommend it because as luck has it, it can end up giving someone all the free tech, trade goods, etc., and leave someone with tons of wasted ground troops due to radiation, etc.

We always play with Mercenaries now, but I would like to try Trade I and II again, since mercenaries require Trade III, and I recommend using representatives along with promissory notes, which can change the flow of the political game.

Never played with leaders, so I can't comment.

 The list of optional rules from the base game are: the long war, age of empire, distant suns, leaders, and sabotage runs.

Age of empire changes things up because everyone can do a little more long term planning when it comes to fulfilling public objectives. Distant suns makes exploring the galaxies more of an unknown and dangerous. Leaders add a whole new dimension to the game.

The long war and sabotage runs don't interest me, but that is my personal preference.

From my experience, the Distant Suns addition was quite a change from the regular game for our group and the first turns were slowed significantly as a result of people thinking about (and paying the price for) their colonizing. A big change to the early game, which may or may not sit well with you, given the random chance and risk in settling.

Are space mines not an optional extra then? Huh. Also Artifacts can make the colonization phase a whole lot more interesting.

Treguard said:

Space mines and artifacts are from the Shattered Empire expansion. I was assuming from the thread title that the original poster was asking about the optional rules in the "main" (aka base) game only - which could certainly be a bad assumption on my part.

Whoops! We played with these from the get go (first playing with SE included), so much so I assumed that they were part of the main game 

:)

Thanks for the replies. Definately gonna give the leaders a go and probably distant suns too, though knowing my usual poor luck my early game will be severely hampered by it!

Managed to pick up the shards of the throne expansion, though it probably wont arrive before the weekend, but haven't found anywhere in the UK that is selling shattered empire. Is it out of print? Have seen some on EBAY from the US, but they have high postage rates due to the weight.

 Shattered Empire should still be in print. You might be able to get better postage ordering from Sweden. There are a couple of stores that have on-line shop sections on their website.

Fnoffen said:

Thanks for that, Fnoffen. Will look into it pronto.

UK gamers representin' yeaa boi

Take a look at the optional rule for distant suns too, might make it a litlte easier on the early turns. And check out Infinity Games UK, they have pretty decent prices for FF games, and not too bad on the postage front.

Wow, just looked it is hard to come by too. Hmm. Checked IGUK they are O/S and so are Amazon, there are some available but boy are they pricey. :(

Checked postage from Sweden for ya. Sorry to say it would be almost as much as the game itself…

Yeah, that was pretty much the way with the ones from the US. Cheers for looking though.

Check out Amazon, one of their US sellers has it. And shipping's not disastrous. About 3 quid from what I can make out.