Lazax Survivors

By Nikas Zekeval, in Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition

Am I reading the DS rules for Lazax Survivors right? If I land ground forces the counter counts it becomes a permanent three vote bonus. If I probe the counter goes away, but I get a VP and three action cards. No choice and ISTM that the later is more powerful than the former.

The 1 VP is certainly a good plus, but the 3 action cards may or may not be "better". Having 3 permanent votes can often swing elections when they are tight, so don't completely discount it.

However, consider that proping is more time-consuming than actually landing, too. It may be safer, and you can prevent the really bad effects (or at least mitigate them), but at the same time, you also have to wait an entire round before you can actually LAND. Having the Lazax Survivors "probe" reward be a bit more powerful may encourage probing a little; Many people don't bother to ever probe due to the time it "wastes" to do so.

OTOH jumping in blind risks ground forces on a 'blind drop'. But I can see the counter argument. A follow on question, is turning the Lazax up using 'Native Intelligence' considered a probe?

No it doesn't - but it means you should get a fighter over there ASAP!

Nikas Zekeval said:

OTOH jumping in blind risks ground forces on a 'blind drop'. But I can see the counter argument. A follow on question, is turning the Lazax up using 'Native Intelligence' considered a probe?

Yes, jumping in blind is a risk, this is true. However, if you probe too much, you'll find yourself falling behind the other races, because it will take a long time for you to really gather planets.

As possumman said, though, Native Intelligence does not count as "probing".

sigmazero13 said:

Nikas Zekeval said:

OTOH jumping in blind risks ground forces on a 'blind drop'. But I can see the counter argument. A follow on question, is turning the Lazax up using 'Native Intelligence' considered a probe?

Yes, jumping in blind is a risk, this is true. However, if you probe too much, you'll find yourself falling behind the other races, because it will take a long time for you to really gather planets.

As possumman said, though, Native Intelligence does not count as "probing".

Thats interesting. The six man group we play with make it a text book manuever to probe. We see blind jumping as fairly dangerous. Guess every group is different.

I think it is that with only ten objective cards, and one of the last four ends the game, AFAICT, that only gives you seven to ten turns in a standard game. So others seem to think that it's better to take a chance that spend 10% or more of your turns in probing.

thehuntercat said:

sigmazero13 said:

Nikas Zekeval said:

OTOH jumping in blind risks ground forces on a 'blind drop'. But I can see the counter argument. A follow on question, is turning the Lazax up using 'Native Intelligence' considered a probe?

Yes, jumping in blind is a risk, this is true. However, if you probe too much, you'll find yourself falling behind the other races, because it will take a long time for you to really gather planets.

As possumman said, though, Native Intelligence does not count as "probing".

Thats interesting. The six man group we play with make it a text book manuever to probe. We see blind jumping as fairly dangerous. Guess every group is different.

Indeed. However, I would guess if you played against someone who did jump blindly, unless they got a bad string of nasty tokens, they would very possibly pull out ahead in terms of expansion. There are some nasty ones, yes, but there are also many that are great to have. And I think if you land 2 GFs on the planet, you have a pretty good chance at landing on the planet.

That is an excellent point. The more we play, the less we use the probe option...I guess we have gotten over the intial shock of some of the nastier Domains...