First im no native english speaker so sorry if something is a bit hard to understand ;-)

I own Twilight Imperium 3 and Shatterd empires. I have both boxes for a longer time but we started playing regulary abnout 2 month ago. Some question have come to our minds and would to hear what you think.

1) Embers of Muaat:

The Ember Speacial Abilites seems pretty powerful. We haven't drawn the race yet but we all agree that their seems to be a lot stronger than that of the other races.

2) PDS

On p 29 of the rules is stated that you can have more than 2 PDS on a plant. Tonight we had a system with 3 planets next to mecatol rex. One player had 2 PDS on each planet in a system with 3(!) Planets and every availabel technology for the PDS. To say the least fun is something different. How do you handle those situations?

3) Lazax Survivors

How do you handle the Lazax survivors ? If they are probed you get 1 Victroy point and if you land on the planet without probing a permant 3 vote bonus for the rest of the game ? the second option seems very mighty to me.

4) Blockaded planets ?

Can i use ressources form a planet i own in a system that contains enemy ships?

5)Class struggle

The LAW "Class struggle" states the all trade gained thru the Trade strategy card are pooled and divided. If i would stick strictly to the text the law would make itself obsolete. So what trade goods do you pool ? All trade goods including the 3 gained from the primary and, if appropriate also the ones gained for the "micro technology" tech advance ?

Thanks a lot form me and my group

Kai

1) Muaat is a solid race, but not overpowered. Their War Sun is slow at start, and if it is left vulnerable you should attack right away. That can take them out of contention early on. On the other hand, Muaat need good planets and/or decent trades to get enough money to build more War Suns. This resource expenditure is out of something else - Technology or objectives.

2) 6 PDS units = 12 resources, Graviton + Magen = ~12 resources (ok, might be more if you don't have Deep Space Cannon). It is very costly to get that PDS grid working. That means that the player might not have many ships or Space Docks. In any case, FIGHTERS are the best counter for PDS grids. Those 6 PDS units can at maximum score 6 hits on your fleet during one activation - 6 fighters cost 3 resources.

Use War Suns or Agents to counter the PDS's planetary defence value.

3)I don't usually play with DS tokens, so someone else has to answer this one...

4) Yes, you can. There's nothing in the rules to prevent that.

5) I understand what you are saying, and agree with you. I don't like the PC myself. There's a discussion on this in the wiki forums. I might house rule it so that the 3 TGs are not added to the pot.

Knightmare said:

They aren't as powerful as they seem. Starting with a War Sun sounds awesome, but it also makes them a big target to other players concerned about being attacked with it. As the previous poster mentioned, they need good resources to maintain any advantage their racials give them off the start.

Knightmare said:

All you can do is try to avoid letting someone place a 3 planet system close to MR. If they do put one there, try to beat them to it. I agree this would give the controlling player a huge advantage, but war is all about finding advantages so as far as I'm concerned this is fair game. Either pay the bloody price to take the system from him or try to negotiate peacefully so that he won't attack you while you get your business done on MR.

Have you ever heard the expression "Having a big hammer makes all your problems look like nails?" A player with this kind of military advantage is going to be looking for opportunities to use it. If you can convince him to use it somewhere else and/or offer huge amounts of TGs or other conscessions, the player with this system might well get so distracted with his own military power that he forgets the point of the game is completing objectives. =) I've seen this happen more often than you might think. Do whatever you have to to prevent the big guns from pointing at you, and by the end of the game he has a military superpower, but you have 10VP.

Knightmare said:

I play them as written. Yes, getting the survivors without probing is a huge advantage for the rest of game, but it also means you're landing on planets without probing them. As someone who basically always plays with the DS optional rules, I can tell you that landing on a planet without probing is a big risk. People in our group usually do it anyway just to save time and get planets ASAP, but the Lazax are rare enough that they don't swing the game as much as you might think. (After all, there are only two Lazax tokens in the pile, and not even all of the tokens get used on a full map, so there's not even a guarantee that they're out there to begin with.)

Knightmare said:

Yes. You just can't build it there. (Enemy military ships will still let civilian merchants move out, it would seem.)

Knightmare said:

I would interpret this to mean all TGs generated when Trade is activated, including tech advances and racial bonuses. If one player is making 8 TGs and another player is making 2 when the Trade SC is activated, the effect of this law is hardly obsolete. It encourages players with less money to take the Trade SC (so they get the advantage) and players with more TG income to avoid it when possible.

Thanks al ot for your input