Saturday saw the annual trip into Kernow to play Snake-eyes favourite game - Twilight Imperium. Steedo kindly picked up DK, Sylon and myself and drove down - he was rewarded with a Harty Breakfast at Strawberry Fields.
Snake-eyes picked some of the least played (difficult factions) and created a balanced board. It was the first time we were using some factions and rules from the Prophecy of Kings Expansion - would this make an already epic game any longer? Snake-eyes claimed that it wouldn’t, as there were more ways to get stuff for points - exploration (which I didn’t use very effectively after I pick up the drone tech - d’oh). We rolled off to pick factions - I picked first … the factions/players were;
Vul Rath cabal - Morts (pink)
Mahaact Gene Sorcerers - DK (yellow)
Arborec - Sylon (green)
Embers of Muaat - Snake-eyes (orange)
Ghosts of Creuss - Steedo (blue)
Nekro Virus - no one (but they would have been red)
Unfortunately Tiger-King has been struggling with a virus for a while so missed out on the game - which is why there was player for the Nekro Virus and between myself and DK Snake-eyes had placed “space lanes” which meant systems were “adjacent”. However in the post game analysis the “empty” hexes were a psychological barrier to movement.
The initial set up (around midday) - Steedo to the my right and DK via space lanes on the left. Sylon opposite me with Snake-eyes on his left. Everyone was worried about Snake-eyes WarSun … very early to see in a game.
Early game (2 hours in) - myself and Snake-eyes are expanding well, vying for the lead - Steedo is struggling to get an engine for the ghosts going, but was scoring a few objectives. DK and Sylon are blocking each other in limiting their ability to score points.
Above around 6pm - Steedo had made an early run at Mecatol Rex, but agreed to move out of the way of the WarSuns of Snake-eyes! To try and prevent Snake-eyes running away with the game - I tried to fight him off, but I got a good beating … however this was a second activation so we had undo it … but later Snake-eyes came after me and the result was the same … I was tango’ed! However to do this attack Snake-eyes vacated Mecatol Rex … which would allow Steedo to re occupy it and then move it with wormhole tech. I think this was a turning point in the game as Steedo then made a rush on Snake-eyes home system with a very large fleet - no WarSuns available to stop it! This also stopped Snake-eyes scoring anymore public objectives and effectively ended his run for victory. The game was tight, I was trying to find a home system to win in (which would give me one secret VP and a 2VP on a public objective).
Around 2230 - With the move of Mecatol Rex - Steedo started moving up the scoring track - Snake-eyes and myself passing 10 - we were going for a 14 point game. Things were getting tense I had got to 13 points but was having trouble scoring my last point - Steedo had taken Snake-eyes (12 points) home system so Snake-eyes could score - Steedo had moved up to 11 points and held Mecatol Rex some could gain a Victory point for that … I had managed to swap my secret agenda to a more achievable one of winning a space battle with my flagship, as Steedo had massively protect his and Snake-eyes’ home systems (and Sylon’s and DK’s systems were too far away for me to get too). For some reason Snake-eyes decided to turn one of my systems into a supernova- again blocking one of my routes to a VP.
The final turn was quite short Sylon had picked leadership, DK diplomacy, myself politics … Snake-eyes I can’t remember and Steedo - Imperial so 1 VP as he had Mecatol Rex … my rush for victory happen, my flagship and 3 dreadnoughts pounced on one of Sylon’s lone dreadnoughts … only to be thwarted by Sylon playing the “masterful retreat” card, and in that moment I lost the game … and then Steedo swooped in a scored another 3 points for the win - again!I am cursed to be the only one in the group not win Twilight Imperium … and the game takes only 12 hours to play.
So Steedo’s name goes on the trophy again - the game was quite tight in the end and could have been one by a number of us. Steedo with the ghosts did a blinding job after a frustrating start for him - at one point I think I might have been able to take his home system and he might have only had 1 or 2 systems. He was scoring, keeping himself in the game but wasn’t really a threat to myself and snake-eyes for the first half of the game - in the second half he started using the wormhole faction ability, which made a big difference to how he was playing - so it was a really impressive comeback with 6 points in the last 2 rounds - well done on the win.
The other factions did well - Snake-eyes Embers did very well early on and I thought he was going to win at one point, but looking back his spectacular destruction of my flagship with his WarSuns opened up Mecatol Rex for Steedo to move and then distracted him enough, so that he lost his home system which stalled his run on the points track. But those WarSuns are tough to fight against from the beginning of the game. My space dinosaurs were fun to play - eating up other players ship and then being able to re fashion into new ships or tech was great - but something I didn’t use as well as I should have. It could be used to limit other factions access to ships and the heroes’ ability to destroy and capture ships on a dice roll - scary (but the dice gods need to be on your side - which they weren’t in this game). DK was steadily getting to grips with the Sorcerers - always in the game, but not quite getting an engine running for a run on the victory track. Sylon had a tough day at the gaming table with the Arborac - these seem a really difficult faction to play and score points with (as Snake-eyes knows) - he was also hampered by DK and the aggressively “peaceful” Embers which prevented him from expanding.
Anyway congratulations to Steedo on a surprising (based on his situation early/mid game), not surprising (cause he is a cunning player - who manages to get us all to look at the other “threats”) and thanks to Snake-eyes for hosting.
On Monday evening I managed a win for the first time (doubles with Higgins) at Evo’s snooker hall - which was nice and mild balm for the lost on Saturday.
Morts
