Kriegspiel Nacht is Baaaaack!

Okay, so I couldn't resist any longer and had to have game night back. So, now, it's official: Kriegspiel Nacht is back on schedule!

So with all the rules in Twilight Imperium to screw up and considering how Bob and I went round and round over movement and fleet logistics last summer, I thought a Daffy Duck intro would do wonders to lighten things up a bit as we usher in the final month of Kriegspiel Nacht 2014.

Yep, Daffy Duck is me.

That's All Folks!

I've decided to end Kriegspiel Nacht until further notice. It's been a blast and hope we can resume at a later date. Thanks to everyone for coming over and having a raucous Saturday night for the past 10 years.

Wargame Night 09-14

Well, for September, Eric was the only member of the warlike cantata to make it over. So, we decided to update the Kriegspiel Tournament score by a simple throw of the die!

The highest roller would get first place for the night and second highest would get second place. All others who neglected to show up and those who truly couldn't make it would receive a score of 10 for the month of September. Most unfortunate. 

Eric grasped the die with the sweaty palm of his hand and held his breath. And guess what? The die rolled off the countertop and fell on the floor! I could only chuckle to myself considering the number of years that Eric has consistently managed to roll his dice off the table. He picked up the die and finally rolled a "two"! I smiled devilishly knowing that I had a good chance to make "first" place this night. I picked up the die and tossed it haphazardly upon the marble counter in the kitchen - a "5"!

Wargame Night 08-14

In August, Bob, Eric and myself got together for Star Trek: Settlers of Cataan. We set up the map in the usual manner and each drew our respective Star Trek character cards for additional advantage. I picked my usual #5 spot on the map as well as a #8 for good measure.

We basically were tied throughout the game but the breakout point came when Eric starting pulling the development cards and then proceeded to construct the longest road. In due time, Eric pulled ahead by also having the largest fleet (largest army) and gaining another 2 victory points.

Bob did pull ahead a bit by upgrading his outposts to starbases. Unfortunately, I was not so lucky or smart or both. I was only able to upgrade 2 of my outposts whereas Bob was able to upgrade all of his for a grand total of 8 points.

Eric did indeed win the game when he finally reached 10 points with both the longest road and largest fleet. Great job Eric! Bob came in second with 8 points and I came in third with 6 points.

Wargame Night 07-14

Last July, Tim, Ross and myself got together for a rockin' game night of Risk: Godstorm. Tim went for the White armies of the Norse. I went with the Brown armies of Babylon and Ross went with the Green armies of the Celts. After the initial handout of the territory cards, I decided to throw my lot in Europa. I was also fortunate enough to have most of Atlantis (4/5) with two of those territories having the plague marker, making it an ideal candidate for occupation. Naturally, the "Sink Atlantis" card would have to be found first by me considering what happened the last time I occupied this tortured continent.

Tim was very much ensconced in Germania and Africa with Ross pretty solid in Asia Minor and Hyrkania. Amazingly, Tim felt Germania could not be held and thus decided to forgo his strategic position on that continent and focus mainly on Africa. Perhaps, it was a ruse on his part to fool us.

We all decided to choose our first God to summon rather than be stuck with the War God as per the rules of the game as the first God on the board. Both Tim and I went with the War God anyway but Ross naturally picked the God of Death. Of course, in this game, points are awarded to those with the most territories, unbroken control of a continent, and holding altars and crypts in the underworld, of which there are six. I think the next time we play, points should also be awarded to Temples as well. Might juice up the game a bit however, I don't think it does need juicing up but it would be nice to capture someone's temple and get a victory point out of it. I'm sure Bob would agree.

Out of the gate, I was successful in seizing all of Atlantis and most of Europa with the expectation of solidifying all of Europe on the next turn. However, Ross decided to invade Anatolia to prevent me from gaining the continental bonus of 7 for this continent. Unfortunately, a plague marker sat in front of Anatolia and I was unable to take back this territory for the duration of the game. Anger - Rising!

I was swimming in war cards however, and I decided to play one on Tim where an army can be switched from one territory to another. I could have switched his very large army in Egypt with a plague territory but instead I decided to play nice and only switch his army in Egypt to a territory directly in front of Ross, threatening Hyrkania with invasion, If Tim so desired that is. Tim naturally, did not invade Ross with his wayward army, so in the end I should have placed them in a plague territory.

