Wargame Night 11-11

Once again, Bob, Tim, Wayne, Denny and myself played Twilight Imperium. We were expecting Ross but unfortunately he was a no show. At any rate, when were setting up the map I decided to place an artifact worth one victory point in the wormhole nexus on the planet of Malice. Because of that one decision, nearly the entire universe came crashing down on the Wormhole Nexus and after the smoke had settled it was Wayne who was last man standing. In fact, I believe it was one of the most, if not the most, decisive win made by a TI3 player since we have playing Twilight and kudos should go out to Wayne for a magnificent win. Bob came in a distant second and the rest of us huddled around third place.

We'll get you next time Wayne!

Wargame Night 10-11

Not much to report but that we did play Twilight Imperium and it was a very close game between Bob and Tim. The rest of us, myself, Eric and Wayne battled for third, if I recall. But Tim somehow nudged Bob out of first place and won the game.

We'll get you next time Tim!

Wargame Night 09-11

On September 10th, Bob, Tim, Eric and myself got together for a rousing game of Settlers: Cities and Knights.

I'll cut to the chase.

I lost. Really bad. This was the worst game I've ever played.

Tim - 13pts
Bob - 12 pts
Eric - 11 pts
Bruce - 4 stinking points!!!!

Well, as we were deciding to place our settlements on the map, Bob came up with a brilliant plan that I should place my both of my settlements close to each other and on a port that traded 2 rocks for anything I wanted. It sounded like a great plan at the time. D'oh! It turned out that I was stuck in a depression of miserable rolling such that I went almost without commodities for the entire game. Pathetic!

That's pretty much it.

Wargame Night 08-11

On August 13th, Bob, Eric, Tim, Wayne, a newbie named Ross and myself got together for a star-studded game of Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition, Shattered Empire. We would have got together back in July but unfortunately my wife went into the hospital and game night was cancelled. But now she is almost whole and she was delighted that we could all get together at any rate despite her slow but steady recovery. At the same time, however, her brother recently got married and had taken the digital camera with him and so this month's blog is without the visual aid of pics. Most unfortunate!

The following alien races were randomly chosen:

Eric - Embers of Muaat
Bob - Naalu Collective
Wayne - Winnu
Tim - Emirates of Hacan
Ross - Clan of Saar
Bruce - Sardok N'orr

We built the galaxy using the maximum number of hex tiles for an 8 person game with only six people. Thus, we had 4 rings of tiles surrounding the regnal planet of the universe also renowned for its desolation and noxious smell, the imminent and notorious Mecatol Rex. We also excluded domain counters in this particular game and there was much rejoicing coming from Bob's corner of the galaxy as a result. We still included all the other attachments however such as space mines, leaders, the wormhole nexus, shock troops, etc. that we have begrudgenedly come to love with the Shattered Empire expansion of TI3.

We also decided to use all of the new Strategic Agenda's that came with the Shattered Empire expansion especially Agenda #8 Imperial II. The original version has it to where if you pick the original Imperial Strategy agenda card then on your play you would "automatically" gain 2 victory points. Well, the Imperial II Strategy agenda card makes it more difficult to gain points because first and foremost you must occupy Mecatol Rex and hold the Imperial II card in your hand to gain only 1 victory point.  Also, because we played this particular strategy card we had to set up additional public objective cards face up for all players to see per the Age of Empire game option in the original rulebook. Got it? Good! I'm not going to repeat myself.

Cassus Belli

Well, the game proceeded as usual with neutral planets being gobbled up by greedy and mindless alien races as they set out to conquer or subsist on the low hanging fruit of "empty" planets that no longer contained domain counters. For myself, I was expecting smooth sailing and bright sunshine when suddenly out of the clear blue sky came the ruffians of the Clan of Saar led by Ross to seize a system only one star system away from my homeworld! This was an outrage that no Sardok could ignore. However, I only had one cruiser and two troop carriers to take on Ross and his forces. I have to say this was a typical newbie maneuver that I should have seen coming! You know, as aliens, I try to be nice but then my tail gets stepped on and one thing leads to another and suddenly you have a War Sun revving up its death beam! But I digress, all I had was sheer guts and glory to lead the way and so I decided to parry his move by entering a star system of his at flank speed using an action card at my disposal and wiped out two of his mobile space docks and seizing two of his badly-managed planets by my space marines that left him nonplussed! It was bloody marvelous as the British might say.

Unfortunately, Ross countered my move by beefing up his fleet in the system he took from me and I found myself suddenly in a World War One style trench warfare of attrition that no ugly alien wants to see himself in. My threats, bribes and space mines could not shake him. It was most unfortunate since his singular move completely took the wind out of my sails for the duration of the game!

Lake Of Fire

In the meantime, Eric as the Embers of Muaat started the game with a fully operational War Sun! This alone is an outrage that screams for retribution and for an alien pig pile-on that surely would benefit the rest of us po' folks who couldn't afford such a luxury! But alas, this was not to be as each race sought out its own agenda at the expense of "the others". Thus, as Eric slowly moved his War Sun within striking distance of Bob's homeworld the Naalu scans were coming back showing that the Embers of Muaat were going to DefCon Six and suddenly without provocation Eric moved his space station into the Naalu Homeworld system and completely wiped out all resistance and occupied the hapless planets in his system! Such violence! Such anger! The heat and the flames! Who could withstand it?

