Tips federation

This is not a definitive list of strategy tips for Federation, this is just the thinking process I recommend, and it works more often than not. I think this list should be helpful for beginners. More experienced players please comment and add your ideas.

THINGS TO DO AT THE START OF THE GAME, ONCE THE BOARD IS LAID OUT

A) Some progress tracks are must-do's. You should always do these irrespective of the game board.

A1) You should always target to max your Authority every game, you earn various bonuses that should not be missed.

A2) Plan to get all your 8 spaceships and put them on the board, always.

A3) Orange Planet (Neo) and Blue Planet (6 moon) are usually good for resources.

B) Based on the above tracks, at the start of the game decide which two green mega structures on the Robotic planet, you are targetting for scoring in rounds 4 and 5. Based on this, and the tips mentioned in A1 to A3, you can refine the final 4 or 5 tracks (out of the 8 possible), that you will be focussing on for this game for scoring.

This needs to be decided at the start of the game.

C) Then based on the tracks that you have decided, choose which one or more Level 3 erudite tiles work synergistically for you to score points. Then from these, check which level 1 erudite tiles are good for you for round 1, and decide your path on the Pink planet accordingly.

THINGS TO DO IN THE FIRST TWO ROUNDS

D) The most important thing to do in rounds one and two is to get a minimum of two green production structures (and place your robot), so that you have a nice engine going.

E) In these rounds, don't focus too much on scoring, build your engine, get in as many ticks and ships as possible, nice blue tokens, resources, etc., whatever you need for your engine to keep humming along nicely.

F) Keep in mind you should reserve a few ships (1-4) for scoring in later rounds. There are 5 scoring opportunities on your personal player board. At the start of the game, you don't need to decide. But by the end of round two, you should have a fairly good idea of which scoring items you will score from your personal player board.

THINGS TO DO IN THE LATER ROUNDS

G) Don't be afraid to take the first player token (and medal) 1 to 2 times during the game, especially in rounds 4 and 5, if it helps with 5 points or more.

H) Try and score the votings to the extent possible without spoiling your strategy (if possible)

I) Try and stick to your strategy decided in section B. But if it is not happening for whatever reason (one reason could be that your opponent has also read this post and is following the same strategy, but better), then take a pause, think deeply, refocus, and form a different strategy, don't just go along and see what happens.

J) As per my friend Ben Downtown (who introduced me to the game), and "claims" to be a co-author of this post  "I feel like funding projects are a happy bonus, they're too hard to really aim for". I agree, but you have a choice fund the projects that are aligned to the top 4/5 streams you have chosen (in step B). Especially look at these in rounds 4 and 5.

K) In general, always be on the lookout for a medal, if you and one more player are at the same level, and whoever moves ahead will grab the medal, if possible just go ahead and grab it. Again, if it doesn't spoil your overall strategy too much. If you play ok, you should get 4 to 5 medals. Combine this with point G, maybe you can get all of them.

Thanks to Ben for contributing with initial ideas, to for adding points after my initial draft.

Points (J), (K), complete credit to him :-)