Tabletalk: Tactical Actions in Twilight Imperium

Tabletalk: Tactical Actions in Twilight Imperium — Blue Ink Alchemy

Greetings, Your Excellency! You have been chosen to lead your people towards victory on the galactic stage. The Lazax Empire has been overthrown, and Mecatol Rex is yours for the taking. Perhaps. You must command vast armies, immense spacecraft, ambassadors, trade envoys, and the very industries of the planets of the former empire to defeat your noble rivals or, at the very least, beat them to the punch. Fortunately for you, I am here to help you. I am your humble tutor, and this is Twilight Imperium. Twilight Imperium is an expansive board game, for between 3 and 8 players, that is best described as a space opera in a box. Each player assumes control of one of the races who were formerly a part of, or interested in usurping, the Lazax Empire. From your home system, in one of the galaxy's corners, you will head out to achieve objectives, gather resources, build your forces, and defeat the other players. The first player to a designated amount of victory points is the winner! If you want to sit down with your friends and create your own science-fiction epic, vying for power and making backdoor deals to achieve your aims, this is the game for you. Just... put aside a day for it. Yes, an entire day. Maybe more than one if you have 8 players. But we'll get back to the timeline later; let's talk about how you play. For this tutorial, we will use the Federation of Sol. Each player, including you, will get one of these command cards. It's a reference sheet, a repository for the various counters you'll need, and a description of your race, its background, and its mentality. When the galaxy is mapped out, which is a mini-game in and of itself, one player will start the game with this, the Speaker token, indicating that they kick off the start of a round of Twilight Imperium: the Strategy Phase. Starting with the Speaker, each player chooses one of these eight overarching Strategies. I'll go over them in detail in a future session, but all you need to know for now, is that the Strategy cards determine the order of play for the round. So, if you choose Initiative (or Leadership, if you're playing with the expansions, which you should), you will go first in the round, even if you are not the Speaker. But regardless of where you are in the turn order... what do you do when it's your turn? Strategy Cards, as compared to an ordinary Reference Paw. The answer is simple: one of four things. You can execute a Tactical action, Transfer forces between friendly systems, pull the trigger on your Strategy, play an Action card that designates you can play it 'As an Action', or you can pass. The round is over when all players have passed, and a new one begins. But let's go back to that Tactical action, which is the beating heart of Twilight Imperium, the thing that keeps the game moving and slowly paints the galactic canvas, one brush-stroke of starlight at a time. These are a few systems that could appear in your galaxy. Let's say you have forces at Jord, your home system, and you want to move them to the Tiamat/Hercalore system. That takes a Tactical action. Take one of your Command tokens from the Command Pool area on your command card, and place it on your target system.   This is called 'activating' the system. You move your space forces first, possibly into a hail of defensive fire from Planetary Defense installations, and dealing with any combat in space. Then, you may move your forces from your fleet onto the planet, possibly with bombardment, and even more defensive fire, and engage in invasion combat. Once that's done, you get any new planet cards you've acquired (face-down, so you can't use them this round), your turn is over, and play proceeds. That's a hostile system movement; how about if you have a friendly system to move to? Or build from?   It's similar to hostile movement. You activate the system, move in your fleet and forces, and then, if you've controlled the system since last round, you can build a space dock there. If you already have a space dock, you can build other units here, up to a limit imposed by the industrial capacity of the planet the dock orbits.   To build, you have to exhaust (turn face down) systems with resources equal to the cost of whatever you're building. In this example, we're going to build two Cruisers at Jord. To pay for these Cruisers, each costing 2 resources, we first activate the system our Space Dock is in, and then exhaust Jord by turning it face-down. If Tiamat or Hercalor were ready, we could use them to build more ships or forces, but since we just got them this round, we can only exhaust Jord. You can also do this as part of a Transfer action. Transfer actions are almost identical, but allow you to rearrange forces between two friendly systems, and build in one of them, but it consumes two of your command counters. And you need to keep that in mind, because you do not get these counters back. Not directly, anyway. This implementation of tactical actions is part of what makes Twilight Imperium so brilliant. Downtime for the individual player is minimized. And even when it isn't your turn, you're going to want to see what your opponents are doing. Even if they're light-years away from you, they might be building a fleet you'll want to try and dilute, or guide your allies... if you have any... into attacking. You're going to want to think two to three actions ahead, and time your movements as best you can, to obfuscate your true intent for as long as possible. For Twilight Imperium is much more than a game of moving plastic pieces and rolling dice. Next Week: Strategies and You - What's With The Trapezoids?

