Wargame Night 11-13

On Saturday, November 9th, Bob, Ross and myself gathered for the penultimate game night of the year. We decided to forgo Twilight Imperium and instead dive right into Risk: God Storm. We allowed Luke to set up for Tim who was scheduled to come over later. The following colors and their cultures were chosen as follows:

Ross - white - Norse
Bruce - green - Celts
Bob - purple - Greeks
Luke - tan - Babylonians

The territories were randomly passed to each person and fortunately for me I was well situated in Africa and in Atlantis. Bob had a decent sprinkling of troops in Europa and Ross was ensconced in Hyrkania and Mesopotamia respectively. Everyone was pretty much in Germania with no one in a real strong position.

Normally in this game, we start off with the War God at the beginning of the game which helps the attacker to break a tie, unlike the normal risk game in which the defender breaks a tie. However, we all decided to override this rule and pick one of the four gods to summon for free. Naturally, Chaos Monkey picked the God of Death to bring out first thing. Bob and I both still chose the War God to bring out first and place him with our troops on the board. Then the plague lands were randomly chosen and two out of four lands were picked for Africa - one in Egypt and one in Gaitulia. The other two were located in Atlantis and Anatolia respectively.

As the game got going I quickly consolidated Africa and decided to conquer Atlantis for good measure. I did summon the God of Death as well at the beginning of my turn. Amazingly, my very first Death Card was the notorious and infamous "Sink Atlantis" card which I now held firmly in my hand. Nothing could stop me now!

Bob decided to place all his troops in Spain on the Portuguese border and taunt my troops in Atlantis provocatively spanking their bottoms in our direction! Very disconcerting. But we prevailed on despite their juvenile gyrations. In the meantime, Bob waxed wondrously in Europa and was able to secure the continent for his own. Ross took Hyrkania and beefed up parts of Germania and Mesopotamia to his satisfaction. In the meantime, I was able to summon all my Gods and purchase quite a number of "works" cards for all my gods with the amount of faith tokens I was able to garner for having both Africa and Atlantis under my belt.

Then Chaos Monkey jumped right into the middle of everything! Ross played a card that allowed him to view an opponents deck and choose one card to remove and hold in his hand. Naturally, he chose my deck of cards and from this deck he stole my "Sink Atlantis" card. Blasphemy!!!! I tried in vain to either remove the card from his hand by banishing all "death" cards from the game or somehow prevent him from using the card because it takes 3 faith tokens to use it, but alas, I was unable to stop his evil intentions and in fact, he played the card and sunk Atlantis with all my troops lost at sea that was on the island! Once again, I am unable to play this card! I swear it's been years since I have last used this card and Ross' treachery will not be forgotten! Before this happened however, I did invade Germania from Atlantis and had fortunately brought the bulk of my troops from Atlantis into Britain and thus only lost 4 troops. But of course, it was the continent and territory points as well the faith tokens that was permanently lost.

Bob was able to capitalize on his European Utopia and received quite a few faith tokens as well as troops to bulk up against both Ross and I. However, I decided to invade Europa to ensure he didn't get too powerful and broke up his continent by investing my troops in Italy and seizing one of his temples, much to his chagrin, I assure you. He eventually beat me back after a bloody and long slog in the Italian countryside.
 
By now, the game was coming to a close and I was in first place, however it was a tenuous position at best. I went first on the last turn which left both Bob and Ross to pick me off at will and claim the first place position from me. Bob had a great plan on paper with two great armies to smash Ross who was heavily invested in Hykania and Mesopotamia. He invaded Hykania from Europe but eventually his army petered out by the time he got to within two territories of breaking the Mesopotamian continent that Ross held. Bob then tried another route through Anatolia by playing a card that removed the plague marker in Anatolia and allowing him to push through a large army unmolested by the plague. On paper, Bob's plan should have worked but again, the machinations of Chaos Monkey worked against Bob and somehow Ross was able to pull off a stunning defense of Mesopotamia which he now held as the game came to close. Bob's only way to achieve total victory was to dominate all of the Underworld which no one had yet achieved.

With most of his troops now in Elysium, paradise of the underworld for the Greeks, Bob decided to crush all before him, one by stinking one! I believe he used 4 elephants of troops (5 each) to invade the underworld and pretty much clubbed his opposition to death without mercy! Thus, by taking all of the underworld except one lonely outpost held by Ross, Bob was able to garner 6 additional victory points and take first place in Risk God Storm! Great job Bob!! Ross pulled off a great second place finish by holding onto Mesopotamia at all cost. I did well in spite of my loss of Atlantis but in the end was not enough to hold onto first place and received a 3rd place finish. Gosh, I'm getting so used to that number!

Great game nevertheless.

Wargame NIght 10-13

In October, Bob came over for game night. Since neither Tim, nor Eric, nor Ross called or emailed to request a different day for game night both Bob and I decided we would duke it out for first and second place respectively for the month of October.

Bob's boys along with Luke played Axis and Allies with Bob and I on the same side as the Axis players. The boys themselves would play the Allies. While we played against the kids, we decided to play a simultaneous game of Stratego to determine October's Tournament scores.

