Wargame Night 11-10

On November 13th Tim, Bob and myself got together for our monthly gamenight at my place. Naturally, all eyes turned to Twilight Imperium (not a problem for me since I almost always win) and we decided to go at it again with this game. The following races were randomly chosen:

Bruce - Emirates of Hacan
Tim - Federation of Sol
Bob - Universities of Jol-Nar

We decided to have leaders in the game and to have domain counters on non-home world planets. Secret objectives were handed out. Naturally, with three players we will be able to choose 2 agendas per round yet not every agenda will be used per round as it would in a four player game in which every agenda is used every round. We also decided to play a 14 point game.

Planets are chosen, positions become defined, agendas are set in motion

As the Emirates of Hacan I was able to freely excercise my trade rights as my special ability without having to pay for a commond counter out of my strategic allocation. Bob was able to start off with exceptional tech advances over the other races as the venerable but very liberal Universities of Jol-Nar. Tim as the Federation of Sol always gets a free command counter on every turn which can be very important when just one more tactical action my make the difference between victory or defeat.

As the game got going Bob suspiciously manuevered his capital ships into systems that contained wormholes. Naturally, all the wormholes in the game were situated pretty close to the Jol-Narians and without much further ado Bob claimed his first victory points by occupying all the jumpgates as his secret objective. I believe this is the third time that Bob has attained his secret objective by occupying jumpgates. Next time, I'll make it my business to personally occupy at least one jumpgate throughout the game regardless of the consequences.




After claiming his secret objective, playing his Imperial Agenda, and capitolizing on public objectives Bob races ahead of the pack in short order as the liberal Univesities of Jol-Nar.


Bob suddenly had 7 points in the game with Tim and myself way behind. Bob was able to take advantage of other public objective points as they became available and suddenly he was in striking distance of victory. At this point he was wishing we had allowed for a 10 point game but alas this was not to be.




The view from Bob's window along the Galactic Plane. (note War Sun production by "peaceful" Jol-Narians)

 Even though Bob raced ahead I still felt compelled to occupy Mecatol Rex regardless of the consequences. It also so happened that I needed to occupy MR as my secret objective. As the Emirates of Hacan I assigned one of my best Generals and my only Diplomat to the task force that steamed to Mecatol Rex. The General allows his infantry to have a fighting chance against a War Sun bombardment of the surface by subtracting 4 from any War Sun roll. Also, the Diplomat postpones an invasion of the planet one round and buys for the defenders a little bit more time to come up with a plan to defend the planet. I also sent Space Marines to reinforce the planet to ensure that the natives would not get restless, if you know what I mean.

Needless to say I occupied MR without the slightest wimper from either the Federation nor the Universities of Jol Nar. They would come to regret their passivity over my custodianship of Mecatol Rex.



The Most Right Reverend Emirate of Hacan. The "H" in Hacan is pronounced with a gurgling sound.

 I too was able to count my secret objective as all I needed were 8 capital ships and one space dock in the system of Mecatol Rex. Of course, someone had to sabatage my space dock (Bob) but that didn't stop me but only delayed the inevitable. The next turn I was able to claim my secret objective. Tim was able to collect a lot points himself without even meeting his secret objective. Thus, after a while we all nearly tied the game at 12 points. Bob could have won the game in short order had it not been for Tim who "stole" his Imperial Agenda and returned it to the card deck. This apparently flummuxed the Jol-Narians and completely stalled their momentum in the game.




Coming to the finish line and it appears it's going to be a tie game!

 It was about 1am at this moment and we all felt it was going to end quickly. So we all decided to take our sweet ass time. Being that the game was all tied up it was anyone's guess who the final victor was going to be thus everyone considered their final moves carefully. There was much tension in the air.



