Title says it all really. Just wondering what your most popular choices are as regards optional rules, including those from Shattered Empires?

For my money, I go with:

• Age of Empires
• Trade Stations
• Artifacts
• "producer" systems (the ones that can make troops/fighters instead of resources)
• The standard strategy card mix with all the II's swapped in instead of the basic versions
• Shock Troops
• Fully expanded tech tree including racial techs
• A pre-set map

Most of the remaining choices I don't have a strong opinion about, although I tend not to bother with Guardians of Metacol Rex. I probably ought to use leaders more often (only tried them once). I've never tried distant suns.

One house rule I tend to invoke is not playing with the Yssaril or the Xxcha. They seem to be commonly regarded as the two races at the extreme ends of the balance spectrum, and besides which the Yssaril slow the game down and the Xxcha don't work very well with Diplomacy II. So it seems best to just leave them out!

I think most players these days use Shattered Empire strategy cards. That means Age of Empires is pretty much out of the picture. Some people have some house rules for Bureaucracy to allow for it to be used, but in it's raw form, they are incompatible. And I think overall, most people tend to use the new Strategy Cards completely, including all the "II" cards. Occasionally a "I" card will be used instead, but I've found this to be the exception. Once in awhile, for nostalgia sake, veteran players will use the old set, or some mix of old and new, but generally, I find that they are only used regularly by players who don't have the expansion.

I do think most players use Artifacts, Shock Troops, and the new Techs (including racial techs), though.

However, I don't know if I'd classify the "producer" systems and Trade Stations as "optional rules", per-se. I don't know anyone who uses Shattered Empires who doesn't use them. Of course, they could be optional by simply never including Trade Stations in the mix and ignoring any "producer" stuff, but I think they are pretty much standard fare at this point.

Leaders tend to be a toss up. Some groups use them, some don't. I think more people use them than not, though. Distant Suns, however, seems to be a lot less used. There are groups that like them, but many players, especially veterans, tend to avoid them, either because of balance or because of how they slow the game down. However, almost all veteran groups that I'm aware of use the Guardians of Mecatol Rex, to prevent too-early grabs for Mecatol Rex itself.

Many groups do use pre-set maps, too, though lately, at least among veterans, the "official" ones don't get a lot of action. PsiComa and others have produced some other pre-made maps that actually aren't even symmetrical, using some kind of bidding system for determining who goes where. I think when pre-made maps are used, this kind is far more common.

Facilities from Shattered Empires also seems to be a toss up. Some people will almost never use them, while others will almost never play WITHOUT them. I'm not sure which side is more common.

The Wormhole Nexus seems to almost always be used, also. I can't remember seeing a PBeM game lately where it wasn't.

If you start getting into the realm of most common "unofficial" variants, Shattered Ascension is probably by far the most commonly used variant ruleset (at least among those who use variants). Many people also modify the Artifacts rules to provide bonuses for taking an Artifact, sometimes in addition to the VP, or sometimes having the "blank" artifacts be VP artifacts. And I've seen Warfare get an interesting variant, where when you pick Warfare, you CHOOSE if you want to take Warfare I or Warfare II (and the other is unavailable for the round).

Anyway, that's just my observation on things

sigmazero13 said:

Interesting. Personally, we use Leadership, Diplomacy 2, Assembly, Production, Trade 2, Warfare 1, Technology 2 and Imperial 2. Is there a thread you could point me to showing which are the most fun strategy cards to use?

Hmm, if you use Imperial II with Leadership, Assembly, and Production, I'm guessing the Action Card influx is pretty sparse, and the ship-building is pretty high? Why? Because Imperial II secondary is very similar to Production - meaning there are two secondaries that do very similar things. And Bureaucracy is the only way (outside of the status phase) to draw cards.

In fact, do you have a house rule to allow people to draw additional Political Cards? Bureaucracy is the ONLY "official" way to get them.

Generally, the Leadership, Assembly, Production, and Bureacracy cards seem to be intended to work as a "group". The same numbered cards in the base set do similar things, but shifted aroun, and when you mix-and-match with them, you end up either losing an ability or doubling an ability (like losing the card draw and gaining an extra build-ships option). If you play with 4 players, and one player manages to grab Production AND Imperial II, that would give them TWO activation-free builds in a round (and the opponents would only be able to use the Production secondary).

Of course, if it works for your group, there's nothing at all wrong with it, but "officially", the way you do Strategy Cards is choose either the entire Base Set or SE cards, and then switch out any that have II versions for their same-named other version. Yeah, Imperial II is a "II" version, but officially, it can only be swapped in if you are using Imperial I to start with

Again, though, if your group plays fine with it this way, there's nothing wrong with it

Hmm. Interesting. Yep, we all basically draw a Political card during Status phase, and not allow them to be used as trade goods.