Twilight Imperium 3: Are You Threatening Me?

No longer mere earthbeings and planetbeings are we, but bright children of the stars! And together we shall dance in and out of ten billion years, celebrating the gift of consciousness until the stars themselves grow cold and weary, and our thoughts turn again to the beginning.

 - Lady Deirdre Skye, "Conversations With Planet", Epilogue

A little over a year ago, the Yin Brotherhood was victorious in our second game of Twilight Imperium. Now it's time for game 3.

**

After our previous game, it was suggested that last time's winner should play with one of the higher complexity factions next time. I agreed, and picked the Arborec, who I decided were basically Alpha Centauri's Planet after a transcendence victory. On my left was the Nekro Virus, and on my right the Ghosts of Creuss; opposite me were the Mentak Coalition (space pirates) and the Tyranids.

Everyone got started expanding out of their home systems.

The first hostilities of the game were between the Nekro Virus and the space pirates, when the Nekro Virus invaded Sakulag. Their faction specialty is that they don't develop technology, but rather acquire it by consuming other factions' units and betting on the outcomes of agenda votes. So they got things started by eating some space pirates.

Apparently this was by mutual agreement, although I don't think anyone asked the pirates whose part in the deal was to get eaten. While all this was going on, I built the Arborec flagship and seized the Cornholio system right next door to Mecatol Rex, and the Ghosts of Creuss spread their influence far and wide.

On the opposite side of the board, the pirates tried to grab Tar'mann, but their invasion force was wiped out by the Tyranids' upgraded space cannon in the First Cannonade of Tar'mann.

For my part, I cashed in a secret objective by blowing up a Creuss destroyer with my flagship.

The Ghosts of Creuss surprised us by claiming Mecatol Rex, which put them firmly in the lead and ushered in the agenda phase. I was second in victory points, with everyone else more or less sitting tight and building up their fleets. The space pirates sent a larger fleet, which survived the Second Cannonade of Tar'mann, and grabbed the planet.

**

I have to say that the agenda phases in this game were even sillier than usual, and we greatly enjoyed them. The Nekro Virus don't get to vote in the agenda phase, but they can pick one of the agendas to bet on. If they guess right, they get to steal technology from the voting factions. I have no idea what this mechanic is even supposed to represent, but it's damn good fun. With the Nekro Virus bets and various action card riders, it sometimes became a very complicated but entertaining process to figure out who gets what depending on which way a vote goes.

As an example, when we voted on Representative Government, two players attached riders, leaving two of us to actually vote on the outcome. That would then have been changed by Bribery, but the bribe was sabotaged.

By far the silliest vote was when we drew Public Execution, and the first thing that happened was that the Nekro Virus assassinated my representative. The matter then went to a vote, and the Ghosts of Creuss were chosen - only for them to deploy Confusing Legal Text and have me publicly executed instead.

While all this was going on, the Ghosts racked up victory points by spreading their fleet thin and using the extra mobility provided by their wormholes. As the rest of us were trying to co-ordinate an attack on them, the Creuss player picked the Imperial strategy card and won the game outright by scoring a 2-VP objective.

I came in second with 6 VP. It was a deserved win for the Creuss with a well-executed strategy. I shall henceforth refer to them as I Am Wormholio.

**

So, we saw that Creuss victory coming, but we didn't see it coming that quickly. I think some valuable strategic lessons were learned.

As the Ghosts started racking up victory points, their fleets were outnumbered by their neighbors, that is, myself and the Tyranids. However, our actions were severely constrained by our neighbors. For much of the endgame, there was a considerable Nekro Virus fleet right next to me at Thibah, and the space pirates were massing behind the Nids.

This was an excellent example of the strategic concept of the fleet in being: the fleet at Thibah was a serious problem for me, as I didn't know what it was going to do. If I moved decisively against the Creuss, there would be nothing to stop them from grabbing several of my systems. So I'd have to take a serious risk to stop the Ghosts from winning, and make myself vulnerable to the Nekro Virus.

