Sometimes no matter how hard you try you just can't trim an article down without sacraficing content and I hate that. The nice thing about having your own blog however is that there are no editors to hassle you, so enjoy the lengthy discussion on the Xxcha and the countless gramatic and spelling errors!!
Diplomatic Turtles, they are as not so scary as they sound
The Xxcha thematically are supposed to represent a sort peaceful race who uses politics and diplomacy to achieve their goals and rely on their defenses to act as a sort of deterrent. Unfortunately the designers didn’t give them enough steam in either their political abilities or their defense capabilities failing to make either racial ability reliable, The result is a race that doesn't do anything particularly Well. You will find that most groups and online TI3 communities share this consensus and by far this is the most commonly house ruled race. They are definitely a race reserved for expert players as you will have to rely on your skill in the game rather than the racial abilities and attributes to win a game with the Xxcha.
Still despite this overwhelming consensus, I have found that in almost every group I have played TI3 the Xxcha actually do quite well, considerably better then what some of these obvious flaws in the race would suggest. I attribute this more to the skill of the players and the race being on the benefiting end of the consensus fear effect than anything else. I wouldn’t go so far as saying that this is a reliable statistic as the consensus fear effect probably doesn’t apply to every group and I don’t recall ever having the Xxcha in the game where some minor alteration to their starting condition was not made.
Pros: Benefits from the consensus fear effect in which players presume that other races are so much of a bigger threat that they do not worry about the Xxcha player. This allows the Xxcha to often get through a game unmolested, opening the door to surprise victory. The Xxcha’s defensive ability coupled with a ok starting fleet, 2 decent trade contracts and 2 diplomat leaders (if playing with leaders) means it’s easy enough politically to stay out of a fight and keep people at bay from the start.
Cons: Two racial abilities that are useful only under rare circumstances means you have to play the game straight up for the most part. Poor production on home worlds and a single carrier means you’re going to have a slow start and your first two rounds are absolutely vital to long term success. Racial technology that is only marginally useful and too expensive for a race that tends to be resource poor in most games.
Strategy: The Xxcha are exceptionally tough to play, poor racial abilities aside you get a very slow start because your homeworlds have such poor production and you start out with only 1 carrier. The Xxcha do considerably better when playing with Leaders and using the expansion racial technologies as both of these make attacking the Xxcha quite frustrating and difficult for your opponent. If you can manage to keep up on points during the game the diplomats leaders and diplomats racial tech are the key to seeing yourself through to victory, although it’s worth noting that the racial tech is expensive enough that it may not be worth the benefit in most games. The general strategy is to try to win the game without ever firing a shot.
Unfortunately if you are not playing with leaders or racial techs the Xxcha are so weak that it’s difficult to conceive a strategy that will actually work reliably, you are really going to be counting on getting a lucky planet draw and placement as well as easy to meet public objectives and opponents willing to leave you alone until you can get on your feet. You may be able to out sine your competition in the later rounds if you overcome your poor starting conditions.
When playing the Xxcha your primary goal early In the game is going to be to get your production up to specs and get your second carrier out with ground forces to colonize planets. Having only 1 carrier, 2 ground forces and only 3 resources (4 if you count the Sarween Tools) you are going to have a hard time getting planets in the first couple of rounds. Fortunatly if using the expansion (which I'm assuming most people are) there are good routes to acomplishing this.
Still despite this overwhelming consensus, I have found that in almost every group I have played TI3 the Xxcha actually do quite well, considerably better then what some of these obvious flaws in the race would suggest. I attribute this more to the skill of the players and the race being on the benefiting end of the consensus fear effect than anything else. I wouldn’t go so far as saying that this is a reliable statistic as the consensus fear effect probably doesn’t apply to every group and I don’t recall ever having the Xxcha in the game where some minor alteration to their starting condition was not made.
Pros: Benefits from the consensus fear effect in which players presume that other races are so much of a bigger threat that they do not worry about the Xxcha player. This allows the Xxcha to often get through a game unmolested, opening the door to surprise victory. The Xxcha’s defensive ability coupled with a ok starting fleet, 2 decent trade contracts and 2 diplomat leaders (if playing with leaders) means it’s easy enough politically to stay out of a fight and keep people at bay from the start.
