The fall of the empire scenario... is broken

I had a chance this Sunday to play the Fall of the Empire scenario.  We had 6 players.  We simply rolled a 10 sided die and whoever got the highest could simply pick from the available races.  I rolled a 9 the highest and promptly took the Lazax.  There was no way I was going to pass up being able to play them.  


The Lazax objective in order to win states that at the end of turn 8 you need to control Mecatol Rex and every other player must control their own homesystem or the Lazax can control home systems in order for you to win.


The flip side of this is if there is no winner by the end of turn 8 then the game ends in a tie.  There is simply no winner.  


Does anyone see where this is going???


Logically speaking everyone would rather tie than lose.  Given that simple fact there is no way that the Lazax can win. Because if you are going to lose to the Lazax you can always tie instead. 


The reason for this is if no one can claim a victory for their own agenda and therefore they are going to lose and the Lazax are going to win what can they do in order to not lose?  They can simply block off the Lazax and invite someone to park a destroyer in their home system.  This results in the lose of control of their home system.  With the end result being that the Lazax are unable to fulfill their victory condition and instead of winning everyone ties.  Thus barring miraculous action cards or abject stupidity the Lazax will never be able to win the game.  They simply cannot push through several players worth of fleets and supporting resources in order to "liberate" the homesystem that is being sacrificed.  This strategy is especially relevant when you  combine it with the agenda card which states that you win if the Lazax does not win.  Or in other words simply do what I outlined above and deny the Lazax from winning and you can in fact turn a tie into a victory.  


This is exactly what happened to me on Saturday.  And I was in a incredibly strong position.  I have discovered Hacan was the loyalist through an agenda card on the 2nd turn.  We then bribed Barony to Hacan's loyalist victory condition and easily defended Mecatol Rex and saved Barony's home system from Sol who was adjacent after beating up on Barony for two turns.  So in other words we were maintaining the status quo.  Then on the 7th turn we realized what that meant.  Which was it meant nothing at all as all they had to do to tie was give up a home system.  They build speed bump fleets counterattacked my two fleets that looked like they might break through to take the home system which had been sacrificed and and held us off for two turns with the significant help of the Diplomacy and Warfare strategy cards.  


Given the huge advantage in resources that my bloc of allies possessed and the fact that we were still unable to break through I don't see how this isn't something that can be done every game that Lazax are going to win in order to simply deny them the victory and instead create a tie game situation.  

Diplomats and planetary invasions

As I read the rules Diplomats cannot prevent planetary landings only invasions. Which means that Diplomats must have defending units present with them in order to force the attacking player to undergo a Planetary Invasion rather than just a Planetary Landing.


The Diplomat rules state: "If a Diplomat is present on a planet about to be invaded by enemy Ground Forces during the Planetary Invasion step, the Diplomat may delay the invasion by one round."


The rules for Planetary Landings on hostile planet state:  "A player lands unit on a planet containing one or more of an enemy player's Ground Force units.  This will result in an Invasion Combat during the Invasion Combat step.  If a player lands units on a planet that is controlled by an opponent, but does not contain any enemy Ground Forces, the planet falls without resistance.  The invader simply removes the opponent's Control Marker and take the corresponding Planet Card form the opponent, placing it exhausted into his play area.  


Obviously the term ground forces is outdated as PDS and mechanized units also force Planetary Invasion.  However this still does not change the necessary condition to initiate a Planetary Invasion during the Planetary Landing step.  


I'm not sure if anyone has been playing it wrong.  But I am pretty sure that my group has overlooked that rule before and allowed for diplomats by themselves with no other units to stop planetary landings which is wrong.  They can in fact only stop planetary invasions and only if they have units with them defending the planet.  


What are your guys thoughts?

Ranking the Races Revision

The arrival of Shards of the Throne really has me rethinking the races that I already ranked in my previous tier one and tier two posts.  Going on my game experience with the Shards expansion I'm going to re rank those tiers.  The Jol-Nar are going to get dropped from the top tier.  It seems to me that as it stands Ti3 rewards aggressive players and races the most.  Which the Jol-Nar definitely are not.  In their place I haven't decided who I'm going to elevate yet.  However I'm giving a hard look at Mentak for the first tier.  Their new racial techs are amazing.  They work perfectly with Mentaks large starting fleet its starting tech and racial abilities.  Also their flagship is a Dreadnought and Warsun nightmare.  Another race to consider for the second tier to replace the Naalu are the Winnu.  I think that they might have taken a hit with their racial tech getting nerfed somewhat.  However their starting units are strong.  Their abilities while complimentary are very useful and their starting tech is great!  The realization that I'm having with the Naalu and Sol for that matter is their reliance on fighters is a weakness.  Auto Defense Turrets and Destroyers are a cheap and effective way to crush any fighter swarms that they might throw at you.  Also anyone can do it.  So you know if you are next to either of those races how to counter them.  For this reason it just feels like Naalu can't really be considered tier two material anymore.  However they do retain a good starting system good starting units and their racial abilities are still great.  Its just now that fighters are so much easier to counter their strongest fighter race in the game status means a lot less.  I'm simply going to edit and revise those posts rather than starting all over again.  After that I'll move onto the third tier.  I'm considering the Naalu, Sol, Hacan, and Jol-Nar.   With the fourth being the the Ghosts, Nekro, Saar, and Muaat.  And bringing up the rear will be the Yin, N'orr, and Xxcha.

