My "Christmas money"-purchased copy TWI:3 just arrived! This thing is huge! I cannot wait to open it.

What is the ideal number of people for this game? At what size group does this game just shine?

And are there any really good 2 player variations?

Thanks!

4 players and up is enjoyable. In general, the more the merrier. If you pick up Shattered Empire you can bump it up to 8, which is a truely epic experience, although it has been known to take a long ass time to finish with that many.

I don't know of any 2 player varaints, nor would I be inclined to play them. This is a game where you want to fill as many seats as you can.

Are you in Central Florida? IF so Ill play other wise, i found 3 players Ideal for learning the game, its alos the minimum number of players for a game.

The first time I got it I actualy played a 3 player game solo just to learn the rules at my pace. I left it set up in my game room for 3 days as i went over each aspect of the game. I recomend you do the same. Jumping into a new game with experienced players can be ill advised.

You pretty much need shattered empire once you really start playing...aside from a lot of cool new stuff, the new strategy cards unbreak a lot of the problems seen in the core game.

I put up adds in my local game shops, founda a few players that way...it's a very intensive game, so you want people who are used to learning complex games.

Atraangelis, whereabouts in Florida are you? I'm down near Lauderdale, so maybe a little far off but...

I'm In winter springs, (north Orlando Area).

aw nuts, too bad. Hard to find players around here

You can try local hobby shops as a place to start, and BGG tends to have game-finder threads. The general rule of thumb is that with an experienced group that knows the rules, it's 1 hour per player. You can easily shave down the time though:

1) Use preset maps. The default map creation method, where players take turns placing tiles, results in slightly slower games since the incentive is to stick in your pie slice and not attack neighbours. Instead, draft a few maps with wormholes placed so that each player can interact with a number of others, and that some players start different distances away from Rex; some closer, some farther. Place valuable or rich systems equidistant from two or three players to create some competition, and don't be afraid to put various hazards together (technically illegal but makes for more interesting map features). For 4 or 5 players I like to do 3 hexes out from Rex in the centre, and have a couple players in the 2nd ring and a couple players starting in the third ring.

2) Use Artifacts from Shattered Empires. If you don't have SE, simply nominate 2+(1 to 3) (roll a six-sided die and divide by two) high value planets as giving a victory point as long as they are held and mark those systems in some way with a token.

3) Play to 7 points. I find this trims off a good chunk of time but still delivers a fairly satisfying win, especially with artifacts/VP planets.

4) Trim the objective deck to 5 Stage 1 + 3 Stage 2 objectives. Works well if playing to 7 points and if playing with artifacts/VP planets.

5) Institute a time limit for turns. Rather draconian but it works and gets people focused on planning their next moves in advance.

6) Move on to the next player if a player is simply building and counting out plastic tokens. Keep plastic models in bowls or other open containers that are easy to grab from. In some situations, like an imminent assault on a Space Dock, you might need to wait, but most of the time you can safely keep moving through the turn order.

7) Don't use Space Mines, Leaders, Mercenaries, Shock Troops, Distant Suns/Domain Counters (not an issue if you don't have the expansions.) You can probably manage one or two, but keeping the fiddliness down helps keep down time.

We've managed to cut a 5 player game to about 3.5 hours, including setup. A lot of the time the difficulty is in finding players with the time commitment; by shaving down the play time you can hopefully broaden the number of players you can include.

A lot of good advice here already, the only I would suggest differently from other is I would say DO use distant suns (well, Territorial Distant Suns anyway as it reduces the risk of being taken out of the game early on). Distant Suns add a lot of flavour and fun and deliver (in my opinion) a much better, more epic experience for a moderate increase in play time (I've played a lot of TI games now and I've found that peoples claims about the amount of extra time Distant Suns adds are exaggerated a bit and the amount of time it saves is in my opinion, not worth the experience you lose).

I would also add:

Player wise, I'm not sure if there's a satisfactory 2 player variant out there. As this isn't your standard board game (it's more of a day event)- it's worth getting the extra players. I've played 3 player, 4 player, 5 player and 7 player games. 3 players game are good fun and a good way to learn the game (especially if everybody's new) but once you've got 2-3 games under your belt you want to get at least one more player. Once the players are a bit more experienced 'king making' can become a bit of a problem in 3 player games and it will always be down to whatever player can get one of the others on his side. I've heard the game plays best with 6 people which is something I really want to try. My best games (and most common games) have been 4 player however the 5 player game was great fun if a little tough on the person who is 'squashed' between his two neighbours (5 player maps aren't particularly well balanced by default). The 7 player game was epic...but the game definitely struggled a bit under its own weight.

Once you've played your very first game. Immediately add the Shattered Empire expansion if possible. The first game should just be about learning the basic mechanics about the game but as soon as you add the Shattered Empires stuff (particularly the far superior strategy cards) you'll see Twilight Imperium start fulling all the potential you saw in your first game that may have not been realised at the time.

One final thing I will say is that whilst you can get the play time down to just a few hours (about an hour per player if everyone is really experienced and focussed)- the best thing I've found is simply remove the stress of time by accepting it's going to take a while and make an event of it. I plan my Twilight days in advance, I send out invites, I get in a lot of snacks and drinks and tell everybody to not worry about time, if the game finishes late and they don't want to drive home they can stay for the night!. Twilight Imperium is an epic game and it should be treated as such. If time is a critical factor I would suggest playing another game.

Hope that helps!

I have to admit I don't have any players, I play it solo all the time and it really can be a lot of fun solo. I originally intended it as a means of tracking fleets in a galaxy scale WH40k campaign, but its rules are just so darn good I now only come to 40k (either DOW 1&2) or the tabletop to resolve invasions. If I'm in too much of a hurry for that (going to work later that day) then the TI3 rules get used even for that.