Weapons 1 is absurd weak

Fights early in the game are almost pointless, because the defender bonus gives the defender +100% if both have weapons 1. Its like an attacker with weapons 10 against a defender with weapons 19. On the other hand the formula for weapons is very simple and it would be inconvinient to introduce a more complex formula. I would suggest to use weapons 2 as a default setting for all games. The problem is much less severe with weapons 2.

That’s a really good reason to avoid fights that early. For sure check in with your neighbors and try to make nice. Battles that early in the game only help somebody else

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in my last game I started in a corner of nowhere with a few planets and one neighbour with twice as many planets as me. Research was crazy expensive. Only way to expand was to attack him. This game doesnt work without expansion. I could have wait for weapons 2 - which would be risky in its own way. So I went for industry instead. With weapons 1 one needs at least twice the industry-production just to break even with an opponent.

Each game is different though - if you were stuck in the middle you’d be very grateful of having that early defensive bonus.

Ask anyone who has played several games and they’ll tell you this aspect is well tuned.

Sounds like you were dealt a really weak hand. Which suggests that you can’t break out of your corner without some help. No matter what your weps level.

While true that Weapons 1 is weak for offense, but I believe that is not the main point of why this game is designed this way.

IMHO, I believe that the Weapons +1 defenders’ bonus is intended to prevent easily wiping out less experienced newer players, and allow them a chance to stay in the game longer, and give them learning opportunities, and make allies. Sort of like @PandaBear says, stay in the game long enough with luck and charisma, and maybe a third player will help turn the tide and attack that threatening second player.

More experienced stronger players could join a custom game that has a higher starting Weapons.

Yep, just as the others have suggested. The weapons 1 thing is by design to prevent the tank rush.

There are a few situation were you might be dealt a bad hand of stars, but in these situation its expected that a player turns to diplomacy rather than violence to get them out of the corner.

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Ditto what @JayKyburz - @xjhdexter - @PandaBear - @wfmcgillicuddy said: starting weapons out at level 1 gives the player a chance to expand and makes sense in many games - I actually suggest allowed the starting weapons to be zero in this thread! :wink:

Remember those are just options for setting up the game - many custom games are started with higher weapons which allows more balanced combat earlier in the game. Obviously good if you are on the offensive, bad if you are defensive.

True that - I’m playing a custom game at the moment where weapons start at 16! Although that sounds absurd, it’s working surprisingly well with the 24h jump and 48h turn rules (and 20 industry on home stars). It’s also kind of a nice change not to worry about weapons research for the time being.

I’ve never played a game starting at Weapons 16 - that would be pretty wild, especially with 24 jump since basically no defensive bonus and BAMM, they show up at your doorstop.

But yea, cool it doesn’t turn into a Weapons-Fest … too many games end up that way - locking 'em or making 'em very expensive to research is one way to address.