So far, I'd say our games of Twilight Imperium have been characterized by the security dilemma. Each player sees their neighbors building up their fleet, and feels threatened, and therefore builds a larger fleet. Their neighbors see that, feel threatened by it, and build more starships and space cannon. And so it goes, with large sections of the board paralyzed into mutual deterrence.

The overall strategic lesson I'm taking with me from this instance of Twilight Imperium is that if you camp, you lose. I still feel like the pace of the game is slightly faster than I think, but I'm getting a better handle on it. I like that the game rewards aggressive play for victory points, and I hope we get to play it again!

Twilight Imperium 2: Enlightenment is a Function of Willpower

I maintain nonetheless that yin-yang dualism can be overcome. With sufficient enlightenment we can give substance to any distinction: mind without body, north without south, pleasure without pain. Remember, enlightenment is a function of willpower, not of physical strength.

 - Chairman Sheng-ji Yang, "Essays on Mind and Matter"

We enjoyed our first game of Twilight Imperium, The Assassination of Bug Jesus by the Coward Space Turtles, so much that we wanted to play another one. So, with our newly painted red miniatures, we did.

**

Well before the game, we randomized seating order and factions. I ended up getting the Yin Brotherhood, an all-male faction of clones. Our special abilities are a kamikaze attack with cruisers or destroyers, and for some reason, Indoctrination, which lets us convert opposing infantry. I'm just going to think of them as what happens when the Hive builds Cloning Vats and then wins Alpha Centauri. Because they are so clearly the Hive, I picked the blue miniatures.

Going clockwise, on my left I have the Barony of Letnev (green) who won last time, then also on my left but with a different player. Then it's the Yssaril Tribes, some kind of space goblin spies with the yellow miniatures, and a new player in black with the Emirates of Hacan, the trader space cats.

Next we have the Embers of Muaat, who start with one of the death stars I just painted, and have a special ability, Star Forge, which means they can produce ships in their death star. Given that they also start with the speaker token, they're basically Emperor Palpatine. Finally, on my right, last time's winner with the violet Ghosts of Creuss: the spooky space ghosts live on the other side of a wormhole.

My flatmate was kind enough to build a map for us:

And we were ready to go!

**

We got off to what I'm coming to think is the usual Twilight Imperium start where we expand cautiously into the immediately adjacent systems.

Aided by the menacing presence of the Muaat death star, the trash talk was heaviest at the opposite end of the table. I quickly established friendly relations with what I was informed was called the Baloney of Satnav, and a cautious accord with the creepy wormhole ghosts. Seeing as how the Creuss player won last time, I was definitely most nervous about them!

My suspicions were quickly confirmed when the Ghosts sent a fleet through the alpha wormhole, and grabbed Arinam and Meer from right under the noses of the Satnav. One of the public objectives involved controlling planets with the same planet trait, and Meer is a hazardous planet.

The Baloney was having none of it, and very quickly got them back.

As the second turn drew to a close, everyone was busy building up their fleets, and the first shots had been fired.

**

On the third turn, I decided to make my contribution to the shot total by invading New Albion.

What I wanted was a planet with some decent production. I told the Ghosts quite frankly that I was having New Albion, and either Starpoint or Hodor in the adjacent system. The Ghosts preferred to keep Starpoint, so I let them. It was a hazardous planet, and I figured it would keep them bugging their neighbors for another one.

Right after all this, we were a little bit shocked to find the Muaat war sun materializing out of the beta wormhole!

Because there was a public objective for having two unit improvements, several players had upgraded their PDSes to fire into adjacent systems. The Muaat took a bit of a cannonade, but only ended up losing one fighter and taking some damage on their dreadnought. As the Muaat fleet withdrew into the safety of the adjacent supernova, the Ghosts rode their wormhole slipstream right to Mecatol Rex, and took possession of it.

The Ghosts also made a play for a different hazardous planet, this time at the expense of the Muaat. However, they hadn't counted on the Muaat planetary defense systems, and the Creuss fleet was wiped out in the First Cannonade of Waffle II.

Here's the situation at the end of the fourth turn. We've had an agenda phase; I can't remember which was which, but they always provide opportunities for shenanigans and are an excellent part of the game. The goblins were building a giant fleet and hoarding strategy cards, while the Emirates of Håkan were somewhat hemmed in between them and the Muaat.

