by Aaron Curtis
This is a very unsubtle brute force deck, using lots of raw Global Power to crush all opposition. The primary weapon, of course, is S.L.A.K., backed up by lots of Straight Fanatic and Fanatic Church groups. S.L.A.K. has the amazing ability to get a new action token at the beginning of every player's turn, not just your own. This allows you to always have a token for defense; your job is to get that token as powerful as possible.
Look at your initial three plots. 13013, Charismatic Leader and New Blood will all increase S.L.A.K.'s power from a paltry 2 to 6. If you have any of them (30% chance), lead S.L.A.K. Also lead S.L.A.K. if you have S&L Scam or Eternal Salvation or Triple Your Money Back, or if you suspect someone else of leading S.L.A.K., or if you're just feeling lucky, i.e. you think you can avoid being attacked until you draw a power 6 card.
If you choose not to lead S.L.A.K. or if it bounces, www.subgenius.com is best if there are no computer decks, because you can go through the group deck faster. If that doesn't work, TV Preachers and Professional Sports are both reasonable leads, because their bonuses help you bring out your groups quickly.
Assume you start with one of the three power 6 cards. First, hope you don't go first. This is because S.L.A.K. will get a token on the first player's turn, which you can then use to increase their power before your first turn even starts! Other than that, there's not much you can do with these turn zero tokens, because you can't interfere with a rival's first turn.
On your first turn, and every turn, be sure to make use of your S.L.A.K. token, because you'll get it back almost immediately. There are several ways S.L.A.K. can take a group from your hand on a 10 or less, and many more ways it can use Global Power to aid another group attack to control. Take over your non-Straight Fanatic groups at this point, because you'll find it easy to take them over later.
If you weren't able to play S.L.A.K. and bring their power up to 6, act cautiously. You may even want to do nothing on your first turn to allow you to draw two extra plots before your next turn. Alternately, play S&L Scam or Eternal Salvation or Triple Your Money Back during a rival's turn in order to draw more cards in hopes of drawing a power 6 card. Your aim at this point will be to keep the other players from ganging up on you while you're small. Keep at it until you can get a power 6 S.L.A.K., or until it's obvious you'll never get them in your power structure, in which case see "A World Without S.L.A.K." below.
Your middle game starts when you have S.L.A.K. with power 6 or more and can interfere with your rivals. This can happen as early as your rival's second turn. Now, you have all this Global Power that will come back on the next player's turn, and nothing to do with it but interfere with the current player's attacks. Some players, faced with an all-but-automatic minus 6 to their attack won't even try. Of course, using this ploy on all of your rivals would be suicide in a large game, and still dangerous in a small game. Allow one or two rivals to bribe you into non-interference or even to aid their attacks to control from hand, because you'll need the friends later.
On your own turns, use the S.L.A.K. token to help you take over one group each turn, or to move a puppet off of S.L.A.K. The Straight Fanatic groups should have little trouble controlling each other, especially when aided by the bonuses from Professional Sport and Speakers in Tongues. Also in the midgame, you should be drawing the other power 6 cards, including Grassroots Support. Play these on your Fanatic groups as convenient, because you can always find use for 6 Global Power. This is especially useful when combined with the Moral Minority and Dagobert.
Note: Dagobert is a German INWO card, but legal for use in the U.S. You can find a translation at INWO Spricht Deutsch. He is included because he is the only Straight Fanatic Personality available. Also, his ability to steal tokens from Corporate groups is always useful; be sure to use a differently colored token to represent "stolen" tokens, and be aware that you can still use these tokens to draw plot cards. Dagobert's power can grow to as large as 25/25(!), with a power 6 card, Messiah, six Churches and Professional Sports. If you must use a different Personality, I suggest Connie Dobbs; she's a lot more useful than Lyndon LaRouche and at least she'll be able to protect your Straight groups. If you play Connie, be sure to include a False OverMan to protect her from OMCL and so she can defend S.L.A.K.
Other groups of interest:
1. The "Bobbies" are not for you, they're to give to an uppity rival. Any Straight Fanatic group can take them on a 10 with no modifications. The "Bobbies" are so annoying that most players will help defend them when the proud owner makes the inevitable attempt to destroy them. If the opportunity presents itself, put them under the direct control of your target's Illuminati.
2. Bring Pro Sports and Speakers in Tongues out early so you can use their bonuses to control. Note that the False Prophets' bonus only affects attacks on a rival, but this can be useful when going for Science Cannot Remove The Terror Of The Gods!
3. In a built deck game, www.subgenius.com's special ability is just like Fraternal Orders. If there are no computer decks, bring them out early in order to draw the rest of your group deck. They are not vital, but make a good agent if someone else plays them.
4. The Reformed Church of Satan is unexpectedly effective at protecting you from your rival's Straight groups, especially when they'd rather be attacking S.L.A.K. Try to bring them out before your late game (see below). The Church of Violentology is also an effective lightning rod.
