Twilight Imperium (3rd Edition)
Ultimate Epic Game or Ultimate Waste of Time? 

 

Designer: Christian T. Petersen
Publisher: Fantasy Flight
# of Players: 3-6 (3-8 with the Shattered Empires expansion) 
Play Time: 240 Minutes
BGG Rank/Rating: #22/7.67
Weight: Heavy

Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition is an epic game of space conquest and diplomacy.  The old Lazax empire has fallen, and the other major races are now scrambling to claim the vacant throne and rule the galaxy.  TI3 is a game of resource management, action selection, political action, diplomacy, and, of course, military conflict.  The theme is rich and deep, having both copious in-game backstory as well as a long and thorough history of game development, being now in its third edition.  Twilight Imperium was the first game released by Fantasy Flight, and it remains their flagship game to this day.         

Components and Setup 

Twilight Imperium is all about the "stuff".  The base game comes with 348 colored plastic miniatures, 408 cards of various types, 434 counters, 43 chunky cardboard "system" tiles, 10 racial sheets, 8 cardboard strategy cards, 4 10-sided dice, a speaker token, a victory track, and a full-color rules book.  My only complaint about the components is that all 408 of the cards are those tiny little annoying things that are hard to handle, let alone actually shuffle in any adequate manner.  Of course, if they were all full-sized, the game box would probably have to be even bigger (and weigh a lot more), so I understand them going with the little ones.  And the art and graphic design on all of the tiles, countes, and sheets are just perfect, adding greatly to the richness of the theme.  

Setup alone takes at least a half an hour.  Players have to somehow choose a race and get the appropriate race sheet and a set of counters, miniatures, technology cards, and their home system.  All of the various cards and counters are placed into a common play area, and each player is given the Planet Cards for the planets in their home systemand one random Secret Objective card (which they must keep secret until they accomplish it).  Just a note on Planet Cards right quick: each planet that a player controls (their home systems and any additional planets they successfully invade throughout the game) has both a resource and an influence rating.  The cards are handy reminders of these values, and they are flipped over (exhausted) when resources are used to build units.    

The Objective Deck is then built by randomly (and blindly) selecting 6 of the 10 Stage I (early game) objective cards (each worth 1 victory point), 3 of the 10 Stage II (late game) objective cards, and the Imperium Rex card (which ends the game immediately when drawn).  Therefore, there is a total deck of 10 Pulic Objectives, of which the top 6 are Stage I and the bottom 4 are Stage II, one of which is the "game over" card.

To start building the galaxy, Mecatol Rex (the seat of the old Galactic Empire) is placed in the center of the table.  Two of the remaining systems are randomly removed, and the rest are dealt to the players.  Players then take turns placing one system at a time, following a few simple rules.  First, you have to fill in all the systems in one "ring" before you move out to a new ring.  Second, you can never place two "empty" systems (having no planets) in back-to-back rounds, so you basically alternate between planet and empty systems.  You also can't place two of the Special Systems (Supernova, Asteroid Field, Nebula) next to each other unless you have no other option.  As soon as they can, players attach their home system to the galaxy at the appropriate place (based on how many players are in the game) as soon as possible.

You then randomly determine who will be the starting player and then everyone usually takes a little time to make opening diplomatic statements and invent creative hateful epithets for the various alien races represented by the other players.         

Basic Gameplay 
(click here for full rules, click here for the FAQ and errata)

I am NOT going to try and be as detailed about the rules as I normally am.  Instead, I'll try to give the overall flow of play to paint a basic picture of how the game runs.  For more information, follow the link above for the full rules posted over at the FFG website.

The goal of Twilight Imperium is to gain enough power to assume the role of Galactic Emperor, represented by the accumulation of victory points (VP).  Whoever reaches 10 VP first, or is leading in VP when the Imperium Rex card is drawn from the Objective Deck, wins the game.  The two main ways to gain VP are to accomplish the conditions on Objective Cards and to choose the "Imperial" strategy card.  VP may be claimed from only one public objective and/or your secret objective each turn.

