CE alien survey #11: HACKER

First appearance: Fantasy Flight Games

Plain-English power: Mess around with compensation. Choose which cards to take and from whom; choose which cards to give when cards are taken.

Loved by: Computer geeks; those who like having lots of cards; those who enjoy making others’ gaming experience miserable.

Loathed by: All other card-hoarding powers (Clone, Filch, Fido, etc.); aliens with a preference for certain cards (Pacifist, Anti-Matter, Loser, etc.).

Three ways to win as Hacker:

1. Use your power on the card-hoarders. They’ll have more of the best cards. You get to look through players’ hands; remember what they have left. Don’t forget to take a Negotiate just to ensure you can use your power again!
2. Give away your garbage when compensation is taken from you. You should have plenty of cards, so you can afford to give them away.
3. Take away cards other powers like: take Pacifist’s Ns, Anti-Matter’s low Attacks, etc.

Three ways to win against Hacker:

1. Use your cards before Hacker gets them. He can’t take what you no longer have.
2. Don’t bother playing a Negotiate against Hacker to get his cards. He’ll just give you garbage. Try to surmise when he’ll play a Negotiate, then play one in return to set up a deal. Even if there’s no deal, he won’t get your cards or see your hand.
3. If possible, get rid of his third home colony early in the game. While this would be common against all powers, it can be vital againt Hacker. The longer Hacker is in play, the greater chance that he’ll have all the good cards.

At CE Online? No

Anything else: Hacker was created by Gerald Katz (originally called Violin) and debuted as a "Power Of The Day" article at the Comsic Encounter newsgroup. The power originally only affected the opponent, but was expanded during playtesting. Other powers by Gerald Katz are available at The Warp's amazing database.

— Submitted by Gerald Katz