Wargame Night 05-11

On May 14th, Eric, Bob, Tim, Wayne and myself got together for another huge game of Twilight Imperium III, Shattered Empire. The following races were randomly chosen.

Eric - Winnaran
Tim - Clan Of Saar
Wayne - Xxcha Kingdom
Bob - Emirates Of Hacan
Bruce - Universities Of Jol Nar

Once more, against Bob's wishes domain counters were placed on the board. Leaders were utilized as well. Artifacts were placed appropriately, Mecatol Rex custodian tokens were included and the wormhole nexus was also placed outside the completed galaxy.

We decided to go for the 10 point game and skip any reading of the rules so as to move the game along. It would be up to the individual players to remember all of the rules or get lost in the fog of war. Actually, we did assist each other in remembering the labyrinth of rules since we are a chivalrous lot. Unless, of course, it was to our complete advantage to "let someone forget" a rule or two if this allowed us the upper hand! I'm sure on many occasion this was the case.

We also decided to back out the "Bureaucracy" #8 Agenda card and include in its place the "Imperial II" #8 card. This was the agenda card in which you receive 1 victory point if you choose the card and occupy Mecatol Rex during that turn. In addition to the above agenda card we also had to use the "Age of Empire" variant from the original game to acquire victory points. The AOE variant states that you must pull stage I and stage II public objective cards and place them face up in a row until the "Imperium Rex" objective card is displayed. We should have 7 to 10 public objective cards face up in total with a glass token placed on the card to the furthest left. After each status phase is completed then the token is moved to the right until it finally reaches the Imperium Rex card which ends the game. The person with the most victory points is declared the winner. I believe we may have played this incorrectly because we originally decided on a 10 pt game regardless.

At any rate, it allowed us to see ahead of time what victory point conditions we could meet without any "surprises". Well, as the game got going naturally the domain counters became of a bone of contention as they slowed down the rate of planetary acquisition much to Bob's chagrin. Nevertheless, Eric was able to recon one planet with his fighters and was able to locate Lazax Survivors and was immediately rewarded one victory point per game rules. I too was fortunate enough to stumble upon Lazax Survivors and was duly awarded.

Then someone decided to break out and seize Mecatol Rex by the throat. Naturally, it was the turtlebacks of the Xxcha Kingdom that Wayne controlled that took control of this peaceful but fateful planet. The Mecatol Rex Custodians of 3 fighters and 2 Infantry were crushed easily by the turtlebacks. It was at this time that Bob suggested we bring out heavy mallets to crush any green tortoise shells of the Xxcha Kingdom to instill fear in Wayne. Alas, Wayne sat on Mecatol Rex and racked up a couple of victory points because no one seemed moved enough to attack him. By this time it appeared it was Wayne that was the man to beat. Him and Eric as the Winnu were both pretty close with the highest score at this point. Then the tide began to turn against the turlebacks and it was the Winnu who were the beneficiaries of good planning and good luck.

Eric somehow was able to obtain 10 points thus ending the game in his favor. Wayne was close behind at 8 points I believe. I was at 5 points and Tim had 3 points. Sadly, Bob came in at a measly 1 point. I have to say this was Bob's worst game ever! EVER! Even newcomers get more than one point in a game but unfortunately Bob as the Emirates of Hacan will go down in TI3 Shattered Empire history as the worst played alien race. Okay Bob, I'll give it to you next time, we'll forgo domain counters as you always wanted and see if that improves your alien agenda.

Better luck next time.

Wargame Night 04-11

On April 9th, Bob, Steve, Eric, Wayne, Tim and myself got together for a stellar game of Twilight Imperium III, Shattered Empire expansion. The rules and pieces of the expansion game when added to the considerable weight of the previous TI3 game system made this already huge gameboard one monster of an encounter of the highest kind! The expansion game comes with 4 new races, 2 new sets of ships, leaders and armies, several different decks of politics and action cards and 9 new agenda cards and all of the rules and regulations that go with them. Oh, let's not forget new planets, ion clouds and wormholes as well.

There were so many pieces, in fact, I had to upgrade the previous cardboard box that the game originally came in to a nice leather trunk that looks like it was found on some forsaken part of Mecatol Rex. I really wanted to make a small movie on how I found it and have lights shining out of it when it would be opened, but alas, I just couldn't find the time to do it!