Well, amazingly and against all odds, Bob was able to strike back with his remaining forces and destroyed Eric's only War Sun in the game that exploded in a mighty fireball witnessed by all from afar. I believe this is Bob's third or fourth War Sun kill on record and he will now go by the nom de guere- War Sun Killer. However, even though Eric lost his War Sun he did gain 2 victory points by completing his secret objective which required him to occupy his opponents homeworld. Nevertheless, Eric naturally could not allow such a travesty to go unpunished and so he immediately built another War Sun and stocked it with a squadron of fighters, a deadly combo if ever there was one. Once again, he moved his newly built War Sun into what was left of the Naalu Star System once more much to Bob's chagrin. Eric no doubt was pleased with himself.

Wayne's World

Wayne as the Winnu must have felt, like the imbibed Charlie Sheen, that he was "WINNING"! And really, I would have to say he was the points leader for most of the game. Somehow, Wayne was able to complete several public objectives and somehow meet the requirements of his secret objective to suddenly find himself at 7 or 8 pts in the game by turn 3 (midnite). We had all agreed that we would go to 10 pts and then call it quits for the night so Wayne was smiling pretty on his side of the galaxy as victory seemed so assure. And what alien wouldn't feel this way? But violence has a way of intruding itself even on the most peaceful and benevolent people like the Winnu.

Tim had decided to venture into the Winnu star system and take things he had no right to snatch. Wayne rightfully defended himself and a complete conflagration blew up in that part of the galaxy. I have to say, I have never seen so much violence in a game of Twilight Imperium as I did on this night. The entire fringes of the galaxy were ablaze with the burning hulks of space ships and crowded with the floating detritus of plastik and metal floating side by side next to the bodies of warrior-aliens as the curse of war forced itself into far away places. Every alien race was at war in this game. Peace wept for the fallen.

Mecatol Rex Or Bust

Meanwhile, as the galaxy went to hell in a handbasket, Tim as the Emirates of Hacan easily moved his naval task force into position off of Mecatol Rex and occupied it without so much as a peep or a pipe. We forgot to activate Mecatol's meager native defense force of 3 fighters and 2 troops as it should have happened and so Tim easily occupied the throne. Nevertheless, there was still a chance that some brave knight could march in and slay the dragon that was the Emirates of Hacan but alas no commander came to the rescue and Tim smiled to himself when he realized that victory could be snatched from the jaws of Wayne's mouth! When Tim suddenly built 4 Dreadnaughts and a space dock on Mecatol I immediately demanded vainly in the Galactic Council that someone sabotage his space dock but no one was able to muster such a card and Tim was able to claim his secret objective AND score 2 more points by holding the Strategic Agenda #8 in his hand and win the game at 9 points!

After Action Report

Overall, Wayne did very well and had he been able to go one more round could have kept his lead and won the game. He by far was the leader in front and it was his to lose. Tim, as sly and cool as usual, snuck in and like the Cheshire cat smiled his way to victory. Eric as the phantom menace was a force to be reckoned with and used it to his advantage at the expense of Bob. And in spite of losing his homeworld, Bob was not only able to destroy Eric's War Sun but he somehow managed to build a War Sun of his own! Ross, was the new man on the block, played a very good game and showed that newbies can never be trusted and must be crushed at the first possible chance! Finally, I hate to say it, but I was the loser in the game as I came in last at 3 points. Ross successfully boxed me in and prevented me from breaking out to conquer other parts of the galaxy and my lack of points showed it. Even so, I thought we played the game very well for being absent for so long. Good job everyone!

Final points (If I recall correctly) -

Tim - 9
Wayne - 8
Eric - 7
Bob-7
Ross - 4
Bruce - 3

Wargame Night 06-11

On June 11th, Wayne, Bob, Tim, Eric, Steve and myself got together for a lovely game of Axis & Allies 30th Anniversary Edition. Being that this was the month of June and it was also the 67th anniversary of D-Day it seemed appropriate to play Axis and Allies. The following countries were randomly chosen:
Wayne - United States
Bob - Great Britain
Eric - Soviet Union
Steve - Germany
Tim - Italy
Bruce - Japan

With the anniversary edition of the game it was no longer necessary to completely wipe out the other side by occupying all of their capitals nor was it necessary to obtain x-amount of industrial production points to be declared the winner. Instead, the way to win was to occupy a certain number of "victory cities" as highlighted in red on the board map. The Axis started off with 8 victory cities and the Allies started off with 12 victory cities already in their possession. To win the game either side had to obtain at least 15 cities by 1:00am or whoever had the most cities by that time would win. Finally, we included our own rule that if any capital of either the Axis or Allied side had been captured then it would be considered "sudden death" and the other side would win automatically.

