I've owned Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition since the moment it was released. I've gotten to play it one time. Due to the extreme length, compounded by the number of people needed to play that entire time (more than two), I haven't been able to play it again. I wouldn't mind an epic weekend session, but finding like-minded others is difficult. I realize that the chances of me ever getting to play it again are extremely slim. However, I have held on to that game because of the need that I have to play this type of game.

I received my copy of Galactic Emperor last week and got to play a game of it last night (three players). After just that one play I now feel that I can finally put TI3 onto my trade pile! This game fulfills the same need and can be finished! This means that I'll actually be able to get other people to play with me, which is very important for fully enjoying any game.

Galactic Emperor is great! I think it does a wonderful job at blending all of it's aspects together. Explorer lets you place tiles strategically for you to claim. Merchant lets you control the market, produce food, and buy / sell goods. Stewart lets you harvest metal and energy from your systems using food you have gathered. Engineer lets you spend your resources to buy ships. Warlord lets you move your ships around, claim systems, and of course fight! Scientist lets you purchase unique technologies which can give you just the right advantages in different areas. And Regent adds the political aspect to the game. I think this is one of the greatest parts of the game. Your political influence can help you claim systems, removed others' influence, build star bases (I think that is what they are called), and claim the throne (be first player). And it really feels political! In our game by using the regent I was about to claim a system next to an opponents home world and place a star base there. This allowed me to essentially "conquer" enemy territory without using my military. Star bases are also very important strategic locations for defense and offense.

Some other notes...

Turn order is extremely important, which makes the regents ability to choose which direction turns are taken in even more awesome. Even in a single ability. Going first as warlord can be critical. As you move you get to claim systems with your empire tokens. Those empires will then get to defend (quite powerfully I might add) against anyone else in that same round! The technologies are all unique, so first come first serve. Political influence during the regent action is placed in order and being later is much better than being first. Turn order for placing exploration tiles can be very important as well...

The exploration tile placement adds another really great strategic aspect to this game. In addition to some systems being better than others with more resources or more victory points, there are empty sector tiles and sun tiles (well, one starting sun and one that can be placed). The empty sectors are important not only for blocking a potentially good spot for some planets, but also because empires and star bases cannot be placed on empty sectors. So you can't get that extra defense or make a forward base for producing ships. The suns are also very important because their space isn't counted for movement, so it is like a free additional movement for units that go through it! (I imagine using the sun's gravitational force to slingshot your fleet through.)

Combat is simple and wonderful! It is of course with dice (therefore somewhat random), but the different ships make a difference! Dreadnoughts are the big boys. They fire before anyone else, get three dice, and take two hits to kill. But, they are slow. Fighters are the fodder. They are super cheap, attack only if they survive everyone else (including empires and star bases), roll one die, and only hit on a 5+ (everything else hits on a 4+). Fighters feel really great in this game. One thing I remember about TI3 is that the fighters in that game were also the best fodder, but they could also become super powerful, which didn't seem right. In the middle you have cruisers which have the power and priority to attack empires and star bases without the loss of speed. All three ships have a purpose and they fulfill it.

A quick note on components. The ships are absolutely awesome. They are a hard plastic so they don't get bent out of shape like softer plastic figures, such as what FFG uses. And they look sweet. The non-ship components are alright. All completely functional, but not the extreme quality of some other games. The dice are dice, except the one pip (when you roll a one) is really big and deep. Kinda freaks me out. And there are only eight, so huge battles will require multiple rolls.

Our game with three players, all new, took a little over three hours to explain and play. Completely reasonable! The game is long enough (with the great gameplay) to feel epic, but still playable! I assume time will go up a little with more players, but some mechanics (limited number of exploration tiles, likelihood of regent being selected) will help decrease the number of turns per player I think (can't confirm this yet however). And of course play time will decrease with experience.

Most games I prefer to play with less players. But the feel of this game makes me want to try it with the full compliment, and I think it will be great! Truly epic!

So, on first play I'm giving it an 8 (most of my favorite games are an 8, so that is high for a first play). Whether it moves up or not really depends on replayability. This game may be significantly inferior to TI3. I haven't played either enough to know that. But I do know that I will actually have enough time to get to play this one, and that means the most to me.

Thanks for reading! =-)