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 War can be waged, and then rescinded in the matter of minutes.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.
User Reviews (14)
Add a Review for "Twilight Imperium (3ed)"
You must be logged in to add a review.
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.
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.
This game is amazing. It’s length of play unfortunately pushes it to early evening/mid afternoon start time. Our group is predominantly 30 something working professionals so it’s rare we have this time.
The universe is incredibly robust and includes many races with awesome abilities, planets and environmental embellishes, a technology tree that is rivaled by none, and other ways to win outside of straight combat.
Economy system is well balanced, and the secondary actions remove the ‘Hurry up and go’ mentality we may all get with slower players.
In short, this game fixed any problems you would see from mechanics from Axis/Allies and the computer game Master of Orion.
————————————————————
Pro’s –
Artwork is great.
Design is great.
Iconography/Artwork answer a good deal of questions after your first play thru.
Variety of races will keep you intrigued for many games to come.
Ship upgrades/tech tree/planetary and environment effects are well thought out.
Expansion added some awesome races!
Con’s –
This game is amazingly fun, but no joke, it’s the most complex game I’ve seen out there.
Sometimes a second play thru is in order to get the whole deal.
Time consuming. It’s fun, but we’ve logged no less than six hours for a game of Twilight Imperium.
Expansion extended the diplomats, I’d play without them personally.
—————————————————————
Overall, an awesome game whose universe was well thought out leaving no detail unaccounted for. Prepare for an all nighter or a weekend though.
Twilight Imperium – hmmmm, so much that can be said.
Before even looking at it you must know that you really should have some time and by “some time” I mean a lot of it.
Only setting the board may exhaust you and this is in case that everyone has played it.
Creating the game board, setting your race, preparing decks, separating tokens, arranging ships, technology deck …and the game has not even started yet.
In case there is some one that you need to explain the game to, well call him/them an hour or two earlier, so you can go through the basics and main mechanics of the game.
So after and hour of preparation the game has started and you are picking strategies ( one of the greatest mechanics in board games and one of the things that are making this game so awesome). So depending on what you are going to chose as a strategy card you are deciding what you and your opponents will be able to do in the next turn, what will be the order of play and what will be your orientation in the action phase of the game.
Action phase is when you: move, attack, build, vote, trade, conquer, research and nearly everything else that you can imagine or not 🙂 Because of all of the options a player turn may take some time so especially at the beginning of the game in my playing group we are playing almost simultaneously so we can save some time.
After the two main phases there is some redistribution and preparation for the next round and this continues until some one collects all of the victory points (which is the way to win) or there comes a different game condition that ends it ( GAME OVER)
I’m not getting in to details and went very briefly because i don’t think that it is possible to give even small idea of how big this game is and when you are setting it your are setting a real universe. There are so many rules, so many things that you have to keep in mind but this is what makes the game so majestic. Everything is so complex but in the same time it makes sense and even a player that is not so much in to this type of games finds the logic in it.
The only thing that I’ll put as an advice – play a few sessions with the base game before buying the expansions. Both of them are a must but if you don’t get the basic rules you won’t enjoy them so much. Get used to the 10 starting races, get used to the technologies, objectives, strategies and then go and buy both of the expansions 🙂 🙂 🙂
For final words, if you did not get the idea, prepare for a 6-8 hours games and at the end you’ll feel like after a Sci-Fi series marathon AND YOU’LL WANT MORE.
Enjoy!
What can be said about Twilight Imperium (the Third Edition, of course) that hasn’t been said in the nine reviews preceding mine? What extra bit of advice and overview can I provide, to really tell you what you need to know about this monster of a board game?
Probably not a lot.
But I’ve got fresh eyes and a heart that aches to play this epic beast of a gaming experience again, despite a recent 12-hour session. So I’m going to try.
What’s it all about?
Pick your favorite Science Fiction franchise and name a few of your favorite elements. The diplomacy and exploration of Star Trek? The subterfuge and tension of Battlestar Galactica? The weird alien species of Farscape? Twilight Imperium‘s got it.
You play one of the many, many races vying for power in a crumbling galactic empire, gaining special abilities and advantages and technologies and even a unique flagship — if you WANT all of these things. From your home world you and your fleet of ships embark upon a long and exhausting campaign to expand across the stars and become the new, rightful rulers of the galaxy.
