Wargame Night 07-13

On July 13th, Tim, Bob, Ross and myself got together for our 7th Twilight Imperium game of the year.

This month we decided when randomly choosing alien races we would randomly pick two home-world hexes and place the one race we didn't want to play back into the pile. This way, we could have more options in choosing a new race or a race we wanted to play instead of playing the same alien race over and over again as has happened in the past.


The following races were thus randomly chosen:

Bruce - The Arborec
Ross - The Barony of Letnev
Bob - Embers of Muat
Tim - The Nekro Virus

We also decided to go with domain counters again as well as placing the ancient artifacts around and on Mecatol Rex just for the fun of it. One artifact was also placed on Malice in the Wormhole Nexus. We also received our "Preliminary Objective" cards which gives each player one victory point to achieve a semi-easy objective. Then once this is achieved, in theory, then the player may choose his "secret objective" card for two points. This gives the player a potential of 3 victory points if he is able to fulfill the stated objectives. Unfortunately for me, I misread my preliminary objective card! It said I needed to obtain 3 tech advances in the yellow color...I thought it read 3 yellow tech colored "planets"...of course, not sure why I placed planets in the objective when it wasn't even there but I did nevertheless. As a result, the entire game for me was lost even before it began! Nothing like shooting yourself in the foot.

In the meantime, the rest of the guys sallied forth uninhibited into the unknown. Bob as the Embers of Muat with his less than speedy War Sun ended up taking Mecatol Rex with ease. Naturally, Ross as my neighbor attacked me right outside my homeworld and destroyed my task force reconning the planets for Lazax survivors. I was momentarily crippled and hobbling about like a wounded animal when I decided to go ahead and annex the neighboring planet in another system without reconning the planet. Just so happens that the domain counter was indeed a Lazax survivor. So Ross deprived me of a victory point. Tells ya, it wasn't my night!

So I built up a number of fast attack cruisers and chased him out of my system. Of course, later on in the game as gamenight wound down he came back and attacked that same system again and took the planet from me thus costing me another victory point. So between fog-of-war and chaos monkey, I believe I shed about 5 victory points easy. Hmmm...gunna have to do something different next time. Must pay attention or take no-doz pills or something!

As for Bob on Mecatol Rex, I don't believe he gained anything for it but Tim did manage to attack it in full force and sadly came up empty handed. His fleet did destroy Bob's fleet but was unable to capitalize on this defeat with a ground invasion of the planet. Thus, Bob was able to hold on precariously in spite of his losses.

On the political front, I was able to secure from Bob a promissory note stating that if he attacked me then I could play the promissory note and belay the order to attack. This was important considering he starts the game with a War Sun but alas he never did attack me and the note was never cashed in for good use. Of course, I can't remember what law we were voting on that he felt he had to make such a concession to me but it apparently didn't matter in the end.

The game ended with Ross scoring his first ever "First Place" finish! Congratulations to Ross for a job well done! Tim came in Second Place and Bob came in third. Sadly, I came in Fourth Place. But I really have no one to blame but myself and a little monkey named Ross! I'll get you my pretty!!

Wargame NIght 06-13

On June 13th, Bob, Ross, Eric and myself got together for another Twilight Imperium game.

The following races were randomly chosen:

Eric - Mentak Coalition
Ross - Naalu Collective
Bob - The Barony of Letnev
Bruce - The Yssaril Tribes

I decided to allow domain counters in this particular game because Ross had never played with this type of variation before and I thought it would just be dandy if he experienced the wonders of deadly natives and lost treasure. Bob immediately cried foul but reluctantly went along with it. As a sop to Bob, we decided to set up the Ancient Artifacts in a circle around Mecatol Rex including placing one on the planet itself. The last remaining artifact was placed on the humble planet of Malice located in the Wormhole Nexus just for the heck of it.

Bob was feeling a bit catty wampus this night and began placing his beginning ships haphazardly upon his home world and leaving his fleet looking like a botched abortion! Just pathetic.

