Wargame Night 06 - 12

On June 9th, Bob, Wayne, Tim and myself decided to play Settlers of Cataan. Unfortunately, Eric and Ross were unable to make it this night and thus we played a 4-player Settlers game. And we agreed that if we finished one game in short order then we would play a second game that night as well. And wouldn't you know it, Bob played so well that he kicked our collective rear ends and won the first game in just 2 short hours. Tim came in second. Wayne and myself came in third.

The second game was played and once again, Bob was able to pull off another first place finish. Great job Bob! Don't know how he did it but the truth can't be denied. This time, Wayne and myself both came in second and Tim got third place.

Because we played two games this night, the tournament scores would thus be doubled. Therefore, Bob came in first with 2 points total (two 1st place finishes) for the night. Tim, Wayne and myself collectively came in second with a combined score of 5 points each (2nd and 3rd place finishes). Ross and Eric were both "awarded" 20 points for being "AWOK" - Absent WithOut Kriegspiel" during two game matches.

Great job Bob for playing awesome, as for the rest of us, better luck next time.

Wargame Night 05-12

On May 12th, Bob, Eric, Tim, Wayne, Ross and myself got together for another rousing empire busting game of Twilight Imperium 3: Shattered Empire. This time we decided to add a little spice (Dune?) to the game by turning over the hexes we placed on the map so as to hide from other players what systems were placed where. Once a ship entered a "neutral" red hex then it would be turned over for everyone to see. The map was a beautiful sea of red with Mecatol Rex as the oasis awaiting its first visitors.

The following races were randomly chosen:

Bruce - The Clan of Sarr
Wayne - Emirates of Hacan
Ross - Universities of Jol Nar
Eric - The Mentak Coalition
Bob - The Naalu Collective
Tim - Barony of Letnev

As the game proceeded, Bob and I seemed to be veering towards one another quite early and by turn 2, I believe, we nearly came to logger heads as to who was going to relinquish their sphere to the other. In hindsight I should have simply blasted him out to kingdom come but alas, I decided caution was the better part of valor. And so Bob as the insufferable Naalu and I as the furry but lovable Clan Of Saar starred at each other between shifty and conniving eyes. A lack of trust was definitely thick in the air. I was trying to get to Mecatol Rex as fast as I could but unfortunately someone placed an Ion Storm right in the path to MR and thus I had to go around this hex thus depriving me of a quick advance to the middle of the known galaxy. As time went on, Bob's suspicious activities started to raise the hair on the back of my back and thus I dispatched a cruiser west of the Ion Storm and deployed space mines to thwart any attempt by the Naalu to seize my homeworld unawares. Naturally, the fan-heads (Naalu) felt slighted and threatened war.

In the meantime, Eric as the Mentak Coalition sent a fleet immediately to the center of the Galaxy in an attempt to seize Mecatol Rex. As noted before hand, I felt this was a bold move from the somewhat passive/aggressive Eric that has not been seen for sometime in Twilight Imperium. Was Eric going to take MR with nary an opposing voice in the Galactic Senate to alert the rest of the alien races to his agenda of conquest? Apparently so.

On the far side, Wayne as the Emirates of Hacan was slowly building up a fleet in a system not to far away from MR. Certainly, he could move within one turn to MR and take it if the other alien races were to be preoccupied in other systems. Eric on the other hand, finally made it to Mecatol Rex and clashed with the indigenous tribes and took out their fighter squadron. However, Eric had no men to land for a ground invasion. Or at least, men were on their way but had not yet arrived for a ground invasion. However, Eric could see Wayne making his buildup and decided that even if he did take the planet he as the Mentak Coalition would not be able to hold it for very long and thus departed MR for safer waters.