In each round, play begins with the Strategy Phase, where players choose one of the Strategy Cards that will determine which strategic action they will be able to use.  The current "Speaker" gets to choose first, with the selection then proceeding around the table clockwise.  Normally, each player gets only one of these cards, but with 3 or 4 players each will choose two.  Any unclaimed Strategy Cards will have a Bonus Counter placed on it, which can be exchanged for a trade good or one extra Command Counter when it is claimed in a later round.

Each Strategy Card has both a primary and a secondary ability.  The person that chose the card will have access to the primary ability once during the round, while every other player will have the option of using the secondary ability if they choose to spend one counter from their Strategy Allocation area (I'll get to that later).  I'll quickly go through the 8 Strategy Cards found in the base game:

1) Initiative - Primary Ability: Player becomes the Speaker (so they get to pick the first Strategy Card next round).  Plus, they may execute the secondary ability of other Strategy Cards without spending a counter from their Strategy Allocation areas.  Secondary Ability: None  

2) Diplomacy - Primary Ability: Prevents any military action between the player and any one chosen opponent for this round.   Secondary Ability: Refresh two non-home-system planets.

3) Political - Primary Ability: The player gets three action cards (which can be played at any time and generate various one-time bonuses and effects) and one extra command counter.  The top card of the Political Deck is turned over and everyone debates and casts their votes.  Players get votes equal to the combined Influence rating of all their planets that have not been exhausted previously in the round (using the influence to vote does not exhaust the planet, by the way).  This player then gets to look at the next three cards and determine which one will be voted on the next time the Political strategy card is chosen.  Secondary Ability: Draw one Action Card. 

4) Logistics - Primary Ability: gain 4 additional Command Counters.  Secondary Ability: Get one Command Counter for each 3 Influence that you spend (note that players do not have to spend a Strategy Allocation command counter to take advantage of this).

5) Trade - Primary Ability: The player can either cancel all trade agreements in play or get paid out for their current trade agreements along with a 3 trade good bonus.  At the beginning of the game, all races have 2 different trade contracts, which may be valued between 1 to 3 trade goods.  During the first time this card is used, players may exchange these contracts with other players.  When "paid out", players get trade goods equal to the total value of the contracts they hold from other players.  These trade goods may be cashed in at any time to be used as either one additional resource or influence.   Secondary Ability: Get paid out for your trade agreements.

6) Warfare - Primary Ability: The player essentially gets to activate one fleet twice.  Secondary Ability: Patrol - move one or two cruisers or dstroyers into an adjacent empty system.

7) Technology - Primary Ability: Get one technology advance that you meet the prerequisites for.  Each race begins with a certain set of technology adances, but may develop others throughout the game.  These give various advantages and abilities in combat, movement, and other situations, and build upon each other, where some are not available until others have already been discovered.  Secondary Ability: Pay 8 resources to get one technology advance that you meet the prerequisites for.

8) Imperial - Primary Ability: Draw the top Public Objective card from the objective deck and get 2 VP.   Secondary Ability: Allows players to build units one additional time in any one system containing a space dock. 
 
Once each player has chosen a Strategy Card, the Action Phase begins.  Players take their turns in the order of the initiative number of the Strategy Card they chose.  So, in other words, the first player to act is the one that chose the Initiative Strategy Card (#1).  Play would then continue to whoever took the Diplomacy card, the Political card, and so on.

During each turn, players basically get to either use the Strategic Action from their Strategy Card or they can do one action on the board.  I've mentioned the Command Counters a couple of times, but I'll go into a little more depth now to explain what they're for.  At the beginning of the game, each player places 2 counters in their Strategy Allocation Area, 3 in their Command Pool, and 3 in their Fleet Supply area.  At the end of each round, each player gets two new Command Counters that they can assign to any of these areas, and they can also rearrange old counters to new areas as well (and they can also get additional counters from some of the Strategy actions I just talked about). 

As I've already said, players can spend a counter from their Strategy Allocation area to take advantage of the secondary ability of a Strategy Card when an opponent chooses to use its primary ability during their turn.  The number of counters in the Fleet Supply area indicates the maximum number of capital ships that can be in any one of your fleets (in any one system).   

