Twilight Imperium...Thoughts on the new stuff?

[vladdswrath]

I just wanted to thank Zxqueb for another rousing game day, (and please tell Mrs. Zxqueb Thank you for the lasagna!). So what did you guys think of the new stuff?

My thoughts...

1)New Strategy Cards: Overall, I liked these a lot. I don't know that we ever need to use the originals again. At first glance it seemed they were going to be a little overpowered and take away some of the strategy, but it didn't seem to work out that way. I was never drowning in command counters, and it seemed the extras we were gaining went straight to fleet size...and I will never complain about large space battles (even though I always lose them).

Tech never got out of hand, as there was plenty of other stuff to spend money on. Dave bought the whole tech tree, but it still took him almost all game and he dedicated his strategy to that at the expense of rapid expansion.

I also thought the politics phase was amazing with these strategy cards. More interaction in the senate then we have EVER had, with a tremendous effect on the game. Loved it!

2)Distant Suns This is the random encounter chits used when exploring planets...I thought they were fun. They do slow things down a hair, but when you play TI3 you know you are there for the day anyway ;D . The biggest complaint I see about this option on-line is the fact that they can seriously resource screw you. Well, I certainly took that one on the chin. Seeing as i still finished second, I hardly think it's that big of a deal...

3)Mines, refineries and colonies Don't know, kept forgetting to build them

4)Artifacts, Voice of the council I really like these. The fact that the victory track is now fluid, and Victory points are won and lost was very cool. It definitely stimulated interaction among the players and gives you a further reason not to turtle.

Next time we all get together, we will try out the leaders (if we don't have a new player anyway...it's the last option we have to add!

BTW...The Saar are suhweeet!

[Zxqueb]

vladdswrath said:

1)New Strategy Cards: Overall, I liked these a lot. I don't know that we ever need to use the originals again. At first glance it seemed they were going to be a little overpowered and take away some of the strategy, but it didn't seem to work out that way. I was never drowning in command counters, and it seemed the extras we were gaining went straight to fleet size...and I will never complain about large space battles (even though I always lose them).

Tech never got out of hand, as there was plenty of other stuff to spend money on. Dave bought the whole tech tree, but it still took him almost all game and he dedicated his strategy to that at the expense of rapid expansion.

I also thought the politics phase was amazing with these strategy cards. More interaction in the senate then we have EVER had, with a tremendous effect on the game. Loved it!

My thoughts are much the same as yours. I liked the new cards quite a bit and didn't feel like anything was overpowered. Tech was good, but the tree is so huge, that it is still only one component in the greater scheme of things.

As for command counters, I found that if anything I was command starved at points during the game even with the additional counter system. So that's a good thing, I think.

LOVED the political phase. It's much better than it was before.

I could take or leave the planet chits. They were kind of amusing, but they didn't add a whole lot to the game. The artifacts, on the other hand, were a good addition.

Anyway. Glad you had fun. It was nice that we were able to get in some carcassone, dune, wow and battlelore as well!

Z

[warlord1985]

admin said:

Anyway. Glad you had fun. It was nice that we were able to get in some carcassone, dune, wow and battlelore as well!

Z

We played Dune? Wait, was I in the bathroom for that?

[warlord1985]

I too felt that the game was awesome. The planet invasion things were cool, but Jeff and I were hampered by it mostly. I don't think Mike got one bad token and Matt got one Radioactive symbol. I had 3 invasion forces and a hostage situation that I couldn't pay for. Jeff, well, he got screwed. I could almost do without so many negative tokens.

Overall, I liked the game. It was cool. Hopefully another game day will happen again within the coming year!

[Zxqueb]

warlord1985 said:

We played Dune? Wait, was I in the bathroom for that?

Well, WE played dune. YOU tried to spoonfeed Mike the victory and failed miserably.



Z

[emouse]

Not that I was there, but I greatly enjoy Twilight Imperium. When my group has the opportunity to play, we usually use the fast start/simulated turns rules, Distant Suns, Leaders, and Artifacts. Last time we played we added Refineries and Colonies, but used some home rules on them to address some issues with the normal rules. The 'cost' of building either is to simply exhaust the planet they're being built on, and you can only build one at a time.

BTW, be sure to send your duplicate orange tech card in for replacement, if you haven't already. The info for doing so is on the FFG site.