My Space Fleet is Invincible! — Let's Play Twilight Imperium Third Edition

And since we'll be picking races through a bidding system ...

I want in on this, by the way.

I don't even care as long as they harass someone else with it. But point that fucking flagship at me and I will strangle you through the Internet.

BAKOOOOOOM

For anyone who doesn't know what we're talking about: The Nekro Virus flagship has weak firepower, crappy carrying capacity and is slow, but if it dies it destroys every ship in its space, friend or foe. It is the ultimate scorched-earth doomsday device, with numerous uses for defense, offense and intimidation.

Postscript: The Space Vampires solidified their hold on the northern portion of the galaxy, reducing the once proud Mentaak to a vasaal race in the process. They await the day that Minovsky Particles and mobile suits are invented so they can wrest the galaxy from the tyranny of the Space Brains. While waiting, Supreme Space Vampire Leader Kat took advantage of her scholarship and graduated cum laude from Space Brain University.

Between completing my secret objective (threaten the home systems of two opponents) and snagging another regular objective, I would have jumped to seven points at the end of this round. Alas, it wouldn't have been enough anyway... Next time!

I'm also interested in jumping in the BSG Let's Play. I do love me some BSG.

I've got Sarc and Silent Snake on the list, and have spots for 3 more. If I can't get in on an official LP I'll just move it to the Meatspace forum. Next week I'll set up the board and take some test shots.

But back on this game, it was a little annoying that you couldn't build and move units in the same turn, but since everyone has the same limitation it worked out. Did anyone buy any Racial Techs? I didn't go all out with the Yin's suicidal nature, because I wasn't super aggressive. I didn't get to convert anybody to the wisdom of the Yin/Yang.

So, my biggest problem with this game comes from the Action Cards, as previously stated. I'm down with exception-based game design - in RPG-land, I'm a big fan of FATE and think D&D 4e is rather clever and all. The problem is that exception-based game needs very carefully-designed exceptions, ideally ones that provide a small but situational edge, so they can be used in an even fight to blunt the bite of randomness and tilt things your way.

Twilight Imperium's action cards are not carefully-designed exceptions. Honestly, the way they work out in play reminds me more of Munchkin than anything else, in that most (particularly the non-combat cards) are small, situational bonuses... And then there's a handful of cards (mostly combat-related) that are win buttons. Sometimes there's at trick you need to know, but once you know it, there's no tactical choices or trade-offs involved. If you're in a fight that isn't totally one-sided in your favor with enough ships for the trick to be used and you can use it, you do. This might be mitigated by the proper initiative-order-reveal for Action Cards, but I doubt it, since that'd depend on having the one "No you don't" card for your enemy's "win button" card.

I also second Google's issues with this variant on the handling of Political Cards. When I was playing Assembly, I actually took to finding opponents with no Political Cards in their hands to use it on, as I could be certain they weren't banking something that would benefit them or screw me. Again, like Action Cards, poor design for much the same reasons.

I don't think that Leadership/Assembly/Bureaucracy are particularly good replacements for Initiative/Political/Imperial. I understand why Imperial's not used in a game like this (by the time the last player gets to claim his 2 VPs, someone else has probably already won the game), but I don't think the Speaker token ever left the lower-right third of the game board. It seemed like that's where the most active fighting was occurring, and so we were all chasing after the Speaker token, while the rest of the board was free to pursue the economic/military strategies without distraction. Had the upper-left quadrant not been playing musical chairs, I think that would've bitten us all in the ass.

Bureaucracy, in particular, seems a very weak card, useful mostly as a trap for unwary opponents (Hi Sev! ). It comes back around to the problems with Objectives Google mentioned. The card's slightly more valuable in the late-game, as it lets you claim VPs more quickly for things you've already done... But getting there requires someone to choose it in the early game, which, absent bots, isn't going to happen very often. And it looks like there's a clever tension between Initiative, Logistics, Political and Imperial that just doesn't happen with these variant cards.

On the other hand, I really like how Production works in bigger games. Letting players get units out and into play immediately speeds up the game and encourages more aggressive play, and its benefits spread around pretty evenly. It seems to me like it was one of the most-used secondary cards. Technology II, Warfare II and Trade II are also good replacements, though I don't think they're clear improvements over the originals for a big game. I also really liked the basic economic and warfare rules; I feel they're very strong and well-balanced.

