I've broken the 31 Command cards down into 4 tiers
Very good regardless of board situation or other cards. I will pretty much always take one of these, if available.
1. Dangerous [combat,dominance]: if attacked, optionally destroy yourself and your attacker with no change to dominance
Has two effects:
- Avoids loss of dominance in unfavorable matchups
- Destroys attackers, though it does not affect dominance
Can be countered quite by Eager. Countered somewhat by Stealthy, Stubborn, or Tyrannical.
Pairs well with Ravenous, since you can avoid the -2 dominance. Pairs poorly with Righteous (redundant). Counters Righteous, since your opponent can no longer gain dominance via attacking.
Ships destroyed via Dangerous do not count towards opponent's Plundering/Warlike.
Automatically get a new research card every 3 turns. Or, if you research 3 times, you can take a new research card in a single turn.
Incredibly good in all situations. Even better if playing without the Void tile, or if taken as your first Advance card.
Very good if combined with Precocious: take a new research card every turn for 1 action each, or every 2 turns for free. But you'll typically end up replacing one of them eventually, since they weaken your hand.
One note: this card becomes far less useful in the late game. Since its only advantage is to gain you more cards, if you are in a situation where you no longer want more cards, it can actually hurt you. There is no way to "skip" the research gain, so you will eventually be in a situation where you are forced to take a card, or replace all 6.
As the name suggests, this yields a massive amount of flexibility. The key thing to remember here is that, unlike Clever, this is a free effect!
Two perhaps non-obvious uses, where you can change by more than 1:
- Flexible a 3 to a 4, then modify the 4 to a 5
- Flexible a 5 to a 6, then free reconfigure to something else
Because this is not limited to a single use in a turn, this is can be absurdly powerful.
Completely absurd when combined with:
- Stealthy: you can stockpile ships in your scrapyard, waiting for the perfect moment to deploy to the necessary orbital positions. There's basically nothing anyone can do against this, especially if you get this combo early in the game or on a very large map.
- Resourceful: Almost entirely negates the downside of Resourceful. e.g. place three cubes, move two of them, use Resourceful on the other, and place; all in one turn
- Dangerous: Largely negates the main downside of Dangerous, since you can redeploy your destroyed ship for free and they can't
Pairs well with:
- Clever, since you no longer have to worry about re-rolling to something undesirable
- Eager, since you can effectively get +1 free action each turn by deploying/Resourceful-ing a ship
Pairs somewhat poorly with Dangerous, since you really want to keep your ships on the board
Can be used to escape unfavorable combat situations
One less-obvious advantage of Resourceful is it's increased mobility: you can effectively "move" a ship from one position to another (within territory you control) for "free" (action-neutral). You obviously don't control the final ship value (without other Command cards), but this is still very useful.
Incredibly good on large maps, very good on small maps. you can stockpile ships in your scrapyard, waiting for the perfect moment to deploy to the necessary orbital position
Also combines incredibly well with Eager (basically an automatic win if you get both)
While it does require an action to use via reconfigure, it is effectively free when your ships are destroyed (since deployment costs an action anyway).
Remember also that this can be used in the scrapyard itself, if you need to reconfigure a ship in there.
Only helps on defense, which at first glance makes it somewhat weak. However, the main effect of this card is its deterrence. You likely won't destroy that many attackers with it, because you likely won't be attacked that often. This allows you to "push" your positions very aggressively.
Makes you ~10% better when defending; no effect when attacking
Can be very good depending on the board situation, or when combined with other cards
Incredibly good in large maps. In small maps, it is still quite good, but harder to take advantage of.
Incredibly good when combined with Ravenous or Tyrannical. Very good when combined with Eager.
Overall, much better in smaller maps.
Pairs poorly with Dangerous (largely redundant)
Provides flexibility in construction, without altering your ships. This can be good or bad, but I think it is generally worse than Flexible.
One important note: this card is the only way in the game to construct a cube with only one ship: you can use a 6-ship on a 7-planet.
On average, this card makes you ~10% better in combat
I consider this slightly better than Cruel/Relentless, simply because its effect is more predictable (and it doesn't slow the game down).