Sunday 8/7 Game 2 Summary

Yes that is right you read the title correctly... That would be two games of the greatest game made by man in one day!  I know its almost too much to handle.  But it happened.  This summary is actually for the second game of the day.  James played in the first game and he will be writing up that game and I have already posted that below.  The first game started at 12:30 and finished around 15:30.  With the second starting almost immediately after and finishing around 19:30.   So really the total play time was roughly seven hours!  Not bad at all for two games.  So here is the game two summary summary. 

Ok we had myself as the N'orr, my brother Noah as L1Z1X, Dan was Barony, and Bryan was Winnu.  We chose races by dealing each three player three and then allowing him to choose.  We played with the standard galaxy creation for 4 players.  The map was really well rounded one of the best that I have ever seen.  Everyone had a good sprinkling of resource tech and influence planets.  There was only one wormhole system placed next to Bryan Winnu.  As far as optional rules we used the new trade and assembly, representatives, leaders, mercenaries, political cards as resources, racial techs, flagships, nine VPs to win the game, pick one of two prelim objectives and one of two secret objectives.  

Bryan Winnu was in between myself N'orr and Noah L1Z1X.  His adjacent systems to his home world were probably the poorest comparatively speaking out of everyones.  But in my opinion they were still very usable.  Between himself and Noah Lizix there was a natural border of two blank systems.  Except for one system that was in between the two which provided a natural choke point.  Noah Lizix used his starting cruiser and stasis capsules tech to take it first turn.  The system then changed hands for several turns as both of them attempted to control what was a natural jumping off point for any other raids or invasions of their core systems.  Eventually Noah Lizix started to gain the upperhand.  In response to that Bryan Winnu started to develop deep space cannons technology and started to heavily fortify his three core systems all with double PDS units and numerous ground forces in addition to a sizable fleet. However he also kept pace in scoring VPs.  He eventually developed War Sun technology and build one as well as building his fleet up and threatening invasion aganist both myself Nor and Noah Lizix. He then counterattacked Noah Lizix and took the choke point system for good.  However  outside that the game ended before he could put his increasingly threatening fleet to good use.  He ended the game in second place with 7 VPs and a huge fleet centered around his War Sun, Carriers, and Cruisers.  

Noah Lizix had two good systems adjacent to his his home system with the remainder being somewhat poor. He was positioned between Dan Barony and Bryan Winnu.  He did take a commanding lead in the technology race.  Easily out pacing everyone else throughout the game.  Again due to inexperience he made some ill advised moves.  They were attempts at VP snatching moves however so they were well intentioned.  The problem was that he did them early in the rounds allowing for them to be countered.  One such sortie into Dan Barony space however managed to succeed due to poor dice rolling and thus he managed to gain those VPs.  In addition to that Noah Lizix was almost constantly fighting against raids from Dan Barony and over the choke point system with Bryan Winnu.  It seemed like almost every turn he was rebuilding his entire fleet minus whatever survivors there were from the turn before.  Near the end of the game Noah Lizix and Dan Barony got into a protracted conflict with both sides taking heavy loses.   Noah Lizix also kept  pace with VPs and ended tied for third with five. 

Dan Barony was in between myself N'orr and Noah Lizix.  We had a very natural border formed by a gravity rift an empty system and a ion storm.  That pretty much defined are border for the entire first half of the game.  Otherwise Dan Barony focused up on internal improvement and fighting with Noah Lizix in order to achieve his victory points.  He did manage to purchase Barony's racial tech and Duranium Armor making his Dreadnoughts quite terrifying.  It was interesting to watch Lizix with tech upgraded and racial ability upgraded cheaper Dreadnoughts square off against Barony's punishment soaking Dreadnoughts.  Dan ended the game with five VPs tied for third with his Dreadnought combat nemsis Noah Lizix.

