Twilight Imperium

[El Guapo]

Not sure who here has played Twilight Imperium before (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/233 ... th-edition), but it's one of the epic space strategy games, where different factions vie to replace a fallen galactic empire.

TwilightWars.com is a volunteer-run site that lets people set up and play PBEM games of Twilight Imperium. It takes awhile to get through a game (both because TI takes a long time to play and because there are back and forth situations requiring input from multiple players), but on the other hand it also allows the play of a game that's otherwise difficult to get people together in person for. And TI itself is a blast.

Anyone interested in playing a game? You need a code to sign up for the site which I can PM to anyone interested (the site runners say it's fine to share, especially since I own a copy of the game).

[baelthazar]

I just now saw this. I probably would be interested, would just need to check out how it is done. Ghostlobster would also probably love to join in.

[Punisher]

Can you explain how the game works and how difficult it is to learn?
I might be interested.

[baelthazar]

Can you explain how the game works and how difficult it is to learn?
I might be interested.

The game has a bit of a steep learning curve, but this system purports to run the rules for you. That said, there is always a lot going on with TI. I would put it on the complexity level of a PC game like Master of Orion or Stellaris.

[El Guapo]

Can you explain how the game works and how difficult it is to learn?
I might be interested.

Sure. The game mechanics aren't all that complicated. Here's a youtube video that covers it. But the premise of the game is that there was a galactic civilization that collapsed ages ago. Now various factions are competing to reclaim the former imperial capital planet (Mecatol Rex) and make themselves the dominant power and new ruling faction in the galaxy. At the simplest level the core mechanics are this:

(1) At the start of teach turn everyone picks a "strategy card". This both determines player order for that turn and gives that player a special ability (the 'primary ability' for that strategy card. Whenever someone uses their strategy card primary ability others can pay to use a secondary ability of that card at the same time.

(2) After the strategy cards are picked, players take turns doing actions. Mostly this involves moving units around the galaxy, fighting other players, and building units. Also involves various special actions allowed by cards and faction abilities.

(3) After everyone passes players can score various objective cards (some public some secret) and thereby gain points.

(4) After a player takes the capitol planet (Mecatol Rex) an "agenda phase" is added to the game where players can vote on two agendas per turn that add new laws (rules) to the game or which impact a player positively or negatively.

(5) A player wins by hitting an objective point goal (typically 10 points, though players can choose to play to 14 for a longer and more epic game).

Like I said the game mechanics aren't all that complicated and can be learned in a relatively short amount of time. The (significant) complexity comes in with all of the million or so abilities that are associated with different factions, technologies, and other types of cards.

[Zarathud]

I would be interested.

My brother in law tries to play every year and is deep into the combos that can come into play.

[NickAragua]

I'll drop in

[El Guapo]

BTW the TwilightWars.com site is still in the process of implementing the game expansion (Prophecy of Kings). At this point they've added parts of the expansion (mechs and exploration), but haven't yet implemented the additional factions or the agents / commanders / heroes.

[El Guapo]

Also my friend code is QQaVFS once you have signed up.

[Punisher]

Also my friend code is QQaVFS once you have signed up.

How do you add friends there?

[El Guapo]

Also my friend code is QQaVFS once you have signed up.

How do you add friends there?

Once you are logged in:

(1) Press the profile icon in the upper right
(2) Select "friends" menu
(3) Select "+add friend".
(4) Enter the friend code

Once people are set up / ready I'll start a new game and send out the invites.

[El Guapo]

I started a game - Twilight ImperiOOm. I believe these are our players:

Me
Baelthazar
ghostlobster (?)
NickAragua
Punisher
Zarathud

It's a private game, so people need to get invited to join. Once you're signed up just post here (or PM me) with your username and friend code, and I'll add you to my friends and invite you to the game.

[Punisher]

3B5JHg

[El Guapo]

3B5JHg

You have been invited.



BTW after everyone's invited and the game starts the first thing everyone will do is pick their faction. The list of factions is here. Since the expansion is not yet fully implemented on Twilight Wars the expansion factions are not in the game, so it's just the first list of factions (not the additional ones listed under "Prophecy of Kings").

