A Game of Interstellar Politics and an Existential Crisis
Saturday 28th April 2018
Dundee, Scotland
The Universe is human. Humanity has colonised around 1000 star systems and yet has never encountered intelligent aliens. True there is evidence of an ancient starfaring species, The Forerunners, but humanity missed whatever happened to them by many millennia and now nothing but pottery shards and ruined structures remain.
In the centuries of interstellar expansion out from Sol, humanity split into a number of polities each with its own character. Rivalry between these polities has not only been a spur to colonial expansion, but also the cause of many small wars and crises. Big wars between the Homeworlds has long been regarded as nearly impossible, no matter how bad things get – it is too risky – but out in the colonial Quadrants local brushfire conflicts and tensions can run hot for a while.
Movement and communication delays are such that communicating with the colonial quadrants can take months – things happen out there that cannot be micromanaged from the Homeworlds. Local colonial governors and fleet commanders are given a lot of plenipotentiary authority – and are expected to use that authority wisely and in the best interests of their polity.
So in Exterminator War the game starts with humanity at peace of sorts – squabbling and infighting but secure that humanity has no external threats.
We will be playing out events in the three colonial quadrants that were most affected by the coming of the Exterminator threat – each of the three quadrants has an array of quadrant governors, diplomats and fleet commanders dealing with local political concerns and rivalries (and histories of bad feeling).
In addition we have the Homeworld governments for each polity who are trying to understand the nature of the threat and make the right decision as to which quadrant to reinforce, while at the same time dealing with the usual array of emerging crises at home.
At the start, nobody knows what they are facing, so the early part of the game will be about learning about the enemy, how it fights and how to counter it.
As the game progresses this learning translates into new tactics and formations that, if properly deployed, will ensure that ultimately humanity prevails.