Unlike our other games we have played, Axis and Allies is a team game, and as such the Axis side consisted of Tim, Steve and myself. The Allied side consisted of Bob, Eric and Wayne. Each side therefore got together for a council of war and discussed the best strategies to obtain the most cities and hold them throughout the game. I know for the Axis side, the best cities for the taking were situated in the Pacific with Shanghai in China, Honolulu in Hawaii, Melbourne in Australia and Manila in the Philippines. Russia certainly had a fair share of victory cities for Germany to take but the Axis side felt that the Nazi's would be hard pressed to hold them. So our strategy going forward was to take the Pacific cities first and foremost and hold them at all costs. If Steve as the Nazi's were able to take Leningrad or Stalingrad then we considered that to be icing on the proverbial cake. Also, we wanted Tim as the Italians to actually "do something" than just sit around and twiddle his Fascist thumbs! So, we decided that Tim's sole objective was to take on Britain in Africa and seize the whole of Africa for the pleasure and benefit of the Axis.

From what I could gather from the Allied side, it appears it was to hold the line against Germany by the Russians, build up American forces in the Pacific to take on Japan's navy and have the British under Bob's heavy hand build factories in India for a conquest or reconquest of Southeast Asia and beyond. Bob came up with some interesting operational names which unfortunately I cannot remember but was something like Operation "Rubber Chicken" and other sorts of asinine names. Clearly, it was propaganda of the highest order.

For the Axis, the entire operational tempo fell on the Japanese to perform a "divine" miracle in the Pacific. Thus, I struck fast and furious over the Americans at Hawaii and in the Philippines. I also moved against the American supported Chang Kai Chek forces of Chinese that were threatening Japan's hold on the Asian mainland.

Shanghai fell pretty quickly but unfortunately the American's held out against supieor forces of the Japanese Imperial Navy and Army in the Philippines by initially holding onto Manila. I made a long shot attack on Hawaii by easily destroying the American fleet at Honolulu but was unable to capture the island. The haughty and happy Americans under the auspices of Wayne tried to unnerve me with his smiles even as I was sinking his battleship. Clearly, from the Japanese point of view the Americans had gone mad!

Steve as Nazi Germany, attacked the entire Russian eastern front to bottleneck Eric around Moscow and Stalingrad. This he did pretty much on schedule and with his usual gusto and bravado. Steve also carried out an efficient U-Boat attack on British and American shipping with satisfactory results. Tim on the other hand performed exceptionally well with his moronic Italians as he was able to take Egypt and Gibraltar from the highly bombastic and propagandistic British. With the English wiped out in Egypt, Africa lay ripe for the raping!

Eventually, Manila did fall to the Japanese by the second round of play and the Axis gained 2 cities for a total of 10 victory cities and the Allies lost 2 cities for a total of 10 cities as well. It was now a tied game and the war could swing in either direction.

The allies were not to be outdone however, as Wayne actually rolled a six for Research and Development and then rolled the die for "Shipyards" which naturally increased America's ability to outproduce the Japanese by a factor of magnitude larger than anything the Japanese could compete against. I believe it reduced his naval costs by 3 thus making expensive ships easier to purchase and produce on the cheap. Bob also decided to build a factory not only in India (which was expected) but also in the Dutch East Indies (which was not expected). I suppose it was a brilliant move just in case India fell to the Japanese then the British could build right next to it for a total of four units at one time. Or he could combine forces with his Indian factory and produce a total of 7 units in one fell swoop. Overall, I found it a great idea albeit a rather provocative one by the Allies.

Eric's Russians took on a slugfest with the Germans on the Eastern Front. For a round or two the Russians lost and then won back and then lost again the city of Leningrad. Both sides had bludgeoned themselves over Leningrad and by the third or fourth turn they were licking their wounds and building up forces for one last Armageddon like battle for control of the far northern city that clearly lay in the political sphere of the Germans. Eric also tried to take Manchukio from the Japanese in the Soviet Far East but failed miserably and expectantly I might add as the Japs were able to defend with troops and aircraft. Overall, Eric was roughed up and made one last attempt to take Leningrad from the Germans. It was a mighty battle and had time not worked against the Allies, Eric might not have attacked so soon. Nevertheless, he did attack Steve's Nazi's at Leningrad and came within one tank of taking the city from the Axis. If Eric had accomplished his goal then the Axis would have been down one city and perhaps lost the game for sure.

Bob's British were on the warpath in Asia after losing so bad in Africa. He had finally positioned himself to strike back at Vietnam but again time was running out and so was left to merely build up instead.

Wayne too had finally built up his naval forces and was making their way back to Asia after Japan nerely obliterated the Chinese on the Asian mainland and held their own against Eric's Russians. I kept my naval forces centrally located in the Pacific away from both the American and British submarines and battleships. This rather conservative strategy, as insisted by the Italians under Tim, kept the Japanese fleet in a sustainable position for a defense in depth strategy and allowing the Japanese mainland to defend herself more readily from an American fleet ready to pounce on Tokyo.

