[Worgaus]

I have random events going on in my games all the time, even on the Infrequent setting. There was one game were I was battling with the AI over a system, where the AI had already established a good hold on it, and I had just got a planet set up myself as a launch point for attacks, and then I got the warning maybe 2 turns later the sun was going to nova....and it did, wiped out the entire system, and prolonged my conquest of those evil Eee significantly, since its next system was 2 warp points away. This Last game I've been playing, an AI controlled planets core became unstable, so I got a good laugh when that exploded. That was one less planet I had to take =) The same game there was a random anomoly that dumped one of my ships off into unexplored territory several systems away. So yes, they definitely do work, though I wouldn't complain to rigorously when bad events don't work against you =P