Twilight Imperium (3ed)
The galaxy is in limbo. In a time of such such betrayal, trust is a word that is loosely associated with foolishness. As you await the arrival of trade goods, which should have arrived a week ago, you check your daily logs. A transmission hails in and is patched through. It's the Hacan trade ambassador alerting you that as of now, "All trades are off."
You look despondent as the screen resigns to static accompanied by a low rumbling. The proximity klaxons scream through your base and the screen flickers with a sight you never wished to see. An orb so large, easily mistaken for a planet, eclipses your distant star. Horrified, you realize what lies before you - a Warsun. He sold you out, and now he's having the L1z1x Mindnet do his dirty work.
As your knees hit the ground, so does the first volley of bombardment on your homeworld. Noise fades out as you witness a temple in the distance erupt, exploding into the sky - a cataclysmic reminder, that in times like these, there is no room for trust.
Twilight Imperium is an epic board game of galactic conquest for 3-6 players. Taking on the role of one of ten ancient civilizations, players compete for interstellar supremacy through warfare, trade, uncertain allegiances, and political dominance. Each civilization provides a unique game experience with different abilities and play styles. Will you play as the Emirates of Hacan and preside over every trade agreement made in the galaxy, or will you be the Federation of Sol and rapidly take over worlds in hopes of dominating the entire galaxy? In Twilight Imperium many roads lead to Rome (or Mecatol Rex), but no road is without its bumps.
As the prominent leader of your civilization, you must make enemies and allies with the other respected leaders that sit around you. Alliances can be made and broken in an instant. War can be waged, and then rescinded in the matter of minutes. The galaxy isn't stable, so how you will be the beacon to guide your people through? Turn after turn, you must decide what is in your peoples best interest. Choosing a political path may allow you to use your votes which you've accumulated in passing a bill on Mecatol Rex. But what will you do next turn when your defenses are broken and your homeworld is invaded? Or, will you stage an all-out fleet assault on a bordering colony? These are all just examples of the tough decisions you'll have to make in Twilight Imperium.
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Overview: Twilight Imperium: Third Edition is an epic game where 3 to 6 players race to develop their own alien civilization to determine who will claim the throne of the Galactic Empire.
Gameplay: The goal of the game is to score 10 victory points by completing various secret and public objectives. These objectives represent development of one’s civilization, such as researching new technologies, expanding into more planetary systems, and several military aims.
The game is comprised of elements borrowed from many other great games. Each is simple in concept, but when all are added together, form an amazing symphony of strategy, seducing many but intimidating some. The military units and combat system are very reminiscent of Axis and Allies. Strategy cards are drafted in a way similar to roles in Puerto Rico. Controlled planetary systems are “exhausted” to utilize their resources much like “tapping for mana” in Magic: The Gathering.
Unique in design, and possibly the game’s greatest strength, is the Command Counter system. Players receive limited amounts of counters which can be distributed to determine the capacity of their fleets or used for actions during a round of play. In rotating order, they take turns “activating” systems in the galaxy, moving units into them and battling for their control. Once a player has activated a system he must wait for the next round to revisit it. The result is a representation of simultaneous movement, also preventing players from becoming bored while awaiting their turn.
Strategy cards, which must be played during each round, further the advancement of the game. They provide bonuses for the player who drafted them but also some benefits to all players. One enables production of units, whole another replenishes Command counters. A few, introduce their own form of mini-game. The Trade card allows players to form financial agreements which will provide them with additional resources. This also creates diplomatic situations as players may make substandard trades just to garner favor and prevent attacks from nearby aggressors. The Political card forces all players to vote on a rule-changing agenda, giving a handful of smaller civilizations the ability to group together to oppose a dominant one.
This game provides and endless combination of variables which guarantee no two games will ever be the same. It provides ten different alien races, each with their own special abilities. The galaxy (gameboard) is built out of randomized modular hexagons representing planetary systems and others like nebulas and asteroid fields. Players build their fleets from a choice of nine different units. They also choose from a variety of technologies to develop, each altering their civilization in a unique way.
