Galactic Emperor | BoardGameGeek

Reply: Galactic Emperor:: General:: Re: A possibility to lay-out a translated ruleset as the original?

Joeyeti — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:53:21 +0000

MasterDinadan wrote:
The rules are available online and several people have posted translations here already. So it seems to me that there really shouldn't be an issue.

Just make sure that you don't leave out the credits.

Yes, I am not concerned primarily for the translation itself (as I think Adam would not oppose to spread the word into another language ;) ), I am mainly asking if the original layout from the english rules could be re-used (probably not by me, but if Adam would share....)...

Ah, I take it back - saw the Polish rules ;)

Reply: Galactic Emperor:: General:: Re: A possibility to lay-out a translated ruleset as the original?

MasterDinadan — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:49:15 +0000

by MasterDinadan

The rules are available online and several people have posted translations here already. So it seems to me that there really shouldn't be an issue.

Just make sure that you don't leave out the credits.

Thread: Galactic Emperor:: General:: A possibility to lay-out a translated ruleset as the original?

Joeyeti — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:40:31 +0000

by Joeyeti

Hi all, especially Adam,

would there be a possibility to have a translated (by me) ruleset laid-out the same as the original english one and then uploaded here for the users' convenience?

I mean for a language that will probably never be considered for GE (due to it not being any significant market for which the game could ever be potentialy localized, given that GE is not a mass-market game).

And I mean Slovak for that matter

Reply: Galactic Emperor:: Reviews:: Re: More Solar Emperor, but still fun to play

Bubslug — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 06:39:21 +0000

by Bubslug

Fair assessment. This game will inevitably be compared to TI III, and indeed there are some superficial similarities. The "TI-lite" label is pretty inevitable too even if I think it is a little unfair. There is a good deal of depth to the game despite the much shorter playing time, making it my current go-to game when I have a yen for a "space opera" type experience.

I appreciate TI III as being more epic in nature but have to accept that the playing time is the biggest stumbling block to enjoying it more often. For now, Galactic Emperor does a creditable job of scratching that itch! Time will tell if GE remains thought of as TI-Lite, or whether perhaps TI-III will become referred to as an over-chromed GE?

Review: Galactic Emperor:: More Solar Emperor, but still fun to play

tired — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:48:18 +0000

by tired

Galactic Emperor first came to my attention as ‘Twilight Imperium-lite’. Now, having played Twilight Imperium, and realizing that my opportunities for 7 - 8 hour long games were few, this sparked my interest. And Galactic Emperor really does have many of the mechanics of Twilight Imperium, it just doesn’t have the same epic level of confrontation. It feels more like players are battling in a single solar system, a smaller, more intense and faster conflict than the galaxy-spanning battles of Twlight Imperium. On the other hand, it does what it does well.

Apperance: I have the second edition printing of Galactic Emperor, which means that all the components are pretty good looking. There’s nothing exceptional about the components, from large tokens representing the various roles and technologies, to simple chits for victory points and cash. The best components in the game are the ships, and while there have been complaints about the ships being too large; we just move ships off the board when combat starts. Frankly, small ships would be a minus point to the game, so overall Galactic Emperor receives a bare pass. There’s really nothing to complain about or laud - it’s average.

Rules / Ease of Learning: Okay, for any experienced gamer, many of the rules will feel very familiar - role choice, resource production and combat are the main rules used in Galactic Emperor, so teaching the rules to such gamers is quite fast. The biggest hurdle is remembering the new names and the technology cards.

For beginner players, there are quite a few rules in the game, though they are easy to learn and the vast majority make sense within the context of the game. The only confusion is the role-choice, which really has little thematic element to the game, but does of course provide strategic decisions.

In brief, each round players have six (6) roles to choose from, with each role only being able to be taken once per round. However, all players may take the action associated with the role during the turn it is taken with the player who chooses the role receiving a special benefit.

Roles are that of the Regent (first player choice and political influence), Scientist (technology), Steward (production), Merchant (selling goods and food production), Explorer (galaxy / tile placement) and Warlord (movement and combat). The various functions of each are relatively self-explanatory. More details can be found in other reviews.