It could be argued by the Allies that if they had a little more time then the full force of their economic power would tighten like a noose around the Japanese Empire for good. However, we were playing till 1 am and the Axis made good on their plans and actually held 10 cities much to the allies chagrin. Thus, it was a tied game!

And really, as far as the Axis were concerned if it was a tied game then it was the Axis that were truly victorious! I think we can all agree, civilly, that it was the Axis that performed better than the Allies. As the Chinese might say "Better Ruck Next Time!"

Wargame Night 05-11

On May 14th, Eric, Bob, Tim, Wayne and myself got together for another huge game of Twilight Imperium III, Shattered Empire. The following races were randomly chosen.

Eric - Winnaran
Tim - Clan Of Saar
Wayne - Xxcha Kingdom
Bob - Emirates Of Hacan
Bruce - Universities Of Jol Nar

Once more, against Bob's wishes domain counters were placed on the board. Leaders were utilized as well. Artifacts were placed appropriately, Mecatol Rex custodian tokens were included and the wormhole nexus was also placed outside the completed galaxy.

We decided to go for the 10 point game and skip any reading of the rules so as to move the game along. It would be up to the individual players to remember all of the rules or get lost in the fog of war. Actually, we did assist each other in remembering the labyrinth of rules since we are a chivalrous lot. Unless, of course, it was to our complete advantage to "let someone forget" a rule or two if this allowed us the upper hand! I'm sure on many occasion this was the case.

We also decided to back out the "Bureaucracy" #8 Agenda card and include in its place the "Imperial II" #8 card. This was the agenda card in which you receive 1 victory point if you choose the card and occupy Mecatol Rex during that turn. In addition to the above agenda card we also had to use the "Age of Empire" variant from the original game to acquire victory points. The AOE variant states that you must pull stage I and stage II public objective cards and place them face up in a row until the "Imperium Rex" objective card is displayed. We should have 7 to 10 public objective cards face up in total with a glass token placed on the card to the furthest left. After each status phase is completed then the token is moved to the right until it finally reaches the Imperium Rex card which ends the game. The person with the most victory points is declared the winner. I believe we may have played this incorrectly because we originally decided on a 10 pt game regardless.

At any rate, it allowed us to see ahead of time what victory point conditions we could meet without any "surprises". Well, as the game got going naturally the domain counters became of a bone of contention as they slowed down the rate of planetary acquisition much to Bob's chagrin. Nevertheless, Eric was able to recon one planet with his fighters and was able to locate Lazax Survivors and was immediately rewarded one victory point per game rules. I too was fortunate enough to stumble upon Lazax Survivors and was duly awarded.

Then someone decided to break out and seize Mecatol Rex by the throat. Naturally, it was the turtlebacks of the Xxcha Kingdom that Wayne controlled that took control of this peaceful but fateful planet. The Mecatol Rex Custodians of 3 fighters and 2 Infantry were crushed easily by the turtlebacks. It was at this time that Bob suggested we bring out heavy mallets to crush any green tortoise shells of the Xxcha Kingdom to instill fear in Wayne. Alas, Wayne sat on Mecatol Rex and racked up a couple of victory points because no one seemed moved enough to attack him. By this time it appeared it was Wayne that was the man to beat. Him and Eric as the Winnu were both pretty close with the highest score at this point. Then the tide began to turn against the turlebacks and it was the Winnu who were the beneficiaries of good planning and good luck.

Eric somehow was able to obtain 10 points thus ending the game in his favor. Wayne was close behind at 8 points I believe. I was at 5 points and Tim had 3 points. Sadly, Bob came in at a measly 1 point. I have to say this was Bob's worst game ever! EVER! Even newcomers get more than one point in a game but unfortunately Bob as the Emirates of Hacan will go down in TI3 Shattered Empire history as the worst played alien race. Okay Bob, I'll give it to you next time, we'll forgo domain counters as you always wanted and see if that improves your alien agenda.

Better luck next time.

Wargame Night 04-11

On April 9th, Bob, Steve, Eric, Wayne, Tim and myself got together for a stellar game of Twilight Imperium III, Shattered Empire expansion. The rules and pieces of the expansion game when added to the considerable weight of the previous TI3 game system made this already huge gameboard one monster of an encounter of the highest kind! The expansion game comes with 4 new races, 2 new sets of ships, leaders and armies, several different decks of politics and action cards and 9 new agenda cards and all of the rules and regulations that go with them. Oh, let's not forget new planets, ion clouds and wormholes as well.

There were so many pieces, in fact, I had to upgrade the previous cardboard box that the game originally came in to a nice leather trunk that looks like it was found on some forsaken part of Mecatol Rex. I really wanted to make a small movie on how I found it and have lights shining out of it when it would be opened, but alas, I just couldn't find the time to do it!

I found it at a Homegoods store and snatched it up as fast as I could. I probably looked like some obnoxious shopper on Black Friday after Thanksgiving as I pushed and shoved some little kid out of the way trying to get to it.

