So I've played for the first time with the SE addon. 4 experienced TI standalone players. We've played for over 5 hours, which most of the time very low score as the 8th strategy card has been replaced (so no 2 points).

I was wondering if there were ideas or house rules which you guys have experience with the shorten teh game abit (playing to 7 points seem an option but a lame one imo).With shortening the game i mean to make is or a bit faster, or change a few things so it takes like 20% less time to play not much more....

I already allowed players to complete more then 1 objective at the end of every turn to speed it up a bit. Problem with that is that the new bureaucracy card is less interesting (since you can claim any numebr of objectives at the end of your turn). So I need a way to compensate that card with an extra. Open to ideas on that as well!

Thank you in advance for any suggestions!

Play age of empire, where you deal out all the objectives at the start, stopping dealing when the game over card hits. This way you can start claiming objectives right away. Buerocracy lets you claim one extra objective per turn (and the command counter), rewarding those who think well. We've also house ruled where if on the last turn before game over would hit, someone plays buerocracy, they're allowed to "delay" the game over by drawing a new stage 2 and placing it before the game over, so you're able to delay the end jsut as if you encountered game over as one of your choices in the normal game.

Thanks for the answer, Age of Empire sounds like a plan, gonna give it a try next game!

Honest opinion, cram as many of the Otional rules into the game as possible and grab yourself Shard of the Throne.

I know it'snot great to be told tog et the new expansion but I found with the added Preliminary Objective cards, the new extra objectives and using the Replacement 3 and 8 from Shards of the trhone has pushed the game to roll on faster. I personally always hated the 2vp part of n8 which always led to the infuriating situation of everyone having to work together to keep n8 from repeatedly falling into the leading players hand.

I've been "training" a new playgroup this year and this was everyone's main complaint. These are all the things we do to speed things up:

Use the Age of Empire variant with the Imperial II card. Knowing how to score points speeds up the game considerably.

The rest of the strat cards are the Shattered Empire variants. They're higher power than the other cards, so I feel like they make scoring easier.

No Distant Suns. It slows down initial expansion, and therefore VP-scoring. I like them, but they do really slow down the first 3 turns.

No Leaders. Less time figuring out what ship/planet to put them on, should I sabotage, consulting the manual to see if they were killed/captured, etc.

No Space Mines. Makes turtling easier, destroys resources, and it's one more decision for people to make when activating a system.

No Shock Troops. They're cool, but require additional bookkeeping.

When someone announces they are producing, go ahead and start taking the next turn. It rarely matters to the next player exactly what they build.

Age of Empire, Distant Suns, and going during someone's build phase are the biggest.

I'd say, use the Simulated Early Turns. It's far from perfect, but worth it when game time is important.

All other aspects have been covered extensively already and don't lose their value by using SET.

Off topic but Happy Birthday Whip, Virgos represent'n yeaaah *bump fist*

Does, really. Is my ascendent zodiac sign, also. And, numerologically, my name points to Virgo. In short, I'm plain and boring, easy to read. *sigh*

Thanx, didn't notice that little cake icon myself...