Is there any way to contact the designers about adding an official 2 player variant? I know some parts of the game require three or more players to work, but I've had a lot of fun playing this unofficial 2 player variant.

http://www.preeminent.org/steve/games/ti3/ti3demo/2-player/home/index.shtml

Good idea!

Well I'm just going to make the attempt, I'm going to replace all references to TI3 cards/abilities with TI4 when needed, and otherwise just use these rules as written, atleast at first. Once I've added that, if there for some reason there seems to be a better way to play this in TI4, then I'll try and do that. Hoping I can edit this post much later, otherwise I may be double posting.

EDIT: Ok I can still edit. I'm not going to remake the same game that the original author did, I've simply modified the rules that he has as I saw were needed to make it work with TI4

Introduction

Foreword to this whole thing, I found this on here 2-Player Unofficial Variant Game

The idea is to repurpose this for use in TI4 from TI3. I’ve changed some of the wording below to try and give the original author credit, he himself used works from others, so I hope in the spirit of trying to expand this for the community this is deemed as ok, if the original author, or any of the authors he gathered information from have a problem with this, please let me know. I would rather discuss privately first before just taking this down, anyway onto the guide.

We're not going to follow a 2-player game of Twilight Imperium IV. Since my purpose here is to .. re-purpose the work of Stephan b Wessels, who was trying to teach, as much as possible the individual steps will be described with text and often with pictures.

There are no official 2-player rules for Twilight Imperium III or IV. This is a variant or Mr. Wessel’s variant which was based upon ideas taken from a posting to Board Game Geek by Roland Wood on 7/26/2006. Here's a link to his original article . His variant forms the basis for how we will play a 2-player game. Note that the variant posted by Roland Wood is itself derived from a 2-player variant also published to Board Game Geek by Aaron Tubb. Aaron's original post from 07/15/2006 can be found here .

Rules for a 2-Player Game

These rules are based on a 2-player game suggestion by Roland Wood posted on Board Game Geek on 7/26/2006. Here's the link to his original post .

Setup

The following steps should be followed in setting up the game.

• Remove the Super Nova and 4 Blank System Tiles.
• Shuffle the remaining Systems Tiles and deal 8 to each player. With Mecatol Rex in the centre and two home systems this will form the 19 system game with 2 rings .
• Players take turns placing tiles until complete. Each player places 1 tile on his turn in rotation.
• The 2 Home Systems are placed in the second ring around Mecatol Rex, at opposite sides.
• Setup the Public Objectives as described in the official rules.

Strategy Phase

Beginning with the player having the Speaker Token, each player chooses a Strategy Card, alternating between players until each player has All four cards.

Player order is determined in the standard manner, alternating between the two players, beginning with the player having the lowest numbered Strategy Card.

Agenda Phase

1. Each player counts up the total influence points from their ready planets they have available. Each player should collect counters for each influence vote.
2. The first agenda is read out by the speaker, then the players gather as much influence counters as they wish to spend on this vote in their fist, then when ready, the players reveal how much influence they each spent. The higher votes wins, in case of a tie, the Speaker wins. A player may abstain from the vote by not including any vote counters in their fist. An abstained vote counts as zero. If both players spend no vote tokens the player having the Speaker Token still breaks the "tie" since that's a zero-to-zero vote.
3. Bribes and trades are permitted before each vote.
4. With those vote counters consumed, the player reads the next item on the agenda and the players vote on it by putting vote counters from the remaining influence points in their fist.
5. This process repeats for the second agenda as well.

Changes to Race Special Abilities

Since the 2-player game has no provision for trade Agreements, and in fact the Trade Strategy Card does little other than give the active player free Trade Goods, a few adjustments are required for Races and Action Cards.

The Emirates of Hacan

The Emirates of Hacan are a Trade-focused race. Without Trading in play for the 2-player game they lose special abiliity. To compensate, the following suggested change is made if a player uses The Emirates of Hacan.

• The player begins with 1 Trade Good at the start of the game.
• Everytime the Trade Strategy Card is chosen, the Emirates of Hacan get a benefit of 1 Trade Token as a bonus. If they activate the Primary Ability of the Strategy Card they collect 4 Trade Goods instead of 3. If someone else takes the Trade Strategy Card, the Emirates of Hacan get 1 free Trade Good whenever the active player executes the Primary Ability of the Trade Strategy Card - without having to spend a Strategy Counter.

The Mentak Coalition

There's a Trade Goods related feature to the Special Abilities for this Race. It should be adjusted to account for this being a 2-player game.

The Special Abilities should be changed so that the player 1 Trade Good from the other player and only if they have at least 3 Trade Goods in their inventory.

Action Cards Redraw

Whenever an Action Card is drawn, the players need to evaluate if the card has a trade specific component to make it work. If it does, the card should be shown to the other player, discarded, and a new one drawn.

Maybe one of the (inevitable) Expansions will come with a 2 player variant.