I was N'orr with Dan Barony to my left and Bryan Winnu to my right.  As I already mentioned I had a very natural and defensible border with Dan Barony which I blocked off with one Destroyer in the empty system and relied on the ion storm and gravity drive to block off the other approaches.  Because of his slow Dreadnought heavy fleet this worked quite well.  Other than that I followed my planets all the way up to Mecatol Rex.  I paused briefly before Mecatol Rex bringing up 6 PDS units 4 on planets and two in a carrier rallied my fleet and then took Mecatol Rex the next turn.  Instantly fortifying it with 8 ground forces and 2 PDS with the 4 other PDS adjacent and able to fire in support of Mecatol along with hitting on 4s and rerolling any misses.  The next turn I took diplomacy dropped it on Mecatol Rex build a space dock there and claimed my secret and a public that catapulted me into the lead.  At this point in time my fleet was huge.  I had 8 Cruiser, 8 Destroyers, and several Carriers with Fighters.  Along with my racial ability, Hylar V, Auto Defense, and my PDS units I had done my best at making my systems unassailable.  I had secured my flank aganist Bryan Winnu with a the occupation of a dual world system both planets possessing 4 ground forces and a general on each.  I had also stolen a victory point from Dan Barony by taking a fleet through the empty system and successfully invading one of his planets which stole a political law victory point from him.  I finished the game by denying the ability of anyone to steal the political law victory point away form me and claiming the remainder of the public objectives as everyone else scrambled in response to catch up.  I won the game out right with nine VPs. 

Sunday 8/7 Game 1 Summary

Twilight Imperium
After Action Report #6-
"Sailing on an even keel."

Another Sunday, another struggle for the fate of the Galaxy.  The goal this time around was the minimization of random chance's effect on the game setup- no Distant Suns, no Artifacts, and an even distribution of the best planets.  The idea was that pure strategy and tactical know-how would take the day- to learn if it did, and which race went home with the Crown of the Galactic Empire this time around, read on!

Five races struggled out of the Dark Years in a position to influence galactic affairs.  Clockwise from first player, they were:

->The Arborec, an entire semi-sentient biosphere that decided that one planet wasn't enough- and that everyone would certainly get along better if they had fungus in their heads.
->The Emirates of Hacan, re-laying the ancient routes of their trade empire, with clawed hands firmly on the galaxy's purse-strings.
->The Universities of Jol-Nar, applying their technical wizardry both ancient and modern, and firmly deciding that this time the biggest brains would take the lead.
->The Embers of Muaat, once slaves to the Jol-Nar, smiling at the rest of the galaxy over the guns of their War Sun-lead armada.
->The Barony of Letnev, revamping their titanic industrial base for conquest and power once more.


Part One: Not quite so even as could be expected.

     The game opened with the usual early expansion.  Of note was the Barony of Letnev, squeezed tightly between the Arborec and the Muaat, and lacking as many high-income systems as the other races, striking out towards the Muaat border and the precious resources therein.  The Muaat, quickly taking umbrage (and likely having had a role in the Letnev's lack of nearby planets in the first place- queries about precisely where that War Sun had been at the time went unanswered) launched an immediate invasion.  The Letnev border fleet collapsed, and with few other ships that early on there was no recourse left.  Within three turns, the Letnev had lost the lesser of their two homeworlds and were gazing in shock at the War Sun orbiting over their heads.  The Muaat had both effectively destroyed the Letnev battle fleet but accomplished a number of objectives in the course of the conquest and blockade.
     The rest of the galaxy was more peaceful, at least on the surface, as the Jol-Nar, Hacan, and Arborec grabbed nearby planets.  From the first, the Arborec grabbed the hellworld of Hope's End, immediately bordering Mecatol Rex.  The nightmarish planet had always served as a training ground for the galaxy's finest armies, and the Arborec quickly took advantage, bolstering their already large military with both 'recruited' natives and the tremendously dangerous local flora and fauna.  What's more, a pair of Arborec cruisers, having dropped their cargo of combat bioforms on Hope's End, zipped across nearby space to attack a Hacan scout fleet!
     The Hacan had a more deliberative expansion, utilizing their vast financial clout to build up an atypical (but no less threatening) fleet of Dreadnoughts.  These Dreadnoughts quickly responded to the Arborec attack, crushing the lone remaining cruiser, but the galaxy had already taken note of the Arborec's willingness to fight so close to the Hacan homeworld- their preliminary objectives, at least, had been achieved.
     The Jol-Nar, having taken virtually every nearby planet and feeling the need for more, slid a Dreadnought and a Carrier across their notional borders with the Muaat.  Muaat long-range PDS fire holed the carrier and struck the Dreadnought a serious blow, but the Jol-Nar had attained the planet they needed for vital scientific research.... and moved one step closer to Mecatol Rex in the process, charting every inch of space and planning every future stratagem.


Part Two: Politics.  Why'd it have to be Politics?

