Action Card Orientated:
Starting planet(s):
3/0
0/1
Starting units:
1 carrier
1 cruiser
3 ground forces
1 space dock
3 fighters
Starting technology:
Enviro Compensator
Antimass Deflectors
Trade Contracts:
2/1
Whenever you draw one or more action cards, you draw two additional action cards. You must then choose one of these cards and give it to another player.
You must pay 1 influence to play an action card and your opponents must pay you 2 trade goods to use the sabotage action card against you.
You action card hand size is increased by 3.
When you receive action cards during the status phase, you also receive 1 trade good.
Racial Tech: 5 cost - Once per turn, as an action, you may give another player between 1 and 4 trade goods to draw that many action cards. You do not draw extra cards at this time and you keep them all.

Strategy Card Orientated:
Starting planet(s):
2/0
2/1
Starting units:
2 carrier
4 ground forces
1 space dock
1 cruiser
Starting technology:
Hylar V Assault Laser
Enviro Compensator
Trade Contracts:
2/1
During the strategy phase, immediately after you have chosen your strategy card, you may place a bonus counter on any remaining strategy card to gain 1 command counter and 2 trade goods. You may not choose bureaucracy with this ability
You start with one additional command counter in strategy allocation.
You receive 1 trade good and 1 command counter for each bonus counter.
Once per turn, immediately after executing a secondary ability of a strategy card, you may execute the secondary ability of that strategy card a second time, or you may pay 1 command counter from strategy allocation to execute the secondary ability of a strategy card that was not chosen this round.
Racial Tech: 6 cost – At the start of the strategy phase, you may pay 1 command counter from strategy allocation to place a command counter and a control marker on two different strategy cards. The player selecting the card with the command counter must pay 1 command counter and 1 trade good. The player selecting the card with the control marker receives 1 command counter and 1 trade good. Remove both tokens after the strategy phase.

Harmony Orientated:
Starting planet(s):
3/1
1/0
0/1
Starting units:
3 cruiser
3 ground forces
1 space dock
3 fighters
Starting technology:
Enviro Compensator
Statis Capsules
Trade Contracts:
2/2
Your planet’s base production capacity limit is the difference between resources and influence.
You may add the difference between your total unexhausted resources and your total unexhausted influence to your total votes.
Planets that have the same resource and influence value are worth 1 more resource or influence.
During the status phase, if there are an odd number of ground forces on a planet, you must immediately destroy one.
Racial Tech: 6 cost - Harmony: When using any of your racial abilities, you may add or subtract 1 from either resources or influence.

Ground Force Orientated:
Starting planet(s):
3/0
1/0 GF refresh ability
0/2 GF refresh ability
Starting units:
1 carrier
1 cruiser
1 space dock
3 fighters
2 PDS
Starting technology:
Enviro Compensator
Stasis Capsules
Trade Contracts:
3/1
You may not build ground forces at your space docks and your ground forces receive +1 on all combat rolls.
During the strategy phase, before you have chosen a strategy card, you may move to up 4 ground forces in your home system to any other planet(s) you control. A route must exist that contains no enemy ships.
Immediately after the strategy phase, if a planet in your home system has less than 3 ground forces on it, you receive one ground force on that planet.
Any planet that has at least 6 ground forces is considered to have a PDS unit during bombardments and when defending during invasion combat.
Racial Tech: 4 cost – Bunkers – Your planets are immune to local unrest and your opponents receive -3 to bombardments.

Swarm Orientated:
Starting planet(s):
3/0
1/2
Starting units:
2 carriers
1 space dock
4 ground forces
6 fighters
Starting technology:
Antimass Deflectors
Enviro Compensator
Trade Contracts:
1/1
Swarm: Immediately before the first round of a space battle or invasion combat where you have more than 6 of a specific unit, each of your units beyond 5 may now fire 1 shot. Casualties are taken immediately and do not receive attack rolls.
Your carriers and warsuns have a capacity of 8
You may purchase 1 ground force and 1 fighter for 1 resource.
Racial Tech: 4 cost – Your carriers and warsuns now have a capacity of 10 and your swarm ability now activates for each unit you have beyond 4. These units receive +1 to combat rolls.

