Is anyone surprised? The rain finally stopped this weekend, but I of course spent Saturday with a group of friends, indoors, playing an epic strategy game.

The game is called Twilight Imperium, and if I had to describe it in one word, it would be “long“.  It’s a lot of fun, though, as long as you only play it once in a while.  This is the second time that I’ve played, we usually play it once or twice a year, since it’s pretty much an all-day affair.  We started a little before 11am, and we finished after 8pm (with only one break for pizza in the middle).

The basic goal of the game is to build your empire and achieve victory through completing various objectives (such as taking control of certain planets while controlling certain ships, or amassing various types of technology).  In the process, you can wage war against your fellow players (which often involves 20 minutes of rolling dice to determine the outcome).  You can form alliances (and then break them) with other players through trade contracts, and the layout of the board can create natural defenses such as supernovas or asteroid fields.  If you’re interested, check out the link above for a quick description, or go ahead and take a look at the full rules for the game (PDF file).

Thanks to Dan for introducing us to the game.  He won again, of course.

After dinner at Famous Dave’s BBQ (mmm…sausage and chicken tenders), we spent half an hour cleaning up the board (that’s a lot of cards, pieces, and dice!) and played a quick (relatively) round of Munchkin Cthulhu, which I won.  Kill the monsters, steal the treasure, stab your buddies.  If you’re not familiar with the Munchkin series, you should definitely check it out (assuming you’re into fantasy/role-playing games and such, otherwise the humor will probably be lost on you).  It even comes with blank cards so that you can draw/add your own elements to the game.

More pictures from our game can be found here.  If you want to buy the games (and contribute to my blog by making Amazon help pay the hosting bills):  Twilight Imperium and Munchkin Cthulhu.

Next weekend I promise to spend some time outside.  (Which of course means it will rain all weekend).  I’m hoping to get some neat pictures of fireworks with my new camera.