Wargame Night was held on September 8th and only included 4 players this time - Tim, Ross, Tim's friend Frank and myself. Unfortunately, both Bob and Eric were no shows and were duly punished with 10 points added to each of their tournament scores. We decided to play Twilight Imperium and the following races were randomly chosen:
Bruce - Clan of Saar
Frank - Mentak Coalition
Tim - Xxcha Empire
Ross - Naalu
We decided to build the galaxy with only a 3 ring map instead of our standard 4 ring map, thus making a smaller area to play in. We also wanted to build the galaxy with each hex tile facing down but Frank came up with a great idea that only the red-sided hex tiles should be left facing up so all players may see them and no red-sided hexes were to be placed next to each other thus ensuring rules and regulation integrity. So, most of the map was a sea of red with the exception of the red-sided hexes displaying nebulas, ion storms and supernovae for all to see and appropriately placed apart from each other.
As it was, as I went to explore my sphere of influence I kept finding nothing but empty space hexes! Basically, on such a small map I was surrounded by 6 hexes of empty space and 3 red-sided hexes that included a nebula, an ion storm and asteroids! Needless to say, I was starving for planets. Thankfully, I was the clan of Saar and could move my space docks but nevertheless, we were one hungry puppy! Very few planets left me with little choice but to take Mecatol Rex or invade someones homeworld. So I decided on Mecatol Rex.
Being that this was a 4 player game, we all had to choose two strategy agendas per turn and thus the public objective cards kept being placed every turn. Nevertheless, everyone was slow in getting points. On top of this, Ross unfortunately had to leave early and thus his empire was devoid of leadership. We decided to keep all of his forces on the map where they were and if we wanted to we could feed off the carcass of his empire should we feel the need. Which of course we did.
All of us by this time had barely registered on the victory point scale. Tim was in the lead with a mere 2 points albeit tied with the absent Ross and his 2 points. I believe Frank had 1 point and I had absolutely nothing to show for. As time was running out I grew desperate. Ross earlier had been given an action card which acted like the "Voice Of The Council" special objective card. Basically, you vote someone the voice of the jedi council and they get a single victory point. The caveat is if anyone however should attack the person who is the "voice" of the precious council and wins a planetary invasion then that person takes his special objective card from him and gets a free victory point. Well, needless to say, I was eyeing Ross' dieing empire and felt I could make a run for a planet that Ross occupied with no infantry present - a sure kill. However, Tim sent a lumbering task force of 3 dreadnaughts, cruisers and carriers to attack Ross and he unfortunately took away my only hope of getting the voice of the council card from Ross.
At this point in the game, Tim sat on 4 victory points and was poised to seize additional public and secret objective points that would give him an additional 4 points - a solid lead in a low point game. But alas, I remembered what Bob said about occupying homeworlds and depriving the occupied player of victory points until it is liberated. Well, I convinced Tim that everything was fine when I had built up my task force of ships on Mecatol and picked the War Agenda giving me the "Red Alert" token. I had an admiral and general in my expeditionary fleet and decided I should indeed attack Tim's homeworld to deprive him of at least getting 50% more victory points. However, Tim felt suspicious of my intentions and parked several ships in my path to his homeworld thus depriving me of a clean path as ships cannot pass thru fleets without engaging them first in each system they occupy. It was the last turn of the game and thus I needed to invade in one fell swoop and wouldn't you know it, I got an action card that allowed me to move through his occupied systems undetected!
And so, I invaded Tim's homeworld much to his chagrin on the very last turn of the game. I occupied his homeworld after battling a few meager fighters and infantry on his home planet. As a result, I was able to take the Voice of the Council away from him and deprive him of additional victory points because he had no way of retaking the planet back before end of game. The final scores were Tim in first place with 4pts. Frank in 2nd with 3pts. Myself in 3rd with 2 points and Ross dead last with zero points.
I'm hoping I haven't ruptured Tim's faith and total confidence in my trustworthiness. Really, it was only to deprive him of points. He still won the game. Friends, right? Comrades right, ha ha?
For some odd reason it was a rather intense game if I recall correctly. Perhaps it was due to the smaller map and to the fact we each had to choose 2 Strategic Agenda cards that made the game so on edge. 