Acrimony and recreminations abound as the end is nigh. (note the fist of the Federation)

From here on out I decided to play the Diplomacy Agenda and keep Bob's War Suns at bay. Tim was frustrated to no end as I now made "peace" with not only Bob but Tim as well as the game came to a close. However, I did make one last attack on Bob and took some planets from him. As a result, he was unable to gain any further points and this apparently allowed Tim to win the game! Well, Tim did do some things as well to get his final points - so I really can't take the credit for Tim's victory. Nevertheless, the game ended at an excruciating 3:30 in the morning!




Tim wins the game but the Hacan will have no part of it as he attempts to make the Federation "pound sand"!

 Bob played an outstanding game and I thought for sure he would win but somehow Tim pulled it off in the end and was victorious. Tim won the game with 14 points, I came in Second with 13 points and Bob came in Third with 12 points. Sic transit gloria mundi.



Bob lets us know how he really feels when he makes third place.



Wargame Night 10-10

On October 9th, Bob, Eric, Tim and myself got together for gamenight and engaged in a rowdy game of Twilight Imperium. The following races were randomly chosen:

Bruce - Sardak N'orr
Bob - Xxcha Kingdom
Eric - Naalu Collective
Tim - Universities of Jol Nar



Bob is resigned to his fate after Tim positions his forces near Starpoint.

 The game was meticulously set up as it is every gamenight however we finally added "leaders" to the game in addition to domain counters to really stir the pot. Everyone really decided to punish me by placing all the good tiles of planets at the opposite side of the galaxy and unfortunately I was stuck in a resource "desert" as some might say. Everyone else had plenty of planets to colonize and unfortunately I had to rely on the domain counters to make up for a lack of planets and resources.
 
As for the leaders in the game, I was fortunate as the Sardak N'orr to have admirals and generals leading my people. Other weaselly alien races were stuck with scientists and agents provacteurs' to "lead" them to glory. Bob as the Xxcha Kingdom (or as I like to call them "turtlebacks") had diplomats as their leaders. Diplomats are probably the weakest leaders on the board as far as essential abilities to the turn the tide of battle in one's favor not that Bob could do anything about it since it was the "turtlebacks" greatest virtue. Eric apparently had the most feared leader of all - the agent! The agent has the ability to reverse whatever action card was played albeit at his expense for he would give his life to halt the action cards' effect.
 
After the map was setup and the opening moves were made by each player an opportunity to use my admiral in a glorious and decisive maneuver became available to the Sardak N'orr. Tim as the very liberal and hypocritical Universities of Jol-Nar moved a small task force near a planet close to the outer fringes of Sardak controlled space. Tim placed a scientist and an admiral aboard a single dreadnaught to serve as the flagship for his puny expedition to occupy a planet that clearly was in my sphere of Sardak influence. I then dispatched a small squadron of ships to attack and take down his flagship. The Sardak objective was to capture the twin leaders of the Universities of Jol-Nar. If I destroyed his ship with the leaders aboard then Tim would have to roll a die to determine their fate. A roll of 1 - 5 would result in their deaths. A roll of 6-8 the leader escapes and lands on a friendly planet unharmed. A roll of 9-10 results in the leader being captured by his opponent. For the Sardak, a captured leader is highly prized! Oh, to gloat over our enemies bound in chains before us...how delicious!
 
So the attack commenced. I threw in a single dreadnaught with my admiral on board, a cruiser and carrier escorted by 2 fighters. He had his dreadnaught with his leaders on board, two cruisers and a PDS for defence on the planet below. His PDS immediately hit one of my ships and took out the carrier. He then fired his main batterys from his Dreadnaught and cruisers. Two more hits were connected and I lost my fighters. I then fired my weapons and made a single hit with my capital ships. Tim felt confident enough to take the hit to his Dreadnaught. As you may not know, the Dreadnaught can take two hits before it is eliminated. The Dreadnaught thus can serve as a screen to prevent other more important ships from being destroyed outright. His dreadnaught was listing heavily to one side, damaged and smoking badly but it was still in the game. But the Sardak always come prepared! We played an action card which immediately eliminates a damaged Dreadnaught or War Sun and unfortunately for the Jol-Narians his Dreadnaught exploded in a blinding flash. Tim then had to roll a dice to determine his leaders fate. He rolled a 4 and they were dead. Perhaps it was fortunate for them that they were dead - its never a good day when one is captured by your enemies. As it was, the mission was complete and my admiral beat a hasty retreat out of the sector and into the safety of deep dark space.



