My Space Fleet is Invincible! — Let's Play Twilight Imperium Third Edition

Paaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaass.

Pass.

I need a little rules clarification: can ships move more than once per round? That is to say, can I spend a CC to (activate a system and) move my carrier this action, then move the ship again my next action with another CC?

Not if a CC is still in the system. There are ways to remove one (Warfare primary, some Action Cards) or get around the rule (Warfare II secondary), but in general if you've activated a system and moved ships into it, you can't move them out again until the next round, nor move other ships into the activated system.

Well, the Mentak Coalition are taking things at their usual sedate pace and want to prepare before they start heading out. I will use the Technology II strategy card and take the Stasis Capsules technology.

After everyone's done with their tech and with High Alert, Googleshng will be up.

Edit: Oh, and thanks for the prompt answer, Sarc. You may rest assured it has informed several decisions I will make this turn. Starting with this one, really.

I try to be as prompt as possible!



Since turn order also doesn't really matter for this card so early either, I'll go ahead and partake of the secondary function. I spend a Command Counter from Strategy Allocation, tap Jord for 4 resources, and discard my 1 Political Cards for an additional resources (in case you missed the rule earlier, you can do that) to purchase XRD Transporters — it's a blue tech, so my technology specialty applies.

CONSUMABLES
Action Cards: 0
Political Cards: 1
Trade Goods: 0

COMMAND COUNTERS
Command Pool: 2
Strategy Allocation: 1
Fleet Supply: 3
Activations: 1

PLANETS (Resources/Influence)
Jord – 4/2
Vega Major – 2/1
Vega Minor – 1/2, Blue tech specialty

TECHNOLOGIES OWNED
Antimass Deflectors – Can move through Asteroid Fields
XRD Transporters – +1 Carrier movement
Cybernetics – +1 to Fighter combat rolls

Opt in or out, everyone!

In, obviously, but it's actually my turn after this, so I'll handle it after everyone else makes a call.

i'm going to need to reread all the techs.

Pass - I have insufficient resources.

Here's Stiv's L1Z1X discovering their tapes missing and going nuts (the High Alert token is the red bit there):



Lucas' turn has no changes to the board, so no image for him!

Egarwaen, if you want you can discard your political cards for 1 resource each, like I did. That and your planet would give you 6, which is enough to buy in.

And Googleshng, if you know what you want to do, might as well do it. I'm going to figure we can back-fill Stiv's choices for these two cards when he's back, but I don't want things to get too far out of order.

Here's what's happening so far, so I don't go insane trying to remember:

Warfare II
Stiv: Executing primary
Lucas: Passing on secondary
`Hrist: Passing on secondary
Sarc: Passing on secondary
Googleshng: Passing on secondary
severian: Passing on secondary
Egarwaen: Passing on secondary
shivam: Passing on secondary

Technology II
Lucas: Executing primary
`Hrist: Executing secondary
Sarc: Executing secondary
Googleshng: Executing secondary
severian: Passing on secondary
Egarwaen: Passing on secondary
shivam: Passing on secondary
Stiv: Pending (will resolve out of turn)

I will move my fighter up a space to Tar'Mann using Warfare, even though there's a slim chance of finding wimminz there. Because it's full of men. Tar men. Ayuk.

I will pass on technology this turn.

You don't control Tar'Mann, severian, so you can't do that. And Fighters can't move without a Carrier at this stage.

Pass on Warfare II

I will take the secondary function of the Tech card, tap Arc Prime for 4 resources and trade in my two Political Cards for 2 additional resources. Spending a command counter from strategy allocation and getting XRD Transporters.

CONSUMABLES
Action Cards: 0
Political Cards: 0
Trade Goods: 0

COMMAND COUNTERS
Command Pool: 2
Strategy Allocation: 1
Fleet Supply: 3 (+1)
Activations: 2
Total in play: 8/16

PLANETS (Resources/Influence)
Arc Prime – 4/0
Wren Terra – 2/1
Qucen'n -- 1/2
Rarron -- 0/3 (Green Tech Spec)

UNITS (Deployed/Total)
Arc Prime/Wren Terra -- Space Docksx1, Cruiserx1, Dreadnoughtx1, Destroyerx1
Qucen'n -- Ground Forcesx2,
Rarron -- Carriersx1, Ground Forcesx1

TECHNOLOGIES OWNED
Hylar V Assault Laser
Antimass Deflectors
XRD Transporters – +1 Carrier movement

Note: Just remembered I have a blue tech spec, and XRD is a blue tech, so I only discard 1 Political Card. Everyone who's taking tech, check your specs against the tech you're buying here!

