This is a tough series to do, lots of rules to check and recheck. Each episode takes about 6 - 8 hours to complete with filming, pausing to check rules, converting file formats, editing, more rule checking, and uploading; but I'm having a great time doing it.
5:48 this must have changed, because the word Cull does not appear in the living rules anymore and I see this in there. "Note: If you have more Bionts in Refugia than your Entropy Limit allows, you are never forced to remove any of them. Your Entropy Limit simply prohibits you from assigning more to Refugia. "
@@GrayBoardGamer True but its still the best playthough that I found to watch. So many people try doing handheld cameras and its just hard to watch for 6 hours for something like this.
I can't say that I'm overly impressed with the "living rules" concept. The box is so puny you can't really fix anything else in it, and I have no clue how often they're updated (and thus require reprinting). You are making the game make sense, though, so thanks you. (Also thanks for your work in the health industry!)
@@ChimeratAlpha nobody points a gun at your head about using update rules. You can use the original set of rules. As the game gets played many times people can have new ideas and the rules can be modifidified over time to improve the experience and it's mind blowing to me how can someone can find it a bad thing.
-At --20:00-- only one yellow catalyst was necessary to promote Superoxide Dismutase (its red cube is sitting on the cyanobacteria parasite).- I looked this up again in the Living Rules and you are right (the example given in the Second Edition booklet was wrong): the color of the catalyst spent must match the color of the unpromoted mutation. Also left out around 25:38 was the green parasite's turn to purchase (always after the host!). This oversight happened again later on, but you annotated the error. Thanks! You actually did not make a mistake at 51:15. The parasite purchase is made immediately after all _biont purchases of its host_ including those of the host's foreign genes. So, in the case of Amyloid Hydrolysis with its green foreign gene (biont), the Cyanobacteria makes its purchase only after red (native gene) _and_ green (the foreign gene) have completed their purchases. Since there is no defined order when a foreign gene should make its purchase, it seems perfectly legitimate to start green's purchase turn with its own organism (PNA Template) and then move on to the foreign gene in red's Amyloid Hydrolysis.
So at about 30:30, When you are resolving the smite event, my rulebook says that it loses the leftmost depicted mana cube (if it's not losing enzymes), But you remove disorganized before organized. So on the Alkaline card, instead of losing the blue cube, I think you were supposed to remove the green. No biggie, but I'm just wondering if I am correct?
Hey, there, it's me again. The Salmonella card has a mistake, on the side it has one blue and one green cube, it should have one blue and one yellow. You can consult it on BGG, again, it's not big deal, just to choose between specifity or metabolism (I personally prefer metabolism). Very good work, keep on going!
Also, I know that you've played this game such a long time ago and I realize you probably don't know these answers -- but maybe someone else can answer these questions! 😄 But I think during the game when a mutation lost its base cube, you removed the mutation (And later, I think in this video you talk about how you don't have to remove the mutation just because the base cube is gone as long as its promoted side still has a cube on it or something like that). I can't find anything about that (specifically, having to get rid of the mutation) in the rules anywhere it says that there is atrophy, but it doesn't say to remove the card. And I went over them a few times. Can someone tell me where that exists in the rules?
Okay I think the only place that that is mentioned is in the appendix which seems odd. But okay. So this little section has broken my brain. In your game you removed the red diseased cube. And it made things really complicated to remember about what to do with the mutation that it used to be attached to. So I'm wondering this: If the red cube came from a mutation with a shield protecting it from the strike, does that shield protect the diseased cube? I would think it would unless a cube being on the parasite negates every special ability on the mutation card. 🤔 Wow this rule book really is awful. 🙄
These videos helped me finally understand this game. Thank you! One thing I don’t understand however was why you attached Cyanobacteria to your microorganism. The micro had red green yellow yellow blue before you did that. That’s enough for Lamp Shells macro right? Am I misunderstanding?
Very nice review! Makes me want to join the new Kickstarter. Just one side note: at 48.00 you forgot to pay a green disc for buying the second green mutation. Or did I miss something?
It depends on the situation. If it's a promoted mutation you will lose the one with the plus first, then demote the mutation, and lose the other cube (which is now has a plus under it) if you need to atrophy again. Does that help clear it up?
