MEK OP Game Night - Space Empires: Close Encounters

For this weekend we played a four-way game of SE: Close Encounters, the expanded version of Space Empires: 4X. With two new players, the obvious decision was to put them both on the same team and then harshly school them in the efficiency of early offensive action! As it turned out, they pretty much figured that out on their own.

I used most of the optional rules, but without ground combat or unique ships. In particular, we used "More Aliens" to make home system exploration a little more dangerous. We used instant upgrades, which undercuts some of the authenticity of the game as an empire simulator, but feels necessary when the game needs to finish in a more limited time frame. If people know that ships upgrade even while on the offensive, I figure that makes offensive action that much more appealing.

Player teams were arranged diagonally across the table:

Red - Reba (playing something that involved extra retreating)
Yellow - me (playing Celestial Knights, double shots first round)

against

Blue - Jonathan (playing Immortals, -1 damage per round)
Green - Zach (playing Star Wolves, bonus to small vs large ships)

Initially we did all turns simultaneously. Everyone lost a scout to the planet of aliens, and I figured that would give everyone a chance to try out the combat system in a controlled environment. But as it turned out, no one but me even bothered to go after them...

First blood started on the Red vs Blue border. The Red forces had discovered a space wreck, and Blue had amassed a small CV force with fighters that we assumed was going after one of the two barren planets along the border. Instead, it skipped right past the aliens to grab the wreck, trashing the Red scout that had been left as a garrison.

At that point, Blue decided to just keep going and see how far a single carrier could get. With three new colonies on the border, there were multiple Red targets available. One of them threw up a hasty defense base, but the others had only shipyards in orbit. The fighters bypassed the base, and neatly eliminated a colony.

The second colony down the line was defended by a flagship, DD, and SY. After destroying the Red forces, at the cost of all three fighters, the Blue fleet settled in to blockade the system. Meanwhile, Green took advantage of the situation to send in a four-destroyer squadron along the other side of the Red border.

I had been tied up with some aliens, but did my best to make a run against the Blue systems with a force of 4 cruisers, 1 DD, 1 SC, and a flagship. Most of my research was poured into movement, to provide faster relief. Unfortunately, one of the two deep-space systems I moved through turned up... a Doomsday Machine! It ate my scout, destroyer, and a cruiser before being terminated. My weakened Yellow fleet pushed into Blue space and destroyed a colony. All this by the end of phase 7.

At that point time was running low. We decided to call the game after the next turn set. With a choice between pushing on toward the homeworld, and stopping to kill more colonies, I made the worse decision. The colony I decided to attack was defended by a base, and by this time Blue had +2 defense tech. When it didn't go down to the initial Celestial Knight charge attack, I knew it was over. Each subsequent round consisted of it ignoring a single point of damage from the cruisers, while slowly picking them apart. Immortals for the win!


Meanwhile, on the other side of the room, the Warhammer folks were pitting an implausible alliance of Orks and Necrons against a stilll more implausible Imperium/Chaos alliance. I dropped by between turns to witness the occasional WAAAGH! I'll let Walley describe the outcome:

We played a 2000 point battle. This is on the large side for games, Basically the largest I feel can be completed in a reasonable time.

The scenario called for each of us to have an objective placed in our deployment zone. This was the primary objective. Secondary objectives were also used in the scenario, such as killing the first squad and the enemy commander. These objectives yield victory points.

Orks and necrons went first, and the orks quickly redeployed from the slow Dark Angel Space Marines on the left flank and concentrated on the more experienced and mobile Chaos Marines on the right. This went well for the most part, but the game swung evenly back and forth. Orks lost their outriders to shooting, and a failed charge left their infantry exposed in the center of the board. Over all, the orks fought well in melee,but were unable to survive the subsequent counter-charges from the marine melee specialists. The necrons spent most of their game shooting at the heavily armored Terminators, eventually destroying them. And Robert's near-sighted Dreadnought finally landed a shot that killed the ork monster truck Battlewagon. 

the game ended after turn 4, with a difference of 1 victory point. Neither side had claimed the other's objective, and each side had killed one commander. However, the marines had killed an over-eager squad of Deff Kopta pilots, giving them first blood. Thus the Marines won a pyrric victory.

Next week I will not start this size game after 8 pm :)