The loss of Tim's leaders is quite evident on his face.

Sardok N'orr forces drew first blood and there was much rejoicing. Still, a mere tactical victory in some far off sector does not win a game. Since the galaxy was riddled with domain counters on non-homeworlds the alien races had to make a decision. Either use fighters to recon planets before invading and slowing your advance or plunge headfirst in the abyss and take whatever comes at you to keep moving forward on schedule. Both the Universities of Jol Nar and the Xxcha Kingdom (turtlebacks) tended to plunge first and ask questions later. Both the Sardak and Naalu Collective reconned in hopes of finding Lazax Survivors. As you may know, if you recon a planet with Lazax Survivors then you get one full victory point to add to your overall total. Each point is vital as there are only 10 - 14 points to achieve before one can claim victory. As it was the Sardak scored again by finding Lazax Survivors (Good for the Sardak; bad for the Lazax) on a nearby planet.



Three alien races move precariously close to each other as Mecatol Rex lay ripe for the picking. Who'll make the first move? Will peace prevail or will bullets and bombs start flying?

As the game went on the Universities of Jol-Nar, the Xxcha Kingdom, and the Naalu Collective all moved closer to Mecatol Rex. Each race was one space system away from occupying this vital area of the galaxy when suddenly as the Sardak N'orr made a decisive and bold maneuver by sending its fleet at flank speed to Mecatol Rex and slipping in right before the other races could make their move. No shots were fired and they landed on Mecatol with their Sardak Marines unopposed and unmolested (I say that advisedly).



Sardak N'orr Task Force arrives at Mecatol Rex at flank speed. The other alien races were not amused.

The Universities of Jol-Nar really got exorcised over this planetary takeover and decided to lay the kiel for a massive War Sun in addition to other capital ships. The Sardak N'orr had to do something quick before the War Suns full potential could be used against us on Mecatol. So I picked the Diplomacy Agenda and made "peace" with the Jol-Narians which made them go stark raving mad! Both Bob and Eric felt they weren't in position to attack me to the chagrin of Tim. Thus, Tim was hellbent on using the massive power of his War Sun on someone and therefore picked Bob's nearby system of Starpoint out of frustration as the first demonstration of the power of his battlestation. See what a forced peace can do to you?



A Jol-Narian display of brute force as Tim flexes his muscle on the unsuspecting "turtlebacks" at Starpoint!

Tim was so mad at Bob and Eric for not taking me on at Mecatol Rex he then proceeded to sweep the systems around Mecotal free of enemy forces while peace was kept in force between the Sardak and the Universities of Jol-Nar. Tim's War Sun had a compliement of fighters plus several capital ships of Dreadnaughts and Cruisers to take on Bob's task force of Dreadnaughts and carriers . Bob also had a very large division of Marines at Starpoint to protect the planet from invasion. A clash of civilizations ensued as Tim entered Bob's planetary system. The Universities of Jol-Nar decided to unleash the X-89 Bacterial Weapon and completely nuked all of Bob's forces on Starpoint. It was a massacre!



Bob as the Xxcha Kingdom of "Turlebacks" tries a fancy die roll throw to save his men on Starpoint to no avail.

 It was now Eric's turn as Tim's War Sun revved up its deathray on the feeble forces of the Naalu Collective. Eric insisted that Mecatol was out of reach and he couldn't attack the Sardak but the Universities of Jol-Nar weren't buying it. As Tim's forces were about to attack the Naalu however, Eric decided to utilize the Naalu's most valuable ability in war - retreat! Eric hastily retreated before the forces of Tim as he saw what happened to Bob at Starpoint. Tim once again felt cheated.



