As of late our gameing group encountered a few problems concerning the rulebook game setups fairness.

We did quite a few test set up rounds, and it always resulted in the same problems:

-if your draw of galaxy tiles sucks your chances are slim to none to have an acceptable starting position.

-If you have a usefull tile-hand and are the first player to place a tile in the second ring your opponets have next to no chance to destroy your "around homeworld" setup.

-If your hand sucks you can hope to destroy one other players setup, pulling him with yourself to hell hopeing his last card(s) will bring you some crappy planet at last. while stuffing his homesectors with emptyness, asteroid fields and bursting suns, and actually handing the game to the others in that way.

Now the simple question: which would be the best solution?

-Placeing homeworlds as suggested in the Shatterd Ascension rules seems to always lead to a knot of players at one side of the galaxy, and an empty next to no planets containing spot on the other side of MR.

-Randomizing where which player starts takes all strategical calculations from the game board setup and should be quite boring

-sorting the tiles into segments of "1 planet", "2 decent planets" "2 not decent or 1 decent planets" and "empty or special" tiles, and giving each player the same amout from those segments would lead to "equality", is quite a hassle.

So which kind of galaxy setup would you prefer, and why?

We use two rules in every game we play:

1.) You must place a planet in the first ring. This stops the classic "doughnut" galaxy where the first ring is filled with nothing but empties and asteroids.

2.) Everyone is dealt their tiles. They select one to keep, then pass the rest to their left. Select one of those, and pass the rest to their left. Continue until all the tiles are selected. This ensures everyone gets a much fairer selection of systems, and also adds a touch more strategy to the game.

That's an interesting way to distribute tiles. The only thing I don't like is that everyone has a pretty good idea of what planets will be in the galaxy. Then again, knowing that, but not knowing the exact distribution does make for some neat-o poker. Maybe we'll give it a try. Referring to the original post, we've had varying experiences with odd setups. Planet-rich sections of space are full of war, and sometimes those players keep each other down while the isolated player(s) has time to build up more slowly and craft a plan domination. The Hacan do well in this situation, hanging back and collecting all their loot. Also, players with better setups are often targets. You guys plot, conspire, and complain at the table, right?

We do the "balanced planet draw". It doesn't take more than a few minutes to sort out the tiles. But it also helps when you put the tiles back in piles that aid in that style of setup.

poprhetor said:

Some of us do, soem of us don't, yet still, if one player draws crap he usually Bombards another player with bad tiles, so that player must place his last, probably planet containing tiles at the bard drawing playerrs home.

This usually leads to a devided galaxy, 2 players with a not too bad start, and two players with a really bad one.

In 50% of our games this has lead to 2 players winning the game, with armies and influence in respectable measures.And two players that "haress flanks, may play actioncards, have a few slight votes".. and thats it for their game entirely.

[usual gameround consists of 4 players, since not all 7 of us can come together due to wicked timetables.]

I have worked out a 2Balanced pile draw" now for our games, and must say, it goes much faster and hasslefree as i guessed, once you have the tables ready and take to note that it doesn't take playtime, but just 5 minutes of preparations which can be done before the last player arrives.

Oddly enough, my friends and I just kinda like shuffling and then dealing out the galaxy randomly. If the universe comes out badly, we just pick it up and redeal it.

Sometimes, this ends up with some people having more and others having less...but once you factor in trade, diploamcy, distant suns and other random stuff that can happen in the game, it all seems to end up working out fine.

Course, that's just us. These other rules actually sound pretty cool...I might have to try them.

My thoughts exactly, Zoombie.

How do two players win the game? Do you just stop when you're out of time and declare a winner?

Without starting a new topic, how do people following this thread choose races?

It should be very rare, as there is a tiebreaker procedure in the rules. Granted, it says they are used with Imperium Rex, but it should apply anytime a tie happens. The only way it's truly a draw between two players is if ALL the tiebreaker conditions are ties, and that's somewhat unlikely to happen.

For galaxy set-up we usually do the following:

Remove all the 4/2 + systems from play (Bereg, A/A/L, NA/Starpoint, Abyz, Lisis and sometimes the Vegas just because)

Decide whether we will use the above systems that game. (our game group tends to like a poor galaxy)

If so, shuffle those tiles and deal 1 to each player.

We then deal equal amounts of double, single, empty and hazard systems to each player making sure that all the wormhole systems are in play.

It usually takes 3 minutes to set this up and about 1 minute to sort the piles when putting the game away.

For race choice we do one of the following:

1) Draw two random races, pick one. (sometimes three - pick one depending on the number of players)

2) Each player vetoes one race he does not want to see in the game -- usually ends up with Yssaril, Saar, Mentak and possibly L1z1x being vetoed -- then continue as per part one.

Great suggestions by all of you!

Thanks for your time guys.

Our group started using the preset maps posted by FFG and never have looked back. Everyone has a similar number of planets but depending on the deal you might end up resource or influence heavy and have to work your strategy around that. Here is the link for those interested.

www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/Twilight%20Imperium%203/TI3SE_Preset.pdf

digdoug said:

The pre-set map games get stale after a while. It's nice to see a bit of a change from the normal pie-slice map.

My example will be done if 6 people are playing.

I start off by sorting all the types of tiles, single planets, multi, red-ringed, empty, power and wormhole. Every tile I place is placed face down. I start by placing the two empty wormhole systems down and 4 empty space tiles beside them. I then take the two single planet wormhole systems and place them in two of the piles that do not already have wormholes and then randomly give the other pile single planet systems, this way 4 players each have 1 wormhole to place. Each player then receives a power system, I also include Hope's End and the Abaddon/Loki/Ashtroth system as power systems so each player gets 1. Each player then receives 1 random multi-planet system and a red-ring system. If each player needs more tiles depending on setup, I randomize the rest of the tiles and distribute them to each of the piles. I then shuffle the piles around and let the other players choose, leaving the last pile for me. We can then have set starting locations before we start or we can work together to make a balance dboard. We deploy following normal game rules 123456654321.

For races we randomize player order. First player chooses three races he would like to play then randomly gets one of them. We do the same for all the players until everyone has received a race. We organize colours by which one matches the race the closest. Yellow = Hacan, Blue = L1Z1X... ect.