Yes, you can have up to 6 of a single color (in a 2 player game, which is how a solo game is played). There are a lot of rules and I make plenty of mistakes when playing this game :-)
Im a little confused to why you attached the green to your bacteria as a virus as I don't see any benefits to that and its not one of the AI players?? sorry iv recently got the 2nd edition and trying to figure out the game its around the 15/16 min mark
The benefit of using your bionts to parasitize another player's organism is not so clear. Here are some things to consider: *Some Advantages* + Parasites living at the end of the game score victory points just like microorganisms (for cubes, bionts and the life-form itself). Just like in real life, the opportunistic parasite lives at the expense of its host, which is generally easier than trying to create a microorganism from a landform and using your own catalysts to evolve it. + As a *parasite*, deprivation of the host of a maximum of two cubes (diseased cubes), making it more difficult for the opponents host to develop into a macroorganism + Depletion of an opposing player's catalyst supply through foreign purchases + Splitting the victory points if your biont becomes an endosymbiont in your opponent's macroorganism *Some Disadvantages* - Availability of fewer bionts to develop (stronger) life-forms in your own tableau - From a survival standpoint, parasites are _generally_ weaker than their more complex hosts and more susceptible to cosmic and environmental events. - Dependency on survival of the host! If the host goes extinct, so does the parasite, no matter how strongly it may have developed! - Risk of your biont being "lost" to the macroorganism as an endosymbiont (unless you have HGT), but at least here you are rewarded with a portion of the victory points for the macroorganism. Making purchases as a *foreign gene* (via contested refugia) is somewhat trickier than as a parasite. Like parasite purchases, the catalyst payment comes from your opponent's organism. However, unlike parasite purchases, the purchases made by foreign genes benefit the opponent's organism, helping it to survive and eventually to become a macroorganism, for which you share the points equally with the opponent at the end of the game! Life is a conundrum.
@@aleg2490 Thanks. And now there is something new to add to the advantages of parasitism in connection with foreign genes! Just by chance we discovered this strategy in a two-player game. If one of your bionts is a foreign gene and you parasitize that same organism, you could take advantage of the organisms' HGT (or your parasite's HGT, if it should have it) to move your foreign gene (biont) into your parasite! This can potentially result in a parasite strong enough that it can take over the bacterial host and become a macroorganism, incorporating the host's bionts/genes! This concept is actually prohibited in the rules, since only bacteria can become macroorganisms, but I ran this scenario by the maker Phil Eklund in the Living Rules (lengthy discussion at E6) and he was supportive - even a bit enthusiastic.
Thanks for putting these together and spending the extra time to make sure you're getting the play right.
This is a tough series to do, lots of rules to check and recheck. Each episode takes about 6 - 8 hours to complete with filming, pausing to check rules, converting file formats, editing, more rule checking, and uploading; but I'm having a great time doing it.
5:48 this must have changed, because the word Cull does not appear in the living rules anymore and I see this in there. "Note: If you have more Bionts in Refugia than your Entropy Limit allows, you are never forced to remove any of them. Your Entropy Limit simply prohibits you from assigning more to Refugia. "
I'm sure the rules have changed quite a bit since this playthrough :-)
@@GrayBoardGamer True but its still the best playthough that I found to watch. So many people try doing handheld cameras and its just hard to watch for 6 hours for something like this.
I can't say that I'm overly impressed with the "living rules" concept. The box is so puny you can't really fix anything else in it, and I have no clue how often they're updated (and thus require reprinting).
You are making the game make sense, though, so thanks you.
(Also thanks for your work in the health industry!)
It allows to have updated rules whatever edition you buy. It's common practice, not sure how can this be source of criticism
@@KonigII Simple: A board game should NOT require internet access to play.
@@ChimeratAlpha nobody points a gun at your head about using update rules. You can use the original set of rules. As the game gets played many times people can have new ideas and the rules can be modifidified over time to improve the experience and it's mind blowing to me how can someone can find it a bad thing.
-At --20:00-- only one yellow catalyst was necessary to promote Superoxide Dismutase (its red cube is sitting on the cyanobacteria parasite).- I looked this up again in the Living Rules and you are right (the example given in the Second Edition booklet was wrong): the color of the catalyst spent must match the color of the unpromoted mutation.
Also left out around 25:38 was the green parasite's turn to purchase (always after the host!). This oversight happened again later on, but you annotated the error. Thanks!
You actually did not make a mistake at 51:15. The parasite purchase is made immediately after all _biont purchases of its host_ including those of the host's foreign genes. So, in the case of Amyloid Hydrolysis with its green foreign gene (biont), the Cyanobacteria makes its purchase only after red (native gene) _and_ green (the foreign gene) have completed their purchases. Since there is no defined order when a foreign gene should make its purchase, it seems perfectly legitimate to start green's purchase turn with its own organism (PNA Template) and then move on to the foreign gene in red's Amyloid Hydrolysis.
So at about 30:30, When you are resolving the smite event, my rulebook says that it loses the leftmost depicted mana cube (if it's not losing enzymes), But you remove disorganized before organized. So on the Alkaline card, instead of losing the blue cube, I think you were supposed to remove the green. No biggie, but I'm just wondering if I am correct?
Away for a couple days, remembers to immediately roil after activating landforms. I think you are doing fine!
Thanks, but I think I forget to more than once in future videos :-)
Hey, there, it's me again. The Salmonella card has a mistake, on the side it has one blue and one green cube, it should have one blue and one yellow. You can consult it on BGG, again, it's not big deal, just to choose between specifity or metabolism (I personally prefer metabolism).
Very good work, keep on going!
Thank you for the info. I will try to remember and mention this in my next video.
Thanks for these videos, really helping me work this game out. However, I never want to play against you in a game where high rolling wins!