We decided that whoever had the highest points in causing the most "casualties" then would win Stratego, unless, our flag was taken by the other in which case that person would win the game outright. The casualty list was determined thusly:

A Scout which is a "9" in the game would be worth only a "point" in determining a value assigned for this "kill". A Miner which is "8" in the game would be worth "2 points". A Sergeant which is "7" in the game would be worth "3 points" etc. on down the line to the Marshall which is a "1" and would be worth "9 points" to the other player if they are killed in action.

I played the blue side while Bob played the red side. I began by testing his lines with Scout advances all the way up to his pieces by moving them until they stood in front of his troops. Bob did make a clarification, of course, that Scouts can only move then stop immediately in front of an enemy piece. Then on the next turn, the Scout then can attack and reveal the enemy piece in front of him. Learn something new everyday! So that is what I did. Thus, Bob gained a number of points at the expense of my Scouts. However, he came forward with a couple of Sergeants and Captains only to have them cut down, nay, mowed down by my excellent sharpshooters. Actually, it was a pretty close contest. We both took out each other's Marshall (1) as well as each others General (2) and were pretty much tied in terms of scoring.

I did however score some important kills by taking out a couple of his captains thus securing some decent points at the expense of Bob's position. This was taking place, mind you, while we also played Axis and Allies with the kids! I was playing the Kamikaze Japanese while Bob was the German/Italian Fascist League in Europa. I would make a Stratego move against Bob only to turn around and make a Japanese move with Bob! It was all rather Machiavelli really!

Well, in the end I did win Stratego against Bob by scoring the most casualty points. Thus, Bob got second place in the Kriegspiel Tournament while I nailed down first place. On the Axis Front, we crushed the Allies superbly in both Europe and Asia and thus staved off defeat one more time against our boys in Axis and Allies. Someday, they will figure it out and crush us in revenge. But until then, it's good to be the
King(s)!

Wargame Night 09-13

In September, Bob, Tim, Eric and myself got together for our 9th Twilight Imperium game of the season. The following races were carefully but randomly chosen:

Tim - Embers of Muaat
Bob - Clan of Saar
Bruce - the Arborec
Eric - the Naalu Collective

We decided to forego the domain counters but included everything else and completely randomized the Ancient Artifacts as seen in the photo. As the game got going, I knew I needed to position myself for maximum pointage so as keep my lead in the Kriegspiel Cup Tournament (KCT) secure so I made it my mission to keep Bob and Eric away from me and onto Tim like flys on $@*!. Unfortunately, I believe I stepped in it way before I realized it. What's new, right?

Bob immediately made a B-line towards my sphere of influence and threatened my homeworld early on. However, as time went on (turn 2) he wisely decided to move in the opposite direction and allow me to build and basically exist without being molested by the ravenous wolves of the Clan of Saar. I can't quite remember if we came to an "agreement" or if he decided to unilaterally move out but whatever the motivation he did indeed move away and avoided a massive ink-splot from the rather gelatinous mass that is the Arborec. In other words, I was very happy.

Tim began the game with a super-powerful War Sun as the Embers of Muaat. From the beginning, he was a menace and was to be watched closely. Eric as the all-wise Naalu Collective decided to ensnare his War Sun by secretly placing a Gravity Rift right next to Tim's homeworld and hope that he would clumsily be sucked into the rift and get stuck. And that indeed is exactly what happened! Then Tim whined and complained that he should be allowed to go around the rift because it had a red zone around the hex. This led the Naalu delegation to exclaim - "SUN of a bitch!". Now, I know this may be a family oriented blog but we all know that "bitch" is a female dog. So, clearly, the Naalu were referring to the Embers as female dogs and that is, of course, a racist comment coming from the Naalu. Sun intended!

Notwithstanding the verbal gesticulations emanating from the fan-heads, Tim as the Embers were able to pull ahead early in the game and take first place. At this phase in the game, Eric had now sauntered over to Mecatol Rex and taken it with ease, if I recall correctly. Thus, he was lining himself up to handsomely reap the coming rewards of owning Mecatol and earning more victory points, potentially, as the public objective cards were to be revealed one by one per turn. A lot of public objective cards reward points for occupying Mecatol Rex. However, Tim as the Embers would have none of it, especially since he was called a female dog and needed to show the Naalu what it was like to be on the "receiving" end of dog-love. Most distressing! Eric was firmly entrenched on Mecatol Rex with ships and troops, but Tim's War Sun mangled his fleet and then proceeded to bombard the planetary surface mercilessly leaving no survivors including, sadly, Eric's leader. I believe he was captured by the Embers, if I recall.

This immediately raised the hairs on the backs of the Clan of Saar. So, the inevitable ramp up of Dreadnought production took place at a heady pace in the Clan for the coming battle for control of Mecatol Rex. This provided the cassus belli for Tim to increase his capitol ship production as well and by now we had a full fledged arms race going on between the Clan of Saar and Embers of Muaat. Again, most distressing. By now, Mecatol lay a smouldering ruin.

 In the meantime, Tim built up his occupation force on Mecatol Rex and burned everything in sight. What do you expect from the fiery menace that is the Embers of Muaat? They simply can not be reasoned with.