I found it at a Homegoods store and snatched it up as fast as I could. I probably looked like some obnoxious shopper on Black Friday after Thanksgiving as I pushed and shoved some little kid out of the way trying to get to it.

I also had to order all of the metal containers with clear lids to hold the additional pieces to the game. Finally, I went to Target and purchased two more tackle bait boxes for the plastic ships. Let's see, I believe I have now spent well over $200.00 between the game, containers, boxes and now treasure chest. That's really not too bad when we consider that this is a "hobby". You'll know when it starts getting out of hand when I start demanding people wear costumes while we play and incorporate regional dialects for realism. Actually, that really sounds like a good idea!

I'm hoping that all of the new pieces will add to the realism of the game and not make it so cumbersome that we never play it again. I'm sure the next time we meet we will just dive right into the game without reading any rules. I call it "Fog of War", which should be fun. Nevertheless, we all got together around 6:30ish, so the game really didn't get started until around 9pm. Knowing that it could be well past dawn by the time we finished the game we all decided that we would end it at approx 1:30 - 2am Sunday morn. Actually, Bob decided that for us since his wife would really chew him out if he was any later than 2am. Gosh, I hope she's not reading this.

As you can see from the picture on the right that the board is massive! We added an additional "ring" of hexes for a 7 - 8 person game just for shits and grins. The following races were randomly chosen:

Wayne - Embers of Muaat
Eric - Naalu Collective
Tim - Barony Of Letnev
Bob - Mentak Coalition
Steve - Clan Of Saar
Bruce - Federation Of Sol

Both Wayne Gillespe and Steve Cudsworth picked the newer races from the expansion game. Wayne was the Embers Of Muaat who start the game with a War Sun. As you may or may not know, War Suns are the "Death Stars" in this game that basically are the nuclear weapons for foreign policy when it comes to the alien races. Clearly, an unfair advantage when we also consider that the Embers can pass through supernovas unscathed and they immediately become the leader to beat. Steve was the Clan of Saar who have the ability to move their space docks through the galaxy without them being attached to planets like the rest of the alien races. This is a huge advantage as the space docks can become a potential "Death Star" of sorts with the right action cards and tech upgrades in one's arsenal.

As the game got started it was immediately clear that both Eric and Tim were in the unenviable position of being on either side of Wayne and his War Sun capable race. On top of this, Tim was right next to Bob as the Mentak Coalition and as we all know is a notorious and brutal attacker not to be trusted. And Bob calls himself a "libertarian" huh! More like an "Imperialist". Thankfully, I was situated between Eric and Steve who have a history of sheer wimpiness and incompetence when it comes to space conquest and colonization. The wind was to my back as far as I was concerned.

The game progressed as usual with the alien races having to reconnoiter the neutral planets each having a domain counter on them before making a troop invasion in Avatar-like fashion. It was at this time that the Embers of Muaat under the capable leadership of Wayne encountered a very hostile native planet. Suddenly as his War Sun came into orbit of a neutral planet the natives fired off a secret PDS cannon per the domain counter on that planet. This particular domain counter was from the expansion game and as such was the first time any of us had seen it. The person who encountered this DC had to roll a dice and if he rolled a 6 or higher on a ten-sided dice then he would lose one capital ship. He had to do this twice! Unfortunately for Wayne, he only had his War Sun and it was his only capital ship within range. If he lost his War Sun to mere natives then he would look like a disgrace to the other alien races no doubt. As such, he rolled twice and twice averted disaster by rolling less than a six. From that time forward, Wayne was veeeerrry careful not to use his War Sun so cavalier.

On the far side of the galaxy, Tim as the Barony of Letnev kept on getting harassed by Bob and his Mentak Coalition. Tim had just gotten back from a day of soccer and fun in the snow when he made the courageous decision to join in a game of Twilight Imperium. As such, he was mentally and spiritually exhausted which no doubt worked to Bob's advantage. Tim was innocently investing Rigel I, II and III when suddenly and deliberately without provocation, Bob invaded this tripartite planetary system. If I'm correct, Bob kept on trying to invade the planet of Rigel II however Tim kept a diplomat in place which automatically prevents an invasion of a planet that a diplomat occupies.

