# Game of the Month April '12 - Twilight Imperium



## Red Corsairs (Jun 8, 2008)

*Twilight Imperium - April 2012*
http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite.asp?eidm=21











*Contents*


Foreword
Brief Introduction to Twilight Imperium
The Creators
Background
The Game
The Contents
My Rating

*Foreword*

You are reading the 'Game of the Month - April 2012' review. This months chosen system is *'Twilight Imperium'*. The majority of this thread was written by *El Mariachi*, so credit for this goes to him. The purpose of this review is to inform you of a little bit about the background of this game, the company that makes it and the game itself as well as having a look at the contents of the game itself. 

If there are any comments or criticism about the layout/display of the review, the theme of the review or the review itself then please - let your thoughts be known as all opinions will be taken into account and considered to help improve this monthly feature.


*Brief Introduction to Twilight Imperium*

Twilight Imperium is a sci-fi strategy board game produced by the company Fantasy Flight Games. It was designed by Christian T. Petersen and was first released back in 1998. Since then Fantasy Flight Games have released 2 more editions of the game and it is currently in it's 3rd edition, which was released in 2005. The 3rd edition also has two expansions, one called Shattered Empire and the other called Shards of the Throne.


*The Creators*

Fantasy Flight Games is a company based in Roseville, Minnesota that creates and publishes role-playing, board, and card games. Fantasy Flight Publishing was founded in 1995 by its CEO, Christian T. Petersen and later became known as Fantasy Flight Games when Twilight Imperium was the first game released by the business. They have become known as one of the largest names in the hobby games industry, being a marketplace leader in board games and maintaining strong businesses in the card game, roleplaying game, and miniature game categories. They are also well known among the GW gaming community due to publishing new versions of Talisman and the Horus Heresy as well as releasing a few other GW universe related games of their own.









*Background*

_"Thousands of years ago the galaxy was ruled by the Lazax from their centrally-located capital of Mecatol Rex. After centuries of decline their empire fell and the Lazax were seemingly exterminated by their enemies. The Winnarian custodians of Mecatol Rex maintain the imperial libraries and oversee the meetings of the galactic council until the day that a new emperor arises to unite the galaxy under a single race's rule once again."_


*Gameplay*

Twilight Imperium is often described as Risk in space on steroids which is quite an apt description- you could also liken it to the Empire: Total War in space, but where the pieces are played on a board as opposed to a computer screen. The word ‘epic’ is used far too often these days but the word might as well have been invented to describe Twilight Imperium because it is exactly what it says on the tin (well, box) ‘An Epic Board Game of Galactic Conquest, Politics and Trade’. 

It’s a very detailed game that can be played by 3-6 players (and up to 8 if you buy the Shattered Empire expansion). Whilst it’s effectively a space-empire building game in a race to be crowned as Emperor of the galaxy it would be wrong to think of it as a space-based wargame. War is merely one aspect of the game and it’s quite possible (if rare) to win without firing a single shot in anger. War is merely a tool amongst others as the meat of the game is in diplomacy, politics, trade, research and exploration. It’s great fun and would see a lot more table action but even the hardcore fans of the game admit that’s it hard to get it on the table as often as they would like because it’s very hard to get a large group of people all free on the same day to play it. 

Make no mistake, Twilight Imperium is a very long game. It is possible to get the game finished in 3-4 hours as it claims on the box but in reality, the norm is between 8 and 12 hours particularly with between 6 and 8 players. This might put off a lot of people, but it’s all about your approach. You don’t get Twilight Imperium out to pass the time in the evening, you make an event out of it. You send out a guest list for a certain date, you pre-arrange snacks and drinks and start fairly early whilst giving people the option to crash over if they really want. This is a heck of an undertaking for new players but you can quite easily get friends hooked on it and even convert people who didn’t think they liked board games into really liking Twilight Imperium. Once people approach the game as a day-long event that you plan for rather than something they attempt to fit into an evening, the game becomes really very enjoyable. Another good thing is despite the long play length there is a lot less down time than might be expected due to a neat design feature of the game which means there are actions for players to take when its not their turn.








