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
