In an 8 player game, the last player with the Bureaucracy card loses out. These are some that I thought of

1) There are no bonus counters on it as people draw it every turn.
2) You receive only 1 Command counter (compared to leadership 3CC)
3) You cannot execute the secondary ability i.e. 1 Strategic CC for 1 polical and 1 action card
4) You probably can't complete an objective on your first turn even if you could choose it
5) You go last means you can almost never benefit from Assembly
6) You go last with a Strategy that no one really cares about even if they had passed, unlike Assembly.

7)On the 1st turn Bureaucracy, all you got was one free CC.

I was wondering how everyone would try to balance this problem.

Here is an idea. In a game such as twilight, you should always have a choice. Instead add another strategy, a 9th, that way the last person still gets a choice. There are house rules for these and the 9th has been discussed in length, but I use it as receive 1 action card, 1 political card, 1 CC and 2 TGs and 9 in the initiative order.

You can modify if however you wish, I rarely play 8 player games

Interesting.

A question if I may:

Is there an upper-limit to the maximum number of players in a TI game? If so, then a given group would need to 'generate' a few more SC's, correct?

[i understand that the map is capable of having up to 8 players, but this response by Psiclone brought up an neat thought]

Without having duplicate races, I imagine you can have up to 14 players. However, it will be too cramped unless your willing to combine a couple TI games together and paint the miniatures. I still have to do this, but the following link I believe was done with 4 games playing with 12 races. I believe you would just play with some duplicate strategies and work out a fair turn order.

www.boardgamegeek.com/image/239342

Sucks to be the guy with 4 wormholes adjacent to his home system.

So i guess the answer to balancing the game is add more choice for the Strategy cards than the number of players so there is always choice? But do I use Psiclone's suggestion or does FFG have any official comment?

In my opinion, Twilight's design seems it was meant to be best in a less than 7/8-player game. They seem to have not factored in that 1 point in the early game doesn't count for much as productivity and vital techs are worth more. Being last is also not good in fights.

Psiclone said:

Not if you're Keeper of the Gates and have XRD.

Lordpappanqui said:

8 players is a 7+hour game for experienced players. I believe more would result in 10+ hours just to hit 10 points.