Sidereal Confluence Deluxe Resources
When Sidereal Confluence was being considered for publication, I suggested pieces like the ones below. However, they would be too expensive to produce in large quantities, and that expense might keep people from ever enjoying the game.
These acrylic pieces have the same colors as the original game, but the small cubes are replaced with diamonds, the large cubes are replaced with trapezoids, and the octagonal barrels are replaced with large hexagons. As a result, the pieces have the correct size difference to show their relative value. Three small diamonds can be put together to equal two trapezoids, which equal a hexagon. One of the biggest problems I have with new players is making sure they understand how valuable Ultratech (hexagons) are compared to the other sizes, and how a large resource (trapezoid) is equal to one-and-a-half small resources (diamonds). These pieces make it obvious.
I’ve played many games with these pieces. They are easy to pick up and manipulate, and I find them more visually interesting than the ubiquitous wooden cubes. I wish I could have put art on the pieces, to make the game meaning of each piece more obvious. I admit that I still call them green, white, and brown, and I do not call them food, culture, and machinery.
At the end of the game. Players form their pieces into hexagons. Every hexagon is half a point. Easy to count and explain. And surprisingly satisfying.
On October 1st, 2019, I sold the last of my sets, allowing me to roughly break even on the materials cost. I hope WizKids will create a professional version of these as an add-on, and they have indicated that they are considering it.
Contents:
- green diamonds: 54
- white diamonds: 54
- brown diamonds: 54
- grey diamonds: 26
- black trapezoids: 28
- blue trapezoids: 28
- yellow trapezoids: 28
- grey trapezoids: 18
- large octagons: 32
That is more pieces than the original set comes with, but that’s just how many I was able to get out of each set of acrylic. Pieces are 15mm on a side (except, of course, the long side of the trapezoids) and 3mm thick. They are cool.