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

You sure you can do that? Hits are supposed to be all applied at once instantaneously aren't they? Anyway, while I don't think I can come close to using them all this turn, I'm going to start seriously hoarding the CCs.



Exhausting Mehar Xull, Bellatrix, and Vega Minor to also squeeze everything I can from the secondary, putting one in supply, the rest in... command I guess since there's only 2 strategy cards left to be played I guess.

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

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

Also- Check PMs Sarc.

Tapping Loki for an extra CC, and putting it in Command Pool.

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

PLANETS
Quinarra – 3/1
Tren’lak – 1/0
Ashtroth 2/0
Abbadon 1/0 (red tech specialty)
Loki 1/2
Perimeter 2/2
Abyz 3/0
Vefut II 2/0 (red tech specialty)

Egarwaen: 4 Or 5, I'm AFK right now.

Google: I think so, but I'll defer to our showrunner here. I did some searching but didn't find a definite answer.

Tapping Lirta IV and Rarron for 6 influence and 3 CCs. All going into command pool.

COMMAND COUNTERS
Command Pool: 4
Strategic Allocation: 1
Fleet Supply: 6 (+1)

CONSUMABLES
Action Cards: 3
Trade Goods: 3

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
Fria -- 2/0

UNITS (Deployed/Total)
Arc Prime/Wren Terra -- Space Dockx2
Blame -- Dreadnoughtx2, Carrierx2, Fightersx4, 3x Ground Forces
Qucen'n -- Ground Forcesx1,
Rarron -- Ground Forcesx1
Primor -- Ground Troopx2
Hope's End -- Cruiserx1, Fightersx3, Destroyerx1, PDS, Space Dockx1, 2x Ground Trooper, 1x Shock Troopers
Lirta IV: N/A
Bereg: N/A
Lodor: Carrierx1, Ground Troopsx2
Fria: Dreadnoughtx3, Cruiserx2, Carrierx1, Fighterx2, 3x Ground Trooper, 1x Shock Trooper

TECHNOLOGIES OWNED
Hylar V Assault Laser
Antimass Deflectors
XRD Transporters – +1 Carrier movement
Enviro Compensators
Stasis Capsules
Micro Technology
Cybernetics
Integrated Economy
Sarween Tools
Deep Space Cannon
War Sun

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

He can. You assign hits in the order you please, and you can play an "at any time" card at, well, any time. He can't bring a dead ship to life with it, but he can repair a damaged ship and then apply another hit to it.

And I'll tap Mecatol Rex for 6 influence to buy 3 CCs.

COMMAND COUNTERS
Command Pool: 3
Strategy Allocation: 1
Fleet Supply: 9
Activations: 0
Total in play: 13/16

PLANETS (Resources/Influence)
Jord – 4/2
Lazar – 1/0
Sakulag – 2/1
Thibah – 1/1
Mecatol Rex — 1/6

This page talks about it, and though it's not an official response, it makes sense.

Egarwaen, I have 5 Action Cards now. I had tried to play a card in the Strategy Phase earlier, but it wasn't the right time for it.

CONSUMABLES
Action Cards: 5
Political Cards: 1
Trade Goods: 0

And I'll exhaust Centauri, Tar'Mann and Lisis for 3, and place one in Command and two in Fleet.

PLANETS (Resources/Influence)
Darien – 2/4
Centauri - 1/3
Gral - 1/1, Blue Tech Specialty
Tar'Mann - 1/1
Lisis - 2/2


COMMAND COUNTERS
Command Pool: 3
Strategy Allocation: 3
Fleet Supply: 7
Activations: 1
Total in play: 14/16

I'm going to tap Arinam and Meer for 3 CCs, and put all into my SA pool.

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

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

And yeah, no, that's just another terrible rule in this game that makes no sense and needs to be called out explicitly in the rulebook, but isn't because the authors couldn't write a limerick without screwing up.

And I was so close to wanting to buy a copy too. But leaving shit like that in the game? That's just blatantly dumb.