Eventually, the battle-royale was reaching its climax with both sides completely invested in reducing the other to smithereens. Tim had two War Suns in orbit above Mecatol but Bob had a flagship join his fleet of Dreadnoughts including 6 fighter squadrons. Tim had his fighter squadrons including a mercenary to defend his possession. It was mono-i-mono or should we say "many-i-many"? Bob opened fire first and the battle was on. Unfortunately for Tim, the War Suns could not sustain enough damage to hold off Bob's fleet and eventually, he too succumbed to all those who place their fate in Mecatol Rex. Sic transit gloria mundi!

As the game wound down I realized Tim was still in the lead and in spite of Bob's victory at Mecatol, Bob was in last place. I did pull the Imperium Rex Public Objective card but had the option of placing back in the deck. So I wanted Eric to pull it thinking he would gain more points and take first place from Tim but alas, my plan did not work and Eric waited too long. Amazingly, Bob pushed to first place leaving Tim in second and Eric in third. Sadly, I came in last! I just love being in fourth place, all the time!

Another great game at any rate.

Wargame Night 08-13

On August 10th, Eric, Ross, Luke and myself got together for our 8th Twilight Imperium game of the year. Unbeknownst to me, Bob was going to be absent from game-night and so Luke was going to fill in until he arrived. However, Bob never made it and so Luke played in his stead all the way to the bitter end. The following races were randomly chosen:






Bruce - The Arborec
Luke - The Ghosts of Creuss
Eric - Emirates of Hiccan
Ross - Nekro Virus

We decided to include domain counters in the game as well as the ancient artifacts. Naturally, the Wormhole nexus was included in the initial map setup. We placed the artifacts in what I have dubbed  the "Herguth Circle" - one ancient artifact placed in each hex surrounding Mecatol Rex. And the last artifact placed on the planet of Malice in the Wormhole Nexus.

As the game got going, Eric decided to make a run for Mecatol Rex with his combined fleet of carrier - cruiser and fighter escorts only to discover a Gravity Rift right in his way. Not having any Gravity Rift tech to make it out unscathed, Eric as the Emirates of Hacan decided to bide his time and develop the technology to escape the rift unharmed.

In the meantime, Ross as the Nekro Virus and Luke as the Ghosts of Creuss began to carefully navigate out of their homeworld systems in a vain attempt at empire building. I as the wondrous Arborec began a steady campaign of "gentle colonization" of the surrounding planets. The advantage I have as the Arborec is that my troops can spawn other troops on colonized worlds without the use of space docks. One troop per planet each turn. Thus, I proceed with a steady troop build-up every turn, only growing stronger as time goes on.

Eric, in the meantime, finally purchased his Gravity Rift tech card and proceeded on to Mecatol Rex which he took with ease if I recall. Not sure if the Mecatol natives are doing their job protecting their homeworld. Seems that everyone is able to take the planet with ease. May have to reconsider their importance next game night.

Luke, as the Ghosts of Creuss, continued to move with caution in his part of the galaxy and as such played a rather conservative game up to this point. With everyone able to pick two Strategic Agendas, the Political Agenda was used every turn and Ross tried desperately to use his Nekro ability to acquire tech advancements by declaring a certain player would vote a certain way. If he was correct and the player voted the way he wanted then Ross could obtain a free tech upgrade through a Galactic Senate vote. He always picked me and 3 times in a row I purposely voted the opposite way to prevent him from obtaining additional tech advances, much to his chagrin. The laws passed were minor and not decisive in the outcome of the game, luckily for me.

Ross, aka Chaos Monkey, then proceeded to take Malice in the Wormhole Nexus in an attempt to seize an ancient artifact for 1 victory point. Fortunately for the rest of us, the artifact came up empty and Ross had nothing but the planet itself to invest in.

Ross also decided to invade my homeworld itself with a hefty taskforce of dreadnaughts and cruisers with a single solitary mech unit for good measure. Of course, by now, my homeworld was well stocked with infantry as well as two mech units myself including a PDS unit to prevent planetary bombardment. Did I mention I also mined my homeworld system as well? And yet, this rather formidable defense did not placate the bloodlust of the Nekro Virus. He still attacked! Fool! Surprisingly, not a single ship in his taskforce was hit by my mines. Curses!! However, I did fire my PDS unit and hit one of his ships which he chose the dreadnaught to take the hit. Thus, it became a smoldering hulk spooing gas and smoke in space. He still decided after this to continue with the planetary invasion and sent his SINGLE solitary mech unit down planet-side to its most certain death. And death it did meet. The mech unit can sustain damage and it indeed it took multiple hits before bursting in flames. There were no survivors.

After this, Ross limped back to his homeworld accomplishing absolutely nothing. By now, Eric had moved into Mecatol Rex and was now heavily invested on the planet. Clearly, this was a secret objective of the Emirates to take this planet by force and without mercy. The Ghosts of Creuss, on the other hand, barely showed themselves (much like ghosts I might add) and meekly ventured only out into the unknown barely one hex from their wormhole in their homeworld system. I had to remind Luke that he had better get the lead out if he wanted to seize the initiative and get victory points. So he decided to build his Flag Ship which can be expensive. We figured out that this ship can act as a wormhole all by itself and any ship in his homeworld system may then use this wormhole and show up at the end point where the flag ship is situated. Thus, in a single move he could theoretically move all ships and meet up at the destination of the flagship itself to form one massive battle fleet.

