Mega Memories: Why We Play Megagames
House Martell, ready to play Aegon’s Conquest
Megagames require a hefty investment in time and that investment is paid off with Mega Memories. The unique intersection of huge groups of people, divided into teams, further divided into separate roles and crossing paths in weird and unusual ways creates memories that, for me, are unmatched by other forms of gaming. Here are some of the memorable moments from the Megagames I’ve played.
Watch the Skies (Sept. 2019)
My first Megagame is enough of a memory by itself but it was littered with moments that truly made the day special.
Walking into the room and being questioned on a medical situation and how the UK was go respond.
The media team in this game had me on my toes from before the game even started. This got me into the game in a way little else could. They were around, they were listening and they wanted the scoop.
Calling a Peace Summit and defusing World War 3
A few turns into the game, China and the USA declared war on each other (the US sent an Interceptor into Chinese airspace after China had declared that a hostile act, the US General hadn’t heard that declaration).
One of my team’s (the UK) goals was to keep the peace, so I sprang into action and brought about peace. It was a hard fought negotiation, but we got everything settled and no further military action was needed.
Signing a treaty I thought was written up in good faith, but finding out the terms had been changed.
Read what you sign, people!
The team writing up the peace treaty changed the terms (we had agreed on, I think, two pieces of tech being returned to China but the treaty said three). This lead to me scrabbling to deal with a very annoyed US team and finally providing our own tech to help ease the deal.
Aliens!
Sending my Chief of Defense to space to meet with the aliens and learning from him that the aliens were peaceful. This caused a flurry of activity as we tried to disarm the whole world before the game ended.
My Chief of Defense also caused a ton of panic with the Alien team because he had forgotten he had a Nerf Blaster on him. He eventually handed it over to the Aliens and they got a good tech reward.
The game ended when all of the world’s Scientists left the Earth in a spaceship they had constructed behind our backs.
I was broadsided by this betrayal.
Aegon’s Conquest (Feb. 2020)
Aegon’s isn’t my favorite Megagame but it was still an enjoyable time
My big military blunder was not realizing that an enemy could force march their armies through a territory where my armies were…This lead to a Gardner army running rampant through our (Martell) backlines…We never recovered.
The last few turns of the game, we played ‘give a territory, take a territory’ with another House as they were working towards a fight with another House and going through our lands was, apparently, the most direct course?
Red Planet Rising (Dec. 2022)
I played this game online and that was a very unique experience. Trying to keep track of all those people on discord was interesting, to say the least.
My favorite moment from this game was giving a speech to a group of team leaders where, after I finished speaking, another player said “Wow, that was great.” The speech was enough for me to rally half the factions into a government lead by my team! That is…if we had two more minutes in the turn… Everything fell apart at the start of the next turn as I frantically tried to establish this government and fulfill one of our win conditions. It didn’t happen.
Aegon’s Conquest (June 2022)
The first Megagame after a far too long break. That was a happy enough feeling on its own.
Outside of just enjoying being back with Megagames, this game was one where I was introducing new people to the hobby. I just enjoyed watching them go from ‘wow, this is way too much’ to ‘when can we play again?’
Den of Wolves (July 2022)
My first run of a game I had heard so much about and I got to be Admiral? Let’s go!
Being Admiral of the fleet and having everyone in the room look to me for guidance and being able to provide that guidance was a great feeling.
Collaborating with my XO,the Vice President and the Proxima ships to locate and arrest a Wolf (my Flight Wing Commander) was incredibly tense. It took a few turns of investigating and a few good rolls but we were able to get concrete evidence of his Wolfness. He was executed the next turn.
Having an effective method for coordinating jumps for the fleet.
Spending the last few turns using the Wolf detector to try and find the last few Wolves before the end of the game. It was frantic and crazy exciting.
Den of Wolves (Aug 2022)
I had seen Den of Wolves from the perspective of the good guy Admiral, now to experience it as the villainous Wolf!
Honestly, I’m not sure this fleet even needed Wolves on it. The humans were at each others throats the whole game, so it made my actions relatively simple to pull off.
I’ll never forget handing the jump coordinates to Control and then watching the fleet jump straight into a Wolf attack. Everyone in the room was excited for a moments respite…they didn’t get that. I fumed in “frustration” as, obviously, someone on the military ship was leaking the coordinates.
The single best moment of the game was walking up to Control and asking if I could bomb the science ship. Lee (on the Control team) let out a laugh and said ‘yeah, give me a second.’ He found me a couple minutes later and said if I could hide a 1”x1” piece of paper with the word ‘Bomb’ written on it under their board, it would go off when they jump.
I go to the science ship and begin close inspection of their board, asking what all their sciencey upgrades did. I just wanted to be close. My opening comes when the President stops by for a chat. I slip the paper under their board and walk away.
A few turns go by, there’s some craziness, and the science ship jumps. I go to Lee and ask about the bomb. The biggest smile spreads across his face and he practically skips over to the science ship to tell them the news.
To top it all off, they blamed it on someone else and I got away.
Finally, revealing myself as a Wolf to my friends amazement and shock at my betrayal.
Den of Wolves (Sept 2022)
Finally, I get to be a good guy again…right?
Turn 2, I become a Wolf again. I’m on the Science ship this time, so there’s evil to be done.
After upgrading a few ships, to build trust, I poison the food production on a ship AND a turn later they have us install a detection unit on the production to see if there is poison…I sabotage that too. It caused a lot of chaos to say the least.
I wanted to bomb the Refinery ship this time and hurt the fuel supply. After spending most of a turn trying to plant the bomb unsuccessfully (that team wouldn’t look away for a moment!), I get detained by the Flight Wing Commander from the military ship! They question me about the upgrades and completely believe all of my lies….Also, did I mention I had the bomb paper on me the whole time? That was stressful.
Again revealing myself as a Wolf to my friend and having him be absolutely in shock at my betrayal.
More to Come
Megagames have produced so many unique and special memories. Additionally, repeatedly playing with the same group has produced a tight knit community on the Dallas Megagames Discord. It’s awesome being surrounded by my fellow players who are just as excited about these games as I am.
If you have any questions about Megagames or how these memories came to be, please ask in the Comments below.
