Twilight Imperium

Twilight Imperium
Wargame published by Fantasy Flight Games
No. of Players	3-8
Session Time	Hours
Authors	Christian T. Petersen
First Publication	1997, 2000, 2005

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Twilight Imperium is the name for the manly game from FFG, and for the setting of some of FFG's science fiction games. Twilight Imperium itself comes in three editions (each better than the last).

The Setting

Future post-dark ages. Once upon a time there was an empire uniting a disparate collection of races and cultures, with it's capital on Mecatol Rex. The ten or so cultures that used to compose the old empire are vying for a solid control over the galactic council/senate, with an eye to install their own new first emperor in the capital.

The MANLY Game

My god, someone made a computer version.

Jobs from Puerto Rico, hex maps from Cataan & Amoeba Wars, random exploration from everybody's first house rules to improve Cataan, alien races with different advantages from Cosmic Encounter, buckets of finely-crafted plastic minis from Axis & Allies... this is like the Flaming Moe of boardgames. The only awesome game mechanic it's missing is the hidden traitor player from Shadows Over Camelot.

(stolen from another site. Please replace with something /tg/ worthy.)

TI3 is played by at least three players who belong to ten possible alien races, each with their own advantages and quirks. The 'designer notes' in the rulebook candidly and humbly acknowledge the inspiration for some of the improvements to the original game. The strategic game-play borrows the governing element from 'Puerto Rico' to involve players in an iteratively complex and yet fast-paced game experience with very little downtime. The game map, basic player progress and overall victory are dynamically determined in almost exactly the same way as they are by imaginative players of 'Settlers of Catan', while the "Command" system cleverly improves on the 'oil' logistical mechanism of 'Attack' to both manage turn-based activity and limit the size of armies, uniquely enabling weakened players to bounce back if they play their cards right.

Shipping in a massive fuckoff hueg (12” x 24”) box, this new giant-size edition of TI feature almost 350 masterfully sculpted oversize plastic miniatures - the typical TI units (Ground Forces, Cruisers, Dreadnoughts, Carriers, Fighters, PDS, and Space Docks) as well as two new units (the massive War Sun and the Destroyer). TI3 contains new oversize board tiles, more than 400 cards, every known civilization of the Twilight Imperium universe, almost every expansion rule and component ever published for TI, a gorgeous graphical overhaul, and an impressive full-color rules set.

Twilight Armada (the disc game)

Started out as a fighters expansion for TI 1st edition, later FFG bought the mechanics for a tabletop wargame that used cardboard discs instead of minis. Unit stats were printed around the edge, the illustration showed arcs of fire, and the size of the disc was the relative target profile of the ship. Discs were flipped to show different stats in a damaged state.

(future remake of Dune)

Fantasy Flight Games got the rights to the boardgame version of Dune published by Avalon Hill (not the board game based on the movie, the one based on the book). They're going to re-theme the game to fit into the Twilight Imperium universe, probably for control of Mecatol Rex, but the original game is too awesome to screw up, and Twilight Imperium is also awesome, so we can expect an awesome sandwich with a side order of awesome.