Played this at Mage Cafe on Deepavali 27th October 2008 with Ryan and Jefg8.
Ryan won this handily despite lagging behind in Military. Both Jefg8 and myself got pwned by Ryan’s Libraries and Effiel Tower while we were building up a cold war between the both of us.
I think what happened was that both of us did not manage to get too many agression cards to use on Ryan. Playing Agression cards require the usage of Military actions, thus limiting the card draw for the military player at the end of turn. The defensive player on the other hand still has his military actions and in Ryan’s case, fortunately draw enough defensive bonuses to fend off Jefg8’s advances.
One rule we did play wrong in this game was that the Urban Building Limit was not adhere to (again!). While this may have been a factor in Ryan’s overwhelming victory with his army of libraries, Jefg8 and myself also violated this rule without noticing it by building 3 labs and 3 temples respectively.
The other rule played wrong by one of the guys was that a tactics card was played into the future events deck, this is wrong as only events and territories card can be played into the events deck.
There were definately more events played in this game and although the weakest player (Ryan) suffered some setbacks from the events that punished him, his civilisation engine still manages to churn out an impressive lead.
The final score I believe was about 10-20 points difference between 1st, 2nd and 3rd while the average score was about 100 points. (1st - Ryan, 2nd - me, 3rd - Jefg8).
I love this game and although it went a little long, 3 hours, I still find it all compelling. In my first game, I found that I had a food over production problem, and in my second game, I found my invention points lacking. In this game curiously I found my food production lacking and end up with an abundance of resources with nowhere to spend it. It is still difficult to juggle the various aspects of the invention-food-resources-culture balance. I am happy to report though, that Ryan and Jefg8 handled corruption like champs and rarely was corruption a problem for them.
Looking forward to the next game.
Arrived late to find the gang already started with Agricola with keealvin looking on.
Yes, farming mania continues and surprisingly the farms are quite ‘derelic’ looking, lacking fields and having minimal pastures. I think the fact that the ’seasoned’ gamer jack208 having SIX stone rooms skewed blownfreaks and blownfreaks’ wife to follow suit.
jack208’s farm. SIX stone houses (for combo with the chief) and a large pasture done only on the 2nd final turn!
blownfreaks’ wife’s farm. lots of animal without the means (fireplace) to cook them!
blownfreaks’ farm. even the yeoman farmer can’t save this sparse farm.
Seeing as how the gamers enjoyed Agricola, we brought out another game with the worker placement mechanic - Age of Empires III. Rules explanation went over quickly and the five of us went about the task of settling the new world. blownfreaks and wife got the concept quickly and wisely took capital buildings that provides additional specialists each turn. jack208 and myself traded blows on each other as we wisely summarised that both of us ’seasoned’ gamers are the biggest threat.
jack208’s privateers went about terrorising the colonist about the spanish main while my soldiers picked ooff rival colonists from newfoundland. blownfreaks invested in the West Indies Co. while blownfreaks’ wife went about converting natives with her faithful missionaries. keealvin sent his abundance of immigrant colonists to the new world. All in all a great game that went over well.
After that we retreated to blownfreaks’ place to do Through the Ages in a quieter setting. I offered to do the Simple game first before advancing to the Advanced game but upon jack208’s insistence, went straight into Advanced. The added complexity of your civilisation’s Happinessand Corruption added a layer of complexity to the game that prolonged analysis time and had an effect of delaying an unsuspecting civilisation’s progress.
For example, during one turn I produced too much food and resources, causing myself to lose two resources to corruption. Since I was building a wonder at the time, the lost resources screwed up my resource allocation, causing delays to the mega project. I had to practically reduce my food production to reduce corruption. One thematic way to look at this mechanic is that there’s too much food production and some of it was lost to smugglers and corrupt officials.
Another addition that does wonders to the game is the political action round where Aggression, Pacts and Events can be played. This round typically rewards the civilisation that has the stronger military strength. There are defense cards to help out the weak but the stronger civilisation can just pound out their Aggressions continuously and exhaust the opponents’ defense cards. Stronger civilisations also typically draw more military cards so they have the better chances of getting medieval on the weaklings. However the battle mechanics are skewed towards the defenders so a weaker civilisation can still fend off attacks without much trouble provided it is not lagging too far behind in military strength.
The constant need to balance population, resource, technology, culture, corruption, happiness and military drives this game forward and also grinds the turns down. It is really really difficult to do well in everything.
There were some rules played wrongly in our game particularly for newbies jack208 and blownfreaks as there are many different sets of rules governing the myriad cards.
In particular:
1. Drawing the 2nd leader from the same age (you are allowed to only have one leader from each age, whether played or in hand)
2. Urban building limit not adhere to (you are allowed to have as many urban buildings as the limit shown on the government card)
3. Costs of drawing a wonder card (civil action points costs increases for each wonder already completed)
4. Political cards are played before taking civil actions (we always played after when we realise we haven’t used the cards in our hands before card draw)
Some rules which were messed up by yours truly:
1. Only ONE tactics card in play at a time. We played that there’s no limit.
2. Score culture point = age of event card played. This would have made the military option more enticing by encouraging players to play events.
Another good session and the game gets even better. Hope to have all the rules locked up tight for the next game.
Gamers converge on Heng Residence on Raya to do battle once again for the 2008 edition. Today I bring you the report of not one, but TWO Twilight Imperium III: Shattered Empires games done that day.
