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

Nah, he just spent "5 days away" at "PAX" and wanted to spend "time" with his "fiancee."

Sorry all! If you all were at PAX then we coulda set up the game as is there, and knocked out the whole thing in a day. I ended up meeting 2 of the 3 dropouts from the game, but no current players.

I'll get to whatever I am going to do by 5:30PM Pacific time.

Psst Sarc, last time when you took over East Wormhole, I hit you twice. Damage another Crusier, and also please tell me how they have Sustain Damage, must have missed it.

Also, can you invade when you retreat, or does that not count as an actual activation?

Regardless, I do my switcheroo on Darien.

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


Googleshng is up!

OK... it hasn't been my turn in forever and I don't really feel like digging out the last map, but I'm pretty sure I have a bunch of cruisers out where someone who may wish me ill might have untapped ships and I have a ridiculous number of action cards, so I'll just go ahead and play this.

Enhanced Armor: Play as an Action. Cruisers gain Sustain Damage until the end of the round.

Believe Snake's up next.

And to answer Sev's question- Sarc actually also just recently played this exact same card.

Hit noted, and as Googleshng says, I used that same Action Card. And no, retreats don't count as regular activations; you can't invade.

But fun fact: You CAN use a retreat strategically in order to get a little extra distance for a movement at the risk of losing ships. Just activate the system you want to retreat to (either beforehand or using the Tactical Retreat) get into a fight adjacent to it, and announce a retreat immediately. You can actually leapfrog over a defending fleet this way. And if the defense is really weak, like a single ship, there's no real risk to you.

I'll try to upload a new map tonight.

That retreat strategy sounds interesting, just make sure you don't kill the fleet before you can move on.

There's a lot of little moves like that one that only come into play once you master all the little nonsense ones.

The game Diplomacy has a similar mechanic, and it's not at all unheard of for people to attack their allies in order to set the situation up deliberately and get to make their retreat after everyone else has already moved, giving quite an advantage. (The risk in that game is that you don't really know whether people you think are your allies are really to be trusted or not...)

Yeah, it's best done with a Skilled Retreat card if you can pull that off (of course, a Flanking Maneuver will ruin your day).

And heeeeeeeeeere's

THE MAP

Passing

Egarwaen, it is your time!

I passed didn't I?

I guess you did! Epithet, too, so I'm up.

I'll activate Jord and tap my remaining planets for 5 resources, +1 from Sarween Tools and +1 from my Political Card, for a total of 7 to build a Carrier (3), 4 Fighters (2) and a Cruiser (2).

Political Cards: 0

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

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

`Hrist is up!

Passing

severian!

We buy stuff.

CC on Darien, exhaust Darien and Gral for 5 points, and place a Dreadnought there.

COMMAND COUNTERS
Command Pool: 2
Strategy Allocation: 3
Fleet Supply: 7
Activations: 3
Total in play: 15/16



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

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

Units (Location)
Darien: Space Dock x1, PDS x2, Dreadnought x1
Arinam/Meer Space: GF x4, Carrier x1, Fighter x2
Centauri: GF x1
Gral: GF x1
Vega: GF x2, Fighter x2, Destroyer x1, Carrier x2, Dreadnought x1
Tar’Mann: Dreadnought x2, Destroyer x2

Googleshng is up!

Oh, and when it comes around to me again we pass.

Cool beans. And just to save time, I'm also passing when I'm up next — which means once Googleshng's turn is done, effectively so is the round!

1. Googleshng — Leadership (1)
2. SilentSnake — Diplomacy II (2) — PASSED
3. Egarwaen (SPEAKER) — Assembly (3) — PASSED
4. Epithet — Production (4) — PASSED
5. Sarcasmorator — Warfare II (6) — PASSED*
6. `Hrist — Technology II (7) — PASSED
7. severian — Bureaucracy (8) — PASSED*

Pre-declared passes marked with a *

And also, the game!

First off, just because why not, I'll activating Arnor/Lor, moving that last destroyer from Jol/Nar over for a little victory dance.

