Dead Eye Dick
United States
San Francisco
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Here's my first BGG review - and apparently the first review of third edition of Twilight Imperium by Fantasy Flight Games. I am not going to go through the rules process entirely but rather will review the components and gameplay. I do go through most of the aspects individually, so if you are looking for an overall impression, scroll down.
COMPONENTS
First off - the box is big. Very big. And heavy. That means loads of goodies. I know some will be disappointed that there aren't plastic component dividers included. This is because all of the cardboard punchouts (the placement tiles) together with the sprues for the units (enough for 6 players) take up a large chunk of the available space. Yes - that is another knock for some of you - the pieces are NOT pre-cut. However, I found that they were very easily removed and cleaned-up. None of the pieces were broken or distorted as a result of removing them. But, once all the bits are removed and the pieces detached, there is a lot of space in the box. Personally, I don't need a component holder and instead chose to divide the pieces into snack and sandwich sized ziplocks. Dividing them up in this way also makes it very easy to setup and play.
The unit pieces (in Yellow, Red, Blue, Green, Black and Purple) are very well detailed and are fun to play with. They are made of the sturdy type plastic (not-MM'44) and can take some abuse (no dogs or cat's chewing the pieces though!) and are scaled in relation to each other. The bigger, the better (and the more costly). There can be some confusion as to which ship is what (i.e. what is a cruiser, a fighter, etc), but each player has a list of the vessels on their own player mat in ascending order of cost and ability, which directly translates to the size of the component. Exposure to play quickly reduces this confusion.
The cardboard chits are very nice - plenty of colors and art-work, very heavy-duty cardboard used... very much like FFG's A Game of Thrones cardboard chits. And there are tons of them. Leaders, flags, trade goods, command counters... there's a lot to keep track of in terms of components (part of why I prefer to divy up all the bits per race into sandwich baggies).
The system tiles are much bigger and absolutely beautiful! One side depicts the system (with the planets and a variegated star field in the background) while the other side of ALL the tiles is a red-tinted star-field. Each of the home systems has a border keyed to the particular race and the back of each of the home system tiles has a generic TI3 Image (which makes it easy to randomly determine who plays what race).
The cards are all of the smaller variety (think the cards in War of the Ring, or the resources in Starfarers), though the font is larger and more readable than WOTR, so despite the size they are manageable. The are tons of cards: political cards, action cards, objectives, planets, etc. The planet cards (1 per planet) has the name of the planet, the relevant info on resources and influence and also has a little blurb on the planet's composition or history. This really adds to the overall theme of the game and is a great change to the series. Also, each player receives their own complete set of tech cards, and each card outlines the tech (what it does) and whether or not it has a pre-req. The cards themselves are sturdy and will hold up to repeated use.
The individual race mats are also a great change from pervious editions. I can't explain the material component used in fabricating them - they aren't cardboard, but maybe a heavy duty laminate or light plastic. The artwork for each race is very evocative. The back of each card has an extended introduction into the race (in story format), detailing their history and predispositions. I really enjoy this aspect because it allows each player to take on the persona of their race (if they are so inclined, which we are). Also, each mat details all the round-by-round information, unit costs, special abilities, etc.
That just about covers all of the components. On to the gameplay.
GAMEPLAY
For pervious TI players, it will be both at once familiar and new.
Christian Peterson did a marvelous job of reducing down-time (in comparison to the previous games) by threading the actions. Also, many of the player's actions demand responses from the other players, or players might be able to buy into the actions of others. Also, there is an element of timely card play such that you eagerly await some action by an opponent so that you can play something particularly devastating or frustrating to their plans (or benefits your own).
However, there is still some downtime, particularly with new players who are eager to read every card and fully consider every move and choice. Still, for our first game, we found that each turn flowed quite well. We played with 4 players (you can play 3-6) and each round was engaging, with plenty for everyone to do. We also played with the Distant Suns optional rule which makes planetary exploration a little more involved by adding a random element which can be beneficial or harmful, or neutral, to the exploring player. Anytime someone made a landing on a planet, we all were anxious to see whether it would be a boon or bane!
