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

I'll take it, assuming our benevolent vampire overlords allow it. You'll be getting your Furby delivery just as soon as I can get all my cruisers over to your home planet....

The N'orr will take your Furbies, so long as you agree that we both stay out of the Nanomachines sector and you never build a space dock on Tequ'ran/Torkan. I hope you like guns'n'ammo with insectoid carapaces and ridiculous pointy bits.

SARDAKK N'ORR TRADE CONTRACTS
N'orr 2—promised to Egarwaen.
N'orr1—offered to Lucas.

The Embers stew for a while. Being the only race that can use their own bodies to cook dinner, they then taste the result. "Delicious. I must say, spoo stew is wholly preferable to atomic hydrogen. Trade? A net plus!"

Proposed Embers of Muaat Trade Contracts
Muaat 2 to `Hrist in exchange for Space Vampires 1
Muaat 2 to Epithet in exchange for N'orr 2

(Subject to Her Space Vampireness' approval, of course. As a package.)

After being snubbed by the burning gas peeps, I've got a 1 Trade Contact available for anyone. Lucas, do your space pirates want to establish a trade route through those wormholes?

By the way, if anyone wants to see their race's full backstories, I can dig out my scanner and put them online. I'm in the middle of moving, so it may be a few days though.

Sounds good, Sev and Epithet.

Proposed Mentak Trade Contracts
Mentak 1 to Epithet for N'orr 1
Mentak 1 Severian for Yin 1

For acting now, I'll even throw in free immunity to Mentak space piracy. Your Official Pillage Waivers are in the mail.

Looks like us space bugs have our trade contracts all sorted out. SPACE BROS 4 LYFE.

SARDAKK N'ORR TRADE CONTRACTS.
Mentak 1
Muaat 2

By the way, can I move my newly built units in my upcoming turn, or is there a rule somewhere keeping me from doing so?

As long as the system they're in isn't activated, you can move them.

Embers seem to hold grudges against whoever does business with their former masters. Instead, we decide to open up a trade route to the great North, up to the Mentak Coalition. Lucas's Pirates really aren't that bad, especially when they're only attacking everyone else.

Proposed Yin Brotherhood Trade Contracts
Yin 1 to Googleshng in exchange for Jol-Nar 1
Yin 1 to Lucas in exchange for Mentak 1

Looks like trade is nearly wrapped up, except for a few confirmations, and Stiv. Does anyone have open contracts he could negotiate for?

Unfortunately, whoever took the L1Z1X videocasette library also figured out that it would be smart to wire the HIGH ALERT switch to the machine that reboots the entire collective (this is my way of explaining that I was gone for several days to look at seals). This means that there's a lot of paperwork on the desk of the HIVEMIND ACCOUNTS PAYABLE desk deep within the bureaucracy of 0.0.0, which is a stupid name for a planet when you think about it, because it should really be 127.0.0.1. Unfortunately, the naming decision was made before the hivemind really got a good hold on that whole "collective" thing, and were kind of just going along with whatever the CYBERMASTER proposed (the word CYBERMASTER is my way of explaining that I think the L1Z1X should probably name things, including themselves, a bit better).

Let's resolve some things! I hope I do this right.

TECHNOLOGY II

HIVEMIND ACCOUNTS PAYABLE finds it an acceptable expenditure to purchase DEEP SPACE CANNONS in order to prevent further assaults on the hivemind memory vault. In order to do so, a command counter is spent, 0.0.0 is exhausted (5) and one (1) political card is spent.

Strategy allocation: 2
Exhausted: 0.0.0

PRODUCTION

HIVEMIND ACCOUNTS PAYABLE does not currently have the funding to produce new units, due to the purchase of (extremely awesome) cannons that will blow stuff up real good. PASS.

TRADE II

HIVEMIND ACCOUNTS PAYABLE and HIVEMIND ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE have had a summit to discuss the viability of trade with suspicious nearby inhabited planetoids which may or may not possess the "VHS" or, perhaps, even "Beta" technology required to watch Silent Night Deadly Night Part 3. Unfortuantely there's so much paper on both of these desks due to the government shutdown that it is completely impossible to tell which contracts might still be available.

(This is my way of saying that both L1Z1X trade contracts are available to any comers willing to trade and I am too lazy and tired to read which ones are still up for grabs.)

Anyone who has trade deals to confirm or who's interested in trading with Stiv, please post by midnight PST tonight. Don't want to stall here too much longer!