Emissary of the Naalu Collective - need we say anymore?

I actually played the Diplomacy Agenda on Tim a second time and prevented him from attacking me at Mecatol with his War Sun Battle Group. Two turns went by and Tim was unable to capitalize his massive forces against me and then when I finally played the Imperial Agenda the next turn and the Imperium Rex public objective card was revealed the game ended in my favor much to the consternation of Tim as I was sitting one point ahead of him on the score board. This public objective ended the game with the Sardak N'orr at 10 points, Universities of Jol-Nar & Xxcha Kingdom at 9 points and the Naalu Collective at 6 points.



Better luck next time, boys!

Wargame Night 09-10

On September 25th, Wayne, Eric and myself got together for gamenight and engaged in a polite game of Twilight Imperium. The following races were randomly chosen:

Bruce - Federation of Sol

Wayne - Naalu Collective

Eric - Mentak Coalition



Wayne refuses to surrender.



Since everyone arrived at 6:00pm sharp we decided to go for the longer version of the game at 14 points. Allegedly, a 10 point game is shorter. I tried to incorporate "leaders" again in the game but Eric just outright refused...hmmm...you know, that leaders provide modifiers during gameplay to achieve victory in battle, extra movement for ships, abilities to thwart a planetary invasion...hint, hint...perhaps, we should delve into this next time we meet. Domain counters were agreed upon by all parties and I took up the arduous task of assigning them to the non-homeworld planets on the map.



Precious Lazax Survivors.



The game commenced as usual with all the fanfare and banter a TI3 game can engender as I asked Wayne if he wanted to just go ahead and surrender! Naturally, he declined. And so began the long process of dominating the known galaxy. Once again, there is always someone who gets "reamed" with bad domain counters. And this time, it was Wayne as all the nasty and visibly upset natives resisted the Naalu Collectives will to subjugate them for the "good of the galaxy". Eric and I both did fairly well in domain counter placement as was evidenced by my fortunate and timely discovery of not just one Lazax survivor group but two Lazax survivor groups! As you know if you recon planets with fighters and discover Lasax Survivors (Jews of outer space) then you get one victory point added to your score. Thus, I acquired two victory points in one fell swoop! Its good to be the Federation!

Eric as the Mentak Coalition were the galactic thieves in the game. On every turn his species could raid the coffers of the other alien and human races if they possessed at least 3 or more trade goods. Trade goods are represented by gold and silver coins that I have adapted for this game. Naturally, Eric as the Mentak was proud of his hoard.



Eric's 19 trade goods...space pirates anyone?



Wayne hires space pirates and is all smiles.



Eric was just asking for trouble however by hoarding all the trade goods that existed in the galaxy. Then without warning Wayne began to laugh uncontrollably and was just itching to play an action card. Neither Eric nor I had a sabotage card to negate whatever ill effects that Wayne had in store for us. Wayne then pulled out the Space Pirates action card in which the pirates steal your entire trade good hoard and then divvy up half of them to themselves and the other half to the card holder. Thus, Eric was out 19 trade goods with Wayne getting at least 9 them in return. The other half was dumped somewhere in deep space.



Its good to be the Federation!



Well, as for myself my strategy was to secretly acquire tech upgrades to fulfill my secret objective. Thus, on every turn I picked the Tech Agenda on every round because I needed to occupy Mecatol Rex, build a space dock on MR and then have 2 tech advances in three different colors. Since only three of us were playing we were able to pick two Agenda cards each turn. Thus, I acquired my tech upgrades in due order and then sent a task force to Mecatol Rex to occupy the planet. Neither Wayne nor Eric were in the vicinity to stop me and I was able to occupy without further ado. But when I suddenly erected a space dock on Mecatol it raised the hackles of the Mentak Coalition. Eric was in no military position to take me on in Mecatol Rex so he hired an agent to sabotage my space dock causing it to explode and collapse falling to the planet surface below. So outraged was I that I broke every trade agreement in the game in retaliation! Nevertheless, I built another space dock and claimed my secret objective of two points.