Throughout the game players receive objectives — some public and available to all, some secret and specific to a player. The completion of objectives earns the player Victory Points. The first player to a predetermined number of Victory Points — or the player with the most points when the “Game Over” objective is revealed — is crowned Emperor.
I’ve heard it’s complicated — How do you play?
At first glance, the three rulebooks, one supplemental setup document, and one twelve-page FAQ and errata document may seem like too much to absorb. There look like a lot of rules — and there are.
The beauty of Twilight Imperium, however, is that most of its rules are entirely optional and only serve to enhance the game. Want racial technologies to provide additional distinction for each player race? Add it in! Not really interested in additional shock troops, tanks, or laying down explosive mines in space for unwary intruder spaceships? Leave them out!
At its core, Twilight Imperium is actually a few very simple mechanics and elements, most of which are spelled out on each player’s race sheet or cards: Activations, which include moving units and conquering planets and systems as well as unit production; Strategies, which enhance your turn by allowing the development of technologies, resolution of political agendas, or a plethora of other interactive options; Objectives, which require focus on a task at hand over and above the instinctual territory expansion; and of course Space Battles, where fleets of ships and armies of ground forces clash in Risk-style battles to determine who controls territories.
Does sitting down for a game of Twilight Imperium require a little bit of homework? Absolutely. Watch some tutorial videos, read through the non-optional core rules, and even play through a mock round or two with two friends ahead of time.
Does it require eight, ten, or twelve hours to complete a session? Yes. It’s going to devour an entire day, especially the first time you play. Warn people ahead of time. Make sure there’s plenty of snacks and beverages. Set aside a time to order food delivery, and keep playing when you’ve got pizza or take-out container in-hand.
Is it worth it? Yes. So much yes.
Fifteen Pounds of components.
Sorry, I can’t translate that into metric. But it’s a lot for a board game. Basically two newborn infant human babies worth of game. That’s considering, of course, that you’ve neatly arranged or hastily jammed the core game and both expansions into the original box.
What kind of components come in such a heavy box, you ask?
Mountains upon mountains of thick, heavy cardboard tiles containing star systems, hazards, and home worlds. Building a map of the galaxy is a fun little game in and of itself if you’re home alone on a Saturday night … I’ve said too much.
Cards — of the miniature variety. I can’t imagine how much this game would weight if the cards were standard-sized. Planet cards and Objective cards and Political cards and Action cards. Production references, technology decks, mercenaries, ambassadors and spies. Without a doubt I’m forgetting a few!
A standard variety of punchboard tokens representing command actions, fleet sizes, trade goods, fighters, ground forces, mercenaries, racial leaders, and more.
The best part, of course, are the beautifully-sculpted spaceship units ranging from troop tansports, to the mighty dreadnought battleship, to the all-too-familiar hemispherical, planet-shattering War Sun. The models are plentiful and, with both expansions, provide enough units for eight people to play in eight different colors. Good luck finding a table big enough for eight players, though!
Denouement.
When you call over four, or five, or seven friends for a game of Twilight Imperium, it won’t be an afternoon of light-hearted dice-rolling and card-dealing. While it may scare some people away, cracking open a game of this scope is a commitment. It’s going to be a long, involved campaign each and every time this box hits the table — and the best word I can use to describe it is an experience.
First time players all, my group met just after noon on a Saturday afternoon and we muddled through two full game turns before things became intuitive and made sense. Everyone had a play style in mind and nobody understood the necessity of striving for Objective goals. Twelve hours later my Lady, who focused her game on Trade and Diplomacy, working WITH other players and making deals instead of engaging in grueling and destructive space battles, emerged as the victor.
Twilight Imperium uses the word “epic” on its box. I normally reserve that word for instances in which it is appropriate, and in this case I believe it is well-used.
Should You Buy It?
To experience Twilight Imperium at its best, at least one of the two expansions (Shattered Empire) is definitely needed — see Tips & Strategies on this site for reasons why.
If you’re the kind of gamer that sees something piques your interest and has plenty of cash to drop on a whim — of which I am too-often guilty — and the idea of galactic conquest really rings your bell, you’ve probably already made up your mind just by browsing websites and internet photos and YouTube videos. This is a Sci-Fi geek’s dream game, in which you can become the bizarre, expansionist alien race you’ve always wanted to be; whether war-mongering, peaceful and diplomatic, or shrewd and sneaky.