Then Bob as the Mentak Coalition really wanted to cheese the Barony by invading Tim's homeworld system and enforce a blockade on his only space dock in the game. Tim was frustrated beyond belief as he was prevented from building ships but all he could do was pace the halls of his palace while Bob's expeditionary fleet made the people of Letnev to suffer for lack of food stuffs and medicine. It was a complete mess as far as Tim was concerned.

Steve on the other hand methodically made moves directly for Mecatol Rex while I was preoccupied with the Wormhole Nexus which was new to the game. As such, I violated my own policy of never allowing another alien race to occupy Mecatol Rex without a fight. I simply was not in the region in any measurable way and no one else bothered Steve. As a result, Steve as the Clan Of Saar just sauntered right into the center of the galaxy and took over the planet. There were native Winnarians on Mecatol that put up a token fight but Steve had no trouble batting them down. Steve was all smiles when his "purplelicious" colored ships enforced a no fly zone over Mecatol and raised the standard of Saar on the greatest planet in the galaxy.

Amazingly, and perhaps unforeseen by all, the game progressed quite slowly. By midnite the highest score was a mere four points tied between Eric as the Naalu Collective and Steve as the Clan Of Saar. Me and Tim were tied at three points and Wayne and Bob were tied at a measly two points. With all of the opportunities to obtain victory points in the game we should have had higher scores but then again it was a new game for all intents and purposes. The map was also very large and could have contributed to a much slower game however I am a big believer in bigger-is-always-better. I still want to see a larger map on the next game, but I digress.

Eric and Wayne in the meantime started to rub shoulders in their small quadrant of the galaxy. As noted before, Wayne as the Embers Of Muaat starts the game with a dreaded War Sun and since the close encounter with a native PDS that almost spelled doom for his capital ship, Wayne decided to cautiously move his Death Star closer to the Naalu Collective and scare the living bejeebas out of them! As such, in the expansion game of TI3: Shattered Empire we can now lay space mines with our cruisers which is exactly what Eric did. I'm convinced it kept Wayne at bay since he was already psychologically damaged from his experience earlier with the native PDS that he decided to forgo a close encounter with a space mine.

Once again, Bob decided to clash with the Barony of Letnev and give Tim hell just being Tim! As the game was nearing the end Bob felt he made a strategic error in getting tangled with Tim over Rigel I, II and III that he was compelled therefore to attack Tim just one more time for good measure. And thus, the planet of Primor was chosen and the resulting madness ensued as can be seen by the caption to the left. It was a clash of civilizations par excellence! Tim unfortunately was on the losing end again much to his exhausted chagrin.

Well, to make a long story short, if that's possible, Steve was able to score his secret objective when he revealed that all he needed was to control Mecatol Rex for one turn in addition to building the necessary military space docks that he was able to score two more points. Thus, Steve, for a second time, claimed first place in Twilight Imperium as the game came to a close at 2am. Let's all give Steve a big hand or flipper for succeeding where few ever could! Rest assured, it will never happen again.

And the final scores were:

Steve : 6
Bob: 5
Eric: 5
Bruce: 4
Wayne:4
Tim: 3

Wargame Night 03-11

On March 19th, Bob, Tim and myself got together for a game of Shogun. I decided to play this particular game this time to honor the victims of the latest earthquake and tsunami to hit Miyagi Prefecture in Japan earlier in the month. Our prayers and thoughts are with the people of Japan. Petals for the fallen lay at the foot of the Samurai swords.
Now, this particular Shogun game is not the more famous Shogun of Milton Bradley. If you recall, the MB version of Shogun had individual soldiers that you set up on a board and then roll dice to see who is removed. You also got miniature Samurai swords and lovely Japanese screens to shield your setup of soldiers from other players, if I recall correctly. Then there is the infamous Koku, the money for hiring soldiers and ninjas.

