This year at Jimcon, Jim was missing during part of the first day due to a death in his family. He was kind enough to let us invade his house while he was gone. His nephew, Mike Byrd, let us in and already had the first game set up: Eclipse.

Eclipse

In Eclipse, you play the leader of an interstellar civilization. You compete against the other (lessor) races for supremacy of the known universe by exploring new star systems, researching technologies, and waging war on your (inferior) neighbors. In our game there were five players: Evil Mike, Ben, Owen, Mike B. and myself. We think of Eclipse as a Twilight Imperium III light. Yet it still took us eight hours to complete a game…with a break for lunch of course.

Towards the end of our game, Mike B. and I had made an alliance. So had Evil Mike and Owen. Alliances allow you to help your ally out in battle and to move freely through their part of the universe. At end game time, alliances total up their victory points for both players and divide them by two. This is the player’s score for the game. So if you have a crappy ally, he may bring down your ending score. You can always try the “sudden, yet inevitable betrayal” but it will cost you a few victory points.

The score at the end of our game was extremely close. Evil Mike and Owen won with 35 points. Ben (just Ben) had 34 points and Mike B. and I had 33 points.

Savage XCOM

After Eclipse Evil Mike ran us through a Savage XCOM game. In XCOM, We play highly trained commandos battling an invading alien force. In this mission, we were sent in to single-handedly save a city whose inhabitants were being round up for who-knows-what kind of horrible fate. Our main objective was to bring down the force fields that were preventing our land-based forces from entering the city. Saving the civilians was on the list of objectives too, but further down.

I played the sergeant in charge of the commando team. Our high altitude drop into the city was flawless. Soon after it all feel apart. We were spotted by the aliens as we stealthily moved about the city looking for the power generators for the force fields. We held our own until the alien version of a hover tank appeared. Owen’s character nearly bought the farm while trying to get a car started. The alien tank hit it head on with its main weapon. The brave seargent came to the rescue though and got his man to the medic (Jim). Our sniper, Mike B., got in trouble when some aliens appeared on the roof he was sniping from. He survived that battle only to become the target of the alien tank later in the game. For some reason the aliens took offense when he began taking out the power generators on the roofs of the buildings.

We managed to accomplish the mission, but it was ugly. Still, I hope to get a promotion out of it.

Savage Doctor Who

Owen continued his Savage Doctor Who setting with the Doctor taking our intrepid heroes on a vacation. These plans are interrupted though when the TARDIS picks up a distress call. Seconds later, the TARDIS is floating in an asteroid field. An escape pod is discovered and a trustworthy looking fellow (with amnesia) is found inside who is more than happy to become the latest addition to the team. (This is Ron’s new character. His last character was turned into a cyborg.)

The origin of the pod is not a mystery for long as a large spaceship floating through space narrowly misses the TARDIS. As always the Doctor is intrigued, but is unable to land the TARDIS in the spaceship because some sort of “Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey thing” prevents it. The heroes are sent in through an airlock to investigate. But the doctor doesn’t send them in empty handed—he entrusts them with K9 (a robot dog) and the sonic screwdriver.

As the heroes explore the vessel—a deep space cargo vessel named the SS Washington)—they are set upon by a number of clockwork androids. If that was not unusual enough, the androids are wearing 18th century French clothes and painted masks. Strangely, the clothes are identified as being the original articles. It is currently the 51st century.

Reading the ships logs uncovers that the SS Washington responded to a distress call the day before, from the SS Madam Sophie. This is the final entry in the log…

During further exploration, it becomes apparent that something is going on in Engineering. Whatever it is it’s drawing almost all the power from the ships systems. Once in Engineering, a number of the heroes are able to spy on the clockwork androids there. A metal “doorway” has been erected in the center of the room. This doorway is connected to a control panel that is being operated by a single clockwork android. As they watch, the rest of the androids walk through the doorway and disappear. Through the doorway can be seen a stone floor.

After overpowering the remaining clockwork android (with a sniper shot to the back of the head), the heroes gather in the Engineering room. The doorway is a time portal set to earth in the year 1750…at Frontevraud Abbey in France to be precise. Princess Sophie (born 1734), a daughter of Louis VX grew up at this abbey. Could this be the same Sophie as the ship in the distress call was named after?

The heroes enter the portal and find themselves in Frontevraud abbey. The princess and several nuns are being accosted by clockwork androids. After a swift fight, the androids are defeated and returned to the 51st century. The princess is left safe and sound in 1750 France.

Using the sonic screwdriver, the time portal is shutdown. This allows the TARDIS to land. The Doctor explains…Whilst the heroes were exploring the SS Washington, he detected another ship – the Madam Sophie. On board he found that a large explosion had occurred, killing the crew. This had left the maintenance androids—the clockwork androids—alone. They took to their task of repairing the ship. The ship’s computer core took major damage and needed to be replaced. The androids decided they needed to replace the computer core with the brain of the original 16 year old Madam Sophie. Sixteen years is the same age of the ship.

Savage Conan

My Savage Conan game continued with the characters travelling down to the Black Kingdoms looking for adventure, gold, and ancient lore. What they found was a woman about to be sacrificed to the Teeth. The Teeth are reptilian monsters (dinosaurs) that roam the area. It was a tough fight, but the heroes’ save her. The woman takes them to her village where she hopes they will end the village’s slavery to an ageless woman named Beersheba.

While in the village they meet Beersheba’s ambassador to the village who is called the Pale Woman. The Pale Woman is guarded by four brutish demons—or at least the villagers called them demons. The adventurers find that they die to the sword just like any other creature. So does the Pale Woman. The village headman tells the adventurers of the undying Beersheba who uses black magic to stay young. He also tells them of the impassable cave filled with unimaginable evil that is the only gateway to Beersheba’s home. He continues on by saying that Beersheba’s surrounds herself many with more of her brutish demons. He finally shows them a gold nugget and says if they kill Beersheba, they can have as many of the gold nuggets as they can carry. The adventurers decide to travel through the impassable cave filled with unimaginable evil, fight their way through an army of demons, and kill Beersheba—to get the gold nuggets.

The ultimate evil in the impassable cave turns out to be a giant armored worm. It nearly kills them, but they persevere and destroy it. The fight at the ruins where Beersheba has her home seems easier than the giant worm. Evil Mike’s Sorcerer, Amo, cast his spells of burrow and deflection to great advantage. In the end Beersheba was killed, the village was saved, and the adventurers wondered away laden with gold nuggets…for now.

History of the World

History of the World is a strange game in that who you are and where you’re at changes constantly. After the first of seven epochs, I was king of the world. Then the world spun on and I was left behind. Far behind. Ben, Owen, and Mike B. all were in contention for the lead as each epoch past. Jim and I kept up, but were always last. Me more than Jim.

Ben won by a goodly amount, with Owen coming in second. I don’t think Owen ever won an Epoch Marker. Ben and Mike had plenty. Mike came in third. I might have been third had I played my card in the third epoch that you could only play in the third epoch! As it was I was forth and Jim came in last.

Many thanks to Jim and Terri for putting up with us all once again.

Also thanks to Owen for the synopsis of the Doctor Who game.

Chaos Steve