SuperNova

The two black holes Alpha and Omega are in deep, deep trouble.

Why you ask? Because they’ve fallen desperately in love, that’s why. Not with one another mind you but with the gorgeous Super Nova.

And what better way to think of for young dynamic black holes to win over the heart of a burning woman than to participate in the 1212576234th annual intergalactic Planet-Suck-Tournament?

As you fellas probably know the focus at this tournaments often lies upon precision and speed and the likes. However this time they decided to use a very special setup. They decided to go with nothing less than the infamous ruleset last used at the 1546329417th iteration. A ruleset which focuses heavily on tactical thinking and planning ahead.

The basics are simple: A certain amount of planets are aligned on a grid. Two black holes line themselves up to the left and to the right of this grid. When the game starts the two players have to suck in the planets from the grid, step by step and one at a time, with the goal to collect more points than the opponent.

There are two main types of planets worth different amounts of points: The blue standard planet is worth 2 points and the slightly bigger yellow gas giant is worth 3 points. Additionally each planet goes through different phases. The standard planet has a second phase worth 3 points that is symbolized by a blue nebula. The gas giant also has a second phase that is worth 5 points and symbolized by a violet nebula. However the gas giant additionally has a third phase. This third phase is symbolized by red thorns and depletes your score by 5 points. Fortunately the planets shift through their phases in a regulated manner. The phase shift always happens when both players made their move and always in the same order. Therefore one can know the setup of the board after the next shift at all times and plan ahead accordingly.

As you might have guessed this year’s ruleset isn’t as notorious because of the phase shifts alone. The special ingredient of this ruleset are the specials. There are three different types of special planets. Those planets don’t fetch any points but trigger special events in return. The red planet is called a Corrupt. If a Corrupt is sucked in two random planets on the board get corrupted which results in them being worth -5 (planet) respectively -7 (gas giant) points for the rest of the game. The green planet is called Rearrange. This one triggers an event that rearranges the board of planets. And last but not least there is the violet Swap. If this special planet is consumed the two players swap position. It is worth noting that all events triggered by special planets do not affect other special planets.

Long story short the Planet-Suck-Tournament isn’t going to be easy but it’s going to be a blast. Hopefully Alpha and Omega can present themselves at their best. And who knows? Maybe one of them can succeed in their quest to impress the beautiful Super Nova…