And the winners in the Kriegspiel Tournament of 2018...

Tim in 1st Place (72 points)



Bruce in 2nd Place (60 points)

Luke in 3rd Place (58 points)

Kriegspiel Tournament Scores of 2018

                  J    F    M    A    M    J    JY    A    S    O    N    D    TOT
BOB..........1....10...8....8....8....0....8.....0....6....1.....1....8        57
TIM..........6....2....10..10...10...6....0.....8....8....1....10...4        72
BRUCE.....4...4.....4....2....10...10...8....6.....2....1.....1...10      60
JO-SH.......2...8....1.....6.....6.....0....6....0....10..10...1....6       54
ERIC........10...0....6....4.....0.....0...10...4....0....0....1....0        30
LUKE........8....6....2....1.....4.....8....4....10...4...10...1....2        58

Back out two lowest scores; An absence is not a score. December game night will certify all scores.

And the winner is...

The Kriegspiel Tournament of 2018 is coming to a close very soon. It would appear that Tim has now clinched the First Place finish in this tournament. Congratulations to Tim, sigh, once again! However, the Second and Third Place finishers have yet to be determined. Luke is in a very strong second place and Josh, Bob and myself are very closely tied in Third Place. There will be some surprises I'm sure going into the last game night of 2018. Also, I'm very excited to hand out the medals this year for the first time in the Kriegspiel Tournament. These medals are to be kept by the winners. Pictures will be posted once the points are all added up. Good luck to all participants.

Next year for the Tournament, there will be two rule changes. (1) The two lowest scores will not be tossed out and (2) all points earned will be kept by each player regardless of the number of absences.  So, all points will be kept by everyone and only 10 games will be calculated for a total average for the year. Thus, if you are absent twice then you are not penalized and if you are present every game night then you get to keep your points.

See y'all on December 2nd for the exciting conclusion of the Kriegspiel Tournament of 2018.

Twilight Imperium 4th Edition Review

Check out this hilarious review of TI4:

https://youtu.be/PLybps39ZwM?t=1s

Wargame Night 2017

 

Well, it looks like Bezeel-Bob is the winner of the Kriegsspiel Kup for 2017! Both Bob and Tim played better this year than last year with Bob at 84 points this year versus 80 points in 2016. Tim got 80 points this year versus 74 points last year. In fact, Bob did so well this year he actually took the trophy home in November! However, it was still possible for Tim to snatch victory from Bob's jaws of defeat were it not for the timely outburst of Andy last December game night! A game night first? I believe so. I'll call it a Black Swan Event in the Kriegsspiel universe! I had to stop game night because of his antics and the scores were sealed as they were forever! Great job again to Bob for an excellent year of Twilight Imperium.

I had previously discussed with the wargame group that I was going to change things up for 2018. I was going to rename game night to some other name but after thinking about it for some time I decided against it and will keep the German name with the slight twist of returning to Nacht (night) from Tag (day) for official purposes. I did however, change up the blog to reflect more of a space theme since we are always playing Twilight Imperium as the "flagship" game of Kriegsspiel Nacht.

The Tournament will still go on as usual with the same scoring method for 2018 as it was in 2017. We will throw out the two lowest scores out of the twelve for the year and see where we all stand. We will still have the Kup but this year I am going to introduce a first, second and third place medal award to encourage more active participation by other less competitive (and competent) players in the Tournament. So the first place tournament player will get the Kriegsspiel Kup to add his name to plus a first-place medal to keep. The second and third place finisher will just receive a medal (still cool) to keep as well. Of course, the Kriegsspiel Kup can be taken by another champion the following year and will have to be relinquished to the victor.

Again, this Klub of wargamers is open to new initiates and guests are still welcome to come over. The more the merrier as Robin Hood once said (I could be wrong on that).

Good luck and good hunting in 2018!

Wargame Day 12/16

Well, another year and another Kriegspiel Tournament come and gone! 2016 went fast and furious with the new tournament scoring that kept things simple and sweet. If you showed up for game-day then you got points. If you didn't show up then you got no points. If you got first in a game then you got 10 points. Second got you 8 points and so on. Sixth place and lower got an automatic one point. If you were a no-show for game-day then you got zero points. At the end of the tournament we decided to adjust for missed days as well and decided to throw out from the scores the lowest two monthly totals to round out the year. Thus, the final score had Bob in First Place at 80 points and Tim in Second Place at 74 points. Everyone else was somewhere in the 40's!

There was a sudden dash for Third Place by Luke who was trying to overtake me at the end of the Tournament but alas he just couldn't quite pull it out and I did come in third but barely. I came in with 42 points with Luke at 40 points. Eric did end up with a score of 36 points after adjusting for missed days. Thus, Third Place could have gone to either one of us. Joey and Josh were added together as either one would show up for game day depending on their schedules. Thus, one would play for the other and their final score came to 28 points after adjusting for missed days.

Bob had an exceptional year in 2016 as nearly every game night ended up with him in First in Twilight Imperium. Tim also had a good year and he was gracious enough to insist that we throw out the two lowest scores to reflect a more true Tournament which favored Bob in the end.

