The Strategist
Generations of your family served with honor and distinction. You were raised on the stories of the glorious past — officers, enlisted, men and women, all of your ancestors who donned the uniform and served the Empire. You knew, even as a child, that was your destiny.
You parents provided encouragement; you began reading at an early age, swiftly digesting every bit of military history you could find. Sun Tzu, Alexander, Patton, Schwarzkopf, Berezniki; all those and more became your inspiration. You read them all and studied their histories and analyses. At fourteen, you very solemnly informed your parents of your intention to apply to the elite military training institute on Roberts. They didn’t even try to dissuade you.
At school, your studies on the past continued, but they were augmented with more current military tactics. As all the plebes did, you started in the ranks of a small unit. You showed drive, intelligence, and the ability to adapt. You became a squad leader, then a platoon leader, then a company commander. By the time of your graduation, you were the highest ranked cadet at the school, and their undefeated chess champion.
You petitioned the Imperial Senate for an appointment to the Naval Academy. You were accepted without hesitation. You were enrolled in the normal engineering and chemistry courses, physics and math. You were also put into some of the more advanced courses on Games and Theory. You went from the small unit tactics of the military school to the large-scale formations of space combat. Three dimensional mapping, stellar routes, fighter tactics, dreadnought battles — you studied it all, and you studied it well. You observed tricks and strategies that instructors had all missed. They said you were a natural. You felt like this was something you were born to do.
Your work at the Academy earned you a commission and a position at the Naval War College. You continued to excel at your assignments. You found yourself on strategic planning committees, then promoted to the General Staff. You fought thousands of battles and countless scenarios in the simulator. Every time contingency plans were required, your name was the first to be mentioned.
You looked back on your accomplishments and you slowly came to a realization, and it was terrible: the galaxy was at peace and was going to remain that way. You continued to train, you continued with your contingency planning, but the zeal you once had was gone. You thought of all the glorious stories of your ancestors. Everything you had done with your life had been a preparation for events that would never come to pass. Part of you wanted to believe it was all for the best, that peace was better. Mostly you felt an empty hole where the sense of purpose had been. You finally had enough; you resigned your commission and tried to find a new sense of purpose.
You were drifting from system to system, still searching for that sense of purpose, when you heard of the trade competition. Rogue traders, entrepreneurs, everyone was going to join in. It would be chaos. The trade routes would be clogged and shifting, ships moving seemingly at random. No one would be able to make sense of all that. No one but you. You reached out to some old contacts from the military; they knew your skill and were eager to help.
You are the Strategist. Marshal your strengths and forge your way to victory.
Game Specifics:
- Roll all the Action Dice at once for 4 actions
War is Art. Even Sun Tzu could learn a few tricks from you!
Roll all 5 dice at once. Choose 2 to combine into 1 action (the result can be higher than 6), resulting in 4 total actions for your turn, in whichever order you wish. These rolls are only for Regular Jumps; for anything else (Petition, Random Jump, Stargate, etc.), roll that Action Die again.
If you lose actions (“A Wrinkle in Time”), roll that many fewer dice but do not combine any. If you gain actions (“It’s Bigger on the Inside”), roll your additional Action Dice as soon as the card is played (but don’t reassign your combined dice if your extra actions aren’t rolled at the beginning of your turn).
Strategist