The Vilani Imperial Guard

One of the aspects of Imperium Third Millennium that carries over from the original Game Designers Workshop edition is the possibility that the Vilani Emperor himself may arrive at the front, bringing reinforcements with him (or her, for in this enlightened future age women may also serve as ruthless, bloodthirsty despots).

In our edition of Imperium we followed the original in making the Imperial Visit a variation on the Mandated Offensive. The Imperial player receives additional forces and to keep them must continually advance the Imperial Glory index (in effect, forcing the player to attack the Terrans). The forces are drawn from the general counter mix; something we did (as Marc Miller did in the original) because we did not have enough additional pieces to provide separate ships for the Emperor’s fleet when these might not be used very often.

For a free download, however, there are no such restrictions. This is the way we probably would have handled the Imperial Visit event if we’d had more game pieces available. The new pieces necessary are available here as a free download, and they’re oversized one-inch pieces like the ones in Granada or Soldier Emperor because we like them and really, really should have used them in Imperium Third Millennium but had not yet developed the production methods.

Imperial Reinforcements still arrive the same way, by rolling an “11” on the Imperial Intervention Table. But no longer is a die roll made to determine how large a fleet accompanies the Emperor. It’s not likely that an Emperor would be content to lead a fleet made up of old and outdated ships, as can occur under the current rules. This is, after all, the Lord of Interstellar Space and Conqueror of Time and she (or he) goes to war at full strength. The Imperial Guard Storm Fleet is a fixed asset, consisting of:

1 x flagship

4 x BB

4 x CA

With this variant, all of the above forces are available. Additional Glory gains or losses (doubled for gains, tripled for losses) only occur if the Emperor’s flagship is present in the system when the Glory adjustment occurs.

Up to two Imperial Guard battleships and two attack cruisers may be placed in other fleets, but all other Imperial Guard forces must be part of the same fleet that includes the flagship.

These Imperial Guard forces remain in play until any turn during which the Imperial player fails to increase Glory. If any Imperial Guard ships have been lost or damaged they do not have to be replaced by other ships, but the Imperial player loses two Glory for each battleship lost (not merely damaged — the Imperial Court’s public relations division will cover up any minor incidents) and one Glory for each cruiser lost. The Emperor can indeed lose the war in a single afternoon.

If the flagship is damaged, the Imperial player immediately loses two Glory. If the flagship is lost, the Imperial player immediately loses the current war (but not the game — there are always plenty of candidates eager to warm the Imperial throne).

If the Imperial Visit event occurs again while the Imperial Guard Storm Fleet is in play, treat the result as a Mandated Offensive (the Emperor has called for reinforcements). Once the Imperial Guard Storm Fleet has been removed from play, if it returns again it does so at full strength (and losses and damage are ignored. It’s good to be the Emperor.).

There is no lost Glory if the Imperial Guard bombards a terraformed planet. The Emperor makes the laws, and can be as barbarous as any Terran if required.

There is no maintenance cost for the Imperial Guard Storm Fleet: The men, the women and the ships are supported by the same slush fund that pays for the Imperial harem and pets. The maintenance cost on the counter is only used for repairs.

Long live the Empire.

Click here for the free download. Note that this is an unusually large file — if you have trouble opening it directly, try right-clicking and choose "Save Target As..." to download it to your computer before you try opening it in Acrobat Reader.