In the meantime, in spite of Bob's loitering in and around my sphere of influence, I was able to seize an ancient artifact in his sphere of influence that gave me 1 victory point, at least temporarily so. This really got the frills on the Naalu heads vibrating and so he in turn decided to occupy the hex right next to my homeworld with a small task force which of course was completely 100% unacceptable. I therefore engaged his forces and caused a rout from whence he fled back to another system closer to his homeworld. So I decided to cool things down a bit and convinced the nuckleheaded Naalu to just breathe in and accept a quid pro quo whereby my task force would vacate the planet holding the ancient artifact then he was to relinquish any claims near my homeworld. Wisely, he agreed. This set the stage for my attempt at seizing Mecatol Rex in one swift stroke!

As this was going on, Ross as the Universities of Jol-Nar and Tim as the Barony of Letnev slowly came around each other and kept a close eye on their respective SPLOCS - Space Lanes of Communication. Ross came late to the game and thus was a little behind in points. Tim as well was behind as he was no where near Mecatol and had not claimed any ancient artifacts for additional victory points. I was in the lead with 6 points at this time and had yet to claim Mecatol for my secret objective. It was at this time that I decided to strike Mecatol and make a planetary landing and hopefully build up enough forces to survive any attempt by Wayne as the Emirates to seize MR from me. I agree, it was a long shot but I felt there was a 50-50 chance of success in the short run. I only had 3 troops with me to land being led by a Saar General. Mecatol had 2 indigenous troops and as the battle erupted my troops ultimately performed poorly! In the end, I was not able to secure Mecatol since both sides killed each other leaving my General to barely escape certain death. He was the only one to tell the tale. This of course simply pleased the Emirates of Hacan as they now could invade MR unopposed. And this Wayne did as surely as the sun rose on Mecatol Rex that day.

As Wayne occupied Mecatol he continued to build up his forces on the planet with not a peep or a pipe from the other alien races. Of course, it was a formidable force of dreadnaughts but still someone needed to do something. But alas, he remained unmolested and as such was able to fulfill his secret objective. This gave Wayne a considerable lead as the game was winding down. All the rest of could do was simply fulfill lesser public objectives and hope for the best. As such, Wayne would come in 1st place as the Emirates of Hacan with Bob in 2nd as the Naalu and Tim in 3rd as the Barony of Letnev. Eric and I both got 4th place and Ross came in 5th.

Overall, I did pretty good in the first half of the game only to have the wind sucked out of my sails in the latter half. Guess, I'm going to need to revisit my strategy of seizing planets early without adequate backup. I think everyone liked the initial setup of not seeing each others hex placement which I believe adds another layer of volatility and unpredictability to the game. Another great gamenight.

Wargame Night 04-12

On April 14th, we got together to play Twilight Imperium Shattered Empire. The following alien races were randomly selected:

Bruce - Sardok Norr
Ross - Universities of Jol Nar
Eric - Brotherhood of Yinn
Bob - Federation of Sol
Wayne - Winnu
Tim - Barony of Letnev

The map was set up for a maximum 4 ring capacity and all map hexes were divied out appropriately. Domain counters were left out but the wormhold nexus was included as well as mines and artifacts. After all secret objective cards were handed out, I finally got one that was "easy". And really, it was easy because all I needed to score my secret objective was to occupy four planets with the same tech color. Amazingly, as the map was set up I was able to place 3 planets in my sphere of influence with the green tech discount but even more surprising was when Tim placed his very last planet hex in my sphere, it too contained a green tech discount - thus fulfilling in one huge sweep my secret objective. Talk about low hanging fruit! It was beautiful. And indeed, by the end of the 3rd turn I was able to secure my secret objective.  I was easily in first place as a result.

Slowly, Tim as the Barony of Letnev crept up to Mecatol Rex without much ado from the other alien races. I pleaded for the other races to sabotage his space dock or attack directly at Tim but again, the galactic council did nothing. As a result, Tim gained his secret objective of 2 points.