Each round starts off with players picking 1 of 8 strategy cards (players pick 2 when playing with 3&4 players) which are akin to the roles in Puerto Rico. However, the roles here are much more detailed and have deeper implications. Again, I won't go into a strict rule-by-rule account, but suffice it to say that this makes the overal round-by-round strategy much more fluid. Two things on how they differed from PR's roles: each strategy card has an initiative value which is used to determine play-order that round. Initiative is a critical consideration - it isn't always about going first or last - it really depends on your strategy and the play of others, but the round-by-round turn-order will have important impacts on play. Also, players do not have to play their Strategy card immediately (in other words, the powers of the card do not immediately take effect upon their selection like in PR) The second thing; in order for other players to take advantage of a given strategy, they must buy into it using specially designation Command Counters. The player's choice will influence their overall strategy and tactical options that round, but it doesn't dominate their overall strategy.
[I strongly suggest that people check out the online rule-set to see what each strategy card does in order to get a feel for this dynamic.]
Essentially the rest of the round is determined by the order in which players invoke their strategy cards. Choices about when to play your strategy card (every player MUST play at some point in the round) can vary from situation to situation. So it might be beneficial for you to invoke the Political StratCard (your selected StratCard) as soon as you are able in order to force a vote on an important issue. Or, if you took the Diplomatic StratCard maybe you want to use it early in order to prevent your neighbor from attacking you that round... or maybe you're really devious and you decide to use it AFTER you attack HIM to prevent him from retaliating. Each carries considerations about when to play based on your circumstances and what positions your opponents are in.
[So, the player with the lowest Initiative (#1) goes first and performs one action. Then the next initiative goes and does 1 action. Then the third, and so on, until it returns to the first player. It repeats this way until everyone has run-out of actions and passed - ala poker. Once everyone passes, it's time to choose StratCards again and thus invoke a new initiative]
Resource management is no longer a nightmare of record keeping. Each planet has a card associated with it (as stated above) and players exhaust (flip over) the planet card when they wish to use its resources or influence. Thus players no longer must keep a running tally of their influence and resources, which was incredibly problematic in the earlier versions. You can see what you have directly in front of you. As you use resources or influence, you turn over cards. Easy and intuitive.
Also, unlike before, now when you build units, they get placed on the board IMMEDIATELY. So if you see your opponent sending a fleet of dreadnoughts and cruisers your way, you can pump out some interdicting vessels of your own to stall them until your main force comes back into range.
All movement and combat is initiated via an elegant command and activation process. Each player receives Command Counters each round and allocates them between three areas: Fleet Supply (the maximum number of ships you can have in any 1 space), Strategy Allocation (primarily used for invoking the secondary abilities of StratCards), and the Command Pool, which are used to move, fight and build. Essentially, you "activate" a system by placing your racial counter on that system tile. Any ships within range can move to that tile and if there are enemy ships/planets there - you fight. If you want to build, you activate one of your planetary system tiles and build units there. Since you cannot reactivate systems (and therefore ships) which have previously been activated, it forces you to make tactical and timely decisions about when and where to go each round. It might sound a little esoteric here (or in the rules) but in application it really does work. It's quick and it's easy.
Combat is pretty quick as well. Each ship has a target number out of d10 which notes a hit on the enemy. You want to roll that number or higher, so ships with a rating of 6 hits on 6-10. Roll 1d10 for each ship you have committed to battle and total the hits up. Your opponent does the same thing. Each removes a total of ships equal to the number of hits their opponent inflicted. Wash, Rinse, Repeat until no is left standing. NOTE: It is possible to retreat or withdraw, however, the player must announce his attentions to do so at the BEGINNING of the round, but cannot actually retreat until the END of the round.