Cons: Two racial abilities that are useful only under rare circumstances means you have to play the game straight up for the most part. Poor production on home worlds and a single carrier means you’re going to have a slow start and your first two rounds are absolutely vital to long term success. Racial technology that is only marginally useful and too expensive for a race that tends to be resource poor in most games.
Strategy: The Xxcha are exceptionally tough to play, poor racial abilities aside you get a very slow start because your homeworlds have such poor production and you start out with only 1 carrier. The Xxcha do considerably better when playing with Leaders and using the expansion racial technologies as both of these make attacking the Xxcha quite frustrating and difficult for your opponent. If you can manage to keep up on points during the game the diplomats leaders and diplomats racial tech are the key to seeing yourself through to victory, although it’s worth noting that the racial tech is expensive enough that it may not be worth the benefit in most games. The general strategy is to try to win the game without ever firing a shot.
Unfortunately if you are not playing with leaders or racial techs the Xxcha are so weak that it’s difficult to conceive a strategy that will actually work reliably, you are really going to be counting on getting a lucky planet draw and placement as well as easy to meet public objectives and opponents willing to leave you alone until you can get on your feet. You may be able to out sine your competition in the later rounds if you overcome your poor starting conditions.
When playing the Xxcha your primary goal early In the game is going to be to get your production up to specs and get your second carrier out with ground forces to colonize planets. Having only 1 carrier, 2 ground forces and only 3 resources (4 if you count the Sarween Tools) you are going to have a hard time getting planets in the first couple of rounds. Fortunatly if using the expansion (which I'm assuming most people are) there are good routes to acomplishing this.
There are a couple of ways the first round can go down but the absolute best route is for you to take Trade II and use your secondary allocation on Production, Assembly and Diplomacy II. This of course assumes that all these cards are in play, but there is little risk that they won't be picked as typicaly they will be. The strategy is simple. Your openning move should be to move your carrier with 2 ground forces to a system with 2 planets and claim them both preferably in the direction of Mecatol Rex. Use Production II secondary to build a carrier and 2 ground forces (4 resources which you have available with Sarween Tools) when it comes up and if your lucky this will be popped before your first turn. Then on your next move use your freshly build carrier with 2 ground forces and use them to colonize preferably a system with 2 planets, if production wasn't used stall with Trade II primary. When diplomacy comes up use your Xxcha ability to get the secondary effect of claiming a neutral system to get an additional planet. With a little luck you will have your 2 planets exhausted when Assembly is played so use your last remaining strategy allocation token to un-exhaust your planets and with the Trade goods you got from Trade II and the extra 3 production (with sarween tools) you got from the refresh build a nice defensive force for your homeworld.
Alterations to this plan can vary, if you didn't get Trade II, take Production, the plan would basicaly work out the same just in a different order. If neither Trade II or production are available go for Assembly. Regardless you will always have the oppertunity to use Production secondary and this is the key to getting that second carrier out and working. There is a possibility that you might get stalled out, especially if someone like Yssaril gets production but when playing the Xxcha you have to really rely on certain likely events and hope for the best. If you are really concerened about that and have the option the most sure fire way to not get stalled on production is to take it yourself.
Hopefully by the end of the first round you have your 2nd carrier with sound additional ground forces on the table and if you were lucky you have already used those ground forces in a landing.
The next goal should be Mecatol Rex. For the Xxcha influence for votes as well as the extra command counters it will produce with leadership is pretty vital since you are generally at a disadvantage in many other respects. You should in the first round set yourself up in such a fashion that you will be able to make a play for Mecatol Rex in by round 2. Obviously you are going to be short with your carrier so taking technology in round 2 or using technology secondary to get XRD Transporters is key to the strategy. With a little luck someone will draw diplomacy in round 2 to get its secondary in which case you should use your Xxcha ability to use the diplomacy II primary and block Mecatol Rex to prevent anyone for having a go at it. This is tougher if you’re playing with Mecatol Guardians, but fortunately if you are playing with guardians a round 2 Mecatol Rex is tough for everyone so you will very likely have a shot at it in round 3 in which case you should do the same thing, although you may actually have to take Diplomacy II as it may not be selected that late in the game. If you can’t get Mecatol Rex this early, it’s not worth going to war for it, so if someone else gets it let it go and fall back on your main strategy.