     As the game moved into the next stage, deals started being made.  The Muaat, apparently having made their point, withdrew the War Sun from its orbit over the Letnev's Arc Prime- thankfully without bombarding the planet.  The War Sun returned to Muaat Space to join its newly constructed sister ship, and poised itself for the next phase of the Ember's galactic coming-out party.  An abortive Letnev reprisal raid on the Muaat home system was quickly repulsed, but amply demonstrated the Letnev willingness to resist- as did the gigantic and well-equipped ground army being assembled on Arc Prime.
     The Arborec and the Hacan quicky became involved in a bifurcated struggle.  The Hacan Grand Dreadnought Fleet, backed by a large mercenary contingent, was virtually unassailable in space, but the Arborec had amassed such an army of conventional and 'enhanced' combat forms that any landing would quickly prove futile for the feline merchants.  The two sides danced around each other- the Hacan secured their secret goals by taking and holding Mecatol Rex, while the Arborec nipped in behind the departing Hacan fleet to take their launch site of Garbozia to secure their own objective.
     The political side of things showed an equal measure of contention and confusion.  The Letnev, disgusted with the galaxy's unwillingness to do anything about the Muaat invasion and occupation of Wren Terra, stormed out to concentrate their efforts on liberating their home system.  Their representatives would continue to participate, but they had effectively removed themselves from the council.  Soon after, a vote came up for the appointment of a Minister of Internal Security.  The Muaat representative died under unusual circumstances, and the Arborec representative vanished... but when the Jol-Nar representative voted, he inexplicably voted for the Arborec.  The faint odor of mold and fresh-cut grass around the Jol-Nar's fishtank may have provided a clue... but by the time this was realized, the Arborec had secured the position, threatening to crack down on the occupying Hacan and induce their local mercenaries to seek employment elsewhere.


Part Three: A New Age.

     The final stages of the Galactic dance for power began with a backroom deal.  The Letnev were already a Hacan favorite due to being on the Arborec's far flank, despite the border being quiet for the entire game.  The Barony agreed, for a signifigant sum of trade goods, to publicly denounce the Arborec to the rest of the galaxy.  The Letnev, still possessing surprising political capital in the wake of Muaat aggression, succeeded in making the Arborec shift strategy from bureaucratic manipulation to outright military conquest.  The Hacan quickly filled the gap, seizing influence on the galactic scene.
     The Hacan Dreadnought Fleet, seeing the Arborec massing for battle over Hope's End, moved first.  Four Dreadnoughts and an accompanying mercenary devastated the Arborec fleet, sending the fungoid admiral fleeting in an escape pod and blockading the hellworld.  The planet itself was crawling with lethal bioforms, and the Hacan marines waiting above firmly prayed to their mercantile gods for a solution that didn't involve a ground invasion.
    Soon enough, their prayers were answered- the Hacan had convinced the Imperial Bureaucracy to support their claim for the throne.  They were proclaimed the true inheritors of the Lazax.  (Chronicles of the succeeding Mercantile Age are suspect, but it can be assumed that the remainder of the races prospered well enough with the Hacan running things... though of the Arborec, neither they nor the most heavily infested planets they controlled were ever heard from again.  Questions to the Muaat as to where their War Suns were at the time, and where that titanic pile of credits came from, went unanswered...)


Comments:

     This game went amazingly fast!  We got things done in less than four hours- closer to three.  The lack of Domain Counters, plus the experience of each of the players, made things a breeze.  The fifth player, though, got stuck with a horrible board position despite the even planet distribution and the extra trade goods.  This was on top of placing planets last (he got a supernova directly between him and Mecatol and empty space between him and the Nova) and selecting Strat Cards last.  We're going to have to do something about that...
     Other than that, good game.  Lots of warfare on the Letnav-Muaat front, and lots of tension between the Arborec and Hacan.  Ended suddenly when Imperium Rex ended up as the top Stage II Public Objective, but that's the chance one takes in letting the leader have Bureaucracy.  Well-played on all sides, too- even the benighted Letnev managed to more or less keep up with the VP race.


See you all Out There,

-James

Sunday 7/31 Game summary

I have discovered some more fellow Ti3 players in Maryland on www.boardgamegeek.com.  After some introductions and planning I met up with them and played a 6 player game.  The game was graciously hosted by James Stewart and he also took pictures and used them to write up a game summary.  So with his permission I have posted it here.

Twilight Imperium

After-Action Report #5:

"Fire and maneuver."

Once again, we met this Sunday to do battle over the fate of the galaxy!  As the Dark Years came to a close, it happened that six races had clawed their way back up to contest the throneworld and the galaxy with it.  They were a mix of the ancient and new, of peaceful and warlike species.  This game we tossed in pretty much everything but the kitchen sink- leaders, shock troops, mercenaries, the latest and greatest strategy cards, and so on.  We even allowed for the elusive space mines (not that anyone took up the offer).  Read on to find how all these options effected the game, and to see who dominated the galaxy... at least,  until we meet again and the throne once more comes up for grabs. 

Clockwise from first player, we had:

->The Lizix Mindnet, claiming to be the Lazax themselves returned- albeit in a sinister and cybernetic form.

->The Ghosts of Creuss, beings of light and energy emerging from the Creuss Gate to further their own incomprehensible ends.

->The Naalu Collective, telepathic masters of deception striking from their recently revealed fighter bases.