Suddenly, Ross began menacing both Tim and I with huge armies poised for invasions of Europe and Germania, threatening both of us with extinction. However, both Tim and I rallied our troops and Ross got bogged down in a few territories in Europe and completely blunted by Tim in Germania. Where Ross had a massive force, now was reduced to a mere token reserve of drunk Celts retreating before their enemies with their tails between their legs. Both Tim and I began a slow counter invasion of Hyrkania and Asia Minor. In addition, I played a death card in which I roll a die to randomly choose a continent. Once chosen, then every territory immediately loses one troop. If no troops exists in the territory, then it reverts to a neutral status. At the time, I only controlled Atlantis and had few territories in Europa. I figured I would stand a good chance in rolling for either Tim which controlled most of Germania and all of Africa and Ross who controlled Asia Minor and Hyrkania. Bingo! I rolled for Asia Minor and Ross had to divest nearly 70% of his territories in Asia Minor as most of them were only occupied by a single troop. Most unfortunate - for him.

I was now able to concentrate my forces on Tim and invaded Germania from Scotland and invaded Africa from Europe, landing in Carthage and fanning out in all directions to conquer most of Africa in one swift turn. In addition to this, I used another death card and removed a very large army of his that was certainly going to be used to counterattack me in Africa and placed his army instead in a far away territory in Spain. Tim tried to counterattack with this force into Atlantis to break my continent, but alas my forces were able to fight off his attack and I believe he lost some 5 armies attempting to break it. By then, Tim saw the writing on the wall and knew all was lost. Ross and I continued fighting in the underworld and we both secured 3 victory points to each of us there.

The final score was Bruce with 24 points. Ross with 18 points and Tim with 8 points, I believe. Oh, I held the "Sink Atlantis" card by the fourth round and thus kept it nice and safe from evil hands and hearts seeking only to do harm to me. There was much rejoicing in Babylon this night.

Wargame Night 06-14

On June 7th, Eric, Tim, Ross, Bob and myself got together for an actual 5-man game of Twilight Imperium! Let's see, it has been nearly a year and three months since we had that many people over at one time. A new day has dawned, or has it? We shall see in the coming months.

We proceeded to create the map and decided to add a fourth ring to our normal three ring map and there was much jostling as to where we would place our homeworlds. After Ross made mention of the oddness of placing our homeworlds on a four ring map I did happen across a section on map creation I believe in the errata the next day that stated to place our homeworlds on the third ring of a four ring map with five players! So Ross' intuition did pan out and indeed, the Force is with him. So, next time the homeworlds will be placed on the third ring with a system behind their homeworld on the fourth ring!

The following races were selectively chosen:

Eric - Federation of Sol
Tim - Nekro Virus
Ross - Yssaril Tribes
Bruce - Xxcha Kingdom
Bob - L1Z1X Mindnet

We decided to forgo the domain counters for ease of play (didn't help) and we placed the Ancient Artifacts equidistant to each other and one space ahead of each of our homeworld systems to be generous with potential victory point accumulation. Of course, the planet of Malice had the last Ancient Artifact placed on it in the Wormhole Nexus. After everything was finally set up, there was much rejoicing.

I picked my Preliminary Objective card and read that I had to destroy 1 cruiser from each of my neighbors on my right and left to get my first victory point and to pull the Secret Objective card for the next potential 2 points. Naturally, neither one of my neighbors had a cruiser for me to destroy! Not a problem though, I was the Xxcha Kingdom of Turtlebacks! We can handle it.

As the game got going Eric immediately made a run for Mecatol Rex and got as far as the Ancient Artifact sitting on his path to MR. Nevertheless, it was quite noticeable even if the played it off as nonsense. The rest of us meekly and humbly secured the immediate systems around our homeworlds. Eric as the Federation of Sol was merely a hex away from Mecatol and indeed in a fit of rage decided to attack with a meager force that was easily repulsed by the sacred stewards of MR with fighter and infantry coverage. Inwardly, we were quite happy at his misfortune and miscalculation.


Ross as the Yssaril Tribes decided not to tangle with Xxcha sitting next to him. Perhaps it was the recent racial tech upgrade of Xxcha Diplomats or the two diplomat leaders that seemed to repulse him, I simply don't know, but Ross decided to set his sights on Tim as the much maligned Nekro Virus and eliminate the scum of the universe that threatened everyone with his suicide flagship. Ross decided to go for the jugular of the Nekro Virus by attacking their homeworld directly.