Activation Orientated:
Starting planet(s):
4/1
Starting units:
1 space dock
Starting technology:
Enviro Compensator
Hylar V Assault Laser
Trade Contracts:
3/1
You are allowed to activate a previously activated system. No ships may enter the system in this activation, but ships already present in the system may pick up and drop off units, and you may use production in this activation as well.
You are allowed to move through and pick up units in a system that has been activated.
Immediately after the status phase, place a command counter in your home system.
Ships in your home system are allowed to exit the system when it is activated while there is less than 2 command counters in the system.
Your home system is never considered blockaded during the production step of activation. If there are enemy ships present after producing ships, a space battle immediately takes place.
You start the game with 10 trade goods and an extra command counter in your command pool.
Racial Tech: 3 cost – You no longer place a command counter in your home system during the status phase.

Political Orientated:
Starting planet(s):
3/0
1/0
0/4
Starting units:
1 carriers
4 ground forces
1 space dock
2 fighters
2 PDS
Starting technology:
Enviro Compensator
Sarween Tools
Trade Contracts:
3/2
Immediately after executing the primary or secondary of political/assembly, you may spend 1 command counter from strategy allocation to put a politics card from your hand up for a vote.
During voting, you always vote last and you break all ties instead of the speaker.
You gain 1 vote for each unexhausted planet with 0 influence.
Whenever you draw a political and/or action card, you draw an additional political card.
You have no hand limit size on political cards.
Racial Tech: 3 cost – During a vote, you may double your influence of an unexhausted planet. Each planet used in this manner is exhausted.

PDS Orientated:
Starting planet(s):
3/0
0/2
Starting units:
1 carriers
3 ground forces
1 destroyer
1 cruiser
1 space dock
3 PDS
Starting technology:
Deep Space Cannon
Magen Defense Grid
Trade Contracts:
1/1
You may not acquire red technologies.
Your may have 3 PDS units per planet.
Your PDS units receive +1 on all combat rolls and only cost 1 to build.
Once per turn, as an action, you may choose any one system. Any PDS unit within range may fire on this system. This does not activate the system.
The affects of maneuvering jets are doubled when used against you.
Racial Tech: 4 cost – Long Range Cannons – Your PDS units may now fire at systems 2 spaces away at 8+ or 3 systems away at 10.

You've definitely got some interesting ideas here. I'm going to focus on the special abilities here since those matter more to me personally than ships and planets, generally speaking.

DavidG55311 said:

This race is interesting, although the fact that they need to pay influence for each action card they play seems a bit harsh. Particularly since you can't keep reserves on influence you overspend - unless you focus on taking planets that only provide one influence, you're going to be wasting 1-2 influence tapping a planet that gives more than just 1 for each AC you want to play. I would remove that limitation entirely. Also, I'd make an opponent have to pay 2 influence instead of 2TG to play Sabotage on you. If they're paying you cash to sabotage you it's kind of like this race will allow themselves to get boned if you just pay them off first. If the opponent has to send influence instead, he's pulling political strings to make his evil scheme work on you.

DavidG55311 said:

The first thing that jumps out at me is this: You can place a bonus counter to gain 1CC and 2TG, and then you gain 1TG and 1CC for each bonus counter in play. Those two together are massively broken. Even taken separately they've both pretty powerful, since there will be natural bonus tokens appearing, unless it's an 8 player game. I would suggest this:

- During the strategy phase, you may pay 1 CC from Strategy Allocation in order to pick your SC before anyone else, regardless of who has the Speaker token.

- Immediately after picking your SC, you may pay 2TG to place a bonus counter on any unchosen SC, except Bureaucracy.

- Once per turn, as an action, you may gain 1 CC or 2TG per bonus token on unchosen SCs. If all SCs are chosen, you may still gain this benefit once.

That last one may still be too powerful, I'd have to play it a bit to see how it worked out. My particular objection to the powers as written is that you gain something for putting down a bonus token, and then bonus tokens in play give you even more. You should be PAYING to place a bonus token if the token itself gives you benefits.

DavidG55311 said:

Nice ideas, but there's too much on-the-fly math involved with this race. I realize it isn't exactly hard math, but still it will slow down an already ridiculously long game. Also, I presume the bit about destroying odd-numbered GFs only applies to your own GFs? It doesn't actually say that and I can foresee some players making an issue out of it. =P

DavidG55311 said:

So the only way they can get GFs is by refreshing their two HS planets with that ability, and they can teleport to any controlled planet as long as there's a path. What about pathing through wormholes? Does that still count? If the planet I want to send them to is on the other side of an asteroid belt, is that still cool? No enemy ships on the path, though it is impassable to a theoretical ship. There's no indication the race depends on ships to get them there, though.

