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

I already stabbed him in the back once, I'm not a triple-crosser! I've only got beefs with the gassy bros, and since I have short attention spans, that won't last long either.

Well let's see... if I take up Sarc on that, and get the vote of either Egar or Sev at the expense of the other, that's... still one more person I'd have to flip by my math not to be taxed to death. Anyone else want to court extra favor with the space brains?

Are you guys seriously barganing with the Always Chaotic Evil player?

Since you're swimming in moneys, I'll flip for 12 resources and one of the command counters you get from Leadership

Not especially. Taking Sev's deal would mean picking a fight with the one person possibly inclined to vote my way without bribery, break a trade agreement, and have to deal with someone's war sun. On the other hand, I might be able to tie the vote up if I did it, which begs the question-

How do ties work out here? Fails by default, or broken by the speaker?

Also, nobody willing to take a bribe in the form of some trade goods? Really?

I'm planning on voting in your favor; I just can't yet because doing so ends voting, and I want to let you try to flip some other votes. And I don't think you can trade Command Counters... Can you? If you can, I totally want some. (Well, no, not really. Just having someone take the Trade strategy would be awesome though.)

ETA: Ties are broken by the speaker.

I believe only Trade Goods can be freely given to another player.

severian is correct.

What lockdown? With Warfare II, I have fleets within striking range of at least three players other than you right now. But I am a friend to all!

Anyway, all you're locking down is Jord, and I think you'll find it exceedingly difficult to conquer. Gen Synthesis takes effect whenever GF die.

But again, give me your assurance that you'll do as I ask, and I'll switch my vote.

Not really opposed to going all nicey-nice (although, again, need to persuade at least one more person to pull that off, anyone feel like weighing on on whether they're willing to budge on that?) but, just for clarity's sake, are you sure about the gen synthesis bit? Because that seems totally wrong. The tech description doesn't specify "after all combat is resolved" but it's pretty clearly implied. I mean, if I landed a bunch of troops there, would we have to make a roll for every single one that died to see if they immediately get up, until they all died and failed their revival roll?

Damn

Well, I'll change my vote for trade goods and a measure of good will then

So that's me throwing a trade good at 'Hrist and a peace and reparations type treaty at Sarc and them voting Against then?

Yep. Change my final vote to against.

I'm sure. The technology states no condition other than to make a roll when one of your GF is destroyed (not scuttled, of course). The tech makes it very, very difficult to take over a well-defended homeworld. Even with X-89 and a War Sun bombardment, you'd have to have an attack force large enough to kill off any leftovers, and then any that keep coming back to life, ad infinitum until the defender's die-rolling luck goes sour.

The tech descriptions on the front page have slightly different wording than the game's actual cards because I was typing them up quickly at the time (and there's been more than one link to tech trees with the original text), but I took care to make sure the meanings were the same. Here's the original card text: "When one of your Ground Force units is destroyed, roll a die. On a result of 5+, the unit is instead returned to a planet in your Home System."

GF can even revive in time for another combat round. The FAQ addresses the tech thus:

Q: If a player with the Gen Synthesis technology is attacked on his only Home System planet, do his troops regenerate on that planet during combat? Can they fight in that combat?
A: Yes. If the player rolls 5+ for a destroyed Ground Force unit, that unit would remain on the Home System planet and continue to participate in the combat.

I'm still voting For with ten votes. I tried being nice, it didn't suit me.

Alright, the Barony of Space Vampires will change their vote for trade goods, goodwill and.... BLOOD

No, we're not being aggressive. Just feeling a little peckish is all.

(Oh, and I need at least two trade goods, Google)

OK, 2's still doable. So now I can go ahead and play the garbage card I went insane and held instead of Veto which would have avoided this whole mess and finally vote!

Fantastic Rhetoric: Play immediately before voting on a Political Card. Gain 10 additional influence for one vote.

So that's 27 against from me. Plus 22 more from dirty back alley bargaining, for a total of
34 for to 47 against before Egar weighs in with 10 votes.

In celebration of things eventually working out, in the spirit of fairness and happiness, the magnanimous space brains will be setting up scholarships for representatives of those planets who valiantly opposed such a discriminatory bill once the great galactic university is finally complete.

Let me sneak on in here with an updated MAP

I'd also like to point out that the law doesn't say the player who's ahead in terms of planets when it passes. It says whoever's ahead at any particular moment gets buttfucked.

As such, 10 votes against.

Once Sarc confirms the result, Epithet is up.

Motion voted down!

Anyone doing the secondary? Most people have all their planets untapped, I think.

Epithet is up.

I don't have any tapped planets.

Activating Perimeter, and moving Cruiser x1 from Ashtaroth, Cruiser x1, Dreadnought x1, Carrier x1 (w/ GF x2), and Fighter x4 from home space, and Dreadnought x1 from Vefut II.

COMMAND COUNTERS
Command Pool: 1
Strategy Allocation: 2
Fleet Supply: 7

UNITS
Home space - Fighter x1, Cruiser x2,
Quinarra - PDS x1, GF x1, Space Dock x1
Vefut II - GF x1
Vefut II space - Destroyer x1
Abyz - GF x2, PDS x1, Space Dock x1
Perimeter Space - Cruiser x2, Dreadnought x2, Carrier x1, GF x2, Fighter x4

PDS roll: 10 (+1)

A splendid hit! We be turning it up to 11.

Oh yeah sorry. Forgot there was still the secondary after all that. Passing.

Before combat!

Disclosure: Play at any time. Look at all of an opponent’s Action cards, and choose one to discard.

I will expect your hand in my inbox, Epithet.

Speaking of Action cards, I just noticed that I've got one that refers to the Political Strategy Card, which isn't in play. The Shattered Empires rules say to discard and draw again when that happens; anyone got any objections to me doing so now?

Go ahead. There are a couple in the deck that won't apply to our particular game.

Discarding Determine Policy.

PDS Roll: 10

My Dreadnought will take a hit.

Also taking a hit to a Dreadnought.

Round 1 rolls:

Fighters: 5 1 2 2 (+2)

Cruisers: 8 9 (+2)

Dreadnougats: 8 7 (+1)

Carrier: 1 (+1)

4 hits!

I'm discarding: Council Dissolved: Play immediately after a player executes the primary ability of the Political Strategy Card. The player who executed the card does not draw a Political Card.

No Political strategy card in this game! Boo!

I draw #53, #99 to replace it.

You don't need to stick the base 64 code in there. That's just ugly!

Combat Rolls:

Dreadnoughts: 4 + 1, 4 + 1

Cruiser: 6 + 1

Carrier: 4

Fighter: 10 + 1

4 Hits!

My other Dreadnought will take damage, and my Fighter, Carrier, and Cruiser will be destroyed.

Taking out my four fighters.

Round 2 rolls:

Dreadnoughts: 4 5 (+1)

Cruisers: 2 7 (+2)

Carrier: 7 (+1)

3 hits!

Round 2:

Dreadnoughts: 3 + 1, 6 + 1

1 Hit

That'll take care of my Dreads.