There was only a token force on Tim's homeworld as his Nekro Virus fleet was mainly stationed around Mecatol Rex. As such, the Virus put up a fight as best as their meager forces could allow and were thusly defeated quite easily, if I recall. I believe Ross was able to acquire 2 victory points from his secret objective and after additionally securing another victory point from an ancient artifact on the planet of Malice in the Wormhole Nexus, Ross was able to inch up to first place in the game at that moment. Unfortunately, or fortunately, he had to leave early and thus he sat on his alien laurels if you will and left the rest to fate.

Both Bob and Eric additionally threatened Tim with mass extermination however, their parlor room tricks only incensed the Virus to regroup and take back their homeworld, upon which, their enterprise brought forth the sweet fruit of victory and Tim indeed not only held out on Mecatol Rex but took back his homeworld to garner additional victory points. This placed him neatly in first place and he was able to prevent anyone else from taking it away from him thereafter.

So the race was won by Tim in first place. Again, congratulations should go out to Tim for reversing what should have been a very bad night for him. Also, for Bob for achieving a very close second place. Ross did excellent for third place considering he left early. Sadly, for Eric and myself, we simply floundered in the empty spaces of Twilight Imperium. Most unfortunate. Naturally, in the wee hours of the morning, the Xxcha Controversy erupted over the meaning and definition of the Xxcha Diplomat racial upgrade which Bob and I engaged in for far too long. Nevertheless, it didn't change the outcome of the game, so all is forgiven...for now.

Wargame Night 05-14

On May 10th, Bob, Eric, Tim and myself got together for a slightly different game night of Settlers of Catan- Star Trek! Yes, that's right my friends, Settlers: Star Trek. This was purchased at the local Target store over a year ago and only just now did I pull it out for the guys to play.

Basically, this is the same game as your normal Settlers except the "robber" are the Klingons with a cool Klingon Warbird starting off in an asteroid field rather than the traditional desert located in the center of the star map.

Instead of roads in the old game, you get starships that ply the spaces in between the planets that serve the same purpose. Instead of settlements, you get outposts that are initially placed on the corners of each hex. And finally, instead of cities, you get starbases which serve the same purpose again. As in the old game, points are assigned to "settlements and cities" with outposts as one victory point and starbases as two victory points. Each piece on the game board has plastic clear posts to stand on and gives it more of a three dimensional feel to it.

We did find that the resources in the game were a bit difficult to compare to as they are more aligned with the Star Trek universe such as "tritanium" instead of brick or "dilithium" instead of ore and so on. Kind of confusing since we are all so used to the original game with its more simplistic design but still we had a good time with it nevertheless being the Trekkie fans that we are.

There is an added feature to the game that is totally absent in the traditional Settlers game: Federation Officers. These characters add an additional element of surprise to the game that allows the player to utilize at least twice during the game before he must discard the character and pick a new one. The characters are - Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura, Sulu, Checkov, Scotty, Sarek and some lesser known characters like Chapel and Rand. These officers confer abilities to each player such as allowing one to trade resources for 2:1 instead of the normal 4:1 ratio, or allowing one to look at an opponents hand of resource cards and take one from him at his expense, or giving one a chance to move the Klingon Warbird away from you and place it on another planetary system and so forth and so on.

We all agreed this was a nice feature to the game that gave this particular Settlers of Catan a leg up on the more traditional game system that seemed lacking with the older version we have been playing for some time now.

I figured we would be playing multiple games this night, so to determine the Tournament score we would add all the scores for each game and whoever had the lowest score would get first place for the night and so on.

We played a total of two games and Eric won the first game with Bob in second and Tim & I tied for third. In the second game, I got first place with Tim in second place and Bob in third place. Eric got fourth place. Thus, for the Tournament score of the night, I was able to scrape out first place with a combined total score of 4. Amazingly, and unfortunately, everyone else was able to garner second place with a combined score of 5 to each player! So, it was a good night for scoring for all players that were able to show up.

Finally, I wish to add that I feel I now have finally broken my fourth place "winning" streak! Thank the Maker! Oh wait, that's Babylon 5 lingo. Sorry. Thank the Federation of Planets!