COMMAND COUNTERS
Command Pool: 0
Strategy Allocation: 1
Fleet Supply: 5
Activations: 8

Jol/Nar - Space Dock x1
Starpoint/New Albion - Space Dock x1, Ground Forces x2, PDS x1 (Starpoint), Cruiser x2
Mehar Xull - PDS x1, War Sun x1, Fighter x2, Dreadnought x1, Ground Forces x8 (4 on Major, 4 on Minor), Destroyer x1
Mirage - PDS x1, Dreadnought x1, Cruiser x1, Fighter x2
Tsion/Bellatrix - PDS x1
Sumerian/Arcturus - War Sun x1, Fighter x2, Dreadnought x2, Carrier x1, Ground Forces x1
Bandwagon - Cruiser x2
Capha - Destroyer x1
Ion Storm (East) - Destroyer x1
Mate: Carrier x1, Fighter x2, Dreadnought x1
Arnor/Lor: Destroyer x1

After that, Sarc passes, apparently, and finally, I pass.

We want to formally start off the status phase, or do I just point out that on top of my 6 VP coming in, I qualify for both that new 2 pointer, having at least 5 techs of one color... in three different colors even, and also my secret objective (which can be claimed at the same time)?

Expansionist: I control 8 systems outside of my home system (control every planet and have at least 1 non-Fighter ship in the system). (2 points)

That's 10 points... and I'm first in the initiative order too.

For those curious, I actually could have swung that even with the double movement costs that law I bribed my way out of, juuuust barely. Wouldn't have moved off Jord, Sarc would have no reason not to attack me, but a freebie retreat card wouldn't let that set me back much.

Googleshng does indeed win the game with 10 points. Man, 4 points in in one round. Brutal. Congratulations to you on your victory, space brains!

Since you're first in initiative order for the Status Phase, you'd win immediately upon its start. No one else is even able to score a point first, barring an Action Card or something, but I can't think of any that would affect your win. Two points from the Stage II tech objective and 2 points from your Secret Objective plus your 6 gives you a decisive win.

And here is our game-end map. (Except for Googleshng's last move, because I made the map earlier tonight.)

Well-played, everyone! I hope you all enjoyed playing as much as I did!

Nice trick there, Google. I was thinking about jumping you, but that 3-point trade good you threw at me and Sev's obnoxiousness saved your ass. I knew I couldn't afford to move a force past him, even with the Action Card that let me move through enemy systems, without him finding some way to stab me in the back.

I'll post more detailed game design thoughts tomorrow.

Yeah, Sev did some really weird crazy stuff... pretty constantly there. Also, sorry again for how I DRAGGED THINGS OUT those last couple rounds. Life just kinda caught up with me there. Anyway, quick thoughts on the game itself...

- Generally, it's pretty nifty, once you get used to all the weird kludginess involved in making a boardgame play like a computer game.

- I totally stand by my point about being able to force someone with no hand to play a political card having a terrible effect on that whole mechanic.

- Honestly, I'm not really a fan of how victory points work here. Mind throwing the whole list in here (secrets too) Sarc so I can be sure this wasn't just a this-game thing? Really, it seems to me like if I actually had the whole list at the start of the game, aside from maybe the first round, I'd have no problem at all grabbing one every turn (which, come to think of it, I managed even playing blind here). Most seem to be things you really can't practically stop someone else from obtaining unless you just completely crush them and remove them from the game. You can keep people from winning a fight against 3 ships just by not leaving an opening, and preventing space dock blockades is easy enough, but there seem to be way too many freebies. Can't help but think it'd be more interesting with a shorter list of harder goals, all of which are available from the very beginning. I mean, yeah, nice having a way to mix things up, but it's really not very good as a randomizing element either.

- Even with the wormholes, this doesn't really seem to work well with this many people (maybe if both ends of a wormhole were collectively treated as just one single space?). You could practically have split the board in half and had us playing two different games without it having any real effect on what anyone was doing... although that may also just be because everyone was playing things pretty passively.