We all received our preliminary 1 point secret objectives and mine stated that I had to go to Mecatol Rex and occupy it with several dreadnaughts. I have to say, it was a rather difficult task with all the domain counters in the way as well as Chaos Monkey located right next to me. I went ahead and sent two task forces to the outskirts of Mecatol Rex with each TF outfitted with a carrier and troops for rapid deployment once Mecatol was reached. Unfortunately, my second task force discovered a supernovae in empty space and was destroyed immediately as a result. My first task force ended up getting mired in a Gravity Rift and was basically immobile until such time I upgraded my fleet with Gravity Rift tech to escape unharmed. Otherwise, without the tech upgrade I would have to roll a die for each ship and may lose one or all of my ships. Considering I lost one TF already, I surely wasn't going to risk another loss of this magnitude again. Unfortunately, this delay cost me dearly.

In the meantime, Eric as the Mentak Coalition was recon-ing his area of space and with domain counters in the game, if you recon with fighters in a system and find the "Lazax Survivors" then you immediately receive 1 victory point. Naturally, Eric found Lazax Survivors and there was much rejoicing in the Mentak camp. He also expanded in his sphere of influence quite easily and with no rejoinder from Bob or Ross he was able to seize large sections of outer space with relative impunity.

Back at my first task force, we were still trying to upgrade my fleet with Gravity Rift tech but Bob kept taking the Technology Agenda from me and with little or no funds to purchase the tech upgrade in the secondary phase of the Tech Agenda due to a lack of planets in my active inventory I was basically a sitting duck. Or should I say I was a "lame-duck". I was just waiting for the bears to start sniffing and growling in my direction and tear me to pieces but alas I was able to finally upgrade and remove my fleet unharmed from the Gravity Rift. But precious time had been lost.

With TF1 basically stuck and Eric basically holding back, Bob was able to expand easily in his sphere of influence and eventually was to creep up and occupy Mecatol Rex with ease. In addition to seizing Mecatol, Bob as the Barony of Letnev was able to secure his Preliminary Secret Objective as well as his Secret Objective of 2 points by fully occupying Mecatol Rex. I did make a belated attempt to stop Bob by preventing him from moving a Space Dock from his homeworld into Mecatol based on an action card. I used my agent to stop this maneuver and it cost Bob at least one turn before he did in fact claim his two points. In the interim, Ross as the Naalu Collective was slowly making his way over to me and by now I was able to purchase a decent fleet of ships to counter his growing and illicit threat to my area of influence. Most of my fleet was stationed directly opposite Ross in two mass strike forces but Chaos Monkey utilized a wormhole and ended up on my rear flank in one fell swoop much to my chagrin. Naturally, he took a planet from me which he needed for his secret objective. As a result, I decided to go "all the way" and drive my fleet directly to his homeworld and occupy it forthwith. This I did with ease and unexpectedly by utilizing the Warfare Agenda as well as utilizing my Gravity Rift technology which allows me to increase movement by 1 when I'm next to a wormhole or gravity rift to increase speed. Thus, I was able to move 4 spaces in one turn and took down Ross' proverbial grid thereby preventing him from obtaining any more victory points. If your homeworld is occupied, then you can't obtain any additional victory points per game rules. But, as everything in this game for me, it was just too little, too late.

Bob won the game in first place with 8pts, Ross was in 2nd place with 5pts, Eric in 3rd place with 4pts and leaving me way back in fourth with just 2 stinkin' points! I suppose in hindsight, it could have been much worse. The domain counters actually did me in. But amazingly and quite illogically, Bob actually now embraces domain counters which as you may or may not know he always refused to play them as they slow the game down according to Bob. Well, now he is a true believer. So perhaps, I did win after all? At least in the court of Bob's public opinion.

Wargame Night 05-13

On May 11th, Tim, Bob, Ross and myself got together for another lovely Twilight game slugfest. However, we played with the latest expansion installment of Twilight Imperium called Twilight Imperium: Shards of the Throne.

The new expansion game comes with new ships such as the venerable Flagship - a much stronger ship than the Dreadnaught but not as powerful as the War Sun. The nice advantage to the Flagship is that no tech prerequisites are required to build this type of ship. But unlike the other vessels, only one ship of this type can be built.