Not ready to drop a few hundred bucks on a board game you’ve never played, and not sure you’ll even enjoy a game that could take half a day to play? Most aren’t.
That’s why my recommendation to most gamers out there is going to be this: Find a friend of a friend, or buddy up with someone at your local gaming store that owns and plays this game regularly. Or sign up for an 8-hour slot at Gen Con if you’re really desperate — though keep in mind it’s going to kill a large chunk of your convention time!
Ultimately when it comes down to Buy or Don’t Buy, the results are very polarized:
Do you get bored after a few hours of playing a single game? Are Sci-Fi and Space Opera just not your bag? Do strategic miniatures war games leave you cold?
Answered “Yes” to any of the above? Avoid this game at all costs. Agree to watch a group play for a single game turn and then, ninety minutes later, slip away when everyone is glaring at each other during the Political debate.
Do you often play long, drawn-out games of Axis & Allies, Talisman, or other board games that most sane people would wash their hands of after the fourth hour? Have you marathoned at least one television series that features aliens and starships in the distant future for an entire weekend? Are you thrilled by the very idea of conquering a vast galaxy of planets with your fleet of heavily-armed and technologically advanced space cruisers, or by carefully plotting others’ downfall with back room dealings and hefty bribes?
I’m sure I heard a few resounding shouts of “Yes!” to all three of those questions. To you, my fellow space-nerds, I say: Go buy it. Right now.
One of the best “capture-the-hex” games (as I call those) I’ve ever tried.
Lots of little pretty plastic spaceships and great arts is what catches the eye first. And here’s to the rest…
Rules and mechanics are quite complex to get at first. Took our crew somewhat an hour or a bit more to get the picture clear enough to play, still a bunch of brainstorms were breaking through the gameplay, as some controversial situations were showing up from time to time. Anyway, that is hardly a drawback, compared to all it’s benefits…
…one of which is actually the gamefield setup, made as a part of a gameplay. Yeah, the strategy starts here from step one, and it doesn’t stop throughout the whole thing happening. The trades and the politics: you have to watch your opponents every move, for with the draw of a card allies become enemies. And that is not yet mentioning that dirty little secret objectiv card, that everyone keeps in the sleeve. War and trade, truce and treason. Everything can happen with that hexboard set up on the table.
But better get ready for that who-knows-how long gameplay, as for those who are less into powerplay and fastgaming and more into strategy and research might end up save-loading the game for the next Friday night.
So better go make yourself some friends, for you need at least 4 of you to play. And make sure not to lose any while playing.
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 God, 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.
The depth of play, theme, presentation, replay ability, components, and gameplay are unmatched in any other single title. It can be a long game, but is the best example of the 4X genre and remains a satisfying experience every time you play. Be prepared to do some homework before your 1st play through. I guarantee the time is well worth it!
The sheer amount of diversity with 17 playable races – 10 in the base game – and their individualized powers and abilities (17 with the expansions – which I highly recommend! – especially the 1st expansion, “Shattered Empire” due to the changes in strategy cards) and galaxy building game set-up mechanics ensure a different experience every time you play.
I cannot recommend this epic game of conquest, diplomacy, research, exploration, and fun highly enough.
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.
The Pros:
– The space battles are FUN.
The Cons:
– This game sacrifices strategy to replayability thanks to random evolving objectives.
– A bad secret objective can doom you from the start.
– Too many dice for such a long game. I’d like a deeper combat system if I’m sinking that much time into a game (e.g. Game of Thrones)
– Too much downtime.
– Imperial and Initiative Strategy cards are a false choice. You have to take them when possible, or else you lose.
Overall Impression:
If I’m sinking 6 hours into a game, I want a little more control of my own destiny. In general, I think Christian T. Peterson’s other grand strategy design, Game of Thrones, does everything better.
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.
Tough learning curve but fantastic once you learn, even now I am contriving and planning for our groups next encounter!
Space Soap Opera, dark devices, and flat out shock tend to describe some of the occurrences during our play sessions. Never played any game the same as previous due to the massive amount of changes that occur during each round. I must be honest and mention that our average game time (base set only) tends to be on the 5.5 – 6 hour time frame.