Shepherd

Alert

Resource

Invasion

Destroy

Type

Power to Tend

Guides Ships to New Planets

As an invader or foreward, after winning an encounter, use this power to target one base on the target planet and make it impervious. Then, jump that base to another planet. During payoff, if you moved that base to a planet where its owner gains a foreign base, gain two boons for each moved ship as a reward. If you moved the base to one of their home planets they do not occupy, snatch two pods from the owner’s cache for each moved ship as a reward.

Legacy: Whenever an alien would lose a home base, the owner may rescue those ships.

Though they do not want for much, the peaceful Shepherds have grown tired of the endless struggle and destruction resulting from the quest for cosmic dominance. With a gentle hand, they intend to guide the ignorant sheep away from the warp and help them see the error of their ways.

Invader or Foreward: Encounter

Mandatory

Wild Flare

Whenever another alien gains compensation, if you are not a leader, you may discharge this flare to abduct the pods taken as compensation. Then, shuffle this flare into those cards. Snatch two of those pods and return the rest to that alien.

Not Leader: Payoff

Super Flare

When using your power, you may discharge this flare to target two bases on the target planet instead of one.

Invader or Foreward: Encounter

Modifications

Original alien named Extractor. Changed to give the alien name a power name with more flavor.
Originally the power to “extract”.
Original power is optional. I changed it to mandatory to fit the theme.
Shepherd’s legacy adds additional ship protection to home bases in a way that doesn’t actually protect the bases. The legacy provides a minor buff to invaders, since the home base is the only thing the defender loses, and they still don’t gain anything if they win. An alien like Roach or Zombie won’t appreciate this legacy much since they won’t get anything. Aliens like Pickpocket and Sneak can put this legacy to great use, since they aren’t as punished for losing their power. Persistent aliens in general can appreciate this legacy since they lose pretty much all of the downsides of losing as the defender. Some aliens like Kamikaze can even destroy their own home bases with their power with less of a downside. Original Cosmic has no legacies.

Tips

As an invader, Shepherd can target planets that have already been invaded to move one base on that planet for its power. If moving a foreign base to another foreign planet, it can gain a great deal of boons while its target maintains dominion.
Shepherd can grant dominion to another alien to gain favor with them if so desired. It will be a win-win situation since Shepherd will gain boons for it.
Shepherd can use its power exclusively to rob other aliens of foreign bases, but it has to invade planets that contain foreign bases. Shepherd will likely be opposed by the owners of those bases, which can hinder its ability to gain sponsors unless it can convince them it will move the ships to another foreign planet or target the home base instead.
Shepherd has to win in the invading fleet to use its power. Otherwise, it cannot use its power at all. If it can gain any amount of dominion, it can use its power. Due to the limitation of dominion, it generally means Shepherd will only use its power three or four times in a match, as the use in the final victory won’t matter for resource gain. However, the final use of its power could potentially turn a shared victory into a solo victory or vice versa. Be careful about letting Shepherd gain four dominion alongside you.
Shepherd gets more resources if it moves a base with more ships. Shepherd prefers to target planets that have already been invaded, since they won’t have to deal with the combat bonus of the home base having many ships.
If Shepherd targets a planet with your foreign base, you can move ships from that base as a sponsor to make your base less attractive for Shepherd to move.
Since Shepherd lacks a combat power, it is dependent on allies and strong pods to use its power. By getting a lot of boons or snatching a lot of pods with its power, it can can a combat advantage through a strong cache.
Due to Shepherd’s power, it can essentially gain boons during any invasion except when acting as a defender.