I also had to order all of the metal containers with clear lids to hold the additional pieces to the game. Finally, I went to Target and purchased two more tackle bait boxes for the plastic ships. Let's see, I believe I have now spent well over $200.00 between the game, containers, boxes and now treasure chest. That's really not too bad when we consider that this is a "hobby". You'll know when it starts getting out of hand when I start demanding people wear costumes while we play and incorporate regional dialects for realism. Actually, that really sounds like a good idea!

I'm hoping that all of the new pieces will add to the realism of the game and not make it so cumbersome that we never play it again. I'm sure the next time we meet we will just dive right into the game without reading any rules. I call it "Fog of War", which should be fun. Nevertheless, we all got together around 6:30ish, so the game really didn't get started until around 9pm. Knowing that it could be well past dawn by the time we finished the game we all decided that we would end it at approx 1:30 - 2am Sunday morn. Actually, Bob decided that for us since his wife would really chew him out if he was any later than 2am. Gosh, I hope she's not reading this.

As you can see from the picture on the right that the board is massive! We added an additional "ring" of hexes for a 7 - 8 person game just for shits and grins. The following races were randomly chosen:

Wayne - Embers of Muaat
Eric - Naalu Collective
Tim - Barony Of Letnev
Bob - Mentak Coalition
Steve - Clan Of Saar
Bruce - Federation Of Sol

Both Wayne Gillespe and Steve Cudsworth picked the newer races from the expansion game. Wayne was the Embers Of Muaat who start the game with a War Sun. As you may or may not know, War Suns are the "Death Stars" in this game that basically are the nuclear weapons for foreign policy when it comes to the alien races. Clearly, an unfair advantage when we also consider that the Embers can pass through supernovas unscathed and they immediately become the leader to beat. Steve was the Clan of Saar who have the ability to move their space docks through the galaxy without them being attached to planets like the rest of the alien races. This is a huge advantage as the space docks can become a potential "Death Star" of sorts with the right action cards and tech upgrades in one's arsenal.

As the game got started it was immediately clear that both Eric and Tim were in the unenviable position of being on either side of Wayne and his War Sun capable race. On top of this, Tim was right next to Bob as the Mentak Coalition and as we all know is a notorious and brutal attacker not to be trusted. And Bob calls himself a "libertarian" huh! More like an "Imperialist". Thankfully, I was situated between Eric and Steve who have a history of sheer wimpiness and incompetence when it comes to space conquest and colonization. The wind was to my back as far as I was concerned.

The game progressed as usual with the alien races having to reconnoiter the neutral planets each having a domain counter on them before making a troop invasion in Avatar-like fashion. It was at this time that the Embers of Muaat under the capable leadership of Wayne encountered a very hostile native planet. Suddenly as his War Sun came into orbit of a neutral planet the natives fired off a secret PDS cannon per the domain counter on that planet. This particular domain counter was from the expansion game and as such was the first time any of us had seen it. The person who encountered this DC had to roll a dice and if he rolled a 6 or higher on a ten-sided dice then he would lose one capital ship. He had to do this twice! Unfortunately for Wayne, he only had his War Sun and it was his only capital ship within range. If he lost his War Sun to mere natives then he would look like a disgrace to the other alien races no doubt. As such, he rolled twice and twice averted disaster by rolling less than a six. From that time forward, Wayne was veeeerrry careful not to use his War Sun so cavalier.

On the far side of the galaxy, Tim as the Barony of Letnev kept on getting harassed by Bob and his Mentak Coalition. Tim had just gotten back from a day of soccer and fun in the snow when he made the courageous decision to join in a game of Twilight Imperium. As such, he was mentally and spiritually exhausted which no doubt worked to Bob's advantage. Tim was innocently investing Rigel I, II and III when suddenly and deliberately without provocation, Bob invaded this tripartite planetary system. If I'm correct, Bob kept on trying to invade the planet of Rigel II however Tim kept a diplomat in place which automatically prevents an invasion of a planet that a diplomat occupies.

Then Bob as the Mentak Coalition really wanted to cheese the Barony by invading Tim's homeworld system and enforce a blockade on his only space dock in the game. Tim was frustrated beyond belief as he was prevented from building ships but all he could do was pace the halls of his palace while Bob's expeditionary fleet made the people of Letnev to suffer for lack of food stuffs and medicine. It was a complete mess as far as Tim was concerned.

Steve on the other hand methodically made moves directly for Mecatol Rex while I was preoccupied with the Wormhole Nexus which was new to the game. As such, I violated my own policy of never allowing another alien race to occupy Mecatol Rex without a fight. I simply was not in the region in any measurable way and no one else bothered Steve. As a result, Steve as the Clan Of Saar just sauntered right into the center of the galaxy and took over the planet. There were native Winnarians on Mecatol that put up a token fight but Steve had no trouble batting them down. Steve was all smiles when his "purplelicious" colored ships enforced a no fly zone over Mecatol and raised the standard of Saar on the greatest planet in the galaxy.

Amazingly, and perhaps unforeseen by all, the game progressed quite slowly. By midnite the highest score was a mere four points tied between Eric as the Naalu Collective and Steve as the Clan Of Saar. Me and Tim were tied at three points and Wayne and Bob were tied at a measly two points. With all of the opportunities to obtain victory points in the game we should have had higher scores but then again it was a new game for all intents and purposes. The map was also very large and could have contributed to a much slower game however I am a big believer in bigger-is-always-better. I still want to see a larger map on the next game, but I digress.