It's hard to say how this race would play. I know the first game I played with them wold probably go like this: refresh both planets for GFs. gain a 3rd GF on each planet since they each have 2. Teleport all 6 to a convenient planet outside my HS for a free PDS. Lather, rinse repeat. My planets would be largely unassailable, especially with the bunkers and the +1 to combat rolls, so my ships would be left on perimeter patrol while I slowly expanded my forces out from my HS. The HS itself would have real PDSes to protect it, at least until I had enough of a buffer from all sides that I could safely move them forward. Is it broken? Hard to say. They have a fantastic ground defense, but that's basically the idea. Ground defense won't make you a god on the offense, either, but it should help you avoid losing ground on fronts you aren't fighting.

DavidG55311 said:

Even without special abilities to facilitate it, a fleet of CVs loaded up with FTs can be a formidable force. I fear this race would get ridiculous pretty fast, especially with their racial tech. Four CVs loaded with fighters into a system and get 36 shots for free before the battle even begins? Creepy. You wouldn't even need to send all four CVs to have a scary fleet on your hands - 2 CVs would still grant 16 shots for free against whatever pathetic fleet your opponent might have mustered. That really just means you can split up and devastate people on more than one front, or load the other two up with GFs for the impending (and also ridiculous) ground battle. I'm not even going to think abotu doing the same with War Suns. =P

On the other hand, after one game with this race, they'd probably be exterminated with extreme prejudice early in any future games, so it may be balanced in a more unusual way. =P

A better way to do swarms without making things too much worse than they regularly are would be to do something with Fleet Supply. Maybe give them a crippled form of Advanced Fighters as a racial ability (allowing FT to survive unsupported but count toward FS, for example.)

DavidG55311 said:

The possibilities with this race are not easily foreseeable. It is interesting. One thing I don't understand is the purpose of placing a CC in your HS. It doesn't provide any limitation until you place two CCs there, and then it's as if it only had 1. The racial tech lets you basically activate your HS twice before it "counts." Considering you don't necessarily need to activate your HS twice every turn, this isn't necessarily the cool ability it sounds like. Instead of all the rules that allow you to activate a system twice, I would remove those and add this single ability:

- Once per turn, as an action, you may activate a system you control without placing a CC there. You may chose to perform either a Tactical or Tranfser Action (if Transfer, neither system gains a CC.) The chosen system(s) count as being activated for all purposes for the duration of your action. After you are done, the system is no longer considered to be activated. You may also choose to use this ability on a system you control that has been previously activated with a CC.

That only lets you "double tap" one system per turn, but it also requires fewer CCs flying around the board. Not only is that easier to manage in fiddly respects, but it's good for this race since the number of CCs you have in the game is limiting.

DavidG55311 said:

No particular complaints. This race looks like it will make politics take a front and center position in the game. I might suggest a limitation that this race may not burn PCs as TGs the way most people can, otherwise that could get a bit crazy.

DavidG55311 said:

I don't much understand the point of restricting them from gaining red tech, especially when they're given for free the only two red techs they're likely to care about with regards to their special abilities. Also, allowing 3 PDS per planet when there are only 4 PDS units to be built? Putting all your eggs in one basket isn't always an advantage. I rarely ever build 2 PDS on the same planet as it is, I doubt I would ever put 3 in one place.

Giving these guys the ability to count 6 GFs as a PDS, on the other hand could be... interesting. It would be pretty powerful, but since they get no bonuses to GFs, it would take a certain amount of effort to set up that many GFs on a planet. Not to mention an opponent could send an invasion just strong enough to take them down to 5 or less to get rid of those annoying pseudo-PDSes.

I think allowing the Racial Tech to take them out to two systems away is quite enough. At 3 spaces away they could fire on Mecatol Rex from their Home System for crying out loud (in a standard galaxy.) So what if they only hit on 10s, that's still ludicrous.

I do like the ability to fire on a system of their choice as an action, though. That's pretty cool.