Gameplay: Each game of Galactic Emperor plays at about 30 minutes per player, with the first game with new players adding about another 30-60 minutes to the entire game. Games flow quite fast, with players always engaged because they have something to do with each role choice. In addition, with so few turns available in the game, each turn is very important for players and quite intense.

The game seems to break into two sections quite well - the initial exploratory and growth phase where players attempt to develop their empires as quickly and efficiently as possible and the second phase; normally after the appearance of the black hole, where players begin to aggress.

Currently, there seems to be two major methods of winning - diplomacy and combat. The first requires players to gain specific technological cards that provide an advantage in diplomacy, allowing them to purchase a large number of influence markers and ‘steal’ galaxies from other players during the Regent phase. This particular strategy is weaker towards the end game where a diplomatic player is limited by the low number of influence markers he has left.

The second method - combat is quite a viable strategy. Space fleets in our games have ranged from large, destroyer and fighter-backed armadas with increased movement to hard hitting swarms of fighter fleets. Unlike Twilight Imperium; combat in Galactic Emperor is a great strategy. Obvously, it has to be begun with care since starting too soon can leave a player vulnerable to retaliation from other players.

Perhaps the biggest flaw in gameplay is the fact that there seems to be only a few options in terms of winning - both because the board is so small and the options for gaining victory points so limited, you are forced into one of these two strategies to gain victory points.

In addition, the technology cards are rather limited. While it makes sense to keep the game short, I’d be really interested to see what an expansion could do with both the victory conditions as well as the technology options.

Conclusion: Overall, we’ve all had a ton of fun playing Galactic Emperor, and while it is not Twilight Imperium, it’s a fun, galactic spanning sci-fi game that most importantly plays quite fast. It’s definitely a game that will hit the table more often than Twilight Imperium - if nothing more than because of player schedules.

Tao
Starlit Citadel

Reply: Galactic Emperor:: Sessions:: Re: Hoping for a shorter game with 4 players

adamw — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 01:15:08 +0000

by adamw

Great session report!

Reply: Galactic Emperor:: Sessions:: Re: Hoping for a shorter game with 4 players

thepackrat — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:51:47 +0000

by thepackrat

eek! That completely slipped my mind. I think it took almost 2.5 hours, but we had two new players and two of us who really didn't remember the rules all that well. I'm sure we could play closer to or under 2 hours next time, maybe faster after that.

If we could get it down to 90 minutes, this would match the game much better.

B>

Reply: Galactic Emperor:: Sessions:: Re: Hoping for a shorter game with 4 players

mjacobsca — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:15:20 +0000

by mjacobsca

You didn't mention th time it took to play (I was expecting that given the title of the thread), but I've managed to play a 4-player game in 90 minutes, which seems just about right for the game experience.

Either way, I enjoyed your session report!

Session: Galactic Emperor:: Hoping for a shorter game with 4 players

thepackrat — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:31:16 +0000

by thepackrat

Dug one of the copies of Galactic Emperor out of the cupboard last night because the person who objects most strenuously to it was away. B, G, R, and D turned up to play. B pulled the start player spot, and having identified G to his left as the biggest threat, started the turns in the other order.

First action was explorer giving B an extra productive planet since all 5 planets in the first set were actually useful. D and R went down the heavy food production route leaving G with a small planet. This small leads in planets was maintained by B for most of the game with at least one more explorer action.

Over the next couple of round D and B (sitting opposite) alternated the Galactic throne keeping G in last turn order place mostly unable to choose ideal roles. Technology shaped the game here since R invested heavily in offensive weapons, G picked up the Protein Fields (production of resources without food) and filthy space pirates (steal one of B's cubes each phase), B had only the Saboteur and D picked up the Time Warp which saved numerous critical dice rolls.

Things were mostly moving along peacefully, everyone keeping to their own sectors. B had managed to build a single Dreadnought while the rest of the board had only fighters, when R jumped across the sun to claim a newly explored planet in B's sector. For the rest of the game B would basically be marching up and down in his own quadrant trying to recapture planets that R took.

G eventually took the turn order away from the B/D combination but ended up a critical few planets behind. B was slowly expanding out into his cloud of planets, R and D were gearing up for war with a big ship production. Both D and R had oodles of spare food capacity which they were able to quickly turn into big cash stockpiles and trade for resources.