Well, as the game came to a close, Ross decided to build his Nekro Flagship and put it to good use. As you may or may not know, this particular flagship is rather nasty. It's primary purpose is that of a Kamikaze ship in that if the ship is destroyed in a space battle then all ships in the same hex with it are also destroyed! Naturally, this was music to Chaos Monkey's ears. He then proceeded to drive his flagship right into the heart of Mecatol Rex! Of course, Eric had no choice but to fire upon it and hope he misses. Naturally, he hit the Nekro Flagship and it exploded taking every vessel in the Mecatol Rex system down with it.

It was an orgy of flame and destruction that could only make a monkey smile! All that remained at Mecatol was a single troop and space dock. But Eric did hang on and was able to hold the planet.

By the end of the game, both Ross and I tied the game at 8 victory points. Ross got to the 8th point first and thus got to claim first place as I took second. This is now Ross' second first place finish in Twilight Imperium in a row! Good job Ross!! Both Eric and Luke got 4 victory points with Eric getting there before Luke. Thus, Eric got third place. Luke played a rather conservative game however, he earned all his points on his own without help from me or the other players if I recall correctly.

Overall, a very exciting game.

Wargame Night 07-13

On July 13th, Tim, Bob, Ross and myself got together for our 7th Twilight Imperium game of the year.

This month we decided when randomly choosing alien races we would randomly pick two home-world hexes and place the one race we didn't want to play back into the pile. This way, we could have more options in choosing a new race or a race we wanted to play instead of playing the same alien race over and over again as has happened in the past.


The following races were thus randomly chosen:

Bruce - The Arborec
Ross - The Barony of Letnev
Bob - Embers of Muat
Tim - The Nekro Virus

We also decided to go with domain counters again as well as placing the ancient artifacts around and on Mecatol Rex just for the fun of it. One artifact was also placed on Malice in the Wormhole Nexus. We also received our "Preliminary Objective" cards which gives each player one victory point to achieve a semi-easy objective. Then once this is achieved, in theory, then the player may choose his "secret objective" card for two points. This gives the player a potential of 3 victory points if he is able to fulfill the stated objectives. Unfortunately for me, I misread my preliminary objective card! It said I needed to obtain 3 tech advances in the yellow color...I thought it read 3 yellow tech colored "planets"...of course, not sure why I placed planets in the objective when it wasn't even there but I did nevertheless. As a result, the entire game for me was lost even before it began! Nothing like shooting yourself in the foot.

In the meantime, the rest of the guys sallied forth uninhibited into the unknown. Bob as the Embers of Muat with his less than speedy War Sun ended up taking Mecatol Rex with ease. Naturally, Ross as my neighbor attacked me right outside my homeworld and destroyed my task force reconning the planets for Lazax survivors. I was momentarily crippled and hobbling about like a wounded animal when I decided to go ahead and annex the neighboring planet in another system without reconning the planet. Just so happens that the domain counter was indeed a Lazax survivor. So Ross deprived me of a victory point. Tells ya, it wasn't my night!

So I built up a number of fast attack cruisers and chased him out of my system. Of course, later on in the game as gamenight wound down he came back and attacked that same system again and took the planet from me thus costing me another victory point. So between fog-of-war and chaos monkey, I believe I shed about 5 victory points easy. Hmmm...gunna have to do something different next time. Must pay attention or take no-doz pills or something!

As for Bob on Mecatol Rex, I don't believe he gained anything for it but Tim did manage to attack it in full force and sadly came up empty handed. His fleet did destroy Bob's fleet but was unable to capitalize on this defeat with a ground invasion of the planet. Thus, Bob was able to hold on precariously in spite of his losses.

On the political front, I was able to secure from Bob a promissory note stating that if he attacked me then I could play the promissory note and belay the order to attack. This was important considering he starts the game with a War Sun but alas he never did attack me and the note was never cashed in for good use. Of course, I can't remember what law we were voting on that he felt he had to make such a concession to me but it apparently didn't matter in the end.

The game ended with Ross scoring his first ever "First Place" finish! Congratulations to Ross for a job well done! Tim came in Second Place and Bob came in third. Sadly, I came in Fourth Place. But I really have no one to blame but myself and a little monkey named Ross! I'll get you my pretty!!

Wargame NIght 06-13

On June 13th, Bob, Ross, Eric and myself got together for another Twilight Imperium game.

The following races were randomly chosen:

Eric - Mentak Coalition
Ross - Naalu Collective
Bob - The Barony of Letnev
Bruce - The Yssaril Tribes

I decided to allow domain counters in this particular game because Ross had never played with this type of variation before and I thought it would just be dandy if he experienced the wonders of deadly natives and lost treasure. Bob immediately cried foul but reluctantly went along with it. As a sop to Bob, we decided to set up the Ancient Artifacts in a circle around Mecatol Rex including placing one on the planet itself. The last remaining artifact was placed on the humble planet of Malice located in the Wormhole Nexus just for the heck of it.

Bob was feeling a bit catty wampus this night and began placing his beginning ships haphazardly upon his home world and leaving his fleet looking like a botched abortion! Just pathetic.

