Wargame Night 03-14

In March, Tim, Bob, Ross and myself got together for another raucous night of Twilight Imperium. Unfortunately, I have no photos for this month and as such, I can't remember a darn thing...except that Bob got 1st place as the Arborec, Tim received 2nd place as the Embers of Muaat, Ross got 3rd place as the L1Z1X Mindnet and finally, I received a paltry 4th place finish as the Ghosts of Creuss.

Better luck next month for anyone below 2nd place!

Wargame Night 02-14

In February, we nearly had a blowout in terms of player participation. Tim was the only one who showed up. So we decided to play a game of Stratego to determine the first and second place finish in the Kriegspiel Tournament.

The game was close for awhile until Tim killed my #1 Marshal and then proceeded to wipe out the rest of my army one by one with his #1 Marshal.

Needless to say, Tim won handily that night and secured his first place finish. I "happily" took second place. My strategy was to close off the center path of attack and use my flanks for a one-two punch with my colonels. Alas, this plan did not work. Eventually, Tim figured out my ruse and killed my officers. However, I could have stumbled into his flag as one of my captains was foraging in the rear in a last desperate gamble to stave off defeat but eventually my captain (4) was killed in action.

It was Tim's night in Stratego.

Wargame Night 01-14

On January 12th, a couple of us guys got together for the 2014 inaugural Kriegspiel Tournament game of Twilight Imperium. We decided to enlist Luke, the Yoda-like character in the foreground of the picture, to play as the fourth alien race in TI3. The following races were randomly chosen:

Bob -  The Winnu
Ross - Barony of Letnev
Luke - Ghosts of Creuss
Bruce - Universities of Jol-Nar

 I believe we decided to forgo domain counters this night and proceeded to construct the map forthwith. As the benevolent Universities of Jol-Nar I decided to reach out to Mecatol Rex and sent a delegation - with lots of military hardware- to show them our "credentials". It was unpleasant but the natives soon learned to love us. Now all I had to do was wait for the public objective cards to just shower me with points for holding Mecatol.

In the meantime, Luke meekly moved forward from his wormhole base and was content on being pacific in an otherwise turbulent sea of move and countermove that is TI3. Soon even he bailed on us and it was left to Bob, Ross and myself to determine who would rule the galaxy.

That is when, right on cue, Chaos Monkey decided to pay a visit to Mecatol Rex and take was rightly mine.

He attacked me outright and destroyed my fleet and then proceeded to make a planetary invasion against my army based on the surface including my mech units that I wisely stationed only recently. He too brought mech units and the battle was fierce and bloody. It came down to just one damaged mech unit for each side and with merely one die roll away from complete loss of Mecatol, I was able to destroy his last rusty and burning tank. It was a hard won victory but could have gone either way. Nevertheless, I followed up immediately afterward with a counter invasion and destroyed his fleet and reinforced my troops on Mecatol.

While all of this was going, Bob was slowly building up victory points and in the end he was able to secure first place. Unfortunately, even with my Pyrrhic victory on Mecatol, I was not able to secure the second place finish which instead went to Ross. I had to settle with third place. Most unfortunate.

It was still a fun game but was disappointed that Bob was able to finish so strong in first place. I'm sure he was happy that me and the monkey were duking it out on MR but alas, I lost in the end and nearly wept. Where is Eric when I need him?

Wargame Night 12-13

Back in December, the usual suspects got together for the final game night of the year. Twilight Imperium was chosen and basically to sum it all up for 2013 - I won! Actually, for that night I got 4th place however, I received 1st place in the Kriegspiel Tournament and was proclaimed the Kriegspiel Champion of 2013.
The trophy now sits proudly in the dining room of my home. I have to admit, the trophy did accidentally fall into my lap as there were a number of unusual absences this year from all of the Tournament players.

This caused a rather lopsided score to occur on my part but again, all points are accumulated by each player and again, if you snooze then you looze. Half the battle is just showing up and I believe this illustrates a very important lesson here: slow and steady wins the race! Just keep plugging away and yes, you too can grab that Merry Go Round ring and win it big. So lets hear it for the average folks! God loves the moderates too. Some players felt a little cheated however, so as the Vicar of Christ in the land of Kriegspiel Nacht I decided to spice up the scoring by adding an "average".