Eric and Luke had a great year as well and their scores reflected as much. Luke is getting better and better each season and it is only a matter of time when he too will clutch the trophy in his hands. Joey and Josh are formidable players and someday their invasive strategies will pay off for them as well as the younger generation begins to learn that victory points are more important than destroying your opponent in space! However, how to destroy fleets is a lesson well learned from the more cynical and crustier Gen-Xers. Let's hear it for the X-Men! When will Generation Z claim the title of Kriegspiel Champion?

As an added bonus this year we decided to mix it up a bit by including "House Rules" and tweaking the game for added fun in Twilight Imperium. Each race would start off with their Flagship included with the initial set-up at the beginning of the game. Also, each race could also start with a Racial Tech of their choice included for free in their tech-tree at the beginning as well. Everyone was in agreement that this was a good idea. Finally, we included the "Gamma Quadrant" to the game which was another area of the game board that could only be entered by going through a wormhole, Wormhole - A to be exact. The Malice system does have two wormholes and it would serve as a chokepoint if no other "A" wormholes were found on the starting game-board. I included the second Mecatol Rex planetary system for added fun and included an ancient artifact as well as a domain counter that either would be a Lazax Survivor, a hostile native PDS unit, or a Settler faction depending on a random drawing of these three domain counters at the initial setup. This Mecatol Rex system was considered the "Founders" home world in this quadrant of our make believe universe.  All rules that applied to Mecatol Rex would only apply to the original map board and would not affect the "Gamma Quadrant". The MR in the GQ is actually more productive and influential in that this planet has a production number of 3 and an influence number of 6! Thus, getting to the GQ and onto the Founders Homeworld was a prize worth fighting for and Tim naturally was the first to get over there. He in fact scored so well that in addition to a most valuable planet and probably THE most valuable planet in our Twilight Universe he also reconned the Lazax Survivor domain counter and found an active Ancient Artifact - a trifecta of Lazax proportions! Luck of the Irish? Perhaps.

Great job to everyone for another fun year in the "Tag"!

Wargame Day 12/15

Well, that was quick wasn't it? The year just jammed by and before I knew it 2015 ended quite suddenly with Tim winning the Kriegspiel Trophy yet once again. Congratulations to Tim for another stellar year of Twilight Imperium.

Interestingly, the year had Tim in the lead with Bob in second and myself in third for almost the entire year. This is the third year in a row we have seen this "phenomenon". The final Kriegspiel Tournament scores were recorded with averages accounted in addition to placing and attendance:


Tim.......... 96.5....First
Bob.........108.0... Second
Joe.......... 158.1....Third
Bruce...... 168.8....Fourth
Luke........181.5....Fifth
Eric..........194.7....Sixth

Also, this was the first year of the Tournament where we played Twilight Imperium every month for the whole year. The reason for this was that the number of players that show up on any given game day determines the type of game we play. We have had a really good year where we have seen at least 5 to 6 people playing each game day. Thus, Twilight Imperium was the chosen game because it can handle up to 8 players easily.

Next year, scoring for the tournament will be made more simple with no averaging taken into account nor any punishing 10-point attendance scores for those who can't make it. If you get 1st place in a game then you get a simple 10 points. If second, then 8 points, if third then 6 points and so on. If you can't make it that month then you get a zero. Therefore, all points are merely added up at the end of the year and voila! - you have a winner. Should be pretty easy to keep track.

Overall, even though I got in fourth for the Tournament, I had a great time with everyone and look forward to 2016.

Wargame Day 1/15

On January 11th, Bob and his boys- Joe & Josh, Eric, Tim with myself and my son, Lucas got together for the first ever - Wargame Day! Our previous get-togethers have been at night but this year saw a time change to the afternoon and the inclusion of the next generation of gamers to the wonderful world of Kriegspiel Tag - Joe, Josh and Luke. They are also included in the Kriegspiel Tournament and have the opportunity of taking home the infamous Kriegspiel Trophy. Of course, all are welcome to join as this is not a "closed" group. Note the disparity in height. Don't let this fool you. Napoleon was merely 5 feet from head to toe!

I was eager to try a Twilight Imperium game with 7 players and so we proceeded to set up a 4 ring map with a total of 53 hexes placed on the table with Mecatol Rex at the center.

The following races were randomly selected:

Bruce - L1Z1X Mindnet
Eric - Sardakk N'orr
Josh - Nekro Virus
Tim - Embers of Muaat
Luke - The Winnu
Joe - Yassiril Tribes
Bob - The Universities of Jol-Nar

I decided to set up the game in the kitchen area with everyone spread out on the bar and a smaller table and then using the kitchen table which is taller than the dining room table as the "battle board" and Galactic Senate. This may have been better suited for Bob (he could move pieces on the board without bending over - barely!) due to his sore back which he courageously and painfully endured for this years January game day.

