Can this game be played effectively with 2 people or does it really need 3? Haven't tried it yet but I am curious about for my wife and I.

There isn't anything really stopping you from playing the game with only 2 players. The only problem is that you won't get much enjoyment out of it. The trade strategy becomes dumb, it basically gives you 3 trade goods, as your only trade partner is your only opponent, your bound to end up loosing your trade agreements too quickly to benifit from them anyways. Politics basically comes down to who has the most planets, you or your oppoenent, but there isn't any bribery there to be had really.

In short, you CAN play two players, it just isn't as enjoyable.

There are some 2-player rulesets for TI3. I played psicoma's ruleset.

It changes the game, as it becomes more chess-like. You lose all the diplomacy of a larger game.

That being said I personaly found it very fun and it is quick to play.

Bill

Another approach could be to play 2 races each. That way you don't really need to invent any new rules. But in general, I'd say that TI3 is not very suited for only two players.

Actually, I'm playing in two players regulary and it's very interesting. There is a map in TI2 for two players and it is well balanced. With Strategic Card from last expansion trade agreements are constant, thus we get 1 trade agreement always in play. Politics comes down to who has the most influence (not playing with the representatives). Each player choose 3 Strategic Cards.

Last weekend i did play 2 games together with a good friend

and it was a lot of fun

we used from the original game the option distant suns

and from the charts of throne

option 1 2 3 4 5 and 7

especialy 7 political intrigue is a good option and stil working wih 2 player

we also selected 3 strategy cards each.

using all the strategy cards from the shattered empire expansion and the new Assembly II card

the first round we did try with only 2 strategy cards but that was not giving an compleet game

so the next round we used 3 cards each

and that works very good.

also we made a special map look at the picture

the 2nd game we did use the same galaxy shape but placed some more resource heavy planets at the corners of the galaxy

afcourse u need to be selective for what race u play

first game i was playing with the Necro Virus and my enemy with the Arborec we wanted to play with the new race's

so the problem i got was my only enemy was the only one who could give me new Techs

but if he doesnt get new tech's i don't get them also so i had to change the strategie to try to put him in a corner and that worked for the most part but still he was getting some good objectives and finaly won the game but The Necro Virus with only 1 enemy is not the best race to use

the 2nd game i played with Ghost of Creuss and my sworn enemy again with the Arborec

this time i was able to get my own techs but i was to inexperienced to use all the Cruess ability's to its full capacity so at the end i did loose but this time it was due to a very nasty Action card from his site

his last objective was to take over 1 system i did own this round, i had all system out of his reach who where easy targets but he got a lucky Action card giving him a extra movent so my 1 weak bad supported system was suddenly in reach of his fleet and that got him is winning point

if he wouldent used that card i might had a change my objective was to controll all wormhole systems and i was almost ready to get that.

loosing 2 times is not fun hehe but i am over it now haha

so far lots of fun and we wil use it the next time

maybe some tweaking here and there but for the most part it works good