I was really hoping for a 2 player option as it is hard enough to find 3 people who are willing to spend betwean 6 and 12 hours for a game session.

Lately i am more in to Co-op Board games where i am even able to play alone.

But oke this is a RTS game so Co-Op is not really an option i guess but at least 2 players would have been nice.

Politics are pretty difficult in a two player game. Though Belfort's 2 player mode offers a possible solution by having two 'npc' races that switch controlling player's hands each round. They could have special objectives that gain players points for certain actions through a 'npc' race.

Some games just aren't for two players, IMO, and Twilight Imperium is one of them. I don't think it's worth trying to cram this square peg into that round hole.

For two players i would just recommend playing Star Wars: Rebellion. Star Trek Frontiers works also well with 2 players (and even with solo play) but being based on Mage Knight it's more RPG-like.

Of course, real 4X like TI for 2 is a bit more complicated...

Right, it would require rules for adding 'NPC races'.

This might be a cool feature added in an expansion. Even with more players it might be cool to be able to add NPC factions.

There was a custom ruleset for 2-player-games for TI3, I could send it to you if you like. Should be applicable for TI4 as well. But this is a game for 4-5 players, really. In my opinion, best for 5.

I made a homebrewed 2-player variant for TI3, whereas you set-up like a 3-player game with a third virtual player like the Automa in Stonemaier games (like Sythe)

It would need a bit of work to adapt it to 4th ed, but the core principles should work.

Wel i think it is a miss to not have an option for 2 players.

It would also be cool if there was a Solo play maybe Co-op play variant but then a compleet different play stile something like playing against the board After a big War where most side's did Loose u are one of the few survivors and try to salvage ship parts to upgrade your own ship so u have a better change to survive against the others.

Something like that many thing they could do.

Lately there are more and more games who have some sort of smart AI Card decks, to control the enemy behavior make something like that.

"Other games have AI decks" is a red herring. For the most part, those games are far simpler than the monstrous beast which is Twilight Imperium. This is a game where you're managing a dozen things at once -- fleet building, deterrent and warfare deployment, politics and diplomacy, trading and resource management, technological development, area control and exploitation, direct combat, abstract objectives, and more! -- and it's how you coordinate all of those decisions that determines whether you're going to win. You can't get that sort of game play from a deck of cards.

Ti3 is now 12-13 years old i had it also but just recently did sell it because it is harder for me to find 3 people who like to play for almost a day.

So lately i did buy some games who are also playable with 2 people have less playtime and if possible can be played solo or in co op.

And i have to say there are a lot of games who have also Sci-fy settings and are epic.

I really like Ti3 and maybe i buy Ti4 because i did read that is a bit better streamlined and even playable in less time.

But i did also play Xia Legends of a drift system and its expansion xia Ember of a forsaken star.

Totally not to compair with Twilight but i really like it and u can play it alone or with 5 people and a lot of nice mechanics are in the game who would also be nice in Twilight.

What i want to say is for the real Twilight players this new version is a no brainer i think but for peole who have less time like me there are lots of other games who are also nice and Epic.

2 hours ago, pklevine said:

"Other games have AI decks" is a red herring. For the most part, those games are far simpler than the monstrous beast which is Twilight Imperium. This is a game where you're managing a dozen things at once (...) You can't get that sort of game play from a deck of cards.

I'm convinced that a AI deck could work, if you accept that the AI does not play by the same rules as other players. The game one would experience against an AI deck would be different from that of game against a human player(s), but it may be close enough to be a fulfilling and fun TI experience.

Due to the complexity of the game, I could see a 2-player game set as a 3-player game with one AI (rather than enough AIs to make it up to a 6-player game). In this case, the point is not so much whether the AI is likely to win the game (one of the human player is going to win), but whether it can be competitive enough for the game to remain a 3-way war.

So while it's too bad that it isn't included in the base game, I'm sure fans will come up with one (or a few) AI deck(s) before the end of next summer.

Perhaps an App to run 1 or more races would be more appropriate for TI4 than an 'AI' deck. The app would randomly generate the galaxy instead of the player having to input the location of each system tile. It would be up to the player to actually move the physical ships belonging to the NPR PC and they would need to input the location and type of ships that they (the player) controls. It would also be up to the player to make trade by selecting the option. Any time an action card, political card, or strategy card is played the player would have to select it so the AI knows that it is being played and what the target is. The NPC's decisions would be based on a scale of friend vs foe (how nice the player is to them) vs what they need for VPs. Most of the expansion would revolve around gaining resources and VPs. But would also take into account potential military threats to their space.

It could be done. But it's above my skill set. It would be a nice addition. Just go to your app store and buy it.