This particular game of Shogun was created by Dirk Hennin of Queen Games and it is nothing like the MB version. First, there is no dice. Instead, game pieces are thrown in a tower and any pieces that come out are typically the casualties. Any left over game pieces are then placed back onto the board. I believe this is called the Wallenstein system of determining battles in place of dice.  Also, we receive one card for each province we control. We then use those province cards and place them on a grid type system to give each province an order: build structures, collect taxes/rice, reinforce armies, and attack. That is the tricky part, because only one province is allowed one order at a time. Some provinces will be used for building while others may be used as a base of an attack on other players. Additionally, we only receive victory points by building castles, theatres and temples in those provinces. Finally, to ensure realism and honor the code of Bushido, the player who places last in the game must commit Hari Kari with the Samurai sword of his choice as seen in the first picture.

The following colors were assigned:

Tim - Blue
Bob- Yellow
Bruce - Black

As the game started out we each got to pick which provinces we wanted. As a result, Tim was positioned in the southern sector of Japan while Bob and I were pretty much ensconced in the center. The center is the most difficult to hold and most prone to vicious battles.

In this game, there are 4 seasons in a year and we have 2 years to finish the game. The person with the most points is the winner. Points are assigned by the number of buildings, the types of buildings and the number of provinces one controls.

I pretty much mopped up the island of Honshu of all resistance and took over most of the ports in Central Japan. Bob took up a more northerly position and had a few provinces in the remote eastern section. Tim was just pell mell all over the board as you can see in the above picture with the blue pieces.

As the first year was concluded I was only ahead by a mere 2 points while Bob and Tim were tied. The last year was the final go around and we all had to live or die by our decisions.

From the island of Honshu I was able to send a large force to Tim's back door and attempt a flanking maneuver on his left. Twice I was stopped cold in my tracks by Tim's forces at the province of Bingo. If I was able to take his province then I would not only be able to run rampant in the rear of his territories but also take a castle and temple located in the province, thus depriving him of crucial points in the game. But alas it was not to be!

I clashed twice with him over the province and reduced myself to a mere one army. Then Bob attacked me in the center at Mino and though I was able to repulse him most of my armies came out of the tower at that moment and deprived me of vital reinforcements for other more crucial provinces that would come under attack at the last turn.


Finally, Tim attacked me at a weak link in my defenses and I lost the province including a castle much to my chagrin. Both Bob and Tim thus chipped away at me and eventually by the last turn of the game any one of us could have won depending on what armies fell out of the tower. Tim was able to hold what he needed and kept his buildings intact. Thus, in the end, Tim won the game with 61pts and Bob came in second with 59pts. I came in dead last at 56pts. Thus, yours truly had to commit Hari Kari. Most unfortunate!

Wargame Night 02-11

On February 12th, Wayne, Tim, Bob and myself got together for a game of Settlers: Cities and Knights. The colors were assigned as follows:

White - Tim

Orange - Bob

Red - Bruce

Blue - Wayne

The last time we played this game Bob was still smarting from the barbarians in which he had lost his city to fire, rape and pillage. He also lost the game as well but he did get the honored title of "Defender of Cataan" which is still to this day solely his own.

In this game, Wayne was introduced to Settlers and as always was able to pick up the rules rather quickly and put on a good showing for a novice.

Unfortunately, Wayne was getting picked on by me and Tim when we sent the robber to thieve his supplies of goods. Which is why it's always good to have a few knights on hand to chase the thief away.

Both Tim and I started out strong and were able to maintain a sizable lead from Bob and Wayne. As time went on Bob became more desperate.

Bob was locked out from better positions on the board and after suffering another city being pillaged by the barbarians tried a "non-city" strategy of simply building only humble hamlets and building the longest road. He also kept to a coastal development policy by only building along the outer edge of the board. Quite funny really and after several rounds reluctantly came to the conclusion that he couldn't win the game by this method. As you may not know, cities are worth 2 points, metropolis' 2 points and settlements are worth a mere 1 point. In order to win the game, you must build enough cities and settlements to equal 13 points. The longest road gets you 2 points as well. However, you are limited to just 5 settlements and if you do the math then you would be hard pressed to get to 13 points on just a settlement strategy. Seems obvious now but when times are bad then you'll do crazy things you wouldn't think you are capable of doing during better times. Or something like that!

As the game came to a close both Tim and I were well positioned but only one of us could win. Wayne had hired a merchant (worth 1 victory point) and assigned him to one of his cities. As it stood, I was at 12 pts and only needed to move Waynes merchant to one of my cities and get one victory point for the merchant to win the game. However, Tim with the luck of the Irish, at the last minute was able to take Wayne's merchant before I could and won the game with most cities, metropolos', and victory cards. The final score was Tim (13pts), Bruce(12pts), Bob(6pts) and Wayne(6pts).

