Hi Colin! It’s awesome to see you continue this series! I’ll write comments as I watch! Setup: Minor rules mistake that basically everyone does: Nyr counts as one of the four starting sectors. I could have written this more clearly in the solo rules. It doesn’t change much (and sometimes you will get 5 or even 6), but it keeps the starting setup a bit smaller, leaving more to explore. Missions and powers, Swamp Rat, VRX heat sink: I’m not sure if you realize this, but the second part of the power you’ve chosen is particularly good at helping you self-destruct, which is relevant for your campaign goal! Missions and Powers didn’t exist when I designed the Embers solo campaign, but I knew this power would combo well with that particular goal. To me, that’s cool and still balanced, since taking Swamp Rat now (one of the best Tier 1 ships IMO) will limit your future ship choices in the campaign. It will be interesting to see if/when you realize this in the video (though maybe you already realized it at the time you picked the power and I couldn’t tell). Turn 1: it was awesome you were so close to being destroyed! I think I would have risked going through the Kemplar planetary shields so you could have completed this mission this turn OR been destroyed. Given your campaign goal, it’s basically win-win. And it’s cheaper to heal by blowing yourself up than paying 1000cr! Turn 2: Seeing the efficient start to turn 2 (perfect impulse for 6 to get exploration token and end on mission point), maybe I’m wrong about what’s best from last turn! :) Getting the FP from the mission is nice, plus the 1000cr balances out. And then… wow! Impressive. :) Turn 3: Loved everything about this turn! Well played. Just beautiful to watch, especially that blind jump right around Tig. You probably did this on purpose, but you can use your impulse even when stranded. So even if the nebula had gone seriously wrong, you probably could have gotten out via impulse. Turn 4: I didn’t expect you to go the combat route here, but it seemed to work out pretty well! Nicely done. As a note, since the VRX heat sink says “As an Action,” you can take that action as many times as you want. So you could have damaged your blasters twice. (The subtitle has the word “shield,” but I think you meant blasters, since you properly caught that you can activate the outfit with multiple markers simultaneously.) NPCs attacking you: VERY IMPORTANT: You can re-arm your shields after each attack!! So, you could have used 2d6 shields on the first attack, then spent 2 energy to immediately re-arm them, get attacked a second time, roll 2d6 shields again, spend 2 energy to re-arm them again. So, at the start of your turn, you’ll still have 4 armed markers. Turn 5: another strong turn. You absolutely won legitimately. You could have used VRX to self-destruct too, but you never needed it. :) Great game, and great video!!
Ira! Thanks again for taking time out of your day to watch, this game is SO GREAT!! I can't get enough of it! Just finishing up recording the 3rd mission and glad I saw your note on the beginning sectors. I did it right for mission 3!! I don't know WHY I didn't realize I could self-destruct. . . I mean I knew that just chose not too. . HAHA! Thank you for pointing out I could use 2 shield and block EACH TIME! It would have cost a bunch of energy and ended up working out but good to know when I DON'T want to die 4 times.
Hi Colin, this game looks awesome. All the art of the tiles, cards and minatures reminds me how sci-fi and space was looking on movies in the 80's. I love the theme. Cool game
WOW,this is Soooo entertaining. Keep em' coming. I would continue on the impulse track. I've not started a campaign yet. Living vicariously through you. 👍👍
Two rules goofs this time! One on Combat (roll all dice together not one attack at a time, see comment from Sean K below). This probably made two piercers a bit overkill! Two, when you spawn your ship at the start of the game you don't roll a die, you choose where to spawn yourself. But this was a great video, thanks for doing it! Keep 'em comin' Colin😁
Oh man! OK so for the combat I technically did it right if I did 2 individual actions but that's just silly haha!! Thanks so much for watching I'll make notes!!
@@OneStopCoopShop You MIGHT do it as two actions if you think you've a pretty good chance of destroying the target with one attack (or if you only need to attack the target and not kill it) as it could then save you an action marker - use the second action if you get an unlucky roll!