Both space and planetary combat work the same way, though each has a number of other options within the round as well. For example, if you have the right ships, you can bombard the planet prior to landing your troops there. Or, if you are a defending planet with a Planetary Defense System (PDS), you can attack the incoming vessels and ground forces. But regardless, the d10 mechanic is the same. This makes combat very quick to resolve. It isn't as elegant as the dice-scheme in Attack!, or as determined as A Game of Thrones, but between the different combat ratings coupled with the technologies and racial abilities that influence combat, the system is fairly robust.
The political/Diplomacy aspect hasn’t changed much and it remains a real treat – players get to bribe, coerce, haggle and argue over a wide variety of issues (1 per turn generally). Some political phases require the players to elect another player or a race for some benefit or punishment, others might be laws that will remain in perpetuity, or until repealed (which is rare). Most choices, yea or nay, are going to have some benefit or punishment for some player which causes some consternation. For the non-election politics, players receive a number of votes equal to their available influence (unexhausted planets). Again, most laws and elections remain in effect throughout the remainder of the game so vote carefully! The exhaustion mechanic informs when the player with the Political Strategy Card plays his card… before or after others have exhausted their planet to build things… All in all, the diplomacy and political features truly add to the game instead of being just a hacked-in concept devised to increase player interaction beyond just fighting all the time. The system is unique and will make every game different.
The action cards haven’t changed much. Essentially they allow you to buff your forces in a fight or pull off things you wouldn’t normally be able to do (like reactivate a system in a round). Some are trump cards to counteract the cards or actions of others, some provide you with bonus resources. There are tons of these cards, and they flow like water throughout the game. All in all, they add an additional level of strategic randomness to each game.
Objectives… if the Strategic Cards are the heart, the objective cards are the brain. They are the primary way for players to earn victory points (first to 10 wins, or the highest total when the game ends… see below) Each player starts off with a random private strategy to achieve. They cannot reveal theirs before they achieve it, and there are always more cards than players, ensuring a random play each game. Generally they are tough to accomplish (like taking all of 1 of your opponents home worlds) and thus will be late-game achievements. Then there are two types of public objective cards, Stage I and Stage II. Prior to starting, you grab 6 Stage I and 4 Stage II cards (randomly of course), and put them together, Stage I over Stage II. Stage I objectives are generally easier (conquer 5 planets outside of your home system) than II (control 9 planets outside of your home-system), and thus are worth less victory points. On average, 1 card will be drawn from off the top of the objective deck each round and remains in play until the game ends. Once a player achieves a public objective they claim the points, but the objective itself is still available for other players. Somewhere in the Stage II half of the deck is an “end card game”, which when drawn, immediately ends the game right then and there. There are also a couple stage II cards which have intense objectives, but the first person to meet them, wins. [Note: The conquer 9 planets one listed above is not sufficient for a win]. The inclusion of the objectives, particularly the secret objectives really adds to the re-playability of the game as they are always going to change. They also really effect the gameplay and player strategies, often forcing players from adhering to one strategy only (like turtling and waiting for the endgame).
Finally, the rule set comes with a few optional rules. Many of them are old rules from earlier expansions to the series, but CP made a welcome decision to make this edition all inclusive. One option extends the length, one makes the path to victory more explicit by revealing all the objectives off the bat, one adds unique leaders to each race, etc. Thus each group can customize the game to the length and level of detail they prefer.
OVERALL IMPRESSIONS and COMMENTS ON THE RULES
This game had me very excited and it didn’t disappoint. We all enjoyed our first couple of games and look forward to more. All in all, the game is incredibly comprehensive and can seem overwhelming to players. Even competent strategy gamers might be a little daunted by the sheer number of bits and the implications of an incredibly adaptable game. However, because the rule-set is very tight, as it should by the 3rd edition, the game flows very well from phase-to-phase and round-to-round. Furthermore, everything you need to keep track of is right there in front of you; whether it be what techs you have, the planets you own, how many resources you have, where you are in turn order, what laws have been passed, etc.
