Ugh. Some complaints.

[Draco18s]

Some galaxy enemy cards (the red ones) are just not possible to do if they come out early (turn 1 and 2). You just don't have the capability of throwing 2 disks at once because your science station is level 1.

Some adversary cards are similarly brutally punishing; one of the dark researchers prevents you from spending black dice unless you spend a colored die of 3+ first. Another requires spending [4][9] every turn to avoid milling the galaxy deck (I actually did fairly well against this one, only because one of the first location cards drawn I was able to acquire quickly which gave me one each of YPB dice).

I don't mind a game being hard, but this just seems... brutally unfair. Like some of the galaxy cards should be "tier 2" that don't show up until you get through the deck the first time. Some of the galaxy cards aren't particularly pleasant to acquire either. Lets see...

SS Sunlight: EIGHT influence, and to get any you need to spend 4 ships (top row) for 1 influence. The bottom row is an easy [2B][2P] for 2 influence. But that's still 3 turns to gain it, costing 12 ships (which functionally means spending 12 dice).

Hematib is similar: 3 influence needed, 2 science [lock] for one and [6P][6B] for 1. Minimum 4 science needed to gain it.

I love the dice mechanics: how you get them, the techs to manipulate them, using ships to calibrate fairly freely. Absolutely amazing design.

But dear god, the adversaries are brutal.

[Draco18s]

How are the Zibzab and Guardians balanced?

Plumplim's federation requirement is 16 science. Zibzab's is Class 4 Starbase. Which requires 30 science. What? Why?

Guardians are similarly skewed, requiring that you exile planets you've colonized. To reach maximum Federation level you need to destroy... about 8 planets. Colonies with YPB can be done with 1 planet, but will probably take 2, given how rare YPB planets are. Exiling colonies with 3 stars requires at a minimum 2 planets, as no planets have 3 stars. The last one is explicitly 3 planets because it has to be three different resources and no planets have two resources.

Compare that to the Botanists which just need to colonize the planets....

==

Oh come on. Seriously? Started a game against the Neeble-Woobers and both Solidarian threat cards showed up on turn 1. That is such ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

[Palarran]

The thing is, you're not expected to be able to face every card that comes up. Some encounters are best ignored: just plan on an Escalate and some "free" science in a few turns. Some planets are best studied instead of explored.

As for the planets with locks, consider that Guardians ignore the locks: this provides a significant benefit for that society. And Plumplim can transfer influence from other planets where influence is more easily gained. I'd say it's best to think of these planets as ones that add some variety to how the different homeworlds and societies end up playing.

The adversaries do all seem brutal at first, but end up being quite manageable with practice (mostly...the Hard version of Preservation Authority is of course difficult by design). With some very rare exceptions, pretty much anything the game throws at you can be worked around.

Regarding balance, the societies are not expected to be precisely equally difficult. Guardians I have found to be the second easiest society behind Botanists. First, you can exile planets on the same turn that you confront the adversary, *after* rolling the dice. Since you only need FL4 to win, that means if you meet your homeworld's milestone you can get just a single Guardian milestone--exiling planets with 3 tech discs or 1 of each color--prior to the final turn. Any further exiling can be done on the final turn after gaining the die/disc benefits of those planets. Second, Guardians have massive advantages to balance the need to exile planets. Ignoring restrictions on planets is huge; it makes some planets much easier to colonize. And the Guardians' tech, setting one or several (or all!) of your dice to a value of your choice, is one of the strongest in the game.

[Palarran]

The one homeworld that I feel is more difficult than the others is Elemens; their milestone of 20 dice in the pool is sometimes difficult to achieve. Against some adversaries (most notably the hard version of Nebula) it is necessary to race to reach FL2; with other homeworlds the homeworld milestone is typically the easiest, most predictable way to do that. All the other homeworlds are approximately equal in difficulty in my experience.

[Draco18s]

An extra escalation is pretty brutal, though. Some of the adversaries' escalation effects are killer. For example, the Hungry Nebula. Two extra escalations result in an extra Swell effect. So early game when you have to pick 3 out of the 5 effects--oh wait FOUR--because you can't repeat...