Feel free to look at the list now and think about which faction you want. IMO every faction is viable in the game so I wouldn't overthink it, but mainly just pick a faction with a cool theme (e.g., do you want to be cyborgs / space elves / plant hive mind / etc.). That said, I'd recommend Sol, Jol-Nar, and maybe Letnev or Mentak as decent beginner factions, as factions that don't have terribly complicated or weird faction mechanics. Also happy to answer any questions about any faction that you're interested in.

[Punisher]

I got the invite email but do not see a way to search for the Gane. Is this only because it hasn't started?

[El Guapo]

I got the invite email but do not see a way to search for the Gane. Is this only because it hasn't started?

Do you see an option anywhere to accept the invite? The other thing is if you click on the submenu in the upper left corner of the page there should be a "games" option. Select that and that should take you to a page that has a tab labeled "Games" and a tab labeled "Lobby". Click on Lobby and see if you can see the game (Twilight ImperiOOm).

[Punisher]

I got the invite email but do not see a way to search for the Gane. Is this only because it hasn't started?

Do you see an option anywhere to accept the invite? The other thing is if you click on the submenu in the upper left corner of the page there should be a "games" option. Select that and that should take you to a page that has a tab labeled "Games" and a tab labeled "Lobby". Click on Lobby and see if you can see the game (Twilight ImperiOOm).

Nope.
Nothing that says accept invite.
I can see the lobby but can't search it or see the game name.
Also tried filtering by whats in the email and no go.

[El Guapo]

I got the invite email but do not see a way to search for the Gane. Is this only because it hasn't started?

Do you see an option anywhere to accept the invite? The other thing is if you click on the submenu in the upper left corner of the page there should be a "games" option. Select that and that should take you to a page that has a tab labeled "Games" and a tab labeled "Lobby". Click on Lobby and see if you can see the game (Twilight ImperiOOm).

Nope.
Nothing that says accept invite.
I can see the lobby but can't search it or see the game name.
Also tried filtering by whats in the email and no go.

NickAragua - how did you manage to accept the invite, and can you guide Punisher on this?

[El Guapo]

All invites are out.

[NickAragua]

I logged in, went to the top left menu, selected 'games', and the game was visible in the 'lobby' tab. If it helps, I'm using the web application (twilightwars.com) rather than a phone app.

[baelthazar]

We just need Punisher and Zarathud to accept the game and we are off.

Six player, PBEM, I suspect the game might end five years from now.

[Punisher]

I logged in, went to the top left menu, selected 'games', and the game was visible in the 'lobby' tab. If it helps, I'm using the web application (twilightwars.com) rather than a phone app.

That explains it.
I was using the app only.
I'm in.
And after accepting on the web it shows in the app too.

[El Guapo]

I logged in, went to the top left menu, selected 'games', and the game was visible in the 'lobby' tab. If it helps, I'm using the web application (twilightwars.com) rather than a phone app.

That explains it.
I was using the app only.
I'm in.
And after accepting on the web it shows in the app too.

Sweet! Just need Zarathud to accept and then we can get rolling.

[El Guapo]

We just need Punisher and Zarathud to accept the game and we are off.

Six player, PBEM, I suspect the game might end five years from now.

Honestly not as bad as I was expecting. As long as people are taking their turns promptly I've finished a game in "only" a month of total IRL time. Also helps that you can set it up so that the app / site notifies you via phone if you have a turn ready.

The bigger issue is playing with strangers, because if even one person takes three days to take their actions then the game grinds on almost indefinitely. But once you have a good group of people then it works pretty well.

[Zarathud]

I’m out at a meeting tonight and will accept when I get home.

[NickAragua]

It's space pirate time.

[El Guapo]

Game has started! We are at the faction selection process. The game interface unfortunately does not tell you anything about the factions beyond their name and a picture. As I said before there's a list of factions here with details (ignore the ones under Prophecy of Kings), and mainly I would suggest that you just pick one with a cool theme - I picked the peace turtles.

