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

OK. And... the anti-fighter barrage is technically before the first round of combat I assume, so, I'm down 2 of those, but otherwise get to just go ahead and land on this now unoccupied planet, taking it and the accompanying happy satellite in non-exhausted form, which is groovy, and leaves me about like this:

PLANETS (Resources/Influence)
Jol – 1/2
Nar – 2/3
Capha – 3/0
Arnor 2/1
Lor 1/2 (Red Tech Specialty)
Starpoint 3/1
New Albion 1/1 (Green Tech Specialty)
Mehar Xull 1/3 (Blue Tech Specialty)
Mirage 1/2 (Fighters)
Tsion 2/2 (Trade Goods)
Bellatrix 0/1 (Red Tech Specialty)
Vega Major 2/1
Vega Minor 1/2 (Blue Tech Specialty)
Velnor 2/0 (Red Tech Specialty)
Sumerian 2/2 (Trade Goods)
Arcturus 1/1


UNITS
Jol/Nar - Space Dock x1
Starpoint/New Albion - Space Dock x1, PDS x1 (Starpoint)
Mehar Xull - PDS x1
Mirage - PDS x1
Tsion/Bellatrix - PDS x1
Vega Major/Minor - Ground Forces x3 (1 on Major, 2 on Minor),
Jord - War Sun x1: (Fighter x4, Ground Forces x2), Carrier x1: (Ground Forces x3), Dreadnought x1
Sumerian/Arcturus - War Sun x1, Fighter x2, Dreadnought x2, Carrier x1, Ground Forces x1

The best part of all this is that now I don't have to do anything about those 2 Fighters I forgot to put on the board.

My update:

CONSUMABLES
Action Cards:5
Political Cards: 1
Trade Goods: 3

COMMAND COUNTERS
Command Pool: 1
Strategy Allocation: 1
Fleet Supply: 4
Activations: 2
Total in play: 8/16

PLANETS (Resources/Influence)
Darien – 2/4
Centauri - 1/3
Gral - 1/1, Blue Tech Specialty
Tar'Mann - 1/1
Lisis - 2/2
Velnor - 2/0, Red Tech Specialty
Sumerian - 2/2, Trade Goods
Arcturus - 1/1

UNITS (Deployed/Total)
Space Docks: 1/3, Darien x1
Ground Forces: Centauri x1, Gral x1, East Wormhole x2, Darien x4
Shock Troops: 0
PDS: 2/6, Darien x2
Fighters: East Wormhole x4
Carriers: 3/4, East Wormhole x2, Darien x1
Destroyers: 3/8, East Wormhole x1, Darien x2
Cruisers: 1/8, Tar'Mann x1,
Dreadnoughts: 4/5, Tar'Mann x2, Darien x1, Thibah x1
War Suns: 0/2

Units (Location)
Darien: Space Dock x1, PDS x2, GF x4, Carrier x1, Dreadnought x1, Destroyer x2
Tar'Mann: GF x1, Dreadnought x2, Cruiser x1
Centauri: GF x1
Gral: GF x1
Thibah: Dreadnought x1
East Wormhole: GF x2, Fighter x4, Destroyer x1, Carrier x2

Egarwaen is up!

Any particular preference for if your GF are both on one Carrier, or one on each?

Oh, and your Dreadnought can't retreat to Wormhole B; you moved it to Thibah last round.

Dunno why I put that in that line, I left it on the Thibah line too.

One on each is great.

So on the withdrawal front:
- Does it take a CC from your command pool, or reserves to back out with that card?
- Is it possible to do the same thing without the card too, you just end up taking taking a combat round's worth of hits first?

It doesn't say specifically where to take it from, but it doesn't specify Command/Strategy/Fleet, which is why I just placed one from the supply into Activations. Here's the full text:

Skilled Retreat - Play before any round of a space battle. Choose one of your fleets that is participating in a space battle. Place a Command Counter in an adjacent, unactivated friendly or empty system, and move the fleet there.

And yes, the Tactical Retreat is the same action, except after a full round of combat.

– It comes from your Strategy Allocation for a Tactical Retreat (standard retreats have to be to an already-activated system). For this card it comes from your reinforcements. I may have simplified the wording during transcription.
– Yes, and the CC comes from SA.

If you're the attacker, you can only withdraw, which is like a standard retreat in regard to having to flee to a previously activated system.

It's my turn! And it's time for Production!