Eric and Wayne in the meantime started to rub shoulders in their small quadrant of the galaxy. As noted before, Wayne as the Embers Of Muaat starts the game with a dreaded War Sun and since the close encounter with a native PDS that almost spelled doom for his capital ship, Wayne decided to cautiously move his Death Star closer to the Naalu Collective and scare the living bejeebas out of them! As such, in the expansion game of TI3: Shattered Empire we can now lay space mines with our cruisers which is exactly what Eric did. I'm convinced it kept Wayne at bay since he was already psychologically damaged from his experience earlier with the native PDS that he decided to forgo a close encounter with a space mine.

Once again, Bob decided to clash with the Barony of Letnev and give Tim hell just being Tim! As the game was nearing the end Bob felt he made a strategic error in getting tangled with Tim over Rigel I, II and III that he was compelled therefore to attack Tim just one more time for good measure. And thus, the planet of Primor was chosen and the resulting madness ensued as can be seen by the caption to the left. It was a clash of civilizations par excellence! Tim unfortunately was on the losing end again much to his exhausted chagrin.

Well, to make a long story short, if that's possible, Steve was able to score his secret objective when he revealed that all he needed was to control Mecatol Rex for one turn in addition to building the necessary military space docks that he was able to score two more points. Thus, Steve, for a second time, claimed first place in Twilight Imperium as the game came to a close at 2am. Let's all give Steve a big hand or flipper for succeeding where few ever could! Rest assured, it will never happen again.

And the final scores were:

Steve : 6
Bob: 5
Eric: 5
Bruce: 4
Wayne:4
Tim: 3

Wargame Night 03-11

On March 19th, Bob, Tim and myself got together for a game of Shogun. I decided to play this particular game this time to honor the victims of the latest earthquake and tsunami to hit Miyagi Prefecture in Japan earlier in the month. Our prayers and thoughts are with the people of Japan. Petals for the fallen lay at the foot of the Samurai swords.
Now, this particular Shogun game is not the more famous Shogun of Milton Bradley. If you recall, the MB version of Shogun had individual soldiers that you set up on a board and then roll dice to see who is removed. You also got miniature Samurai swords and lovely Japanese screens to shield your setup of soldiers from other players, if I recall correctly. Then there is the infamous Koku, the money for hiring soldiers and ninjas.

This particular game of Shogun was created by Dirk Hennin of Queen Games and it is nothing like the MB version. First, there is no dice. Instead, game pieces are thrown in a tower and any pieces that come out are typically the casualties. Any left over game pieces are then placed back onto the board. I believe this is called the Wallenstein system of determining battles in place of dice.  Also, we receive one card for each province we control. We then use those province cards and place them on a grid type system to give each province an order: build structures, collect taxes/rice, reinforce armies, and attack. That is the tricky part, because only one province is allowed one order at a time. Some provinces will be used for building while others may be used as a base of an attack on other players. Additionally, we only receive victory points by building castles, theatres and temples in those provinces. Finally, to ensure realism and honor the code of Bushido, the player who places last in the game must commit Hari Kari with the Samurai sword of his choice as seen in the first picture.

The following colors were assigned:

Tim - Blue
Bob- Yellow
Bruce - Black

As the game started out we each got to pick which provinces we wanted. As a result, Tim was positioned in the southern sector of Japan while Bob and I were pretty much ensconced in the center. The center is the most difficult to hold and most prone to vicious battles.

In this game, there are 4 seasons in a year and we have 2 years to finish the game. The person with the most points is the winner. Points are assigned by the number of buildings, the types of buildings and the number of provinces one controls.

I pretty much mopped up the island of Honshu of all resistance and took over most of the ports in Central Japan. Bob took up a more northerly position and had a few provinces in the remote eastern section. Tim was just pell mell all over the board as you can see in the above picture with the blue pieces.

As the first year was concluded I was only ahead by a mere 2 points while Bob and Tim were tied. The last year was the final go around and we all had to live or die by our decisions.

From the island of Honshu I was able to send a large force to Tim's back door and attempt a flanking maneuver on his left. Twice I was stopped cold in my tracks by Tim's forces at the province of Bingo. If I was able to take his province then I would not only be able to run rampant in the rear of his territories but also take a castle and temple located in the province, thus depriving him of crucial points in the game. But alas it was not to be!

I clashed twice with him over the province and reduced myself to a mere one army. Then Bob attacked me in the center at Mino and though I was able to repulse him most of my armies came out of the tower at that moment and deprived me of vital reinforcements for other more crucial provinces that would come under attack at the last turn.


Finally, Tim attacked me at a weak link in my defenses and I lost the province including a castle much to my chagrin. Both Bob and Tim thus chipped away at me and eventually by the last turn of the game any one of us could have won depending on what armies fell out of the tower. Tim was able to hold what he needed and kept his buildings intact. Thus, in the end, Tim won the game with 61pts and Bob came in second with 59pts. I came in dead last at 56pts. Thus, yours truly had to commit Hari Kari. Most unfortunate!