Wargame Night 01-2011

On January 8th, Tim, Bob, Eric and myself got together for a Settlers of Catan game. This particular Settlers however was expansion game called Settlers of Catan: Cities and Knights. We picked our colors:

Tim - White
Bob- Orange
Eric - Red
Bruce - Blue

In this particular game, we have knights to hire for defense of Catan and commodities that are manufactured in cities in addition to our normal trade goods that we reap such as wheat, wood, stone, sheep and brick. The commodities are important for advancement to a level that allows for the building of a "metropolis" in a city. A metropolis gives you 2 extra victory points.

Also, there was the necessity of building city walls to protect oneself from marauding barbarians that would periodically attack the entire island of Catan and if you weren't careful could ransack your city and reduce it to a mere settlement.

Knights have been introduced into the game that allows one to "bully" your neighbor as well as help in the defense of Catan from barbarians. The person with the least amount of knights and lowest quality as well will usually suffer the wrath of the barbarians if they should attack. The person with the most and highest quality of knights gets a free victory card for being the "Defender of Catan" if all players together defeat the barbarians. So it pays to field the biggest and baddest army in the field.

After we all got our two settlements and one city placed on the map, the game slowly turned on the die rolls. In this game, a third die was added to the normal two dice that we normally use in Settlers. This third die is the "event" die. It has a black ship on three sides and a colored metropolis on the other three sides. If a colored metropolis is rolled then you may receive a "progress" card for that color. There are three different progress cards corresponding to their colors: Trade, Politics and Science. If a black ship comes up then a barbarian ship counter is moved closer to the island of Catan. It takes 6 turns before the barbarians arrive and pillage Catan. Unfortunately, everyone kept rolling the black ship and before long the barbarians raided Catan. Bob had the least amount of knights on the board and his city was not protected with walls and thus his city was sacked by the barbarians. Smoke from the burning ruin could be seen for miles!

As the game progressed Tim suddenly got way ahead in total points. Cities add 2 pts to your overall score. Settlements add 1 pt and any progress cards that have pts are added together. Finally, if you advance to level 4 in either politics, science or trade then you get to add a building to your city called a "metropolis". This adds an additional two points to your final score. I believe he had 11 points total and you need just 13 points to win.

Tim was suddenly the big man on the board with Bob close behind and Eric and myself taking up the rear. Slowly but surely I weaseled ahead by reaching level 4 on trade. I then upgraded two settlements to cities and suddenly I was in a position to win. However, Bob decided to make a crucial decision and forcibly break Tim's longest road (2 pts) which by default allowed me to have the longest road. This very act put me over the winner's circle and I have to say "thank you, Bob" because it was really his action that brought me victory.Tim came in second, with Bob third and Eric unfortunately last.

Overall, it was a great game and we all really enjoyed it. Some notable actions have to be highlighted. Bob was tenacious as ever with his knights. He did seem to suffer the most however, he lost 2 or 3 knights when everyone else lost none. He had one city sacked by the barbarians. He did however, have at one point, the largest army on the board and defeated the barbarians when they came a raiding. Thus, he received a special card called the "Defender of Catan" giving him one victory point.

Tim naturally seemed to be the victor right out of the gates but eventually lost it to more astute players later on. Eric as always was steady and sure and could have easily won where it not for the die rolls that did him no favors.

Well, after having played this game and winning at the very last moment, it must be said that it's "good to be the Lord"!

Wargame Night 12-10

On December 11th, Bob, Eric and myself got together to play Twilight Imperium 3rd edition. The following races were randomly chosen:

Bob - The L1Z1X Mindnet

Eric - The Federation of Sol

Bruce - The Naalu Collective

We decided to play a modified version of a 14 pt game at 12 points. Normally, you have a 10 pt game or a longer 14pt game. Since the last time we met in November, our 14 pt game lasted until about 3:30 in the morning...someone got into a little trouble with the misses as a result. Sooo, we agreed on a "medium" game of 12 points.