The Regent phases in the early game saw only a small amount of planet-stealing, mostly people were trying to fortify their empire tokens into full space stations. B had a majority of planets for a lot of the game so most folks sought

Battles erupted between D and R, D attacking with a range of fighters surrounding a Dreadnought and taking over a couple of systems. G also attacked R using the black hold advantage to take another system. R's last few ships were destroyed as he was pushed off the final system in B's quadrant leaving him quite a way behind with no real way to catch up.

At this point, the game was two Regent phases away from finishing, both of them saw lots of sniping of B's unfortified planets but with warlord phases to reclaim them, it was enough to narrowly squeak out victory. Greatest threat correctetly identified.

final scores B:42 G:39 D:34 R:29

In conclusion 4 players seems to work much better than larger numbers, the game board fills up less quickly, there are more opportunities to get tech and noone has to really go through someone else's forces in order to attack somewhere else on the board.

There wasn't a huge amount of battles running, simply because it was too easy to lose your entire battle fleet to unlucky strikes and be vulnerable to the other players waiting eagerly. Early advantages in planets are the critical thing to watch out for.

The game can still go a little long, but it was clear that this is entirely in the hands of the players in choosing the regent role or not. The game will come out occasionally but it still feels a little long for what it is.

Oh, and the upgraded components are great!

New Image for Galactic Emperor

zorazen — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:40:19 +0000

by zorazen

First time playing Galactic Emperor, with a new gamer at that.

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Reply: Galactic Emperor:: News:: Re: Upgrade Pack SOLD OUT!

adreeve — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 21:49:29 +0000

by adreeve

kowalskie wrote:
Yer,

its a hard one, this.

i bought the upgrade a couple of days ago & must have gotten one of the last ones (not arrived yet but it has a fair distance to go)

- i do feel the origonal components where a little 'naff' but certainly very usuable...

however, if there are 'nicer' bit available you know i'm gonna want them!

its a shame they have run out so soon and especially bad for the 'pre-order' crowd to miss out on them (and maybe those should have gotten an even better deal on the upgrade as they certainly helped you out right at the start).

- anyways, just my thoughts!

I agree that this is a difficult situation.

When one buys something they are buying what they buy... and if an upgrade pack, collector's edition version, ... what not comes out then they are stuck.

By the same token, printing higher quality components so quickly is almost an admission that poor quality was used in the first edition and I'm going to be stuck with that (yes, I have a 1st edition copy of the game) and company size is no excuse for poor service. I know at least one person that paid for the upgrade, but wasn't very happy about having to do so... it wasn't a choice... and I don't think word ever made it to me in time to purchase this.

Reply: Galactic Emperor:: General:: Re: Game Length

djgutierrez77 — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 15:20:27 +0000

by djgutierrez77

geekgirl1001000 wrote:
I think there is something wrong with my group. 5 of us played for the first time last night and most of us are somewhat familiar with games and with explanation it took a little over 5 hours.

I had high hopes for this game but after 3 hours my eyes were rolling back in my head.

I think our biggest problem was too much AP and way too much analyzing over when EXACTLY the Saboteur could be invoked.

Wow. That's rough--we've not had an AP problem when we've played, but I can see how it might become an issue. Have you considered using a turn timer when playing a new game? It should be unnecessary once everyone knows how to play, but sometimes rushing people along in a learning game is for the best. They may make some mistakes, but isn't it better for everyone to make some mistakes, learn to recognize them as such, and improve in their next game than for everyone to take too long calculating optimal moves and end up with a five hour game?

Reply: Galactic Emperor:: General:: Re: Game Length

geekgirl1001000 — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 15:11:54 +0000

by geekgirl1001000

I think there is something wrong with my group. 5 of us played for the first time last night and most of us are somewhat familiar with games and with explanation it took a little over 5 hours.

I had high hopes for this game but after 3 hours my eyes were rolling back in my head.

I think our biggest problem was too much AP and way too much analyzing over when EXACTLY the Saboteur could be invoked.

Reply: Galactic Emperor:: General:: Re: how long to play?

MasterDinadan — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 03:20:25 +0000

by MasterDinadan

First 3 player game took almost exactly 90 minutes.

Reply: Galactic Emperor:: General:: Re: how long to play?

