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I won our beginner's game of Xia: Legends of a Drift System. It reminded me a lot of Twilight Imperium and Eclipse, but I liked it better because you don't have to take and hold territory.
Since we were playing a short game, mostly with the goal of learning the rules, I took a lot of chances. I blind jumped 4 or 5 times (only once suffering any consequences), turned outlaw, jumped through a defective gate, and shot an undefended opponent out of the sky. Booyah!
@htdrake sounds intriguing. I like Eclipse but losing combat is pretty hard to recover from. I do love exploration games so Xia is interesting
@CTD The beginner game is really short, so we didn't get to find out how hard it is to recover from being destroyed in combat. You get to keep your ship with all its engines, weapons, and shields as well as your money. You lose your cargo, active missions, and maybe a turn, but it still seems a lot more recoverable.
And the fact that victory points are called "fame points" is definitely on purpose--and a good thing for my tastes.