So, what’s it like to play?

This game has a lot of variety and there are lots of strategic options open to players. It’s also a very flexible, modular game designed to have optional rules added and removed from it depending on your groups preference. It’s also very well tailored to house ruling as well should you wish to, either way this is a game you can easily tailor to make it fit with your gaming group whether you want the full whack narrative style experience or something a bit slimmer for tournament play.

The game begins with race selection. The normal rule is that races are randomly assigned, but most groups will deal out 2 or 3 random races to each player for them to choose from. There are 10 different races to choose from (17 with the expansions) which all play quite differently (despite having the same military units for the most part) and each one is guaranteed to give you a different experience with the game. This provides a lot of flavour as each race has its own special rules which alter their game slightly followed in addition to race specific technologies to research and unique flagships which are available in the expansions (more on that later).








Once races are assigned it’s time to create the map! The board is modular and formed from hex shaped tiles which include a variety of terrain from empty space and planetary systems to things like asteroid fields, supernovas etc. The creation of the map is a game in of itself with each player dealt random tiles which are then placed down with each player trying to give themselves the best start location whilst screwing over their opponents. The other option is to use a balance pre-set map which you can set up before game day. This is quite a popular option and as it speeds things up nicely and is more or less balanced which is a good thing for inexperienced players.

Once everybody has placed their home systems on the board, set up their starting units and put out their starting technology you’re ready to begin the game. The early game is usually quite peaceful with each player setting off to claim the surrounding systems next to their home planets which by right of location, should be considered theirs. The politics between players is usually quite amicable in the early game with trade negotiations being freely discussed and laws at the galactic council generally passed if it will benefit most people. In fact, the only real threat in the early game is from exploration. Tournament players will not play with an option called ‘distant suns’ which removes the dangers that are inherent from exploration. What this means is that when they land on a neutral planet they will merely claim it. However, if playing with the distant suns tokens, each planet will have a random token face down which gets revealed when you land your forces. These can be quite beneficial such as finding abundant resources in the form of free trade goods (the game’s flexible currency) or hidden starship factories etc. to more dangerous situations such as biological/radiation hazards or hostile locals. Early game aggression from other players is possible but quite rare as your forces are usually busy claiming systems and aggressive behaviour can be punished by other players in the form of military alliances attacking you, cutting you out of trade negotiations or voting in favour of political sanctions against you.








To win the game you must be the first to 10 Victory Points in the standard game which are gained by fulfilling your randomly assigned secret objective and the public objectives which can be completed by all players and are revealed sequentially throughout the game (there are multiple objectives which form an objective deck which is randomly created at the start of the game so you can’t be 100% sure what objectives will come up. They vary from peaceful objectives designed to prove your races financial power or technological prowess to more warlike ones involving the destruction of opposing fleets or the invasion of planets).

Once the early expansion is over, relations start to get strained. Players will find themselves encroaching on their neighbours borders and objectives which probably involve warfare start to get revealed. You need to decide whether you can trust your allies or not and start making plans to go to war or at the least defend yourself whilst you try and dominate the political scene. The truth of the matter is there’s lot of different ways to fulfill your goals. Do you throw lots of cheap military units at the foe or spend your time researching technology so that your smaller fleet is much more deadly than you opponents? Alternatively do you try and become a money powerhouse and buy off other players so they do your fights for you? All of this and more is possible. Because there are so many options available its very easy for new players to make the mistake of building their empire and not focusing on their objectives. This game is all about objectives and victory points.








So what kind of tactics are possible? 