1st game:
With 1 player pulling out at the last minute, it’s up to 7 others to do battle for intergalactive space supremacy. Yours truly (blue Naalu Collective) are psychic fighter pilots, Ivan (purple University of Jol-Nar) are peaceful researchers, Wolfx (yellow Federation of Sol) are hardy soldiers, Phuah (green Barony of Letnev) are fleet combat experts, Lim (red Embers of Muaat) are masters of the Deathstar-like Warsuns, Wonglc (grey Brotherhood of Yin) are zealous suicide bombers and finally, Yap (orange Clan of Saar) are space nomads with floating space docks.
The game’s first blood went to wolfx’s Sol as he helped to pass a law promoting galactic chivalry and prohibiting retreats, effectively compelling my psychic Naalus to stay and fight even if they could retreat without casualties. Ivan uncharacteristically kept his Jol-Nars at home, frantically researching for the ultimate tech that could bring him victory. Phuah’s Letnevs and my Naalus expanded cautiously while Yap’s Saarians ranged far and wide from their doomed homeworld to colonise a good chunk of the galaxy real estate, even taking the center planet Mecatol Rex.
Wonglc’s Yins took advantage of Lim’s inexperienced Muaats to launch a raid, catching the Muaats’ Warsun out without adequate fighter cover.
After a few decisive hits from their destroyers and cruisers, a lone Yin destroyer took one for the team as it crashes into the Warsun and took out Muaats’ sole advantage and expansion momentum.
Meanwhile, Yap’s Saarians took advantage of a peaceful border with Wonglc’s Yins to launch a full scale operation against my unprepared Naalus.
A border world fell and my Naalus are on the defensive, invoking intergalactic diplomacy twice to frustrate Saarian advances.
Meanwhile Wonglc’s Yin push continues into Muaat borderworld as Lim frantically pulled his resources for another replacement Warsun.
A productivity spike on Saarian controlled Mecatol Rex finally brought a response from Wolfx’s Sol, provoking a local unrest against the Saarian local government, thus destroying the local militia and space dock.
Wolfx’s Sol prepared to make a jump on Mecatol Rex when Phuah’s Letnevs triumphantly announced their successful conversion of the galactic Winnarian custodians to win the game at 10VPs.
After much finger pointing and blame shifting for Phuah’s sudden victory, the gamers adjourned for lunch at a nearby restaurant.
2nd game:
After changing seating arrangements and Ivan announcing his taking a breather to leave early later, the remaining 6 gamers picked their race and form their galaxy. The arrangements are now grey Lizix Mindnet - dreadnoughts specialist (myself), yellow Winnu - efficient politicians (Wonglc), blue Mentak Coalition - space pirates (Wolfx), red Embers of Muaat (again by Lim, special allowance for newbie), orange Brotherhood of Yin (this time by Yap) and green Clan of Saar (this time by Phuah).
The gamers:
Phuah in the foreground, obscouring Yap’s face.
Lim (seating), with temporary adviser Ivan lounging behind.
Wonglc (left) and Wolfx (right) continuing their running rivalry in a side by side seating arrangement.
With a game under his belt and adviser Ivan giving helpful pointers, Lim got his Muaats to a flying start as it starts encroaching into Yap’s Yin territory. History was not to repeat itself, as this time the Muaats came prepared with numerous fighter covers.
A preemptive strike and a suicide run failed to stem the red tide as Yap’s Yins were mercilessly crushed beneath the heels of the Warsun.
Meanwhile on the other end of the galaxy, a premature run on Mecatol Rex by Wolfx’s Mentaks, resulted in a miscalculated open home system. This invited in a quick stab through the back door from Wonglc’s Winnu.
Some signal jamming and light skirmishes delayed the liberation of the Mentak homeworld, thus setting Wolfx’s plans back indefinitely.
With another Warsun up running and raced to the front line with the new Magnus drive, the Muaats camped right outside the Yin’s frontdoor as Yap frantically call up his own Warsuns to the defense.
All quiet on the southern front as my Lizix were contented to sit behind a barrage of defenses, converting Winnarian custodians 2 VPs at a time. Phuah’s Saarians could only sit and watch as the gap in the massive arms race widens with my Lizix pumping out more hardware than the Saarian economy could.
The epic twin Warsun showdowns finally happened as the Muaat went on their invasion of the Yin’s homeworld. The Muaats were covered by their massive fighter fleet while the Yins called up a dreadnaught to even the odds.
In the end, even the dreadnaught could not endure the multiple hits as well as the fighter swarms and the Yins went down almost scratching the Muaats’ Warsuns.
With Yap’s Yins wiped out and Wolfx’s Mentaks struggling to revive their production, Wonglc’s Winnu and my Lizix went forth to claim galactic objectives. Phuah’s Saarians, seeing no opening in the Lizix lines, went and scavenge through the Yin wreckage for VPs. The Muaats, contented in their victory, were seen milling around among the Yin remnants.
In the end, the Lizix and Winnu were tied for VPs as the game ends with the Imperium Rex. A quick check on the tie breaker gives Wonglc the win for a greater number of public objectives completed by his Winnu.
The two games completed made me realise that among seasoned TI3 players, early aggressions are common and often decisive. Slight mistakes are punished with little chance of recovery. TI3 is also an experience game through and through with the euro-style mechanics as a light excuse for some efficiency management in the overall story arc of galactic warfare and political backstabbing. Here’s to the next TI3 session!