Pros:
- Many alternative rules are provided with the base game, facilitating customization to personal taste.
- Immense amounts of variety supply ultimate replay value.
- Multiple paths to victory combined with diplomacy and player interaction generates depth of strategy like no other game.
- Alternating actions during each round of play maintain player involvement and prevent wandering attention spans like many other epic games.
Cons:
- Sheer quantity of rules and options make this overwhelming to new players and very difficult to introduce.
- Extreme game length demands full day commitment to playing, thus making it less likely to organize a play session.
- Randomly assigned secretly objectives do not always play into strengths of your alien race causing frustration.
Historical Figure/ Fictional Character I’d Most Like to Play Against: Gene Roddenberry
Twilight Imperium: Third Edition delivers an epic science fiction gaming experience. It’s immersive theme and myriad of strategic options will satisfy any hardcore gamer.
This is the game that makes me say I’m a power gamer. Twilight Imperium is an amazing one of a kind game that has everything. When people ask me what its like I always say its Risk on steroids but it’s really more than that. The unique game has bits and pieces from many other games all melded into one amazing game.
The politics, one of my favorite aspects of the game, are amazing and get even better when you add the expansions. The ability to barter with people and make non binding promises to vote on rules that can change the course of the game is a great aspect.
Then there is the races, I haven’t played enough to be all of them, but Twilight was the first game I played with race specific abilities and I find that to be fun. The group I play with usually chooses races randomly, with the option to discard the race if you have already been them before.
I still have yet to play a five player version of the game, and three players which I’ve done once was not great, ended up being two people fighting and the other winning. I’m waiting for the legendary five or six player game myself that adds a new quality to the game, in the only choosing one role each turn instead of two.
The reason why I say this game is not for the light of heart is the amount of time it takes. You need to be able to get some dedicated gamers, a nice space to play and to start early. My group usually always starts before 1pm. It usually takes a good hour of handing out races, setting up the board and of course just talking smack and believe me there is a lot of smack talk in this game.
My final thoughts on Twilight Imperium is that if you love games and don’t mind and even enjoy longs ones you need to play this game. It’s amazing and my all time favorite because there is always intense strategy and even if you think your losing you can usually do something to come back and be a threat to someone. Play this game you won’t regret it, I hope.
Every time that I try to put into words what my feelings and thoughts on Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition are, I always end up starting off with “where to begin…”
Twilight Imperium is more than a board game. It’s a board game of epic proportions, just as it (kind of) says on the actual box. There’s so much to this game that all that it takes is one quick look at the components to either get frightened and turned off or excited and hyped about it, depending on what kind of player you are. And this one’s totally not for the casual player – even IF you’re into space and sci-fi and all that (I’d recommend taking a look at Eclipse instead, and no I don’t mean that awful movie but the friggin’ board game!). What makes TI3 my absolute favorites is at the same time also its biggest drawback; how big the game is, and this includes all the components as well – with the star map being huge when playing with 5 or more players and all the small counters, cards, player sheets and whatnot that you somehow need to fit on the table as well.
And then there’s the rulebook… my *, it’s both an intriguing beauty and yet a frightening beast at the same time. There’s just a TON of text to read through and Fantasy Flight Games even went as far as writing up a whole slew of optional rules – which even come with their own component extras! Not to mention all the brilliant lore that the game has to it, with a really cool backstory for each playable race and what’s been going on in the TI-universe for some thousand of years.
Speaking of “a ton of text” – notice how I haven’t really said anything about the game’s mechanics yet? All these words and I haven’t even really mentioned WHY I rate this game my #1 favorite. Well, that’s the thing about TI3 – it’s just so friggin’ hard to explain without going all over the place about how cool the miniatures look, how many awesome mechanics there are or how thick the rulebook is. The bottom line is this: you can play the game in a number of ways and with all the optional rules and two great expansions that this game has, it really is up to you how you want your galactic game of trading, fighting, colonizing and diplomatic to be. All you need to know from me is that this really IS “a game of epic galactic trade, politics and conquest” and that should be enough to either turn your back and look for something more suitable (such as Eclipse) or make a purchase and never regret it.
