Star Chamber

Sam discovers a new love for star-gazing...

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Was Santa good to you? Did he bring you some of those shiny new games with the huge marketing campaigns? Some highly enjoyable shooter that lasts less time than un-refrigerated turkey, or maybe a film tie-in for a movie that was released last summer and kind of sucked anyway? How about something from EA Nation, your one-stop gaming country? Have you finished these titles and are now looking for something more involving, something with a touch more longetivity then your average new year's resolution, maybe even something that has been made with love rather than money as an inspiration? If so then I have just the thing for you. You've probably never heard anything about it before yet it is an invigorating little game that works brilliantly as a counter to this bloated season and will still be on your hard drive in at least a month's time. Ladies and gents, I present to you Star Chamber.

In the dark, confused? Well Star Chamber has no marketing team that has been pumping and hyping it up since the last time the US had a real election. Its look is functionally beautiful and in no way misses a dedicated art team of twenty who spent the entirety of 2003 diligently probing the minds of Frank Drake and other SETI luminaries so as to try and get the best idea as to what alien life may look like. Sadly there has been no effort to transform the recorded music of the spheres into a symphony to unite the human race in peace and goodwill but that too doesn't matter as this is a game all about the gameplay. And a fine beast it is for it too.

Created as the debut title for Nayantara Studios by a team of four people, Star Chamber is one of a growing number of CCGs, or Collectible Card Games. Star Chamber eschews the goblins and wizards of most CCGs by setting the proceedings in the captivating deepness of outer space. This means that the developers can merge one of my favourite genres, the 4X game, with a CCG mechanism. In essence this means we have the offspring of Magic: The Gathering and Master of Orion. The 4X side of things has been pared down to its simplest parts with the research side of things abandoned in favour of powers granted to you by the cards in your deck. Each player takes their turn simultaneously which cuts down on the waiting and in my experience games flowed along very smoothly. Civ 3 multiplayer this ain't.

The main action takes place on the Star Map. Once you begin a game this is what you will see; a black background dotted with barren, industrial and artefact worlds, two Homeworlds and the Star Chamber. There may also be some nebulae or asteroids. Each astral body is linked together by dotted lines of varying length. Some bodies are only one jump away, others are up to seven. These jump lanes are the only way of travelling between planets. At your Homeworld you will start with one scout ship, one citizen and one hero. Fifteen build points await your command here as well. Your Homeworld is the most important planet you own as here you can build quickest and here you will lose the game if your foe destroys your starbase and takes over your planet. This is a military victory and is one of three ways that a game can be won using the standard rules. Of the three planet types the green artefact worlds are the most important. Capture one of these and you will gain two destiny points for each turn that it remains under your control. Somewhat confusingly at first your foe will lose two destiny points for each artefact world you control, and vice versa, so the capturing and retention of these worlds is very important. Once a player reaches thirty destiny points the game is won. When an artefact world first comes under your control you can choose which of the five technology types this particular world will generate for you each turn. Capture a foe's world and you can change the type of tech produced there. The little brown worlds are the industrial planets. Take one of these and you gain an extra place to build and launch ships and citizens as well as another place to play the large number of production-orientated cards in the game. The barren worlds can be upgraded from next to useless with some of the cards available and can then become important for more then just their military strategic value.

To take any of these worlds you will need to have influence. Your citizens each provide one influence point. There are a number of cards which will increase this number and some which will provide special units which can be deployed straight onto the map which also have influence. To take a world you must have more influence then the current occupier. If the world is un-owned then a single citizen will do. If you leave a citizen at each world it will work at full efficiency - relocate them elsewhere and you will only get half the production from that world, be it industry or destiny and a single enemy citizen will capture it from you without a fight. To take over an enemy world you must have more influence than your opponent and so must ship in enough citizens or other personae to win at the numbers game and bag yourself some new real estate. To cover the distance there are two main ship types. The scout is crap but quick, the cruiser slow but hard. There are other ships available such as the Dreadnought or the Carrier but to get these you will have to play a card. What you must always keep in the back of your mind is the importance of ferrying some people to the Star Chamber every six turns so they can provide you with votes in the Galactic Senate. There are three voting options. The third is for Peacekeepers, slow but reasonably powerful ships that will do the bidding of whoever wins this slot. The second option is a vote for destiny points. Win this and four destiny points will be added to your tally for your first victory, eight for the second and twelve for the third, (although I have never seen it go that far, yet). The first and most important option is to vote for the Power Play. Win three of these and you secure the diplomatic victory and you have won using the third and final available technique. Whoever wins three Power Plays, gets to 30 destiny points, or conquers their foe's Homeworld is the winner of that particular game of Star Chamber. Balancing the needs of your strategy while preventing the enemy from achieving theirs is one of the many joys to be had playing this game.