Well, the game ended with the Federation of Sol at 14 points! Eric came in second with 10 points and Wayne in third with 7 points. There were several records smashed that night. First, we started really early! Second, this game was very non-militaristic. No one attacked each other militarily (Eric did destroy my space dock and Wayne did steal Eric's loot with pirates) and yet the game was pretty peaceful. The pacifists would have rejoiced greatly if they could look past on the military build up that still occurred. Finally, the game ended at 10:30pm...that's right... Believe it or not! And here's the pic to prove it.

Wargame Night 08-10

On August 14th, Wayne, Bob, Tim and myself got together and played Twilight Imperium. The following races were randomly chosen as follows:

Bruce - Emirates of Hacan
Tim - L1Z1X Mindnet
Wayne - Yassiril Tribes
Bob - Naalu Collective

We decided to go for the "shorter" game of 10 points instead of 14 (after Bob arrived around 7:23pm for a 6'o clock gamenight...eh, hem) and distributed domain counters to each of the non-homeworld planets. Again, we did not include "leaders" in this game but someday they will be utilized.

Bob as the Naalu Collective went first on every turn since their special abilities allows them first play. Unfortunately for Bob he was located in a resource "desert" where there were only a few planets. So Bob decided to forgo a big buildup of huge dreadnoughts and instead invest in the lighter but more nimble cruisers. Tim as the Mindnet had huge military forces to start with and in addition had 4 tech upgrades to begin the game. But for some odd reason he kept his forces very thinly spread and no huge military buildup was to be had as is typical for the Mindnet player. Wayne was the weaselly Yassiril Tribes with their special ability to horde action cards but once again and uncharacteristically of the Yassiril player chose not to play his action cards that much nor to view other players action cards. Then I as the Emirates of Hacan was the trade leader in this game by generating lots of trade goods in a short amount of time but again for some odd reason I did not utilize a key attribute of the Emirates of Hacan by trading with other players for their action cards. I totally "spaced" on this special ability much to my chagrin as it only became noticeable to me by the end of the game.

The game progressed as usual by much reconnoitering of the nearby planetary systems, however Bob felt it necessary to occupy once again the jumpgates with his cruisers. I was very tempted to bribe the Yassiril Tribes to attack Bob near one of their jumpgates but alas I thought Wayne was going to do it anyway. Unfortunately, he didn't attack and Bob occupied all four jumpgates in the game and scored his secret objective of two points. As you know, in a 10 point game any single point derived is cause for alarm by all players...or should be.

In spite of Bob's trickery, Wayne managed to pull ahead from everyone else with a total score of 5 points and continued to forge ahead with a fleet stationed at the dread planet of Mecatol Rex. However, I deviously managed to literally stack the Political deck by passing a law forcing the first place player in the game (Wayne as the Yassiril Tribes) to give up one of his planets and allow the last player in the game (Bob as the Naalu Collective) to occupy that planet with 3 men. Now this posed a dilemma for Wayne as he had precious few planets to give up (who ever does?) and so he thought real hard which planet to give to Bob...and he thought...and he thought...then in one masterful stroke of madness Wayne decided to give Bob- Mecatol Rex! An outrage!

This got Tim's juices flowing and he revved up his Mindnet war machine and lumbered on over to Mecatol Rex with a massive armada. Naturally, Bob as the Naalu who recently took title of Mecatol Rex from Wayne now ran with his tail between his legs by mortgaging the planet and leaving the field of battle to the victorious Tim. Talk about "strategic default"! Very embarrassing! Well, retreating for the Naalu much like the French is a virtue not a vice. Still, Tim still had trouble with restless natives on his side of the galaxy and between Bob and Wayne rolling for the natives I believe Tim again lost somewhere between 10 - 13 infantry trying to take unfriendly planets.

