#gaiaproject

Four of us played Gaia Project, and I came in 3rd with 96 points. First had 101, second had 98, and fourth trailed in the mid 80s. I have played this at least three times in the past, likely more, but it had been a couple years since I played it.

The game was interesting because the scoring objectives in the first few rounds were more late game oriented. I made many mistakes that, in total, probably cost me a win.

I played Bal T'aks (orange), which didn't feel particularly weak or strong. The free QIC (green cube) each round was valuable, but the initial navigation tech drawback was a real disadvantage. The first two or three rounds I used my QIC to increase navigation distance by two to try to terraform key plants before other people did. I potentially rushed this, since last time I played I was utterly destroyed by making the wrong assumptions about where other players should, and thus would terraform. That bad memory probably caused me to play too conservatively. I'm still not sure I was wrong to play it safe, there were other more critical errors.

One mistake that was clear a couple turns after making it, was not generating 2 energy for 1 victory point (VP) halfway through the game. Later in the round, I could have gotten Ore for 4VP energy, which would have likely translated to more than 1VP by game end.

I ended one round with no money and no money generation. This could have been disastrous, but I ended up getting a bonus tile with 4 gold. If it weren't for this, this mistake may have left me in last place.

The biggest strategic error I made was not putting more work towards the end game scoring objectives (buildings on most tiles, and building on green planets). The green planets ended with me in a three way tie for second. I think it was possible for me to tie first on this if I had prioritized it.

It is worth mentioning that I could not figure out how to "properly play" my race. I didn't focus on upgrading the gaiaformers since the player who started before me in turn order also decided to focus on those and take purple planets near me. Also, six power to deploy those seem expensive when the power can be used for resources, and I only started with four.

My early rush to terraform the "easy" (single terraform level) planets also left my buildings such that I needed 4 and 5 satellites to form federations. This led to later than ideal federation founding. Earlier would have let me get more resources to leverage, or the 12 pt tile which were all taken by the other three players.

The last play I remember thinking seemed suboptimal, was upgrading terraforming research once. While I am sure I chose it because I needed the ore at the time, I never moved past level one to get the reduced cost terraforming. Leveling any other research track to generate income, or move another towards to top for more end game VP would have likely been better.

I didn't start leveling the economy tech until mid-way through the game, but it seemed very powerful. It might be worth investing more in early next time.

Takeaways:

-Never leave yourself without money generation, even if that means ending a round with unused resources

-Focus on the two end game scoring objectives

-Be mindful of building locations in regards to federation forming and how many satellites will be required

-Generating power at the expense of VP is often better than expected