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Blue Ink Alchemy

Tabletalk: Tactical Actions in Twilight Imperium

Tabletalk: Tactical Actions in Twilight Imperium — Blue Ink Alchemy

Greetings, Your Excellency! You have been chosen to lead your people towards victory on the galactic stage. The Lazax Empire has been overthrown, and Mercatol Rex is yours for the taking. Perhaps. You must command vast armies, immense spacecraft, ambassadors, trade envoys, and the very industries of the planets of the former empire to defeat your noble rivals or, at the very least, beat them to the punch. Fortunately for you, I am here to help you. I am your humble tutor, and this is Twilight Imperium. Twilight Imperium is an expansive board game, for between 3 and 8 players, that is best described as a space opera in a box. Each player assumes control of one of the races who were formerly a part of, or interested in usurping, the Lazax Empire. From your home system, in one of the galaxy's corners, you will head out to achieve objectives, gather resources, build your forces, and defeat the other players. The first player to a designated amount of victory points is the winner! If you want to sit down with your friends and create your own science-fiction epic, vying for power and making backdoor deals to achieve your aims, this is the game for you. Just... put aside a day for it. Yes, an entire day. Maybe more than one if you have 8 players. But we'll get back to the timeline later; let's talk about how you play. For this tutorial, we will use the Federation of Sol. Each player, including you, will get one of these command cards. It's a reference sheet, a repository for the various counters you'll need, and a description of your race, its background, and its mentality. When the galaxy is mapped out, which is a mini-game in and of itself, one player will start the game with this, the Speaker token, indicating that they kick off the start of a round of Twilight Imperium: the Strategy Phase. Starting with the Speaker, each player chooses one of these eight overarching Strategies. I'll go over them in detail in a future session, but all you need to know for now, is that the Strategy cards determine the order of play for the round. So, if you choose Initiative (or Leadership, if you're playing with the expansions, which you should), you will go first in the round, even if you are not the Speaker. But regardless of where you are in the turn order... what do you do when it's your turn? Strategy Cards, as compared to an ordinary Reference Paw. The answer is simple: one of four things. You can execute a Tactical action, Transfer forces between friendly systems, pull the trigger on your Strategy, play an Action card that designates you can play it 'As an Action', or you can pass. The round is over when all players have passed, and a new one begins. But let's go back to that Tactical action, which is the beating heart of Twilight Imperium, the thing that keeps the game moving and slowly paints the galactic canvas, one brush-stroke of starlight at a time. These are a few systems that could appear in your galaxy. Let's say you have forces at Jord, your home system, and you want to move them to the Tiamat/Hercalore system. That takes a Tactical action. Take one of your Command tokens from the Command Pool area on your command card, and place it on your target system.   This is called 'activating' the system. You move your space forces first, possibly into a hail of defensive fire from Planetary Defense installations, and dealing with any combat in space. Then, you may move your forces from your fleet onto the planet, possibly with bombardment, and even more defensive fire, and engage in invasion combat. Once that's done, you get any new planet cards you've acquired (face-down, so you can't use them this round), your turn is over, and play proceeds. That's a hostile system movement; how about if you have a friendly system to move to? Or build from?   It's similar to hostile movement. You activate the system, move in your fleet and forces, and then, if you've controlled the system since last round, you can build a space dock there. If you already have a space dock, you can build other units here, up to a limit imposed by the industrial capacity of the planet the dock orbits.   To build, you have to exhaust (turn face down) systems with resources equal to the cost of whatever you're building. In this example, we're going to build two Cruisers at Jord. To pay for these Cruisers, each costing 2 resources, we first activate the system our Space Dock is in, and then exhaust Jord by turning it face-down. If Tiamat or Hercalor were ready, we could use them to build more ships or forces, but since we just got them this round, we can only exhaust Jord. You can also do this as part of a Transfer action. Transfer actions are almost identical, but allow you to rearrange forces between two friendly systems, and build in one of them, but it consumes two of your command counters. And you need to keep that in mind, because you do not get these counters back. Not directly, anyway. This implementation of tactical actions is part of what makes Twilight Imperium so brilliant. Downtime for the individual player is minimized. And even when it isn't your turn, you're going to want to see what your opponents are doing. Even if they're light-years away from you, they might be building a fleet you'll want to try and dilute, or guide your allies... if you have any... into attacking. You're going to want to think two to three actions ahead, and time your movements as best you can, to obfuscate your true intent for as long as possible. For Twilight Imperium is much more than a game of moving plastic pieces and rolling dice. Next Week: Strategies and You - What's With The Trapezoids?