Wargame Night 02-11

On February 12th, Wayne, Tim, Bob and myself got together for a game of Settlers: Cities and Knights. The colors were assigned as follows:

White - Tim

Orange - Bob

Red - Bruce

Blue - Wayne

The last time we played this game Bob was still smarting from the barbarians in which he had lost his city to fire, rape and pillage. He also lost the game as well but he did get the honored title of "Defender of Cataan" which is still to this day solely his own.

In this game, Wayne was introduced to Settlers and as always was able to pick up the rules rather quickly and put on a good showing for a novice.

Unfortunately, Wayne was getting picked on by me and Tim when we sent the robber to thieve his supplies of goods. Which is why it's always good to have a few knights on hand to chase the thief away.

Both Tim and I started out strong and were able to maintain a sizable lead from Bob and Wayne. As time went on Bob became more desperate.

Bob was locked out from better positions on the board and after suffering another city being pillaged by the barbarians tried a "non-city" strategy of simply building only humble hamlets and building the longest road. He also kept to a coastal development policy by only building along the outer edge of the board. Quite funny really and after several rounds reluctantly came to the conclusion that he couldn't win the game by this method. As you may not know, cities are worth 2 points, metropolis' 2 points and settlements are worth a mere 1 point. In order to win the game, you must build enough cities and settlements to equal 13 points. The longest road gets you 2 points as well. However, you are limited to just 5 settlements and if you do the math then you would be hard pressed to get to 13 points on just a settlement strategy. Seems obvious now but when times are bad then you'll do crazy things you wouldn't think you are capable of doing during better times. Or something like that!

As the game came to a close both Tim and I were well positioned but only one of us could win. Wayne had hired a merchant (worth 1 victory point) and assigned him to one of his cities. As it stood, I was at 12 pts and only needed to move Waynes merchant to one of my cities and get one victory point for the merchant to win the game. However, Tim with the luck of the Irish, at the last minute was able to take Wayne's merchant before I could and won the game with most cities, metropolos', and victory cards. The final score was Tim (13pts), Bruce(12pts), Bob(6pts) and Wayne(6pts).

Wargame Night 01-2011

On January 8th, Tim, Bob, Eric and myself got together for a Settlers of Catan game. This particular Settlers however was expansion game called Settlers of Catan: Cities and Knights. We picked our colors:

Tim - White
Bob- Orange
Eric - Red
Bruce - Blue

In this particular game, we have knights to hire for defense of Catan and commodities that are manufactured in cities in addition to our normal trade goods that we reap such as wheat, wood, stone, sheep and brick. The commodities are important for advancement to a level that allows for the building of a "metropolis" in a city. A metropolis gives you 2 extra victory points.

Also, there was the necessity of building city walls to protect oneself from marauding barbarians that would periodically attack the entire island of Catan and if you weren't careful could ransack your city and reduce it to a mere settlement.

Knights have been introduced into the game that allows one to "bully" your neighbor as well as help in the defense of Catan from barbarians. The person with the least amount of knights and lowest quality as well will usually suffer the wrath of the barbarians if they should attack. The person with the most and highest quality of knights gets a free victory card for being the "Defender of Catan" if all players together defeat the barbarians. So it pays to field the biggest and baddest army in the field.

After we all got our two settlements and one city placed on the map, the game slowly turned on the die rolls. In this game, a third die was added to the normal two dice that we normally use in Settlers. This third die is the "event" die. It has a black ship on three sides and a colored metropolis on the other three sides. If a colored metropolis is rolled then you may receive a "progress" card for that color. There are three different progress cards corresponding to their colors: Trade, Politics and Science. If a black ship comes up then a barbarian ship counter is moved closer to the island of Catan. It takes 6 turns before the barbarians arrive and pillage Catan. Unfortunately, everyone kept rolling the black ship and before long the barbarians raided Catan. Bob had the least amount of knights on the board and his city was not protected with walls and thus his city was sacked by the barbarians. Smoke from the burning ruin could be seen for miles!

As the game progressed Tim suddenly got way ahead in total points. Cities add 2 pts to your overall score. Settlements add 1 pt and any progress cards that have pts are added together. Finally, if you advance to level 4 in either politics, science or trade then you get to add a building to your city called a "metropolis". This adds an additional two points to your final score. I believe he had 11 points total and you need just 13 points to win.

Tim was suddenly the big man on the board with Bob close behind and Eric and myself taking up the rear. Slowly but surely I weaseled ahead by reaching level 4 on trade. I then upgraded two settlements to cities and suddenly I was in a position to win. However, Bob decided to make a crucial decision and forcibly break Tim's longest road (2 pts) which by default allowed me to have the longest road. This very act put me over the winner's circle and I have to say "thank you, Bob" because it was really his action that brought me victory.Tim came in second, with Bob third and Eric unfortunately last.

