Again we had a 6-player game planned but our 6th player canceled a few days before Game Day. One of these days we'll get a 6-player game going, but today was not the day. We did random races for everyone but the newest player who we gave Federation of Sol. These were the races:

From left to right
Alexander - Universities of Jol'Nar (purple)
Mike - Naalu Collective (yellow) - can't see him but he's the guy sitting behind Alex
Dom - Federation of Sol (blue)
Devin - Nekro Virus (black)
Eck (and his beard) - Embers of Muaat (red)

We used the TI4 balanced map generator here: https://ti4-map-generator.derekpeterson.ca/ using the 5 player "notch" style. Here's what it rolled up:

Mentak (#2 on the map) changed out to be Nekro Virus the night before.

I showed it to everyone and they thought it was fine. I felt like I had a pretty sweet setup with that 5 resource system right next door, but it was my ONLY system and since I was Embers of Muaat, I didn't mind taking it. The person I was worried about the most was Naalu (#9 on the map), but I was under the impression he was a veteran player. With him running Naalu, I didn't mind a tougher start for him. He wanted to offer Alex and me a trade good for our notched starting position. I turned it down. The Embers of Muaat are a proud people and do not need your charity! Jol'nar happily took the trade good. Later on I found out Mike was a newer player so felt kinda bad for his start.

 I set everything up the night before so we'd be ready to hit the ground running, first thing. TI 4 is such a grand game.

 

Round 0

 

Round 1

Normally round 1 is only marginally interesting so I'd summarise and skip the picture. But this is what happened. The Nekro virus chose Warfare and expanded to two systems adjacent to Mecatol to secure a point. Embers of Muaat became neighbors to Jol'Nar to trade. And Federation of Sol researched Gravity drive and took one of the only good systems in range of Naalu. Dom (Federation of Sol) was kind of new and I explained how aggressive a move that was, but he and Mike (Naalu) said them fighting was a common theme in their games. I made sure to reiterate that the goal is victory points. I actually started out with Contstruction, so I could have a decent star dock a bit closer to the action.

Round 2

I took Construction for the second time in a row to solidify the borders everyone was politely agreeing on. I also traded my War Sun promissory note to Jol'Nar in exchange for his research agreement and Hyper Metabolism to help with my Command Counter addiction. Since I had been trading so much money with Jol'Nar and he was able to expand  so quickly to his planets he was able to put start a substantial and mobile fleet. Federation of Sol Consolidated his holdings on the Naalu border and pushed towards Mecatol Rex. At this point Naalu was feeling the pressure and realized how resource starved he was. Also, Naalu and Jol'Nar kept taking Leadership and Technology so Nekro was a little token starved and so was I.

Round 3

You'll notice a lot of black plastic disappeared in this shot. Nekro took Mecatol Rex this round. I had given him my Cease Fire earlier for something and I wanted it back. After upgrading my 4 PDS adjacent to Mecatol I activated the system and asked for my Cease Fire back. He declined and the fight did not go his way. This did two things. It left the airspace of that 4 PDS system open and so Jol'Nar was able to fly through that and claim another tech specialty planet from Nekro and blow up the recently built space dock. That double whammy really started the downfall of the Nekro for the rest of the game. People didn't feel too bad at this point since Nekro was at 4 points and the rest of us were at 0-2.

I was so engrossed in my side of the board I only vaguely remember some of the Naalu/Sol agression that went on. I remember there was some betrayal and Naalu was reeling from the fights. He had a couple of fleets but couldn't strike into Sol territory without being very exposed. At that point he pleaded for the benevolent Embers of Muat for aid. In exchange, he would give me one trade good every time he got refreshed. So I gave him the blueprints for my Peace Spheres (War Sun is an extremist propaganda term used by the space media). I even helped fund his first one later on. He roleplayed up the whole vassal thing a few times during the game which was cool.

During the Agenda phase I also pushed the vote to give Naalu the Prophecy of Ixth giving him +1 to his fighter rolls. A few people even put riders on it, and Nekro picked up Spec Ops 2 so everyone was somewhat appeased (and I was sitting on Mecatol with a decent fleet). Muahaha or... Muu a a a aat!