There’s way too many to list here but I can give you an example of some gunboat diplomacy I put into use yesterday. I was playing as the Federation of Sol (humanity from earth) and I got the raw end of the trading scene early in the game. Despite being the 2nd best race to trade with out of the 6 races on the board- I ended up only being able to win some very poor trade contracts whilst my neighbours got rich off what I had to offer them. To rub it in even more, the neighbour on my left and therefore my natural ally had the best contracts on the table but didn’t go into trade with me despite me being able to protect his right flank quite well (Sol is quite a military based race). This meant that during the trade stage of each round I was receiving a lot less than other players. To rectify this over the next few turns I built up a sizable fleet, put them on high alert and launched an early attack on my neighbour. I grabbed two of his planets and was positioned right next to his relatively undefended home system. This made the other players around the table incredibly wary of me so to diffuse the situation I proposed a good deal. I’d pull out of the system adjacent to his home worlds and leave one of the planets undefended. He could then invade it and take out my one pitiful ground force I’d leave behinds (let’s just call them a sacrificial penal regiment) and fulfill an objective giving him a vital victory point (he was behind at this stage). In return I wanted to start trading with him as he had the best trade contracts going. He saw this as a more than fair offer considering it wouldn’t take much for me to take his entire home system (which would prevent him from scoring objectives in the future as you need to keep hold on to your home planets). He agreed, re-worked out his trade contracts which ended up in me becoming quite wealthy whilst one of his previous trade partners ended up with poor deals I had previously.

What about the expansions?

Twilight Imperium has two expansions; Shattered Empire and Shards of the Throne. Both are very good and add a lot to the game. Many players would go as far as to say that Shattered Empire (the first expansion) is vital as it fixes several important balance flaws with the base game and turns a good game into something truly great. Some of the better things the expansions include are new races (always fun), new technology (including technology to specific races) as well as new ways of playing all aspects of the game. For example Shards of the Throne includes something called ‘Political Intrigue’. What this means is that during the stage of the turn when a galactic assembly is convened to discuss an agenda or whether or not to pass a law, you no longer ‘send yourself’. Each race has a choice of unique representatives with their own special rules that go in their place instead. These representatives are broken down into 3 broad classes: Councillors which grant you additional votes but are very susceptible to being assassinated; Spies (which usually assassinate other representatives but some races’ spies do other actions) and Bodyguards which don’t grant additional votes, but can’t be killed by spies. 

Prices?

The game is not cheap. The base game is about £60 and each expansion is about £40. But the game is amazing and when you buy the box game not only is it huge, it’s heavy. Inside the box are hundreds of pieces which are of the high quality that we have come to expect from Fantasy Flight Games.


*The Contents*

Being a boxed board game, instead of the usual layout of showing the miniatures, I am instead going to write about the contents of the boxed set as well as those of the two expansions:

*Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition*












> Shipping in a massive (12” x 24”) epic-size box, this new giant-size edition of Twilight Imperium features more than 200 masterfully sculpted oversize plastic miniatures - the typical TI units (Ground Forces, Cruisers, Dreadnaughts, Carriers, Fighters, PDS, and Space Docks) as well as two new units (the massive War Sun, and the Destroyer). TI3 contains new oversize board tiles, more than 400 cards, every known civilization of the Twilight Imperium universe, almost every expansion rule and component ever published for Twilight Imperium, a gorgeous graphical overhaul, and an impressive full-color rules set.
> 
> The Twilight Imperium gameplay has been refined and redone by original designer Christian T. Petersen. The new design features faster gameplay, and involves players in a far more active game experience, with much less downtime. In addition, TI3 will include the new "Race Cards," as well a dramatic new approach to the structure of the gameplay itself using the new "Command" system.
> 
> Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition is nothing short of a massive epic release, and is destined to become a classic for years to come. FFG has directed all its craft, talent, and energy into this massive production. Are you ready for another age of Twilight?








