John Butterfield has been hard at work on SpaceCorp: Ventures, the first expansion to his hit space-exploration game SpaceCorp. Developer Jason Carr is here to share the third of four sneak-peeks at what comes in the Ventures box. This week’s Corporation is Humanistics, which is known for their iron-clad stance against any form of genetic manipulation.

When John was coming up with various ideas for Corporations in Ventures, several patterns emerged. Last week we looked at Next Generation which benefits directly from the Genetics action and Adaptation cards. If you turn that idea around, an interesting picture emerges: how could we make a Corporation that benefits by not participating in a core part of the game? Enter Humanistics, with its wealthy group of investors willing to pay to keep Genetics research from reaching those who would manipulate humanity.

While advancements in human capabilities have been explored for hundreds of years, it took the technology and discoveries of the space race to fully realize the damage caused by genetic manipulation. With the new frontiers come new expectations, but these expectations are seldom tempered by reason. Humanistics stands in the gap, protecting Humanity from its baser tendencies and ensuring the future of Homo Sapiens.

When playing Humanistics, the changes begin immediately: you don’t even have a Genetics cube! You cannot use Bio Labs, because you don’t have them! That means that an entire strategy – Adaptation cards – is off the table. So, Humanistics has to bring a powerful way to make up for that lost strategy, and it does: Kill Fee. Not only does Kill Fee let you Profit from drawing Genetics cards from the deck and offers, but it gives Humanistics a compelling reason to deny Genetics cards (and the Adaptations they would gain) from their opponents. It’s easier for Humanistics to get these cards because they can draw them from the Offers if they have 4 or fewer cards in hand at the end of their turn. And, of course, they can still play those cards for their non-Genetics effect.

In Planteeers, the Humanistics player faces a dilemma: how to deal with radiation. Fortunately, they have developed Shield technology that is more flexible than other Corporations with their Shield Synthesis which allows them to easily deploy Shield Factories throughout the solar system. This makes it more likely that other Corporations will use their Shield Factories (since they are more likely to be on sites), and more likely that they will receive rewards. Humanistics also protects humanity from Genetics awards on Discovery Tiles by Keeping Us Pure. Similar to Kill Fee, Keeping Us Pure pays profit for each Genetics value awarded by Discovery Tiles.

Starfarers adds a limitation and a powerful new way to Colonize the galaxy. As other Corporations embrace Adaptation as a pathway to the stars, Untouchable limits the Corporations that Humanistics is willing to work with. While pragmatism necessitates allowing some Adaptation, Humanistics draws a hard line and refuses to cooperate with Corporations with more than one Adaptation card. Well… Humanistics will still sell access to their Infra and bases – Profit, after all, is what makes their mission possible. Plus, Humanistics now has a compounding reason to draw Genetics cards: not only do they score from Kill Fee and keep that card away from an opponent, but they can use the card along with their New Eden power to gain Colony Points.

If Humanistics is succeeding in grabbing Genetics cards from the Offers, then they will likely want to use their alternate final profit option to score Profit for each Adaptation card remaining on the Sideboard, plus Profit for each colony they’ve played. While they’ll score less for their colonies this way, they can score quite a few points for the remaining Adaptations on Sideboard, which reinforces their core strategy of grabbing Genetics cards.

Next week, our final sneak-peek, a Corporation dedicated to safety and security.

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Previous Articles:

Inside SpaceCorp: Ventures — SpaceCorp HQ

Inside SpaceCorp: Ventures — Next Generation HQ