Round 4

This was another tense round. Look at that purple fleet! He looked me square in the eye and said, "It's not for you." And I had a choice to make. I had a decent shot at taking that fleet out right then, but I'd probably have to give up Mecatol to do it. I pride myself on not being the first to backstab so I rolled the dice and trusted him. At this point I think I picked up Cruiser two and solidified my Mecatol position. If anyone came at me, it was going to hurt. Naalu was able to finally bloody Federations of Sol's nose and was back in the game. Everyone started scoring victory points on tech/planet objectives now.

 

Round 5

At the start of the round I decided to make my move and I chose Imperial. I knew I wouldn't be able to hold everything, but the game was going to be a glorious fireball of awesomeness. Everyone was already deciding who was going to try and engage me, and then the Federation of Sol player played his Imperial Arbiter title to take Imperial away from me. And just like that, the table went back to a tense-mostly peace.

Naalu started moving in on Jol'Nar's territory but didn't attack anything yet. Still there was some implied pressure from his crystal fighter II's with a +1. Definitely not insignificant.

With Mecatol rex, a few influence planets, and Hyper Metabolism I was gaining 7 command counters a round. I kept pumping more and more into fleet. At this point I think I was at 7 or 8.  The stage 2 that got flipped last round was own 6 planets with the same trait. A nigh impossible task... But with nearly all my Cruiser II's on the board that meant I could strike out anywhere I needed to. I stalled until everyone had passed to make my move. I even gave away my support for the throne for my Naalu (my loyal vassal) to retreat away from the hex he was originally retreating to. Then I flew out from mecatol rex and snagged up the last two planets I needed. 

Round 6

Jol'Nar kept his word. The fleet was actually for destroying Nekro's flagship for a secret objective. Naalu struck at Jol'Nar, Jol'Nar fought back. At one point Jol'Nar had a decent fleet go after Naalu's Homeworld but the stacks of fighters there held off the space nerds and their -1 combat rolls.

Federation of Sol destroyed my sacrificial cruisers to get back his planets I snagged at the end of last round and he was prepared to assault Mecatol next round. At the end of this round, everyone but Nekro was at 8 or 9 Victory Points and it was going to come down to initiative order. Next round. 

 

Round 7

Jol'Nar had the Naalu Promissory Note so he was going to go first. Nekro was speaker so he got to choose the first card. If he chose imperial, that effectively meant Jol'Nar won. If he chose something else, that meant I'd choose imperial. Devin is a great guy and he didn't want to king-make either way. Jol'nar gave him a way out and said don't worry about it, he had it under control. I looked through my action cards cause I knew what was coming. I didn't have a sabotage...

I chose Imperial so I could score this round. He played Public Disgrace which means I have to put it back and pick a different card... I asked if anyone wanted to play a Sabotage? Naalu... my glorious vassal locks eyes with me. I tell him, I'll give him my support for the throne so he can be tied for second place... He plays a Sabotage and the table goes wild. 

I tell Alex he can have the victory but he laughs and says nah. Then he hands me the Gift of Prescience so no one else can steal the victory out from under me. This was one of those rare (extremely rare) instances where being honorable and kind actually clinched the victory instead of throwing the victory away.

TI 4 can be an amazing story generator. In the early years we were all emerging from our home systems while the Nekro Virus empire threatened the galaxy. We united against that galactic crisis (Sorry Devin!) and entered an intense cold war period where everyone was building massive fleets including several war suns. After several minor conflicts, it came down to the two super powers on the board racing for the custodian's approval. In the end, Jol'Nar, Naalu, and Muaat chose to work together and ushered in a new age of peace. I picture Sol reluctantly agreeing to abide by the council's decision, but claiming as much territory as they can in the upcoming peace accords.

Good game everyone!

 

Previous Game: https://www.gamedev.net/blogs/entry/2265456-twilight-imperium-4th-edition-game-2/
Next Game: Stay tuned!