... Damn.

lol

gg Google. I knew that the game was ending soon, but I didn't think it would end this turn. Space brains indeed!

My secret was getting really scary and indefeatable, while being really cowardly and nice to everyone!

Also playing a potentially broken race.

Also totally getting a lucky break on that last victory card.

I'll post more later on, but the Universities of Jol-Nar faction isn't broken. You have a ton of tech, but I'd say only one was instrumental in your win. Maybe two. Your unchecked expansion and military growth was your key to victory, I'd say.

The only race I know is considered broken is the Yssaril Tribes, which wasn't in this game. Their abilities to have an unlimited hand of Action Cards, draw an extra one each round, look at another player's hand each round and skip every other action is insanely powerful.

EDIT: Oh, and the Sardakk are kind of broken the other way. They have that combat bonus, but a pretty pathetic starting fleet that makes it tough for them to expand effectively early on.

Looking back at it, the one move that consistently went against my playstyle was this last round's Bureaucracy tally. I had the Imperium Rex card, and could have ended the game with a tie between Google/Sarc with 6 points. Of course, I didn't know about Google's secret objective completion obviously, but I did know he would get an immediate 2 VP. Instead of ending the game on a tie, which is what my character should have done, I dragged it out because I would have lost then.

If anyone wants to know, I was playing loose, and not really all chaotic evil. I did start the game by turning on Google, but after that I would give everyone a chance, and if they didn't do exactly what I wanted then I would make them. Didn't work out well points wise, but fun wise it was great!

Oh, and my secret objective was to have a ship in every wormhole. I didn't jump out on it immediately, which hurt me in the long run. I would have had it next turn if Sarc hadn't kicked me outta there. I got SilentSnake to move out of the far side on purpose! My stranded fleet just didn't have the juice to hold off the attackers.

Google, there is an option called the Age of Empire, where all Public Objectives are common knowledge. In our game we would have had only 6 ways to gain points, then the end game. Each card represents the game timer, so we would have been done at the end of round 7, which is exactly what we did.

Good game all!

Yeah, I think next game I'd use Age of Empire so all the objectives are clear from the start (with the Stage II ones locked out until round 5) — it's a slow crawl to progress this way, and if you're not already positioned to take advantage of an objective when it appears you can be out of luck. I'd also use the Artifacts (points from controlling territory) and a couple other things that toss extra points into the game. If any of you want to see the full objectives list, it's here. Keep in mind that the standard and SE public objectives are exclusive. I drew from the SE set.

I was in the odd position of knowing Googleshng's secret objective (he had a question about it in round 4 or 5) and did my best to make the moves I would if I didn't know. So that was a bit tricky. I thought I still had a shot at winning right up until that tech objective came out — if it had been something else, I was hoping to pull a point ahead and then force an end to the game with Bureaucracy while I was in the lead. Ah, well!

I had a ton of fun running this, guys. Next game I think I'll limit to 6 players and sign up anyone over that for alternate slots to take the place of anyone who drops out — that was the biggest problem for me.

Question, but why didn't we use Malice? It would have been nice to have all the wormholes connected via that nexus point.

The main reason is that the InDesign document I was using for the map wasn't big enough for it. I also didn't want to use it with the present map, since it would give whoever controlled it a direct line to any quadrant of the map. But I'll probably add it next time.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure when I'll be able to set up the next game yet. I need a breather for one thing, and I'm sure most of you do as well (four months is a looooong time to play!). But also, TI3Wiki, which hosts all the images I downloaded for use, has been hacked and is down. I could set up another game using just SE without it, but I'd really like to do one using Shards of the Throne as well, and for that I'll have to wait until those assets are available again.

I will hate whoever picks the Virus forever.

hehehehehe

I'm not sure if I'll jump in when it comes around again. I want to focus on my BSG LP, if and when that gets going. It was fun times, but something I think would be better in real life like most board games.