5. The Citizens for Normalcy can cancel a Plot, but at the cost of your Illuminati token as well. Use this sparingly, and only for defense, because your Illuminati tokens can often be better spend playing Full Moon or removing a Zap.
6. The Secret FisTemple is not for controlling Personalities, it's to become a Fanatic Secret Church puppet of another group. It's also a second SubGenius group to play 13013 or Eternal Salvation or Triple Your Money Back with. Play an appropriate power 6 card on them and watch them count double. Now, interfere in those all-Secret decks.
For plots, you should be able to keep NWO End of the World in play much of the time, for a power 8 S.L.A.K., a power bonuses to every group in your power structure, and a -2 power to every Government and Corporate group in play. NWO Australian Rules is also useful because it allows you to use your Global Power to draw lots of plots, and it encourages your rivals to attack each other. Be sure to offer to help any attack on a rival when this card is in play.
You late game starts when your rivals start to cooperate to try to destroy S.L.A.K. Hopefully, you earned a friend earlier in the game, someone who has no need to fear the power of S.L.A.K. But, if not, there's still a large defensive arsenal available to you:
First is S.L.A.K. itself: every turn, it gets a token that counts double for defense. This mostly guarantees the first attack against S.L.A.K. each turn will fail. Bolster this with Cyborg Soldiers, which you should link to S.L.A.K. at the first sign of impending attack; a power 12 or 14 S.L.A.K. is even harder to take out. Don't bring them out too early, as they will be a prime target for any anti-Resource cards, especially Deasil Engine. Try to keep your own Deasil Engine for defense.
Second is the collection of power 6 cards you've gotten into play. Each of these power 6 (or more) Fanatic groups can use its Global Power to defend S.L.A.K. against attack. Dagobert and the Moral Minority can rise even higher.
Third is the three Full Moon cards, which can reload ALL of your Fanatic groups for an Illuminati action. This can be used to deter an attack before it starts, or to defend against a second or third wave of assault. In support of this, you have More Slack! and Kill "Bob"! to gain you an emergency Illuminati token. Use Kill "Bob"! when you are unable to bring an attack against S.L.A.K. below a 2, as it will have no effect if the dice aren't rolled.
Finally, you have four +10 cards in the deck. Take special note that they CANNOT be used with Global Power. Fortunately, the Society of Assassins' ability to count your Fanatic groups as the same alignment allows the majority of your groups to defend each other regardless. Because you generally don't need to use these earlier, the +10 cards are best saved for late game defense, or for winning in the endgame.
Yes, it sure is fun to have all that Global Power to throw around. But, eventually somebody has to win, and it may as well be you. Note that this deck would win much more easily with Goal: Power For Its Own Sake, but I deliberately left it out. Why? Because you'd either win or lose before your power structure reaches its full potential, and winning isn't nearly as much fun as playing the 600 pound gorilla.
So, once you're within three groups (or less) of the Basic Goal, and your rivals are exhausted in their futile attacks on S.L.A.K., start attacking to control from hand. All of your attacks will be at least 10 or less with one action token, and some will reach into the 20's. This is where NWO Fear and Loathing helps. If your rivals manage to stop one attack, just try again. If you manage to run out of action tokens before you run out of group cards, play Full Moon and start again. Likely, you will run out of group cards first, in which case you want to look for vulnerable groups in your rivals' power structures. Try to get to at least two groups over the Basic Goal, so you can't be thwarted by NWO Interesting Times. Remember that the Secret FisTemple can count double!
Alternately, you can try to win with Science Cannot Remove the Terror Of the Gods! Just control all your Church groups, and destroy all the Church and/or Science groups that your rivals control. Again, Full Moon allows you to keep trying if you run out of action tokens. This is more of a "take it if it comes your way" goal that something to strive for, at least for this deck.
If your rivals manage to destroy S.L.A.K., you can still use the Global Power of your other groups to help prevent a rival from winning. In fact, the loss of S.L.A.K. may convince your rivals to give you a breather, as you are no longer the threat you once were. Once you get back on your feet, token-wise and plot-wise, you can still go for either endgame scenario. Remember, S.L.A.K. isn't your only weapon, only the most effective.
If you never manage to get S.L.A.K. into play for some reason, or can't boost their power to 6 or more, act cautiously. Grow slowly, play your power 6 cards whenever possible, and generally do your best to look well defended, but not in danger of winning anytime soon. Attack to control no more than one group per turn, and none at all if it would make you the leader. Use your Global Power to win friends and influence people. Hold back your NWOs until they are directly needed. Timing will be more difficult, because S.L.A.K. will no longer be controlling the pace of the game, but you can still advance to either endgame scenario with the appropriate plots in play.
First posted: June 5, 1998
Last modified: Fri Jun 5 14:17:12 EDT 1998
Ralph Melton ralph@cs.cmu.edu