...anyone have some? I think I understand the rules and such, but any advice or hints would be helpful. I want to make sure I understand the rules properly before I run it next Saturday.

There will undoubtedly be rules you miss or forget or misinterpret. With a game this big, it's basically inevitable. So discuss in advance some kind of system for resolving rules disputes that you can't figure out in the heat of the moment.

Oh, and if you're all newbies, prepare yourselves to be at this all day long. Seriously.

Some play aides can be very helpful when learning and first playing Twilight Imperium. I still make use of these.

http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/69373/ti3-compact-rules-rundown-v1?

A sheet with all he units on it. Give one to each player and they'll be able to update their units' numbers as they change throughout the game. This way the numbers are ready at a glance and don't have to be refigured all the time.

Wow, how did the font of my first sentence end up so large? My tablet computer doesn't seem to agree with these forums at times.

Anyway, have fun, you'll make a few mistakes, but hopefully everyone will have a good time and will want to play again.

Another good thing is to ask the other players to at least scan through the basics in the rule books beforehand. Either on the TI3 minipage or if you download and distribute the PDF version of the rules. With basics I mean turn order, moving, producing units and such.

Also, there is a very good TI3 tutorial available online. It is a sample 3-player game with only the base rules that take you through the game step by step. Findable here: http://www.preeminent.org/steve/games/ti3/ti3demo/

Kerrin2 said:

I couldn't download the info from the site.

adamwehn said:

I got the files to work.

Whenever I teach this game I always start with an overview of the games winning condition. Unless you want to have a 12 hour game, its important for everyone to get into the spirit of the games ONLY purpose. To win. And as such the only way to win is through VICTORY POINTS. I would repeat that at least a dozen times before you start and another dozen each round as you play until thats the only thing anyone thinks about. Once a group adapts this mantra you can start having both better, more interesting and shorter games.

Beyond that I would skip as many variants as humanly possible and play with the races who's special abiltiies are simple and obvious, rather than some of the more complicated ones.

You are probobly still going to end up with a game that exceeds the expected time of the game, so do prepare yourself to bunker down for a longer evening, in particular if no one in the group has played before.

As for general tips for new players. I have a standard list.

1. Don't take it personally. That action card someone played against you, or some random system someone decided to invade may piss you off, but the question is, how will going into a war of vendetta help you win? Most likely it won't and so make sure that every action you take, every reaction you have and the overall strategy you form is focused on earning victory points and winning the game, not chasing revenge. Don't waste resources bashing someone if it doesn't help you win the game.

2. With rule number one in mind, don't let someone grow powerful enough to sweep you when you get close to victory. Pre-emptive strikes and strikes intended to disrupt, upset and push into making mistakes are wonderful psychological tools for screwing with someones head while you work out your victory. If they don't follow these tips, you have an edge. I always tell people, think of your military on the board as an extension of your politics and diplomacy. TI3 is not a war game, no amount of war will help you win, but it is the definitive tool to distract and disrupt peoples plans.

3. You don't have to spend all your command tokens. I see this often with new players, they play every round to the last command token regardless of anything, often just activating systems and moving a random unit into an irrelevant position just to stay in the round. Don't be affraid to pass and save the tokens, use them when it serves your strategy, pass when it doesn't.

4. Save action cards. Don't smoke them just because you can. Action cards are the great equalizers and their is nothing like timing a card well and foiling someones plans. This takes a bit of experiance, but learning to use action cards well is a key strategy of the veteran player.

5. Diplomacy and Politics. I can't say enough about how vital these two components are. What you say and what you don't say at the table will often have far more impact on your ability to win the game than any tactical move you can make. Be aware of strengths and weakness of players (not just their races). Its hard to give advice on how to do this well, but I can tell you this. Its impossible to win a game of Twilight Imperium, if someone decides that they will dedicate themselves to making sure you lose. So be weary of the revenge factor.

Finally I can say that Twilight Imperium is about group dynamics. Every player has his own style and approach to the game and as such, group dynamics form that create tactical, strategic and political situations that are unique to their group. For example some groups consider Mecatol Rex a vital component to any good strategy and as such it becomes a constant point of contention, while others ignore it entirely seeing it as not worth the resources to fight for and something you get to fill that secret objective in the end. War Suns in some groups are B line, ASAP items, while others consider such persuits pointless ventures reckognizing that the game is not won through warefare but at the diplomatic table. How it works in your group may suprise you, but I've never played a game of Twilight with one group and than another without noting significant changes in the atmosphere and direction of the game.