I don't think this is a particularly ambiguous card. It says it can be played at any time, and so it's legal to play it to fix a unit with Sustain Damage immediately after it's been assigned damage. Similarly, playing a Sabotage card can also be done at any time, and would cancel a Direct Hit (or Emergency Repairs, for that matter) even if other hits hadn't been assigned yet (Direct Hit is played immediately after a unit is damaged, not immediately after all hits have been assigned, so obviously the process can be interrupted).

Now, if Emergency Repairs goes goes up against a Direct Hit, it all comes down to initiative order.

Now seems like a good time for a new map.

So here you go!

The Mindnet is exhausting Mellon, Rigel I, Rigel II, and Rigel III to put 3 CCs in their Command Pool.

COMMAND COUNTERS
Command Pool: 4
Strategy Allocation: 1
Fleet Supply: 7
Activations: 1
Total in play: 13/16

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

That's everyone. SilentSnake, you're up!

Demilitarizing Zohbat

Passing

Passing!

Passing

Passing.

Sarc, my main problem here is a game design one. Having a card that completely undoes the results of a combat for one side is enormously poor game design, particularly when it works by screwing with the atomic nature of actions. It makes warfare enormously dependent on luck of the draw, rather than good logistics and strategic planning. It biases battles heavily towards the existing victor, rather than allowing an over-matched fleet to come back, or at least inflict some casualties on the attacker. There is no card in the deck that you can play during a battle that says "All opposing ships die"; why should there be a card you can play that, in practice, says "You don't get to deal damage"?

If it were just this one card, I might write it off as a simple mistake. But it's stacked on top of a half-dozen other game design mistakes to demonstrate a severe lack of aptitude on the part of the designers. Or possibly simply a fondness for degenerate, strategy-less play modes.

I see your point — to a point. But battles in this game are entirely luck-based to begin with. You can try to improve your chances by bringing lots of ships with a high hit chance, but without a really overpowering fleet it's literally down to a roll of the dice. Action Cards mitigate the luck factor of battles (if you've been lucky enough to draw one that does so, of course). This card didn't undo the entire battle for his side — his Dreadnoughts are damaged. If he hadn't had the card, he'd still have two damaged Dreadnoughts but no Destroyers, I should think.

In the game I played a couple weeks ago, I destroyed a large attacking fleet with a single Dreadnought, an Emergency Repairs card and an Experimental Battle Station card (allows a Space Dock to fire as a PDS three times). Having those cards in my hand affected my decision to remain in the system that was attacked — I knew I had a chance of defending it, just as severian must have known he was attacking a fleet he could probably destroy with ships he could probably save. But he didn't know if you had anything that could counter him, and there's no accounting for crappy dice luck, so it's not like there was no risk (or no strategic planning) on his part.

We are all planning to stick around this thread after the game finishes and critique the hell out of the overall design right? Because I'm looking forward to doing that.

And yeah, passing on Dip.

I'm game for that. I DO agree there are flaws (a 14-page FAQ is testament enough to that), but I'd be interested to see how many are the same flaws others see.

One thing to keep in mind: Some of the flaws may be unique to the specific setup we have for this game! There are three different No. 8 cards, each with its own method of giving players Victory Points. Part of why I think the flaws I see are worth dealing with is that this game is so widely variable. Next game I'm planning to mix things up a lot.

Passing!

Actually, I'd like to revise my action on this card. I'm going to spend a CC, discard a Political Card, and tap Coorneeq to re-acquire Lisis. I discard:

Free Trade (LAW)
“Let the shields open, and let all races embrace trade, for it is the wheel of wealth!”
For: Each time a player receives Trade Goods from his active trade agreements, he receives one additional Trade Good.
Against: All players must discard two Trade Goods from their Trade Goods areas, if able.

CONSUMABLES
Action Cards: 4
Political Cards: 0
Trade Goods: 0

COMMAND COUNTERS
Command Pool: 2
Strategy Allocation: 2
Fleet Supply: 3
Total in play: 7/16

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
Lisis - 2/2

That's everyone! On to Egarwaen.

