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Now that I have played a few games of Prelude 2 I feel like I have a good grip on most new project cards. This is not a full tier list, but just my initial impression on all of the new project cards!
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Microgravity Nutrition reminds me a lot of Noctis Farming – a cheap(ish) plant tag that also offers a weird mix of points and MC prod. It's great to get NRA down, a bit more synergistic with green combos, but you can't use your steel on it.
At 10:50, Venus Orbital Survey. The card says ”Venus cards”, not ”cards with a Venus tag”. Wouldn’t that indicate all cards from the Venus expansion, in other words, cards with the small blue Venus symbol on the bottom left on the card?
I can confirm that if you have 6 Venus tags already on Gen 2 and play Venus shuttles it has so much value I ran away with the game
Kaguya tech is the only way right now to have a city on an ocean spot.
Astra mecanica has also a fun combo with brided commity.
what annoy me with Venus Orbital Survey is that you need to reveal all the card, not only the venus card you take into hand for free.
For Mars Nomads, it grants ocean bonuses yes, because ocean bonus is defined as a placement bonus in the rules
I am really surprised that everyone I have seen rates teslaract so poorly. It is one of the only ways to get high plant prod early which can be insane for ground based/rush strategies. I don't even think the action is that bad- if you value energy prod at 7 and plant prod at 10 it's sort of like gaining 3mc each time you use it (including the turn you play it). If you have excess energy hanging around early-mid game I would definitely consider this. Imagine factorium getting this for 1ppt a turn- similar to the recyclon/extreme cold fungus combo except you don't need to play any building tags.
The first few times we played kaguya tech we didnt realise that you gain the placement bonus again, but we still thought it was pretty much always strong- the fact that you get the bonus again is insane!
Worked my way to about halfway point of the video and wanted to make some comments (before i forget them).
Venus Orbital Survey. I think you may want to think about this again. I think the most similar card to this is A.I. central and that card is somewhere around S tier (with an *). I do believe survey is in the same tier and one uncovered point is how willing are you to pass this card to your opponent. The answer is never. That alone should put it in A tier. Personally, i think it is worse than AI but not by much.
Soil studies. This card is not D tier. I think the most comparable card to this may be plantation (i think you rated plantation at B tier). Roughly the same cost and for me, its made somewhere between 6-16 plants with an average of 7-8 in most games. Your argument is something like its a rush card but why? Why cant we play it as part of an engine plan? Furthermore, would you want to pass this card to an opponent that is able to make 8-10plants from it? I think not.
Envoys. They are good. They arent A tier good. With the exception of colonial envoys, which i think is a maybe because ot the high ceiling and synergy with posiedon, space port C, and various new colonial rebate cards. I do not think they are A tier in general and it goes again back to how willing im wanting to pass this. If i see an A tier card in the draft and an envoy card and i can not play either effectively and must end up hatedrafting, im probably hatedrafting the other card. Envoys are nice but they just arent A tier nice. There is also some games that do devolve a little bit a mash of delegate battle. Particular in the end game or around a high impact influence based event. If 6delegates are already deployed, the envoys arent good. Just a small detail.
Thank you for the video.
Microgravity Nutrition and Soil Studies are ideed one of the most underwhelming cards in the set. They should have prepere more interesting colony-related cards and maybe some strong venus plant cards that would justify this strategy (at least when more cards like this come out).
Floating Refinery has a niche use in removing floaters from cards that have been used to raise Venus when the track is maxed out.
Kaguya is even stronger than you think as it grants you placement bonus too.
As for Frontier Town and Nomads I think there's a clarification on BGG if the neighbouring ocean bonus counts for them but I can't find it. If someone knows this, please leave a comment.
Edit: It counts in case of the Nomads – Snake confirmed the rules say neighbouring ocean bonus is a placement bonus. However Frontier Town's text refers only to printed placement bonuses (so no neighbouring ocean bonus).
Looking forward for more insightful rankings but maybe from previous expansions/promos before Prelude 2.
Played carbon nanosystems with valley trust. Couldn't find titanium prod, but the graphene enables you to play the big space events pretty cheap
Mars Nomad does indeed grants you ocean rebates.
Insane card imo