I play games with a lot of different groups of people. In almost all groups, I'm the one responsible for supplying and explaining the games. Because of this I have to think carefully which games I bring to which groups. These considerations for, in this case, Twilight Imperium 3rd Ed. will be the heart of this review. Hopefully this will give you some insight in whether this game is suitable for your specific group.
Information
The third incarnation of Twilight Imperium (TI3) is an epic space conquest game for 2-6 players. The game borrows elements from other well known games and blends it into a masterpiece (YMMV) that's a lot bigger than the mere sum of its parts. It has "role"-selection similar to Puerto Rico, stereo-typical dice-based combat similiar to Risk-like games, and a lot more. Players take turns conquering, researching, negotiating, in an effort to score points from objectives.
The rules, weighing in at over 40 pages, are hands down the best rules I have ever read. They are very clear, unambiguous, and thoroughly structured in phases. The best part is, that most rules outside the core set have been made optional. This means you can customize the difficulty of play by adding or removing rules. Should an ambiguous or unclear situation occur, then the FAQ is your surest way to enlightenment.
Play is fast with little downtime, but overall playtime can quickly get out of hand. Especially with new players "analysis paralysis" will occur, because there is so much you can do in a single action. Do I move, build, or both? The movement mechanism based on activation of a single system on the modular board allows for multiple actions to occur in a single turn, but also prohibits certain future actions (i.e. move, build) in that system as well. This especially makes the game hard to grasp for new players.
The components are brilliant. The modular board is made with large hex tiles depicting systems with planets. Players have lots of different plastic units, with the huge War Sun as the ultimate "You wanna piece o' me?!"-unit. The game is littered with all sorts of different types of cards and counters. All in all and bottom line is ... you need a bigger table.
What will "they" think of Twilight Imperium 3rd Ed.?
Note that the stars indicate preference/attitude and not quantity, i.e. 1 star for playing time for a eurogamer means a dislike for duration for this game (i.e. too long). More stars equals more positive on a given subject. Of course caveat emptor and YMMV, because this classification is highly subjective. This means that these ratings are based on my opinion and experiences and may not correspond with others. Please leave some constructive feedback and I'll adjust the ratings accordingly.
1) Euro-gamers
overall 
learning curve playing time strategy & tactics luck participation & downtime fun-factor look & feel chance to hit the table2) War-gamers
overall 
learning curve playing time strategy & tactics luck participation & downtime fun-factor look & feel chance to hit the table3) Ameritrashers
overall 
learning curve playing time strategy & tactics luck participation & downtime fun-factor look & feel chance to hit the table4) Non-gamers
overall 
learning curve playing time strategy & tactics luck participation & downtime fun-factor look & feel chance to hit the tableMy $0.02 on Twilight Imperium 3rd Ed.
TI3 is my all time Ameritrash favourite, although it doesn't hit the table more than once a month. The reason for this is the duration on the one hand and available players on the other. The game takes roughly about an hour per experienced player, 1.5 hours per regular players, and about 2 hours per new players. Even experienced players have to be "in the mood" for a commitment of this scope. When the players and the time is there though, the game absolutely shines. The game facilitates diplomacy between players, which effectively destroys the concept of player elimination. Alliances are forged, NAPs are broken, homeworlds invaded, armadas destroyed. Almost every single game is of such an epic scope, that it'll stay with you as a "Remember that game when I ..."-story for a long time. The player races or so well constructed that each plays and "feels" differently, and in my games we usually end up inadvertently role-playing!
Not everyone will enjoy this. The rules are clear but also large. The game is fun, but takes a huge time commitment. The optional rules lower this threshold somewhat, but nevertheless it still is a long difficult game to grasp for new players. After one game you're either hooked, or you'll never want to play again.
One other thing I'd like to mention, is that if you have the player-base and time to play this, I can wholeheartedly recommend getting the Shattered Empires expansion. It adds more races, more technology, more everything, without bogging the game down with extra rules (all are optional) or more playtime!
On last thing I'd like to note is that the nature of board setup can lead to unfair advantages. Normally this will be mitigated by other games, but in a game of this duration and scope its extra sour. We play the house rule that each player gets a stack of random systems during setup as usual, but has to pick only and pass the stack on to the player left of him/her until all systems are alloted. This allows for selection and spread systems. For those of you who think this too boring, and regular setup is too random, FFG has released some preset maps.
This game is worthy of your time, money, and effort.
Last edited on 2008-04-27 06:18:06 CST (Total Number of Edits: 3)
Posted Wed Apr 23, 2008 8:58 am
