The Month of Galactic Conquest : Part IV "Many Bothans Died to Bring us this information"

Next up in our analysis of Twilight Imperium races is the Clan of Saar. Somewhat of an enigma, the Saar have abilities which under some circumstances play quite well while other can be difficult to take advantage of. The Clan of Saar’s primary strength lays in their opening rounds as their starting conditions, most notably their 2 carriers combined with XRD transporters and their racial ability to gain trade goods for taking planet means you are all set for a great start. The tough part is to maintain that momentum and ride it to victory, to which your racial technology that turns your space docks into mobile carriers are central for offense and defense. As a rule you should remove the Saar from selection if you are using simulated early turns as this effectively removes their primary and perhaps only advantage over other races and very easily makes them the worst possible race to play by a very wide margin.

The Wolves with a bite

I approach the Clan of Saar as a race meant to be played aggressively but not hostile. You have to expand, capture as many planets as you can early on to get those all important trade goods which effectively act as your reserves and ability to put up the best defenses you can to ensure that when you expansion is complete you aren’t going to loose it to a player that attacks you. That is actually the toughest part as aggressive expansion is usually seen as a hostile act and players tend to respond with guns. More than any other race if you get attacked early on and loose a battle or two you’re chances of recovering are slim as you’re starting production is so weak.

Strategy: The opening round is absolutely crucial. You have to take full advantage of the two carriers (should be 3-4 planets), diplomacy secondary (1 more planet) and Production (to build another carrier and more ground forces). Take the trade card if you can to ensure you get the additional 3 trade goods and control negotiations so you can make the most of your 2/1 trade contracts but be a pleasant negotiator, no hostile trade denials. You might find since you are already acquiring a lot of trade goods from your racial ability that people are reluctant to trade with you, which if it does occur don’t be afraid to say ‘listen unless I get my contracts traded for even money, meaning 2 for 2 and 1 for 1, no one is going to trade today. You might think that is hostile but its considerably less hostile then selectively choosing who trades and who doesn’t, and I think most people will appreciate that as the Trade card holder there is nothing for you to gain on the deal if your trades don’t get picked so most people will respond with offers.

Alternatively to starting with trade you can go for Warfare (I or II) as the Saar are in good position to take Mecatol Rex on round 1 since you have Carriers with XRDs (2 move) and if you take warfare II or I you can reach Mecatol Rex from your homeworld. This strategy is pretty circumstantial and risky if playing with Mecatol Guardians. Mecatol Rex is a 1 production planet and while you can certainly use the influence, you really need to control the highest and most production you can get your hands on because your home system is so weak. Take Mecatol Rex if your secret objective involves it and it can be done in a fashion which will allow you to later defend it and will not force you to give something else up. If playing with Guardians you may be able to pull this off if you managed to get Production Secondary, build a carrier with 2 Fighters and 4 ground forces. Send that and your cruiser, hope for the best, odds are however you will be able to take it in round two as well since most people will see fighting guardians as having a fairly high risk level early in the game, but more importantly are not setup as well to take it.
By round two you should control more space than anyone else, really that isn’t so much a strategy as a necessity. At this point it’s also important that if you are going to venture into someone else’s territory that you are prepared to defend it. Be sure to put up as much fleet as you can and lean your expansion strategy in the subsequent round towards one opponent. Don’t spread in all directions and try not to upset the whole table with your actions.

By the third round your expansion should be just about complete; you should have a fair amount of units on the table and hopefully managed a victory point. Now it’s time to settle back, make some alliances with other players, then slowly and methodically let the public objectives help make your decisions. After turn three you are going to be looking to score a point each round. If you managed to grab Mecatol Rex, defend it heavily, especially with ground forces and build a space dock as to you these will become carriers with five fighters in them in the future that do not count towards fleet supply limits.

Technology is not that crucial to the Saar, but what you get is important. Your racial tech will turn your Space Docks into mobile carriers so be sure to get that. Stasis Capsules are going to help you a lot; Sarween Tools are a must and Neural Motivators for those all important action cards. Gen Synthesis is helpful given your likely spread out nature it might help to have that extra line of defense. It’s important that you don’t waste too many resources on buying technologies, especially not Trade Goods. Save them If you can and use them wisely as they are a onetime gift for the Saar and once you spend them you’re going to have a tough time getting more. This exposes you to some risks via action cards, so do what you can to keep the trade goods pile reasonable and not overly attractive to holders of trade good stealing action cards. Military based technologies in later game are a good call especially if you find your neighbors reaching for Warsuns.

Your strategy card, strategy should be a responsive one based on what public objectives that come up. Think about what you need the absolute most and take the card that gets you there. As a rule, the Saar do well with anything that gives them resources as their resource poor planets put them in a disadvantage compared to all other races so Trade or Production are never bad choices for you.

