I maintain nonetheless that yin-yang dualism can be overcome. With sufficient enlightenment we can give substance to any distinction: mind without body, north without south, pleasure without pain. Remember, enlightenment is a function of willpower, not of physical strength.
- Chairman Sheng-ji Yang, "Essays on Mind and Matter"
.jpeg)
**
Well before the game, we randomized seating order and factions. I ended up getting the Yin Brotherhood, an all-male faction of clones. Our special abilities are a kamikaze attack with cruisers or destroyers, and for some reason, Indoctrination, which lets us convert opposing infantry. I'm just going to think of them as what happens when the Hive builds Cloning Vats and then wins Alpha Centauri. Because they are so clearly the Hive, I picked the blue miniatures.
Going clockwise, on my left I have the Barony of Letnev (green) who won last time, then also on my left but with a different player. Then it's the Yssaril Tribes, some kind of space goblin spies with the yellow miniatures, and a new player in black with the Emirates of Hacan, the trader space cats.
Next we have the Embers of Muaat, who start with one of the death stars I just painted, and have a special ability, Star Forge, which means they can produce ships in their death star. Given that they also start with the speaker token, they're basically Emperor Palpatine. Finally, on my right, last time's winner with the violet Ghosts of Creuss: the spooky space ghosts live on the other side of a wormhole.
My flatmate was kind enough to build a map for us:
And we were ready to go!
**
We got off to what I'm coming to think is the usual Twilight Imperium start where we expand cautiously into the immediately adjacent systems.
Aided by the menacing presence of the Muaat death star, the trash talk was heaviest at the opposite end of the table. I quickly established friendly relations with what I was informed was called the Baloney of Satnav, and a cautious accord with the creepy wormhole ghosts. Seeing as how the Creuss player won last time, I was definitely most nervous about them!
My suspicions were quickly confirmed when the Ghosts sent a fleet through the alpha wormhole, and grabbed Arinam and Meer from right under the noses of the Satnav. One of the public objectives involved controlling planets with the same planet trait, and Meer is a hazardous planet.
The Baloney was having none of it, and very quickly got them back.
As the second turn drew to a close, everyone was busy building up their fleets, and the first shots had been fired.
**
On the third turn, I decided to make my contribution to the shot total by invading New Albion.
What I wanted was a planet with some decent production. I told the Ghosts quite frankly that I was having New Albion, and either Starpoint or Hodor in the adjacent system. The Ghosts preferred to keep Starpoint, so I let them. It was a hazardous planet, and I figured it would keep them bugging their neighbors for another one.
Right after all this, we were a little bit shocked to find the Muaat war sun materializing out of the beta wormhole!
Because there was a public objective for having two unit improvements, several players had upgraded their PDSes to fire into adjacent systems. The Muaat took a bit of a cannonade, but only ended up losing one fighter and taking some damage on their dreadnought. As the Muaat fleet withdrew into the safety of the adjacent supernova, the Ghosts rode their wormhole slipstream right to Mecatol Rex, and took possession of it.
The Ghosts also made a play for a different hazardous planet, this time at the expense of the Muaat. However, they hadn't counted on the Muaat planetary defense systems, and the Creuss fleet was wiped out in the First Cannonade of Waffle II.
Here's the situation at the end of the fourth turn. We've had an agenda phase; I can't remember which was which, but they always provide opportunities for shenanigans and are an excellent part of the game. The goblins were building a giant fleet and hoarding strategy cards, while the Emirates of Håkan were somewhat hemmed in between them and the Muaat.
Luckily, I had the perfect counter to the Muaat death star: the Yin Brotherhood flagship, the van Halen, is rubbish at combat, but if it's destroyed, it takes every other ship in the system with it. When that war sun showed up on our side of the board, you bet I built the Eddie van Halen right away.
**
The Muaat got the new turn started by moving on Mecatol Rex, where they soon evicted the Creuss with the aid of their upgraded death star.
For my part, I invaded Hodor in pursuit of more production and a public objective for controlling planets.
The Ghosts of Creuss continued their quest for hazardous planets by sending another fleet to Waffle II. This time, some of the ships survived the space cannon, but none of the drop troops made it to the surface. The Second Cannonade of Waffle II ended with the Creuss still frustrated.
Meanwhile, the Muaat had built a second death star. Below is the overall situation at what I think judging from the public objectives should be the beginning of turn seven.
The Muaat tried to reinforce Waffle II with Frontline Deployment, but the Creuss countered with Unstable Planet. Must be all the cannoning.
Meanwhile, the great war of the goblins and the space cats finally started.
A lot of action cards were played in that one. For my part, I sent the Eddie van Halen to drive off a Muaat destroyer hanging around the beta wormhole.
Once again, the Ghosts of Creuss launched a fleet, and this time, both the starships and ground troops got through, and the Third Cannonade of Waffle II ended in the planet falling to the Creuss.
At this point, the Baloney of Satnav sprang into action. First, their flagship defeated some of my fighters for a victory point.
Then they intervened in the goblins wars by blowing up the Håkan flagship, for another victory point!
I sent my fleet through the wormhole to grab Quann off the Muaat, so I too could score the planet trait objective, and also deny a planet to the Muaat.
The Eddie van Halen deterred the Muaat from getting Quann back, so they attacked me at Hodor instead. The Muaat player took a hit on their death star, finally letting me play the Direct Hit action card - which was immediately sabotaged by the Satnav.
The Muaat wiped out my fleet, but chose not to attempt a landing on Hodor. A possibly incomplete list of things that were sabotaged in this game: a skilled retreat, a morale boost, a direct hit on a Muaat death star, and a public disgrace of the Satnav.
**
After some further shenanigans and one last agenda phase, we had to call it a night at the end of the seventh turn.
The final scoring was very, very tight.
The space goblins were last with one victory point. Our new player piloted the Emirates of Håkan to a very respectable 5 VP, just behind the Embers and Ghosts at 6. I ended up tied with the Baloney of Satnav at 8 VP, and I won the tiebreaker by being ahead in initiative order. However, the Embers of Muaat were a few measly influence points away from scoring one of the 2-VP objectives, and they would have won the tiebreaker against me! So this one really went down to the wire.
**
So, what did we learn? First of all, we had a great time. However, we also had to stop the game earlier than we would have liked due to time constraints. We're going to look into running a two-day game at some point next year. Even with the premade map and everything, this is still a lot to get through in one day.
We also focused more on victory points, which led to a tighter game and more surprises, as people went for both public and secret objectives. Another way that Twilight Imperium is like Game of Thrones, or for that matter Scythe, is that if you play it like a wargame, you lose. I like the way the objectives direct play, so you have to both have a strategy of your own and be able to respond to events.
Overall, I think Twilight Imperium is a fantastic game. The theme is on point: it feels like we're playing Master of Orion. The mechanics work, none of the rules feel overly complex or counterintuitive, and the game flows quite nicely. Finally, even though it's a big game that takes a long time to play, it doesn't leave me mentally exhausted like, say, Game of Thrones, let alone totally destroyed like War of the Ring.
So this one's a winner: I strongly recommend Twilight Imperium, and we will be playing it again.
No comments:
Post a Comment