Another twist to this game is the advent of mercenaries. You can now hire mercenaries that can either fight on land or in space. They have individual qualities that differ from each mercenary and thus gives them certain advantages that can be exploited by the player for personal gain.

In the realm of politics, Shards of the Throne allows for "Representatives" to be sent to the galactic council to vote on laws. There are three representatives the alien races can send: Councilor, Bodyguard and Assassin. If an assassin should kill one of the representatives sent to the galactic council then that player cannot vote in that round. Most unfortunate. However, a "Bodyguard" can kill an assassin and prevent such a event from transpiring against you.

There are also new races added to the game: The Lazax, The Nekro Virus, The Arborec and finally, the Ghosts of Creuss which have their very own wormhole - Wormhole D - that only they can use. Interestingly, their howeworld is off the map like the wormhole nexus and thus can only be accessed by going through the "D" wormhole. Their homeworld planet, Creuss, is worth 4 bucks and has 2 influence.

Finally, there are new space hexes to utilize such as the "Gravity Rift" as well as new planets. The gravity rift can be entered by ships but upon exiting you have to roll a die and a roll of 1-5 the ship is dragged into the rift and destroyed along with EVERYONE aboard.

Lest I forget, there are new tech upgrades as well that includes an upgrade to exit a gravity rift safely every time it's tried! In addition to tech upgrades, the game now comes with tanks that have a sustain damage ability for ground forces. You only get four tanks, so use them wisely. Each tank takes up a single compartment aboard a Carrier, War Sun or Flagship.

In addition to all the above, I did order my tin containers for all the pieces as well a Flagship tray for the 8 flagships in the game. I was also looking to repaint the grey/blue ships as well as the green/yellow ships in the game which I did once I received Shards of the Throne in the mail. So a lot of new additions to our usual Twilight Imperium game night and it seems it was a hit with the rest of the guys that made it to game night last month. And yes, there are MORE rules to memorize or forget depending on how you look at it. The "Fog Of War" is only getting more precarious with each expansion.

And now the game. The following races were randomly chosen:

Tim - The Nekro Virus
Ross - The Mentak Coalition
Bob - Federation of Sol
Bruce - Yassiril Tribes

Tim suggested we pick one of the Shard races just to test out their new capabilities. So he randomly chose the Nekro Virus. By the way, one of the advantages of the Nekro Virus is that their Flagship can be destroyed and once destroyed every ship in the hex, friend or foe, is also destroyed. It's good to be a Kamikaze! Thankfully, this ability did not fall in the hands of the notorious but lovable, Chaos Monkey. But someday it might and when it does, God help us.

I believe we rolled for seating arrangements. This is important because it may alter the outcome of a game depending on who sits where and I ended up sitting between Ross aka Chaos Monkey and Tim aka Lord Hiddieous with Bob aka Buzziel-Bob sitting diagonally across from me. Still trying to figure out a call-sign for myself. I was thinking Bruce "Obi Wan" McConnell since I have a lovely picture of myself from Disney Land photo-shopped with me in Star Wars garb which is strikingly handsome and gives me an impeccable likeness to a middle aged Obi Wan Kenobi. But I digress.

I surprisingly picked the Yassiril Tribes which is the first time I have played this alien race since getting Twilight Imperium nearly 3 years ago. So I had no known strategy to play this race but I did like its' ability to spy on other races "action" cards and to hold as many action cards as I want unlike the rest of the alien races which only hold a max of 7 cards. Again, this is a race that Ross might enjoy since he is a big believer in the efficacy of the action card.

It was Bob's idea to place every Ancient Artifact around Mecatol Rex to make it more "fair", whatever that means. Naturally, we had one left over and it was placed in the Wormhole Nexus. As the game got going I was lucky enough to have a trade station located near me and was able to utilize it immediately. Tim was lucky enough to discover another Ion Storm blocking his path to Mecatol Rex. Can't remember who placed it there but I was blamed nevertheless, if I recall correctly.

