I need help, is it worth getting the Shattered Empire expansion even if I most likely will not play an eight player game?
Expansion discision
Definitely. I rarely get a more than 4 player game in and I would not dream of going back to "vanilla" TI3. The races, new planet/system types, and Strategy cards are all very nice.
kaiflax said:
I need help, is it worth getting the Shattered Empire expansion even if I most likely will not play an eight player game?
Simply put, yes.
Shattered Empire is looked on by most playes as a patch of sorts for the main game. It replaces some cards with errata cards and improves the rules concerning the Imperial Card. Many people feel the original Imperial Card gives to many Victory Points, making it too powerful (it also becomes the card EVERYBODY takes first when they are speaker, otherwise you have little to no chance of winning!). The new Shattered Empire Imperial Card reduces the victory point value and adds the option of taking the secondary objective instead, for the holder of the card. New rules also are added that improve overall game play, if you so chose to use them.
The added bits for an 8 player game are just icing on the cake.
Up to you, but I highly recommend Shattered Empire.
Dan
Absolutely, yes.
Shattered Empire adds a lot more to the game than just support for another two players. It gives you a whole new set of Strategy Cards that don't suffer from the "Imperial/Initiative" cycle that will lose you the game if you don't follow it. It also gives you a formal variant for Imperial if you'd rather use the basic set of SCs (Imperial II.) It adds Shock Troops, which can be a game changer in Invasion Combat.
It adds a number of other optional inclusions like space mines, colonies/refineries (adjust the resource/influence value of a planet), relics, etc, which are not necessarily "must haves" but they can still be fun to play with. And of course, they add new ACs, PCs, DS tokens, and so on to add variety to the elements of the game you're already familiar with.
Shards has a new set of racial techs, but having the ones from SE as well makes things that much more exciting (two techs each!)
If you want to get Shards of the Throne first, by all means do so, but keep SE on the radar because it has a bunch of stuff I can't imagine living without since I added it to my base game.
digdoug said:
"Only the mediocre of intellect can stand the tedium of being good." Tesla
Interesting quote....
To that I respond- "Only the strong of will and soul can resist the easy draw of Evil..."
Steve-O said:
Absolutely, yes.
Shattered Empire adds a lot more to the game than just support for another two players. It gives you a whole new set of Strategy Cards that don't suffer from the "Imperial/Initiative" cycle that will lose you the game if you don't follow it. It also gives you a formal variant for Imperial if you'd rather use the basic set of SCs (Imperial II.) It adds Shock Troops, which can be a game changer in Invasion Combat.
It adds a number of other optional inclusions like space mines, colonies/refineries (adjust the resource/influence value of a planet), relics, etc, which are not necessarily "must haves" but they can still be fun to play with. And of course, they add new ACs, PCs, DS tokens, and so on to add variety to the elements of the game you're already familiar with.
Shards has a new set of racial techs, but having the ones from SE as well makes things that much more exciting (two techs each!)
If you want to get Shards of the Throne first, by all means do so, but keep SE on the radar because it has a bunch of stuff I can't imagine living without since I added it to my base game.
Very well put...
all right I'm going to get my self a copy.