You are correct, races are picked first. A slip up on my part.

That is why I like L1Z1x. No matter what type of homesystem spot you end up with, you should do ok.

Other races are more interesting then L1Z1x, but for those races to do well, they require a decent high resource double system to work with.

A great race like Yssaril does horrible if Dal Bootha system is his best double planet.

L1Z1x can still do ok even if they are stuck with Dal Bootha as his best double planet.

Barony also does ok if Dal Bootha is his best double planet.

I prefer races that can better handle a bad draw on planets to those races that have the best game winning chances.

I think Muaat can still do ok even when isolated because Muaat's tech is set up to do the pds grid to handle his defense needs. Granted, Muaat may not get his second Warsun built but Muaat is still set up to do the large fighter fleet strategy to go on the offensive.

I deffinately like trolling with The Yssaril Tribe the most. However most people find them a bit overpowered…

In my oppinion, Sol is also a really "good" (op?) race, but I think they are to easy/straight forward to play.

mostly i just like to play a race i haven't played recently… as long as it isn't the Necro virus… i hate the Necro virus…
they lack the ability to do anything fun…

1st Nekro

2nd Barony…

I like it when they know i'm coming for them.. And I like it when I crush their Home-System…

taking the Yssaril is like signing your own death-warrant in our group….

In no particular order, I've played with:

-Jol-Nar: I had a sh*tty game with them, but that was because of the way the galaxy was set up. I still liked being them a lot. We didn't finish the game when I was them, however.

-Sol: Been them twice. Obviously, very good. Possibly the best post-expansions.

-Naalu: I enjoyed them, but I played them on my second time, so I didn't know a lot of the nuance of the game. Not great but not terrible.

-Yssaril: Definitely very good. Don't know if I'd call them my favorite, but good for obvious reasons. I used the hell out of that skip ability.

-Saar: They were okay. Honestly, I'd slightly dread it if I randomly drew them again. Just generally not crazy about races that get one particular focus (Muaat's War Suns, Creuss' wormholes, Saar's space docks, etc.)

-Yin: I liked them A LOT. I definitely wouldn't say they're objectively the best or anything, but I just really enjoyed them. I can pretty much sum up every race in one or two words, but them I cannot. I really enjoyed their ability to flip the resource and influence value on a planet for a round. Not a devastating power, but it came in definite handy.

Let it be noted, I've never won a game haha. I just play too slowly and deliberately, and next thing I know someone gets 3 victory points in one turn and only needs 9 to win for some reason (Precursor space station, Support of the Throne, etc.). In the end, I'd probably say it's a tie between Sol and Yin, though Jol-Nar and Yssaril get honorable mention lol.

I simply love the Nekro Virus,

They're so much fun!

The pure dread and indecision they create among other players is just wonderful.

It helps a real lot with a wormhole to the other end of space somewhere around their home, plus some divide to keep it uninteresting for neighbours to come over early, and have yourself an easy defense.

In some games with new players, I suggest them the Nekro Virus, since they're pretty straightforward, the new player does not need to know a real lot of everything going on in the game, for example learns about new technologies as they come, instead of having to get lost in the Tech Tree.

It also forces them to try out a little aggression, and takes the the fear of "oh no, don't harm anyone, we're all nice here-violations".

Being without vote might be a little disappointing, but there are still enough options to negotiate or otherwise convince players of casting their votes in specific ways.

Only Mentak can be bothersome, once they start hoarding Trade Goods from little Tech-Ninja-attacks. On the other hand: That can be a wonderful bargain for both sides.

Oh, and before I forget: SpeedUp-Mothership!

Creuss, Muaat, Mentak,N'orr and Xxcha are my next favourite choices. Although some of them are not as simple to start with, sometimes even dangerous, they can be devastating under the right circumstances (and of course a little luck on Space Domain Counters not killing you outright).

I'm still looking forward to playing Arborec myself. They were in every game I took part in, but never played by me :/

Definitely the L1Z1X Mindnet. Hopefully, I'll get an opportunity to try out the Ghosts of Creuss.

Stormlord-XIII said:

Not a fan of the Ghosts. Generally, I don't like races that focus on one particular thing (Creuss' wormholes, Saar's spacedocks, Sardak's combat, etc.). I never get excited for wormholes when they appear (in galaxy set up or as Domain Counters). My group has given them the following buff:

"The Ghosts of Creuss get a +1 to all combat rolls when in or adjacent to a system containing a wormhole."

Note that we haven't playtested it or anything, so it could be ridiculously good, but we've all consented to it.

I've only played seven or eight times so far and a win continues to elude me, but to date i have played as Letnev, Hacan, Sol, Sardak N'orr, Saar, and Yin. My Favourite race by far is the Brotherhood of Yin. The invasion ability has been very good to me, and the flagship 'Van Hague' is in my opinion one of the best. A great race for my style of play.

Just played my first game. four players with Hacan, Yssaril,, Jol-Nar and me as Mentak. my friends all played very defensively and avoided any direct confrontation. I like to play as an agressor and immediatly attacked the Jol-Nar as soon as my forces were sufficient. The Mentak are really usefulif you like to play a little more active game. With their extra attack for cruisers and destroyers and hylar lasers as starting tech plus stealing trade goods from other players you can immediatly build up crushing cruiser fleets and dominate most non-militant races.Also their flagship is pretty good!

