Opening the box is like opening a treasure chest of game pieces. There are so many things: ships, cards, units, map tiles, player cards… oh my! I got a little giddy not knowing what to grab out first.
Of course before playing I had to familiarize myself with the rules. At 44 pages long it almost classifies as an actual book. For an experienced strategy gamer most of the rules are quite familiar in style. Picture a mash-up of all the various styles of strategy games. Political, space combat, resource management, tech development, and map exploration. If you have played games with these elements the rules should actually feel straight forward. I like the layout of the rule book. Charts and specific rules are easy to find for clarification. Several helpful images give clear visual aids to explain various rules and actions excellently. Fantasy Flight seems have put out a thoroughly planned out product. Of course this was a Third edition so most of the kinks seem to be ironed out.
Map layout is done with octagonal tiles much like those found in German style games such as Settlers of Catan. Each player is dealt a number of tiles and lays them out in rings around the central planet of Mecatol Rex. Eventually each player has their home world placed in the outer ring. This random map generation is always popular with me as it reduces map memory advantage for veteran players and increases the replayability factor.
Resource control is fairly simple. Each planet has two values, resource and influence. “Resource” value is used for building units or researching tech. Influence is used for political actions. A planet can only be tapped for one or the other so budget planning is a big part of the game. There are also trade goods which can be acquired through various means. These can be used for purchases you cannot afford with planetary resources.
Victory is awarded to whoever attains the most victory points. These are gained through attaining game goals. There are public goals which anyone can achieve but there are also secret goals assigned to each player. Once a player has achieved 10 victory points they win the game.
Turn play is rather innovative as each player selects a strategy at the beginning of each turn in what is called the strategy phase. The players selected strategy determines order of play. A player who selects initiative gets to go first as it is assigned “1.” Trade strategy is a “5” while imperial is ranked “8” or last. Each card allows a specific primary strategy to be engaged on the players turn. For instance the Technology strategy allows one free technology to be obtained. However once a strategy is activated all other players can use the secondary strategy on the card. In the case of the Technology card each player may pay 8 resources to obtain a technology card.
Back to the innovative turn play. The next phase is the action phase. Each player takes a single action in their numerical order. This can be anything as simple as moving a fleet or activating a strategy etc. This then repeats for the remainder of the turn in order with each player making single actions until all players elect to pass. Once finished this action phase you move to the Status Phase.
Basically the Status Phase is resetting the player boards. Players claim completed objectives and their associated victory points. They also draw new cards, reorganize their player board/area and return their strategy cards. Basically this is the upkeep phase. Once this is completed go back to the strategy phase for the next turn.
So each turn is basically a series of rounds of single actions until players decide they cannot play any more. At the end of these rounds everything is reset and you start again. With this format a single turn can last for over an hour especially late in the game. However since each turn is broken up by single actions it keeps all players involved nicely.
As you can probably guess space combat is a big part of the game. However this combat isn’t normally part of the victory conditions. So it is a means to an end. You do not need to defeat all other players militarily. In fact you can win the game without ever engaging in a single battle. This is something I didn’t truly understand on my first play though. I amassed a big fleet and conquered a sizeable portion of the map. However I didn’t claim all that many victory points. So I lost. But the space battles were fun all the same.
The game is listed for up to 6 players. To really get the full playability I would recommend getting the full 6. It really allows for a complex game with political swaying and dealing. The board placement also makes the most sense with 6 players.
I really like the complexity of the game. There is so much you can do strategy wise. It is really a thinking player’s game. You need to keep an eye on all opponents. Your neighbours can threaten your planets. Players on the other side of the map can find wormholes to your territory and any player can be politically manoeuvring against you.
The play through time is long… VERY long. The first play through took about 5 hours. I think it would have been longer but the only experienced player at the table was able to amass victory points while the rest of us were building armadas and fighting over territory.
Twilight Imperium includes a variety of optional pieces and rules for making more complex games. There are also two expansions out, called Shattered Empires and Shards of the Throne, if you choose to make the game more complicated or even add up to eight players. I haven’t touched the expansions yet as I still feel the core game is highly replayable and am still trying to master it.
To sum up Twilight Imperium is an amazing big box game. It is complex in nature but with a rule system that is rather intuitive for strategy game enthusiasts. I would recommend this game for an experienced group of strategy gamers who have the time and sheer force of will to play the game. While it may be difficult for you to find enough players to set aside the time and are willing to delve into this geeky of a game, I think you will find that Twilight Imperium is a truly rewarding game experience.
Check back next time when I review Red Dragon Inn.
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