The Kriegspiel Cup

I'm very excited to announce that this year, in 2012, wargame night will shift into high gear with a wargame tournament! The object of the tournament is to be the most consistent winner each month and at the end of the year the person with the lowest score will win the magnificent and highly sought after Kriegspiel Cup. The fortunate person will keep the prestigious Kriegspiel Cup in his domicile for an entire year and shall be known as the Kriegspiel Champion for 2012.

The tournament will begin anew in 2013 and at the end of that year the points will be tallied once more and the cup may or may not pass to another champion who will then take possession of it and keep it for one year in his home (hopefully on top of the fireplace mantel for all to see). It's quite possible but highly unlikely that a single person will be Kriegspiel Champion for more than one year in a row. But you never know.


Tournament points are awarded as follows in each game for each month:

First Place - 1 pt
Second Place - 2 pts
Third Place -  3 pts
Fourth Place - 4 pts
Fifth Place - 5 pts
Sixth Place - 6 pts
Seventh Place - 7pts
Eighth Place - 8pts

AWOK - 10 pts - "Absent With-Out Kriegspiel" - Best to show up and lose in an 8 player game than not show up at all and be "awarded" 10 points for being a no-show for wargame night.

So the perfect score is 12 points - First place each month for 12 months running. If at the end of the year there is a tie then a special wargame night will be held to determine who will be 2012's Kriegspiel Champion. There can only be one winner so time to put on your game face!

Let the tournament begin!

Wargame Night 11-11

Once again, Bob, Tim, Wayne, Denny and myself played Twilight Imperium. We were expecting Ross but unfortunately he was a no show. At any rate, when were setting up the map I decided to place an artifact worth one victory point in the wormhole nexus on the planet of Malice. Because of that one decision, nearly the entire universe came crashing down on the Wormhole Nexus and after the smoke had settled it was Wayne who was last man standing. In fact, I believe it was one of the most, if not the most, decisive win made by a TI3 player since we have playing Twilight and kudos should go out to Wayne for a magnificent win. Bob came in a distant second and the rest of us huddled around third place.

We'll get you next time Wayne!

Wargame Night 10-11

Not much to report but that we did play Twilight Imperium and it was a very close game between Bob and Tim. The rest of us, myself, Eric and Wayne battled for third, if I recall. But Tim somehow nudged Bob out of first place and won the game.

We'll get you next time Tim!

Wargame Night 09-11

On September 10th, Bob, Tim, Eric and myself got together for a rousing game of Settlers: Cities and Knights.

I'll cut to the chase.

I lost. Really bad. This was the worst game I've ever played.

Tim - 13pts
Bob - 12 pts
Eric - 11 pts
Bruce - 4 stinking points!!!!

Well, as we were deciding to place our settlements on the map, Bob came up with a brilliant plan that I should place my both of my settlements close to each other and on a port that traded 2 rocks for anything I wanted. It sounded like a great plan at the time. D'oh! It turned out that I was stuck in a depression of miserable rolling such that I went almost without commodities for the entire game. Pathetic!

That's pretty much it.

Wargame Night 08-11

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

Wargame Night 06-11

On June 11th, Wayne, Bob, Tim, Eric, Steve and myself got together for a lovely game of Axis & Allies 30th Anniversary Edition. Being that this was the month of June and it was also the 67th anniversary of D-Day it seemed appropriate to play Axis and Allies. The following countries were randomly chosen:
Wayne - United States
Bob - Great Britain
Eric - Soviet Union
Steve - Germany
Tim - Italy
Bruce - Japan

With the anniversary edition of the game it was no longer necessary to completely wipe out the other side by occupying all of their capitals nor was it necessary to obtain x-amount of industrial production points to be declared the winner. Instead, the way to win was to occupy a certain number of "victory cities" as highlighted in red on the board map. The Axis started off with 8 victory cities and the Allies started off with 12 victory cities already in their possession. To win the game either side had to obtain at least 15 cities by 1:00am or whoever had the most cities by that time would win. Finally, we included our own rule that if any capital of either the Axis or Allied side had been captured then it would be considered "sudden death" and the other side would win automatically.

Unlike our other games we have played, Axis and Allies is a team game, and as such the Axis side consisted of Tim, Steve and myself. The Allied side consisted of Bob, Eric and Wayne. Each side therefore got together for a council of war and discussed the best strategies to obtain the most cities and hold them throughout the game. I know for the Axis side, the best cities for the taking were situated in the Pacific with Shanghai in China, Honolulu in Hawaii, Melbourne in Australia and Manila in the Philippines. Russia certainly had a fair share of victory cities for Germany to take but the Axis side felt that the Nazi's would be hard pressed to hold them. So our strategy going forward was to take the Pacific cities first and foremost and hold them at all costs. If Steve as the Nazi's were able to take Leningrad or Stalingrad then we considered that to be icing on the proverbial cake. Also, we wanted Tim as the Italians to actually "do something" than just sit around and twiddle his Fascist thumbs! So, we decided that Tim's sole objective was to take on Britain in Africa and seize the whole of Africa for the pleasure and benefit of the Axis.