I'd love playing them again any time. even though our Yssaril player seemed to have a lot of fun annoying us too!

I tried every race at least once but until now my favorites are the Hacan, Creuss, Jol Nar and L1z1x.

I think the Hacan are perfect if you are planning to focus on the political cards and have alliances. You can give another player a trade agreement and get one with a value of 1 or 2 and demand, that they always vote in your favor. I did this with a Creuss player, he gave me his trade agreement with a value of 2 and we agreed that he votes in my favor on every third politcal card. After some time I took away two of his systems and demanded, that he would vote in my favor every second political card, in return I would give him one of the systems back I just conquered.

In this game I also payed the other players to vote in my favor and so you can dominate the political part of the game, simply because you get so much money (we played with the Trade II card and I had trade agreements worth 5 ressources, so I got 8 to 12 trade goods every round). Aditionally I had Mecatol Rex worth 6 influence.

With so much money I was able to afford a technology every round, and I still had enough money to have a big fleet (in the end I had both war suns, all dreadnoughts and many other ships).

The only thing I hate about the Hacan is that they loose a big advantage if you don't play with the Trade I card, because no one has to pay a CC to gain trade goods, so the special ability is worthless.

The Creuss are one of my favorites because of their mobility. As soon as you can place the additional wormholes you can be almost anywhere at anytime. All other players would have to put a destroyer or advanced fighter in every empty system in their inner border to prevent you from just popping in.

And the wormholes allow you to have your production center far away from the enemy systems and your fleets can be there in a single action.

I think that the Creuss are one of the strongest races, since every other has to expect an attack from every possible direction, it puts them into the situation that they should not thin out their fleets but yet they have to protect much more systems. The Creuss can ignore that, because they can have one big fleet and still have the mobility to defend almost every system.

About the Jol Nar I like the fact that, if you have enough resources, you can get so many technologies and, like Saikoro said, steamroll almost every enemy. But they are not my biggest favorites, because they are specialized on a part of the game that is very vulnerable, I mean you need really a lot of resources to get many technologies and if you have bad planet around you you are pretty much f….

The L1z1x are in my list of favorites because they start with good technologies, have a good fleet and have very good abilities. I think they can survive with almost any setup and can easily become one of the biggest threat in the game. The only problem is that experienced players know that and try to hold you down and sabotage you with politcal cards as much as possible.

About all the other races: I have played many of them only once, so I don't want to judge about them but many of them sound very good and I think some of them need some experience, I mean that you have to play three or four times with them in order to really understand them and play well.

First, keep in mind our group rarely finishes a game… maybe 1 in 4. Hard to find west coast players. But when we do, our players tend to be the agressive warmongering types with massive fleets so there is usually a big apocalyptic war around turn 6-7.

I have played L1Z1X, Norr, Jol Nar, Mentak (multiple times), Arborec, Letnev (multiple times), Nekkro, Naalu, Yssaril, Muaat, and the Yin.

I have never seen Xxcha played, not once. I have played against all the other races.

That said, I really really want to play Sol. They are a solid race with good starting tech, racials and abilities.

I like playing Letnev, they are a militaristic nightmare just waiting to happen. The last time I played them I placed a TS right outside the home system and that combo alone made me a holy terror. Their HS production capacity is a huge advantage, I churned out fleet after fleet. The Mentak are fun too, you have to get into the pirate aspect though. Pull out your "Arrrrg, me Maty" attitude and go all Jabba the Hutt on someone from turn 1 if you can - pick someone and make their life miserable and hope for enough backalley agreements to keep you safe while you do.

But so far, the Arborec are my favorite. Granted, I havent played Letnev since the latest expansion hit and I am eager to do so. But the Arborec are SCARY. The ability to just pop out a fleet ensures you take the fight to your opponant's turf, and IMHO are the best race for a "occupy another player's HS" objective. The one time I played them, I built a bunch of GF and pushed them out to a planet in the first ring and viola! 2 turns and an SD later, I am churning out more GF and all the ships I needed to position for a handy victory. Unfortunately, we did not finish that game but I was at 6 VP and leading the pack when we shut that one down.

I'm lucky enough to have a group that plays TI once a month. We've gotten around 14 or so games in.

I'm trying to play a different race each time. So far, I've won with the Letnev, the Hacan and the L1Z1X.

My top 3 favorite races are: The Hacan, the Letnev and the Mentak.

I found the Letnev to be my favorite "warlike" race. They can pump out a lot of units each turn and it's much easier for them to manage large fleets while still scoring objective points.

I played the Mentak for the first time this month. Their Mirror Computing racial tech is one of the best techs in the game. Their ability to "first strike" with cruisers and destroyers is nice and fits into my play style (I rarely create a dreadnought). I had a lot of fun playing the pirates!

Overall my favorite race would have to be the Hacan. Thematically, I like the idea of space faring merchant cats. They have a great economy which helps you tune your play to the meet the objectives on the table. You're not forced down one path to victory with the cats. I almost won a game with them by taking a more warlike stance. The game I did win with them I focused on techs and the "I now spend…" objectives.