Twilight Imperium

Science fiction themed board game

Twilight Imperium is a strategy board game produced by Fantasy Flight Games in the genre of science fiction and space opera. It was designed by Christian T. Petersen and was first released in 1997. The game is in its fourth edition (2017), which has large changes over previous editions. It is known for the length of its gameplay (often greater than six hours), and its in depth strategy (including military, political, technological and trade).

The game's premise is a large scale space opera. It is set in the unstable power vacuum left after the centuries long decline and collapse of the previously dominant Lazax race. The old galactic central capital, Mecatol Rex, located in the center of the map is maintained by custodians who maintain the imperial libraries and oversee the meetings of the galactic council. Players assume the roles of rising empires on the fringes of the galaxy, vying for military and political control, until one finally becomes sufficiently dominant to take over as a new galactic emperor. The final version of the first edition debuted at the Origins Game Fair in 1997. Fantasy Flight set up demos of the game in a high traffic corridor to garner more attention, and ended up selling out of all of their available copies in under two days. Fourth edition was initially intended as a stand alone game without any variant rules and expansions, but the expansion Prophecy of Kings was introduced in November 2020. Plastic playing pieces represent various starship classes and ground forces. Players are limited to the number of playing pieces provided with the game, except for fighters and ground forces. Counters are included for record keeping, including command tokens, control markers, trade goods, and extra fighter and ground force counters. Cards are used to track planet ownership, trade agreements, technologies, public objectives, secret objectives, special actions, and policy voting agendas. Additionally, each faction has distinct characters and themes, and they each specialize in particular areas of the game, such as trade, combat, technology, or politics. It stems from a fan version of the third edition game called "Shattered Ascension" that was built in Tabletop Simulator in 2011 using the same components but a variant ruleset and gained a significant online community. and is now used for online tournaments. The phases of play in each round are now strategy, action, status, and the agenda phase. The agenda phase is added only after a player has taken Mecatol Rex. In the strategy phase, players choose a Strategy Card to use in the upcoming action phase. The strategy cards now control many of the fundamental mechanics that were tied to a phase in the 3rd Edition. As a result, players may be in competition for a particular strategy card, and a taking a particular Strategy Card may be necessary for a player to achieve certain objectives. The Strategy Cards confer abilities such as the purchase of additional command counters, changing who is the Speaker and thus will get first pick of the strategy cards in the next round, refilling commodities for trade, building Planetary Defense Systems (PDS') or Space Docks, researching technology, drawing additional Action Cards or Secret Objectives, or scoring an objective early (in the action phase, while all other players must wait for the status phase). In the action phase, players take turns expanding their empire by moving ships, building units, engaging in trade and combat, researching technology, making deals, using their Strategic and Action Cards, and attempting to complete the requirements for public and secret objectives. The player's initiative order (the turn order) is determined by a player's lowest number strategy card, e. g. a player with the leadership card (no.1) will go first and a player with the imperial Card (no.8) will go last. The action phase continues until every player has chosen to pass, and once a player has passed they cannot make any more tactical actions. Each strategy card has a primary and a secondary ability the bearer of a strategy card uses only the primary and the other players may only use the secondary. So that no player ever misses out on the powerful abilities of the strategy cards, the bearer of a strategy card may not pass and end their action phase until they have used their strategy card, and all other players always have the option to use the secondary ability of a strategy card once activated, even if they passed on a previous turn. The status phase is a book keeping and maintenance phase. Players score public and secret objectives in the same initiative order from the action phase (not clockwise from the Speaker), reveal the next public objective, draw action cards, remove and regain command tokens (and may redistribute command tokens among their tactical, strategic, and fleet pools), ready all exhausted cards (including the strategy and technology and planetary cards), repair any damaged units, and return the strategy cards to a common play area. The agenda phase has replaced the politics phase. Once a player has taken Mecatol Rex, it is appended as the fourth phase after the status phase to each round. In the agenda phase, players convene the galactic council on Mecatol Rex and vote on two agendas. Agendas are either Laws (permanent changes to the current game's mechanics, such as allowing all players to build War Suns without needing to research the qualifying technologies) and Directives (a one time effect such as each player drawing a secret objective, or giving a victory point to the player in last place). Each player casts votes by exhausting their planets for its influence score (where each point of influence is one vote), and may spend as many as they have for the agendas, or abstain from voting. Players may not spend trade goods as influence for casting votes in this phase, but the voting (the active) player is free to offer deals Promissory Notes, commodities or trade goods to influence or purchase another player's vote. Players are also allowed to make deals and transactions during the agenda phase whether they share borders or not, allowing for the exchange of promissory notes, and commodities and trade goods. Once both agendas have been voted on, the players refresh all their exhausted planets so they have the resources and influence and technology specialties available for the action phase in the next round. The technology tree has been simplified. Rather than a confusing flow chart of pre requisites, technological advancement is through four linear branches, and players can upgrade most of the available units by satisfying pre requisites in the four branches. Trade has been simplified. Players now exchange faction commodities which become trade goods when another player acquires them. Instead of requiring trade agreements, the active player is now allowed to trade their commodities with neighbors (anyone they share a border with) during their turn.