Back at the Wormhole Nexus, my diabolical plan to sew enmity among the alien races was working devilishly as an artifact was found at the planet of Malice located in the Wormhole Nexus system thus drawing Eric as the Brotherhood of Yinn and then Bob as the Federation of Sol to attack each other over a vain attempt to gain a mere 1 point. Oh, the vainglory of empires! Eric unfortunately was not able to hold out against the superior forces of Bob and like the ring of Sauron, the artifact was taken from a very unhappy Eric who in addition to losing his dignity also lost 1 victory point. I do recall him simpering under his breath in a low but audible way "my precious...my precious". Very sad really.

In the meantime, Ross as the University of Jol Nar decided to make a show of force near Mecatol Rex which did lure the Barony of Letnev out of his Mecatol lair and engage the UJN's in full force. Much to everyones surprise was how badly the forces of the Barony performed. The UJN's completely demolished Tim's fleet without so much as inflicting a scratch on Ross. At least 4 dreadnoughts were lost by the Baron in that sharp but short skirmish.

As the game wore on and public objective cards were revealed, Wayne as the Winnu made very good progress without having to declare war or engage in subterfuge against his alien neighbors and I do believe played the entire game without firing a single shot.

In the end, Tim would win the game at 1st place. Wayne, Bob and myself took 2nd place. Eric was in for 3rd place and Ross crossed the finish line at 4th place. The nice thing about TI3 is that it's quite possible that everyone can be winners! No, I haven't gone mushy liberal on you but it may be possible that all players could achieve 1st place as the winners podium can be shared by all.

1st Quarter Kriegspiel Tournament 2012 Update

After 3 months into the year-long Kriegspiel Tournament, Tim has secured a pretty strong lead with a total of 4 points. Bob, Ross and myself are all vying for second place with an overall score of 9 for Bob, 10 for Ross and 11 for me. Wayne is steady in 5th place overall at 16 points and Eric is dead last at 24 points.

As far as the trend lines go, Tim could if he decided to just simply "skate" for awhile and still maintain a strong lead even if he only places 2nd or 3rd for several games. The rest of us are going to have dig deeper to catch up. Even though Eric is waaaaay back there with 24 points, it's quite possible that over the year that several other players will miss a game night or two and if Eric happens to make those nights and wins handily or close to it, then we may see him in contention for first place. Miracles do happen.

Wayne just needs to score a first place victory one time to find himself in serious contention for a strong second place position overall. Again, he could over time find himself as well in first place if he maintains a steady presence at game night.

Ross as the new guy is performing surprisingly well. With all his cannabis smoking while going to college in Seattle I thought for sure he would be a pushover. But alas, he is crafty and conniving. He too just needs a decent first place victory to place him in cup contention.

Bob is definitely a strong player and in spite of his recent losses is keeping Tim looking back to see where he is. Combining his strong attendance and well thought out strategies we may well see him take pole position from Tim in the future.

As for myself, I'm currently in 4th place. However, I do have home advantage and I am not expected to not host game night thus I ply a steady but sure course to victory. Or so that is the plan. If no one shows up for game night then I will also reward myself 10 points so as to freeze the current position where everyone is at in the tournament. See, just proves I'm not taking advantage of the "AWOKS" in this tournament. Again, as the saying goes "just showing up is half the battle".

May the reflecting light of the Kriegspiel Cup guide you to victory!

Wargame Night 03-12

On March 10th Ross, Bob, Tim, Wayne, and myself got together for a Settlers Cataan: Knights and Cities 5-6 Player Expansion game. This particular Settler's map is pretty much one huge island and as it was randomly constructed the island was divided in the upper north of the map by two desert hexes side by side. Amazingly, no one placed their opening settlements in that part of the board and thus we were all concentrated in the relative center of the map.

As a big believer in the number "5", I convinced Tim to place a settlement on a "5" hex and foolishly he agreed! This prompted Tim to record every roll we were to make in the game to test whether or not certain numbers are indeed more likely to be rolled over others. Of course, I still placed my city and settlement on an "8" and "5" hex respectively to ensure maximum coverage.

After everyone placed their settlements it became evident that the cluster of buildings was centered along the middle of the island leaving only the outside coastline available for future development. Of course, the northern most desert area was also open to colonization.