Development Notes

Shepherd offers a unique form of a ship sniping that merely moves a base, rather than destroying ships. Shepherd’s power is unique in that it is multi-purpose. It can actually be utilized to give someone a base instead of taking it away, even to the point of granting someone else a victory. If targeting a base, it can either grant the owner a home base, a foreign base, or merge the ships with an existing base. All three of them keep the ships out of the warp, so the latter is generally only useful when moving a base other than the defender’s.
Shepherd’s power works as a foreward, since it would otherwise be a win-based invader-only power. If it cannot sponsor any invaders, that will become the reality for Shepherd. As a tradeoff, its power is incredibly impactful, gaining a lot of resources for itself and having a major impact on victory progress.
Shepherd is perhaps the alien who most wants to target already-conquered planets, since they allow Shepherd to gain boons without granting dominion to another alien. Shepherd also prefers winning against aliens with more ships, which is fitting for a Shepherd. Bystanders do have the ability to intentionally reduce Shepherd’s bonus by moving the ships from their base, but this is generally limited to their ability to become sponsors that invasion. If Shepherd targets a defender’s base, those ships cannot be reduced, but it has to deal with the combat advantage of more ships.
The original Extractor alien was difficult to reimagine, since the theme is so devoid of flavor. The power name is even redundant since there’s nothing to draw from it. At first I imagined something like a Forklift or Crane that grabs bases and moves them over to another planet. It made me think of Claw, which is based on a crane game. One thing that struck me about Extractor’s power is that it doesn’t destroy the base it targets, allowing it to win pseudo-peacefully. I decided to play on that idea into the Shepherd theme.
A shepherd is one of the oldest professions in human history. They are in charge of overseeing a flock of domesticated sheep and keeping them safe from predators and make sure they don’t wander off. Historically, the shepherd iconography is most heavily associated with Jesus of Nazareth, the Good Shepherd. While Jesus was a carpenter by profession, he was known as a Shepherd of Men, guiding lost souls toward salvation. My idea for Shepherd is one who similarly guides other aliens to a new land like a Shepherd with sheep.
To “tend” is to care for or look after. A shepherd tends to its flock of sheep as part of its job, and Shepherd tends to other aliens to guide them to a new planet. I also considered the power to “guide”, but it didn’t have the shepherd connotation I was looking for. It feels more like a tour guide or a spirit guru. I also considered the power to “lead”, but there’s too much crossover with General’s power of leadership. The power name is also a reference to Isaiah 40:11. “He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom; and gently lead those that are with young.”
I find it fitting to the theme that Shepherd moves the entire base together instead of individual ships. It guides the ships like a flock of sheep and can’t leave any behind.
I think Shepherd’s resource gain is fair in relation to how many times it can use it. Even though it can gain potentially 8 boons at once, it would either have to move a foreign base with 4 ships to do so or give the defender a home base. Since it can only use its power effectively four times in a match, it’s also highly vulnerable to being zapped.
In terms of resource gain, Shepherd is the type to gain a lot of resources with few activations. Comparing it to something like Ghoul, Ghoul can get way more resources over a match due to its timing, but it is still restricted by how much it wins. Mercenary will gain more lucre as the match gets closer to the end, but its timing can also let it gain more resources than Shepherd if it wins more.
Shepherd occupies a fairly unique design space with its pseudo-peaceful victories. Powers that activate as invader or foreward are exceptionally rare, especially with my Cosmic changing the timing of certain powers like Locust and Patriot. Win-based powers that activate with such timing are even rarer. I would perhaps most compare Shepherd to my Brute, who targets which ships to destroy as a leader. While Brute actually destroys the ships, it doesn’t gain any rewards as a result and doesn’t work as a foreward. There’s also Cloak, who can move an enemy ship to another planet with a completely different context in exchange for a boon. Cloak’s timing isn’t strictly more or less common than Shepherd’s, and its power can be undone if an alien correctly guesses what it did. Shepherd has to win to use its power and gets way more resources than Cloak per use.
I think Shepherd is accurately labeled a yellow alert alien. While the power isn’t too complex, the ability to remove foreign bases could make it tricky for new players to deal with in a first match.
Though Extractor’s original power is not pointlessly optional, I prefer the flavor of Shepherd being naturally pacifistic and not destroying more ships than necessary. The main reason Shepherd would want to not use its power is if only the defender’s base is on the target planet. At most it could move the ships to a base where the defender already has one, which would generally be worse than just destroying the ships. I think the three options Shepherd has of moving ships to a foreign planet, an unoccupied home planet, or an existing base adds enough interesting choices that the power doesn’t need to be optional. The only time Shepherd can’t really use its power effectively is at the start of the match when all planets are occupied.
Shepherd is the only invasion-type alien I’ve written to date that cannot gain a foreign base itself with its power. It fits with the nature of a selfless tender of sheep.