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