Just watch my other playthroughs, and you will see that rolling high is more of an anomaly than the norm for me :-)
Also, I know that you've played this game such a long time ago and I realize you probably don't know these answers -- but maybe someone else can answer these questions! 😄
But I think during the game when a mutation lost its base cube, you removed the mutation (And later, I think in this video you talk about how you don't have to remove the mutation just because the base cube is gone as long as its promoted side still has a cube on it or something like that). I can't find anything about that (specifically, having to get rid of the mutation) in the rules anywhere it says that there is atrophy, but it doesn't say to remove the card. And I went over them a few times. Can someone tell me where that exists in the rules?
Okay I think the only place that that is mentioned is in the appendix which seems odd. But okay.
So this little section has broken my brain. In your game you removed the red diseased cube. And it made things really complicated to remember about what to do with the mutation that it used to be attached to. So I'm wondering this: If the red cube came from a mutation with a shield protecting it from the strike, does that shield protect the diseased cube?
I would think it would unless a cube being on the parasite negates every special ability on the mutation card. 🤔
Wow this rule book really is awful. 🙄
These videos helped me finally understand this game. Thank you! One thing I don’t understand however was why you attached Cyanobacteria to your microorganism. The micro had red green yellow yellow blue before you did that. That’s enough for Lamp Shells macro right? Am I misunderstanding?
I wish I could give you a good answer, but this game melted my brain and I haven't played it since I filmed this series. Might revisit it someday.
Very nice review!
Makes me want to join the new Kickstarter.
Just one side note: at 48.00 you forgot to pay a green disc for buying the second green mutation. Or did I miss something?
so. does a bacteria has to lose both cubes on a mutation to lose it or only the one with the plus?
It depends on the situation. If it's a promoted mutation you will lose the one with the plus first, then demote the mutation, and lose the other cube (which is now has a plus under it) if you need to atrophy again. Does that help clear it up?
A great job. No subtitles?
I will see if I can figure subtitles out, I did not know that I controlled that, sorry about that.
I turned them on, let me know if it's not working.
Subtitles off in video 3, Subtitiles on in videos 1,2 & 4.
That's odd, I turned subtitles on for all videos, I will check into it and see if it's something I can fix. Thank you for the update.
Video 3 subtitles on. Thanks!!!
Curious, but is the red player exceeding the catalyst limit in its tableau? Nice work w the videos!
Could you please provide me with a time that it occurred so I can check it out?
Gray Board Gamer sorry. I was mistaken. It's 6 of one color catalyst you can have not just 6 total of any color, right? It's around 55:00
Yes, you can have up to 6 of a single color (in a 2 player game, which is how a solo game is played). There are a lot of rules and I make plenty of mistakes when playing this game :-)
Gray Board Gamer got it. Thanks for the help! Digging the hell out of this game
Im a little confused to why you attached the green to your bacteria as a virus as I don't see any benefits to that and its not one of the AI players?? sorry iv recently got the 2nd edition and trying to figure out the game its around the 15/16 min mark
The benefit of using your bionts to parasitize another player's organism is not so clear. Here are some things to consider:
*Some Advantages*
+ Parasites living at the end of the game score victory points just like microorganisms (for cubes, bionts and the life-form itself). Just like in real life, the opportunistic parasite lives at the expense of its host, which is generally easier than trying to create a microorganism from a landform and using your own catalysts to evolve it.
+ As a *parasite*, deprivation of the host of a maximum of two cubes (diseased cubes), making it more difficult for the opponents host to develop into a macroorganism
+ Depletion of an opposing player's catalyst supply through foreign purchases
+ Splitting the victory points if your biont becomes an endosymbiont in your opponent's macroorganism
*Some Disadvantages*
- Availability of fewer bionts to develop (stronger) life-forms in your own tableau
- From a survival standpoint, parasites are _generally_ weaker than their more complex hosts and more susceptible to cosmic and environmental events.
- Dependency on survival of the host! If the host goes extinct, so does the parasite, no matter how strongly it may have developed!
- Risk of your biont being "lost" to the macroorganism as an endosymbiont (unless you have HGT), but at least here you are rewarded with a portion of the victory points for the macroorganism.
Making purchases as a *foreign gene* (via contested refugia) is somewhat trickier than as a parasite. Like parasite purchases, the catalyst payment comes from your opponent's organism. However, unlike parasite purchases, the purchases made by foreign genes benefit the opponent's organism, helping it to survive and eventually to become a macroorganism, for which you share the points equally with the opponent at the end of the game!
Life is a conundrum.
@@ObviouslyCrap great analysis of pros and cons!
@@aleg2490 Thanks. And now there is something new to add to the advantages of parasitism in connection with foreign genes!
Just by chance we discovered this strategy in a two-player game. If one of your bionts is a foreign gene and you parasitize that same organism, you could take advantage of the organisms' HGT (or your parasite's HGT, if it should have it) to move your foreign gene (biont) into your parasite! This can potentially result in a parasite strong enough that it can take over the bacterial host and become a macroorganism, incorporating the host's bionts/genes!
This concept is actually prohibited in the rules, since only bacteria can become macroorganisms, but I ran this scenario by the maker Phil Eklund in the Living Rules (lengthy discussion at E6) and he was supportive - even a bit enthusiastic.