In the perfect situation by round 3 you will control Mecatol Rex and have 2 carriers with at least a respectable amount of resources at your disposal. It’s not very likely everything went according to plan and there are a couple of variations you can make to this plan to pull it off anyway depending on the variants and strategy cards available. With how weak the Xxcha are unfortunately you have to start out by taking big risks as even if you have succeeded in your plan you are probably in a pretty weak position militarily and someone may decide to take a pot shot at you so be prepared to negotiate.
Your long term strategy is going to be very similar to the Sardekk N’orr. You are going to have to be flexible, build up slowly and remain as neutral and unthreatening as you can while simultaneously grinding out those victory points and maintaining your fleet strength. With the Xxcha it’s good to pick up Hylar V and Cybernetics as these bonuses combined with your first round penalties to your opponents will act as a good deterrent. If you find your doing well on resources don’t be afraid to go for those Warsuns and/or pick up Stasis Capsules for that extra ground force portability. While this is not central to your end game strategy, warsuns are always good to have in late game, especially if you are playing with Technology II which practicaly ensures some if not all the other players will have them. It’s absolutely vital however that you keep up on victory points so watch those public objectives and respond accordingly, but make it a point not to get into conflicts with other players when working on points. Any public objective that will put you in harm’s way should be something you save for the late game.
The end game is going to come early for the Xxcha and its going to be very risky as regardless of how well you have done you are not likely to be ahead on points, at absolute best you will have kept up with the pack. That means you are going to have to trigger the other players into action against each other in hopes that their squabbling will open up a hole for you to sneak into. Take bureaucracy when you start seeing people at 5-6 points, hopefully at this point you will have public objective II’s on the board. Put out things you know strong players will be able to meet quickly and make it known to the other players that next objective (which you saw and put back) is also something those players can meet and that you believe the game will end soon. This will hopefully be enough to trigger wars for contention, but you may need to spice it up a bit and lie. The idea is to get people to fight each other in an effort to block wins, stay out of these fights and setup your own win conditions, you should have the advantage since you know whats coming up next. With a little luck the chaos will open up the much needed hole. You might ask.. is this really a strategy? Well truth be told, given that you are at such a disadvantage in the game luck is unfortunately part of your arsenal and in my experience war and chaos on the board will usually raise the tensions resulting in people making mistakes. It’s far better to be the inventor of this chaos, then a participant. Certainly if you found a route to victory without having to do this you should follow it through, but in my experiance the best way to catch up on points when you are behind and the late game is approaching is start playing on other players fears of loosing and knowledge of public II objectives is central to playing on those fears as if it gives you an air of legitamacy.
Hopefully as the chaos ensues you slip in and anyone trying to stop you will face your diplomat leaders and diplomacy racial tech if you managed to afford it, as well as a fleet that has hopefully strong because it has remained neutral up to this point in the game.
The Xxcha really are a long shot and being flexible is the key, but keeping a level head and avoiding personal conflicts while simultaneously inventing personal conflicts between other players is a strategy that sometimes does in fact work. I'm not a huge fan of table talk but there is no denying that it does in fact sometimes work.
Bullet Point Strategies
· Your opening rounds are absolutely vital to your long term success, plan them out carefully and don’t be afraid to take big risks for the big rewards.
· Claiming Mecatol Rex is also vital to your long term chances to win the game, use your Xxcha ability to block out players with diplomacy if you can and take whatever risks you have to and get control of it.
· Hylar V and Cybernetics are must have technologies, combined with your Xxcha penalty to opponents this will go a long way to deter players from engaging you militarily.