So to address the concerns of certain individuals I won't name (Tim) the Kriegspiel Tournament score for 2014 will now include one's average in the Tournament. This will be multiplied by your current standing plus any absence points accumulated during the Tournament year. And indeed, if we had utilized this new scoring system in the previous year, I believe it would have been Bob that would have won the trophy for 2013. But alas, It was your humble and faithful servant who, in the end, prevailed. I know, life is unfair.

So now we look forward to the next Tournament year and I'm sure I will do much better. I have a clear conscious and look with great anticipation to vindicating myself on the plains and space lanes of Mecatol Rex. If I can somehow move from playing 4th place all the time to at least 2nd or 3rd then I will have a achieved a milestone in my gaming abilities. But enough of myself, just look at the sneering Tim! He clearly is taking this way too seriously! His Nom De Guerre is Lord Hideous and now we know why. I'm sure like Vadar before him, he will return with a vengeance.

Wargame Night 11-13

On Saturday, November 9th, Bob, Ross and myself gathered for the penultimate game night of the year. We decided to forgo Twilight Imperium and instead dive right into Risk: God Storm. We allowed Luke to set up for Tim who was scheduled to come over later. The following colors and their cultures were chosen as follows:

Ross - white - Norse
Bruce - green - Celts
Bob - purple - Greeks
Luke - tan - Babylonians

The territories were randomly passed to each person and fortunately for me I was well situated in Africa and in Atlantis. Bob had a decent sprinkling of troops in Europa and Ross was ensconced in Hyrkania and Mesopotamia respectively. Everyone was pretty much in Germania with no one in a real strong position.

Normally in this game, we start off with the War God at the beginning of the game which helps the attacker to break a tie, unlike the normal risk game in which the defender breaks a tie. However, we all decided to override this rule and pick one of the four gods to summon for free. Naturally, Chaos Monkey picked the God of Death to bring out first thing. Bob and I both still chose the War God to bring out first and place him with our troops on the board. Then the plague lands were randomly chosen and two out of four lands were picked for Africa - one in Egypt and one in Gaitulia. The other two were located in Atlantis and Anatolia respectively.

As the game got going I quickly consolidated Africa and decided to conquer Atlantis for good measure. I did summon the God of Death as well at the beginning of my turn. Amazingly, my very first Death Card was the notorious and infamous "Sink Atlantis" card which I now held firmly in my hand. Nothing could stop me now!

Bob decided to place all his troops in Spain on the Portuguese border and taunt my troops in Atlantis provocatively spanking their bottoms in our direction! Very disconcerting. But we prevailed on despite their juvenile gyrations. In the meantime, Bob waxed wondrously in Europa and was able to secure the continent for his own. Ross took Hyrkania and beefed up parts of Germania and Mesopotamia to his satisfaction. In the meantime, I was able to summon all my Gods and purchase quite a number of "works" cards for all my gods with the amount of faith tokens I was able to garner for having both Africa and Atlantis under my belt.

Then Chaos Monkey jumped right into the middle of everything! Ross played a card that allowed him to view an opponents deck and choose one card to remove and hold in his hand. Naturally, he chose my deck of cards and from this deck he stole my "Sink Atlantis" card. Blasphemy!!!! I tried in vain to either remove the card from his hand by banishing all "death" cards from the game or somehow prevent him from using the card because it takes 3 faith tokens to use it, but alas, I was unable to stop his evil intentions and in fact, he played the card and sunk Atlantis with all my troops lost at sea that was on the island! Once again, I am unable to play this card! I swear it's been years since I have last used this card and Ross' treachery will not be forgotten! Before this happened however, I did invade Germania from Atlantis and had fortunately brought the bulk of my troops from Atlantis into Britain and thus only lost 4 troops. But of course, it was the continent and territory points as well the faith tokens that was permanently lost.

Bob was able to capitalize on his European Utopia and received quite a few faith tokens as well as troops to bulk up against both Ross and I. However, I decided to invade Europa to ensure he didn't get too powerful and broke up his continent by investing my troops in Italy and seizing one of his temples, much to his chagrin, I assure you. He eventually beat me back after a bloody and long slog in the Italian countryside.
 