Depth of strategy: 9/10
Brain Burner: 9/10
Player Interaction: 10/10
Luck & Randomness: 6/10
Eurostyle: Low
Ameritrash: Extreme
Game length: 1-2 hours per player (depending on game pimping and organization)
Power gamer affinity: Very High
Aid gamer affinity: medium
Casual affinity: very low
Social affinity: high
Family affinity: traditionally very low
Twilight Imperium is the epitome of the beauty of Ameritrash style games. Not because it has minis and uses dice. Not because it has elements of randomness from card draws. Twilight Imperium is a fabulous game because of the openness of player interaction, the flexibility to customize the game for particular scenarios and the depth of strategy that cannot be distilled down and utilized from game to game.
The bad impressions of the game:
“It takes too long”. This may be true, but one should consider the value of the playing time and there are ways to speed up the game down to 1 hour per player including set-up and pack-up. But more on the value of the time spent playing the game. If your intent is to have a social event under strategy and theme, then this game’s length shouldn’t be an issue. This game doesn’t have tangible down time. You’ll need all the time hashing through strategic reactions and avenues of empire building, which elevates the brain burning potential.
“It’s too Ameritrashy”: if this is your quip, then I respect your preference, but I also feel sorry for you. Twilight Imperium is such a rich tabletop experience with the abilities to custom set the game for player’s preferences and plenty of room for house rulings that the TI:3 is less of a game and more a social event. Eurogames are easily adaptable to digital devices. Games like TI:3 can be adapted, but you would lose so much of interaction and creativity between players.
To me, the beauty of games like TI:3 stem from its dependence in part to the personalities and brains of another human being. TI:3 cannot be played dry. By this I mean, players cannot be quiet and insular. The more creative, social and interactive players choose to be, the more rewarding and rich the game becomes. The other part of TI:3’s beauty is the fluid nature of the strategy and decision making involved in the game which is highly dependent on the other players’ decisions and even mood. One game you feel like being a turtle, the next a wild card. So, you are not simply spending time trying to distill the game’s design down to its effective parts, but you’re also reacting to an element of luck with dice and card pulls, other players’ interactions, decisions, and timing of those decisions. This to me makes for very rich and intricate play experience. Something that many boardgames cannot fully achieve. For this TI:3 ranks as one of the all-time greats.
I’ve have played hundreds of games and Twilight Imperium 3rd. Ed. is still my favorite.
It has everything: politics, war, territorial control, economics, spaceships, alien turtles etc.
It is a long game. Between 8 and 12 hours is what my group’s sessions usually last. The strategy is fun, the miniatures are great and it is all about the journey. Anything can happen in this game. You need to invest emotionally in the experience and not the end game though or you could become frustrating as there is plenty of backstabbing and ways for others to ruin your well-laid plans.
The gameplay isn’t too complicated but there are a lot of rules. Make sure everyone has read through them at least once.
This game is a space opera. And it will appeal to sci-fi fans, but don’t pick it up unless you don’t mind an 8 plus hour game with a lot of rules and the fact that even with the best of luck, an iron-clad strategy, and a huge navy of warships, you may face utter and grim ruin.
This is by far the most in depth sci-fi empire game you will ever find. It is a bear to learn properly, and it is almost mandatory to have a veteran player with you when you play this the first time. But the true epicness of this game is hard to parallel.
Space battles, ground battles, colonization, politics, deception, and greed are just some of the aspects that TI3 has to offer.
If you want an epic full day game (10 hours) and love sci-fi, then TI3 is your game. Plain and simple.
This is a game that when you play it, you think about it and talk about it a week later. When a game does that , its a 10, hands down.