My buddies and I just had our first game last night.

I have to say I love this game.

I was wondering what tips you can offer a new player.

Also how long does it take on average for experience players to finish a game?

We had 5 and after 5-6 hours we really weren't all that far into the game.

Myself and anther had 3 victory points by the time we had to call quits

I've read some take out the 8th strategy because well that's what everyone picks.

We don't have any expansions yet. Just the core game.

I haven't read the rules myself yet (just downloaded them on my phone) but does everyone just pick their starting race at random?

Thats how we usually do things when we play these types of games (civilization, star craft to name a couple)

Other than strategy 1,and 8 which other is a really good one to help give a boost?

Especially if your a race that doesn't start off with a massive fleet?

I liked taking the trade so I could get some extra trade coming in, but I really didn't see at what point would I want to end all trade deals. I never felt like this would help or hurt anyone.

I also found that the second time someone took the trade strategy, everyone already had their trade agreements, so I couldn't approve or disapprove because no one made new ones.

Can I cancel my agreement with another player so I can do a trade with another?

Also how long does it take on average for experience players to finish a game?

We had 5 and after 5-6 hours we really weren't all that far into the game.

Myself and anther had 3 victory points by the time we had to call quits

The only time I've ever played a game to completion, it took 13 hours. Granted that was an 8 player game with a few newbies, but most of us knew the game. Usually we just call it on time after 5-6 hours, like you did.

I've read some take out the 8th strategy because well that's what everyone picks.

There are alternative SCs in the expansions if you don't like the 1 -> 8 "clock" mechanism. Although it's worth noting that this "strategy" does help keep the game moving towards the finish line, if you want to get done in a reasonable time frame.

I haven't read the rules myself yet (just downloaded them on my phone) but does everyone just pick their starting race at random?

Generally, yes. Sometimes we do draw 3 pick 1. The game is long enough without letting everyone pick non-randomly

Other than strategy 1,and 8 which other is a really good one to help give a boost?

I like Production. Warfare is also good for keeping things moving. Technology is a popular one for new players, but how truly useful it is depends on your race.

I liked taking the trade so I could get some extra trade coming in, but I really didn't see at what point would I want to end all trade deals. I never felt like this would help or hurt anyone.

I also found that the second time someone took the trade strategy, everyone already had their trade agreements, so I couldn't approve or disapprove because no one made new ones.

Yeah, that's how it is in our games, too. Trade agreements are generally static after the first round, barring the occasional sudden but inevitable betrayal. After that people just pick it when they need the cash grab.

Can I cancel my agreement with another player so I can do a trade with another?

It's been a while and I don't have the game in front of me, but IIRC you cannot voluntarily break a trade agreement. You have to use the SC or attack the other player.

I guess you could count "attacking the other player" as voluntary.

13 hours. Wow. 8 player game though, that would be awesome.

Our next game will probably be 4 players.

Any idea how long that may take?

I read someone said about 90 min per player

Warfare strategy card is a great card to make large fleets.

1. You try to get two space docks in your best system to get your production capacity as high as possible (10 capacity)

2. Produce with your two space docks. You are trying to spam fighters.

3. Use Warfare to remove the command counter at the two space docks

4. Produce again with your two space docks.

If you can fill 4 carriers with 24 fighters, you should win most battles. Since fighters are very cheap, you could do this in one round. 12 resources, 6 trade goods.

(24 fighters means you can absorb 24 hits before your expensive units are touched!

Breaking all trade contracts helps miltary type races, since they have very large homeworlds but very poor trade contracts.

Very nice tips

Any more would be awesome but thanks

It's general consensus I think, that TI takes 1-1,5 hours per player depending on optional rules, experience and so on.

For newbies 2 hours per player is a safe bet I think.

I myself can't imagine stoping after certain time limits.

I try to organize a game every other month, and enjoy it to the fullest.

8 players, almost all optional rules, including Long War, some house rules for things I think need fixing.

We usually start at 9 AM and go on for ~12-14 hours.

I think, 4 players are good for fast paced games. Everyone has plenty of resources, all strategy cards are used.

6 player games tend to slow down to a crawl, due to lack of resources - inability to complete objectives.

It's general consensus I think, that TI takes 1-1,5 hours per player depending on optional rules, experience and so on.

For newbies 2 hours per player is a safe bet I think.

I myself can't imagine stoping after certain time limits.

I try to organize a game every other month, and enjoy it to the fullest.

8 players, almost all optional rules, including Long War, some house rules for things I think need fixing.

We usually start at 9 AM and go on for ~12-14 hours.

I think, 4 players are good for fast paced games. Everyone has plenty of resources, all strategy cards are used.