I too decided to head on over to Mecatol Rex but alas Bob's retreating task force set their gunner sites on my task force and wiped them out in a duel between his cruisers and defenders and my fighter aircraft and their carriers. My secret objective was to take my neighbors planet that had their last space dock built on it. I kept asking Tim where his last space dock was built but he didn't seem to notice my line of questioning but alas his last space dock had dreadnoughts occupying their position. My forces were too weak to take them on. I was forced therefore to occupy Mecatol if only to prevent Tim from scoring his secret objective. But Bob destroyed any hope I had in that strategy. Thanks a yahoo, Naalu!

By 2am, we had finally wrapped up the game with a final score for Wayne of 10 points! Wayne's first win! Congratulations are in order for Wayne's World. I, your host, came in a very close second with 9 points. Bob and Tim came in third at 8 points. Interestingly enough, when putting everything away I noticed that 4 planets had yet to be reconned sitting between me and Bob. If I had taken my task force to recon this system instead of taking them in a fruitless effort to occupy Mecatol Rex then I would have discovered Lazax Survivors which would have given me 1 extra point and I could have won the game! Or Bob could have tied me for second place had he reconned the planet of Wellon. Yes, that's right, the Lazax Survivors were jellin' on Wellon! The only other player to discover Lazax Survivors was Wayne for the Yassiril Tribes on his side of the galaxy and thus he got his extra point. We'll be watching you, Wayne!

Finally, we flew the official and glorious Kriegspielnacht Flag for all to see and it shall be flown at all future Kriegspielnacht events, rain or shine. And no it's not a NAZI flag...just an Imperial WWI German Battle Flag...that's all!

Wargame Night 07-10

On July 10th, Eric, Wayne, Tim and myself got together and played Twilight Imperium. The following races were assigned by lots:

• Eric - Emirates of Hacan
• Bruce- Barony of Letnev
• Wayne- Yassiril Tribes
• Tim- Mentak Coalition

We did decide to go for the "Long War" of a dreaded 14pt game. Also, we played the "Distant Suns" game option in which we place "domain counters" on each planet outside our home system. Once again, the mummy's curse of planetary uprisings that seem to afflict anyone who actually counts and randomly distributes the domain counters when we initially setup, struck me this time. I swear to you that the distribution is completely blind luck and yet all of the planets around me, and only me, had planetary uprising domain counters of 2 - 3 rebels per planet! In other words, it was going to take a very long time before I was going to conquer my nearest neutral planets while everyone else reaped the rewards of tech upgrades or trade goods. Outrage!

Since this was a 4-player game, we got to choose two Strategic Cards instead of our standard one card. And as a result, the Political Strategic card got played immediately and a galactic council was summoned. The political action card demanded we pass a law skipping the "Redistribute Command Counters" in the status phase of the game. What this meant was if the law was passed then we no longer could move additional counters to fleet supply or strategy allocation from the command pool when we receive additional counters. In essence, this froze our current fleet supply until this law was overturned. I currently had 5 fleet supply markers and as the Barony of Letnev my special ability allowed me an extra fleet supply marker on top of whatever amount I currently had. As for everyone else, well, they were SOL and no, I'm not talking about the Federation of Sol! If the law passed then Eric would only have a Fleet Supply of 3 ships and I believe Tim and Wayne both had at least 4 each. Well, Both Eric and I voted AGAINST the measure but Tim and Wayne voted FOR the measure - it passed by a mere two votes 27 for and 25 against. Now, this occurred tragically at the beginning of the game...I believe Wayne as the Yassiril Tribes instigated this outrage. Unfortunately, this law was set in stone for the duration of the entire game that night and never managed to get repealed.