By now, the game was coming to a close and I was in first place, however it was a tenuous position at best. I went first on the last turn which left both Bob and Ross to pick me off at will and claim the first place position from me. Bob had a great plan on paper with two great armies to smash Ross who was heavily invested in Hykania and Mesopotamia. He invaded Hykania from Europe but eventually his army petered out by the time he got to within two territories of breaking the Mesopotamian continent that Ross held. Bob then tried another route through Anatolia by playing a card that removed the plague marker in Anatolia and allowing him to push through a large army unmolested by the plague. On paper, Bob's plan should have worked but again, the machinations of Chaos Monkey worked against Bob and somehow Ross was able to pull off a stunning defense of Mesopotamia which he now held as the game came to close. Bob's only way to achieve total victory was to dominate all of the Underworld which no one had yet achieved.

With most of his troops now in Elysium, paradise of the underworld for the Greeks, Bob decided to crush all before him, one by stinking one! I believe he used 4 elephants of troops (5 each) to invade the underworld and pretty much clubbed his opposition to death without mercy! Thus, by taking all of the underworld except one lonely outpost held by Ross, Bob was able to garner 6 additional victory points and take first place in Risk God Storm! Great job Bob!! Ross pulled off a great second place finish by holding onto Mesopotamia at all cost. I did well in spite of my loss of Atlantis but in the end was not enough to hold onto first place and received a 3rd place finish. Gosh, I'm getting so used to that number!

Great game nevertheless.

Wargame NIght 10-13

In October, Bob came over for game night. Since neither Tim, nor Eric, nor Ross called or emailed to request a different day for game night both Bob and I decided we would duke it out for first and second place respectively for the month of October.

Bob's boys along with Luke played Axis and Allies with Bob and I on the same side as the Axis players. The boys themselves would play the Allies. While we played against the kids, we decided to play a simultaneous game of Stratego to determine October's Tournament scores.

We decided that whoever had the highest points in causing the most "casualties" then would win Stratego, unless, our flag was taken by the other in which case that person would win the game outright. The casualty list was determined thusly:

A Scout which is a "9" in the game would be worth only a "point" in determining a value assigned for this "kill". A Miner which is "8" in the game would be worth "2 points". A Sergeant which is "7" in the game would be worth "3 points" etc. on down the line to the Marshall which is a "1" and would be worth "9 points" to the other player if they are killed in action.

I played the blue side while Bob played the red side. I began by testing his lines with Scout advances all the way up to his pieces by moving them until they stood in front of his troops. Bob did make a clarification, of course, that Scouts can only move then stop immediately in front of an enemy piece. Then on the next turn, the Scout then can attack and reveal the enemy piece in front of him. Learn something new everyday! So that is what I did. Thus, Bob gained a number of points at the expense of my Scouts. However, he came forward with a couple of Sergeants and Captains only to have them cut down, nay, mowed down by my excellent sharpshooters. Actually, it was a pretty close contest. We both took out each other's Marshall (1) as well as each others General (2) and were pretty much tied in terms of scoring.

I did however score some important kills by taking out a couple of his captains thus securing some decent points at the expense of Bob's position. This was taking place, mind you, while we also played Axis and Allies with the kids! I was playing the Kamikaze Japanese while Bob was the German/Italian Fascist League in Europa. I would make a Stratego move against Bob only to turn around and make a Japanese move with Bob! It was all rather Machiavelli really!

Well, in the end I did win Stratego against Bob by scoring the most casualty points. Thus, Bob got second place in the Kriegspiel Tournament while I nailed down first place. On the Axis Front, we crushed the Allies superbly in both Europe and Asia and thus staved off defeat one more time against our boys in Axis and Allies. Someday, they will figure it out and crush us in revenge. But until then, it's good to be the
King(s)!

