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.