As I continued to explore around my homeworld system, suddenly and without provocation, Ross attacked a fleet of my ships right outside my homeworld. Since he was the Mentak Coaltion, they get a first shot capability with their cruisers of which he brought several and in addition, he decided to include a flagship with a tank battalion just for thrill of it! His b-line directly to me did destroy my fleet handily which resulted in my left flank being fully exposed to a merciless and gloating Chaos Monkey of the Mentak Coalition. This could not go unanswered.

It was at this time as well that Tim decided to move a fleet of his own near me and I had to decide with the remaining but limited forces at my disposal which foe to attack as either one could seize my homeworld within one turn. After asking Tim what his intentions were, I felt reasonably safe that he had no designs on my homeworld, I decided to attack Ross with every man, woman and child of the Yassiril Tribes. It was a glorious battle with every ship in his task force including his flagship destroyed by the Yassiril counterattack. Unfortunately, for me he did defend well and as a result I was completely depleted and had to rebuild my fleet from scratch. Most unfortunate.

In the meantime, Tim was able to seize Mecatol Rex with little trouble. The forces of the Nekro Virus then began a steady and sure buildup of Dreadnaughts. The Nekro Virus also dropped mines in the Mecatol Rex system just to make it nasty should anyone have a desire to tangle with them in this system. Eventually, Tim would grab the Diplomatic Agenda and force peace on us in Mecatol thus ensuring he collected the necessary 2 points from his secret objective. On top of this, he attacked the planet of Mallice in the Wormhole Nexus and seized an ancient artifact from me.

In the end, Tim was able to secure first place in the game. Bob took 2nd place, I came in 3rd place and Ross unfortunately settled for 4th place. Overall, it was a really fun game with the new rules, ships and alien races. Good job Tim for another first place finish!

Wargame Night 04-13

On April 13th, Tim, Bob, Eric and myself got together for another Twilight Imperium/ Shattered Empire slugfest. The following races were randomly chosen:

Bruce - Universities of Jol-Nar
Tim - The Winnu
Bob - Sardak Norr
Eric - Brotherhood of Yinn

Because there were just four players this night we decided to forgo the usual rolling of the dice to decide where we would be seated, a highly unusual move to say the least considering past performances. As such, I was seated between Eric and Bob with Tim straight across from me.

The map was painted red and all requisite markers were placed where they should be per the rules of the game or some derivative thereof as agreed by all players.

As the Universities of Jol-Nar I was already quite ahead in the Tech field and was positioning myself to reap great rewards with the public objective cards hoping they would turn up in my favor. As the map came into focus with our explorations, it became clear to Tim at least that it was going to be a long night! Though he was merely 3 hexes away from Mecatol Rex, he might as well have been on the far side of the moon with the Nebula and Ion Storm blocking a quick move to Mecatol when the time was ripe for him.

I believe I had something to do with placing the Ion Storm during the initial setup phase but I wasn't the only person trying to slow Lord Hiddeous down. I think Bob placed the Nebula in Tim's way as well. Of course, this would force the Winnu under Tim's tutelage to tangle with the Brotherhood of Yinn being lead by Eric. Mixing things up even more between Eric and Tim was the fact that an ancient artifact worth one victory point sat between Eric and Tim, enticing both antagonists to duke it our over this relic from the past.

Needless to say, Tim was having a rough time with his precarious position as both Eric and Bob continued to squeeze the Winnu from either side and preventing a true breakout to gather planets and ultimately points to win the game.

Bob as the Sardak Norr and I as the Universities of Jol-Nar were of a natural kin-folk as we "slapped suckers" as Bob put it and sealed a deal to allow each other to expand without provocation from either one us thus avoiding war between the two pond-scum alien races. This allowed both Bob and I to gather victory points at the expense of Tim and Eric. Surprisingly, neither Tim nor Eric ventured a temporary alliance to counter our very thin truce/alliance much to their eventual loss.