I'm tapping Muaat, Lesab, and Resculon for 8 resources, plus 2 from Production, plus 1 from Sarween tools and building at Muaat:

• 1x Dreadnought
• 1x Carrier
• 1x PDS
• 1x Destroyer

PLANETS (Resources/Influence)
Muaat (4/1)
Lesab (2/1, Green Tech Spec)
Resculon (2/0)
Coorneeq (1/2, Red Tech Spec)
El'Nath (2/0, Blue Tech Spec)
Arinam - 1/2, Blue Tech Specialty
Meer - 0/4

UNITS (Deployed/Total)
Space Dock - 1/3
Ground Forces - 6
PDS - 1/6
Fighters: 6
Carriers: 2/4
Destroyers: 2/8
Cruisers: 1/8
Dreadnoughts: 3/5
War Suns: 1/2

UNIT DEPLOYMENT
Muaat - 1x Space Dock, 2x Ground Force, 1x PDS, 1x Dreadnought, 1x Destroyer, 1x Carrier
El'Nath - 1x Cruiser, Control Marker, 1x Destroyer
Coorneeq - 1x Ground Force
Lesab - 1x Dreadnought, 1x Carrier, 2x Fighter, 1x Ground Force
Resculon - Control Marker
Arinam/Meer - 1x Dreadnought, 2x Ground Force (1x Arinam, 1x Meer), 1x War Sun, 4x Fighters

Complete your secondary activations, then it's SilentSnake's turn.

`Hrist - built
SilentSnake - built
Epithet - passed
Severian - passed
Google - ?
Egar - Primary
Sarc - dicked over

HOLD IT!

The Mindnet must play an Action Card!

Policy Paralysis: Play immediately after a Strategy Card’s primary ability is resolved. Choose an opponent; that opponent may not use the secondary ability of the Strategy Card.

Sarc shall not build!

OH GOD I HATE YOU SO MUCH

I WISH I COULD HATE YOU TO DEATH

We pass, and applaud the Mindnet for their dickish move.

Passing on the secondary.

I am spending a Command Counter from my Strategy Allocation to build (using a bunch of planets and Sarween Tools) at Quann a War Sun and two Fighters.

CONSUMABLES
Action Cards: 3
Political Cards: 0
Trade Goods: 1

COMMAND COUNTERS
Command Pool: 2
Strategy Allocation: 1
Fleet Supply: 6
Activations: 0
Total in play: 9/16

PLANETS (Resources/Influence)
[0.0.0.] – 5/0
Mellon – 0/2
Zohbat – 3/1, Blue tech specialty
Rigel I – 0/1
Rigel II – 1/2
Rigel III – 1/1, Blue tech specialty
Quann – 2/1, Green tech specialty
Wellon - 1/2

Look, man. If you want Mecatol Rex so bad I'll just give it to you next round. I'm sure you can demolish my ships, but I think even your fleet will have difficulty dislodging all my Ground Forces. Surely we don't need all this unpleasantness!

That sounds good, but what guarantee do I have that you'll take everything you have off the planet?

None but my word. But you have my personal guarantee that if you don't manage to take MR outright by force this round, I'll hold onto it tooth and nail out of spite. I can put a lot of GF down on MR with my racial ability — enough to stall you for a good while. With my SO fulfilled I wanted to clear out this round anyway, but Googleshng put a crimp in that plan.

Your Dreadnought can't bombard with my PDS installations there, and your War Sun can bombard with three dice. You have 4 GF in range to invade, and I have 6 GF and 2 PDS on Mecatol Rex. I can take PDS shots at your ships as they come in, and again at your invading troops. Just with the CCs I have now, I can put 6 more GF on MR after an attack, if I still hold the planet. The math doesn't look good for you.

So you can go after MR in force, probably lose some ships, probably lose some GF and maybe take the planet, or let me clear out peacefully in a round (relatively; without another Carrier I can't actually move everything off the planet), and fight it out with someone else who wants it.

I can vouch for his authenticity here, he warned me to move my dreadnought out of Thibah or he'd drive right over it. This was before MR got sabotaged.

