Joel Schuster
Germany
Bretten
Baden-Württemberg
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Played my 5th game of GE last night. Checking on my logs again reminded me that I won all 4 games played before. I did not remind my fellow players of this as I feared I'll get heavily bashed for revealing this piece of information. Here is how my reign ended anyways.
Me: Black
Julian: White
Beni: Green
Marlon: Red
Julian was randomly assigned starting player. Sitting to my left and knowing me as a great rival in playing games, he picked going clockwise for turn order - of course. So I was going last for the initial 3 or 4 turns. Needless to say that I also got an empty sector next to my home planet on first occasion when Julian picked Explorer. Drawing of planets was a bit lopsided, not too bad ending up with two 3xFood sectors right away, but I wasnt making choices here and others picked away any Metal/Energy sectors before my eyes.
Our initial two plays had us learning the mechanics of the game and we were going through alot of production cycles with massive fleets. Either a big showdown or fleets not used much at all before the game ended. Consecutive 2 plays the Regent role was picked alot and the game rather decided politically with just some space skirmishes.
This time around, I was glad for another change, without mentioning or pushing it. It was several turns before Regent was picked the first time. Luckily, I was able to sort of manage and cope with my early lack of Metal and Energy. At some point my options for a new tech were quite limited and so I decided for the Long Range Scanners to have a chance on better new sector, which kind of paid out. Before, this tech wasnt picked much in our games. I ended up with just that and the Space Pirates. Others picked the more valuable and powerful stuff.
It was the 5th turn into the game IIRC that Marlon picked the Regent role for the first time. Minimal fleets were set up, Warlord only used to claim neutral sectors so far. Marlon was holding the Ambassador, allowing him to veto on any single placement of political claim. Also, going last naturally helped him to take a bunch of sectors. First scoring was 8 for Marlon and me and 5 for Beni and Julian. Starting player also changed to Marlon, who sat before me, but of course turn order was now going counter clockwise 
After another production cycle, first cruisers and more fighters entered space, no Dreadnoughts though. Marlon, despite his Shield Tech only got 3 fighters out, all in all. He rather focused on other things. I was tempted to attack him but then a single cruiser within range and a 2 fighter escort wasnt the odds I was hoping for against his starbases with a single shielded fighter each. In retrospect, maybe I should have taken these odds. But then I might have had Julians fleet in my own backyard. I was glad when he opened fire on Beni instead.
I was actually the one picking Regent next, as I saw a slight advantage for going last and getting a 3rd token for only 2$. I managed to squeeze out a single VP over Marlon while Julian pulled an advantage over Beni.
Despite massive food income I wasnt ever able to sell it at a price of 2. The market never even had a chance of having this set for the dice rolls, no matter who was to decide it. I still got money at my disposal and made up for the early shortage of Metal and Energy. In the 2nd third of the game, some battles were raging and a few sectors changed hands. Last sectors were explored. I took the role once to get hold of a 2VP sector. Unfortunately another 2VP sector had to go near Marlon, lacking other free spaces.
Between another build up cycle, Marlon played his masterpiece. He played Regent for another time, turn order going my way, so I had to put tokens first, with him going last while also holding the ambassador. With many sectors already claimed, I only had 2 chits left, so not even a 3rd one. As usual, I probed him early to use his ambassador with a threat on neutralizing an important sector of his. And as usual, he responded with a veto. So we've had that already. I tried to defend my 2VP sectors as good as possible, but of course some sectors fell to the other Dukes in Space. Julian took away one of mine, another was neutralized and of course Marlon was taking over one of mine and another. Marlon scored 11 this time and I was falling short 3 or 4 of that, IRRC.
Bad news stacking, this was the last role selected of the ongoing turn and with Marlon having claimed the starting player, he picked Regent another time right away. Turn order going my way so I had to place first once again. Swearing didnt help so I tried to defend whats mine as good as possible. Cries of Kingmaker towards Julian didnt help either as he tried to lay hands on my sectors yet again while Marlon went too unattended once more. At least one of his was neutralized and Beni took one away. It didnt help much, another massive score for Marlon with me being short a few. Julians and Benis 6 or 7 didnt get them anywhere either. Luckily, this scoring didnt end the game right away, some 8VP left in the pool.
Time for some laser fire to do the talking. I picked Warlord and sent all my 3 cruisers with fighter escorts to battle. I conquered 3 sectors, 2 from Marlon ! Some losses to escorts and 1 cruiser blown up. Julians counterattack on me resulted on a stalemate. I blew his cruiser with escort while I lost my lone fighter and base - sector neutralized. He took one from Beni though. But Beni fought back, he was the only one to build a Dreadnought in this game. He conquered two or three sectors easily enough, taking another one from Marlon. Having only fighters to deploy, he forfeited any possible retaliation.
Next to pick a role, Julian also picked the other Warlord. More battles raging. Neutralized sectors were reclaimed, fleets reconciled for a last military effort. Beni wanted too much though, he first tried to take a sector from Marlon with just the Dreadnought and a fighter. A single shielded fighter and a base were able to fire back and score 2 hits though and by some bad luck the Dreadnought did not sink the sector in his 2nd attack phase and so it was lost and destroyed. Beni still took the sector by his 2nd wave, an escorted cruiser. But he actually planned to use these to penetrate deeper into Marlons territory. I also took another sector from him, his fleet of fighters was then wiped out completely. He clearly shed some feathers by all this. It still werent enough sectors changing hands to deplete the stack of VP. Beni last to pick a role, he decided for Steward, so everybody filled up his stock. Everybody but me. I was lacking 2 Metal to be all stocked up, my initial bad sector options firing back on me. Crucial as it turned out.
Another turn starting, Marlon was first to go and before someone else took Regent he took it by himself. He figured going last would yield another slight advantage. Probably quite right. He still managed to score another 6 to my 8, not a decisive turn around. I rather made up lost ground by conquering sectors for 1VP apiece. I also got the +2VP for being the richest duke, but failed to score the +1VP for a full storage as everybody else did.
Tallying up all scores yielded a final result of Marlon 46, me 45, Julian 37, Beni 36. A single VP to tell winner from loser and I had actually won a possible tie as Marlons fleet was only of former existance and I had a single cruiser and 2 fighters left. But so he played well and deserved it.
Finally, my reign of Galactic Emperor over 4 eons ended and I revealed this piece of information. Still, a very good and enjoyable game. This match sort of had a perfect mix of buildup, military and political conflict. Never before was it balanced so well. Looking forward to play again and start a 2nd term of reigning the galaxy 
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Josh Morgan
United States
Indianapolis
Indiana
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Cool report. Since you obviously like the genre, you should check out Eclipse when you get a chance
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