6 player games tend to slow down to a crawl, due to lack of resources - inability to complete objectives.

That's more or less the way we play. This is an "EPIC" game, and we give it the epic amount of time it is due. We just played a 6 player game, TLW to 14 VP's, to 7 game rounds. Started at 10:30am, map set-up completed 11:30am (we use a house rule for pre-set maps where everyone makes the map together, then we select home system locations based on a random draw order). We were "in the action" right away at 11:30am. The game finished at 10:30pm to a complete 14 VP TLW conclusion. Our last three games before this one were 8 player games. They went 6 rounds mostly, but finished later, like midnight. We play AoE with the SE Strategy Cards, and we have quite a few house rule modifications. This last game we played was our group's 43rd game of TI3. We virtually never use Intrigue/Representatives, nor DS / FF.

My group has only played a few games of Twilight Imperium, and the Imperial (8) strategy card didn't sit well with our group. We quickly saw that the basis of any strategy was this:

1. Pick Imperial (8).

2. Pick Initiative (1), so you can do #1 next turn!

3. Do something else until you can do 1 or 2.

Bleh, not fun. We were planning on reducing the VP cost of this card to 1 next time, but I stumbled across the following optional rule:

http://new.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/Twilight%20Imperium%203/ti3variant.pdf

Scroll down to the bottom to see The Ancient Throne.

Pick one:

A) Claim a VP, but only if you own Mecatol Rex... BRILLIANT. You can also claim any number of public objectives (instead of just 1 per round).

B) You get to activate the secondary ability of the card for free, and noone else does.

I can't wait to play again.

- Eck

@eck, just FYI, a lot if people felt that way. An actual strategy card for that optional rule us included in the shattered empire expansion, along with a set of 8 all new strategy cards that can optionally be used instead of the original set. (With some mix/maxing allowed.)

Can I cancel my agreement with another player so I can do a trade with another?

It's been a while and I don't have the game in front of me, but IIRC you cannot voluntarily break a trade agreement. You have to use the SC or attack the other player.

I guess you could count "attacking the other player" as voluntary.

In this isolated instance, you are incorrect, Steve-O. I quote the core rulebook page 25 right side column:

" BREAKING TRADE AGREEMENTS

" BREAKING TRADE AGREEMENTS

Any player involved in a trade agreement may unilaterally break the agreement during the Status Phase. Such a player simply announces that he is ending the agreement and immediately returns the Trade Card to its owner and retrieves his own Trade Card from the former trading partner (a player’s own Trade Cards are always returned with the “Trade Contract” side face up, as they provide no trade value for their owner). It is not possible for a player to automatically break a trade agreement with the Hacan race, as per the Hacan's special ability. "

I stand corrected. It has been a while since I played TI3.

The length of the game can be controlled by variants, I've been in games that went to 14 points in under 6 hours and I've been in games that go to 8 points that took 12 hours.

If you are using only the original game you have a bit less controls available, most of the variants that control pacing in the negative (aka reduce time) are found in the expansions. Most of the variants that extend the game are in the original with the exception of Age of Empire rules (or classic rules as they are sometimes called) where you play with Objectives open at the start of the game and the Imperium Rex card revealed creating a static end at whatever round its drawn for. That can speed up the game quite a bit.

One good tip is to go to the support page and print out the expansion rule books. They have in the book all the alternative strategy cards, one of the better ones for supporting the original games is the Imperial II card. This is really a great way to increase the speed of the game.

In as a whole though the game will speed up dramatically simply by having everyone be familiar with the rules. One or two games and players will step out of the "how do you play this game" mode and into "I have a strategy Im going to try for this game" mode. Once people start playing with purpose with a good understanding of the rules a typical game of TI3 doesn't take more then 6-7 hours. Still a long game, but I have been playing this game since it released pretty steady for the better part of a decade and my personal experience is that 6-7 hours is pretty standard even for expert level groups.

Suffice to say the Shattered Empire Expansion is almost obligatory, goes beyond saying that its recommended. It has mainly to do with the way races are balanced in different ways, how the new strategy cards can stabilize some of the older ones and the various ways you can control the pacing and focus of the game using variants, which is great as every group has different preferences in how they play TI3. Shards of the Throne is more of a true expansion, its largely expert level variants and rules that increase the learning curve, most of the addition add more dynamics to the game. As a long time player I can say that this expansion I appreciated more then Shattered Empire, largely because most of the balancing acts of Shattered Empire where things we were already experimenting in via house rules. Shards of Throne breathed new life into TI3 for us and really dramatically improved the dynamics of the game into a whole to realm, not to mention that through the use of new racial techs, flag ships and representatives it really balanced out the races dramatically.