->The Yssaril Tribes, the galaxy's long-established spymasters, coordinating myriad plans and plots from their swamp-covered homes.

->The Embers of Muaat, the incandescent former slaves now seeking to be the masters- and backing their claim up with their mighty War Suns.

->The Barony of Letnev, military-industrial tyrants renewing their own ancient claim to the Empire by right of main force.

Part One: Land-grab.

Each race surged out of its home systems, grabbing planets and tripping domain counters.  Two in particular caused problems- the Naalu found devastating bio-hazards on the nearby fighter-production planet of Mirage, and the L1z1x faced stiff local resistance while trying to secure Arinam- a potential artifact world that bordered Mecatol Rex.  Both races had to wait a turn to secure their prizes.  The L1z1x were barely slowed by this, though one could imagine the eventual fate of the reluctant locals was horrible.  The Naalu, on the other hand, barely had a chance to recover and re-organize when the Ghosts of Creuss struck.  The Ghosts, having claimed vital access to the wormhole network at large by taking the nearby planet Quann and its attendant "B' wormhole, decided that the Naalu were a potential threat to said gateway.  The ephemeral creatures either lacked any sense of biological compassion or knew their fleshy enemies all to well and struck first, shoving the Naalu back towards their home system.  The two powers would continue dueling over Mirage and Quann for the rest of the early game, Naalu fighters matching up against hastily-acquired Creuss destroyer barrages.

Meanwhile, the rest of the galaxy was quietly maneuvering against each other, expanding into natural borders without opening fire at the neighbors quite yet.  The Yssaril discovered a Precursor Fossil buried on a planet halfway between them and the Muaat, and over the next several turns reinforced the system to the point of near-invulnerability.  The nearby Muaat contented themselves with their natural borders for a time, maneuvering their starting War Sun this way and that to keep their neighbors guessing.  The Letnev, also sharing a border with the Muaat, expanded quickly in their direction... and then launched a brief raid into Muaat territory to secure their preliminary objective (along with the planet Thibah).  The Muaat, not having been attacked directly and apparently not ready to start a war quite yet, let the Baron's strike force retreat shortly thereafter and moved in to secure the low-value world for themselves.  Finally, the L1z1x put down the rebellion on Arinam with brutal efficiency, discovering the source of the native's heavy weapons- an ancient Imperial Armory.  They promptly assimilated it, and having no border-straddling worlds to grab from either the Ghosts or the Barony, simply parked their growing fleet of Dreadnoughts and built up for the next phase of operations.

The first meeting of the Galactic Council after a thousand-year hiatus turned into a bloodbath, with two assassinations during the discussions over a relatively minor amendment to the laws of warfare involving PDS fire.  The law passed, but two representatives were dead and the L1z1x had stormed out in disgust.  The races of the galaxy were both impressed by their collective audacity and dismayed by the body count- many professional bodyguards were sent to the council from that point forth.

Part Two: Discombobulation.

The mid-game started with a series of bangs, as Bureaucracy finally hit the table and races started grabbing for the victory points.  The Naalu-Creuss war was in full swing, but between Defense Turret-equipped destroyers and serious network of Planetary Defense Stations, the Creuss triumphed soon enough.  The Naalu, practically bankrupt and facing raids from the Yssaril on their far border, collapsed back to their home system and started stockpiling ground defenses- even losing the lessor of their two homeworlds to a swift-moving Yssaril carrier squadron shortly thereafter.  The Ghosts of Creuss consolidated their gains, sliding through the wormhole network to the nexus world of Malice.  Unsurprisingly forewarned about what awaited them, they took some time to clean up the local radiation damage before settling in to inspect the Imperial Datacache they found there.

One of the objectives revealed early in the mid-game was one that required taking three planets in a single turn- not an easy feat this late in the game, as most planets were already claimed and no few were well-fortified indeed.  The Letnev decided to take advantage of the L1z1x's decision not to fortify a three-planet system between them and Mecatol Rex, and struck out quickly.  The un-garrisoned worlds fell without a fight, but a returning L1z1x fleet managed to wrest two of them back shortly thereafter.  The L1z1x were seriously distracted by their own push for glory- Mecatol Rex itself.  The throneworld fell with barely a fight on the cyborg's part, securing it for those that claimed descent from the ancient Lazax themselves.  They swiftly moved more and more troops in and cobbled together a basic space dock, attaining the status of Usurper and the Victory Points (and risks) that came with it.

As all this was going on, the benighted Naalu (now working under a new administration) reinforced their homeworld to the gills with tanks and troops.  A pair of scientist-supported PDS installations began reaching out to the enemy ships in the skies above- and in the nearby Mirage system- finally breaking the blockade.  The Ghosts of Creuss were a little too far away to keep a deathgrip on the system... and perhaps too busy licking their own wounds from the costly war.  The Yssaril occupiers of the system's second planet were perhaps dismayed to see their ride blown out of the sky above them, but found the swampy climate of the world most congenial, and settled in for a long wait.