@@jonathanwest6266 Exactly, and that was the goal with the second attack was to not kill the Scoundrel so we will go with that :) Still I will make a note and thanks for all the help!!
Thanks for doing a second playthrough! I had heard about how, in solo mode, you have different victory requirements each time, and I had also heard that one scenario requires you destroy your own ship 4 times. I was originally a bit concerned with this, as that sounded kind of silly and unthematic. Seeing this specific scenario played out, however, has not dulled my interest in the game. It still looked like quite an adventure! Two playthroughs in and I think I'm convinced to add (this) one to my Arydia Kickstarter. Thanks for both playthroughs!
Yeah!!! So glad you enjoyed it, was a freaking blast playing and trying to figure out the puzzle of destruction while also obtaining 10 fame. Appreciate you watching both and commenting!!
I both laughed and cried when your wormhole collapsed. Would have been a different game if those had stayed open longer but that’s the beauty of this game. Can’t wait to watch the rest of the series.
At 44:55 you shoot the Cinder-Beard ship that has no shields, and roll and 8 with your blasters, then you proceed to add 4 to the damage, I assume because of the Piercer on your blaster. The Piercer reduces defense, but not below 0. So I believe that damage should have just been 8, not 12. Ultimately I don't think it mattered because the Sellsword came in and did 11 damage, so Cnider-Beard would still have blown up, but I thought you'd like to know about this. Embers rule book on page 6 states: Activate: When you make an attack using a Shield Piercer, shields rolled against it are reduced by -4. This ability can stack with multiple Piercers, but cannot reduce defensive value below 0. Also in the example, they show that. Again from page 6 Example: You make an attack by placing two markers: one on the normal Use Space of a d6 blaster, and one on a Piercer attached to the same d6 blaster, and your opponent defends with 1d8 shield. You roll a 1 and a 3, your opponent rolls a 3. Your Piercer reduces your opponent’s shield defense: 3 - 4 = 0 (cannot go below 0) total defense value. You now assign combat damage as normal (4 attack - 0 defense = 4 damage).
33:30 when attacking the scoundrel, since you declared 2 activations of the blaster for the attack, I think you would roll two D8 against just one D6 for the NPC's defense. (with a combined -8 to the shield roll for using 2 piercer mods). If instead you had separated the attack into 2 separate attacks, then the NPC could roll the D6 against each attack (-4 to the roll for the piercer mod)
Yes to this. Look at combat rules - choose how many outfits to use in attacking, defender chooses how many shields to use, then ALL dice are rolled simultaneously.
@@OneStopCoopShop No problem! It's helpful against the NPC's sometimes, because in the right situation you can take a risk and only spend one activation to shoot once if you have a chance to destroy them, then you could still have all 3 other activations for your engines. Other times you just want to improve the chances you'll kill them, so you activate multiple to ensure more damage.
What an amazing playthrough. I finally got the game setup last night and did my first handful of turns so I understand how the game works. I am just about to try my first true solo game tonight!
@@OneStopCoopShop Played through my first game on easy and I barely won. Lots of asterisks on the game as I am sure I got a lot of rules wrong. Great game, though. Still trying to find a complete player aid for solo. Everything I have seen is missing some major stuff. I think I will need to attempt my own.
48:36 you forgot to roll for debris field damage. Personally I randomly draw a mission objective when I play, which probably helps explain why I always tend lose a few times fairly early lol. But it's a nice challenge.
Thanks for watching Derek! If I understand your question, I already had blown up the wormholes so he would not use spawn points, he would have to fly normally. Thanks!
Hi Colin, do you still have the names of the soundtracks that you have used in this videos? I know you have shared a link to the music platform, but I can't find the exact samples there. The music is very cool.
I've watched the first scenario and in this, did you change your ship? Or continue from the previous scenario? (iirc, GAIDEN). Did you change the shin in between scenario 1 and 2? Thanks. Note: I haven't try the game, just interested on the game and compare between this and Star Wars Outer Rim.