I do strongly recommend that someone runs or moderates the game (meaning that someone is very familiar with the rules and helps mediate the flow of the game) during play. I had read the rules a couple of times and had them well-committed to memory, and because of this, the game did not slow down to check things every few minutes. Still, the first play-through was around 5.5 hours. I have little doubt that as we become more familiar with the system and particularly the content, it will come down. My guess is that experienced players could get through it in 4 or less.
The rule book is 44 pages long… but it’s very well organized and filled with examples and graphics. The first few pages outline the components and how to setup play. The next few pages give an overall picture of round-by-round play, followed by more in depth coverage of each phase. Finally, it is all topped off with expansive details on the units, the strategy cards, optional rules, etc. Also, there is a tech tree and a wonderful letter from CP to the buyer about the development of the 3rd edition.
The components are beautiful and everything adheres to the wonderful theme CP and FFG have created. I can’t stress the thematic aspect enough – the game is really very rich in theme and it is expressed everywhere! Mechanics-wise; it’s about as close to a board version of a 4x game (the MOO series is often mentioned) as you can get.
TI3 is a great deep-strategy game (robust diplomacy, politics, warfare, resource management) coupled with wonderful round-by-round tactical play.
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Christian Letourneau
Canada
St-Lambert
Quebec
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Re:User Review
deadeyedick (#69662),
I am confused. The resource cards of Starfarers are much smaller than the cards in WoTR. Please tell me the cards in TI3 are more like the ones in WoTR!
Christian
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Dead Eye Dick
United States
San Francisco
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Re:User Review
Duguayduguay (#69896),
Good point! I didn't measure - I was basing my comment on recollection (and more or less pointing out they aren't the standard 2.5 x 3.5 card size).
I will check on that and post back(or maybe if someone else has access to both games or knows already they can post here.) Thanks for catching that!
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Dead Eye Dick
United States
San Francisco
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Re:User Review
deadeyedick (#69900),
The cards are the same size as the Starfarers resource cards.
My reference (from poor recollection even though I play a bunch) to WOTR was that the text was very small (which somehow translated into my thinking that the cards were also very small).
However, the text on these TI3 smaller cards is much more readable (larger font).
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Dead Eye Dick
United States
San Francisco
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Re:User Review
deadeyedick (#69900),
The cards are the same size as the Starfarers resource cards.
My reference (from poor recollection even though I play a bunch) to WOTR was that the text was very small (which somehow translated into my thinking that the cards were also very small).
However, the text on these TI3 smaller cards is much more readable (larger font).
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Mike Spoto
United States
Omaha
Nebraska
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Re:User Review
Great review!
I've been checking back every few days to see if someone who was lucky enough to get an early copy would post a review. Glad to hear your impressions after play match the one I got from the rules. I was glad to see some description of the objectives, as they were left out of the rules. Also glad to hear your estimate on playing time, as it is longer than I anticipated. I think this will be on my birthday wish list (right after christmas). Thanks again for the review!
KineticKill
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Pelle Holmström
Sweden
Uppsala
Uppland
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Re:User Review
deadeyedick (#69662),
I have to agree that this sure is a superb review! I can't wait to grab a copy of this game. Hopefully the Jan. release date isn't bogus. That would be superb! 
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Dane Peacock
United States
Stansbury Park
Utah
That tickles
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Re:User Review
deadeyedick (#69662),
Yeah, Great review!
TI2 is one of my all time favorites. I was wondering if I should buy this now, or spend the money on food. The kids don't need broth with their water every week do they?
Could you briefly summerize the differences between this and the 2nd edition, with your opinions?
It sounds like from your review that gameplay might be a very different experience.
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Dead Eye Dick
United States
San Francisco
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Re:User Review
Sky Knight X (#80213),
I would definitely buy the food if I were you. It's hard to play a long game on an empty stomach... or do anything else for that matter.