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Blue Ink Alchemy

Let's Watch the Guardians of the Galaxy Trailer!

Let's Watch the Guardians of the Galaxy Trailer! — Blue Ink Alchemy

Normally this is my Writer Report slot, but one of the movies I've been the most excited about in a long time finally got a full-length trailer last night, and as much as I'm sure other, bigger sites are doing write-ups of it, I want to get my own two cents out there because people should see this when it comes out. So, in case you missed it on Jimmy Kimmel last night, or if you just want to watch it again, here's the trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTZ2Tp9yXyM&w=550] Breaking it down: In General: This is really encouraging. Guardians is Marvel's gutsiest move to date. None of these characters or worlds are anywhere near as well-known as The Avengers are these days, and the House of Ideas have a bit of an uphill battle getting butts in the seats. This trailer is a masterful move. It introduces the characters (we'll get to them), gives us a bit of the alien worlds and cultures we'll be dealing with, and hooks us with familiar music, promises of action, and tastes of the film's comedy. Speaking of which... Tone: Some folks may be upset that Marvel tends to lean towards the comedic side of things, from Tony Stark's constant wise-cracking to some of Loki's less genocidal antics. However, anybody who's read Guardians in the last few years, be it written by Dan Abnett or Brian Michael Bendis, will tell you that the tone set by the trailer matches the tone of the books exactly. Despite the grave threats they face protecting Earth and other worlds from on a daily basis, the Guardians never take their work or themselves too seriously, especially... Star-Lord: As the human character of the group, Peter Quill's the audience surrogate and access point for the weird and wonderful cosmic world we're going to be seeing. Again, the tone of the character feels pretty spot-on. The characters who don't know him (Korath, the Nova Corps, etc) have a really hard time taking him seriously, which is kind of perfect. It already feels like a refreshing change from the dire, dour tone of other super-powered being films (looking at you, Man of Steel). This guy isn't seen as a savior or a Chosen One, he's seen as a nuisance, moreso than any of the other Guardians. The comic nerd part of my brain is uncertain some of the interesting minutiae will be seen in the film, as his race is listed as Terran meaning they don't notice or want to discuss his half-breed nature, and I'm not sure we see his trademark Element Gun... and then he yawns while standing in line-up and I forget what I was worried about because I'm grinning again. Drax the Destroyer: Bautista is perfect for this. Between The Man with the Iron Fists and Riddick, I can tell you that the guy is really good at commanding the screen just with his imposing physical presence. Drax is a lot like that: He doesn't necessarily need to say anything to make you back away slowly covering your genitals. The shots we have of him in the line-up and under Nova Corps scrutiny look like someone who just wants to rip something, anything, apart, but he's behaving himself because he's saving that rage for someone who's really asking for it. The detail in his red accents, seen in motion, are actually a really nice touch to the character. Gamora: I have no doubt whatsoever that Zoe Saldana can pull off playing the deadliest woman in the universe. Pretty much everything I've seen her in has displayed her confidence and ability to disappear into her character. Gamora is the kind of person who knows exactly what she wants and how to get it, and I don't think we're going to have any trouble seeing her as an equal to Drax when it comes to physically throwing down. We don't get as much of her action as we do a tasteful shot of her back, but Gamora's always been equal parts ass-kicking, genius and sex appeal. Her little smile during her intro seals the deal. Rocket Raccoon: I'm actually glad Rocket didn't say a word. I hope Marvel conserves as much of this guy's attitude and dialog as possible so audiences really fall in love with him on opening day. The mere concept alone should be enough to sell people: He's a four-foot humanoid raccoon that likes big guns and bigger explosions. The fact that he's constantly cracking wise is and should be just a bonus. Groot: Again, less is more when it comes to Groot. His somewhat curious expression and the reactions of the Novas were pretty much perfect. This presentation can and should make people interested in what he can do. Audiences aren't used to seeing something as strange as a walking tree-person, at least outside of Lord of the Rings, and his inclusion on the team should really round things out. Nebula: Most people know Karen Gillen as Amy Pond from Doctor Who. It may come as a shock to them to see her playing Nebula, a very nasty character from Marvel's cosmic side. I won't speculate on the role she'll play in this film, save to say she might also be after that orb Peter's seen trying to grab in the beginning of the trailer. Oh, and remember the big purple dude grinning at the end of The Avengers? That's Thanos. Nebula's his daughter. And he's the guy Drax is mad at. Just putting that out there. The Kree: We only see Ronan the Accuser for a brief moment, manhandling Drax, and from the start of the trailer we see the great Djimon Hounsou as Korath the Pursuer. I'm excited to see the scope of the Marvel Universe open up to include new races and groups, and the Kree look suitably intense, the more human-like but no less threatening counterpart to the Skrulls/Chitauri. The Nova Corps: On top of a main antagonist and a new alien presence, we have what amounts to a space police force. Rather than overcomplicating things, they're a great touch. The Guardians tend to be seen more as troublemakers than saviors, and it makes sense that a neutral party would come into play to keep things from going too crazy. As an aside, the practical costumes of the Nova Corps look a great deal better than anything the similar group on the DC side, the Green Lantern Corps, wore in their movie. Plus John C. Reilly, who is always excellent in supporting roles, is Rhomann Dey, one of the most famous Novas ever. The Song: This is the cherry on top of everything. It's catchy. It's the sort of Earth tune Peter would carry in his Walkman - yes, that's a Sony Walkman from the 80s. It's funny. And if you're anything like me, it does, in fact, get you hooked on a feeling. Overall: Guardians of the Galaxy has always been Marvel's answer to Farscape or Firefly. It's a story about a far-flung group of misfits working together to go after nastiness pro-actively. The diverse characters, the outlandish locations, and the sheer oddity of deep space are a heady cocktail in and of themselves, and if this trailer is anything to go by, a hefty dash of sincere humor and splashes of frenetic, visceral action have been added. I, for one, can't wait for August. I try not to get too optimistic about films before they come out, but for what it's worth, I think this is going to be a fantastic time at the movies.