I was able to convince Bob that we should include "leaders" in this game and the always amusing but infamous domain counters as well. Bob tends to frown on both leaders and domain counters as they according to him "slow" the game down. After this game, however, I think the leaders will be growing on him in importance.

We created the map with the traditional 3 player configuration. However, Eric was being very nasty this night and decided to block Bob and myself from Mecatol Rex with a Supernova Sun and Nebula making it nearly impossible to arrive at Mecatol Rex in a straight line. I believe Bob put down an asteroid field for good measure just to make my life difficult.

As for the leaders in this game, each alien race chosen for this game had an "agent" as part of their leadership council. As you may not know, an agent can reverse any effect of an action card and have it removed to the discard pile. In effect, an agent acts like a "sabotage" action card reversing any effect from an action card though he himself is removed from the game. Thus, Eric, Bob and myself had agents in our lineup and had to be used just at the proper time for full effect.

The game progressed at its usual pace, slow and steady. Eric, not surprisingly, made it to Mecatol Rex first and established a base in due order. Much to my chagrin, Bob moved into my sphere of influence and thus a standoff ensued while Eric looked on in amusement.

Me and Bob knew the Federation of Sol under the able leadership of Eric was upto no good with their station at Mecatol Rex. However, Eric still was not taking his Secret Objective points like we thought he would and so we speculated that he needed to meet a critical but unknown requirement in order to fulfill his secret objective. Time was ticking and something had to be done!

In the meantime, several public objective points were easily being met by the Mindnet headed by Bob. Thus, he took an early lead over Eric and myself.

So, I cleverly placed a political card up for a vote that would activate an ancient artifact. Either the artifact would allow each player to gain two tech upgrades for free or it would destroy every ship and ground unit sitting on Mecatol Rex and any surrounding systems would suffer 3 damage points to anyone's ships. If I rolled a 1-5 then MR would blow up. If I rolled 6 and above then we all would be enriched. Sadly, I rolled a 5 and the Federation of Sol was completely nuked on Mecatol Rex. Sorry Eric...really.

To say the least Eric was none too pleased. All that was left on Mecatol was the flag of the Federation of Sol. Very sad really. But, the Naalu Collective got orders to immediately occupy Mecatol Rex at once! A fleet showed up with a single division of Naalu Space Marines and the planet reverted to Naalu government control. There was much rejoicing on Naalu Prime.

I slowly built up Mecatol Rex to meet my secret objective and eventually after building the prerequisite forces did meet it and gained my two points.

Another Law was brought up in the Galactic Council that needed to be voted on. It stipulated that the person who is elected by the council must now spend 2 strategic allocation markers to utilize the Imperial Strategy agenda. As you know, the Imperial Agenda gives you 2 victory points and is a essential agenda in this game for all players. Since I now occupied Mecatol Rex and had a significant number of voting rights, Eric and myself elected Bob to be the recipient of this timely and necessary law since he was in the lead. Sorry Bob...really.

Well, as we got closer to victory lane at 12 points, it ended up we all ended up tied at 11 points. However, Bob held momentum going forward that if he cashed in 6 trade goods then he would get 1 final victory point. Neither Eric nor I had any additional points coming to us. Desperation thus gripped the Naalu people.

I then played the Space Pirates action card that would cause them to steal all of Bob's trade goods and I would get the other half. Bob had at least twelve trade goods in his coffers so if I played this card then I could take his goods away preventing him from gaining his last victory point and instead I would get to cash in with his trade goods and get the winning point for the game.

So I played the card against Bob and so he played a sabotage card negating the effect of the action card. I then ordered my Agent to fall upon his sword and reverse the sabotage card Bob played. Bob then ordered his Agent to fall on his sword for the Mindnet and he cancelled the effect of my agent. As a result, the Space Pirates were unable to steal Bob's trade goods and he cashed in for the final victory point and won the game!
Eric and I tied for second. Another great game, I have to say. Good job everyone!

Wargame Night 11-10

On November 13th Tim, Bob and myself got together for our monthly gamenight at my place. Naturally, all eyes turned to Twilight Imperium (not a problem for me since I almost always win) and we decided to go at it again with this game. The following races were randomly chosen:

Bruce - Emirates of Hacan
Tim - Federation of Sol
Bob - Universities of Jol-Nar

We decided to have leaders in the game and to have domain counters on non-home world planets. Secret objectives were handed out. Naturally, with three players we will be able to choose 2 agendas per round yet not every agenda will be used per round as it would in a four player game in which every agenda is used every round. We also decided to play a 14 point game.