Good luck with your game and come back and tell us how it turned out!

Oh and one more thing, Shattered Empire is a must have expansion for this game. If you haven't already got it, its your first stop, I wouldn't even bother with vanilla strategy cards to be honest.

BigKahuna said:

On getting the expansion, I plan to when I can afford to, I survive off social security disability money. As for taking things personally, it's a bunch of D&D'ers I'll be playing with, they don't take anything personally.

adamwehn said:

If nothing else I suggest downloading the Twilight Imperium vassal module, unzipping the file to get all the art assets digitaly and printing out the Strategy Cards from the expansion, using those instead of the vanilla game. Not sure how legal all that is, but the vassal module is legal and as such I assume they had permission to create the module from Fantasy Flight which in turn has given them permission to distribute the art assets with the module. In either case downloading it is perfectly legal to my knowledge.

This file has all of the strategy cards from the base game and the shattered empire expansion. It might be useful for printing purposes.

http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/25271/strategiccards_helpcards_v_1-pdf

I've printed out the sheet (it has each set of cards on a separate sheet) when playing with new players so they can be figuring out which cards they might want to pick while someone else is choosing a card.

Kerrin2 said:

Hopefully the site isn't down next time I try to access it.

Hello guys!

I am a new player in Twillight Imperium 3ed. Earlier I played only a Twillight Imperium 2 one time.

So I have some questions, which need a resolve. It will be grateful if you can answer them.

1) Can I built units and move ships from my home planet at the 1st turn of game?

Rules says what I need activate system to built units, but ships cannot move from activated system. So I can choose - move by ships or produce units.

2) Then all players create a galactic map, can they put a system piece at any place, or only at adjacent system?

For example: 1st player put his system card to a 1st circle adjacent to Mecatol Rex. Can the second player put his card system at another side of Mecatol, not adjacent to the 1st player system?

3) At the strategic action player take a command markers by playing Logistics card. How this command markers distributed? Can he put them at any place in command pool and spend them i n this turn?

4) Are Space dock produce limit extend to a Fighters and GF?

For example: Dock Limit = 3. Can I spend 2 resources to produce 4 GF or only for 3 GF?

5) A question about turns priority.

Player with Iniciative Strategic Card make a Strategic Action. Then he activate systems, move the fleet, capture the neutral planets, e.t.c.

Next turn makes player, who take a Diplomacy card. Is it right?

6) Can you explain me the special abilities of Issaril Tribes? What does means the skip your action during Action Phase?

1) Can I built units and move ships from my home planet at the 1st turn of game?

There are a couple of ways to do it depending on what strategy cards you take. The production primary and secondary both allow you to built in your spacedocks without activation. Warefare I allows you to pick up a command token, hence you pick up on your homeworld after you have built their. There are a couple of others as well.

2) Then all players create a galactic map, can they put a system piece at any place, or only at adjacent system?

For example: 1st player put his system card to a 1st circle adjacent to Mecatol Rex. Can the second player put his card system at another side of Mecatol, not adjacent to the 1st player system?

The answer is yes you can. The only rule for galaxy building is that you must finish the ring you are currently working on. So first you build the inner ring, than the outer ring and finally the third ring. You also must alternate planets and empty systems (aka if you place a planet this time, you must place an empty system next time, unless you have no other kind of card). Also you cannot join red tile systems together (they can't be adjecent, unless in the final round you have no where else to place it).

3) At the strategic action player take a command markers by playing Logistics card. How this command markers distributed? Can he put them at any place in command pool and spend them in this turn?

You place it anywhere in your command pool, either command, strategic allocation or fleet supply. You distribute them anyway you like. You do not use them on that action, you only recieve them when you play the card.

4) Are Space dock produce limit extend to a Fighters and GF?

For example: Dock Limit = 3. Can I spend 2 resources to produce 4 GF or only for 3 GF?