A concrete example: with no cards, a 1-ship attacking a 6-ship will always win. A 1-ship against a 6-ship will win 97% of the time. But with Ferocious, both the 1-ship will always defeat both 5- and 6-ships. This doesn't really make much of a practical difference, however.
Provides a huge amount of flexibility in your actions. Better with more ships, especially 3s.
Also allows you to modify and then move diagonal or warp, or reconfigure and then still perform the next ship's ability.
Can also be very useful in combat, if you have a 1-ship (and ideally a 2-ship to Transport it around with), because you can strike twice (total of 3 attacks per turn!)
On average, this card makes you ~10% better in combat
Overall identical to Relentless except for its interaction with Rational: it cannot be paired with Rational, but similarly it cannot be countered by Rational.
On average, this card makes you ~10% better in combat
Overall identical to Cruel except for its interaction with Rational: it can be paired with Rational, but it also can be countered by Rational.
Much better than you might think, especially when trying to construct between neighboring planets.
Also note that having this card alone can allow you to deploy and construct in the same turn, provided you already have a ship on the planet.
You may Transport with Tactical, meaning it pairs quite well with 2s.
Also pairs well with Eager.
Very good if paired with Energetic, or if you have lots of low-numbered ships. 2-ships especially benefit, since they can now move a 1-ship 3 spaces, and that 1-ship can itself move 2 spaces to attack.
Very good if you are camped in the void tile. An important note is that, with Precocious, you are always one turn away from getting a card. This can be very useful if you want to take a card, but are worried about a certain card getting drawn afterwards: you will be able to grab it next turn (provided your opponent can't).
Can be quite good early game if paired with Brilliant: you can farm Expansions quickly. But you won't want to keep them both forever.
Very good if you have 1s/2s, otherwise it's just okay. Of the combat cards, this is the strongest one... but only in specific situations! Overall this provides a ~20% benefit to combat (vs. next-best at ~10%).
If you are going for a construction-based strategy, this card can be very hard to utilize, since it only works on adjacent ships (and orbital positions on the same planet are not adjacent to one another). But, if you have 2s, then you can work around that fairly easily.
This also makes camping in the void much easier
Overall it is much better in small maps. Overall it is better when you have pairs of similar-numbered ships. With large differences between pairs, attackers will simply go for the weaker ship, removing the bonus for the stronger ship and leaving it vulnerable.
Doesn't work super well with Stealthy, since you can't deploy adjacent to other ships.
Pairs well with Tactical, since it allows you to get the combat bonus and then move to an orbital position in the next turn for free.
Very good if combined with Agile. Overall, not amazing, but it is a solid card that can really help when you have low-number ships.
Can be very good in 2 player games; often difficult to make useful in 3+ simply because your chances of having the most ships is reduced. It also depends on having played Expansion in order to be consistently useful.
Can be quite good if you have cards that increase your defense. Pairs very will with Eager, too, since you can easily get all your ships out.
This can be quite good in very specific situations, but it is very finicky! If you have lots of 1s it can be good, but otherwise it amounts to a free attack each turn. Not bad, but typically with extra actions you want them to contribute to orbital position movement or construction.
It can be very helpful in rare situations where you can both attack and position yourself to construct.
Very good if paired with Clever or Flexible. Gets better the more ships that you have.
The main downside of this card is its unpredictability. I typically avoid it as a first card: even if it is "active" currently, that could change at any time, and it is then useless.
Incredibly good if paired with Righteous. Somewhat good if you have combat enhancing cards. Otherwise, on a long enough timescale, there is no net benefit to your dominance (because you also have -2 dominance on losses, and your rate of losses isn't reduced by this card!).
Yields the same ~10% average benefit in combat, but only works on your turn! Re-rolling your die rolls just isn't very useful either. One rare situation where it does help is if you are camped on a planet and re-rolling your dice trying to construct.
Generally quite bad, but it can be very helpful in very specific situations. For example, if you are being blocked, or if you have a 2 that you are using to Transport ships between neighboring planets.