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Blue Ink Alchemy

State of the Blog

State of the Blog — Blue Ink Alchemy

Well, this has been an interesting couple of weeks. I'd been meaning to migrate Blue Ink Alchemy over to a different host for some time, but the final straw came when the blog went down inexplicably earlier this month, and when I contacted my host, they basically said "This was your fault" and provided a minuscule report on my login information. Thanks for that, guys, but then how do you explain how your own site was down for the count at the exact same time? So yeah. Blue Ink Alchemy is now hosted by the fine folks over at Site5. While I was waiting for GoDaddy to give up the domain so I can hold everything in one place, I thought about the structure of the blog and how I want to proceed going forward. I think I'm doing to stay with a schedule of posting every weekday, and most things will stay the same - Flash Fiction on Mondays, Writer Report on Wednesdays to keep me honest, reviews every Friday, and so on. Thursdays have always been difficult for me. I know I want to talk about gaming, but previous posts have felt a bit unfocused and sometimes meander. So I'm going to nail it down and say that Thursdays are all about tabletop gaming. My board game collection continues to grow, and I've recently gotten hooked again by the tense and cerebral gameplay of Netrunner. So let's have some discussion, after-action reports, Let's Plays, and looks ahead to how the collection will proceed! I'm thinking Tabletalk Thursdays may keep with the alliteration I've got going on, but it might also be too trite. Either way, it's good to be back. I missed you guys.