Part Three: Military Prestige.

The last stages of the second galactic civil war began, with each of the remaining great powers hammering each other in search of those last few victory points.  This was helped along by a militaristic objective- to win two battles against three or more ships in a single turn.  It seemed the people of the galaxy respected strength, and strength is what the races gave them.  The Yssaril nipped off one of the Muaat's border-planets, retreating to their fortified base on the border shortly thereafter.  The Muaat could hardly do anything about this, as they were completely distracted with hammering the Barony of Letnev's impressive border guard.  The Letnev put up quite a fight, but the War Sun would not be denied, and the Muaat began making up for their lack of Victory Point so far.  A simultaneous strike by the Muaat at Mecatol Rex went less well, despite the L1z1x Dreadnought fleet apparently having lost interest and wandered off back towards their threatened core worlds.  The lone remaining L1z1x cruiser managed (via an action card) to peg the Muaat's carrier full of ground troops, leaving only a rogue Naalu mercenary company in Muaat service hovering over the cyborgian defenders below.  They elected not to risk an invasion- one could imagine that such escaped veterans of the Creuss-Naalu war would know what they're on about.

Meanwhile, the Ghosts of Creuss managed to get enough ships back together to start throwing their weight around again, and moved quickly to scuttle the L1z1x's imperial ambitions.  Taking advantage of an unsecured flank left empty since the Ghosts had moved against the Naalu instead of the L1z1x, the ephemeral wormhole dwellers packed up some of their expansive defense grid.  They moved into an undefended planet immediately bordering the L1z1x's home system and started taking potshots at the ships therein.  Also moving against the cyborgs were the Letnev- they launched a last-ditch attack on Mecatol Rex.  The Muaat mercenary group was brushed aside with relative ease, and even the L1z1's troops fell quickly to the Barony's commanding General and expansive forces.  The throneworld now (nominally) belonged to the group that had (also nominally) kicked off the Dark Years in the first place.  The galaxy wasn't sure how to take that- better feudal overlords than techno-organic ones, perhaps, but could the Letnev maintain their grip?  The other frontrunners, the Ghosts and Yssaril, gave the equally enticing choice between incorporeal horrors from beyond and a familiar conniving gollum-people.

The L1z1x, though, had seen their chance.  With their homeworld declared a neutral zone and a diplomat ensconced on top of their vital Ancient Armory, both backed up by legions of infantry, tanks, and  hardened PDS bunkers, they attempted to prove their might to the galaxy.  The first attacked the Ghosts of Creuss outpost sitting on their border, responding to PDS sniping with a Dreadnought, some cruisers, and their own PDS fire in support.  The Ghosts were quickly swept from space, though they held on to the planet itself with grim tenacity.  In the same round, the L1z1x main battle fleet- four as-yet unengaged Dreadnoughts, with Cruiser and Destroyer support- returned to Mecatol Rex.  They lacked the ground forces to take the throneworld itself back- the Letnev were numerous, dug-in, and possessed of a superb General commanding the defense.  The L1z1x needed their own troops defending their artifact and homeworld, anyway.  Instead they opted for simply blowing the Letnev fleet above the planet out of space in a single volley of Dreadnought Assault Cannons, accomplishing one last objective and proving to the galaxy that they were indeed the inheritors of the Lazax- or else!

Pictures:

Right, some pics!  Captions below each, explaining what's going on.

1) First we have the setup.  Naalu in yellow at the upper left, and we have Yssaril->Muaat->Letnev->L1z1x->Ghosts clockwise from there.

2) Early expansion.  The Yssaril, starting with two carriers and XRD Transporters (lucky guys), have stolen a march on the Muaat in the upper right.  Upper left shows the offending Bio-hazard marker, crushing the Naalu's dreams.  Note the Ghost's home system- it stays entirely empty aside from the space dock for the rest of the game.  Apparently it was too far away both to build from and to bother having to defend.

3) More expansion.  The Ghosts are shown moving in on the Naalu, poising to strike; the Letnev on the far right are getting in the Muaat's face for a VP.  L1z1x and Letnev forces stare off at the very bottom of the map, but nothing came of it for a while.

4) Final stages of expansion.  The Naalu have found an inconvenient Gravity Rift (it ate that carrier on the way out) and the Ghosts have taken Mirage away from them; an ill-fated task force is about to set out to reclaim it.  Many of the larger fleets are using stylish new plastic fleet support bases- keeping the warships and mobile forces up and off the planets themselves where the ground-pounders and PDS units hang out.

5) State of the Galaxy before all hell breaks loose.  The Naalu have reclaimed the space around Mirage, but you'll note the Creuss control marker.  Meanwhile, the L1z1x have parked themselves on Mecatol Rex in a serious way.  Letnev and Muaat space is starting to groan with the weight of all the hardware piling up on it.