@@OneStopCoopShop Ah...1) Wish they had little tokens for the upgrades like that. 2) A few seconds later you say '8 plus the 4'....so that's where i was confused. But i don't think it mattered anyway. Great series, and I think i'm going to attempt the solo campaign myself. The expansion is a must get!
I think you can order it as an add on in the Arydia pledge manager on game found. No need to back the other game, just add Xia and the expansion to your cart and you’ll get it eventually.
It's not OOP, but it's a small studio and they're just printed a bit sporadically. The last printing was in fall 2020 but it got snapped up quick. He has a new project called Arydia that's in late pledge on Gamefound right now. You can also get Xia through that campaign.
If you're getting Xia through the Arydia campaign you need to get the Embers expansion, the game isn't complete without it. The other expansions are also nice, but not essential.
Hi Colin! It’s awesome to see you continue this series! I’ll write comments as I watch!
Setup: Minor rules mistake that basically everyone does: Nyr counts as one of the four starting sectors. I could have written this more clearly in the solo rules. It doesn’t change much (and sometimes you will get 5 or even 6), but it keeps the starting setup a bit smaller, leaving more to explore.
Missions and powers, Swamp Rat, VRX heat sink: I’m not sure if you realize this, but the second part of the power you’ve chosen is particularly good at helping you self-destruct, which is relevant for your campaign goal! Missions and Powers didn’t exist when I designed the Embers solo campaign, but I knew this power would combo well with that particular goal. To me, that’s cool and still balanced, since taking Swamp Rat now (one of the best Tier 1 ships IMO) will limit your future ship choices in the campaign. It will be interesting to see if/when you realize this in the video (though maybe you already realized it at the time you picked the power and I couldn’t tell).
Turn 1: it was awesome you were so close to being destroyed! I think I would have risked going through the Kemplar planetary shields so you could have completed this mission this turn OR been destroyed. Given your campaign goal, it’s basically win-win. And it’s cheaper to heal by blowing yourself up than paying 1000cr!
Turn 2: Seeing the efficient start to turn 2 (perfect impulse for 6 to get exploration token and end on mission point), maybe I’m wrong about what’s best from last turn! :) Getting the FP from the mission is nice, plus the 1000cr balances out. And then… wow! Impressive. :)
Turn 3: Loved everything about this turn! Well played. Just beautiful to watch, especially that blind jump right around Tig. You probably did this on purpose, but you can use your impulse even when stranded. So even if the nebula had gone seriously wrong, you probably could have gotten out via impulse.
Turn 4: I didn’t expect you to go the combat route here, but it seemed to work out pretty well! Nicely done. As a note, since the VRX heat sink says “As an Action,” you can take that action as many times as you want. So you could have damaged your blasters twice. (The subtitle has the word “shield,” but I think you meant blasters, since you properly caught that you can activate the outfit with multiple markers simultaneously.)
NPCs attacking you: VERY IMPORTANT: You can re-arm your shields after each attack!! So, you could have used 2d6 shields on the first attack, then spent 2 energy to immediately re-arm them, get attacked a second time, roll 2d6 shields again, spend 2 energy to re-arm them again. So, at the start of your turn, you’ll still have 4 armed markers.
Turn 5: another strong turn. You absolutely won legitimately. You could have used VRX to self-destruct too, but you never needed it. :)
Great game, and great video!!
Ira! Thanks again for taking time out of your day to watch, this game is SO GREAT!! I can't get enough of it! Just finishing up recording the 3rd mission and glad I saw your note on the beginning sectors. I did it right for mission 3!! I don't know WHY I didn't realize I could self-destruct. . . I mean I knew that just chose not too. . HAHA! Thank you for pointing out I could use 2 shield and block EACH TIME! It would have cost a bunch of energy and ended up working out but good to know when I DON'T want to die 4 times.