There was a rule clarification by Bob in which if a city builds a wall and in the likely event the barbarians show up to pillage the island of Cataan then the wall itself does not protect your city. The city is still reduced to a settlement and the wall piece removed from the map board. So the ONLY advantage to building a wall for your city is to be able to hold 2 additional resource cards in your hand before pirates (will a roll of a 7) take half your deck if you hold more than 7 resource cards. Each wall built under each city thus increases the number of cards held in your hand by 2 for a grand total 13 cards before pirates rip you off. Still a good deal however, not as protective of the city as I would like! Change of rules anyone?

Well, as the game got going I kept scoring pretty well with my "5-8" combo and was able to build enough roads to claim the longest road. In all fairness, Bob did claim the longest-road mantle for awhile before I claimed it from him on a permanent basis for the duration of the game. Bob unfortunately was in the thick of things by being sandwiched between Tim and Wayne, thus boxing himself in and unable to truly breakout and claim more land with which to build additional cities.

Wayne made good by hiring the most powerful knight on the board and fending off the barbarians to claim "Defender Of Cataan" twice for 2 easy victory points. Bob unfortunately lost a city to barbarian pillaging as I believe Ross did as well. In addition, Wayne would have played additional "progress" cards however, all of us with the exception of Bob, labored under the delusion that we could only play one progress card at a time (not my fault). Actually, according to the official rules, we can play as many progress cards as we like! I think the mix-up occurred when I was reading the regular Settlers Of Cataan rule when I read outloud that only one "development" card could be played which is true if we were playing the original game. As it was, we were playing Cities & Knights and thus I was blamed for this misunderstanding. It really was Bob's responsibility since it was he who was in charge of keeping us informed, if you ask me (ha ha). At any rate, I don't think we truly missed out on any really big opportunities to screw over our fellow Cataan players with unsavory and detrimental progress cards as we discovered this anomaly midway through the game.

In the meantime, Ross as the Chicago-street agitator that he is, insisted on playing progress cards that tended to tax his neighbors by siphoning off resource cards from each player much to our collective chagrin especially for Bob since apparently he suffered the most by Ross's excesses. Tim on the other hand kept finding himself in economic dry spots as he kept on missing out on rolls that would have benefited him had he not listened to me earlier and placed his settlement on a different number.

As the game continued I found myself in the lead however, as we neared the end of the game I suddenly found myself in a dry spell as well and was coming up short on resource and commodity cards. On top of this, Bob insisted on placing the robber on my "8" hex thus for nearly 3 to 4 times was deprived of resource and commodity cards from that hex. Why he didn't try to screw Ross with the robber I'll never know but my hide has been thoroughly chapped, I must say. Finally, Tim surreptitiously moved into the lead and suddenly he won the game with 13 total points. I came in second with 10. Wayne got 8 points with Ross at 6. I believe Bob got 5 points for last place.

Everyone played tenaciously as it went longer than I thought it would. Great job everyone! As far as the rolls recorded by Tim it was realized that the number "7" and "8" came up the most each being rolled 12 times. The "6" was rolled 9 times and amazingly the "5" was only rolled 7 times. In other games, I swear to you, it comes up more often than it did this last game. A total of 67 rolls were made before end of game. Surprisingly, the "12" and "11" were each rolled 4 times which everyone has agreed would have to be considered an outlier.

With the 5-6 player expansion, I suspect we'll be seeing this game more often. See ya next month.

Wargame Night 02-12

On February 11th, Eric, Bob, Tim, Ross and myself got together for a Twilight Imperium Shattered Empire extravaganza! The following alien races were randomly drawn:

Bruce- Embers of Muaat
Ross- Brotherhood of Yin
Eric- Emirates of Hacan
Tim- Yassiril Tribes
Bob- The Mentak Coalition

We played the 5 player game in which players who are situated in the 1, 4 and 5 spots on the board are allocated a certain number of resources to compensate, allegedly, for the poor geographical location they find themselves in. For player number 5, he gets 6 trade goods to start which fell to Eric. Players 1 and 4 each got 4 trade goods which fell to Ross and Tim. Bob and I were in prime locations and did not receive any trade goods. We left out domain counters again but included the notorious wormhole nexus and leaders for each alien race. 