Elgar — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 03:08:47 +0000

by Elgar

The game time scales at about 30 min per player. As always, your millage may vary dependant on the people in your group.
.

Reply: Galactic Emperor:: Reviews:: Re: Galactic Emperor - Italian Review - Recensione in italiano

adamw — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 17:36:49 +0000

by adamw

I'm sorry the graphics didn't quite work for you, but am glad the game played well. I do appreciate the review!

Review: Galactic Emperor:: Galactic Emperor - Italian Review - Recensione in italiano

Chromaline — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 13:42:01 +0000

by Chromaline

L'ambientazione spaziale si presta con grande facilità a servire da scenario a qualsiasi sistema di gioco, riuscendo ideale quando si tratti di correggere errori o affinare particolari in fase di progettazione o di test. Inoltre, i mondi spaziali ben si prestano a una maggiore libertà per chi si occupi delle illustrazioni di gioco, consentendo qualsiasi innovazione e sperimentalismo grafico di sorta.
Galactic Emperor sembra rappresentare il classico gioco che parte da una struttura e - successivamente - viene "rivestito" con un argomento, quello spaziale in questo caso. Se poi ci si aspetta innovazione o sperimentalismo a livello grafico, questo è un altro argomento.

Grafica... che dire?

Diciamo che a una prima valutazione, l'impatto di Galactic Emperor non è certo entusiasmante. Mentre l'immagine della scatola può trovare i suoi estimatori, la plancia di gioco e il materiale in dotazione non gridano certo alla spettacolarità. Una buona dose di monotonia cromatica domina la componentistica, situazione questa che - abituati come siamo ormai alle colorazioni spinte e gradevolissime di certe produzioni ludiche del momento - può leggermente infastidire. Il blu scuro imperversa sulla mappa, sugli esagoni d'esplorazione, sulle tessere di specializzazione e sulle tesserine delle tecnologie. E' tutto blu Galactic Emperor. Mentre le scritte sulla plancia sono quasi illeggibili per una dubbia scelta cromatica, pianeti e basi spaziali ricordano le illustrazioni di un classico spaziale come il Cosmic Encounter GW della metà degli anni '80. Ma quelli erano altri tempi.
Insomma, chi ha curato la grafica del primo gioco da tavolo della Crosscut Games non ha certo dato il meglio di sé (o, forse sì, ma allora è bene che i vertici dell'azienda pensino a delle alternative).
Ah, dimenticavamo i segnalini in plastica, navi spaziali colorate e sovradimensionate (soprattutto i dreadnought) al punto da arrivare ad essere quasi ingestibili sugli esagoni di ridotte dimensioni; e poi gli immancabili cubetti di legno colorato per le risorse; tanto ad indicare che il gioco tenta di porsi a cavallo fra uno eurogame e un prodotto americano.

Ritorni dal passato (e dal presente)

Proprio questa ambivalenza spinge Adam West, l'ideatore, a dichiarare quello che è la struttura di Galactic Emperor: una sorta di gioco che vuole collocarsi fra due filosofie progettuali diverse fra loro. Stati Uniti da una parte, Europa (Germania) dall'altra. Ma tra il dire e il fare...
La struttura di gioco non è male, ma al giocatore più attento (che in genere coincide con quello che ha più esperienza di gioco) i ritorni non possono che essere sempre più evidenti, fin dalla prima lettura delle regole. Twilight Imperium (3a ed), Puerto Rico, A Castle for All Seasons, Mission: Red Planet (e questi sono solo alcuni fra i tanti) non possono non venire in mente per la struttura (addirittura alcuni hanno indicato GE come versione abbreviata di TI-3, ma noi non vogliamo esporci a tali conclusioni). La scelta ogni turno di un ruolo diverso è un sistema usato da tanti progettisti, oseremmo dire troppi fino a questo momento. Sta di fatto che è un sistema funzionale a cui Galactic Emperor non si sottrae.
Il sistema d'influenza sui tratti di spazio esplorato molto ricorda le soluzioni di El Grande, mentre il sistema di fissazione delle quote di mercato delle merci, una delle vere originalità del gioco (l'altra è la possibilità a chi esercita il potere nel turno di determinare l'andamento del secondo e dei successivi giocatori) si basa su un sistema di dadi che tanto ricorda Kingsburg o Yspahan.
Una novità sta nelle due fasi della partita, scandite dal collasso - al centro della mappa - di una stella che, trasformandosi in un buco nero, determina cambiamenti nell'ordine delle scoperte e del movimento (oltre che delle opportunità di scelta dei ruoli, visto che gli scienziati vengono da quel momento sollevati dall'incarico).
In GE c'è un po' di tutto, soprattutto di giochi che continuano a imperversare sui tavoli di convention pubbliche o private.