Slowly the game progressed as each race moved out into the unknown. I had intentionally placed all my red zone hexes towards Tim to lock him in place knowing full well he could pass through supernova hexes as the Embers of Muaat. Nevertheless, he felt compelled to move around the hexes I placed in front of him for good measure. Thankfully, I was sitting right next to Eric and Bob with the crazy kids away from me! Of course, the sinister Mr. Tim was completely on the other side of the galaxy but again still posed a menace as he began the game with a War Sun.  Amazingly, Joe and Josh ended up waging war between them from opposite ends of the galaxy! Josh as the Nekro Virus utilized wormholes to suddenly strike very close to the homeworld of Joe. This in turn required a visit by Joe on Josh's homeworld with the Yassiril Tribe fleet and unfortunately for the Nekro Virus, resulted in their homeworld being occupied, if I recall correctly. Both Eric and I were slow in leaving our sphere's of influence but Bob was hampered by Joe and his Yassiril Tribes in his space lanes of communication. Tim and Luke were the only ones able to break out and take some ground from other worlds. Ultimately, Tim managed to get to Mecatol Rex once again! Perhaps Tim is related to the Lazax? I don't know, but the rest of us were in no position to challenge him and thus he sat supreme at the center of the galaxy. A conspiracy if ever there was one!

Naturally, I encouraged Luke to belatedly attack Tim and rescue the rest of us from his evil rule. Of course, this meant he would take casualties and perhaps suffer a visit to his homeworld with Tim's War sun! Luke didn't take my bait, unfortunately for me, and thus pursued his own interests without considering my own fate sandwiched as I was between Bob and Eric. Perhaps a bribe or two will encourage more creative investments by my opponents in other people's spheres of influence?

The game ended with Tim taking 1st place and little Luke in 2nd! Joe got 3rd with Bob in 4th. I took 5th with Eric in 6th. Josh got locked out with a 7th place finish. No problem! Better to get 7th place than not show up at all!

Wargame Night 12-14

Bob, Tim and myself got together for the grand finale of the Kriegspiel Tournament on December 13th, 2014. After a couple of months on hiatus, we resumed where we left off in September. The trophy was up for grabs as all three of us were in contention for first place. I had the greatest amount of tournament points albeit, from a weak position as I was only in the lead by a mere three points. Tim was in second going into the final and Bob was in third place. However, all of the scores were pretty close to make this an all or nothing game night. The trophy was taken by me last year and sat in my dining room and was brought out of "stasis" for the climatic end of the Kriegspiel Tournament. Who was going to win? We chose a Twilight Imperium game to decide the trophy's fate.

The chosen races of Twilight Imperium were lead as follows:

Tim - Clan of Saar
Bob - Embers of Muaat
Bruce - Sardakk N'oir

We also modified the ancient artifacts setup by only placing one artifact on Mecatol Rex. We decided to allow for domain counters as well as the Wormhole Nexus with the planet of Malice as the backdrop to an otherwise sterile and tightly confined 3-man map board.

We also went into the game with the adjusted rules that only allows one tactical movement per round as originally stipulated in the rules. There is a tech card, Fleet Logistics, that allows for two tactical movements in one round. Originally we had been playing that all tactical movements had to be performed in one round. Which made the Fleet Logistics card, dare I say - "illogical", considering the above now understood rules. Plus, there are some action cards and the wretched Xxacha Turtles that make it much more logical in their handling as result of the more natural game flow.

Amazingly, as the map hexes were divided and passed out to everyone, I was the only person to get all of the red zone special systems - a nebula, a gravity rift with planet, and an ion storm. I gleefully placed them right in front of Lord Hideous, Tim of the Clan of Saar. I did this slow his advance to Mecatol Rex which I was sure was his ultimate destination. I was now ready to move forward and take my place amongst the stars and fallen worlds of the Lazax Empire in the Twilight Imperium universe.

In spite of the obstacles that were placed in front of Tim, he did manage to occupy Mecatol Rex. Both Bob and I met our Preliminary Objectives and were ready to move onto our secret objectives. From Mecatol Rex, Tim made a parley into one my worlds and took it from me after a close battle between a single troop. This unfortunately, sealed my fate and even though Tim and I had 4 victory points to our name, he did reach the 4th point before I did and was technically ahead of me. Bob had a mere 5 victory points when he pulled the Imperium Rex card to end the game immediately in his favor. This made Bob the undisputed winner of game night, however his win resulted in a tie for the trophy! I had received third place for the night and once again, third in the Tournament as a result. So, congratulations to both Tim and Bob for placing first place in the Kriegspiel Tournament in 2014!

We now decided that Tim and Bob would play a game of Stratego in a final death-match to determine who would drive home with the trophy this night. After some jockeying and jousting, Tim began to edge out Bob when Tim's spy took down Bob's Marshal and left him vulnerable to Tim's Marshal. One by one Bob's army was picked apart until finally Tim had all avenues of approach guarded by outranking pieces. Bob decided to bow to the inevitable and concede the game in Tim's favor. Tim was now the undisputed champion of Kriegspiel Nacht.

Congratulations Tim for a job well done! Tim takes the trophy for a second time and once again takes the title of Kriegspiel Champion. It was well deserved. But just remember the motto of Kriegspiel Nacht, for all glory is fleeting:

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi
The glory of the world passes away!

In the meantime, enjoy the taste of victory, literally!

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?