6) The Naalu fleet is pretty much gone, though the Ghosts lost everything in that sector of the Galaxy to do it.  To add insult to near-fatal injury, the Yssaril have pulled a fast one on the Naalu by stealing Everra (in the Nebula at the top of the map).  Between this photo and the last, a Letnev task force grabbed the three-planet system at the very middle of L1z1x space, earned their VP, and paid for it with their lives.  A lone Letnev trooper is all that's left after the L1z1x responded.

7) Hard to see at places, but a lot's happened since last turn.  The Naalu have lost a home planet to the Yssaril, but forted up on their last one.  The Yssaril have also grabbed Mirage, ironically enough for the two that were fighting over it for the previous five turns, and pulled a fast one on the Muaat by sneaking in behind them while the Embers were busy with the Letnev.  The Ghosts have, meanwhile, turned their attention south, setting up shop next to the L1z1x homeworld.  The L1z1x themselves have pulled back from Mecatol, though the Muaat attempt to take it resulted in that lone mercenary hovering over it.  Also note the right side of the map- those huge Letnev and Muaat fleets?  Gone.  Well, the War Sun's still there... but there was a lot of bloodshed before thing stabilized.  (Another War Sun on the way!)

8) Final state of the game.  The Muaat and Yssaril have massed their fleets and are glaring at each other; the Naalu have kinda secured their home system and dealt with at least the enemy carriers, though both one home planet and Mirage remains under Yssaril control.  The Ghosts' PDS outpost (practically invisible in the lower left, under the L1z1x fleet) holds on, but their covering fleet is gone.  Similarly, the remainder of the Letnev fleet- three cruisers and a carrier- have been exterminated by the L1z1x over Mecatol.  With these last two VPs, the L1z1x took the prize... at least until next time.

Comments:

Long, brutal game.  Lots of warfare, maneuvering, and a series of interesting political cards I didn't touch on much above because no one of them had much impact on the game.  Overall, though, the political intrigue option allows so much more to come out of otherwise unprepossessing political cards, as each player jockeys for the use of representative's special abilities- or attempts to assassinate same, if the target is an enemy or even if he simply has an ability that he's getting too much use out of.

The Naalu got dealt a bum deal, with sparse nearby planets and the Ghosts of Creuss deciding on an early-game Jihad.  That war may have also set the Ghosts back some, too, though they were still frontrunners up until the L1z1x's last push.  The Muaat, Yssaril, and Letnev didn't do much early on, building up and waiting for Bureaucracy to reveal their goals to them, though the Muaat quickly fell behind as both their neighbors pressed in on them and their War Sun was hard-pressed to be everywhere at once.  The Yssaril made a few, typically sneaky, raids into Naalu space, hunting VPs for the most part.  The L1z1x just build up and up and up until stopping them became impossible for their neighbors (the exhausted Ghosts and the Barony, which lost two serious battles with the Muaat on the same turn and thus was in much the same situation).

Anyway, good game, and we managed to finish before 5:30- amazing in itself, given how many advanced rules we were playing with.  I look forward to next Sunday, or whenever we meet next- the galaxy needs conquering, after all.

Finally, does anyone else who played in this one have any thoughts about it, anything we should have done differently or we did particularly right?  Sound off!

See you all Out There,

-James

Ranking the races of Ti3 Tier 2

Tier 2: "The Usurpers"

The Arborec - I'm a big fan of the Arborec.  I have played as them twice and not only do I find them to have a very unique style of game play but I really feel that they are one of the best races in the game.  Albeit not good enough to be amongst the lofty few in the top tier.  By the way not sure why but these things remind me of the aliens in the move The Thing but they do.  Great movie by the way if that trailer doesn't convince you to check it out you have problems beyond wasting your time reading this blog ranking fictional races in a ridiculously involved and epically long board game.  The Arborec's home system is solid with three resources, two influence, and a green tech bonus.  The green tech bonus is amazingly good for this race. In fact it is possible for the Arborec to research nothing but green tech, racial tech, and XRD transporters and be in position to win games.  The Arborec's starting tech is Antimass Deflectors and Stasis Capsules.  Both of these are perfect starting tech for the Arborec. They allow them to quickly research XRD Transporters and then move along the line of green tech while also helping them during early game expansion.  As for starting units they are descent nothing to get excited over but definitely adequate for the task at hand especially as their Cruiser with Stasis Capsules can help to take control of another system during the first turn.  However its their special abilities that really make this race interesting. Their Space Docks cannot produce Ground Troops.  Instead their Ground Troops have a production capacity of one.  Two if you research their Spore Acceleration racial tech.  Which really is a must buy.  This allows them unprecedented flexibility when it comes to production.  The Arborec can take control of systems and the next turn instantly turn around and start producing on them.  It also allows them to ignore the resource value of planets when producing units as its the Ground Forces building them not Space Docks.  I would never purchase more Space Docks for the Arborec unless you need to complete a Space Dock objective or you are going Fighter heavy for your fleet.  Otherwise I would stick with Cruisers, Destroyers, and Dreadnoughts.   In this case the slow movement of the Dreadnoughts is offset by being able to be built where ever they are required.  Lastly Arborec Ground Forces can build units while in space on a Carrier...  How fucking cool is that? Finally their last racial ability is to place one Ground Force on one planet you control during your status phase.  This can be very useful as you can only build Ground Forces from Ground Forces thus insuring you can always rebuild or cover any mistakes that you might make.  Played imaginatively and properly using its racial abilities this race stacks up well against all of the other races thus rightfully earning its spot amongst the "Usurpers."  