Planets are chosen, positions become defined, agendas are set in motion

As the Emirates of Hacan I was able to freely excercise my trade rights as my special ability without having to pay for a commond counter out of my strategic allocation. Bob was able to start off with exceptional tech advances over the other races as the venerable but very liberal Universities of Jol-Nar. Tim as the Federation of Sol always gets a free command counter on every turn which can be very important when just one more tactical action my make the difference between victory or defeat.

As the game got going Bob suspiciously manuevered his capital ships into systems that contained wormholes. Naturally, all the wormholes in the game were situated pretty close to the Jol-Narians and without much further ado Bob claimed his first victory points by occupying all the jumpgates as his secret objective. I believe this is the third time that Bob has attained his secret objective by occupying jumpgates. Next time, I'll make it my business to personally occupy at least one jumpgate throughout the game regardless of the consequences.




After claiming his secret objective, playing his Imperial Agenda, and capitolizing on public objectives Bob races ahead of the pack in short order as the liberal Univesities of Jol-Nar.


Bob suddenly had 7 points in the game with Tim and myself way behind. Bob was able to take advantage of other public objective points as they became available and suddenly he was in striking distance of victory. At this point he was wishing we had allowed for a 10 point game but alas this was not to be.




The view from Bob's window along the Galactic Plane. (note War Sun production by "peaceful" Jol-Narians)

 Even though Bob raced ahead I still felt compelled to occupy Mecatol Rex regardless of the consequences. It also so happened that I needed to occupy MR as my secret objective. As the Emirates of Hacan I assigned one of my best Generals and my only Diplomat to the task force that steamed to Mecatol Rex. The General allows his infantry to have a fighting chance against a War Sun bombardment of the surface by subtracting 4 from any War Sun roll. Also, the Diplomat postpones an invasion of the planet one round and buys for the defenders a little bit more time to come up with a plan to defend the planet. I also sent Space Marines to reinforce the planet to ensure that the natives would not get restless, if you know what I mean.

Needless to say I occupied MR without the slightest wimper from either the Federation nor the Universities of Jol Nar. They would come to regret their passivity over my custodianship of Mecatol Rex.



The Most Right Reverend Emirate of Hacan. The "H" in Hacan is pronounced with a gurgling sound.

 I too was able to count my secret objective as all I needed were 8 capital ships and one space dock in the system of Mecatol Rex. Of course, someone had to sabatage my space dock (Bob) but that didn't stop me but only delayed the inevitable. The next turn I was able to claim my secret objective. Tim was able to collect a lot points himself without even meeting his secret objective. Thus, after a while we all nearly tied the game at 12 points. Bob could have won the game in short order had it not been for Tim who "stole" his Imperial Agenda and returned it to the card deck. This apparently flummuxed the Jol-Narians and completely stalled their momentum in the game.




Coming to the finish line and it appears it's going to be a tie game!

 It was about 1am at this moment and we all felt it was going to end quickly. So we all decided to take our sweet ass time. Being that the game was all tied up it was anyone's guess who the final victor was going to be thus everyone considered their final moves carefully. There was much tension in the air.



Acrimony and recreminations abound as the end is nigh. (note the fist of the Federation)

From here on out I decided to play the Diplomacy Agenda and keep Bob's War Suns at bay. Tim was frustrated to no end as I now made "peace" with not only Bob but Tim as well as the game came to a close. However, I did make one last attack on Bob and took some planets from him. As a result, he was unable to gain any further points and this apparently allowed Tim to win the game! Well, Tim did do some things as well to get his final points - so I really can't take the credit for Tim's victory. Nevertheless, the game ended at an excruciating 3:30 in the morning!




Tim wins the game but the Hacan will have no part of it as he attempts to make the Federation "pound sand"!

 Bob played an outstanding game and I thought for sure he would win but somehow Tim pulled it off in the end and was victorious. Tim won the game with 14 points, I came in Second with 13 points and Bob came in Third with 12 points. Sic transit gloria mundi.



Bob lets us know how he really feels when he makes third place.