Babylon 5 Component Game System

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Babylon 5 Boardgame or Component Game System (CGS)

In this space empire building and conquest game, each player takes the role of a major race in the Babylon 5 universe: Earth Alliance, Minbari, Narn, Centauri, League of Non-Aligned Worlds and even Vorlons & Shadows. Explore the galaxy seeking new worlds for resources to fund your empire and build an armada to dominate space. Winning can also be won with diplomacy through the Babylon 5 Council.

Review uploaded to MySciFiFan Game Reviews section:
www.geocities.com/myscififan/reviews/gb5game.htm

Here are pics for a 4-player game involving the EA,Minbari, Narn and Centauri (in chronological order):


Game begins with the 4 empires exploring nearby space for resources from planets and mineral rich asteroids.


As resource rich worlds start running short, starships begin incursions into opposing empires space. A Minbari Warcruiser activated its jump engines twice in rapid succession in attempt to reach a resource rich world before the EA but has a navigation malfunction and emerges in an asteroid field taking serious damage. The EA takes advantage to destroy the damaged Minbari ship, inciting a war. The Minbari armada is sent towards EA space and Earth.


Whilst the Minbari are distracted with the EA, Narn warships jumps into Minbari space. The Minbari ships scramble to reorient themselves to face the advancing Narns ships.


In a desperate move, an EA Nova dreadnought engages a 'ramming maneuver' into a Minbari warcruiser. Both ships take heavy damage but are not destroyed. Nearby, Narn warships are already within firing range of the Minbari homeworld.


Whilst the EA, Minbari and Narn engage in a 3-way war. The Centauri relatively left alone manages to expand its empire to cover and hold 6 sectors (note bases with red counters) and therefore declares a territorial victory!

If interested to participate in future Babylon 5 gaming sessions, please post below and/or PM/e-mail me to keep informed.

In a 6-7 player game, players can take on the roles of the two Ancient races, the Shadows and Vorlons, to influence the younger races ('What do you want?').

There are also Star Trek versions of this game system (CGS):
www.boardgamegeek.com/game/12938

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In The Beginning .... the First Ones, the Shadows and the Vorlons stood at the edge of the galaxy silently watching events unfold. The young races Earth Alliance, Minbari, Centauri and Narn were all set to explore the galaxy and to spread their influence. Little did they know that the First Ones were already plotting.


As all things begin with the same pace and difficulty as a Minbari's metamorphsis in a crysalis, space exploration is slow to begin. But the galaxy is slowly taking shape as new routes, destinations and planets with abundant resources are discovered. Forces begin to set their gaze upon them.


Soon after, the first encounters occur. Minbari meets the Narn Regime. The Narn, hungry and driven since the conquest by the Centauri, make the decision to strike the Minbari in efforts to show their might and to take some planets in the meantime.


From a distance, the Vorlon begins to reveal themselves, first offering an alliance with the Minbari. Wary of the threat of the Narn upon their worlds, the Minbari eagerly form the alliance upon a number of their colonies. Such was their faith in their Vorlon allies as they raised the symbol of their alliance like a giant neon sign. This of course did not go well with the Shadows.

Soon the Shadows begin exterting their influence. With the Vorlons cornered in their part of the galaxy by an unexpected shifting of the dimensions of space, the Shadow reveals themselves. Centauri is suddenly alarmed as the dreaded Shadow battlecruiser unearths itself from Centauri Prime and begins to make its way towards Vorlon space.


The war between the Minbari and the Narn escalates. Earth and Centauri choose to distance themselves from this conflict, as Centauri continues their pursuit of wealth and riches through the colonisation of more planets. Earth Alliance occasionaly finds itself between the crossfire of the Minbari-Narn conflict due to another shift in the galaxy. (Do you get the feeling of the presence of a Q nearby ?)


Not settling with the might of the fleet, the Shadows begin to tempt the other races, especially the greedy Centauri by asking them of what they want. The Centauri officials have been sighted whispering to shadowing figures during the night.


In a desperate attempt to weaken the Narn fleet, the Minbari takes a suicide run towards the Narn ship and both are destroyed in a blaze of not-so-glory.








The once mighty Vorlons, crippled by the lack of resource and their mighty fleet begin to take the blunt of the Shadow's wrath. It is no surrender, no retreat for the Vorlons, but not even if they had their planetkiller with them could they have been saved from this humilating fate at the hands of the Shadows. The only heavy cruise of the Vorlon fleet falls at the finishing blow of a Shadow battlecruiser and its jump-engines equipped squadron.


In the end.... the course is history can only be predicted. Because the galaxy ceased to exist. Time is, after all, finite.