· Let public objectives drive your strategy but avoid direct conflict with players.
· Use bureaucracy early in the end game and use the knowledge of the public objective II’s to give the appearance that the end game has arrived to push players to act against each other. Lie if you have to create as much chaos and war as possible but don’t get involved yourself.
Adjusting the Xxcha
If you have ever played with the Xxcha you know how tough it is and how much actually has to come together in order for you to have a fighting chance to just keep up with the other races let alone win a game. I’ve seen countless versions of the Xxcha, everything from minor adjustments like adding a few units to a complete re-write. Of the many changes I’ve seen these are the ones I found both the most balanced and thematically correct for the race.
· 1 extra carrier – To me this is simplest solution and actually solves the biggest problem the Xxcha have early on which is just expanding in a timely fashion. This will alleviate the very complex series of events that must take place in the opening rounds for the Xxcha to get what many far better races get by default. This does not make the Xxcha even with the other races by any stretch of the imagination but it brings it a lot closer to the pack.
· New Racial Ability: Political Power: Each political card in the Xxcha players hand count as 1 additional vote when political voting takes place, these cards are not discarded when used to vote. – This ability appropriately allows the Xxcha to slowly grow into a powerhouse politically and a wise player will build a nice big hand of political cards and shove his/her weight around during the Assembly strategy card activations. This is probably the more powerful version of the Xxcha but I like the idea of players fearing the assembly activation.
· New Racial Ability: Hostile Negotiations: When activating an Xxcha system you must spend 1 additional command counter if a PDS is present in the system. – This version is also very powerful and very useful to the Xxcha. It’s a bit of a bigger play on the Xxcha defense side rather than its political side, but its thematically correct and it makes their racial tech considerably more useful as a player would lose 2 command counters when the racial tech is activated instead of just the 1.
Both the Political Power and Hostile Negotiations racial abilities are designed for the race to have what all other races have, a ability on which to build a strategy. I’m not a big fan of creating new rules for races as I believe very strongly in most cases while fixing one thing you break another, but the Xxcha are a unique case as they lack a fundamental synergy that all other races have. Even the Sardekk N’orr albeit their +1 combat bonus isn’t statistically all that powerful is something one can base a strategy around. The Xxcha abilities are really quite random and useful only in very rare circumstances, so a I believe this race if any deserves a small alteration to the rules.
Beating the Xxcha
Well frankly this should be no problem. I can’t foresee many circumstances in which a motivated player determined to take out the Xxcha is unable to do so with any race. The Xxcha are their own worst enemy and leaving them to struggle in trying to keep up is usually all it takes to beat them. If you find them growing in strength or find that they have gotten in your way of a win, don’t fear the -1 to initial combat, statistically it shouldn’t make that much of a difference. The Xxcha will likely be weak in most games militarily and production wise, but in the event they have gotten lucky and managed to put up a strong fleet it will probably be at the cost of victory points so if they are in your way but not a contender to win, don’t bother with them, find another route to victory.
Conclusion
It’s tough to have anything positive to say about the Xxcha mechanics, I really think that this game needs a good, strong race with a political edge, but the Xxcha are just so poorly designed. I recommend just taking them out of the race pool when setting up games, it’s really the best solution as there are plenty of other races to pick from. If you insist on having them in for aesthetics either be prepared to lose a lot or use one of the many suggested alterations to make them competitive. In my own group the experience with the Xxcha actually goes against the statistical consensus, I mean I’ve watched them win or come close to winning in almost every game they have been in. It’s difficult to explain this, but sometimes group dynamics play a very big role in how good a race plays. This is probably the only justification I have for putting this race in 2nd to last place behind the Sardekk N’orr rather then last place.
Hopefully by the end of the first round you have your 2nd carrier with sound additional ground forces on the table and if you were lucky you have already used those ground forces in a landing.