First time using Wormholes - immediately rolls a 1. Only Colin can accomplish this.
Great play! Loving the series.
Buhahaha! That was glorious. Had a way to open the entire galaxy.. and instead gets sucked in by a wormhole! Thanks for watching my man!
@@OneStopCoopShop first and only roll for wormhole, that was hilarious 🤣
I laugh so much when you rolled a 1 at the wormhole!! Great serie, I can't wait to see the all adventure.
I mean that was just cruel and oddly helpful hahaha!! Thanks so much for watching!!
I'm totally hooked on this series I can't wait for more adventures.
More is coming, I can't get enough of this game!!
Awesome! Every one of your play throughs make me more excited for my future delivery, hopefully this fall!
Great series! Love the quick editing, still the best solo plays out there.
Thanks so much for the kind words and for watching!
I just love the theme and presentation of this game, it looks really immersive.
Hi Colin, this game looks awesome. All the art of the tiles, cards and minatures reminds me how sci-fi and space was looking on movies in the 80's. I love the theme. Cool game
Thank you, thank you, thank you. You are making 2022 a year to remember! Absolutely love this series 😊
Thank you so much Brad for watching!!
Wait?!?! Solo mode for Xia ?? Oh snap! Thanks for showing this, I'm going to try !! And thanks for another amazing playthrough, Colin !
Oh yeah! It is actually QUITE good and the solo campaign is where it's at! Thanks for watching!!
You made my morning! Looking forward to the next one. I'd say take the healing upgrade and face the meteor shower.
Oooooo I like that idea! Thanks for the suggestion and for watching!
I like the going from space rat to super murder machine. Definitely thematically appropriate for someone with a death wish haha. Great job!
Haha!! Yeah it was a lot of fun to take some ships down!! Thanks for watching!!
WOW,this is Soooo entertaining. Keep em' coming. I would continue on the impulse track. I've not started a campaign yet. Living vicariously through you. 👍👍
You gotta break it out man! It's so worth it and satisfying!! Thanks for the suggestion!!
That was quick! Excited to watch another playthrough!
Thanks so much for watching!!
Two rules goofs this time! One on Combat (roll all dice together not one attack at a time, see comment from Sean K below). This probably made two piercers a bit overkill!
Two, when you spawn your ship at the start of the game you don't roll a die, you choose where to spawn yourself.
But this was a great video, thanks for doing it! Keep 'em comin' Colin😁
Oh man! OK so for the combat I technically did it right if I did 2 individual actions but that's just silly haha!! Thanks so much for watching I'll make notes!!
@@OneStopCoopShop You MIGHT do it as two actions if you think you've a pretty good chance of destroying the target with one attack (or if you only need to attack the target and not kill it) as it could then save you an action marker - use the second action if you get an unlucky roll!
@@jonathanwest6266 Exactly, and that was the goal with the second attack was to not kill the Scoundrel so we will go with that :) Still I will make a note and thanks for all the help!!
Thanks for doing a second playthrough! I had heard about how, in solo mode, you have different victory requirements each time, and I had also heard that one scenario requires you destroy your own ship 4 times. I was originally a bit concerned with this, as that sounded kind of silly and unthematic. Seeing this specific scenario played out, however, has not dulled my interest in the game. It still looked like quite an adventure!
Two playthroughs in and I think I'm convinced to add (this) one to my Arydia Kickstarter. Thanks for both playthroughs!
Yeah!!! So glad you enjoyed it, was a freaking blast playing and trying to figure out the puzzle of destruction while also obtaining 10 fame. Appreciate you watching both and commenting!!
Great job! I was hoping for “ramming speed” but jumping into a star was pretty epic too!
Haha ramm those ships!! Thanks for watching!
Yes!! Round 2! Keep it going for sure! 🕺
Can't stop won't stop! Thanks for watching!
I both laughed and cried when your wormhole collapsed. Would have been a different game if those had stayed open longer but that’s the beauty of this game. Can’t wait to watch the rest of the series.
