EXCERPT
As six leaders gathered their troops and resources to fight for the control of Mecatol Rex, a total eclipse of the Sun brought DARKNESS upon the entire universe. Find out how these six leaders maneuvered and fought in darkness in a game of Twilight Imperium 3.

Race Leaders: ayheng, aanemesis, Chang, wolfx, Donald, Zach
Mecatol Rex Watcher: jack208

Games: Twilight Imperium 3

Location: Outpost, The Curve
Date/Time: 23 Dec 2006 (Sat) 11 AM

TWILIGHT XMAS MEETUP REPORT @ OUTPOST 23/12/2006
by ayheng

"Christmas hath a darkness; 
Brighter than the blazing noon."
~ Christina Rosetti

Twilight Imperium 3

(reported by ayheng)

Christmas Eve’s Eve Twilight Imperium III Gaming
First of all, let me thank each and everyone who came to play that day as it was one of the fun-nest game evar! The day started badly as the original group of 6 players whittled down to 3 due to various other incomprehensible commitments (why would anyone miss a game of TI3]is beyond the comprehension of this fanatical writer )

Even the shop conspired against the TI3 players as they were shut out in the beginning due to a misunderstanding over the early morning schedule. By late morning, the three stooges – Ken (wolfx), Chang (aanemesis’ friend) and myself (ayheng) finally assembled @ Outpost, The Curve Cineleisure to start the game. A desperate last call for reinforcements was then sent out to solicit for more space faring players.

The shop owner, Richard, helped by getting Zach in.

Donald, totally surprised everyone by walking-in himself unannounced to contend for galactic supremacy, apparently after hearing the good word spread by Edwin.

Ainul (aanemesis) finally managed to extricate himself from the clutches of his dentist to join us for a FULL SIX PLAYER game of INTERGALACTIC SPACE MEGA BATTLE!!!

As Donald was a newbie to TI3, Ainul and myself took some time to explain the rules to him while the others setup.

Race selection is done randomly and the players are thus:

1. Donald: Emirates of Hacan – a feline space faring trader race
2. Aanemesis: Universities of Jol Nar – a peaceful race rich with technologies
3. Chang: Yssaril Tribe – backstabbing assassins of the galaxy
4. Zach: Sol – living breeding humans
5. Wolfx: Lizix Mindnet – Survivors of the ancient Lazax with powerful dreadnaught fleets and techs
6. Ayheng: Xxcha – Diplomatic Tortoises

The galaxy setup saw some rich resources stacked towards Jol-Nar (green) and Hacan (yellow). Yssaril (purple) got hit with the supernova while Sol (black) got hemmed in on the other side by Lizix (blue). Xxcha (red) rounded up the galaxy with barren twin asteriods guarding its planet’s approach.

The early game saw a peaceful excursions from the Jol-Nar and Hacan carving up the nearby resource rich planets between themselves, while Xxcha and Lizix similiarly divvy up their poor harvest. Fearing Jol-Nar’s Deep Space Cannons, Yssaril made an early incursion into Sol space, forcing Zach to divert his attention towards Lizix territory. A Deep Space Cannon retort from Lizix sealed Sol’s and Lizix’s fate for further animosity in the future.

The galactic senate was convened several times and several laws were passed by the eager races. The first law was a Trade War, which causes players to eliminate one of their opponent’s trade goods every time trade goods are received. This inexplicably caused the Trade action strategy card to be under utilized. Perhaps everyone is being friendly?

The second law passed was a technology discount law. This again causes the Tech action strategy card to be passed up during choosing… what’s up with that? Everyone is being too friendly.

Sol stuck to their primary strategy of picking Logistics over and over again to breed more and more ground troops. Politics was a surprising popular draw as races took advantage of the 3 action card draw to fill their hand with devious action cards. Initiative was picked often, and sometimes not as a prelude to grab Imperial. Warfare was fairly popular in the beginning as races raced to secure planets ahead of their neighbours as well as to score an extra command token.

In mid game, Sol made a grab for Mecatol Rex, centre of the galaxy, and infested the planet with his breeding humans. This oddly did not made them public enemy no#1. Sol’s neighbour, Yssaril, wisely held back from direct involvement in the ensuing fray when only Lizix made known of his displeasure by building up his forces. However, it did not stop Yssaril from launching a few covert strikes of his own by inciting civil unrest and destroying Lizix’s spacedocks to make the Lizix-Sol war interesting.

Across the galaxy, Hacans and Jol-Nars strike up a peaceful relationship as Jol-Nars exchanged newbie-advice-favors for Hacan trade resources.

Their prosperity did not go unnoticed but Yssaril did not risk moving against the Jol-Nar DSC defensive network while the Xxcha turtles and their puny cruisers was not enough to make a sizable assault against Hacan’s dreadnaughts.

By this time, the game was heating up and the pace was getting to a steady clip. Suddenly, the lights went out and the game was plunged into darkness.

Twilight Christmas seems like the fate befalling the players as the whole of Cineleisure mall experienced power outage. However, the players are not deterred. Aided by Chang’s torchlight, the game goes on.

Jeff (jack208) joined us at this time to find to his surprise, six TI3 players soldiering on fanatically in the dark. Some curious passer-bys wondering about the flashlight at the back of the cafe also joined in well-wishing these intrepid group of gamers in their quest for galactic conquest.

Just before the electricity was turned back on, the galaxy heated up with a deep space strike by Xxcha cruisers. Aided by flanking speed, the cruisers flew into an under-defended Hacan space.

left: Donald – eeiii, why you attack me?
right: Heng – for the tech resource to fulfill the public objective lar… dun disturb me, can’t you see I’m planning your next demise?
middle: Chang – ahahahaha, war, war, WAR!

disclaimer: the above exchange certainly did not happen but just happens to fit the photo

The lone Hacan carrier was taken out with minimal casualties, but Xxcha landing parties were wiped out by horrendous dice-rolls.

Sol, heating up with the occasion also launched their whole fleet of dreadnaughts against the might of the Lizix battlegroup.

Encountering fierce DSC fire, dreadnaught assault and destroyer barrage, the Sol fleet took some heavy damage before joining battle. Some horrendous dice-rolls sealed Sol’s fate as their fleet was destroyed outright. Sensing opportunity, Lizix counterattacked and mopped up the rest of Sol’s space fleet. Sol started breeding more ground troops on their planet in anticipation of the impending invasion.

The invasion came but Lizix failed to dislodge the humans from their planets. As it was getting late, the game was called. A final grasp by Jol-Nar on an imperial objective on the final turn gave them the win with three other races hot on their heels with just 1VP less.

Overall, the game session was a success and we manage to train up a new player, Donald, for our next TI3 session!

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