Activate secondary. Exhaust Arc Prime and Wren Terra to build three cruisers at Hope's End

COMMAND COUNTERS
Command Pool: 2
Strategic Allocation: 0
Fleet Supply: 6 (+1)

CONSUMABLES
Action Cards: 3
Trade Goods: 1

PLANETS (Resources/Influence)
Arc Prime – 4/0
Wren Terra – 2/1
Qucen'n - 1/2
Primor -- 2/1 Ground Troop Refresh)
Rarron -- 0/3 (Green Tech Spec)
Hope's End -- 3/0 (Shock Troopers)
Lirta IV -- 2/3 (Green Tech Spec)
Bereg -- 3/1 (Red Tech Spec)
Lodor -- 3/1

UNITS (Deployed/Total)
Arc Prime/Wren Terra -- Space Dockx2, Dreadnoughtx2, Carrierx2, Fightersx4, 3x Ground Forces
Qucen'n -- Ground Forcesx1,
Rarron -- Ground Forcesx1
Primor -- Ground Troopx2
Hope's End -- Dreadnoughtx2, Cruiserx3, Fightersx3, Destroyerx1, PDS, Space Dockx1, 3x Ground Trooper, 2x Shock Troopers
Lirta IV: N/A
Bereg: N/A
Lodor: Dreadnoughtx1, Carrierx2, Cruiserx1, Fightersx6, Ground Troopsx2

TECHNOLOGIES OWNED
Hylar V Assault Laser
Antimass Deflectors
XRD Transporters – +1 Carrier movement
Enviro Compensators
Stasis Capsules
Micro Technology
Cybernetics

TRADE CONTRACTS
Mindnet 1 (+1)
Muaat 2 (+1)

VICTORY POINTS: 3

I think Googleshng's the last to decide, then SilentSnake is up.

*glare*

Oh, and I'll have a new map up tonight; I'm out of town tomorrow evening through Monday, so it'll be the last map for a few days. I'll be checking in on the thread, however.

OK, I knew this moment was coming. Time to do complex budgeting for this whole round! Uh... OK this is hard, but on the bright side, I'm totally rollin' in cash right now. Let's go with... exhausting Capha, Starpoint, and Vega Major, in order to build a Dreadnought and 2 Cruisers at Starpoint.

COMMAND COUNTERS
Command Pool: 3
Strategy Allocation: 1
Fleet Supply: 4
Activations: 2

PLANETS (Resources/Influence)
Jol – 1/2
Nar – 2/3
Capha – 3/0
Arnor 2/1
Lor 1/2 (Red Tech Specialty)
Starpoint 3/1
New Albion 1/1 (Green Tech Specialty)
Mehar Xull 1/3 (Blue Tech Specialty)
Mirage 1/2 (Fighters)
Tsion 2/2 (Trade Goods)
Bellatrix 0/1 (Red Tech Specialty)
Vega Major 2/1
Vega Minor 1/2 (Blue Tech Specialty)
Velnor 2/0 (Red Tech Specialty)
Sumerian 2/2 (Trade Goods)
Arcturus 1/1


UNITS
Jol/Nar - Space Dock x1
Starpoint/New Albion - Space Dock x1, PDS x1 (Starpoint), Dreadnought x1, Cruiser x2
Mehar Xull - PDS x1
Mirage - PDS x1
Tsion/Bellatrix - PDS x1
Vega Major/Minor - Ground Forces x3 (1 on Major, 2 on Minor),
Jord - War Sun x1: (Fighter x4, Ground Forces x2), Carrier x1: (Ground Forces x3), Dreadnought x1
Sumerian/Arcturus - War Sun x1, Fighter x2, Dreadnought x2, Carrier x1, Ground Forces x1

And you guys pick on me while Googleshng just builds and builds his enormous war machine.

Hey, you're the one who's winning. I'm just trying cut off your means of swiping those last couple victory points and settling an old semi-rivalry with Sev here. I have no grievance with anyone else, nor any incentive so far as I know to attack them.

Oh, come now. I have two blockaded Space Docks, a smallish fleet and a paltry selection of resource worlds. You have tons of resources, tons of ships, a fleet in my home system and 5 points. I'm 1 point ahead, but I'm not really winning.

You're right, I'm sorry. I'll leave you be and concentrate on stopping that Googleshng jerk from winning instead.

...

WAAAAIIIT a sec! Nice try!

Eh, worth a shot.

MAP!

Sarc: Okay, I think we have an understanding.

Well, might as well just resolve my Strategy card now, anyways.



I'm putting the High Alert token on the Mellon system.

Secondaries now.

Very good.

Pass.

We shall pass