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.