Wargame Night 09-13

In September, Bob, Tim, Eric and myself got together for our 9th Twilight Imperium game of the season. The following races were carefully but randomly chosen:

Tim - Embers of Muaat
Bob - Clan of Saar
Bruce - the Arborec
Eric - the Naalu Collective

We decided to forego the domain counters but included everything else and completely randomized the Ancient Artifacts as seen in the photo. As the game got going, I knew I needed to position myself for maximum pointage so as keep my lead in the Kriegspiel Cup Tournament (KCT) secure so I made it my mission to keep Bob and Eric away from me and onto Tim like flys on $@*!. Unfortunately, I believe I stepped in it way before I realized it. What's new, right?

Bob immediately made a B-line towards my sphere of influence and threatened my homeworld early on. However, as time went on (turn 2) he wisely decided to move in the opposite direction and allow me to build and basically exist without being molested by the ravenous wolves of the Clan of Saar. I can't quite remember if we came to an "agreement" or if he decided to unilaterally move out but whatever the motivation he did indeed move away and avoided a massive ink-splot from the rather gelatinous mass that is the Arborec. In other words, I was very happy.

Tim began the game with a super-powerful War Sun as the Embers of Muaat. From the beginning, he was a menace and was to be watched closely. Eric as the all-wise Naalu Collective decided to ensnare his War Sun by secretly placing a Gravity Rift right next to Tim's homeworld and hope that he would clumsily be sucked into the rift and get stuck. And that indeed is exactly what happened! Then Tim whined and complained that he should be allowed to go around the rift because it had a red zone around the hex. This led the Naalu delegation to exclaim - "SUN of a bitch!". Now, I know this may be a family oriented blog but we all know that "bitch" is a female dog. So, clearly, the Naalu were referring to the Embers as female dogs and that is, of course, a racist comment coming from the Naalu. Sun intended!

Notwithstanding the verbal gesticulations emanating from the fan-heads, Tim as the Embers were able to pull ahead early in the game and take first place. At this phase in the game, Eric had now sauntered over to Mecatol Rex and taken it with ease, if I recall correctly. Thus, he was lining himself up to handsomely reap the coming rewards of owning Mecatol and earning more victory points, potentially, as the public objective cards were to be revealed one by one per turn. A lot of public objective cards reward points for occupying Mecatol Rex. However, Tim as the Embers would have none of it, especially since he was called a female dog and needed to show the Naalu what it was like to be on the "receiving" end of dog-love. Most distressing! Eric was firmly entrenched on Mecatol Rex with ships and troops, but Tim's War Sun mangled his fleet and then proceeded to bombard the planetary surface mercilessly leaving no survivors including, sadly, Eric's leader. I believe he was captured by the Embers, if I recall.

This immediately raised the hairs on the backs of the Clan of Saar. So, the inevitable ramp up of Dreadnought production took place at a heady pace in the Clan for the coming battle for control of Mecatol Rex. This provided the cassus belli for Tim to increase his capitol ship production as well and by now we had a full fledged arms race going on between the Clan of Saar and Embers of Muaat. Again, most distressing. By now, Mecatol lay a smouldering ruin.

 In the meantime, Tim built up his occupation force on Mecatol Rex and burned everything in sight. What do you expect from the fiery menace that is the Embers of Muaat? They simply can not be reasoned with.

Eventually, the battle-royale was reaching its climax with both sides completely invested in reducing the other to smithereens. Tim had two War Suns in orbit above Mecatol but Bob had a flagship join his fleet of Dreadnoughts including 6 fighter squadrons. Tim had his fighter squadrons including a mercenary to defend his possession. It was mono-i-mono or should we say "many-i-many"? Bob opened fire first and the battle was on. Unfortunately for Tim, the War Suns could not sustain enough damage to hold off Bob's fleet and eventually, he too succumbed to all those who place their fate in Mecatol Rex. Sic transit gloria mundi!

As the game wound down I realized Tim was still in the lead and in spite of Bob's victory at Mecatol, Bob was in last place. I did pull the Imperium Rex Public Objective card but had the option of placing back in the deck. So I wanted Eric to pull it thinking he would gain more points and take first place from Tim but alas, my plan did not work and Eric waited too long. Amazingly, Bob pushed to first place leaving Tim in second and Eric in third. Sadly, I came in last! I just love being in fourth place, all the time!

Another great game at any rate.