The next goal should be Mecatol Rex. For the Xxcha influence for votes as well as the extra command counters it will produce with leadership is pretty vital since you are generally at a disadvantage in many other respects. You should in the first round set yourself up in such a fashion that you will be able to make a play for Mecatol Rex in by round 2. Obviously you are going to be short with your carrier so taking technology in round 2 or using technology secondary to get XRD Transporters is key to the strategy. With a little luck someone will draw diplomacy in round 2 to get its secondary in which case you should use your Xxcha ability to use the diplomacy II primary and block Mecatol Rex to prevent anyone for having a go at it. This is tougher if you’re playing with Mecatol Guardians, but fortunately if you are playing with guardians a round 2 Mecatol Rex is tough for everyone so you will very likely have a shot at it in round 3 in which case you should do the same thing, although you may actually have to take Diplomacy II as it may not be selected that late in the game. If you can’t get Mecatol Rex this early, it’s not worth going to war for it, so if someone else gets it let it go and fall back on your main strategy.
In the perfect situation by round 3 you will control Mecatol Rex and have 2 carriers with at least a respectable amount of resources at your disposal. It’s not very likely everything went according to plan and there are a couple of variations you can make to this plan to pull it off anyway depending on the variants and strategy cards available. With how weak the Xxcha are unfortunately you have to start out by taking big risks as even if you have succeeded in your plan you are probably in a pretty weak position militarily and someone may decide to take a pot shot at you so be prepared to negotiate.
Your long term strategy is going to be very similar to the Sardekk N’orr. You are going to have to be flexible, build up slowly and remain as neutral and unthreatening as you can while simultaneously grinding out those victory points and maintaining your fleet strength. With the Xxcha it’s good to pick up Hylar V and Cybernetics as these bonuses combined with your first round penalties to your opponents will act as a good deterrent. If you find your doing well on resources don’t be afraid to go for those Warsuns and/or pick up Stasis Capsules for that extra ground force portability. While this is not central to your end game strategy, warsuns are always good to have in late game, especially if you are playing with Technology II which practicaly ensures some if not all the other players will have them. It’s absolutely vital however that you keep up on victory points so watch those public objectives and respond accordingly, but make it a point not to get into conflicts with other players when working on points. Any public objective that will put you in harm’s way should be something you save for the late game.
The end game is going to come early for the Xxcha and its going to be very risky as regardless of how well you have done you are not likely to be ahead on points, at absolute best you will have kept up with the pack. That means you are going to have to trigger the other players into action against each other in hopes that their squabbling will open up a hole for you to sneak into. Take bureaucracy when you start seeing people at 5-6 points, hopefully at this point you will have public objective II’s on the board. Put out things you know strong players will be able to meet quickly and make it known to the other players that next objective (which you saw and put back) is also something those players can meet and that you believe the game will end soon. This will hopefully be enough to trigger wars for contention, but you may need to spice it up a bit and lie. The idea is to get people to fight each other in an effort to block wins, stay out of these fights and setup your own win conditions, you should have the advantage since you know whats coming up next. With a little luck the chaos will open up the much needed hole. You might ask.. is this really a strategy? Well truth be told, given that you are at such a disadvantage in the game luck is unfortunately part of your arsenal and in my experience war and chaos on the board will usually raise the tensions resulting in people making mistakes. It’s far better to be the inventor of this chaos, then a participant. Certainly if you found a route to victory without having to do this you should follow it through, but in my experiance the best way to catch up on points when you are behind and the late game is approaching is start playing on other players fears of loosing and knowledge of public II objectives is central to playing on those fears as if it gives you an air of legitamacy.
Hopefully as the chaos ensues you slip in and anyone trying to stop you will face your diplomat leaders and diplomacy racial tech if you managed to afford it, as well as a fleet that has hopefully strong because it has remained neutral up to this point in the game.
The Xxcha really are a long shot and being flexible is the key, but keeping a level head and avoiding personal conflicts while simultaneously inventing personal conflicts between other players is a strategy that sometimes does in fact work. I'm not a huge fan of table talk but there is no denying that it does in fact sometimes work.
Bullet Point Strategies
· Your opening rounds are absolutely vital to your long term success, plan them out carefully and don’t be afraid to take big risks for the big rewards.