The worst of the combat cards, but it still might be better than you think. The average combat roll is (1 + 6) / 2 = 3.5. With Rational, this changes to 3, which yields a ~17% better combat roll, on average (3.5 / 3 * 100 = 16.67). In practice, though this yields only ~7% better combat overall.
Completely negates Cruel. If your opponent holds Cruel, this becomes a tier 2 card easily (because it effectively Sabatoges Cruel).
Only works if you're doing well in combat, but doesn't help you do well in combat. Combat also already yields cards, so this only yields more cards. That said, this can be a very strong card if you have strong ships and a strong board position.
Is almost perfectly countered by Dangerous, and partially countered by Stubborn.
Much better than its counterpart (Cerebral), but still not great.
Very good if you have Brilliant or access to a void tile. Otherwise it is essentially "spend 1 action for 1 dominance"
I will almost never take these.
Good concept but incredibly limited: requires an action, only works to/from orbital postions, doesn't work between diagonal planets, only adjacent. As such, it is very rarely useful.
This does allow you to, for example, move a 1 by 7 spaces...
When do you ever have too much dominance?
Unlike research, dominance can't simply be increased with actions. So, unless you have a very powerful fleet, this card will be very difficult to make useful. And if you do have a very powerful fleet... just place via infamy, which will place a cube and yield an Advance card.
If you have the chance, it can be useful to pair this with Tyrannical, which effectively gives you 2 free research per turn, but at the cost of 2 card slots being taken.
- Cunning
- Eager
- Curious
- Resourceful
- Arrogant
- Warlike
- Conformist
- Dangerous
- Stubborn
- Cruel
- Relentless
- Strategic
- Scrappy
- Rational
- Clever
- Flexible
- Intelligent
- Ingenious
- Dangerous
- Righteous
- Ravenous
- Stealthy
- Tactical
- Agile
- Energetic
- Nomadic
- Brilliant
- Precocious
- Plundering
- Tyrannical
- Cerebral
Hard to break into useful tiers, since they are so situational. So, listed by scarcity (total number in the deck is in parentheses):
Almost always a good choice. Effectively a free deployment, which makes it a great way to dig for a ship you need without reconfiguring
Pairs well with:
- Conformist: higher chance of matching numbers
- Resourceful: effectively banks you a free action on the next turn, if you want it
Remember, no cards are removed when playing with <4 players, so in those games these will be very over-represented.
Can be incredibly good in the late game, although not great early on.
Pairs well with:
- Righteous: Dominance gain can't be removed
- "Research" cards: farming Aggression cards adds up quickly
Arguably the best card in the game (including Command cards). If you have ships in position already, it allows you to immediately construct and take another Advance card.
If you have a card that grants you additional actions (e.g. Curious, Arrogant, Warlike, or Conformist) then you can move a ship and then construct, which is absurdly good.
Pairs incredibly well with Brilliant, or anything that gives you extra actions already
Also one of the most fun cards in the game. In the right situations, multiple Momentums will allow you to win a game with 3 cubes left, all in one turn. Hard to beat that.
Somewhat hard to understand at first: this is a defensive card. It is almost always used to block an opponent from placing on their next turn. It can easily set your opponent back 2 turns if used well.
A very situational card card, but very good when it can be used effectively.
Note that this used to only allow repositioning to an equal or lower-numbered planet: this is no longer the case since the introduction of the the Quantum Entanglement rule (since there is no longer a way for the board to reach an un-winnable state via Relocation).
Very useful if:
- You have a lot of ships in your scrapyard (deploy them all for free, although you can't control their numbers)
- You hold Stealthy: you can effectively move your ships to anywhere on the map for free
- You hold Clever: you can choose new values for all of your ships
- You hold Eager: you can pull a bunch of ships off the board and hold them in the scrapyard. You still have the potential penalties of board position and fleet strength, but it can help avoid losing dominance, or you opponent gaining dominance.
Very limited utility, and there is no direct benefit to you.
In situations where your opponents have better cards than you, it can be useful.
It can also be used to get rid of overpowered card combinations in your opponents.
In some sense, it is more valuable when playing with more players (since it destroys more cards).
This is great! Some of these don't have the actual card values on them. Thanks though!