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 Unfortunately, this law was set in stone for the duration of the entire game that night and never managed to get repealed.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?....