Setup
Game 2 was supposed to be a 6-player game, choose whatever race you wanted, balanced map. That dropped to a 5-player game when one of the players couldn't make it. Then a 5th player bailed last minute and his phone didn't send the message. It's worth noting that he felt terrible about this and apologized multiple times. 
So instead of having the map setup and ready to rock and roll right at game time. We started 30 minutes late and had to build the map the old fashioned way. I think it's a testament to the streamlined improvements that we were still able to finish in a reasonable 8.5 hours (including pizza phase). Here's what happened...
Race selection method - choose whatever you want. Speaker - roll randomly and Sardakk N'orr got it.
- Devin - Mentak (green) - Playing Mentak again. Damn pirates
- Dalton - Federation of Sol (blue) - New player - came super prepared and even had notes for early strategies after listening to Space Cats and Peace Turtles.
- Javi - Letnev (purple) - New player
- Eck - Sardakk N'orr (black/me) - I won the last game, so for this game I was going to go for more role-playish fun. I planned to go combat focused and support others who did the same.
The 5th player - no show was supposed to play Embers of Muat. I was hoping to trade the War Sun tech with him, and I'd have payed silly prices to make that happen. Ah well... Some other time!
Instead we randomly built the map, and I didn't take a clean pic of it because I was focused on analyzing the new board. Sorry about that!
One thing to keep in mind for a 4-player game is every strategy card gets picked so every secondary action is possible on your turn. This is super useful for counting on secondaries as part of your grand plans. I only mention this cause I took too long to write up this after action report, so I don't recall all my strategy card picks.
Round 1 - I told the table my idea of me wanting to take the game a little less seriously. I'd still try to win but my goal was to be a warlike bug race. Everyone else was welcome (and encouraged) to play their best. They were game so the first proclamation I made was - whoever wins the first combat, gets my support for the throne! The table snickered and agreed. Other than that, it was a pretty standard early turn, Sardaak N'orr (black/me) got Warfare and expanded towards Letnev (purple) for some early trading partners. Everyone else expanded a bit.
- 0 - Mentak (green/Devin)
- 0 - Federation of Sol (blue/Dalton)
- 1 - Letnev (purple/Javi)
- 0 - Sardakk N'orr (black/Eck/me)
Round 1 end
Round 2 - Federation of Sol (blue) was poised to take Mecatol this turn and chose Imperial. The rest of the table agreed this was a bad idea (once Sol gets on Mecatol, it's hell to kick him off) so Mentak (green) blocked him with a couple of cruisers. Blue took our shared border planet without even talking about it. Though I respected the move as a combat-focused-space-bug, I planned my counter strike for this transgression.
- 1 - Mentak (green/Devin)
- 0 - Federation of Sol (blue/Dalton)
- 2 - Letnev (purple/Javi)
- 0 - Sardakk N'orr (black/Eck/me)
Round 2 end
Someone offered me a stick of gum... It made me laugh pretty hard.
Round 3 - This was an exciting turn. Lots of combat so the space-bugs were pleased! The Federation (blue) kicked those pesky Mentak (green) pirates off of Mecatol. A bug of my word, I gave him my support for the throne. Letnev (purple) lost two ground forces trying to take a border world I said he could have. Blue had blocked the only access into his undefended world... That is, it was the only way if you were unwilling to risk the Gravity Rift... Sardakk N'orr (black/me) hurled a carrier past the gravity rift successfully to take the Federation's (blue's) richest world. For those that are unfamiliar with the rule, every ship you send out of or through a Gravity Rift gets a +1 to their speed. However on a 1d10 roll of 1-3, the ship is destroyed. It could have been the Federation's undefended homeworld, but Blue was a new player and I didn't want to be THAT mean.
- 3 - Mentak (green/Devin)
- 4 - Federation of Sol (blue/Dalton)
- 2 - Letnev (purple/Javi)
- 1 - Sardakk N'orr (black/Eck/me)
Gravity Rift Snipe
Round 3 end
Round 4 - I forgot to take a picture cause so much stuff was going on. And it's been too long to remember ALL the details. Sardakk N'orr (black/me) managed to kick the Federation (blue) off of Mecatol through a combination of action cards, bombardment, and a ton of ground forces. I got back, gave up, and got back my Support for the Throne. I think it wound up in Mentak's (green's) hands. This time I think it was for destroying someone's Dreadnaught?
Sardakk N'orr (black/me) had a massive fleet on and around Mecatol Rex when the agenda Ixthian Artifact came up. I had lots of influence but definitely not enough to win the vote. I put down 19 against, other people put 24 for. Then I played the action card to get +5 votes. Since I was the speaker, I broke ties... We rolled the die anyway as a what-if and it came up 5. WHEW!
Mentak (green) snagged a poorly defended Federation (blue) world and blew up a space dock. And people also started building up their fleets.<score guess>
- 6 - Mentak (green/Devin)
- 5 - Federation of Sol (blue/Dalton)
- 4 - Letnev (purple/Javi)
- 3 - Sardakk N'orr (black/Eck/me)
<pic missing> 
Round 5 - Lots of fleet massing! Sardakk N'orr (black/me) had nearly ALL their plastic out on the board at one point. More massive battles, Mentak (green) jumped ahead to 8 during the round, but I used the Silence of Space action card to sneak through the overly defended wormhole and snipe his homeworld. Now Mentak(green) was in a weird position. To get his homeworld back he'd have to attack me, which would lose his support for the throne...
- 8- Mentak (green/Devin)
- 6 - Federation of Sol (blue/Dalton)
- 6 - Letnev (purple/Javi)
- 5 - Sardakk N'orr (black/Eck/me)
Round 5 end
Round 6 - Sadakk N'orr (black/me) wound up playing Diplomacy on Mentak(green's) home system, meaning he couldn't take it back this round. He still scored a secret objective though which brought him up to 9. People tried desperately to kick Sardakk N'orr (black/me) off of Mecatol, but just couldn't do it. There was too much plastic on the board.
- 9 - Mentak (green/Devin)
- 7 - Federation of Sol (blue/Dalton)
- 6 - Letnev (purple/Javi)
- 7 - Sardakk N'orr (black/Eck/me)
Round 6 end
Round 7 - With a point for mecatol, and a 2 point tech objective, Sardaak N'orr(black/me) was able to clinch the victory. Had I been unable to score mid-turn, Mentak (green) would have won without owning his home system by scoring his last secret objective. The picture of the board was pretty much the same, since my first action ended the game.
Final score
- 9 - Mentak (green/Devin)
- 7 - Federation of Sol (blue/Dalton)
- 7 - Letnev (purple/Javi)
- 10 - Sardakk N'orr (black/Eck/me) VICTORY!!!
Final thoughts
This was a long and crazy ride. I think I wound up giving my support for the throne away about 4 times? I really shouldn't have won this game, but the second half of the game lined up perfectly as far as agendas and objectives were concerned. Other people just couldn't score those big 2 point objectives and I barely managed to eek out a victory. I am now 2 for 2 in my Twilight Imperium 4th games! Wish me luck for the next game. 
Other Notes
Here was our cool 5 player map setup. This took quite a while to balance and even though we didn't actually use it, I thought others might be interested in a balanced Twilight Imperium 5 player map. The red hexes are impassible, and the 2 trade goods were a suggestion online. I'm not sure the trade goods are necessary though. Special thanks to my daughter for helping me tweak the board.
Prev Game: https://www.gamedev.net/blogs/entry/2265302-twilight-imperium-4th-edition-game-1/
Next Game: https://www.gamedev.net/blogs/entry/2267551-twilight-imperium-4th-edition-game-3/