From what I could gather from the Allied side, it appears it was to hold the line against Germany by the Russians, build up American forces in the Pacific to take on Japan's navy and have the British under Bob's heavy hand build factories in India for a conquest or reconquest of Southeast Asia and beyond. Bob came up with some interesting operational names which unfortunately I cannot remember but was something like Operation "Rubber Chicken" and other sorts of asinine names. Clearly, it was propaganda of the highest order.

For the Axis, the entire operational tempo fell on the Japanese to perform a "divine" miracle in the Pacific. Thus, I struck fast and furious over the Americans at Hawaii and in the Philippines. I also moved against the American supported Chang Kai Chek forces of Chinese that were threatening Japan's hold on the Asian mainland.

Shanghai fell pretty quickly but unfortunately the American's held out against supieor forces of the Japanese Imperial Navy and Army in the Philippines by initially holding onto Manila. I made a long shot attack on Hawaii by easily destroying the American fleet at Honolulu but was unable to capture the island. The haughty and happy Americans under the auspices of Wayne tried to unnerve me with his smiles even as I was sinking his battleship. Clearly, from the Japanese point of view the Americans had gone mad!

Steve as Nazi Germany, attacked the entire Russian eastern front to bottleneck Eric around Moscow and Stalingrad. This he did pretty much on schedule and with his usual gusto and bravado. Steve also carried out an efficient U-Boat attack on British and American shipping with satisfactory results. Tim on the other hand performed exceptionally well with his moronic Italians as he was able to take Egypt and Gibraltar from the highly bombastic and propagandistic British. With the English wiped out in Egypt, Africa lay ripe for the raping!

Eventually, Manila did fall to the Japanese by the second round of play and the Axis gained 2 cities for a total of 10 victory cities and the Allies lost 2 cities for a total of 10 cities as well. It was now a tied game and the war could swing in either direction.

The allies were not to be outdone however, as Wayne actually rolled a six for Research and Development and then rolled the die for "Shipyards" which naturally increased America's ability to outproduce the Japanese by a factor of magnitude larger than anything the Japanese could compete against. I believe it reduced his naval costs by 3 thus making expensive ships easier to purchase and produce on the cheap. Bob also decided to build a factory not only in India (which was expected) but also in the Dutch East Indies (which was not expected). I suppose it was a brilliant move just in case India fell to the Japanese then the British could build right next to it for a total of four units at one time. Or he could combine forces with his Indian factory and produce a total of 7 units in one fell swoop. Overall, I found it a great idea albeit a rather provocative one by the Allies.

Eric's Russians took on a slugfest with the Germans on the Eastern Front. For a round or two the Russians lost and then won back and then lost again the city of Leningrad. Both sides had bludgeoned themselves over Leningrad and by the third or fourth turn they were licking their wounds and building up forces for one last Armageddon like battle for control of the far northern city that clearly lay in the political sphere of the Germans. Eric also tried to take Manchukio from the Japanese in the Soviet Far East but failed miserably and expectantly I might add as the Japs were able to defend with troops and aircraft. Overall, Eric was roughed up and made one last attempt to take Leningrad from the Germans. It was a mighty battle and had time not worked against the Allies, Eric might not have attacked so soon. Nevertheless, he did attack Steve's Nazi's at Leningrad and came within one tank of taking the city from the Axis. If Eric had accomplished his goal then the Axis would have been down one city and perhaps lost the game for sure.

Bob's British were on the warpath in Asia after losing so bad in Africa. He had finally positioned himself to strike back at Vietnam but again time was running out and so was left to merely build up instead.

Wayne too had finally built up his naval forces and was making their way back to Asia after Japan nerely obliterated the Chinese on the Asian mainland and held their own against Eric's Russians. I kept my naval forces centrally located in the Pacific away from both the American and British submarines and battleships. This rather conservative strategy, as insisted by the Italians under Tim, kept the Japanese fleet in a sustainable position for a defense in depth strategy and allowing the Japanese mainland to defend herself more readily from an American fleet ready to pounce on Tokyo.

It could be argued by the Allies that if they had a little more time then the full force of their economic power would tighten like a noose around the Japanese Empire for good. However, we were playing till 1 am and the Axis made good on their plans and actually held 10 cities much to the allies chagrin. Thus, it was a tied game!

And really, as far as the Axis were concerned if it was a tied game then it was the Axis that were truly victorious! I think we can all agree, civilly, that it was the Axis that performed better than the Allies. As the Chinese might say "Better Ruck Next Time!"

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.