· Claiming Mecatol Rex is also vital to your long term chances to win the game, use your Xxcha ability to block out players with diplomacy if you can and take whatever risks you have to and get control of it.
· Hylar V and Cybernetics are must have technologies, combined with your Xxcha penalty to opponents this will go a long way to deter players from engaging you militarily.
· Let public objectives drive your strategy but avoid direct conflict with players.
· Use bureaucracy early in the end game and use the knowledge of the public objective II’s to give the appearance that the end game has arrived to push players to act against each other. Lie if you have to create as much chaos and war as possible but don’t get involved yourself.
Adjusting the Xxcha
If you have ever played with the Xxcha you know how tough it is and how much actually has to come together in order for you to have a fighting chance to just keep up with the other races let alone win a game. I’ve seen countless versions of the Xxcha, everything from minor adjustments like adding a few units to a complete re-write. Of the many changes I’ve seen these are the ones I found both the most balanced and thematically correct for the race.
· 1 extra carrier – To me this is simplest solution and actually solves the biggest problem the Xxcha have early on which is just expanding in a timely fashion. This will alleviate the very complex series of events that must take place in the opening rounds for the Xxcha to get what many far better races get by default. This does not make the Xxcha even with the other races by any stretch of the imagination but it brings it a lot closer to the pack.
· New Racial Ability: Political Power: Each political card in the Xxcha players hand count as 1 additional vote when political voting takes place, these cards are not discarded when used to vote. – This ability appropriately allows the Xxcha to slowly grow into a powerhouse politically and a wise player will build a nice big hand of political cards and shove his/her weight around during the Assembly strategy card activations. This is probably the more powerful version of the Xxcha but I like the idea of players fearing the assembly activation.
· New Racial Ability: Hostile Negotiations: When activating an Xxcha system you must spend 1 additional command counter if a PDS is present in the system. – This version is also very powerful and very useful to the Xxcha. It’s a bit of a bigger play on the Xxcha defense side rather than its political side, but its thematically correct and it makes their racial tech considerably more useful as a player would lose 2 command counters when the racial tech is activated instead of just the 1.
Both the Political Power and Hostile Negotiations racial abilities are designed for the race to have what all other races have, a ability on which to build a strategy. I’m not a big fan of creating new rules for races as I believe very strongly in most cases while fixing one thing you break another, but the Xxcha are a unique case as they lack a fundamental synergy that all other races have. Even the Sardekk N’orr albeit their +1 combat bonus isn’t statistically all that powerful is something one can base a strategy around. The Xxcha abilities are really quite random and useful only in very rare circumstances, so a I believe this race if any deserves a small alteration to the rules.
Beating the Xxcha
Well frankly this should be no problem. I can’t foresee many circumstances in which a motivated player determined to take out the Xxcha is unable to do so with any race. The Xxcha are their own worst enemy and leaving them to struggle in trying to keep up is usually all it takes to beat them. If you find them growing in strength or find that they have gotten in your way of a win, don’t fear the -1 to initial combat, statistically it shouldn’t make that much of a difference. The Xxcha will likely be weak in most games militarily and production wise, but in the event they have gotten lucky and managed to put up a strong fleet it will probably be at the cost of victory points so if they are in your way but not a contender to win, don’t bother with them, find another route to victory.
Conclusion
It’s tough to have anything positive to say about the Xxcha mechanics, I really think that this game needs a good, strong race with a political edge, but the Xxcha are just so poorly designed. I recommend just taking them out of the race pool when setting up games, it’s really the best solution as there are plenty of other races to pick from. If you insist on having them in for aesthetics either be prepared to lose a lot or use one of the many suggested alterations to make them competitive. In my own group the experience with the Xxcha actually goes against the statistical consensus, I mean I’ve watched them win or come close to winning in almost every game they have been in. It’s difficult to explain this, but sometimes group dynamics play a very big role in how good a race plays. This is probably the only justification I have for putting this race in 2nd to last place behind the Sardekk N’orr rather then last place.
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