[Zarathud]

Faction selected, we're now placing the planets.

[El Guapo]

Faction selected, we're now placing the planets.

Indeed! A few things about planet placement:

(1) We take turns placing system tiles one at a time, snake draft style. So the last person to place then places two systems back to back, and then we proceed in reverse order. Then the first person to have placed then places two systems, then we reverse order again, until all tiles are placed

(2) Each ring of tiles has to be placed before any tiles can be placed in the next ring;

(3) Two "anomaly" tiles (tiles with red lines around the outside) can't be placed next to each other unless you have no other option;

(4) Alpha wormholes (with the alpha symbol) can't be placed next to each other. Same with beta wormholes. Any wormhole is adjacent to all other wormholes of the same type.



Sent from my Pixel 7 Pro using Tapatalk

[El Guapo]

In terms of what planets to prioritize:

(1) The number in yellow circle on a planet is resources, used to build ships, take actions, and other things. Higher is better of course
(2) The blue number is influence, used to buy command counters (needed for actions), to vote on new laws, and other things. Higher is better.
(3) The blue / green / red symbols near the resource / influence numbers on some planets are tech skips, used to help research more advanced technology. They're good.
(4) The bigger symbols not near those numbers are planet types. They are less important. Matter for some objectives and determine which exploration card type you draw when you claim them.

Sent from my Pixel 7 Pro using Tapatalk

[El Guapo]

Oh, and generally you want to put your best system next to your home system.

Sent from my Pixel 7 Pro using Tapatalk

[Punisher]

Thanks for this info!
Would have helped if I read this before placing but the Wiki helped a bit.

[El Guapo]

Thanks for this info!
Would have helped if I read this before placing but the Wiki helped a bit.

FWIW you made a good choice - you now have the easiest access to Primor.

And actually I forgot to mention legendary planets - a planet that has an eclipse icon next to their resource / influence values (like Primor) is a "legendary" planet. The main significance of that is that anyone who occupies it gets a legendary planet ability card that can be used once per action around to do something beneficial. For Primor that means you can exhaust the planet's legendary ability card to get two free infantry on one of your planets.

[El Guapo]

Galaxy is done. Next up is placing starting units. This doesn't matter at all if you only have one planet in your home system, since space units have to be in space and ground units have to go on planets. For those who have two (Jol Nar and myself) the main thing that matters is to make sure that your space dock goes on the planet with the higher resource value, since the number of units a space dock can produce at one time is 2 + the resource value of the planet. I'd just recommend that everyone choose the "auto-place starting units" option when your turn comes around.

Afterwards everyone is going to get dealt two secret objectives, after which you pick one to discard. Basically just keep whichever secret objective seems the easiest for you to achieve. At the end of every round (set of actions) everyone gets the opportunity to score 1 public objective and 1 secret objective. You can get more secret objectives over time, but can never have more than 3 secret objectives total.

[NickAragua]

but can never have more than 3 secret objectives total.

Except for that one card that lets you have an extra one, lol

[Punisher]

So I got an alert to discard a secret card but when I went in it says we're still waiting on a person (I don't remember who) to place a tile.
Was ot a false alarm?
If not can someone please explain?

[El Guapo]

but can never have more than 3 secret objectives total.

Except for that one card that lets you have an extra one, lol

Yeah and technically you can draw more than three, it's just that you then immediately need to discard down to three.

[El Guapo]

So I got an alert to discard a secret card but when I went in it says we're still waiting on a person (I don't remember who) to place a tile.
Was ot a false alarm?
If not can someone please explain?

When I log in it's telling me that it's your turn to discard a secret objective. So I'd log back in and try to discard a secret objective. Basically you click on the deck of red cards with a vaguely S-like symbol on the back on the right side of the screen, and then double-click the one that you want to discard.

[NickAragua]

Seems like the phone app is not great at staying synced. Try logging in via the web interface.

[baelthazar]

Punisher, did you ever get that issue fixed? We seem to be waiting for a strategy card selection.