Epithet's first action as the Sardakk N'orr is next up.

I assume that 'Hrist is implicitly approving all proposed trades?

She has the option to veto (I think this will go faster than explicit approval with the same effect), but if she says nothing I think you can all assume you're good to go. This round will probably be the most involved in terms of establishing trade, since in future rounds a lot of agreements will probably still be active at the time Trade II is played. Depending on how things shake out it might just be easiest for the Trade II player to state when the card is played if any players won't be approved for agreements. We can see how it goes.

Mechanically, I think the approval aspect of the card is there mainly to prevent players whose agreements you've just dissolved using that option on the Trade II card from simply forming them again a moment later. Since we're early in the game and there's no one at war, there's not much impetus to deny trade agreements. `Hrist could, of course, deny trade agreements between any or all other players, but if someone on the sour end of that takes Trade II in the next round it's not hard to guess whose agreements they'd cancel!

It also gives the person who takes Trade II some leverage when negotiating trade deals. This is a big advantage for the 1/1 races. That's why `Hrist could offer a Space Vampire 1 contract for one of my Muaat 2 contracts - she could, if she wanted, prevent me from forming any trade contract if I didn't play ball with her. It doesn't necessarily mean she would, but it was enough to balance out the deal.

I approve all deals. Carry on!

The Sardakk N'orr unit appeared before Perimeter's sole township, and paused just outside its gates. Each warrior was wearing a suspiciously fuzzy beaked headress. Its commander seized a megaphone and held it to his tentacly face-bits.
"I have but one announcement to make."
"Me hungryyyy."
"You just ate, ya dumb thing. Regardless, this world is now under the unconditional control of the Sardakk N'orr. Resistance by feeble, apostrophe-less creatures will not be tolerated."

Activating Perimeter, and moving carrier x1, fighter x1, and GF x1 (from Tren'lak) from home space to Perimeter and capturing the planet.

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

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

UNITS (Deployed/Total)
Home space - Cruiser x1, GF x 1, Fighter x1
A/L/A space- Carrier x1
Abbadon - GF x1
Loki- GF x1
Ashtroth - GF x1
Perimeter space - Carrier x1, GF x1, Fighter x1.

And we're off again! Post any trade loose ends as you please before the deadline above; after that trade will be considered closed for the round. You can simply update your previous posts with final arrangements, if you like.

Stiv is up!

As noted before, the Space Vampires now have the following trade contracts:

Sol 2
Muaat 2

The Feddies and Muaat each receive a 1 trade good pact from Letnev.

Not directly related to our current game, but there's a neat preview of the new races in the Shards of the Throne expansion.

A timely turn? Why, I never. But I just did.

L1Z1X FLEET CONTROL has determined that reconnaissance in nearby systems is necessary in order to ensure that the videocasette library has not been "misplaced" on a nearby planet, as has sometimes happened in the past (due to a fatal programming error, sometimes the L1Z1X mistakenly believe they have to "return some videotapes" when placed in awkward situations). To this end:

1. TACTICAL ACTION, Activating Mellon/Zombhat (??)
2. Move:
- Dreadnaught (carrying 1 ground force, allowed by stasis capsules)
- Carrier (carrying 2 ground forces, 2 fighters)
- HIGH ALERT token
3. LANDING:
- Carrier unloads one ground force onto Mellon (finding no videotapes, but some inhabitants who are capable of acting like normal galactic citizens) - L1Z1X takes control.
- Carrier unloads one ground force onto Zombhat (finding no videotapes, but lots of abandoned production facilities) - L1Z1X takes control.

FLEET CONTROL REPORT
Command Pool: 2
Planets: Zombhat [3/1], Mellon [0/2]
Fleet:
- Carrier + 2 x Fighter : Z/M
- Dreadnaught + 1 x GF : Z/M
- HIGH ALERT : Z/M
- 1 X GF : Zombhat
- 1 x GF : Mellon
- No trace of the missing hivemind property

The quest for entertainment continues (and that one planet is Zohbat):



And here is the current trade contract status, as I follow. Let me know if I've made any mistakes:

Sol
Letnev 1
Jol-Nar 3

Letnev
Sol 2
Muaat 2

Jol-Nar
Sol 2
Yin 1

Sardakk
Muaat 2
Mentak 1

Mentak
Yin 1
Sardakk 1

Yin
Jol-Nar 1
Mentak 1

Muaat
Letnev 1
Sardakk 2

L1Z1X
L1Z1X 1
L1Z1X 1

So Stiv is effectively locked out of trading this round, because all the agreements are taken. Poor Stiv.

