Hi!

I'll be using the 'Imperial II' strategy card from SE (and thus using the 'Age of Empires' optional rule) in my next TI3 game.

And I have a little question about it.

Is it right that a player who's not playing the 'Imperial II' strategy card can only qualify for a single Public Objective card in the Status phase?

Is it therefore right that a player who is playing the 'a)' option of the 'Imperial II' strategy card has the option to qualify for ALL Public Objective cards in the Status phase?

Would that be the main difference (Objective card-wise) of playing or not playing the 'Imperial II' card in a 'Age of Empires' game?

Thanks for any advice you can give me!

rashktah said:

Correct. Under "normal" circumstances, a player can only claim ONE Public Objective during the status phase; if he could potentially qualify for more than one, he must choose one, and claim the rest later (if he still qualifies the next round).

rashktah said:

Assuming he meets the requirements, yes; the Imperial II chooser, using option a, could qualify for any number of Public Objectives that he is eligible for.

rashktah said:

Yes; Imperial I does not give you the option to qualify for multiple (instead, it just gives you free points). Imperial II only gives you a "free point" if you have Mecatol; instead, it's advantage is that you can claim multiple objectives. Thus, it can still give you multiple points, but you have to "earn" them with Imperial II.

Superb, then 'Imperial II' really is the better strategy card.

Thank you very much, sigmazero13, for your help. Great forum...

I am very keen on trying the Imperial II card, though I am ok with Imperial II!

What I am not keen on, is "Age of Empire" - I find that the need for flexibility and adaption is key to a challenging game of TI and part of it's flavour.

I have seen many people posting that they prefer Bueacracy, but also like the Age of Empire, and if they can be used together - my problem is the opposite!

Would it be possible to play Imperial II, but without the (imho not so cool AoE) rule? - then rather reveal 1 PO in each status phase?

or

Use the 1OP with card or Bonus = OP - like bueacracy with the Imperial II?

...Idless

I suppose you COULD just reveal one at the end. But why not use Age of Empires if you are going that route anyway? It makes the game a lot better because you can do more long-term planning.

For the reason included in the post: I like the fact that you are required to adapt! And that it's exciting to see the game develop!

...Idless

I am with Idless. One of my favorite bits of TI is the revealing of objectives and the changes to strategy that it creates. It adds an element of shifting value to strategy cards as well.

I'm glad you enjoy the adaptive requirement of objectives that are introduced over time. My suggestion would be to reveal one objective after the claim objectives step of every status phase. The only requirement is that it is clear that this objective cannot be claimed until the next status phase.

We play with the Imperial II and instead of age of empires, we just also play that when the Imperial II card is played, turn over an objective card as well. You do have to remember that that happens (last game we went two turns before we remembered) but it works that way as well. However if the Imperial Card was not chosen then you wold be left with the situation where that turn no objective would be turned over.

The advantage in playing Age of Empire is that each of the six races can more easily use their force to follow different path in the order they choose for claiming objectives.

Which make for tighter games where it is almost impossible to be left behind in the first few rounds.

Remember that you cannot claim any Stage II objectives before status of round 4.

It also make it easier to see who will get a chance at winning making others able to put bump in their road to victory.

Haydon_5 said:

I get the sense that this would lead to a long game. Why take Imperial II early if there are not many objectives out to be had (unless you had MR)?. At least in our games this would add no less than 3 more rounds of play.

Haydon_5 said:

If you don't want to play with Age of Empires, but don't want to run into this situation, perhaps a better solution is just to turn one over every Status Phase; that way, you'll get one per turn like normal, but you don't have them all at once.

Although, in answer to the previous poster's question about "why would you take it if there are no objectives?", the answer is simple, really - the Secondary! The Option B of Imperial allows you to execute the secondary without spending a CC, and prevents anyone else from doing so. Thus, you'd take it if you wanted to get a "free" build that you can move right away. I don't think Imperial II would be NOT chosen very often in most games, as that power is VERY nice!

sigmazero13 said:

It is like taking Production but forfeiting the 2 free resources to deny the secondary to all others.

It is hugh, I'll take that any days.

Also it is a must have strategy card in turn one to help early expansion.

True to both posts above. We have only played one game with Imperial II.