I am wondering if I should bother getting to galaxy mat with the new expansion coming out. Can anyone tell if the galaxy will be built the same, just more cramped for 8 people than 6?

I would imagine that since the expansion will allow for 8 players, that they have to change how the layout is created in order to fit in 2 more home systems and enough other tiles to make it work. I have the galaxy mat from FFG and I also have a 3rd party board (made of wood and painted black) that I bought on etsy. And I have to admit that I don't even bother using the galaxy mat anymore. On a totally unrelated note, if you are interested in buying a very lightly used galaxy mat, let me know. 😄

17 hours ago, BlastyMcBlasterFace said:

I am wondering if I should bother getting to galaxy mat with the new expansion coming out. Can anyone tell if the galaxy will be built the same, just more cramped for 8 people than 6?

I am pretty sure they will be an extra "ring" for 8 player games

The current 3-ring FFG mat has small spaces between the tiles , so it's possible that when players build the 4-ring 7 or 8 player board they may be able to just fit everything on the mat by pushing the tiles together...

I understand why, but that mat is about half the cost of the game, that is a pretty expensive accessory. Though I do find that even after 10 years of playing this game we still screw up map creation pretty much always so I think it is a nice feature and FFG mats of which I own a few are extremely good quality so you do get what you pay for.

On 8/2/2020 at 3:10 AM, Wintercross said:

I am pretty sure they will be an extra "ring" for 8 player games

In the Gen Gon 2020 livestream of Prophecy of Kings they showed the page of the rulebook which has the 8-player setup. It does indeed have a 4th ring of systems. (@ 35:46)

I have used my copy of the TI4 base game and mat to see how well another ring of systems would fit. Turns out that it will fit with a tiny bit of room to spare, but there won't be any space between the system tiles like the 4- to 6-player setup does on the current mat, which means that your tiles won't line up with the printed hexes on the mat. (Not a big deal really.)

I am hoping that FFG decides to make an 8-player mat, even if that means that they slightly increase the dimensions of the mat. I really like having the pre-printed hexes and especially the starting positions for all of the different player counts.

On 8/4/2020 at 5:47 AM, BigKahuna said:

I understand why, but that mat is about half the cost of the game, that is a pretty expensive accessory.

How much did your mat and game cost?? The MSRP of the game is $149.95 and the MSRP of the mat is $39.95.

On 8/5/2020 at 4:07 PM, Wh0isTh3D0ct0r said:

How much did your mat and game cost?? The MSRP of the game is $149.95 and the MSRP of the mat is $39.95.

The exchange rates in Europe vary, when I bought the game I paid about 100 bucks. The mat today is about 60 dollars.

4 hours ago, BigKahuna said:

The exchange rates in Europe vary, when I bought the game I paid about 100 bucks. The mat today is about 60 dollars.

I guess that's because the game is relatively easy to find right now while the mat is relatively hard to find.

According to Dane, there are no current plans to revise the TI4 playmat. He mentioned this in passing during an interview with SPCT.