Concusioni

Il ritorno del pubblico sembra esserci: le valutazioni presso siti e riviste del settore sono tutte mediamente positive. Non vorremmo sottrarci a questa sorta di imposizione psicologica, ma dire che Galactic Emperor sia un gran gioco proprio non ce la sentiamo. Sarà per la grafica (difficilmente riusciamo ad avvicinarci a un gioco che non sia esteticamente gradevole), sarà per i revenants ludici che la struttura del gioco rievoca, sarà per il prezzo, che negli Stati Uniti si attesta sui 55 dollari, sta di fatto che riusciamo ad attribuire a questo gioco solo una sufficienza risicata. Ma solo per il fatto che la partita - alla fine - si svolge in modo fluido, con buona interazione fra i giocatori e con tempistiche non troppo estese.

New Image for Galactic Emperor

Camelorn — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:15:57 +0000

by Camelorn

Vassal Module: White player, initial hand setup

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New Image for Galactic Emperor

Camelorn — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:15:26 +0000

by Camelorn

Vassal Module: 4 Player initial setup

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New Image for Galactic Emperor

Frank Burbach — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 04:18:22 +0000

by Frank Burbach

ATTACK! Playing with my sons Chris, Nick (on the attack), and Drew (n...

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Session: Galactic Emperor:: Diplomats are so not to be trusted

tired — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 01:48:16 +0000

by tired

Session Report - Galactic Emperor

We broke out Galactic Emperor on Sunday, a game that I've been dying to play because it was described as 'Twilight Imperium in 90 minutes'.

Firstly, let me say that it took us 3 1/2 hours to finish the game with 5 players. Not 90 minutes, but certainly shorter than a 5 player game of Twilight. Especially considering none of us had ever played Galactic Emperor before and we did have a couple of AP prone players. With knowledge of the actual rules now, and familarity with the strategies, I can definitely see the game losing at least another hour, maybe even hour and a half with 5 players.

Starting in our corners, it wasn't surprising that the first action taken was the Scientist. My desired tech - Diplomat - was taken before I could grab it, which left me with the Saboteur, who I never ended up using (silly old me; I could have used it against the Diplomat a couple of times. Ah well!).

Right after that, the Explorer was taken and the real race for colonisation began. Within a couple of rounds, the various strategies players were taking could be seen. We had one player playing the Diplomat, another focusing on creating a powerful merchant/production cartel, a pure expansionist (using the Explorer card and his single Fighter to run around grabbing planets) and two warmongers - myself with my fighter fleet and another player with his Dreadnaught.

In the beginning, with my headstart of the Fighter fleet, I was the primary aggressor. Unfortunately, expanding too fast left me vulnerable to the Diplomat and bad turn order, with a couple of my newly acquired planets out-bid. My exploration explosion had slowed down, and the second expansionist was facing his own concerns from the warmonger.

With the blackhole exploding, and suddenly bereft of production, I was being hammered by bad (for me) role choices and positioning. I had to do something, and took the Galactic Throne for myself, hoping to rebuild my fleet and begin expansion again. With Dreadnaughts popping up everywhere, I decided to build my own - probably a crucial mistake.

After 6 or 7 rounds, we'd explored known space and found ourselves with two Warlords in play. Carnage ensued, with both the pure Expansionist and Warmongering Dreadnaughts falling behind in an orgy of mass destruction amongst themselves. That left the production / expansionist who was slowly creeping up the points and the Diplomat, quietly garnering victory points after victory points and myself.

A Regent card was played, and forgetting I could block the Diplomat power being used, my forward Starbase was reduced to an Empire. The Warmongering Dreadnaught player decided to change tactics, building a sudden fleet of fast moving fighters and I built my own series of fighters and cruisers. At this point, both the Diplomat and myself were tied on both victory points and planets.