Spending counters from your Command Pool is how you produce units, move, and carry out attacks on the board.  During your turn, you may choose to "activate" one system.  If it's a system that you already control (and you've already built a space dock there), you can produce new units at that planet.  To do this, you have to exhaust planets with a total combined resource value equal to the cost of the units you're producing.  Plus, systems have a certain limit to the number of units that can be built there, which is based on the resource value of the planet where the space dock was built.

If the system is one you do not control, you can move in ships from anywhere within range and, if appropriate, battle against any opponents there and invade any planets.  Combat is relatively simple, where each type of ship has a target number to be rolled on a 10-sided die.  If you roll that number or higher, then your opponent has to lose one ship per hit (although Dreadnaughts and War Suns can actually take two hits before being destroyed).  Fighters are particularly good to soak up these hits, but only certain capital ships can carry them around (Carriers and War Suns).  

You cannot reactivate any system that you have previously activated in the same round, nor may you move ships from a previously activated system.  This Command Pool mechanic is designed to represent the simultaneous actions of all the different races, and therefore all actions taken in a round are considered to be happening at the same time.  Logically, therefore, this would prevent you from using the same system or units more than once in that period. 

Play continues as each player continues to take one action at a time until they either cannot or choose not to take any further actions and pass for the round.  Note that players must use their Strategic Action at some point in the round before passing (once they have chosen that card, they cannot choose later to forego the action to, for instance, prevent an opponent from being able to take advantage of its secondary ability.)  

After all players have passed, the Status Phase occurrs.  This is when all the maintenance happens, like players claiming objectives they have qualified for (note that multiple players can qualify for and get VP for the same public objectives), removing command counters from the board, refreshing planet cards, repairing damaged ships, getting more command counters and rearranging them, and drawing one action card.  Then, players all turn in their Strategy Cards and a new round begins with the current Speaker choosing first.  
 
Play continues until, like I said someone either earns their 10th Victory Point or the "game over" Imperium Rex card is revealed (in which case the person with the most VP at that point is declared the winner).
 
What I think… 

I really like most things about this game.  The Command Counter system is just fantastic, and I think that it works well to simulate the simultaneous nature of the actions as well as producing relatively short player turns that minimizes downtime.  While some of the the specific Strategy Cards in the base game have major issues (the Imperial card in particular), I also think that the mechanic itself is also very effective.  The various strategic actions provide useful resources and opportunities to players (some more than others), but once again, the secondary abilities keep other players engaged and participating in the action, breaking up periods of downtime and keeping the game enjoyable for everyone.  And while there's not anything particularly inpired about the combat system, it works well and gets the job done. 

More than these crunchy rules mechanics, however, what I really love about TI3 is that it is a truly epic game with incredible depth.  I love the Sci-Fi setting, and this universe is one of the best-devloped that I've ever seen in a boardgame.  TI3 has a fantastic capacity for spawning cool narratives about what happens in a particular session.  When you're done, you get the same kind of feeling you get after reading a good book or watching a good movie - that you have experienced something worth remembering and worth talking about into the future.  The game just scratches an itch for me that virtually no "euro" game can touch, and for that alone I will continue to play it. 

Initially, I rated TI3 a 9 on the BGG scale, for all the reasons I just talked about.  The more I've played, however, the more I have begun to encounter bothersome problems and shortcomings in the game.  And to start at the "beginning", the first one is actually how the galaxy (game board) is built.  We quickly realized that with the method used in the rules, one or two players almost always had a definite advantage in the number and/or quality of planets near their home system as the game began.  To fix this, we just started building the galaxy first and then randomly determining player position afterwards, so that it was in everyone's best interests to build the most balanced board possible.   

My next problem is with the political aspect of the game.  There's nothing inherently wrong with the system, but I think it just lacks a certain balance within its execution.  I tend to find the various Political Cards to be either completely irrelevant or incredibly disruptive to the overall flow of the game.  I think that this idea has a lot of potential, but as it is just seems to be irrelevant yet distracting fluff.

Like I've already mentioned, the original Strategy Cards had some major balance issues.  The Imperial card gave 2 VP each time it was chosen, so the best action to choose every single round was always either the Imperial card itself or the Initiative card so that you could go first the next round and choose the Imperial card.  The most successful strategy therefore was to just hide away ("turtle") in a corner somewhere and wait until you collected enough points to win.  This isn't really as big a deal as it seems, however, because if everyone is trying to do this, then no one will succeed all that well.  Plus it's pretty easy to just house-rule the card to only give 1 VP or to use the alternate Strategy Cards found in the Shattered Empires expansion to fix this altogether.  