In the meantime, Tim maneuvered two starfleet task forces around the Nebula and Ion Storm with both Eric and Bob watching anxiously from afar. Tim now had a ready force available to strike Mecatol Rex on one side of the Ion Storm and another force captured the ancient artifact located on the planet of Tar Mann opposite Eric's purple-colored fleet. Tim was certainly walking on egg shells around both Eric and Bob knowing full well that any little match could set off the powder keg of war. For good measure, Tim dropped space mines in orbit above the planet of Tar Mann. Naturally, Eric as the Brotherhood of Yinn decided to follow suit with his own space mines as well.

Eventually, Tim did in fact strike Mecatol Rex with ease, taking down the native space fighter defense forces as well as mopping up the remaining token ground forces without so much as coughing or sneezing. There was much rejoicing on the part of Tim.

Unbenownst to everyone else, however, Bob as the Sardak Noor decided to build a War Sun and laid the keel of it right next to the recently occupied Mecatol Rex that Tim so easily invaded. Clearly, a War Sun so close to a strategic planet like Mecatol could only mean one thing - war!

In the meantime, Eric as the Brotherhood of Yinn opened up with a salvo on the Winnu fleet stationed at Tar Mann. Eric won handily over Tim and was able to seize the ancient artifact from him much to his chagrin. There was much rejoicing on the part of Eric.

Bob was also eyeing the ancient artifact that Eric had just taken from the Winnu and decided to move his War Sun task force into the Mecatol Rex system. Naturally, he took out Tim's outnumbered space fleet with ease.

It was at this time that I grabbed the political strategy card and forced Eric to read a political card from his hand for the galactic council to vote upon. Eric then read aloud the card which stated that an ancient artifact had been found on Mecatol Rex and that to open it could either bring reward or doom depending on how we rolled the dice. If we rolled a "six" or above then we would all get two tech advancements for free, however, if I rolled a "five" or less then the entire Mecatol system would suffer a Hiroshima-like nuclear explosion from the ancient artifact and destroying every single unit in the Mecatol Rex system with each system touching Mecatol Rex suffering a similar but less deadly fate. If we voted yes then I would roll the dice but if we voted no then the card would be rejected and nothing would happen. Naturally, both Bob and Tim voted against opening the artifact and setting off who knows what but both Eric and I voted for opening the artifact. The vote was passed. I rolled the dice. And I rolled a "five"! Booooom! The entire system was destroyed taking Bob down with it much to the joy of Eric who made a hail Mary pass with that vote as he was certainly on the receiving end of Bob's War Sun. I'm sure it was like a million suns shining forth from Mecatol Rex leaving nothing in its wake. I believe that was the first time that a War Sun was destroyed by a political card. Good job Eric for playing the card! Good job Bruce for rolling the die!


So Eric was saved and both Tim and Bob were stunned. As the game wound down for the night I was indeed well positioned to profit and eventually placed a decent 2nd place finish. Eric had tied with me but takes 3rd place as no two people can tie in Twilight Imperium. Unfortunately for Tim, he would take last place but certainly made the best effort anyone could possible do in the confines of his empire. Bob despite his grotesque losses on Mecatol Rex did in fact win the game for April! Not sure how that happened but it did. Great job Bob!

Great game everyone!

Wargame Night 03-13

On March 9th, Tim, Bob, Ross, Eric, Doug, Paul and myself got together for a 7-player Twilight Imperium game. The following races were randomly chosen:

Tim - The Mentak Coalition
Bruce - Clan of Saar
Bob - Yassiril Tribes
Ross - Barony of Letnev
Eric - The L1z1x Mindnet
Doug - Brotherhood of Yin
Paul - The Xxcha Kingdom

We built a 4-ring map with hexes face down for exploration. Players in the 1, 4 and 5 positions - Ross, Paul and Tim - received extra trade goods as their locations on the map were considered less than desirable per game rules.

As the game got started it was apparent to Bob that the alien races at the far south end of the map - the Yassiril Tribes, Barony of Letnev, and the L1z1x Mindnet - were going to have to align themselves strategically and if necessary, make an alliance (directly or indirectly), to go head to head with the more advantaged races sitting pretty comfortably in the center and north side of the map.