Luckily, I had the perfect counter to the Muaat death star: the Yin Brotherhood flagship, the van Halen, is rubbish at combat, but if it's destroyed, it takes every other ship in the system with it. When that war sun showed up on our side of the board, you bet I built the Eddie van Halen right away.

**

The Muaat got the new turn started by moving on Mecatol Rex, where they soon evicted the Creuss with the aid of their upgraded death star.

For my part, I invaded Hodor in pursuit of more production and a public objective for controlling planets.

The Ghosts of Creuss continued their quest for hazardous planets by sending another fleet to Waffle II. This time, some of the ships survived the space cannon, but none of the drop troops made it to the surface. The Second Cannonade of Waffle II ended with the Creuss still frustrated.

Meanwhile, the Muaat had built a second death star. Below is the overall situation at what I think judging from the public objectives should be the beginning of turn seven.

The Muaat tried to reinforce Waffle II with Frontline Deployment, but the Creuss countered with Unstable Planet. Must be all the cannoning.

Meanwhile, the great war of the goblins and the space cats finally started.

A lot of action cards were played in that one. For my part, I sent the Eddie van Halen to drive off a Muaat destroyer hanging around the beta wormhole.

Once again, the Ghosts of Creuss launched a fleet, and this time, both the starships and ground troops got through, and the Third Cannonade of Waffle II ended in the planet falling to the Creuss.

At this point, the Baloney of Satnav sprang into action. First, their flagship defeated some of my fighters for a victory point.

Then they intervened in the goblins wars by blowing up the Håkan flagship, for another victory point!

I sent my fleet through the wormhole to grab Quann off the Muaat, so I too could score the planet trait objective, and also deny a planet to the Muaat.

The Eddie van Halen deterred the Muaat from getting Quann back, so they attacked me at Hodor instead. The Muaat player took a hit on their death star, finally letting me play the Direct Hit action card - which was immediately sabotaged by the Satnav.

The Muaat wiped out my fleet, but chose not to attempt a landing on Hodor. A possibly incomplete list of things that were sabotaged in this game: a skilled retreat, a morale boost, a direct hit on a Muaat death star, and a public disgrace of the Satnav.

**

After some further shenanigans and one last agenda phase, we had to call it a night at the end of the seventh turn.

The final scoring was very, very tight.

The space goblins were last with one victory point. Our new player piloted the Emirates of Håkan to a very respectable 5 VP, just behind the Embers and Ghosts at 6. I ended up tied with the Baloney of Satnav at 8 VP, and I won the tiebreaker by being ahead in initiative order. However, the Embers of Muaat were a few measly influence points away from scoring one of the 2-VP objectives, and they would have won the tiebreaker against me! So this one really went down to the wire.

**

So, what did we learn? First of all, we had a great time. However, we also had to stop the game earlier than we would have liked due to time constraints. We're going to look into running a two-day game at some point next year. Even with the premade map and everything, this is still a lot to get through in one day.

We also focused more on victory points, which led to a tighter game and more surprises, as people went for both public and secret objectives. Another way that Twilight Imperium is like Game of Thrones, or for that matter Scythe, is that if you play it like a wargame, you lose. I like the way the objectives direct play, so you have to both have a strategy of your own and be able to respond to events.

Overall, I think Twilight Imperium is a fantastic game. The theme is on point: it feels like we're playing Master of Orion. The mechanics work, none of the rules feel overly complex or counterintuitive, and the game flows quite nicely. Finally, even though it's a big game that takes a long time to play, it doesn't leave me mentally exhausted like, say, Game of Thrones, let alone totally destroyed like War of the Ring.

So this one's a winner: I strongly recommend Twilight Imperium, and we will be playing it again.

Let's Play Twilight Imperium: the Assassination of Bug Jesus by the Coward Space Turtles

"Since bombs are your means of expression, it would be really telling if one could throw a bomb into pure mathematics. But that is impossible. I have been trying to educate you; I have expounded to you the higher philosophy of your usefulness, and suggested to you some serviceable arguments. The practical application of my teaching interests you mostly. But from the moment I have undertaken to interview you I have also given some attention to the practical aspect of the question. What do you think of having a go at astronomy?"