We all received our preliminary 1 point secret objectives and mine stated that I had to go to Mecatol Rex and occupy it with several dreadnaughts. I have to say, it was a rather difficult task with all the domain counters in the way as well as Chaos Monkey located right next to me. I went ahead and sent two task forces to the outskirts of Mecatol Rex with each TF outfitted with a carrier and troops for rapid deployment once Mecatol was reached. Unfortunately, my second task force discovered a supernovae in empty space and was destroyed immediately as a result. My first task force ended up getting mired in a Gravity Rift and was basically immobile until such time I upgraded my fleet with Gravity Rift tech to escape unharmed. Otherwise, without the tech upgrade I would have to roll a die for each ship and may lose one or all of my ships. Considering I lost one TF already, I surely wasn't going to risk another loss of this magnitude again. Unfortunately, this delay cost me dearly.

In the meantime, Eric as the Mentak Coalition was recon-ing his area of space and with domain counters in the game, if you recon with fighters in a system and find the "Lazax Survivors" then you immediately receive 1 victory point. Naturally, Eric found Lazax Survivors and there was much rejoicing in the Mentak camp. He also expanded in his sphere of influence quite easily and with no rejoinder from Bob or Ross he was able to seize large sections of outer space with relative impunity.

Back at my first task force, we were still trying to upgrade my fleet with Gravity Rift tech but Bob kept taking the Technology Agenda from me and with little or no funds to purchase the tech upgrade in the secondary phase of the Tech Agenda due to a lack of planets in my active inventory I was basically a sitting duck. Or should I say I was a "lame-duck". I was just waiting for the bears to start sniffing and growling in my direction and tear me to pieces but alas I was able to finally upgrade and remove my fleet unharmed from the Gravity Rift. But precious time had been lost.

With TF1 basically stuck and Eric basically holding back, Bob was able to expand easily in his sphere of influence and eventually was to creep up and occupy Mecatol Rex with ease. In addition to seizing Mecatol, Bob as the Barony of Letnev was able to secure his Preliminary Secret Objective as well as his Secret Objective of 2 points by fully occupying Mecatol Rex. I did make a belated attempt to stop Bob by preventing him from moving a Space Dock from his homeworld into Mecatol based on an action card. I used my agent to stop this maneuver and it cost Bob at least one turn before he did in fact claim his two points. In the interim, Ross as the Naalu Collective was slowly making his way over to me and by now I was able to purchase a decent fleet of ships to counter his growing and illicit threat to my area of influence. Most of my fleet was stationed directly opposite Ross in two mass strike forces but Chaos Monkey utilized a wormhole and ended up on my rear flank in one fell swoop much to my chagrin. Naturally, he took a planet from me which he needed for his secret objective. As a result, I decided to go "all the way" and drive my fleet directly to his homeworld and occupy it forthwith. This I did with ease and unexpectedly by utilizing the Warfare Agenda as well as utilizing my Gravity Rift technology which allows me to increase movement by 1 when I'm next to a wormhole or gravity rift to increase speed. Thus, I was able to move 4 spaces in one turn and took down Ross' proverbial grid thereby preventing him from obtaining any more victory points. If your homeworld is occupied, then you can't obtain any additional victory points per game rules. But, as everything in this game for me, it was just too little, too late.

Bob won the game in first place with 8pts, Ross was in 2nd place with 5pts, Eric in 3rd place with 4pts and leaving me way back in fourth with just 2 stinkin' points! I suppose in hindsight, it could have been much worse. The domain counters actually did me in. But amazingly and quite illogically, Bob actually now embraces domain counters which as you may or may not know he always refused to play them as they slow the game down according to Bob. Well, now he is a true believer. So perhaps, I did win after all? At least in the court of Bob's public opinion.

Wargame Night 05-13

On May 11th, Tim, Bob, Ross and myself got together for another lovely Twilight game slugfest. However, we played with the latest expansion installment of Twilight Imperium called Twilight Imperium: Shards of the Throne.

The new expansion game comes with new ships such as the venerable Flagship - a much stronger ship than the Dreadnaught but not as powerful as the War Sun. The nice advantage to the Flagship is that no tech prerequisites are required to build this type of ship. But unlike the other vessels, only one ship of this type can be built.

Another twist to this game is the advent of mercenaries. You can now hire mercenaries that can either fight on land or in space. They have individual qualities that differ from each mercenary and thus gives them certain advantages that can be exploited by the player for personal gain.

In the realm of politics, Shards of the Throne allows for "Representatives" to be sent to the galactic council to vote on laws. There are three representatives the alien races can send: Councilor, Bodyguard and Assassin. If an assassin should kill one of the representatives sent to the galactic council then that player cannot vote in that round. Most unfortunate. However, a "Bodyguard" can kill an assassin and prevent such a event from transpiring against you.

There are also new races added to the game: The Lazax, The Nekro Virus, The Arborec and finally, the Ghosts of Creuss which have their very own wormhole - Wormhole D - that only they can use. Interestingly, their howeworld is off the map like the wormhole nexus and thus can only be accessed by going through the "D" wormhole. Their homeworld planet, Creuss, is worth 4 bucks and has 2 influence.

Finally, there are new space hexes to utilize such as the "Gravity Rift" as well as new planets. The gravity rift can be entered by ships but upon exiting you have to roll a die and a roll of 1-5 the ship is dragged into the rift and destroyed along with EVERYONE aboard.

