by flying_neko
Please check me on my understanding of the "Grey Planet Hopping" tactic. I have read about it elsewhere but it wasn't specified in detail, so I had to reconstruct it on my own.Using a Move action, I have previously sent one or more Ships in a hex containing a Grey Planet or an Orbital.
1) At the end of each combat phase in which no Influence Discs of mine are on the hex, I place an Influence Disc on this hex (following the "INFLUENCING HEXES" rule on page 21).
2) At the beginning of the Upkeep phase, I place one cube from a track of my choice to the Grey Planet, using an available Colony Ship.
3) Later during the Upkeep phase, I use Bankruptcy to take back the influence disc and return the Population Cube I have placed on step (2) on a different track.
I seem to have achieved swapping a cube from a track to another track using no action at all, just an idle Ship in the hex and an available Colony Ship. The hex hasn't got an Influence Disc anymore, so the cycle can be repeated on all rounds.
Since the production of the tracks is not linear, this can even boost total production for a race. In an extreme example, instead of producing 12 Money (6 cubes) and 10 Materials (5 cubes) one could produce 28 Money (11 cubes) and 2 Materials (0 cubes).
The strategy seems to be particularly good for Terrans, who can trade back in the resource they have depleted: the additional 28-12=16 money can become exactly the 8 "missing" materials, or 8 Science, or stay 16 money for extra actions. Getting to this point might require two Grey Planets and/or Orbitals, but it seems possible.
Is this legal? Is this intended by the game creators? Or is this an "exploit"?
The two strategies of "Tactical Bankruptcy" and "Grey Planet Hopping" seem to me to be intended, implied, but not explicitly mentioned
. Same goes with the "Virtual Fleet" one. Fascinating game.