Needless to say, Ross, aka Chaos Monkey, couldn't come to grips with such a necessity as joining a regional alliance for the preservation of his race. It was his way or the highway and consequently neither Bob nor Eric could accept such a rogue player with delusions of grandeur to plague their foreign policy in their part of the galaxy. Tensions mounted thusly amid Ross' many prevarications regarding his intentions going forward. The other alien races applauded the Barony's bold moves and independent actions in defiance of his neighbors self-serving policy choices. A clash of arms was imminent.

In the meantime, Tim insisted on being confrontational as he led the Mentak Coaltion to position a fleet merely two hexes away from my homeworld in direct violation of alien protocol. Of course, as the Clan of Saar, it's not as much of a threat since we don't need our "homeworld" of asteroids because we can live amongst the stars with our floating space docks. That being said, clearly his militaristic breast beating could not be countenanced and thus a cold war standoff ensued with multiple ships and troops taking up positions opposite each other. An "accident" was just waiting to happen to set off a local war.

On the far side of the galaxy, Doug and Paul sat next to each other nervously eyeing the other's local area for opportunities to exploit. As the newbie's in the game, they took a cautious approach and ventured forth carefully not to arouse their neighbors ire. Paul as the Xxcha Kindom of turtle-backs had defense going for him, whereas, Doug as the Brotherhood of Yin had fanatical conversion going for him as his strong suit. Even though both Doug and Paul are Den Leaders in their local cub scout pack, a queasy feeling of distrust soon developed between them and their public discord became evident when Doug kept "marking" Paul's system for exploration much to Xxcha chagrin.

Meanwhile, back on the southside of the galaxy, Ross began a menacing buildup of dreadnaughts that neither Bob nor Eric could accept. Eric attacked first and seized one of Ross' colonies right outside the Barony's homeworld. Then came Bob with a direct attack on the Barony's homeworld utilizing the Warfare Strategy Agenda that gave the puny and very ugly Yassiril Tribes the upper hand. I then seized an ancient artifact from Bob which was precariously close to the battlefront between Bob and Ross. It should be said that the Yassiril Tribes did abandon this base and I had no opposition when we invested the planet with Clan Saar Troops. Nevertheless, it was a cynical plot by the Yassiril Tribes to sow envy and mutual recrimination between Ross  - aka Chaos Monkey - and myself which almost worked if I hadn't dropped space mines in a timely manner to protect my assets which in turn gave pause to the Barony on seizing this valuable artifact from me.

Back to the far side, Doug finally pulled the trigger and invaded Xxcha territory in spite of Paul's massive War Sun that was sure to block the Brotherhoods ambitions in that part of the galaxy. If I recall correctly, they both annihilated each other and Xxcha territory still remained in Paul's hands. Doug then invaded another sector of the Xxcha Kingdom and was able to take two planets from Paul. I'm quite positive that Paul will not let Doug forget what he did to him in the next game. As you may or may not know, we may forgive one's egregious and foolish actions but we never, ever forget!

On my side of the galaxy, Tim couldn't resist his impulse to push other people around and invaded my Clan Saar lands. Of course, we were waiting for him. Naturally, we failed miserably in stopping his invasion and lost one of our precious planets to his lesbian cohorts of thieving armies. This could not stand. In response, The Clan brilliantly executed a double envelopment that utilized both of my Space Docks as improvised war suns. Each space dock was the flagship for each fleet that counterattacked my lost territory and invaded one of his own. Both of his fleets were vaporized supporting his forces on the planets below and the Mentak armies became isolated and without hope as a result. They slowly began to starve which is the way we wolves of the Saar Clan like it! We prefer skin and bones to fat and flesh when we gnaw on our enemies! All hail the Clan of Saar!

Amazingly, the score was dominated by me as the Clan when we reached 8 points in a 10 point game but then suddenly lost all of our wind and was stuck right there for the duration of the game. Tim's inhuman ability of bouncing back when down, brought him back from 7th place to 2nd place overall.

