by FreezenFire
There's also one base (can't remember what it was) that adds VP's to each minion which is located on the base. Was just getting a little frustrating - figuring out what I'm doing, explaining to the GF what is going on, getting interrupted when she was asking "So how much is on this base again?".Now, this might have been the combination which makes it awkward... or Robots could do that as well... Either way, for a better idea on your initial playthrough, or couple games, I would suggest post-it notes (2x2" or so?) - one per base. Would be faster than continually counting up beads / counters per player...
My very first thought for base counters (before beads, which just seem to change the "Constantly adding it up" problem to a "Continually counting the beads" problem) would be dice, D6's for cheap pricing. Typically 3-4 dice, per player, per base for possible scoring (Assuming 4 player = 5 bases, x 4 dice per player as max = 20 + 3 for VP counters per player = 23 * 4 = 92 dice as absolute max, 80 as "more than enough under most circumstances" if you're not doing player-specific colours). Still relatively pricey, unless you're looking at the ridiculously small 5mm dice as counters, which should be obtainable for about $10-15, and wouldn't necessarily tie the dice to the game.
Key is making changes to the counters quickly. "helper apps" take too long. Tokens will still end up counting all the tokens. Pen/Paper is cheapest, but sometimes a pain in the butt. Doing so manually, continually as you need to re-check, could make the game less likely to be brought to the table.
Personally, I'm not buying anything until I've had another 5-6 games in, to get a better feeling on what's required or if I'm overthinking things. Feel free to glare and shake your head at the ridiculousness of it all.