Lest I forget, there are new tech upgrades as well that includes an upgrade to exit a gravity rift safely every time it's tried! In addition to tech upgrades, the game now comes with tanks that have a sustain damage ability for ground forces. You only get four tanks, so use them wisely. Each tank takes up a single compartment aboard a Carrier, War Sun or Flagship.

In addition to all the above, I did order my tin containers for all the pieces as well a Flagship tray for the 8 flagships in the game. I was also looking to repaint the grey/blue ships as well as the green/yellow ships in the game which I did once I received Shards of the Throne in the mail. So a lot of new additions to our usual Twilight Imperium game night and it seems it was a hit with the rest of the guys that made it to game night last month. And yes, there are MORE rules to memorize or forget depending on how you look at it. The "Fog Of War" is only getting more precarious with each expansion.

And now the game. The following races were randomly chosen:

Tim - The Nekro Virus
Ross - The Mentak Coalition
Bob - Federation of Sol
Bruce - Yassiril Tribes

Tim suggested we pick one of the Shard races just to test out their new capabilities. So he randomly chose the Nekro Virus. By the way, one of the advantages of the Nekro Virus is that their Flagship can be destroyed and once destroyed every ship in the hex, friend or foe, is also destroyed. It's good to be a Kamikaze! Thankfully, this ability did not fall in the hands of the notorious but lovable, Chaos Monkey. But someday it might and when it does, God help us.

I believe we rolled for seating arrangements. This is important because it may alter the outcome of a game depending on who sits where and I ended up sitting between Ross aka Chaos Monkey and Tim aka Lord Hiddieous with Bob aka Buzziel-Bob sitting diagonally across from me. Still trying to figure out a call-sign for myself. I was thinking Bruce "Obi Wan" McConnell since I have a lovely picture of myself from Disney Land photo-shopped with me in Star Wars garb which is strikingly handsome and gives me an impeccable likeness to a middle aged Obi Wan Kenobi. But I digress.

I surprisingly picked the Yassiril Tribes which is the first time I have played this alien race since getting Twilight Imperium nearly 3 years ago. So I had no known strategy to play this race but I did like its' ability to spy on other races "action" cards and to hold as many action cards as I want unlike the rest of the alien races which only hold a max of 7 cards. Again, this is a race that Ross might enjoy since he is a big believer in the efficacy of the action card.

It was Bob's idea to place every Ancient Artifact around Mecatol Rex to make it more "fair", whatever that means. Naturally, we had one left over and it was placed in the Wormhole Nexus. As the game got going I was lucky enough to have a trade station located near me and was able to utilize it immediately. Tim was lucky enough to discover another Ion Storm blocking his path to Mecatol Rex. Can't remember who placed it there but I was blamed nevertheless, if I recall correctly.

As I continued to explore around my homeworld system, suddenly and without provocation, Ross attacked a fleet of my ships right outside my homeworld. Since he was the Mentak Coaltion, they get a first shot capability with their cruisers of which he brought several and in addition, he decided to include a flagship with a tank battalion just for thrill of it! His b-line directly to me did destroy my fleet handily which resulted in my left flank being fully exposed to a merciless and gloating Chaos Monkey of the Mentak Coalition. This could not go unanswered.

It was at this time as well that Tim decided to move a fleet of his own near me and I had to decide with the remaining but limited forces at my disposal which foe to attack as either one could seize my homeworld within one turn. After asking Tim what his intentions were, I felt reasonably safe that he had no designs on my homeworld, I decided to attack Ross with every man, woman and child of the Yassiril Tribes. It was a glorious battle with every ship in his task force including his flagship destroyed by the Yassiril counterattack. Unfortunately, for me he did defend well and as a result I was completely depleted and had to rebuild my fleet from scratch. Most unfortunate.

In the meantime, Tim was able to seize Mecatol Rex with little trouble. The forces of the Nekro Virus then began a steady and sure buildup of Dreadnaughts. The Nekro Virus also dropped mines in the Mecatol Rex system just to make it nasty should anyone have a desire to tangle with them in this system. Eventually, Tim would grab the Diplomatic Agenda and force peace on us in Mecatol thus ensuring he collected the necessary 2 points from his secret objective. On top of this, he attacked the planet of Mallice in the Wormhole Nexus and seized an ancient artifact from me.

In the end, Tim was able to secure first place in the game. Bob took 2nd place, I came in 3rd place and Ross unfortunately settled for 4th place. Overall, it was a really fun game with the new rules, ships and alien races. Good job Tim for another first place finish!

Wargame Night 04-13

On April 13th, Tim, Bob, Eric and myself got together for another Twilight Imperium/ Shattered Empire slugfest. The following races were randomly chosen:

Bruce - Universities of Jol-Nar
Tim - The Winnu
Bob - Sardak Norr
Eric - Brotherhood of Yinn

Because there were just four players this night we decided to forgo the usual rolling of the dice to decide where we would be seated, a highly unusual move to say the least considering past performances. As such, I was seated between Eric and Bob with Tim straight across from me.

The map was painted red and all requisite markers were placed where they should be per the rules of the game or some derivative thereof as agreed by all players.