Another note: I'm trying to render a higher-res map and my computer is not handling it well. I'll try a couple things, but we may be stuck at the resolution we've got.

Sooooo.... I only need five goods to get my tech?

Good catch, two illegal moves in the same turn! I will pass, humbled .

All part of the learning process!

I think you still need 6; your tech spec is green, and XRD is blue.

NEW MAP!

I hope that's more readable for everyone, because I don't think I can make it much sharper than that. Here's the shrinky version:

Oh ah hah! Now it's all making sense!

fuck it, i pass.

First, as the Technology II option eventually floats my way, I'll activate it with my Groovy Racial Ability. While all you suckers are having to spend your resources on academic grants, my people are a bunch of huge nerds who can just figure this stuff out in their spare time! Specifically, they work out how just like sticking glasses on their big ol' nerdy brain heads lets them read stuff from farther away, sticking scopes on their big ol' PDSes let them shoot things that are farther away, making it way easier to defend this big mess of sucky planets I seem to be living in.

Spending 1 Strategy Allocation counter to activate Tech II and research Deep Space Cannons.

Next up, conveniently, is my turn. Well gee, this whole concept of defending stuff from a space away really opens up a lot of possibilities! We'd better take a step back and do some long term planning!



One, two, three command counters for me to stick in whatever pool I want, and the Eggheads on Jol are going to spend all day making graphs and pie charts to snag me a fourth. Anyone else want in on this?

STRATEGY ACTION: Leadership- Adding 3 Command Counters to Strategy Allocation, then activating Leadership Secondary using influence from Jol to add 1 Command Counter to Strategy Allocation

PLANETS (Resources/Influence)
Jol – 1/2
Nar – 2/3
Capha – 3/0

COMMAND COUNTERS
Command Pool: 2
Strategy Allocation: 5
Fleet Supply: 3
Activations: 1

UNITS
Jol/Nar - Space Dock x1, PDS x1, Ground Forces x1, Carrier x1, Fighter x1
Capha - Ground Forces x1, PDS x1, Carrier x1, Dreadnought x1

TECHNOLOGIES OWNED
Hylar V Assault Laser
Deep Space Cannons
Antimass Deflectors
Enviro Compensator
Sarween Tools


Everyone Activate/Pass on Leadership (with Stiv first Activating/Passing on Tech II, with the marginally unfair foreknowledge that he can potentially get the SA back), then

Sarc is up.

A note on Googleshng's racial ability and why he's able to to what he just did: As the Jol-Nar, he can activate the primary ability of Tech II when spending a CC on the secondary ability, with the kicker of not being required to buy any technologies using either ability — he can take just the free one if he likes, as he did here. If he had enough resources to work with, he could actually get up to three techs in one move.

And no worries about Stiv having foreknowledge — the L1Z1X are so fond of staying home and watching VHS tapes that they start with no influence to spend! In fact, only severian has enough influence to potentially activate this power, so I'm going to enter an automatic pass for everyone else. Sorry, folks! Maybe next round.

All my planets are tapped, so I must pass. Here's the tracking for unresolved secondaries as of now:

Technology II
Lucas: Executing primary
`Hrist: Executing secondary
Sarc: Executing secondary
Googleshng: Executing secondary
severian: Passing on secondary
Egarwaen: Passing on secondary
shivam: Passing on secondary
Stiv: Pending (will resolve out of turn)

Leadership
Googleshng: Executing primary
severian: Executing secondary
Egarwaen: Automatic pass
shivam: Automatic pass
Stiv: Automatic pass
Lucas: Automatic pass
`Hrist: Automatic pass
Sarc: Automatic pass

And my turn:

Activating Lazar/Sakulag system: Moving 1 Carrier and 3 GF from Jord and landing one on each of the planets. 1 GF remains on the carrier.

COMMAND COUNTERS
Command Pool: 1
Strategy Allocation: 1
Fleet Supply: 3
Activations: 2

PLANETS (Resources/Influence)
Jord – 4/2
Vega Major – 2/1
Vega Minor – 1/2, Blue tech specialty
Lazar – 1/0
Sakulag – 2/1

UNITS
Jord space: Destroyer x1
Jord: Space Dock x1
Vega space: Carrier x 1
Vega Major: Ground Force x1
Vega Minor: Ground Force x1
Lazar/Sakulag space: Carrier x1 (with GF x1)
Lazar: GF x1
Sakulag: GF x1

severian is up.

Why is leadership an automatic pass for me exactly?