Interestingly enough, in spite of being sandwiched between Eric and Bob and their rather testicular military policy of crushing someone in between, the Barony of Letnev under the tutelage of Ross was able to somehow eek out 3rd place! The final scores were - Bruce with 9 points (1st), Tim 9 points (2nd), Ross 6 points (3rd), Eric 6 points (4th), Bob 5 points (5th), Doug 4 points (6th) and Paul 4 points (7th). To be fair, I barely won this game and much credit should unfortunately be given to Tim for a great comeback.

And in the end, in a rather awkward and not so insignificant development, Mecatol Rex was left completely open and unmolested the entire 7 player game! How did that happen? May it never happen again.

Great game for our first ever 7-player Twilight Imperium slugfest. Or was it our second 7-player game? Can't remember. At any rate, cudo's to Doug and Paul for absorbing the arcane procedures and byzantine world of the Twilight Imperium universe and playing a very decent first time game for a bunch of newbies.

Wargame Night 02-13

On February 9th, Tim, Ross, Eric (yes, Eric) and myself got together and played Twilight Imperium. The following races were randomly chosen.

Eric - Universities of Jol-Nar
Ross - Mentak Coalition
Tim - L1z1x Mindnet
Bruce - Barony of Letnev

Everything was set-up as usual for a four-alien game within a 3-ring map (sorry for all the dashes). The map was painted red to keep the spirit of exploration alive and well within the Twilight Imperium universe. The wormhole nexus was placed and ancient artifacts were ensconced in the proper hexes in good order.

The map was set-up with red sides up to mask our planet and system placement. As the game got going, I knew I had a tough secret objective because I needed to occupy Mecatol with 6 dreadnaughts and space dock and some troops. It seemed I could achieve this secret objective if only I could get to Mecatol Rex. Not a problem!

As I ventured forth from Homeworld, I decided to take a detour and seize the artifact conveniently located exactly midway between Ross's Mentak Coaltion and myself. Thankfully, I got there first and was rewarded with a victory point right away. I also felt it prudent to lay some mines for good measure in the system containing the ancient artifact. And wouldn't you know it, but Ross started sending some large capital ships near the system trying to find the right time or right excuse to attack there when it suited the Mentak Coaltion's alien agenda.

As it was, I was saved by Tim's L1z1x Mindnet bell! It was at this time that Tim decided to go George Zimmerman on Ross' Trayvon Martin by falling upon the peaceful world of El Nath with many warships and troops. And boy was it a slugfest, much to my glee. Ross insisted on keeping this piece of galactic real estate at all costs and Tim also felt it was much needed regardless of his costs. And pay they both did. Ross lost all of his cruisers which consisted nearly 70% of his fleet. Tim in turn lost somewhere between 3 and 4 Dreadnaughts as the system of El Nath became littered with the detritus and debris of shattered vessels and wrecked fleets.

In the meantime, Eric decided to make a bold move and seize Mecatol Rex much to my chagrin. He took it effortlessly, if I recall. Amazingly, it was in this game that both Eric and I were able to complete not just one or two but three "Transfer Actions" in the game between the both of us. As you may or may not know, transfer actions have become a source of heated debated whether they are really necessary and merely window dressing that we have yet to understand all of its implications.

As it were, Tim eventually took over El Nath from Ross after much death and destruction. Ross sued for peace. But apparently, Tim would not brook weakness from his enemy. He continued to press forward towards Ross' homeworld and eventually surrounded it and occupied it. Ross was left with merely two systems to lick his wounds with the remaining demoralized and defeated fleet of the Mentak Coaltion. Eventually, Ross would soon feel the shameful boot of occupation as Tim repeatly bitch-slapped Ross with demands that even I couldn't stomach. Indeed. Tim lived up to his moniker - Lord Hideious! It was pathetic I have to say! I kept reminding Ross that he still had dignity and didn't have to accept licking Tim's black boots of oppression. It became apparent that Tim was occupying his home world for his Secret Objective and I believe he indeed received his 2 points for doing just that.

