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.