Wargame Night 04-14

In April, Bob, Eric, Tim and myself got together for another game night extravaganza. The following races were randomly chosen:

Eric - Universities of Jol-Nar
Bob - The Nekro Virus
Bruce - Emirates of Haccan
Tim - Clan of Saar

We included the domain counters this time and after a slow start (around 8pm) the first round got going at the snails pace that is Twilight Imperium.

The game immediately became intense as Tim suddenly amassed his forces near my sphere of influence. This necessitated a reordering of my fleet from an exploration mission to one of a defense- in-depth posture. Most unfortunate. Naturally, I began laying mines everywhere! Tim eventually picked up the Warfare Agenda and his nefarious fleet went to Red Alert. Suddenly, what I thought was going to be a trip to my homeworld, his fleet instead solar sailed towards Mecatol Rex and he took the planet with ease with nary an opposing word from either the Nekro Virus nor the rather liberal Universities of Jol-Nar.

This allowed Tim to score several victory points and he jumped light years ahead of everyone on the scoreboard.

Bob as the Nekro Virus, meanwhile, was aghast at his race's inability to research Tech abilities. This completely threw him for a loop and as a result Bob was flummoxed as to where to go and what to take as he was at the mercy of his neighbors' tech advances. His race only allows him to "steal" tech advances from other races following a victorious space battle. With both myself as the Emirates of Haccan with very little to show for tech purchases as well as Eric, who as the Jol-Narians was also surprisingly low on technology acquisition in this game, Bob was unable to capitalize on his races ability to acquire technology and thus, was left with the Nekro Virus' proverbial panties in a bunch! As a result, Bob was barely out of the gate before both Eric and I started to feast on his ships and planets throughout the game. Bob couldn't decide whether to attack me or Eric and with Mecatol Rex fully invested by Tim, was left with nothing much in his hands for victory points.

As I crept out of my homeworld system, however, it was Tim who for some odd reason felt the need to "avenge" the past by attacking my homeworld system. Actually, he did have a secret objective to attack the "last space dock of an opposing player on his right or left". Why he went after me and not Eric I'll never know but clearly my smaller fleet was an invitation for him to attack the Emirates of Haccan as he smelled "weakness". Most unfortunate.

Nevertheless, I did build up my home world upon which my last space dock sat with several mech units and a couple of troops. However, he did bombard my planet with a dreadnought and with no PDS units to shield them, I lost two of my precious mech units. Even though I did roll splendidly with my remaining troops, it was not enough to prevent the total collapse of my forces against the evil Clan of Saar. My last space dock was taken and destroyed and Tim gained an additional 2 victory points.

As the game night wound down, Eric finally decided to make a rendezvous at Mecatol Rex with the largest fleet on the board at this time. He rounded up a sizeable amount of Dreadnoughts as well as lesser vessels and carriers for the occupation of Mecatol. It was a massive battle, but somehow, Eric though he was able to win the space battle, was unable to secure the ground from Tim's army forces on MR. Thus, Tim was able to keep Mecatol in his pantheon of planets.

The final score had Tim in First place with 7 points, Eric in Second place with 4 points, Bob in Third place with 3 points and myself in Fourth place with 2 points. With my homeworld occupied by Tim, I was unable to secure additional victory points.

He will pay dearly for his lack of vision. Obviously, I've already paid for mine!

It was a fun game overall.

Wargame Night 03-14

In March, Tim, Bob, Ross and myself got together for another raucous night of Twilight Imperium. Unfortunately, I have no photos for this month and as such, I can't remember a darn thing...except that Bob got 1st place as the Arborec, Tim received 2nd place as the Embers of Muaat, Ross got 3rd place as the L1Z1X Mindnet and finally, I received a paltry 4th place finish as the Ghosts of Creuss.

Better luck next month for anyone below 2nd place!

Wargame Night 02-14

In February, we nearly had a blowout in terms of player participation. Tim was the only one who showed up. So we decided to play a game of Stratego to determine the first and second place finish in the Kriegspiel Tournament.

The game was close for awhile until Tim killed my #1 Marshal and then proceeded to wipe out the rest of my army one by one with his #1 Marshal.