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Blue Ink Alchemy

Flash Fiction: His

Flash Fiction: His — Blue Ink Alchemy

For the Terribleminds Flash Fiction challenge, "Twisted Love".

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His was a good life. Charlie left his desk at his office promptly at 5 PM. His secretary was certain to take all incoming calls from this point, regardless of the status of his cases. His accountant was already up to speed on everything, his accounts in order and better than ever, and nothing else really mattered. The end of another good day. He drove his BMW down his streets just the way he liked. He drove as fast as he wanted, and never bothered to use the turn signal. Why should he? It was his road, this was his sedan, and nothing was going to stop him. The poor jerks in their poor coupes and poor pickups were just jealous. They'd be even more jealous if they knew about his hot wife in his big house at the end of his lane. It wasn't perfect, though. Not yet. His big house wasn't quite the way he wanted it. Someone would have to carry on his legacy, inherit his greatness and his history, and tonight was the night he was going to make that happen. His friends would be hitting his town without him, with all apologies to the lovely ladies they'd be seeing at his bar. But his family, as he told them, was more important. He pulled into his driveway, parked his car, grabbed his briefcase, straightened his tie as he walked up his walk, and entered his house. Charlie's cheerful words died in his mouth when he saw her standing there. She stood with a pair of suitcases from his matching luggage set. She was dressed for travel, in smart and form-fitting jeans under a white blouse with a dark jacket over it all. Her hair was back in a ponytail to show off his earrings, and she toyed with his wedding ring as he struggled to speak. The struggle was even worse when she said three words he did not understand. "Come again?" That was what he managed to say. "I said, I'm leaving you." "Ronnie, what's wrong? What's going on?" "What's wrong?" Veronica's blue eyes seemed to flash under the light of his chandelier. "What's wrong? I should be asking you, since you're home so early. What's the matter? They run out of whores for you to fuck down in the city?" Charlie held up his hands. "I don't know what you've heard..." She shook her head. "Don't bother. It's not like I don't get it. You're rich, Charlie. And that was fun for a while. But that's all there is to you. You think you can buy your way into whatever you want." He blinked. "You want to leave because I'm rich?" "No. I am leaving you, and it's because you're a selfish, possessive, whore-mongering asshole. You know, I don't think I would have minded you fucking around if you had bothered to tell me. Hell, it might even have been fun. But no, you had to run around behind my back with your little friends and do this to me." "Ronnie, baby, I can stop..." "Shut up. Just shut up." She threw an envelope at his feet. "Those are test results, Charlie. I went to the doctor because I've been in pain for days. Not that you've noticed. It's chlamydia. Chlamydia, Charlie. Who knows how long I've had it? Now the doctor isn't even sure I'll be able to have kids; we won't know until after this has been treated." "We can fix it..." "No. There's no 'we' anymore, Charlie. I'm leaving. I already talked to David Wescott, at your firm, about the divorce. It's a strong case but we can settle amicably if you cooperate." Charlie loved her. Even standing there, furious at him, he loved her dearly. He couldn't imagine his life without her. She was his wife. His wife. His wife. As long as she was in his house, she was his, there was no question about that. So, he reached behind him and locked the door. "What are you doing, Charlie?" "You can't leave. You're mine." Her jaw tightened. "You can't keep me here, Charlie." "You can't leave." Maybe she hadn't heard him. "You're mine." "You don't own me, you sick bastard." She pulled off the full-karat diamond ring and threw it at him. "You don't own people." "You ungrateful bitch!" Charlie crossed the distance between them in two of his long strides and grabbed her shoulders in his hands. "You are my wife! This is my life and you are a part of it! Always have been, always will be, and nothing you say or do can change that! It's my life! My rules!" "Let go of me!" He was going to tell her that he would call his doctor, and with his insurance, they'd be clean in no time, and then his wife would give him his children and start his family and then she wouldn't leave for anything because his wife would love his children too much to take them away from him. He was going to say that, but Veronica's knee came up hard into his balls, and he collapsed onto his floor. Through the searing pain and the tears, he looked up to see her fumbling at the door locks. He managed to get his feet moving, his hands pushing his body up off of the floor, and he practically rammed her, slamming her against his front door. He was down again, but so was she, and he was able to grab hold of her ankle. "Let go, Charlie!" "Never." She kicked him. A sharp heel laid open his face, and he screamed. His hand went to his face and she scrambled to her feet. He reached behind him, grabbing his briefcase, and he threw it at her as she tried to flee. It caught her in the small of the back and she went down again. She managed to stand as he sat up, getting his feet under him. "It's my house!" He looked around for something to grab, something to defend his home, keep it as it should be. "You can't leave!" She didn't respond. He reached over to his umbrella stand, picking up one of his long golf umbrellas. He gripped it in both hands as he stood. When Veronica came around the corner, he was going to tell his wife that he loved her and he couldn't bear to see her go. That was before he saw his gun in her hands. "Ronnie, put the gun down." "No, Charlie." She was wiping tears from her face with her free hand, a bruise blossoming on her cheek where she'd hit the floor. "Please move." "That's my Colt, those are my pearl inlays you're holding, now put it down!" "Charlie, you have a weapon and you've struck me, this is self-defense, now please move." "God dammit, woman, this is my house and you are my wife and -" She shot him. The sound was deafening in his front hall. His ears rang as he collapsed, pain blossoming in his leg, blood staining his pin-striped suit slacks. He grabbed the wound and howled. He barely noticed when she stepped over him, his suitcases in her hands, the sound of a taxi outside on his driveway. His blood didn't stop coming out of his leg, his hands were sticky, and he looked up at his chandelier, and he prayed to his god. Please don't let me die, I'll give her anything she wants, just please please don't let me die. The ambulance arrived at his door just as it was getting dark. He found out later that Veronica had dialed 911 from the cab, after calling her lawyer of course. He was told this when he woke up in the hospital, handcuffed to the bed, with two police detectives asking about his wound and her injuries. His morphine drip made him happy to answer their questions, his heart-rending tale of betrayal and love and loss certain to move them to tears. Neither one of them moved, or showed any emotion. Tough crowd. Someone had been listening, though, as Charlie did not die. He was alive, and fully conscious, when Dave Wescott, whom Charlie thought was his friend, told him that Veronica's case was rock solid and it would be easier for everybody if Charlie just settled out of court. At that point, Charlie was too exhausted from physical therapy to argue. He came home to a house that would soon not be his. He put the keys of his car down on his table and walked into his study. He opened his desk and looked down at his gun. It was his. It was all his. And a voice inside his head told him it should stay that way forever.