As the Universities of Jol-Nar I was already quite ahead in the Tech field and was positioning myself to reap great rewards with the public objective cards hoping they would turn up in my favor. As the map came into focus with our explorations, it became clear to Tim at least that it was going to be a long night! Though he was merely 3 hexes away from Mecatol Rex, he might as well have been on the far side of the moon with the Nebula and Ion Storm blocking a quick move to Mecatol when the time was ripe for him.

I believe I had something to do with placing the Ion Storm during the initial setup phase but I wasn't the only person trying to slow Lord Hiddeous down. I think Bob placed the Nebula in Tim's way as well. Of course, this would force the Winnu under Tim's tutelage to tangle with the Brotherhood of Yinn being lead by Eric. Mixing things up even more between Eric and Tim was the fact that an ancient artifact worth one victory point sat between Eric and Tim, enticing both antagonists to duke it our over this relic from the past.

Needless to say, Tim was having a rough time with his precarious position as both Eric and Bob continued to squeeze the Winnu from either side and preventing a true breakout to gather planets and ultimately points to win the game.

Bob as the Sardak Norr and I as the Universities of Jol-Nar were of a natural kin-folk as we "slapped suckers" as Bob put it and sealed a deal to allow each other to expand without provocation from either one us thus avoiding war between the two pond-scum alien races. This allowed both Bob and I to gather victory points at the expense of Tim and Eric. Surprisingly, neither Tim nor Eric ventured a temporary alliance to counter our very thin truce/alliance much to their eventual loss.

In the meantime, Tim maneuvered two starfleet task forces around the Nebula and Ion Storm with both Eric and Bob watching anxiously from afar. Tim now had a ready force available to strike Mecatol Rex on one side of the Ion Storm and another force captured the ancient artifact located on the planet of Tar Mann opposite Eric's purple-colored fleet. Tim was certainly walking on egg shells around both Eric and Bob knowing full well that any little match could set off the powder keg of war. For good measure, Tim dropped space mines in orbit above the planet of Tar Mann. Naturally, Eric as the Brotherhood of Yinn decided to follow suit with his own space mines as well.

Eventually, Tim did in fact strike Mecatol Rex with ease, taking down the native space fighter defense forces as well as mopping up the remaining token ground forces without so much as coughing or sneezing. There was much rejoicing on the part of Tim.

Unbenownst to everyone else, however, Bob as the Sardak Noor decided to build a War Sun and laid the keel of it right next to the recently occupied Mecatol Rex that Tim so easily invaded. Clearly, a War Sun so close to a strategic planet like Mecatol could only mean one thing - war!

In the meantime, Eric as the Brotherhood of Yinn opened up with a salvo on the Winnu fleet stationed at Tar Mann. Eric won handily over Tim and was able to seize the ancient artifact from him much to his chagrin. There was much rejoicing on the part of Eric.

Bob was also eyeing the ancient artifact that Eric had just taken from the Winnu and decided to move his War Sun task force into the Mecatol Rex system. Naturally, he took out Tim's outnumbered space fleet with ease.

It was at this time that I grabbed the political strategy card and forced Eric to read a political card from his hand for the galactic council to vote upon. Eric then read aloud the card which stated that an ancient artifact had been found on Mecatol Rex and that to open it could either bring reward or doom depending on how we rolled the dice. If we rolled a "six" or above then we would all get two tech advancements for free, however, if I rolled a "five" or less then the entire Mecatol system would suffer a Hiroshima-like nuclear explosion from the ancient artifact and destroying every single unit in the Mecatol Rex system with each system touching Mecatol Rex suffering a similar but less deadly fate. If we voted yes then I would roll the dice but if we voted no then the card would be rejected and nothing would happen. Naturally, both Bob and Tim voted against opening the artifact and setting off who knows what but both Eric and I voted for opening the artifact. The vote was passed. I rolled the dice. And I rolled a "five"! Booooom! The entire system was destroyed taking Bob down with it much to the joy of Eric who made a hail Mary pass with that vote as he was certainly on the receiving end of Bob's War Sun. I'm sure it was like a million suns shining forth from Mecatol Rex leaving nothing in its wake. I believe that was the first time that a War Sun was destroyed by a political card. Good job Eric for playing the card! Good job Bruce for rolling the die!


So Eric was saved and both Tim and Bob were stunned. As the game wound down for the night I was indeed well positioned to profit and eventually placed a decent 2nd place finish. Eric had tied with me but takes 3rd place as no two people can tie in Twilight Imperium. Unfortunately for Tim, he would take last place but certainly made the best effort anyone could possible do in the confines of his empire. Bob despite his grotesque losses on Mecatol Rex did in fact win the game for April! Not sure how that happened but it did. Great job Bob!

Great game everyone!

Wargame Night 03-13

On March 9th, Tim, Bob, Ross, Eric, Doug, Paul and myself got together for a 7-player Twilight Imperium game. The following races were randomly chosen:

Tim - The Mentak Coalition
Bruce - Clan of Saar
Bob - Yassiril Tribes
Ross - Barony of Letnev
Eric - The L1z1x Mindnet
Doug - Brotherhood of Yin
Paul - The Xxcha Kingdom

We built a 4-ring map with hexes face down for exploration. Players in the 1, 4 and 5 positions - Ross, Paul and Tim - received extra trade goods as their locations on the map were considered less than desirable per game rules.