Ross was a little late getting to game night so we set up his part of the board for him by "committee". And I have to say the committee did a wonderful job in selecting the proper locations for each of his planet hexes.  We also used the new Shattered Empire agenda cards which hide the public objectives from view until you choose the #8 Bureaucracy Agenda card and after looking at two of the objectives then reveal the one that best suits your interests, thus claiming a victory point, if you can, for that public agenda from the moment it is revealed rather than waiting until the status phase to claim a victory point.

Both Bob and I were in a planet rich zone, a "Goldilocks" zone if you will, with which to reap the bounty of our good fortune. Interestingly enough, Mecatol Rex, the old regnal planet that once ruled the entire known galaxy, was ringed on 3 sides by asteroids, nebula and supernova. Of course, with 3 "SPLOCs" Space Lanes Of Communication going into MR, none of us would have any trouble taking this venerable but important planet.

As the Embers of Muaat, I get the fine distinction of being the player no one wants to be close to and no it has nothing to do with how hot I am! I get start to the game with a War Sun which is the most powerful capital ship in existence. It also is very difficult to develop and takes time and money that must be spent in order to lay the keel of this monstrosity of a warship. The Embers get it from the start and gosh it is such a good feeling. However, the Embers don't start off with any carriers and must therefore build those to transport troops and other material and this causes unnecessary delays as I came to find out later.

As the game got going we all settled in for the long haul of planet invasion and development. As a result, no one chose the #8 Bureaucracy Card that reveals public objective cards with which to gain valuable and necessary victory points. As such we found ourselves with very little to show, at least in victory points, after a couple of hours. I know, very painful. Even though I had a War Sun, I was just unable to capitalize on its strengths. Sadly, Tim was able to sneak into Mecatol Rex and seize it with nary a protest from the rest of the alien clans.

Again, only one public objective could be seen (blockade another players space dock) and thus we could not know what Tim's intentions were on MR, other than to fulfill a Secret Objective, but alas, no one including myself challenged Tim to Mecatol. I did have an opportunity to attack with my War Sun on Mecatol with 4 fighters assigned to "WS1" however, my secret objective did not include MR and since I was way behind in points I could score 1 victory point by attacking Bob's space dock which was dangerously exposed to my War Sun. Thus, I chose the latter and did indeed gain one victory point. However, that left Tim unmolested. Of course, Tim beefed up Mecatol in the meantime and laid space mines in the Mecatol system for good measure.

Well, as the game progressed Tim indeed did claim his secret objective by occupying MR with 8 capitol ships plus a space dock (I believe) and scored his precious 2 victory points. On top of that, for awhile the Bureaucracy card was not chosen and thus chits were placed on it. As you know, once that card is picked up and there are chits sitting on it then the number of chits equals the number of public objective cards to be revealed in addition to the one that is revealed by the player to the rest of us. Alas, wouldn't you know it, three public objective cards dealt with Mecatol Rex and Tim was able to immediately score 3 additional victory points on top of the 2 points he received for his secret objective. There was much nashing of teeth by the other alien races when this was revealed because there simply was no way for the rest of us to secure Mecatol without a major military conflagration that certainly would be costly if not prohibitive in the short amount of time that was then available. On top of that, Tim chose the Diplomacy card which insured that Mecatol would not be invaded that turn. The end was nigh and by hook and by crook, Tim secured 1st place. Is this the time where I say "when good men do nothing evil triumphs"?

The final score was:

Tim - 7 points (1st)
Ross - 5 points (2nd)
Bob - 3 points (3rd)
Eric - 1 points (4th)
Bruce- 1 points (4th)

Long Live Mecatol Rex!

