Post by brent on Sept 15, 2010 23:52:40 GMT -5
I'm looking for anyone interested in playing Twilight Imperium on a semi-regular basis. Since its not a very well known game though (surprisingly) i figured i would explain basically what the game is about. The game takes an hour to explain the rules but ill do my best to keep this to the basics:
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Twilight imperium is a sci-fi strategy board game that takes place in a time where many races are competing for galactic rule.
You play one of 14 incredibly unique races (you don't actually realize how unique they are until you play the race its amazingly intricate).
The goal of the game is rather typical; you expand your territory, produce units, and try to complete goals for victory points. first person to 10 wins.
What is unique about twilight imperium is the player interactions and the number of ways to play the game. the game has aspects of trade, politics, technology upgrades, warfare, action cards, brute force and more. You can potentially win the game using anyone of these aspects almost exclusively or a balance of many.
You can focus on trade, giving you a degree of control over alliances and the ability to bribe players and buy a lot of stuff to win. You can greatly influence the laws in effect, putting permanent restrictions on players, determining the order of play, and ultimately forcing players into different play styles. You can get technology upgrades to give you advantages in game that other players just cant match, and more.
The game also encourages (and pretty much requires) an almost completely unrefereed player interaction. you could, for example, give a player trade goods not to attack you, but once you pay him, there is nothing in the rules that says he has to keep his end of the bargain.
in terms of pace, game play and strategy, this game is very slow (taking at least 10 hours to play, and that being about 10-12 rounds) but the way the game works is such that the strategic flow is very quick, very much like a game of risk only more so.
The game is broken into rounds in which players can move each unit once, and rounds are broken into turns where each player does one action. around the middle of the game one round may take up to an hour depending on the people. because you end up making a reasonably small number of moves, each one becomes more important.
It is also impossible for any two games to be similar, the map divides into hexes which are placed by the players in turn based fashion (the amount of strategy involved in this, before you even get your pieces on the board is amazing) and races are determined mostly randomly.
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you can read a bit more about it and see pictures here: www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/12493/twilight-imperium-third-edition
Obviously the biggest issue is the time required to play a full game, as such a weekly event is very hard to organize. In my experience the best way to do it is to pick a day in advance and say "this is the day, who can make it?". a game is simply not fun with less than 4 people, combat almost does not occur as you are so far apart. 4 people works but its definitely not the best. 5 is the bottom goal, coming from a smallish town we never got more than 5 people. the standard map size supports 6 people, but can be expanded for 8.
So because i just cant wait to play, if anyone is available super short notice this weekend for a game that would be awesome and a miracle at the same time.
If anyone could help me make people aware of this that would be appreciated.
Post in here what days you know you are free all day (12 to 12). or even if you want to stop by for less time to get the hour of rules out of the way.
Sorry for the long post
______
Twilight imperium is a sci-fi strategy board game that takes place in a time where many races are competing for galactic rule.
You play one of 14 incredibly unique races (you don't actually realize how unique they are until you play the race its amazingly intricate).
The goal of the game is rather typical; you expand your territory, produce units, and try to complete goals for victory points. first person to 10 wins.
What is unique about twilight imperium is the player interactions and the number of ways to play the game. the game has aspects of trade, politics, technology upgrades, warfare, action cards, brute force and more. You can potentially win the game using anyone of these aspects almost exclusively or a balance of many.
You can focus on trade, giving you a degree of control over alliances and the ability to bribe players and buy a lot of stuff to win. You can greatly influence the laws in effect, putting permanent restrictions on players, determining the order of play, and ultimately forcing players into different play styles. You can get technology upgrades to give you advantages in game that other players just cant match, and more.
The game also encourages (and pretty much requires) an almost completely unrefereed player interaction. you could, for example, give a player trade goods not to attack you, but once you pay him, there is nothing in the rules that says he has to keep his end of the bargain.
in terms of pace, game play and strategy, this game is very slow (taking at least 10 hours to play, and that being about 10-12 rounds) but the way the game works is such that the strategic flow is very quick, very much like a game of risk only more so.
The game is broken into rounds in which players can move each unit once, and rounds are broken into turns where each player does one action. around the middle of the game one round may take up to an hour depending on the people. because you end up making a reasonably small number of moves, each one becomes more important.
It is also impossible for any two games to be similar, the map divides into hexes which are placed by the players in turn based fashion (the amount of strategy involved in this, before you even get your pieces on the board is amazing) and races are determined mostly randomly.
_________
you can read a bit more about it and see pictures here: www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/12493/twilight-imperium-third-edition
Obviously the biggest issue is the time required to play a full game, as such a weekly event is very hard to organize. In my experience the best way to do it is to pick a day in advance and say "this is the day, who can make it?". a game is simply not fun with less than 4 people, combat almost does not occur as you are so far apart. 4 people works but its definitely not the best. 5 is the bottom goal, coming from a smallish town we never got more than 5 people. the standard map size supports 6 people, but can be expanded for 8.
So because i just cant wait to play, if anyone is available super short notice this weekend for a game that would be awesome and a miracle at the same time.
If anyone could help me make people aware of this that would be appreciated.
Post in here what days you know you are free all day (12 to 12). or even if you want to stop by for less time to get the hour of rules out of the way.
Sorry for the long post
