Sol Solutions

Saturday was Chris' birthday and to celebrate five of us converged on his house to let loose on a game of Twilight Imperium. My clever plan was to get there at 2pm for a refresher before we kicked off at 3pm. When I arrived at 2.15 I discovered my clever plan was actually a shit plan, though, as everyone was already present and raring to go. Thus, thanks to my cognitive confusion over simple timekeeping, I sat down to a game with high mental demands having last played it over 2 years ago. 

Late game TI4

What's more, Chris had since then added an expansion. As well as asymmetric factions with asymmetric ships and abilities, there were now several characters to either start with or unlock, and additional shenanigans on the board. Fighting down the urge to run back to the car, I took the most straightforward faction - Sol, with a dude who looked a bit like James Cordon - and set up in a corner of the galaxy nestled between Jon (black) and Aiden (pink). Opposite us were Paul (red) and Chris (yellow), with Stuart (orange) parked at the far end of the table. They all had faction names and strengths, and probably objectives as well, but at the start my main goal was not holding anyone up any more than I already had. Fortunately both Chris and Aiden coached me through the early turns, which followed a pattern for most of us of expanding out across the board, and in Jon's case, threatening anyone who came near his ships. 

My starting hex

TI has an intriguing political system, with players all choosing roles at the start of each round and - at some point - activating them for the primary ability. When this happens, everyone else can - potentially - activate the secondary ability, if they have a strategy token. But timing is critical, and you might want to delay your role by taking a tactical action instead - shuffling across the board, finding things, maybe starting a bit of aggro. Being able to take a place-holder type turn is helpful, and TI's multiple currencies of strategy tokens, tactical tokens and roles is further appended by both commodities and the numerous trading options: Chris got stuff off Jon simply for not firing at him. 

At the end of each round there's also a new law or directive that comes into play - or not. Players use influence they have in the galaxy (by controlling planets) to sway votes in the way they'd like them to go. Stuart had a leg up here as his faction often seemed to have a controlling voice in the room when motions were proposed: his ability was +6 influence on every vote. Chris' additions to the game even included a whiteboard they kept track of various things - turn order, points-scored etc - and any passed laws were added to this. 

But while Stuart was having his say in the corridors of power, out in the militarized zone of the board it was all about Jon and Aiden. Jon had powered and threatened his way to the centre of the galaxy (Mecatol Rex) to establish an early lead, but mid-game Aiden's patient fleet-building suddenly exploded its way across the board, riding over Jon in Mecatol Rex and trampling Chris' yellow fleet underfoot. Paul, Stu and I - the relative newbies, with a couple of plays each - all watched as Aiden spotted his potential competitors and put them to the sword. 

The calm before the storm

It had taken me a couple of hours to fully almost comprehend what was going on around me, but as we entered the endgame phase in the evening (after Chris' delicious chilli) things finally swam into focus. Curiously, as the parameters of the game began to make sense, I began making stupid mistakes. On the last round I activated my remove all tokens dude too early, and sent my flagship off in the wrong direction to score a public objective. I wouldn't have won, but sticking to the plan I'd made might have snuck me into joint second.

However the winner always looked like Jon or Aiden. And in the penultimate round, despite Aiden's huge presence across the board - and verbal brinkmanship! - Jon scored three points to catapult him to a point from the 12 he needed to win. 

Jon's ships, thanks to yellow and pink incursions from Chris and Aiden, were now blockaded in to a single hex, albeit there appeared to be about hundred of them there. If we were playing to 14 points it was clear the game would be Aiden's, but as we'd agreed on a dozen, there was the mystery of whether Jon had it about him to score the single point he needed, from a secret objective, perhaps, or getting the last trade good to 'buy' a point from the public objectives. Despite the misdirection, Jon had the trade good and wrapped up the win - aided by me, as I'd naively agreed to 'Support the Throne' (get a point each) with him in the preceding round...

Jon 12 / Aiden 11 / Chris-Sam 9 each / Paul 8 / Stuart 7

It hadn't felt like it, but eight hours had passed since we'd begun! So we wrapped up the evening with sillier fare in the form of Say Anything, a party game where the active player picks a question that doesn't have a categorical answer (eg What would I call my pet lion/ How do I remember the 90s/What's the best toy for an adult etc) and all the other players write potential answers. The active player then chooses one of these answers, but before revealing their choice, the other players all vote on which one they think was chosen (you can vote for yourself). 

not Paul's ideal dinner guest

The answers varied from mildly smutty to wildly inaccurate, with Aiden not choosing 'inflatable Jon' from Jon as his favourite toy. I did badly with Say Anything; I think Aiden won. It was fun - the type of game where scoring is almost irrelevant. But it was now about midnight and with galaxies won and party games partied, everyone headed off into the night.

Except Chris and I who played his birthday present from me, So Clover. It's better with more than two (officially it doesn't even play two!) but it was a nice way to put a second wrapping on the evening. Time for bed!