Now, the last Warlord turn of the game would occur. The fighter fleet was sent out, smashing through 3 colonies of the Diplomat player, who prompty turned her Dreadnaughts around and retook 2. Unfortunately, without my forward Starbase, I could only reach 1 of the Diplomat's colonies, reducing her to two planets below mine.

Turn order became very important, then and the current Regent (seated next to me) turned the turn order to the left. A series of merchant and steward actions took place, before the Diplomat took her chance at winning and took the Regent. With more Empire tokens than me and 1 additional victory point (from destroying the Warmongers Empire), she sat back and watched as I placed my Empire tokens as defensively as possible and then had my locations 'picked apart' by the other players. With a flourish, she managed to remove my planet advantage and increase hers by 2.

In the end, I lost with 3 points separating me and the Diplomat. And yes, fun was had by all. We're definitely going back to Galactic Emperor as I want my revenge!

Unfortunately, lack of play experience told as we suddenly realised that one more Regent card would end the game.

Reply: Galactic Emperor:: General:: Re: how long to play?

tired — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 01:35:47 +0000

by tired

First game with 5 players including rules explanation - 3 1/2 hours. We do have a couple of AP players though. 90 minutes with 3 or 4 experienced, non AP players, I can definitely see.

Reply: Galactic Emperor:: General:: Re: [Vassal Project Started] Galactic Emperor : Soon Online !!!

Camelorn — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:28:16 +0000

by Camelorn

The Vassal module is really very slick!
Has anybody tried to play this game as a PBEM? I would be really interested, but it seems to me, there is to much player interaction to progress quickly enough. Any experiences here?

Reply: Galactic Emperor:: General:: Re: how long to play?

Mosher — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 05:31:41 +0000

by Mosher

My first game of 4 was about 2 1/2 hrs including rules explanation to the group. If we can get it to 90 min that would be super. My first 2 plays sort of ended abruptly. We just got good sized armies...and then all the VP were gone!

New Image for Galactic Emperor

KillerB — Sun, 31 May 2009 21:08:54 +0000

by KillerB

At ConsimWorld '09

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Reply: Galactic Emperor:: Rules:: Re: Director's Commentary (Part I)

sigmazero13 — Sun, 31 May 2009 05:16:07 +0000

by sigmazero13

ejcarter wrote:
Voxen wrote:
adamw wrote:
By the way, saying “All Hail the Galactic Emperor!” was in there from the very first version of the rules. I like it. It was taken out for a time because some testers thought it was just too goofy, too sappy, too campy. But I like it. And all the more when it fits the theme of the game.

I was talking up Galactic Emperor to a friend of mine who fits the perceived demographic very well (he loves 4X space games, thinks TI3 is too long and dominated by turn order) and sadly, he wrote it off entirely simply because of that rule.

Too bad your friend is turned off by a bit of jocularity. I wonder what he thinks of Munchkin?

Seriously... it's not like that particular rule has any impact on the mechanics of the game either. It's a shame he wrote an entire excellent game off because of one little piece of silliness.

Reply: Galactic Emperor:: Rules:: Re: Director's Commentary (Part I)

ejcarter — Sun, 31 May 2009 04:19:31 +0000

by ejcarter

Voxen wrote:
adamw wrote:
By the way, saying “All Hail the Galactic Emperor!” was in there from the very first version of the rules. I like it. It was taken out for a time because some testers thought it was just too goofy, too sappy, too campy. But I like it. And all the more when it fits the theme of the game.

I was talking up Galactic Emperor to a friend of mine who fits the perceived demographic very well (he loves 4X space games, thinks TI3 is too long and dominated by turn order) and sadly, he wrote it off entirely simply because of that rule.

Too bad your friend is turned off by a bit of jocularity. I wonder what he thinks of Munchkin?

Reply: Galactic Emperor:: Rules:: Re: Director's Commentary (Part I)

Voxen — Sun, 31 May 2009 03:38:35 +0000

by Voxen

adamw wrote:
By the way, saying “All Hail the Galactic Emperor!” was in there from the very first version of the rules. I like it. It was taken out for a time because some testers thought it was just too goofy, too sappy, too campy. But I like it. And all the more when it fits the theme of the game.