As the game got started it was apparent to Bob that the alien races at the far south end of the map - the Yassiril Tribes, Barony of Letnev, and the L1z1x Mindnet - were going to have to align themselves strategically and if necessary, make an alliance (directly or indirectly), to go head to head with the more advantaged races sitting pretty comfortably in the center and north side of the map.

Needless to say, Ross, aka Chaos Monkey, couldn't come to grips with such a necessity as joining a regional alliance for the preservation of his race. It was his way or the highway and consequently neither Bob nor Eric could accept such a rogue player with delusions of grandeur to plague their foreign policy in their part of the galaxy. Tensions mounted thusly amid Ross' many prevarications regarding his intentions going forward. The other alien races applauded the Barony's bold moves and independent actions in defiance of his neighbors self-serving policy choices. A clash of arms was imminent.

In the meantime, Tim insisted on being confrontational as he led the Mentak Coaltion to position a fleet merely two hexes away from my homeworld in direct violation of alien protocol. Of course, as the Clan of Saar, it's not as much of a threat since we don't need our "homeworld" of asteroids because we can live amongst the stars with our floating space docks. That being said, clearly his militaristic breast beating could not be countenanced and thus a cold war standoff ensued with multiple ships and troops taking up positions opposite each other. An "accident" was just waiting to happen to set off a local war.

On the far side of the galaxy, Doug and Paul sat next to each other nervously eyeing the other's local area for opportunities to exploit. As the newbie's in the game, they took a cautious approach and ventured forth carefully not to arouse their neighbors ire. Paul as the Xxcha Kindom of turtle-backs had defense going for him, whereas, Doug as the Brotherhood of Yin had fanatical conversion going for him as his strong suit. Even though both Doug and Paul are Den Leaders in their local cub scout pack, a queasy feeling of distrust soon developed between them and their public discord became evident when Doug kept "marking" Paul's system for exploration much to Xxcha chagrin.

Meanwhile, back on the southside of the galaxy, Ross began a menacing buildup of dreadnaughts that neither Bob nor Eric could accept. Eric attacked first and seized one of Ross' colonies right outside the Barony's homeworld. Then came Bob with a direct attack on the Barony's homeworld utilizing the Warfare Strategy Agenda that gave the puny and very ugly Yassiril Tribes the upper hand. I then seized an ancient artifact from Bob which was precariously close to the battlefront between Bob and Ross. It should be said that the Yassiril Tribes did abandon this base and I had no opposition when we invested the planet with Clan Saar Troops. Nevertheless, it was a cynical plot by the Yassiril Tribes to sow envy and mutual recrimination between Ross  - aka Chaos Monkey - and myself which almost worked if I hadn't dropped space mines in a timely manner to protect my assets which in turn gave pause to the Barony on seizing this valuable artifact from me.

Back to the far side, Doug finally pulled the trigger and invaded Xxcha territory in spite of Paul's massive War Sun that was sure to block the Brotherhoods ambitions in that part of the galaxy. If I recall correctly, they both annihilated each other and Xxcha territory still remained in Paul's hands. Doug then invaded another sector of the Xxcha Kingdom and was able to take two planets from Paul. I'm quite positive that Paul will not let Doug forget what he did to him in the next game. As you may or may not know, we may forgive one's egregious and foolish actions but we never, ever forget!

On my side of the galaxy, Tim couldn't resist his impulse to push other people around and invaded my Clan Saar lands. Of course, we were waiting for him. Naturally, we failed miserably in stopping his invasion and lost one of our precious planets to his lesbian cohorts of thieving armies. This could not stand. In response, The Clan brilliantly executed a double envelopment that utilized both of my Space Docks as improvised war suns. Each space dock was the flagship for each fleet that counterattacked my lost territory and invaded one of his own. Both of his fleets were vaporized supporting his forces on the planets below and the Mentak armies became isolated and without hope as a result. They slowly began to starve which is the way we wolves of the Saar Clan like it! We prefer skin and bones to fat and flesh when we gnaw on our enemies! All hail the Clan of Saar!

Amazingly, the score was dominated by me as the Clan when we reached 8 points in a 10 point game but then suddenly lost all of our wind and was stuck right there for the duration of the game. Tim's inhuman ability of bouncing back when down, brought him back from 7th place to 2nd place overall.

Interestingly enough, in spite of being sandwiched between Eric and Bob and their rather testicular military policy of crushing someone in between, the Barony of Letnev under the tutelage of Ross was able to somehow eek out 3rd place! The final scores were - Bruce with 9 points (1st), Tim 9 points (2nd), Ross 6 points (3rd), Eric 6 points (4th), Bob 5 points (5th), Doug 4 points (6th) and Paul 4 points (7th). To be fair, I barely won this game and much credit should unfortunately be given to Tim for a great comeback.

And in the end, in a rather awkward and not so insignificant development, Mecatol Rex was left completely open and unmolested the entire 7 player game! How did that happen? May it never happen again.

Great game for our first ever 7-player Twilight Imperium slugfest. Or was it our second 7-player game? Can't remember. At any rate, cudo's to Doug and Paul for absorbing the arcane procedures and byzantine world of the Twilight Imperium universe and playing a very decent first time game for a bunch of newbies.