If you have enough food, clothes and shelter though, AND you liked TI2 - buy this one NOW!!!
For others who are only midly interested... I don't know what to say. I think it is an excellent strategy game with loads of theme. If dropping ~$80.00 isn't a big deal for a trial game - I strongly suggest you pick it up and try it. If you don't like it, I am sure you will find someone to sell it to. If that price is too steep on something you aren't sure of (or you don't care for genre of game or theme) then try to find a game you can join in on.
I don't know if I can accurately summarize the differences. I've only played a few games of TI2, and I rarely finished those. But here goes:
Mechanics:[b/]
A read-through of the rules will demonstrate how much has changed and how much is the same. But I think all the changes are good.
[b]Play Length:
TI2 could go on forever, and it routinely did. a 7 hour game was not uncommon. I've played TI3 several times now (often with at least 1 or more new players to the series) and I've played only 1 7 hour game. The rest were all around 5 hours. There's still plenty going on though. However, there are a number of options you can play with that will reduce or increase play time, based on what your group wants to do. If you like a longer, more TI2 styled game, you can do it. If you like faster, more cut-throat styled play, it can be accomodated.
Downtime:
SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCED! This is so huge... I can't stress it enough. One example of the decrease: many of the secondary strategy abilities allow all the other players to do something at the same time (buy into an ability for example). If there are timing issues, they are evident and easily handled. 1 example: You now build at the end of your activation, which means others don't have to wait for you to resolve a battle or movement to act. They can start their turn while you are building units and placing them on the board. Since you perform 1 activation a turn (or play 1 strategy card) others aren't waiting for you to move to x, Y, Z, resolve all those battles... etc.
Record Keeping:
SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCED!!
Instead of keeping a running total of resources and influence, you have 1 card per planet with its values right there. If you spend resources to build a ship, you flip over the planet card(s) with the amount of resources you need. If you want to spend, say 5 resources, you can flip over a planet with 2 resources and 1 with 3 resources, or any combination equal to or in excess of 5. When it comes time to vote, you just add up all the influence of the planets you have facing you. Thus, planets you use for resources don't count towards your influence in voting. Also, the tech specialties each planet has is listed on the card. When buying a tech, you get the discount from all available (not flipped) planets of that type.
Trade contracts are easier... you don't have to add up all the planets of your partner. You just look at what trade contracts you have in front of you. If you have a trade with the Hacan - you get 3 trade goods. That simple.
I really could go on. I think you can probably glean all the differences from my review and the rules. But I will say that I enjoy them all. The strategy cards add a beautiful and elegant method of governing rounds - they keep play fresh, add a fun strategic element to the game, increase interaction even for the diplomatic or combat-shy races/players, and their play mechanic keeps everyone involved turn-by-turn (less downtime).
I suggest playing through a couple of times with the standard rules, and then add options as you want (to get the play style more to your groups liking). I think some people are afraid that by including options, that means the game is less than perfect and needs some level of tweaking to make right. Rather, in TI3, it really is a matter of making a great game fit more into your idea of how you want to play.
If you have any specific question, don't hesitate to ask!
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Dead Eye Dick
United States
San Francisco
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Re:User Review
deadeyedick (#80297),
Just a quick follow up: The theme is still intact and very much present here. It's just a mechanical change to the game really.
Action cards are played in the same way as before, though some have been updated to reflect the mechanical changes (e.g. trade goods instead of money).
The political phase is dependent on strategy cards (meaning it may not happen every round) but the process is the same. Read an agenda, players vote, it passes or fails. Keeping track of influence is much easier now.
Combat: actual mechanics are the same. Roll d10. Smaller fleet size on average makes combats faster, but no less epic because more is on the line.
etc. etc. etc.
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Dane Peacock
United States
Stansbury Park
Utah
That tickles
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Re:User Review
deadeyedick (#80298),
Thanks. Sounds like most of the changes are improvements. The record keeping improvement alone might be enough incentive...
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