I was talking up Galactic Emperor to a friend of mine who fits the perceived demographic very well (he loves 4X space games, thinks TI3 is too long and dominated by turn order) and sadly, he wrote it off entirely simply because of that rule.

Reply: Galactic Emperor:: Reviews:: Re: Galactic Emperor: Or how an interesting concept totaly sank

Bubslug — Wed, 27 May 2009 07:14:53 +0000

by Bubslug

ejcarter wrote:
Wouldn't you need some pretty experienced players to make that happen? Hell, I've found that set-up time alone takes the better part of an hour.

TI III shouldn't take much longer than GE to set up, if you have the contents decently organized and you use a preset map. Eventually you hope to have players experienced enough to reduce the time everything takes.

Our first game of GE took close to five hours for four players. None of us had ever seen the game before (the owner had it punched and that was about it). We took our time, trying to make sure we were doing things right. We liked the game well enough to ensure it will be played more often and we expect the playing time to come down sharply.

This will be true for TI III as well, and by using the time compacting options (pre-set maps, quick start and Age of Empire rules, etc.) I think the playing time will be a lot shorter than people assume.

However, it is likely to remain true that GE will come in under the time TI III takes to play, but I am confident either will fit into a comfortable evening session (your def'n of "comfortable" may vary). The two games have a number of obvious similarities but at the same time they are very individual with a lot to like in each. I hope to play them both and I hope often.

Whether GE ends up as TI III "lite" or TI III ends up as an overly chromed GE, only time will tell. Meanwhile I'm glad we have them both...

Reply: Galactic Emperor:: Variants:: Re: House Rule: limiting tech buys and posisble cost change.

srcabeza — Tue, 26 May 2009 17:21:25 +0000

by srcabeza

How about trying to force a tech-tree mechanic? like for instance, you need to possess at least one 1-energy tech in order to purchase any 2-energy tech. The only problem I see in this is (at least it is so in our games) the scientist role isn't chosen very often, so there won't be many chances of purchasing 3-energy techs before the omega sun goes kaboom.

Reply: Galactic Emperor:: Variants:: Re: House Rule: limiting tech buys and posisble cost change.

nybba — Tue, 26 May 2009 15:27:45 +0000

by nybba

The cost change is probaly the way to go. The extra movement will make one player close to everybody and on a map with 6 hexes across not counting the freemove sun, it is a bit to powerful. There are a lot of unofficial techs to try on the forum. and maybe change a few to balance them up is also possible.

About the first turn. One will get a 2 and the rest 1s unless someone saves and goes for the 3s. So i dont mind that as the 1 techs don do a lot of difference compared to the 3 Techs.

Reply: Galactic Emperor:: Reviews:: Re: Galactic Emperor -- Is it Right for Your Table?

adamw — Sun, 24 May 2009 15:59:10 +0000

by adamw

Bubslug wrote:
All in all, I think the game is an excellent entry in the "space opera" category and congratulate the design team! I also think that TI III (lite) moniker discounts the depth this game can offer. Shorter, yes, but it certainly does "scratch that itch!"

This comment just made my day. Thank you so much for playing!

Reply: Galactic Emperor:: Reviews:: Re: Galactic Emperor -- Is it Right for Your Table?

Bubslug — Sun, 24 May 2009 07:52:02 +0000

by Bubslug

Excellent review! I've just had a chance to play using the reprint and I would say that all of your criticisms of the first edition have been addressed save only the ship size versus the hex size. Rather than reducing the size of the ships, I would have liked to see larger hex tiles, or the inclusion of a fleet holding box kind of device used by many other games with similar issues. But, that is somewhat of a nit as we managed without too much difficulty to keep everything more or less sorted and visible by being a little careful.

You could also consider using mini poker chips (a la Axis & Allies) if you really feel the need to do something, while keeping in mind the number of ship figs allowed is deliberately design limited - for each chip used a corresponding fig would have to be set aside or removed from supply (as in WotR for example).

Other reviewers have noted the tech cost anomalies (minor and adjustable if it really bothers you), and the role issues (Warlord primarily) but I'll withhold judgement until more plays.

All in all, I think the game is an excellent entry in the "space opera" category and congratulate the design team! I also think that TI III (lite) moniker discounts the depth this game can offer. Shorter, yes, but it certainly does "scratch that itch!"