Overall, it was a great game and we all really enjoyed it. Some notable actions have to be highlighted. Bob was tenacious as ever with his knights. He did seem to suffer the most however, he lost 2 or 3 knights when everyone else lost none. He had one city sacked by the barbarians. He did however, have at one point, the largest army on the board and defeated the barbarians when they came a raiding. Thus, he received a special card called the "Defender of Catan" giving him one victory point.

Tim naturally seemed to be the victor right out of the gates but eventually lost it to more astute players later on. Eric as always was steady and sure and could have easily won where it not for the die rolls that did him no favors.

Well, after having played this game and winning at the very last moment, it must be said that it's "good to be the Lord"!

Wargame Night 12-10

On December 11th, Bob, Eric and myself got together to play Twilight Imperium 3rd edition. The following races were randomly chosen:

Bob - The L1Z1X Mindnet

Eric - The Federation of Sol

Bruce - The Naalu Collective

We decided to play a modified version of a 14 pt game at 12 points. Normally, you have a 10 pt game or a longer 14pt game. Since the last time we met in November, our 14 pt game lasted until about 3:30 in the morning...someone got into a little trouble with the misses as a result. Sooo, we agreed on a "medium" game of 12 points.

I was able to convince Bob that we should include "leaders" in this game and the always amusing but infamous domain counters as well. Bob tends to frown on both leaders and domain counters as they according to him "slow" the game down. After this game, however, I think the leaders will be growing on him in importance.

We created the map with the traditional 3 player configuration. However, Eric was being very nasty this night and decided to block Bob and myself from Mecatol Rex with a Supernova Sun and Nebula making it nearly impossible to arrive at Mecatol Rex in a straight line. I believe Bob put down an asteroid field for good measure just to make my life difficult.

As for the leaders in this game, each alien race chosen for this game had an "agent" as part of their leadership council. As you may not know, an agent can reverse any effect of an action card and have it removed to the discard pile. In effect, an agent acts like a "sabotage" action card reversing any effect from an action card though he himself is removed from the game. Thus, Eric, Bob and myself had agents in our lineup and had to be used just at the proper time for full effect.

The game progressed at its usual pace, slow and steady. Eric, not surprisingly, made it to Mecatol Rex first and established a base in due order. Much to my chagrin, Bob moved into my sphere of influence and thus a standoff ensued while Eric looked on in amusement.

Me and Bob knew the Federation of Sol under the able leadership of Eric was upto no good with their station at Mecatol Rex. However, Eric still was not taking his Secret Objective points like we thought he would and so we speculated that he needed to meet a critical but unknown requirement in order to fulfill his secret objective. Time was ticking and something had to be done!

In the meantime, several public objective points were easily being met by the Mindnet headed by Bob. Thus, he took an early lead over Eric and myself.

So, I cleverly placed a political card up for a vote that would activate an ancient artifact. Either the artifact would allow each player to gain two tech upgrades for free or it would destroy every ship and ground unit sitting on Mecatol Rex and any surrounding systems would suffer 3 damage points to anyone's ships. If I rolled a 1-5 then MR would blow up. If I rolled 6 and above then we all would be enriched. Sadly, I rolled a 5 and the Federation of Sol was completely nuked on Mecatol Rex. Sorry Eric...really.

To say the least Eric was none too pleased. All that was left on Mecatol was the flag of the Federation of Sol. Very sad really. But, the Naalu Collective got orders to immediately occupy Mecatol Rex at once! A fleet showed up with a single division of Naalu Space Marines and the planet reverted to Naalu government control. There was much rejoicing on Naalu Prime.

I slowly built up Mecatol Rex to meet my secret objective and eventually after building the prerequisite forces did meet it and gained my two points.

Another Law was brought up in the Galactic Council that needed to be voted on. It stipulated that the person who is elected by the council must now spend 2 strategic allocation markers to utilize the Imperial Strategy agenda. As you know, the Imperial Agenda gives you 2 victory points and is a essential agenda in this game for all players. Since I now occupied Mecatol Rex and had a significant number of voting rights, Eric and myself elected Bob to be the recipient of this timely and necessary law since he was in the lead. Sorry Bob...really.

Well, as we got closer to victory lane at 12 points, it ended up we all ended up tied at 11 points. However, Bob held momentum going forward that if he cashed in 6 trade goods then he would get 1 final victory point. Neither Eric nor I had any additional points coming to us. Desperation thus gripped the Naalu people.

I then played the Space Pirates action card that would cause them to steal all of Bob's trade goods and I would get the other half. Bob had at least twelve trade goods in his coffers so if I played this card then I could take his goods away preventing him from gaining his last victory point and instead I would get to cash in with his trade goods and get the winning point for the game.

So I played the card against Bob and so he played a sabotage card negating the effect of the action card. I then ordered my Agent to fall upon his sword and reverse the sabotage card Bob played. Bob then ordered his Agent to fall on his sword for the Mindnet and he cancelled the effect of my agent. As a result, the Space Pirates were unable to steal Bob's trade goods and he cashed in for the final victory point and won the game!
Eric and I tied for second. Another great game, I have to say. Good job everyone!