I’ve been looking into picking up Twilight Imperium for my gaming group. Everything about this game looks stunning and I’m personally sold. I have a few questions about it though as I know my gaming group struggles with games that are overly complex. If anyone could help me out I would greatly appreciate it.

1.Ideally every player should read the rule book for a game, my group sucks at that and I tend to read the rules and explain the game to them, and they typically learn through the first game. Does anyone have start up experience with TI in this sense?

2. How complicated is this game really? I’ve read contradicting reviews, and it doesn’t seem too bad to me, but I have introduced games to my group that they’ve struggled with.

3. Play time? FFG says 3-6hrs, but I’ve seen complaints that it can take up to 12hrs online. (Personally a 12hr space conquest sounds awesome.)

Hello and welcome to the wonderful world of TI4! This is a phenomenal game and one well worth the investment if you and your friends enjoy epic, space opera experiences. TI4 is the curated best of the previous edition and its two expansions, presented with a Learn-to-Play booklet for faster starts and a Rules Reference for the inevitable questions that arise for edge cases.

Some brief answers to your questions:

1+2] TI4 is NOT a complex game, but there are a moderate amount of rules that are dependent on observing a structured approach and timing windows for various actions. While I think it's great that you're volunteering yourself to be the "rules guru", might I recommend one or two videos that everyone can watch to get a better handle on the game before your first session?

From Shay Parker of RTFM:

And Ben Harsh from Harsh Rules:

3] Realistically, for first-time players it would be reasonable to expect a full game to take 8-10 hours (including a lunch/dinner break somewhere about halfway through your session). Once everyone has one or two games under their belt, the play time drops moderately and experienced players can complete a game within 5 hours.

Best of luck! 🖖

@tmr15 Thank you for this information and the videos. I’ll definitely check these out and show them to my group.

In short, yes.

I hardly get to play this game, but I have no regrets at all

Except maybe for the regret that I don't have enough hard core gamer friends to reliably play this game regularly =P

There is no game I look forward to playing more. It is not hard to teach, I am the only one in my play group that has read the rules, after a few rounds everyone has the hang of it and then it is just understanding the strategic plays.

The answer to the topic question is yes, yes you should. There is no greater game.

But.....

While it's not complex it feels complex and is daunting to new players. Those videos are really helpful for that though.

It can take a long time for 2 main reasons - if your group is chatty, especially in terms of "sorry, what just happened? I wasn't paying attention", and the other reason is analysis paralysis. There are many options and min-max type players can get bogged down in "2 fighters or 2 ground forces" type decisions, slowing everyone down.

17 hours ago, James Mayfield said:

The answer to the topic question is yes, yes you should. There is no greater game.

But.....

While it's not complex it feels complex and is daunting to new players. Those videos are really helpful for that though.

It can take a long time for 2 main reasons - if your group is chatty, especially in terms of "sorry, what just happened? I wasn't paying attention", and the other reason is analysis paralysis. There are many options and min-max type players can get bogged down in "2 fighters or 2 ground forces" type decisions, slowing everyone down.

I will admit that I'm one of those that struggle with that analysis paralysis in this game. And I'm chatty. But it is totally worth getting. Then again, I luckily got mine for 1/2 price during a Black Friday sale at a local game store that had just been purchased by another chain.

The length of the game is actually part of its appeal- it was meant be an epic experience. However, as mentioned above, there is also the problem of turns taking longer than they need to be because of rules questions, distractions and players who succumb to AP. It helps if one person acts as a "gamemaster" to keep everyone else on topic and tactical actions moving along. That means one player does need to know the rules pretty well so they can shepherd the rest of their group to the game's climatic end.

On 7/28/2020 at 3:40 PM, Wintercross said:

In short, yes.

I hardly get to play this game, but I have no regrets at all

I think this could be a quote on the box because I think most TI fans kind of fall into this category.

Its without question the biggest dust collector on my shelf, while simultaneously I fully intend to be buried with it.

I have found that 99% of the time, if someone has gotten as far as "considering" to buy TI4, then it's the kind of game that person would love!

If things like "long gameplay" or "4X" or "tons of content" or "$150 MSRP" haven't already pushed you away, then this is definitely the game for you!

I love this game. It is colourful, epic and engrossing. But it is a big investment and with that much interaction between players, the game above the table tends to be more important than the game on the table. Beware of kingmaking and with veteran players, be prepared to see this game devolve into some kind of SciFi "Diplomacy" (the game).