Ral Nel Consortium

Early Game

Ral Nel begins the game with a fairly flexible but slightly awkward start. You have solid ships, multiple structures, and strong mobility potential, but you lack direct combat advantages. Your goal in the early game should be to expand and establish a defensive web of ships and structures.

The Ral Nel's ability (Miniaturization) means your structures are mobile, which allows you to transport PDS and Space Docks with fleets. This gives you the ability to establish forward docks earlier than most factions.

You should avoid unnecessary fights in the early rounds. Instead focus on positioning yourself as a faction that is difficult to attack and useful to trade with.

Main Early Goals

1. Set up a forward Space Dock on a high-resource planet
2. Expand to nearby systems with carrier and dreadnought support
3. Begin spreading ships across adjacent systems

Construction and Politics are strong strategy picks. Your starting structures are one of your biggest advantages.

The usual approach is to:

1. Move a carrier or dreadnought with infantry to a nearby planet
2. Transport your Space Dock with that fleet
3. Deploy it onto the new planet at the end of the tactical action

Unfortunately, you cannot move a Space Dock and use it to build in the same activation. This means you are not as good as the Saar wrecking ball.

You should usually use your Link Ships for positioning rather than combat in the early game. Linkship I requires one PDS per ship to fire space cannon but Linkship II allows one PDS in the fleet to fire for the whole group. So upgrading to Linkship II is a high priority. FOr a better idea of the impact of this, if you had 3 Linkship IIs in one system with 1 PDS and Plasma Scoring, you would roll a total of 7 dice (1 per Linkship, 1 per Linkship activation of PDS, and 1 for Plasma Scoring).

Your agent also gives you an early diplomatic tool. It allows you to draw two action cards and give one away. You keep the better card and can sell the other for a trade good or two, or use it to sweeten a deal; sometimes both are weak and giving one away still builds goodwill. Your hand size stays at seven, so play action cards regularly rather than hoarding.

You should aim to become a cooperative but difficult target early on.

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Mid Game

The mid game is where Ral Nel’s mechanics begin to fully function.

Your strategy now revolves around three main mechanics:

1. Survival Instinct
2. Link Ships and mobile PDS
3. Distributed fleet positioning

Survival Instinct

Survival Instinct allows you to move up to two ships into a system after another player activates it.

This creates a powerful defensive deterrent. If opponents attack your systems, nearby fleets can immediately reinforce the battle.

To take advantage of this you should spread fleets across multiple adjacent systems rather than stacking everything together.

Example positioning:

• Small fleets positioned around key planets
• Link Ships carrying PDS structures
• Carriers and dreadnoughts providing reinforcement capability

When an opponent activates your system you can quickly collapse ships into the battle, often discouraging the attack entirely.

The ability is strongest when players know you can use it, so make it known. Usually the threat alone is enough to stop others attacking you.

Strike and Retreat

Ral Nel is great at performing short tactical strikes rather than prolonged fights.

A typical engagement might look like this:

1. Activate an enemy system
2. Move in with Link Ships carrying PDS
3. Fire Space Cannon during movement
4. Resolve Anti-Fighter Barrage
5. Declare retreat before normal combat begins

This means you can cause damage and reduce the risk to your own ships.

Combined with your commander, you can retreat ships safely into adjacent systems, maintaining your distributed fleet network. With your commander you can also move your flagship in, inflict damage, then retreat—destroying a carrier forces a capacity check, and Warfare can enable this further.

This style of combat also makes you a strong mercenary faction. Players may be willing to pay you to disrupt a rival fleet or interfere with someone attempting to score.

Nano Machines

Your faction technology Nano Machines provides three useful abilities:

• Place a PDS on a controlled planet
• Repair damaged units
• Discard and draw an action card

The most important use is usually placing PDS since this helps you get more PDS structures out onto the board without relying wholly on Construction.

The Lightrail Ordinance relic is especially strong for this faction if you manage to obtain it. Why? Refer back to the earlier example of Linkships and a PDS but replace the PDS with a Space Dock.

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End Game

By the late game Ral Nel usually has ships spread widely across the board along with several PDS and multiple fleet groups.

At this stage your goal is to convert your mobility and disruption tools into scoring opportunities.

You are rarely the strongest military faction, and late-game force projection is a limitation—plan for how you will move ground forces to score. You can still threaten many parts of the board simultaneously.

Map Control

Upgraded Link Ships become extremely powerful in the end game with 4 movement.

Ral Nel performs well when you maintain multiple small fleets across the board instead of concentrating your power in one place.

Hero Usage

Your hero allows you to unpass after the final player passes, gaining two command tokens and drawing an action card.

In practice this usually provides two extra turns in the final round.

To maximize its value you should:

• Leave useful actions available before passing
• Ensure fleets are positioned near scoring systems
• Keep enough command tokens available to act again

Mercenary Diplomacy

Ral Nel’s toolkit also makes you excellent at late-game win-slaying.

You can:

• Jump into systems using Survival Instinct
• Deliver early damage with Space Cannon and Anti-Fighter Barrage
• Retreat before suffering major losses