That was so good!! I couldn't believe it. Thanks so much for watching! Scenario 6 will be coming out Wednesday!!
At 44:55 you shoot the Cinder-Beard ship that has no shields, and roll and 8 with your blasters, then you proceed to add 4 to the damage, I assume because of the Piercer on your blaster. The Piercer reduces defense, but not below 0. So I believe that damage should have just been 8, not 12. Ultimately I don't think it mattered because the Sellsword came in and did 11 damage, so Cnider-Beard would still have blown up, but I thought you'd like to know about this.
Embers rule book on page 6 states:
Activate: When you make an attack using a Shield Piercer, shields rolled against it are reduced by -4. This ability can stack with multiple Piercers, but cannot reduce defensive value below 0.
Also in the example, they show that. Again from page 6
Example: You make an attack by placing two markers: one on the normal Use Space of a d6 blaster, and one on a Piercer attached to the same d6 blaster, and your opponent defends with 1d8 shield. You roll a 1 and a 3, your opponent rolls a 3. Your Piercer reduces your opponent’s shield defense: 3 - 4 = 0 (cannot go below 0) total defense value. You now assign combat damage as normal (4 attack - 0 defense = 4 damage).
Thanks!
That was a great playthrough. Can’t wait for the next in this campaign.
I'm in the midst of recording it now! Thanks for watching!!
33:30 when attacking the scoundrel, since you declared 2 activations of the blaster for the attack, I think you would roll two D8 against just one D6 for the NPC's defense. (with a combined -8 to the shield roll for using 2 piercer mods). If instead you had separated the attack into 2 separate attacks, then the NPC could roll the D6 against each attack (-4 to the roll for the piercer mod)
Yes to this. Look at combat rules - choose how many outfits to use in attacking, defender chooses how many shields to use, then ALL dice are rolled simultaneously.
Thank you both! Technically I could do each attack individually but that's silly. So I will make a note thanks!!
@@OneStopCoopShop No problem! It's helpful against the NPC's sometimes, because in the right situation you can take a risk and only spend one activation to shoot once if you have a chance to destroy them, then you could still have all 3 other activations for your engines. Other times you just want to improve the chances you'll kill them, so you activate multiple to ensure more damage.
Totally! I appreciate this it will help on the next runs!!
Excited about this!
Cheers.
Thanks for watching!!
Yaaaasssss, thank you for continuing! :)
Trust me my pleasure!!
52:22 Yeah, people will be telling the story of the guy who threw himself into the sun multiple times for no reason for while, I imagine lol.
Hahaha!! The kamikaze ship captain!
That ending was epic!!
Yes! Thanks so much for watching!!
So after watching the first video I was hooked. Got everything I could for the game and I'm super keen to get it to the table.
Slap that game on the table you won't be sorry!!
What an amazing playthrough. I finally got the game setup last night and did my first handful of turns so I understand how the game works. I am just about to try my first true solo game tonight!
That is so awesome!! Have loads of fun exploring the 'verse!
@@OneStopCoopShop Played through my first game on easy and I barely won. Lots of asterisks on the game as I am sure I got a lot of rules wrong. Great game, though. Still trying to find a complete player aid for solo. Everything I have seen is missing some major stuff. I think I will need to attempt my own.
I feel like there is a good one on BGG but of course I can't find it :( I hope you make a good one and post it on BGG!!
This is fast becoming my fav. Thanks for sharing.
Same here Eric, the variability and the emergent story just keeps bringing me back!
@@OneStopCoopShop I hope to see more.👍
Hoping to record session 3 this weekend!
48:36 you forgot to roll for debris field damage. Personally I randomly draw a mission objective when I play, which probably helps explain why I always tend lose a few times fairly early lol. But it's a nice challenge.
I did great catch! Also I am playing on normal not hard just cause it's on camera. So that's also making a big difference
Woop! Thanks for doing more Xia!
Can't stop won't stop!