 - Joseph Conrad, the Secret Agent

We like epic board games. Last year, we finished our massive play-by-email Here I Stand, and played a six-handed Game of Thrones. It's now time to tackle Twilight Imperium, which has sat on my shelf for years, what with the pandemic and everything. Six of us got together; none of us had ever played it before. How hard could it be?

**

The first difficulty became apparent as we started setting up the game: it's gigantic. We have a fairly large gaming table, and we couldn't fit everything we needed for six people on it. Various auxiliary surfaces were in use and it was still a bit of a struggle. I'm glad I didn't get the Prophecy of Kings expansion, as we'd never be able to use it!

We eventually managed to get through setup. Of the six starter factions, ironically enough I ended up with the University of Jol-Nar. I had the green ships; to my left was the Barony of Letnev in red, and to my right the Federation of Sol in blue.

Probably the most difficult thing at the start was picking the strategy cards, but we got things going and started expanding into nearby systems. 

We had our first battle when the Tyranids Sardakk N'orr decided to eat an Xxcha fleet.

The Battle of Saudor ended in a bug victory, and kicked off a whole war between the Sardakk N'orr and the Tau space turtles. One of the great incidents of this war, which gave the name to the whole game, was an action card exchange where the bugs were hoping to recruit some infantry and played Rise of a Messiah, but the Xxcha countered with Sabotage. Thus the game will be known as The Assassination of Bug Jesus by the Coward Space Turtles.

Here's the situation at what I believe was the start of the fourth turn. While the bugs try to eat the space turtles, the rest of us are building up our fleets and advancing slowly on Orion Mecatol Rex. I had arrived at a border settlement with my right-hand neighbors, the Federation of Sol, which I cemented by using the Trade strategy card to good effect.

Meanwhile, the Xxcha recaptured Saudor.

Things also got a lot more interesting in the drive on Mecatol Rex. One of the public objectives was having a ship in two systems adjacent to Mecatol Rex, and while several factions maneuvered to set this up, the Hacan launched a surprise attack on the monkeys I mean Federation of Sol!

Here's the game from my point of view as turn 4 starts. On my left, the Barony of Letnev have scored the new public objective, and are making a play for Mecatol Rex. The other four factions are fighting each other.

On the fourth turn, the Barony grabs Mecatol Rex!

The war between the lions and the monkeys is going full tilt as the Federation deploys their flagship and makes a strategic strike on Arby's.

I wanted Mecatol Rex, dammit. The University fleet at Jethro Tull attacks, destroying the Letnev carrier, but our ground forces fail to root out their infantry.

In the third battle of Saudor, the Sardakk N'orr drive the Xxcha fleet back, taking heavy casualties, but fail to dislodge the space turtle ground forces holding the planet.

At the end of the fourth turn, we enjoy our first ever agenda phase, which was very silly and also fun. However, it was getting late, and we decided to call it a day.

That means that with five victory points, the Barony of Letnev has won our first ever game of Twilight Imperium!

**

So how long did it take? I set up the map beforehand, and we got started a little before two p.m. Setup then took something like 45 minutes, for a start time of about 14:30. Our last turn finished a bit before ten. So our four turns took us about seven hours, with everyone new to the game, and the game was won with five out of the maximum 10 victory points.

More to the point, we had an excellent time. This is another one of those games like the Fallout board game, that looks bewilderingly complex, but once you get going, it's quite easy to grasp. It helps that many of the mechanics are familiar from other Fantasy Flight games: activating systems works the same way as in Star Wars: Rebellion, and the fleet size limits and control tokens are very much reminiscent of Game of Thrones. Even with the agenda phase and everything, Twilight Imperium is a lot easier to grasp than it appears.

Our objective with the first game was pretty much to establish whether we wanted to play more. The answer was a unanimous yes, and in fact we've already got a date booked for our next session. I certainly enjoyed myself, and am very much looking forward to playing again.