After that political mess was hashed out the game started as usual with everyone grabbing as many planets as possible. However, Tim immediately went for the jugular when he sent a task force to Mecatol Rex. I just knew at that moment Tim was going to be enemy Numero Uno for the Barony of Letnev! Suddenly and without provocation, Tim and his bloody Mentak Coalition immediately beefed up Mectatol Rex with ships, men and an outrageous Space Dock - clearly he was trying to exploit a secret objective. The Barony, of course, could not allow this incident to pass unmolested. I therefore arranged to have the Space Dock Hover Capacitor be surreptitiously removed by playing an action card and that would result in the whole space dock crashing to the planet below. However, Tim negated my sabotage with another action card right at that moment depriving me of my little victory. The next round I tried again to cause an "accident" on board his space dock to slow down any additional troop increases he was preparing for Mecatol Rex. Sadly, both ventures failed and Tim did reap a Secret Objective reward of two points for holding Mecatol with the above forces. Another outrage.

Tim thought he was free and clear at this point when Eric sprung a trap on the Mentak Coalition. You see, the Mentak are thieves and nothing more. Tim had built up quite an expansive treasury at our expense and I believe had something like 20 trade goods sitting on his race card. Well, Eric played an action card and sent space pirates to loot his coffers! His entire hoard was taken off and half of it dumped somewhere in interstellar space! The other half was delivered to Eric's palace for immediate consumption. Tim was penniless and red faced but he could do nothing but openly weep.

By now, the game was pretty close with everyone in range to win however Wayne and Eric were being just way too friendly. So, in a fit of rage, I decided to attack Tim! And it was a glorious Japanese Kamikaze-like blitz with my carriers and cruisers. With fleet supply dangerously low for Tim he couldn't beef up his other planets while on Mecatol and this allowed me to exploit weak areas of his "empire". I was able to strike at nearly 3 separate systems and took 4 planets at once! It was a beautiful thing. Mind you, after running into restless natives it was a pleasure to actually kill conventional forces of the Mentak Coalition!

But alas, it was not enough for the Barony. Both Tim and Eric (he had only 3 ships on the board mind you) tied for first place with Wayne in third and I in last place.

I'll get you next time...my pretties!

Welcome!

I've decided to create a website to chronicle each and every game night for the benefit of myself as well as my fellow travelers who show up on every second Saturday at my place to play boardgames of a warlike nature.

My club, which I call Kriegspiel Nacht - German for "wargame night" - was established, gosh, some 10 years ago after my first son was born. I do have a small cadre of friends that show up regularly and a smattering of neighbors, co-workers, relatives and other odd and assorted gentlemen and gentlewomen that play once a month on the "battlefields" of games you may or may not have even heard of. Now I know, some hardcore enthusiasts would cry foul since all of my games I play are technically not considered "wargames" such as one might expect with an Avalon Hill game like "Eastern Front" or "Squad Leader". But hey, so long as the boardgame involves armies and fleets with some historical/scientific context then that's good enough for me!

Come to think of it, I have been playing wargames, of various difficulty levels since I was in elementary school: Chess, Risk, Diplomacy, Stratego and so forth. Then I joined the Marine Corps in 1986 and it was then that I ventured into the more technical and cumbersome wargames of Avalon Hill fame. Such games as Panzerkrieg, Platoon, Rise and Decline of the Third Reich and Victory in the Pacific. Great games really, but very long and very technical. Unless you were a war buff or history major then these games unfortunately would not generally appeal to you.

So, in the year 2000 I started the Wargame Night "club" (of sorts) and every second Saturday my friends and I get together and play the latest and most celebrated boardgames that most people would want to and could play. With beer and pretzels in one hand and dice in the other and with the world laying at your feet ripe for conquest what could be more fun, I ask?

In the future, I'll be posting pictures and descriptions of each game night and actually show won and who lost. Should be quite fun.

Now, let's see...where did that War Sun go to?....