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Blue Ink Alchemy

Ultimate Werewolf by Email

Ultimate Werewolf by Email — Blue Ink Alchemy

This past weekend I got to play Ultimate Werewolf with a large group. It was incredibly fun, and a thought occurred. Why does the fun have to stop because the event did? This is a game of hidden roles. Most players are Villagers, but some of them are Werewolves, prowling by night to feed. Every day, the Villagers awaken to find another of their number brutally murdered, and pick one from among them to hang for the heinous crimes. The Villagers win if they kill all the Werewolves, but all the Werewolves have to do is survive until there aren't enough Villagers to kill them off... If this sounds interesting to you, take a look at this primer on all of the roles, and join this Google group. We'll put games together from those who join, and conduct all of the game's business via email. Be prepared for some harrowing nights and hectic, fear-fueled days... Welcome to Ultimate Werewolf by email.

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Blue Ink Alchemy

Ultimate Werewolf by Email

Ultimate Werewolf by Email — Blue Ink Alchemy

This past weekend I got to play Ultimate Werewolf with a large group. It was incredibly fun, and a thought occurred. Why does the fun have to stop because the event did? This is a game of hidden roles. Most players are Villagers, but some of them are Werewolves, prowling by night to feed. Every day, the Villagers awaken to find another of their number brutally murdered, and pick one from among them to hang for the heinous crimes. The Villagers win if they kill all the Werewolves, but all the Werewolves have to do is survive until there aren't enough Villagers to kill them off... If this sounds interesting to you, take a look at this primer on all of the roles, and join this Google group. We'll put games together from those who join, and conduct all of the game's business via email. Be prepared for some harrowing nights and hectic, fear-fueled days... Welcome to Ultimate Werewolf by email.

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Blue Ink Alchemy