Wargame Night 01-2012

On January 14th, Bob, Tim, Wayne, Ross and myself got together for a Risk:Godstorm game. After passing the territory cards out to everyone we slowly placed our armies down on the board three men at a time. As the army placement progressed, Tim ended up forming in Asia Minor with the bulk of his army. Bob ended up in Atlantis. Ross congealed in Europa. Wayne took up residence in Hykania north of Asia minor. I ended up in Africa. Germania lay open and virgin for either Bob, Ross or myself to take at will.

I went ahead and pretty much gobbled up all of Africa on epoch-1 hoping to be able to gain 3 additional faith tokens and armies at the beginning of the next epoch. However, Tim insisted on breaking my continent thus depriving me of my African hoplites. Tim, however, consolidated Asia minor and was poised to enter Hyperia to the north. Wayne took all of Hykania to himself although it was ringed with two plague territories that blocked invasion from Asia Minor and from Germania. Ross decided to invest in the much belabored Europa. It is the most difficult continent to conquer but certainly well worth the additional continental points and faith tokens totalling seven altogether. However, that would also depend on others not breaking his continent. Of course, Ross was never quite able to consolidate Europe.

As noted earlier, Germania as a whole lay ripe for the picking however, Tim tried to give it a go by initially placing about 9 men on the continent so as to perhaps finagle in without the rest of us knowing. Bob, however, had other plans. He swept all before him and ended up owning the entire locale without so much as a whimper or whine from Tim, Ross or myself. I would have marched in from Africa like the great Hannibal of Carthage but unfortunately all of Spain was a plague land! As you know, invading a plague land casts your gods out of the game and automatically kills up to half of your invading army. Thus, the losses would have too great and as result Bob consolidated Germania to himself.

Ross in the meantime was trying to wrap up Europe. And nearly came close were it not for the stubborn resistance of Tim's Norsemen sitting in Anatolia and the haranguing Babylonians of Wayne raiding into Dacia and Thrace. Eventually, Ross was pushed back onto the Italian peninsula where he sat licking his wounds. Of course, he was just a hop, skip and jump away from Carthage in Africa and had the troops to invade at the right time. Naturally, Ross summoned the death god and played a rather nasty death card which when played would destroy any army left by itself in a territory and thus the territory would be lost by the player who owned them. The continent would be randomly chosen (by a throw of the dice) and fortunately for me and everyone else, Bob was the unlucky recipient of Ross's wrath. Germania thus was struck down and Bob nearly lost half his provinces hence leaving him widely exposed to another invader. This is where I come in!

Thus, the temptation was just too great to allow Bob to go unmolested. I used a War card to remove a plague land of my choice from the map and naturally, I would remove it from Spain. My troops poured through led by my valiant gods...and I got as far as France! Which is to say I only moved two spaces before I was spent. I tried to move into England but was so completely wiped out by lousy rolling all I could do is remain holed up in Gaul. Then Ross decided to join in the great crusade and follow my invasion with his own through Carthage and he too ended up in Spain and wanted to break Bob's continent in Atlantis which he was able to do but just barely. Overall, Bob sustained 3 separate attacks on Germania and was able somehow to fend them off pretty successfully.

Wayne came very close to being crushed completely as he ended up being sandwiched between a powerful army of Bob in Germania and Tim's forces in Hykania. But alas, neither Bob nor Tim moved against Wayne and thus he was able to survive on the remnant territories in Hykania and Europa. Tim was pretty much boxed in and ended up trading territories with me in Egypt and Nubia over and over again throughout the entire game. As a result, see-sawed between battling on the outer fringes of Africa and Hykania and gaining nothing. However, he was able to hold his continent.

By epoch-5, the end was in sight and Bob was able to secure 1st place by retaking Germania and Atlantis. Tim came in second, with Wayne in a distant third. Ross ended up fourth and sadly, I had nothing to show for and ended up fifth. Overall, I thought it was another great game with lots of twists and turns.