I could see at this time that Tim was amassing for an invasion of my empire. Therefore, I ordered all cruisers to lay mines throughout the Letnev systems of control. Nearly every hex that I controlled had a space mine. And I believe that forced Tim to accept his fait accompli and reverse course back to his homeworld. As the game started to wind down, it was apparent that the game was going to end up being a tie between Eric and Tim...so I made a strategic decision and evacuated an outer system containing another artifact worth 1 victory point and let Eric occupy it in hopes that he would win the game. But alas, Tim drew the Imperium Rex public objective card which ended the game immediately in Tim's favor.

Tim got first place. Eric got second place. I got third place and Ross was dead last in fourth place. It was an interesting and exciting game even with just four players. Another great game.

Wargame Night 01-2013



On January 12th, Ross, Tim, Bob and myself got together for the first wargame of the new year and played Twilight Imperium Third Edition, Shattered Empire. The following races were randomly chosen:

 

Bruce - Clan of Saar

Tim - Federation of Sol

Bob - Brotherhood of Yin

Ross - Sardakk Norr

 

We decided to create the map with red sides up for maximum surprise. So far, we haven't had any troubles with map creation following this method but someday it may prove to be a problem as someone will probably be unable to leave homeworld due to hazards like supernovae or ion storms.

The wormhole nexus was placed and the artifact tokens were randomly chosen and placed on the red hexes. We agreed that if an artifact was discovered in an open space hex, supernova or any other red-sided hex space then it would be considered lost.

As the Clan of Saar, I had the special ability to move my space docks but then I read that I could only move "or" build at the same time. Unfortunately, I was used to building and moving at the same time in other games.

Needless to say, I ventured forth cautiously but optimistically in hopes of securing a world of peace and harmony. Alas, it was not to be. I had the clever but sneaky Ross on my left side and the troglodyte Bob on the right side. Neither one can be trusted for very long. Eventually I did discover a wormhole and was able to warp on into the Wormhole Nexus with the planet Malice featured prominently in this space zone. Everywhere I went I dropped mines from my nimble cruisers including dropping some in orbit around the planet Malice.

As the game wore on, it was apparent that Tim was gearing up for an occupation of Mecatol Rex. He had expanded near the border of Mecatol and was fully prepared to invest it fully with capital ships of the line and a number of expeditionary troops to compliment it.

But Ross, like a loose canon on a rolling deck, used an action card against Tim (Signal Jamming) and forced him to place a command counter on his fleet that was amassing for the invasion of Mecatol. As a result, this forced Tim to wait one more round before he could launch his glorious invasion. Unfortunately for Tim and fortuitously for Bob, this allowed the Brotherhood of Yin to move on into Mecatol Rex unmolested by Tim's forces of the Federation of Sol on that turn. For the Brotherhood of Yin, there was much rejoicing. And yet, Bob was not collecting any victory points for occupying the regal planet of Mecatol while the rest of us contemplated our next moves.

With Tim bogged down near Mecatol with nearly all of his forces, Bob preoccupied on Mecatol and Ross gearing up for an attack on the Federation of Sol, I decided to make a bold move from the Wormhole Nexus. I had noticed that Tim had a wormhole next to his homeworld and with my forces building up on Malice in the Wormhold Nexus I figured it would be a simple jump to his homeworld with enough forces to occupy it and prevent him from garnering any more victory points. Up till now, he had two ancient artifacts but with his homeworld occupied by my forces then he would not be allowed to collect any additional points per game rules. Thus, we revved up our FTL Drives and appeared in orbit around his homeworld in force enough to take out what token forces were left behind in addition to killing a leader, I believe an agent in fact, by our landing. Much to the Federations' angst, the invasion was a success. Naturally, once the planet was secure, I dropped an additional mine from my cruiser for good measure. If Tim was going to take it back, it was going to cost him dearly.

In the end, however, Tim was unable or unwilling to retake his homeworld. For Bob, the occupation of Mecatol Rex paid off for him. In addition to collecting points for other objectives, Bob was able to secure first place for the night. Ross' patience and strategic planning placed him into second. Amazingly, Tim was still able to hold third place in spite of my treachery. Again, I tied with Tim for third place as well.

A great game to start off the new year!