A fun way to rack up damage is to ram ships. It’s unblockable to your own (attacker’s) ship. Fun video!
Haha great idea!!!
The campaign makes each game different, but the core mechanics let/encourage you to pivot within a single game.
Yeah im very impressed with the campaign it is a blast! Great way to explore the game!
love it!!!
Thanks for watching and commenting!!
18:57 I think he would have used the spawn point, right? Great series! Really hope you continue on!
Thanks for watching Derek! If I understand your question, I already had blown up the wormholes so he would not use spawn points, he would have to fly normally. Thanks!
Ohhhh of course 🤦
Love it please make more
Planning on it! Thanks for watching!
Huzzah! More Xia!
Whoot! Thanks for watching!
Hi Colin, do you still have the names of the soundtracks that you have used in this videos? I know you have shared a link to the music platform, but I can't find the exact samples there. The music is very cool.
I've watched the first scenario and in this, did you change your ship? Or continue from the previous scenario? (iirc, GAIDEN). Did you change the shin in between scenario 1 and 2? Thanks. Note: I haven't try the game, just interested on the game and compare between this and Star Wars Outer Rim.
Yup each scenario you have to choose a different ship!
@@OneStopCoopShop ah so that's why. Would it be better (thematic wise) if you would keep it? Are the scenarios connected one from another?
Man I want Xia SOOOOO bad. I fear I won't be able to afford it before I move out of the country and afterwards that I can't buy it.
Oh no!! I hope you can find a got it's worth it!!
17:25 after dropping off the captain in need on Kemplar II, would you get to draw 3 mission cards as a minor action?
Yes I will make a note that's a minor action. Pretty sure I was blown up so it didn't matter
Questions, because I'm still learning.
Why are you getting impulse 6? at 32:10?
Why +4 on the blaster at 45:00? +2 cause of the damage right?
Remember I have the campaign upgrade of +3 impulse, and I said plus 2 to the roll not plus 4! Thanks for watching!
@@OneStopCoopShop Ah...1) Wish they had little tokens for the upgrades like that. 2) A few seconds later you say '8 plus the 4'....so that's where i was confused. But i don't think it mattered anyway. Great series, and I think i'm going to attempt the solo campaign myself. The expansion is a must get!
Ohh that is because I have the shield piercers! The game is SO GOOD I hope you pull it out and play! Thanks for watching!
@@OneStopCoopShop Sorry...but doesn't that just reduce the shield of the enemy? Cider Beard had no shield. Anyways, don't think it mattered.
Ah yup good point!
01:10 The setup rules say: "...lining up the edge symbols to the previously laid Sector...". Do you "house rules" to not do this? :)
Check the solo rules you don't have to do that for solo!
@@OneStopCoopShop Thanks Colin. Btw, did you backed Arydia from the same publisher?
That was a no brainer after watching Steve's playthrough! Did you?
@@OneStopCoopShop I consider to late pledge, but I'm in the same boat as Steve regarding permission from my "better half" :)
I hear you on that!!
Related to my last....Is this coming back or is there a print and play versio ?
I don't think there is a print and play version but I do think a reprint is on the way with Arydia!
@@OneStopCoopShop A reprint would be nice as Ebay prices seem insane
I think you can order it as an add on in the Arydia pledge manager on game found. No need to back the other game, just add Xia and the expansion to your cart and you’ll get it eventually.
Yup that is right!
Likes x 1000
Thanks so much for watching! Recording the next one this weekend I hope!
Isn't this game OOP? why would you do this to us?
I'm sorry! There is a ton on the second hand market?
It's not OOP, but it's a small studio and they're just printed a bit sporadically. The last printing was in fall 2020 but it got snapped up quick. He has a new project called Arydia that's in late pledge on Gamefound right now. You can also get Xia through that campaign.
If you're getting Xia through the Arydia campaign you need to get the Embers expansion, the game isn't complete without it. The other expansions are also nice, but not essential.
Thanks for that Will!!