I'd be curious to see how an 8-player game plays with the default set plus maybe Production, with Imperial swapped out for Industry from the new expansion. But I think I'd be more interested in seeing a smaller game first, using the default Strategy set. I think a lot of my problems with the rules might be alleviated by it.

I have a different opinion on the Action Cards, but I've mostly gone into it already. I still don't agree there's much of a win button aspect to the cards. Even the one that severian played in that one battle didn't win him the fight — he'd already won it — it let him keep more ships after the battle was done. They certainly can throw a wrench in things, though. But eh, that's just my take.

I do think the Strategy Card setup for this game was a little off, though I like Assembly pretty well (though I agree it was a bit odd how the Speaker token remained stuck). My plan for next time is to use mostly the base cards, but with Technology II, Imperial II and possibly Trade III in the mix.

That's what we played with in July when I had the game on the table, and it worked quite well. With Imperial II you can choose either to qualify for multiple objectives this round (with the secondary being like Production's primary, but costing a CC and without the resource bonus), or take the secondary for no CC cost while preventing anyone else from activating it. That's a more interesting set of abilities than Bureaucracy has.

I actually did kinda get that impression during the game. The combat bonus was definitely useful, but wasn't as huge as it could've been. I ended up expanding towards the center of the galaxy a round or so after everyone else, even with Warfare I. Even if I'd cranked my fleet supply up and moved everything I could into Abyz the round before it was captured I doubt I'd have been able to keep up with the Space Vampires. Maybe if they had a larger starting fleet or a second racial ability?

The game was a lot of fun, though. I actually liked the way the board led to more localized conflicts and interactions. Seeing things you couldn't interfere with happen miles away was interesting. I didn't like being powerless to stop Google's rise to power, though.

I kinda want to give the SPACE LIONS or the plant dudes from the expansion a roll. The next game should be interesting, especially if we include the goofy overpowered flagships.

The Simulated Early Turns option is supposed to help the Sardakk quite a bit (though it seems generally unpopular as an option), but yeah — they can have a real tough time. Lots of folks have posted "fixes" on BGG, but no one really agrees on a way to make them not so weak without making them too strong.

The SPACE LIONS are supposed to be quite strong — aside from their control over trade and extreme economic potential, they can pump out enormous fleets if they have all three of their Space Docks at home. Someone played the Arborec at my July game — they're really interesting, but seem a bit tricky to leverage. The fact that they can't make GF with Space Docks offsets their GF building ability quite a bit.

Oh yeah, points for controlling particular spaces would also be a HUGE improvement here. Again, I'm not so much annoyed with the crapshoot nature of the objectives (although, there's that too), it's how many of them are things you can't really prevent someone from getting. Actually wow, now that I look at the list for the basic game here, "Control Planets needed to have all three Tech Specs" and "Control Planets needed to have all three Tech Specs." are the only ones you can really do something about. Maybe the 3 space docks. Otherwise you just need to totally push someone down to nothing to stop any of these. The Shattered Empire list is even worse, there's just "I control Mecatol Rex." and "I control Mecatol Rex." Even a few of these stage 2s seem pretty unstoppable, especially if everyone knows they're coming. Does 2 invasions count if it's an unoccupied planet, or one you just bombarded the defenders of?

Also if we're kicking another game of this off, I'll sit it out. Not that it isn't fun, I just need a break from the constant elaborate plotting and staying on top of the thread.

I'll probably kick another game off eventually, but it'll be at least a month, I think. Maybe longer. Just spitballing about possibilities, here.

Anyway, I think the intention is that many of the the objectives can't be prevented — the game is a race more than an outright war, and the game (depending on which objectives are drawn, naturally) offers opportunities for points to players who prefer to research and expand peacefully, or increase their economic clout, as much as it does to those who want to conquer and destroy (an unoccupied planet would count for the 2 invasions one, yeah). Not much different than a Civ game, really.

But I also think long-view strategic planning would work better with the Age of Empire variant, which is why I'm planning to use it next time. In a game like we just played, those already well-positioned by happenstance for them swoop in and grab a point, while everyone else has to scramble to adjust to new objectives.

SARCASMORATOR!!

Thank you for doing all the work to run this game. You convinced me to grab a copy and the expansions, and I'm hoping to actually play it some Saturday this month!

You're welcome!

Yeah, you really did an amazing job, Sarc. Pat yourself on the back.

OK, I ... ow.

Should have stretched first.

But seriously, thank you, and thank you all for playing, and thank you as well to our mostly silent readers!