I'm playing an action card.

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

Successful Spy: Play as an Action. Take 2 random Action Cards from an opponent.

I'm targeting severian, mostly to avoid antagonizing Googleshng who, I'll admit, would be a better target. Sarc, resolve the random selection however you like.

Once that's done, I believe SilentSnake is up. And silent.

I'd say the best way to go would be for severian to number his cards and do a random.org draw to determine what you get. Or he can encode them like the Action Card list, and you can pick two to decode and keep.

SilentSnake just went before you. Epithet is up.

I'll just label them 1-5, and use random.org and give you them. Let's see, when I get home you will get number 5 and 3.

Awww yeahhhhh



Tapping Abyz and using the extra resources from the primary to build Fighter x4 and Carrier x1 in home space.

PLANETS
Quinarra – 3/1
Tren’lak – 1/0
Ashtroth 2/0
Abbadon 1/0 (red tech specialty)
Loki 1/2
Perimeter 2/2
Abyz 3/0
Vefut II 2/0 (red tech specialty)

UNITS
Home space - Fighter x5, Cruiser x2, Carrier x1
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 x1 (damaged), Carrier x1
Perimeter - GF x1

I'm going to want to wait until I see what Action Cards I've pried out of severian, but I'm presently planning to tap that.

That Action Card I played earlier means I can do this without spending a CC. So I'm gonna!

I'll tap Thibah and Sakulag for 3 resources, adding the 1 from Sarween Tools to build 2 Destroyers and a Cruiser at Thibah.

PLANETS (Resources/Influence)
Jord – 4/2
Lazar – 1/0
Sakulag – 2/1
Thibah – 1/1
Mecatol Rex — 1/6

Tapping remaining planets for 12 resources to build a War Sun at Hope's End, which shall immediately be christened White Base. Toss in a trade good for two fighters.

To quote Epithet: Awwwwwwww yeah

COMMAND COUNTERS
Command Pool: 4
Strategic Allocation: 0
Fleet Supply: 6 (+1)

CONSUMABLES
Action Cards: 3
Trade Goods: 2

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
Fria -- 2/0

UNITS (Deployed/Total)
Arc Prime/Wren Terra -- Space Dockx2
Blame -- Dreadnoughtx2, Carrierx2, Fightersx4, 3x Ground Forces
Qucen'n -- Ground Forcesx1,
Rarron -- Ground Forcesx1
Primor -- Ground Troopx2
Hope's End -- War Sunx1, Cruiserx1, Fightersx5, Destroyerx1, PDS, Space Dockx1, 2x Ground Trooper, 1x Shock Troopers
Lirta IV: N/A
Bereg: N/A
Lodor: Carrierx1, Ground Troopsx2
Fria: Dreadnoughtx3, Cruiserx2, Carrierx1, Fighterx2, 3x Ground Trooper, 1x Shock Trooper

TECHNOLOGIES OWNED
Hylar V Assault Laser
Antimass Deflectors
XRD Transporters – +1 Carrier movement
Enviro Compensators
Stasis Capsules
Micro Technology
Cybernetics
Integrated Economy
Sarween Tools
Deep Space Cannon
War Sun

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

So how weird is it that the most cordial relationship I've had going this whole game is with the one faction the backstory says should be my mortal enemy?

Anyway yeah, tapping out, building oh... a dreadnought and 2 destroyers in Jol/Nar. Which works out super great. I hit that supply cap I just increased, and get to play with the ship types whose final upgrades I just swept up for the heck of it.

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

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

Jol/Nar - Space Dock x1, Dreadnought x1, Destroyer x4
Starpoint/New Albion - Space Dock x1, Ground Forces x2, PDS x1 (Starpoint), Cruiser x2
Mehar Xull - PDS x1
Mirage - PDS x1, Dreadnought x1, Cruiser x1, Fighter x2
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
Bandwagon - Cruiser x2

If you're referring to me, the Space Vampires like everyone. Except for giant space bugs, because oh god giant space bugs.