Has anyone ever tried to have more than 8 players in a game at one time? IF so, how many sets of TI did you use? How many total players were there? Details? Details? Details?

I haven't, but I would love to.

I would assume that any such game would require playing over several days and leaving the board set up. Not to mention very committed players (or maybe they should be committed ).

Obviously, it would need a larger board, but that would depend on just how many players your talking about. One option for a board would be to have multiple boards connected via wormholes. Have 2 normal size boards without Mecatol Rex, each with half the player's home systems, plus a third board (maybe only 13 hexes) that includes Mecatol Rex that connects to the other boards via wormholes. That would enable the map to be broken up a bit, possibly on separate tables, so that things don't get as crowded, but you might loose the sense of Epic grandeur that a 6 hex radius map would provide.

Presumably you would need to paint some plastic pieces additional colors. That is something I have been wondering about myself. Anyone got any experience with spray painting the plastic? How well does it hold up?

There is also the option of starting with the map randomized and some or all non home system hexes flipped face down. You have to send ships into unknown hexes to find out what is there. Obviously, this would slow the game down a lot, but if you are planning a big 10 player game (or whatever) your probably not too concerned with time anyway.

You should probably play to a higher VP total as well. More players means bigger map, bigger map means it takes longer to fly around it and engage people, which means it is less likely that players will fight each other and more likely that they will turtle up and just sprint for objectives. Definitely recomend using artifacts (possibly more than normal) concentrated around Mecatol Rex.

That's off the top of my head. As a bonus, here , look at this picture for inspiration

Wow, that pic is awesome!

Did you guys use more than 8 strategy cards, if so which ones?

Wow, that pic is awesome!

Did you guys use more than 8 strategy cards, if so which ones?

Wasn't my game, I just found the picture buried on board game geek somewhere. The picture is just a 4 player game, so no reason they would need more strategy cards.

Your right though that you would need more if you did a game with more than 8 players. I would probably look to add both technology cards, both warfares, both leadership and logistics and maybe both trades. Depending on the number of players. If you need more than that the only ones you really can't mix are assembly and initiative, and I would avoid imperial 2 and bureaucracy as well. You'd have to set some rules on the initiative order for cards with the same number, I'd suggest the white cards have .5 added to their initiative number.

Wow, that pic is awesome!

Did you guys use more than 8 strategy cards, if so which ones?

Wasn't my game, I just found the picture buried on board game geek somewhere. The picture is just a 4 player game, so no reason they would need more strategy cards.

Your right though that you would need more if you did a game with more than 8 players. I would probably look to add both technology cards, both warfares, both leadership and logistics and maybe both trades. Depending on the number of players. If you need more than that the only ones you really can't mix are assembly and initiative, and I would avoid imperial 2 and bureaucracy as well. You'd have to set some rules on the initiative order for cards with the same number, I'd suggest the white cards have .5 added to their initiative number.

Not sure I agree with you on the +0.5 numbering since that would mean that there would be 2 of the same strategy but slightly different directly after eachother. I'd probably instead change the 8 to have initiative "number of players" and then set the extra strategy cards as numbers 8 through "number of players -1"

holy cow that gameboard is awesome!! I would play every weekend in college, and we definitely would have loved to tackle that.

For strategy cards, why not use the different versions of the strategies from the expansions?

For strategy cards, why not use the different versions of the strategies from the expansions?

But which ones? That is what he is asking.

[Not sure I agree with you on the +0.5 numbering since that would mean that there would be 2 of the same strategy but slightly different directly after eachother. I'd probably instead change the 8 to have initiative "number of players" and then set the extra strategy cards as numbers 8 through "number of players -1"

Completely side note, I do shudder to think of the Jol Nar in a game with both tech cards and enough players that someone HAS to take each of them every round. They'd be getting, what?, at least 2, probably 3 and maybe as many as 5 techs a turn?

Well you could start by ruling out duplicate strategies that have synergy with a particular race. Then assign the +.5 so that the player who had the worse strategy card last time will naturally get the one with better order.

Now, that I have access to all of the Strategy cards in the game, I feel the best way to proceed with Strategy card selection is to use the cards with different titles first.

As some examples off of the top of my head, at 9 players, maybe use Initiative and Leadership #1 cards. At 10 players, include both Political and Assembly Strategy cards. At 11 players, include both Logistics and Production Strategy Cards. Just for some ideas.

As to who gets to act in what order with same initiative cards, let the players with the same Strategy card numbers roll for it after all cards have been chosen.

There is a reason why the non-duplicate named cards aren't allowed to be mixed in regular games, Leadership, assembly and production need each other and don't necessarily work together with initiative, political and logistics. The biggest issue is that you need to only have one strategy card that allows a player to claim the speaker token. Claiming the token is a BIG part of those cards and you don't want to neutralize one of them by including the other as well. Unfortunately, assembly involves both the speaker token AND political cards, but assembly and political handle the political cards differently, so they aren't very compatible. If you have assembly, you cante ally have initiative, so you have to have leadership as well, but leadership's ability overlaps with logistics, if you had both of those then command counters would be a lot more common. That might not be a problem, but it is so ethng you should think about.

The cards with duplicate names, however, are essentially totally self contained and can be doubled up without creating any rules conundrums. Whether having 2 trade cards or 2 warfare cards, or whatever would throw off the balance of the game is another question though.

Only through trial and error at this point, do I feel that you will be able to find the right mix of Strategy cards, for a game with more than 8 players.

Including 2 Warfares, might lead to a more Blood thirsty game. Having 2 Trade Strategy cards will definitely have a lot more production, in the game, because of more trade goods in play to use.If not, I am sure that by having a second or third Grade card in play, will certainly cause a rise in bribes, whether the bribes are used for non aggression pacts or political manuvering.