But the real problem to me is still the endgame.  As I've said, the way I see TI3 is that I'm going to play an incredibly rich and well-developed race in their attempt to ascend to the galactic throne.  What makes no sense is that I'm going to go about it in the exact same way as every other race (which is to accomplish the random public objectives that are revealed throughout the game).  And even worse, that random distribution of objectives (along with the random secret objective I was dealt) may have nothing to do with what I perceive to be the path that my race would want to take to claim the throne!

I first realized this when playing the Emirates of Hacan (the mercantile lion-people pictured on the box cover) recently.  I went into the game planning to use a diplomatic and "peaceful" strategy to build power and claim victory points.  I was totally foiled, however, when my secret objective was to conquer two homeworlds of other races and almost all the public objectives were military in nature as well.  Now, I know that this sounds a little picky for what is essentially a space conquest game, but with as much work as FFG has put into the background for TI3 (and as much time as I invest in a session of it), I guess I just hope for a little more.

I wonder if something like hacing a public "Racial Objective" that was difficult to accomplish but that granted 3 VP would help this, allowing races to pursue race-specific goals that would lend to their development of the power necessary to claim the throne.  I don't know for sure, but something needs to be tweaked to make the victory point mechanic fit a little better with the exceptional theme.

Optional Rules, Variants, and the Expansion

Both in the base game and in the Shattered Empires expansion, there are tons of optional rules that can be added to the base game to enhance play.  Some of the ones we've tried out are as follows:

• Age of Empire - Basically, the objective deck is turned face up from the beginning of the game, so players know exactly what objectives are available and how long the game will last.  This allows for a little more advance planning, but also removes some of the mystery from the game.  The main reason we do not use it now is that it does not interact with the alternate Strategy Cards from Shattered Empires (which we use pretty much exclusively now). 
• Distant Suns - Special counters are placed face-down on each unoccupied planet at the beginning of the game.  When a planet is invaded, the counter is turned over and has some effect.  It may be good (like getting an extra technology advance or some trade goods), or it could be bad (like having to fight against inhabitants or having your whole landing party killed by radiation).  This adds a little extra spice to the early rounds of expansion by making it feel more like real "exploration" of uncharted territory.  The down side is that the effects are very random and it is definitely possible that one or two players can get set back a turn or two.  We still will probably always play with this option from now on.
• Shattered Empires Good Stuff - Like I've said a few times, I doubt we'll ever play again without some of the enhancements from Shattered Empires.  These "auto-includes" are the alternate Strategy Cards, new and race-specific technologies, new objective cards, additional planets, shock troops, space mines, and artifacts.  TI3 alone is a really solid game, but Shattered Empires shores up several of the weaknesses from the game as well as offering all these cool options, and I highly recommend adding them to your games.

Note that there are also a few other options that we haven't gotten around to trying out yet, such as using Leaders, the Wormhole Nexus, and Preset Maps.   

The Verdict!

Before I get into my personal wrap-up, I want to mention that of the 8 people in our group that have played TI3, I rate it the lowest.  The average rating amongst the group is a 9.25, with five different people giving it a 10.  So clearly, the problems I have with it are not shared by the majority of our players.

• Rules: Understandibly complex, but the core systems involved are not actually that difficult to get a grasp of. 
• Downtime: With short individual turns, the game moves quickly and all players are involved almost all of the time.  Most real "downtime" comes when people are involved with negotiations or are trying to make tactical decisions. 
• Length: The seven games played by our group have averaged an actual play time of 7.9 hours each.  While this is pretty much incredibly long, it never feels that way. 
• Player Interaction: Extremely high, in virtually every conceivable way.
• Weight:  Heavy (really heavy)
• GamerChris’ Rating: Like I said, I still really like the game, but it's "fallen from grace" a little because of these nagging issues I have with it.  Still, if I have the time, I'm usually willing to play, so I currently give it a very solid  7.