Needless to say, Tim won handily that night and secured his first place finish. I "happily" took second place. My strategy was to close off the center path of attack and use my flanks for a one-two punch with my colonels. Alas, this plan did not work. Eventually, Tim figured out my ruse and killed my officers. However, I could have stumbled into his flag as one of my captains was foraging in the rear in a last desperate gamble to stave off defeat but eventually my captain (4) was killed in action.

It was Tim's night in Stratego.

Wargame Night 01-14

On January 12th, a couple of us guys got together for the 2014 inaugural Kriegspiel Tournament game of Twilight Imperium. We decided to enlist Luke, the Yoda-like character in the foreground of the picture, to play as the fourth alien race in TI3. The following races were randomly chosen:

Bob -  The Winnu
Ross - Barony of Letnev
Luke - Ghosts of Creuss
Bruce - Universities of Jol-Nar

 I believe we decided to forgo domain counters this night and proceeded to construct the map forthwith. As the benevolent Universities of Jol-Nar I decided to reach out to Mecatol Rex and sent a delegation - with lots of military hardware- to show them our "credentials". It was unpleasant but the natives soon learned to love us. Now all I had to do was wait for the public objective cards to just shower me with points for holding Mecatol.

In the meantime, Luke meekly moved forward from his wormhole base and was content on being pacific in an otherwise turbulent sea of move and countermove that is TI3. Soon even he bailed on us and it was left to Bob, Ross and myself to determine who would rule the galaxy.

That is when, right on cue, Chaos Monkey decided to pay a visit to Mecatol Rex and take was rightly mine.

He attacked me outright and destroyed my fleet and then proceeded to make a planetary invasion against my army based on the surface including my mech units that I wisely stationed only recently. He too brought mech units and the battle was fierce and bloody. It came down to just one damaged mech unit for each side and with merely one die roll away from complete loss of Mecatol, I was able to destroy his last rusty and burning tank. It was a hard won victory but could have gone either way. Nevertheless, I followed up immediately afterward with a counter invasion and destroyed his fleet and reinforced my troops on Mecatol.

While all of this was going, Bob was slowly building up victory points and in the end he was able to secure first place. Unfortunately, even with my Pyrrhic victory on Mecatol, I was not able to secure the second place finish which instead went to Ross. I had to settle with third place. Most unfortunate.

It was still a fun game but was disappointed that Bob was able to finish so strong in first place. I'm sure he was happy that me and the monkey were duking it out on MR but alas, I lost in the end and nearly wept. Where is Eric when I need him?

Wargame Night 12-13

Back in December, the usual suspects got together for the final game night of the year. Twilight Imperium was chosen and basically to sum it all up for 2013 - I won! Actually, for that night I got 4th place however, I received 1st place in the Kriegspiel Tournament and was proclaimed the Kriegspiel Champion of 2013.
The trophy now sits proudly in the dining room of my home. I have to admit, the trophy did accidentally fall into my lap as there were a number of unusual absences this year from all of the Tournament players.

This caused a rather lopsided score to occur on my part but again, all points are accumulated by each player and again, if you snooze then you looze. Half the battle is just showing up and I believe this illustrates a very important lesson here: slow and steady wins the race! Just keep plugging away and yes, you too can grab that Merry Go Round ring and win it big. So lets hear it for the average folks! God loves the moderates too. Some players felt a little cheated however, so as the Vicar of Christ in the land of Kriegspiel Nacht I decided to spice up the scoring by adding an "average".

So to address the concerns of certain individuals I won't name (Tim) the Kriegspiel Tournament score for 2014 will now include one's average in the Tournament. This will be multiplied by your current standing plus any absence points accumulated during the Tournament year. And indeed, if we had utilized this new scoring system in the previous year, I believe it would have been Bob that would have won the trophy for 2013. But alas, It was your humble and faithful servant who, in the end, prevailed. I know, life is unfair.

So now we look forward to the next Tournament year and I'm sure I will do much better. I have a clear conscious and look with great anticipation to vindicating myself on the plains and space lanes of Mecatol Rex. If I can somehow move from playing 4th place all the time to at least 2nd or 3rd then I will have a achieved a milestone in my gaming abilities. But enough of myself, just look at the sneering Tim! He clearly is taking this way too seriously! His Nom De Guerre is Lord Hideous and now we know why. I'm sure like Vadar before him, he will return with a vengeance.