Inntrepid's Rambling's - Session 07-09-22


[ July 21, 2007 Session ]

		Sept. 22, 2007: SGW - Twilight Imperium 3

	On Saturday September 22, 2007 SGW had a limited group of 6 to play Twilight Imperium 3 by Fantasy Flight Games. Twilight Imperium 3 (TI3) is an EPIC galactic conquest game David, Tim S, Tim M, Andrew, James and Mike prepared to face off to see who would rule the galaxay. As everybody started to grab seats Tim M suggested random seating. There were 2 reasons for this: 1) If Tim M and Andrew sit next to each other they will usually ally and 2) you really do not want to sit next to Andrew or James, they are both very trigger happy. Below is a picture of the board after the first couple of turns.


	Tim S - Yellow - The Yssaril Tribes Tim M - Purple - The Xxcha Kingdom Andrew - Red - The Mentak Coalition James - Green - The Barony of Letnev Mike - Blue - Federation of Sol David - Black - Universities of Jol-Nar

		We used a total random layout of the tiles to speed up getting started. The Yssaril (Tim S - yellow) was really hamstrung by this, with only a single planet next to his home world. The Mentak (Andrew - red) only had 2 systems next to his home world. Everybody placed their intitial units on their home world. Tim S was the initial Speaker so he started the selection of the Strategy Cards and we were off. Xxcha (Tim M - purple) realized that Yssaril (Tim S - yellow) was in a tough spot and this was Tim S first game. Tim M immediately offered Tim S the planet on the other side of his home world that had the worm hole in it (Tim S had the other end of the worm hole adjacent to his home world. The only condition was that the Yssaril not attack the Xxcha. Tim M figured this would give Tim S the resources so he could fight Jol-Nar (David - black). Another alliance that was formed was between Sol (Mike - blue) and Jol-Nar (David - black). Mike had lots of planets to expand to and it allowed David to concentrate his forces on Yssaril (Tim S - yellow). Mentak (Andrew - red) and Xxcha (Tim M - yellow) did not have an alliance or anything against each other. A neutral stance was pretty much the same thing that the Barony of Letnev (James - green) and Sol (Mike - blue) had. The Letnev / Sol neutrality pretty much let Mike expand into the empty planets around him and let James concentrate on his other neighbor Andrew. So the stage was set Tim M and Mike were going to expand to the empty planets around them. Tim S and David could concentrate on each other and Andrew and James could fight for the few planets between them. This is pretty much how the game played out as far as who was attacking who for the rest of the game. On turn 1 everybody pretty much tried to expand to an system next to them that had some planets. No real conflict but Mentak (Andrew - red) headed towards Letnev (James - green) and James headed toward Andrew so their fleets were right next to each other. Jol-Nar (David - black) headed toward Yssaril (Tim S - yellow). Yssaril headed towards Xxcha (Tim M - purple) and Tim headed moved into the 2 planet system in the direction of Tim S. Sol (Mike - blue) headed into the system with planets towards Jol-Nar (David) and the asteroid field. Trade negotiations were opened by the Mentak (Andrew) and everybody exchanged agreements. On turn 2 things became much more interesting. The Mentak (Andrew - red) attacked the system that Letnev (James - green) had just taken. James claimed that he would not have attacked Andrew but I think that it was just the order they took their turns. If James had gone before Andrew he would have attacked him 1st. The result: they pretty much destroyed the fleets that each of them had there.




		The Sol / Jol-Nar alliance. Mike and David formed an alliance early. The asteroid field between them did not hurt any either.

Rotating Picture

	The Rise and Decline of the Yssaril which culminated with Jol-Nar (David - black) taking both of Yssaril (Tim S - yellow) home worlds.



			Barony of Letnev (James - green) looks over the board as he prepares to retiliate against Mentak (Andrew - red).

On the other side of the map Yssaril (Tim S - yellow) successfully defended off Jol-Nar (David - black) and even expanded to the system that was next to the Jol-Nar home world. Meanwhile Xxcha (Tim M - purple) and Sol (Mike - blue) quietly expanded into other systems. It is also worth noting that The Barony of Letnev (James - green) was winning with 4 victory points having taken the Imperial Strategy both the 1st and 2nd turns. A couple other Races managed to get complete 1 or 2 of the Public Objectives so James was way ahead on the track to winning.

Over the next several turns the Mentak - Letnev war (James & Andrew) played itself out with each of them destroying the others fleets. The University of Jol-Nar (David - black) with a serious Technology advantage kept pushing the Yssaril (Tim S - yellow) back until they were back on their home world.

The Federation of Sol (Mike - Blue) continued their expansion controlling almost every system in their part of the galaxy. The Xxcha Kingdom (Tim M - purple) had taken the Imperial Strategy a couple more times and completed some Public Objectives so they were nearing the 10 VPs needed to control the galaxy.

Meanwhile the Jol-Nar (David - black) had the final battle with the Yssaril (Tim S - yellow) at the Yssaril home world. Although the Yssaril fought valiantly they were no match for the superior Jol-Nar fleet. The Yssaril fleet was destroyed and their home world was captured. The Jol-Nar seeing that the Xxcha Kingdom (Tim M - purple) was nearing the support (VPs) needed to achieve Galactic Domination focused his forces on them.

As the Jol-Nar (David - black) worked their way towards the Xxcha Kingom, the Xxcha were frantically trying to get the last bit of support they needed to unite the Galaxy. Using a wormhole near the Yssaril home world, the Jol-Nar moved to the Xxcha Kingdom home world. The Xxcha Kingdom (Tim M - yellow) finally got the final 2 VPs they need for the win by taking the Imperial Strategy securing the win on the same turn that the Jol-Nar (David - black) took the Xxcha Kingdom homeworld.




	The Xxcha Kingdom before the Jol-Nar Invasion




	The Xxcha Kingdom after the Jol-Nar Invasion

Two Notes:

I looked up in the rules if the Xxcha Kingdom could get the VPs from the Imperial Strategy card because they did not control their homeworld. It looks like you can get VPs from the Strategy card but you can not get VPs from achieving objectives if your home world is taken.
We misfigured the movement through the wormhole and did not count the hex moved into so the Jol-Nar could not have made it to the Xxcha homeworld without something like a “Flank Speed” card.


	Overall we all had a great time. It was the first time that some of the players had played Twilight Imperium 3 so it was a good learning experience. We started at 7pm but after the rules explanation we finally got started at 8pm. The game was over right at 1am, so it took about 5 hours. We are looking forward to our next TI3 game where we are going to add in the Shattered Empires expansion.

Player	Race	VPs
Tim M	Xxcha Kingdom	10
David F	University of Jol-Nar	5
James M	Barony of Letnev	5
Mike D	Federation of Sol	3
Tim S	Yssaril Tribe	2
Andrew M	Mentak Coalition	1

Inntrepid’s Comments on TI3:

I have played TI3 five times and I have had a great time every time that I have played. I have even won on a couple of occasions. I think the important thing to remember when playing is the goal of the game ... 10 VPs. Your goal is not to destroy the other races, build the biggest fleet, conquer the most systems or have the best tech. The goal is to acquire the VPs needed to win and everything else are the tools that you use to do it.

I really do like the Shattered Empire expansion. It does reduce the VPs you get from taking the Imperial Objective from 2 to 1 but it adds more races, alternative strategy cards, a whole new set of strategy cards and more options and rules. As always I am looking forward to the next time we play.


	[ July 21, 2007 Session ]

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	last updated 11-11-2007


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Sept. 22, 2007: SGW - Twilight Imperium 3