*Shattered Empire Expansion*












> At the end of empire, a faint wind rustled through Salai's robes. It was a calm, warm evening, and the bruised purple outline of the setting sun was still visible on the horizon. An evening made for calm contemplation and peace.
> 
> Verus came to his emperor's side for the last time. Together, the two stood in the trembling tower, silently witnessing a bloom of fires grow in their city like a garden of destruction.
> 
> ...



*Shards of the Throne Expansion*












> The legacy of a ruined empire silently echoes across the stars, its presence still felt as a timeless entity. It is hope. It is a promise. It corrodes the dreams of a peaceful universe into visions of alluring conquest, propelling the entire galaxy into an endless struggle for power.
> 
> Shards of the Throne is an epic expansion for Twilight Imperium, adding new races, new units, and many new options to create an even more incredible power struggle in the far reaches of the galaxy.
> 
> ...




*Stockists*

Here is where you can purchase Twilight Imperium and its' expansions.


Fantasy Flight Games Store


*My Rating*

For each Game of the Month review I will give a rating of what I think the game is like (1 being poor, 10 being excellent). This rating is entirely my own opinion.

*My Rating - 8/10* - In hindsight, I should have asked El Mariachi to write this section as it's clear he knows a hell of a lot more about the game than myself. I've given it an 8 although you shouldn't take complete notice of this as I haven't actually played the game myself, only done some research into it. Although I am particularly interested in the fact that it takes such a long time to play a single game as it means that the game goes into so much detail and lots of things can happen from start to finish. Perhaps El Mariachi will post a reply with his own rating of the game.​

*Thank you for reading!​*
*Credit for the majority of this review goes to El Mariachi.*

All images property of Fantasy Flight Games.​


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## Bogg (Mar 2, 2008)

i will rate this 9/10 . I have played it 5 times last year. And it became more and more fun evesy time. And the more beers you have , the threats and politics gets out of hand. I have never won the game, im to busz researhing and building fleets to conqour the galaxy!

1 flaw of the game is the warsun, (deathstar) its to powerful, so we made a houserule with -1 attack die.


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## maddermax (May 12, 2008)

It takes a hell of a long time to play with a full set of players, but if you have a day, I thoroughly recommend this game. It's very tactical, very political (with the amount of trade, deals, shaky alliances and back-stabbings) and hugely fun. While this game might seem a little like Risk as a tactical empire building/domination game, it is far more advanced and fun, and each game brings different objectives and a different setup and different races to play, which changes the feel of each game dramatically.

Personally, I love playing as the sneaky goblin like race - because you get extra action cards you can use to really mess up someones day, which also gives you a strong political edge in negotiations I find, even though you might be weak militarily.

I'll back up that the game is a solid 8/10, though you'll enjoy it more if you like that sort of long political/strategy game.



Bogg said:


> i will rate this 9/10 . I have played it 5 times last year. And it became more and more fun evesy time. And the more beers you have , the threats and politics gets out of hand. I have never won the game, im to busz researhing and building fleets to conqour the galaxy!
> 
> 1 flaw of the game is the warsun, (deathstar) its to powerful, so we made a houserule with -1 attack die.


It's certainly powerful, but it's expensive and requires a lot of effort to get into production, need a lot of support to be kept alive, are slow and generally makes the owner a target for most other players. A person plowing all their time and resources into getting a warsun with appropriate support will usually find they're behind in most other metrics of the game, and have left themselves open on other fronts. Plus, it only takes 2 hits to destroy, so they're certainly not invincible.


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## SilverTabby (Jul 31, 2009)

I have played it a few times, both lasting 10+hrs (this was pre-kids), and it was brilliant. I hugely recommend this game, but don't ever believe the 3-4hrs thing, even with just 3 players...


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## El Mariachi (Jun 22, 2008)

This is it, it's insane to think you can play a board game for that long until you give it a go and the time flies by!


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## Haskanael (Jul 5, 2011)

10/10 if you ask me i've been playing this game regulary the past 2 years with a lot of different friends. its great for a days fun.


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