Because you need to spend 2 Influence to activate it, and you only have 1 Influence from your home planet. The planets you've taken are exhausted, and thus cannot be tapped for influence.

EDIT: What Googleshng said.

For the Leadership Secondary Action, I will exhaust Darren, and use the 4 Influence to purchase two Command Counters. Those counters will be placed into the Strategy Allocation. All of my planets are now exhausted.

COMMAND COUNTERS
Command Pool: 2
Strategy Allocation: 4
Fleet Supply: 3
Activations: 1
Total in play: 10/16


PLANETS (Resources/Influence)
Darren – 2/4
Arinam - 1/2, Blue Tech Specialty
Meer - 0/4

The Brotherhood didn't find what they were looking for over in Arinam/Meer, namely a steady supply of skin lotion and someone to apply it. Instead, they decide to check out Centauri and Gral.

Taking a Tactical Action. Taking one Command Counter from the Command Pool, and placing it on Centauri/Gral space. One Carrier moves into the space, fully loaded with 2 Ground Forces and 4 Fighters. If the Fighters did not move with the Carrier, then they would have been destroyed, since they cannot exist without support. Think Vipers to Battlestars, minus the FTL drive.

The Ground Forces invade the planets, and the Fighters hang out.

COMMAND COUNTERS
Command Pool: 1
Strategy Allocation: 4
Fleet Supply: 3
Activations: 2
Total in play: 10/16

PLANETS (Resources/Influence)
Darren – 2/4
Arinam - 1/2, Blue Tech Specialty
Meer - 0/4
Centauri - 1/3
Gral - 1/1, Blue Tech Specialty

UNITS
Darren - Space Dock x1
Darren Space - Destroyer x1
Arinam/Meer Space - Carrier x1
Arinam - Ground Force x1
Meer - Ground Force x1
Centauri - Ground Force x1
Gral - Ground Force x1
Centauri/Gral Space - Carrier x1, Fighter x4

Egarwaen is up!

One of those niggling little rules: Only one of severian's Fighters would have been destroyed if he hadn't moved them with his Carrier; Space Docks can support 3!

The Embers of Muaat look around their home planet, and realize the whole thing is kind of a hole. Particularly with their Death Star gone, since they had to take a sizable fraction of the planet to build the thing. As a result, they decide to get busy on the Space Dock, and turn even more of their home planet into horrible ships and weapons of war. Yes, that's right. It's time for Production!



I get two resources for free. I've only got one planet I can tap, Muaat, but that gives me four resources. And I'll discard a Political Card from my hand for another resource, for seven total. I'm passing on the secondary ability.

With these seven resources, I shall construct:
1x Carrier (3 resources)
2x Ground Forces (1 resource)
2x Fighters (1 resource)
1x Cruiser (2 resources)

COMMAND COUNTERS
Command Pool: 2
Strategy Allocation: 2
Fleet Supply: 3
Activations: 1
Total in play: 8/16

HAND
1x Political

PLANETS (Resources/Influence)
Muaat (4/1)
Lesab (2/1, Green Tech Spec)

UNITS
Muaat - Space Dock x1, Carrier x1, Ground Forces x2, Fighters x2, Cruiser x1
Lesab - War Sun x1, Ground Forces x3 (shipboard), Fighters x2, Ground Forces x1 (planetside)

`Hrist is up, though it may be best to wait for secondary actions to go off here, since they'll affect unit counts and positioning.

Edit: It's worth noting that my Space Dock has a production capacity of six, meaning it can produce six units a turn, and I start with the Enviro Compensator tech, giving it a limit of seven units. I've only produced six units here, but I briefly thought I'd made an illegal move.

Yeah, we should resolve this one before moving on to the next action (except for Stiv; we'll have to stop at his next turn and if maybe certain other SCs are played, but he can catch up on secondaries once he returns). You don't have to pass on the secondary yourself, Egarwaen; that card doesn't let you use it.

I pass, as I have no untapped planets for resources to build with and don't want to ditch my last Political Card just yet.

Technology II
Lucas: Executing primary
`Hrist: Executing secondary
Sarc: Executing secondary
Googleshng: Executing secondary
severian: Passing on secondary
Egarwaen: Passing on secondary
shivam: Passing on secondary
Stiv: Pending (will resolve out of turn)

Production
Egarwaen: Executing primary
shivam: Pending
Stiv: Pending (will resolve out of turn)
Lucas: Executing secondary
`Hrist: Pending
Sarc: Passing on secondary
Googleshng: Executing secondary
severian: Executing secondary