The Naalu Collective -  Hot serpent female telepaths what's not to love?  Haha ok so they have the lockdown on sex appeal in Ti3.  But what do they bring to the gaming table?  Well lets jump in.  Quite simply they are the best Fighter race in the game.  Their Fighters receive +1 on all combat rolls.  Combine that with Cybernetics and possibly Advanced Fighters and you are looking at fighters hitting on 7s or 6s!  No wonder the Death Star was destroyed! Can anybody say "lock S foils in attack position?"  Besides amazing fighters the Naalu always go first in every round.  Their strategy card counts as having an initiative order of 0. This is a great ability.  Not only does it give you the initiative during the action phase but it also allows you to always score your objectives first.  Making it potentially a game winner during close games.  Their final ability is useful but very situational.  The Naalu are allowed to retreat before the beginning of a space battle rather than after the first round like every else. Easily summed up as its a neat ability that is potentially very useful in the right situation.  On to their starting tech and units.  They start with Antimass Deflectors and Enviro Compensator. Both of which are essential for Fighter heavy fleet builds.  Enviro gives you a better build capacity and Antimass allows the further research of additional blue techs.  From there you can get XRD Transporters then go for Sarween and Cybernetics to give you those free and harder hitting Fighters.  Naalu's racial techs can be potentially very useful.  But I feel that they are too expensive and the resources used to purchase them can be used for more efficient purposes.  The Naalu's starting units are amongst the best in the game.  They are the obligatory Space Dock, four Ground Forces, PDS, Carrier, Cruiser, Destroyer, and four Fighters!  It's a large number of units and has good variety.  The inclusion of a PDS seems odd for this race but remains very useful.  Good at both expanding early and defending or attacking as needed.  The only real weakness they have is their starting home system. Truthfully though its really not that bad. A two planet system with their planets being a 0/2 and 3/1.  It gives you the flexibility of adding another space dock there for production capacity purposes if there are no other suitable systems.  The 0/2 planet gives you a guaranteed extra command counter a turn during leadership.  While your 3/1 planet can be saved for resources and production.  Not bad at all.  In fact its damn good because of how the resources and influence are split amongst the planets.  This is one of my favorite races to play and also one of the best.  "Good hunting!"

Barony of Letnev - These guys are the racial expression of the military industrial complex. Barony's racial abilities can be useful however its really their home system which is their greatest advantage and racial ability.  Their home system is a two planet system with a staggering 4/0 and 2/1!  Its a monster system!  With Enviro Compensator and a space dock on both planets their home system can turn out a massive 12 units per turn.  There are no other systems in the game that can produce more units only several that can match it. Simply put Barony's home system is the best system in the game especially when comparing its resources to others that can match its unit production.  It allows them to overwhelm their enemies with massive fleets.  As for their starting tech it is adequate.  Hylar V Assault Lasers and Antimass Deflector are good building blocks but they really would have benefited from a basic yellow tech as well.  Their starting units again are adequate.  A Dreadnought, Destroyer, Carrier, a Space Dock, but only three measly Ground Forces! Fortunately you will be able to build up your forces quickly in order to compensate.  Their racial ability to expand trade goods for bonuses in combat can be good but must be used sparingly and only in decisive battles.  Their last racial ability is passive and very useful. Their fleet supply always supplies one more ship that there are command counters.  This is a nice bonus ability and is certainly useful.  Allowing them to field larger fleets then their fleet supply would indicate and not have to worry so much about command counters.  Barony also has interesting racial tech.   Disruptors make invasion combat much easier but is expensive and limited to that role.  Noneuclidian Shielding their other racial tech gives their sustained damage units the ability to take two hits before being destroyed.  This can be game breaking when combined with Duranium Armor and repair action cards.  By the way don't forget that this also applied to Mechanized Units...  Probably hadn't thought about that have you?  Of course theis racial tech is expensive to purchase and relies on the very expensive and slow Dreadnoughts and Warsuns.   Then again if there is one thing Barony is good at its producing units!  I know I'm going to get a lot of anti fighter barrage for rating Barony this high.  But seeing them in action in the hands of competent players is scary! There really is not all that much more to say about Barony.  Just remember with them to keep it simple stupid!