In the end game you above any other race can very bravely take the biggest risk as controlling your homeworld is not a requirement of winning, hence every point you earn is in the bank. Bunch up your Space Docks which should have 5 fighters on it each (15 fighters) and use them as part of your attack force when making your final moves. Remember your space docks DO NOT count towards fleet supply and they only cost 1 resource more than regular carriers so abuse them. Naturally you don’t want to risk them too early so only use them for combat in the final moments, but definitely use them.

Beating the Saar
The Saar are really not that tough to beat. While they have an advantage in the early part of the game if they can manage to expand quickly, they generally see a decline of power as they go compared to the rise of most races. Striking at them early during their initial expansion while they are still vulnerable is the simplest way to push them out of contention and more often than not you can push right onto their homeworld taking out their space dock(s) which almost certainly spells doom for them as their strategy depends so heavily on them. Of all the races they are the easiest to take out militarily, but you really have to question the logic of attacking a weak race as their road to contention is a lot tougher than other stronger races. If allowed to blossom however go for Warsuns, it’s a tough tech for them to get and in all likely hood when you face them in the later part of the game you’re warsuns will make short work of there spacedocks and fighter swarms. More often then not the easiest way to beat the Saar is let them be, make friends with them and use their vulnerability and fear of attack at the negotiation table to gang up on someone else.

Bullet Point Strategies
· Expand early as much as you can taking full advantage of your starting conditions and special ability to gain trade goods.
· Avoid early round conflict above all else, its far better with the Saar to fall behind on points then it is to be weakened militarly as even though you don’t need your homeworld to win you still need ten victory points, a tough feat to pull out if you have a bad opening rounds with the Saar.
· Get your racial technology early and pile on those fighters on your space docks.
· Take Mecatol Rex in the first or second round if you can and defend it heavily, if you can’t get it without a confrontation with another player, forgo it.
· Bunch up those Space Docks in a central location, and take advantage of the fact that the fighters on those Space Docks do not count towards fleet supply, especially in combination with your racial tech that offers a potential 15 fighters with 3 spacedocks.
· Trade and Production are your best friends as you are likely to be short on resources in most games due to your resource poor homeworlds.
· Avoid confrontations for as long as you can, but prepare yourself for war from a central location (where your space docks are located).

Rules Clarifications
I often see posts on the FFG forums about how powerful the Saar are and how difficult they are to beat because of their ability to have very strong opening rounds and their strength of their space dock ability to move. Unfortunately almost in every case the reasons behind this perceived strength is that people are simply not following the rules. The Saar above any other race suffers from rules complications and unfortunately if you follow the rules correctly you will find most of the maneuvers people win with are actually quite illegal. Here is a list of things you have to remember about the Saar.

1. Space Docks do not count as ships: That means all ship related rules do not apply to them including Warfare II alert token, action cards that improve ship movement (In the silence of space for example) nor can they ever retreat.
2. You can’t build and move: A common oversight is that people forget that the Saar cannot move and build in space docks period even if you remove an activation counter in a system and even with production primary or secondary. Effectively when you move a space dock it counts has having been built that turn and all the same rules apply.
3. Saar production limit is 4, planets have no relevance and yes building 2 fighters with 1 resource counts has building 2 units. Both are common errors made in Saar games.
4. Saar Space Docks are not protected by planets and cannot be blocked: This means that if all the ships in a system are destroyed, the space dock is destroyed regardless of ground forces or PDS’s, unlike the space docks of all other races which only count as blockading when all ships in a system are destroyed but the planet in which the Space Dock resides have ground forces.

Adjusting The Saar
The Saar when played according to the rules are considerably weaker than if you overlook some of the drawbacks of their Space Docks. This is why most recommended changes I have seen are built around fixing the Saar Space Docks. Here are some suggestions.
· Mobile Fortress: The Saar Space Docks can move and build in the same round, they can also retreat. – This effectively gives them the ability most people give to them accidently anyway by not following the Saar Space Dock rules correctly. It makes defending space docks a bit easier and more effective in combat.

· Space Dock Landing: Place a trade counter on any planet in which a Saar space docks resides. This Space dock looses its ability to move permanently , however it gains +3 to its maximum capacity. You may only have one space dock that has landed in play at any time. All normal space dock rules apply to this space dock rather then the special rules of Saar Space docks. – This allows the Saar to have at least one decent production center which is often part of the problem with the Saar who have a capacity of 4 resulting in an excess of resources quite often.

Conclusion
The Clan of Saar is another pretty tough race to win with, especially at a table with experienced players. Still unlike the previous three races in our countdown the Saar certainly have useful abilities that really change the dynamic of the game and last throughout the game most notably their mobile space docks. To me playing the Saar is a challenge without the sense of ‘I have no chance’ feeling you might have with the N’orr or Xxcha. This race definitely belongs in the hands of an experienced player and is not recommended for novices, however outside of removing them from selection if playing with Simulated Early Turns I think they should be left in as they can really be great fun to play.