The Fifth Frontier War begins

GNN News Alert: The Zhodani Consulate has invaded the Third Imperium. Fighting has broken out around worlds in the Jewell, Lanth, Regina, and Vilus subsectors in the Spinward Marches. Traveller News Service reports that Vargr and Sword Worlds forces have also violated Imperial territory.

My friend Joe has a copy of Fifth Frontier War, a massive wargame in the same background as the Traveller roleplaying setting. I'd acquired the rules to this game some time ago, but I had never seen the actual box in person. So when I asked if we could play it sometime, he agreed--because who doesn't want to play a complex board game with hundreds of counters and written orders? So we set aside seven hours one Saturday to play as many turns as we could. After about an hour of setting up, placing counters and writing orders for fleet movements, the game commenced with the Zhodani invasion, commanded by yours truly.

The first turn was successful for my Zhodani and their Vargr stooges allies. The Consulate's 35th Fleet captured the planet Frenzie, while Elasin fell to the 67th Fleet, Ruby succumbed to the 17th Colonial, and the two Vargr fleets secured the world Dentus. Things did not go as well for the Zhodani 16th Colonial and 68th Fleet, which met heavy resistance at Mongo and failed to take the planet. Likewise, the Joyeuse Fleet out of the Sword Worlds was repelled from its attempt to land on Vilus. They would need help from the ZC 35th Fleet to capture that planet.

It went like this for nine more turns, with fleets meeting and planets falling. My fleets slowly made progress into the Imperium, but Joe's forces held their own on many worlds. The Vargr's ground and space forces attempted to take Pixie from tenacious Imperial Marines, while mercenaries chased the aliens off Dentus. Most significantly, the Zhodani's 35th Fleet defeated the 18th Imperial Fleet at Frenzie, destroying two battle squadrons, two cruiser squadrons, and numerous transports--and killing the Duke of Regina, who was commanding the 18th. The Zhodani and their allies captured several more worlds, but Imperial system defense boats at Efate managed to hold off the 17th Colonial. Turn 10, our final round of the day, saw the Imperial 213th Fleet beat the Sword Worlds' Gram fleet, while the Zhodani 68th Fleet cleared out 90% of Allele's SDBs, allowing the 17th Army to make its way to the planet's surface, while the 17th Colonial kept up its bombardment of Efate. It was getting late at this point, so we decided to break until we have a chance to play some more.

Sure, the game is very complex and fiddly, with written orders, multiple combat odds tables, and lots of math--and the small hex and counter sizes don't help--but I love the sheer grandiosity of this game: clashing starfleets, planetary invasions, psionic troops, and grand strategy. It's the type of space opera I loved as a kid, and I'm having a blast as we play out this interstellar war. Luckily, Joe can leave the game out until we play again, so I'm looking forward to picking up where we left off.