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.

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.