Lucas is up!

Chamberlain Kir� Shvass (yeah I'm just going with that now - do you know how hard it is to make a "�"?) looks at the latest reports of interstellar fleet movements and is dismayed. "All the other species have like twenty planets already! We didn't buy that big carrier for nothing! Get it out there and get colonizing!"

I'm going to activate the Tequ'ran/Torkan system, load three ground forces and my PDS into the carrier, assign the fighter as an escort, and move the whole shebang to the activated system. I'll unload the PDS and drop one ground force on Torkan and two on Tequ'ran to claim them.

Command pool: 2
Planets:
Moll Primus 4/1 - 3 GF
Tequ'ran 2/0 - 2 GF
Torkan 0/3 - 1 GF

And of course a carrier, PDS, and fighter around Tequ'ran/Torkan and three cruisers and a space dock around Moll Primus.

And unless I'm mistaken, Googleshng is up.

It's quite easy for me to make an e�, but then again I cheat and have the US International keyboard layout. (AltGr+d). Really, you can just replace e� with th (or d, since the Nordic languages do that for some facepalm-inducing reason Wikip�dia fails to mention).

Now to do what I was planning to do before all these secondary action distractions, and before actually having the manpower to do it!

Activating Arnor/Lor: Moving Carrier, Fighter, Ground Forcesx3, PDS from Na/Jol and capturing both planets.

PLANETS (Resources/Influence)
Jol – 1/2
Nar – 2/3
Capha – 3/0
Arnor 2/1
Lor 1/2 (Red Tech Specialty)

TRADE CONTRACTS
Yin 1
Sol 2


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

UNITS
Jol/Nar - Space Dock x1
Capha - Ground Forces x1, PDS x1, Carrier x1, Dreadnought x1
Arnor/Lor - PDS x1, Ground Forces x3, Carrier x1, Fighter x1

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

Sarc is up.[/QUOTE]

And wow... I'm laying out a whole lot more of my stuff than everyone else with these status reports...

You may post as much of your status info as you like each turn, of course, but for most actions simply noting status changes is sufficient. That's what I've been doing, anyway. At the end of the round I'll ask you all to send or post your overall status info so everyone can go into the next round with a clear picture and no need to hunt for who controls what system with which units.

If you specify which planets/ships your Ground Forces are stationed on, though, that'll help me with the map images. Otherwise I'll just spread them around evenly.

The Federation of Sol activates the Beta Wormhole system and sends Jord's lone Destroyer there on a mysterious mission of mystery. (Note: You can move through systems you've activated, you just can't stop in them or move units out. You can also pick up Ground Forces as you pass through a system containing them.)

COMMAND COUNTERS
Command Pool: 0
Strategy Allocation: 1
Fleet Supply: 3
Activations: 3

UNIT DEPLOYMENT
Jord space: Empty
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
Beta Wormhole: Destroyer x1

severian is up.

Oh hey, here's a rule I somehow missed: Trade Goods can be spent as resources OR influence.

I repeat: Trade Goods can be spent as resources OR influence.

The Yins are getting nowhere searching for love around the galaxy. Maybe if we ask all the other races where the happening bars are (preferably low lit places) we'll be able to go somewhere.

Executing Strategic Action - Assembly



I do the random number generator dealie and draw one Political card and two Action Cards. I will choose option A, and grab the speaker token.

I choose my friend and neighbor Googleshng to play a political card. If he does not have any left (if he discarded them for resources or influence) then he draws a random one from the Political card document and executes it.

All political cards require a vote, either for a law, player(s), or for public objectives. Before voting begins, we can all try to convince everyone to vote in your favor, but the voting begins at the Speaker's left (or next number, in our format), and the Speaker ends the vote.

The number of votes you have is equal to your unexhausted Influence. If you have exhausted all of your planets, then you still get 1 measly vote. When voting, it would be nice if you can keep a running tally of the current votes below your contribution.

Googleshng, you're up! Play a Politic card.

To break the above down into a handy-dandy list format, as I am wont to do, here is the progression of events:

Googleshng will play a Political Card, which we will vote on in this order:

1. Egarwaen
2. Stiv
3. Ephithet
4. Lucas
5. `Hrist
6. Sarcasmorator
7. Googleshng
8. severian (SPEAKER)

Do you want to set a time limit on debate, or shall we forgo it and simply vote?

but is abstaining allowed?