Many people label Exodus: Proxima Centauri as ameritrash, a game in which fighting is the highway to victory. Besides fighting, there are several more way of accumulating victory points and the expansion will bring a few extra. Let's discuss them one by one, highlighting the changes introduced by the expansion.
Space combat
The expansion brings almost no changes here, the winner of every space combat will gain points for every enemy ship destroyed in that combat - and remember that in Exodus everyone is an enemy. However, players may end up sacrificing Dark Raider to deal damage before combat and without awarding anyone points with this action.
Centaurian Resistance cards
In the base game, a player had to make a choice after defeating the Resistance: keep the card for Victory Points or discard it for an immediate benefit. In the expansion, after a player has researched Quantum Reflection, he will be able to gain the benefit and the points.
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Politics
In Exodus, the holder of the Chancellor title would get 5 points at the end of the game, the Vice-Chancellor would get 3 and so on. The expansion allows one player to gain extra points by having a relevant political role. On top of that, with Fringe Politics the same player will gain points at the end of the game for each active law. This is part of our aim for great asymmetric game play and a way to make politics more attractive throughout the game, enhancing politics as a strategic layer of the play.
Trading
The economy used to be simply means to an end. With the expansion, one player will be allowed to trade resources for Victory Points. I will not say more, this is a part of the game which requires more testing, so the trade rate between CP and VP is not final, but it is going to happen. A player less inclined to fight will have the option to... fight just a little less and harvest a little more.
Research
I guess this is the part which everyone was expecting. Compared to other established 4x games, Exodus refused the "techers" the ability to invest heavily in research and thus achieve victory. The question "why?" was on everyone's lips every time we played Exodus in convention or in private. We wanted to keep the base game simple and deliver to those who wanted a classic combat oriented fast empire builder.
The design paradigm has changed when we decided to build this expansion, hence the introduction of points for research. There are two technologies influencing this path to victory. Fringe Science will allow every player to score points for each technology they have researched with a nominal cost above 11 CP. However, this technology is available to a single player who makes a decision which will affect everyone. The Technological Singularity will allow one the player to gain VP for the total nominal cost of his technologies.
I left space domination and control of the planets at the end because the expansion bring no changes to this part of the game.
Overall, the expansion brings new concepts on the path to victory, but neither one of the "new ways" is self sufficient. Exodus will remain a complex game and victory will be achieved with a mix of strategies and best tactical decisions.
If you missed the first episodes of our preview of the expansion, here they are:
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