Already tthree times now, I started a game of Twilight Imperium with people not knowing the rules. Both times they were overwhelmed by the rules and lost interest in the game very quickly since they did not understand what everything is good for and lost the overview.

Therefore I came up with an idea of letting the rules grow while playing the game. In the first rounds for example, I would leave the strategy cards, the races special abilities and therefor also the technical advancement and cards out of the game and first start learning "to move around", produce, fight a little and so on. Some Distant-Suns-Tokens may help here and ther should be a maximum level of exploration from the home-system. Maybe even every player just builds his own ring of systems (maybe 2 empty, 1 red and 3 planet cards) around his home system and the galaxy is not created yet.

In the second or third round it is time to introduce objective cards and action cards.

Two or three turns later, the races special abilities kick in, as far as they are applicable at this time. Also, the leaders show up.

Later on, when everybody moves secure inside the rules, you could build a large map out of the small 7-system-sectors and start with introducing the strategy-cards and playing the game with all other rules.

Do you think, this could work?

I find that the best way to explain the game is to explain it "backwards".

Start by explaining objectives and Victory Points - emphasise how important they are, tell them the importance of claiming objectives, etc..

Then explain the tactical action - go through what a system is, how movement works, how CCs work on the map and how resources can build ships, but stick to the basics. Don't bother explaining all the red tiles or the details of combat or anything, just go with the stuff they need to get through the first couple of rounds. Make sure you emphasise the 7-stage "Tactical Action" bit of the race sheets.

Then explain the strategy cards - tell them what the numbers mean. Give a brief sentence telling them what they do (e.g. "Leadership - gets you some more CCs").

When you've done all that, briefly re-emphasise that VPs are important, and that resources (green) are more important that influence (red).

I have explained the game to at least 15 different people this way, and it works every time.

The problem with most people I play with, is that they like to start a game and find out how it works while playing it. For that TI3 has too many special rules negating each other for the game to be played without a long lesson (like possumman suggested). That is why I am thinking of a kind of tutorial game like i described above. My people are just too impatient...

That might just work. I normally explain the game piece by piece.

An other possibility, which I usually do, is send future TI3 players to the FFG site and have them download and read the rules... So far, every time a new player showed up to our table, he had a good idea of the general game mechanism and was more motivated to play than a new player starting from scratch...

Cheers!

Hm, most guys I know wouldn't do that or give up, I fear. But in fact, there's to consider that I live in Germany and would explain the rules in German, while they had to read them in English.

I've introduced the game to brand new players several times. Each time, I've given a basic description of the rules. This usually takes about an hour, but the players who are excited about 'complicated' games and TI's epic feel are more than content to invest an hour learning how to play. With "new new" players I wait to explain the details of movement, battles, planetary landings, etc. until they occur during the first round, and I definitely use the "expansion" phase of the game (taking over neutral planets, dealing with Distant Suns effects) as a training ground. So far this has worked very well - the main problem is my extremely dry mouth after 45-60 minutes of constant talking!

Interestingly, a couple new players have borrowed the rulebook ahead of time and said that it totally confused them. I think it's a great reference but a challenge to read if you have no 'overall concept' of the game. When I loan it out, I put sticky notes on some of the more basic sections like movement, battles, unit types, etc. so new players can use it to get some ideas of what's going on rather than expecting people to understand the game fully after a read-through.

whenever i have a new player (or players) interested in playing a game of TI3, i try and set up a "practice game" with only a few people (3-4). i'll give a description of the overall point and theme of the game, and then we start playing. we deal out strategy cards so that i go first, and any other experienced players go before the new guy(s). we'll explain everything that we're doing as we do it (tactical action is usually the first thing), and then help the new guy take his turn. after everyone has taken a tactical action (it's not too complex at the start of the game), we'll start using strategy cards while explaining each one as it is used.

there's nothing revolutionary about the way i try and introduce new players to TI3, but i do try my best to emphasize that the game is for "practice ONLY", and there is no pride at stake. after a few rounds, i'll make random attacks on other players (new and old) and encourage others to do the same. this is so that they will get a feel for how combat works, and more importantly - how expensive war can be.

i point out that they should all strive for one public objective per round if possible. after that, i'll introduce more rules as we go - space mines, shock troops, etc....

i do like to have people use their racial abilities from the beginnig because, to me, that's half the fun of the game.

What variants are you using and what special rules are you refering to?

I think the mistake most new players make is that they want to use 'the whole game' right out of the box on the first day (some even throw in the expansion).

Here are some suggestions on your frist game.

• No Leaders, No Distunt Suns, No expansion extras (Mines, colonies etc..).
• Eliminate all tiles that have unique properties from selection.
• Play without secret objectives.
• Play with all objvectives up at the start of the game.

I then suggest you play with

• Simulated early turns (You can do this even if you don't have the expansion just look it up in the Shattered Empire Book
• Play with a pre-constructed (Balanced) galaxy.

That should lower the difficulty down to a typical board game, I mean from this stage the rules aren't any more complex then anything else you guys are probobly playing.

As for teaching people to play, I strongly recommend playing 2 rounds then starting over. This method works very well for getting people to understand the basic concepts and then starting over gives them a chance to apply their new found knowledge in a real game without feeling they wasted their first turns learning.

Things you need to harp on are

• Strategy Cards. You need to make sure they get the concepts of primary and secondary abilities. You need to explain what each card does but more importantly all the different ways it can be used.
• Victory Points and Objectives: You should definitly stress that the game cannot be won through conquest and the ONLY route to victory is through the completion of Victory Objectives.
• Unit strength and Movement: Teach the command activation system and explain movement really well.

After that the players will have the basics of the game that they need to physicaly participate in the game.

In my experiance it takes 5-6 games before players start to really understand the game, not just because of complexity of the rules but because of the many unique situations that arise, but usually after the 1st game 90% of the core rules are understood and thats more then enough to keep people's interest. I find it interesting that you are having trouble generating interest in this game since in my experiance every time I have ever introduced the game to they become regulars in my email box asking me 'when...when when... will we play again."