Production capacity of space docks is the production of the planet on which it stands +2 for the space dock. So if your planet has a production of 3 you would have 2+3 = 5 production capacaity. Technologies can improve this. Yes you are limited, so if you have a production capacity of 3 you could only build 3 ground forces, hence you would pay 2, get 4 ground forces, but immediatly discard one because you are over capcity and would instead get to place 3 ground forces. The same is true for fighters.

5) A question about turns priority.

Player with Iniciative Strategic Card make a Strategic Action. Then he activate systems, move the fleet, capture the neutral planets, e.t.c.

Next turn makes player, who take a Diplomacy card. Is it right?

That is correct. The initiative of the card dictates the order of play. The only exception is the Nalu who always act first in a round regardless of what strategy card they choose.

6) Can you explain me the special abilities of Issaril Tribes? What does means the skip your action during Action Phase?

Each time your initiative comes up you MUST take a tactical action. Either activating a system, playing a strategy card, playing an action or use special abilities... anything that counts as "an action", otherwise you must pass. If you pass your initiative is skipped for the remainder of the round. The Tribes have the ability to say "I skip this turn" and the next time their intiative comes up they MUST act as everyone else. So effectively ever other intiative they can choose to skip their action. This allows them to stall their actions. Universally accepted as one of the most powerful abilities in the game. Note that you can never pass your turn if you have not yet activated your strategy card.

Thank you!

adamwehn said:

They had some scheduled maintenance last night. Looks like it's back up now.

During the action phase, everyone takes turn performing one of the four actions, the way I understand it is the first player in the initiative takes an action, then the next player takes an action, and it continues like that until everyone passes. Is that correct? One action per player per action phase round?

Yup pretty much. There are of course exceptions though technically everything always happens in initiative order, but for example when a strategy card is played every immediatly has the oppertunity to do the secondary ability of the strategy card, which itself is not really an action but players might build, move units, vote on political cards (or consequently play action cards). stuff like that. Most things you can "play" out of turn order like action cards and secondary abilities of strategy cards for example will be noted on the card.

adamwehn said:

Yep, you got it right.

Kerrin2 said:

Good, 2 victory points for me.

BigKahuna said:

Yeah I understood that.

BigKahuna said:

Incorrect. You MAY place another planet the turn after you placed a planet. The rules (page 8 of base rule book) state the following (emphasis mine):

"If you placed a system that did not contain a planet during your last placement, you must, if able, place a system that does contain a planet during your next placement. If you are unable to do so, you must reveal your remaining systems to the other players to prove this. Then place one of your available systems."

The use of words here, specifically "a system that did not contain a planet", would suggest that not only empty but also special systems are covered by this placement restriction. Meaning that if you happen to have 2 special systems on hand at galaxy creation you may not place both of them in succession, even if you want to place the second special system on the other side of the galaxy. You would have to place a system with one or more planets between the 2 special ones. Unless of course you only have the 2 special systems left.

Fnoffen said:

Yup thats correct. Its been a very long time since I have used the standard rules for creating galaxies. For the most part my group always felt that the creation of the galaxy and placement of homeworlds often resulted in lob sided galaxies making the game considerably more challenging if not impossible for certain races to even have a prayer in hell if they get a bad position.

The way we do it is that we create the galaxy in turn order placing any tiles you want, but when the galaxy is created we randomly draw seating positions and home planet placement (after the galaxy is created). The result we get is that their is a consious group effort to make a balanced map since no one knows where they will end up.

It removes the galaxy creation as a strategic element of the game and kind of becomes a cooperative affair. We have been doing it like this for about 3 years now and I can't remember the last time someone complained about their home planet position.

I totally missed the rule about placing a second system with planet(s) in it after placing a planetless one! Oh well; I doubt it made a huge difference in any game. The most recent game (3 player) that I played, I used the FFG preset map (slightly doctored for balance), and we rolled off for choice of homeworld placement. It worked great. I'm thinking to do it again for every game (though not sure if it will work out since those maps have not been updated since Shards, though I question if it matters).

BigKahuna, I also really like your idea. Might give that a try next time. Thanks for the idea!

Guys, i have one more question.

I'm sure that I think correctly. But it will be better if someone can confirm my opinion.

I have 2 Deadnoughts and my opponent have 1 Warsun. I make 2 hit to him, and Warsun is destroyed. But he also take 2 hits to me.

Can I divide hits on 2 Dreadnoughts or I must take both hits by 1 Dreadnought?