Twilight Imperium Experiences

 Playing three games of Twilight Imperium in less than a month is as good as an excuse as any for not posting here.

The playtime on this game is really quite mad. The shortest game was 13 hours, and also the only game our group ever played to completion without everyone throwing their 1 VP support for the throne cards at a single player. Still, I would highly recommend it if you and your group are able to pick up rules. This goes doubly for any groups with experienced players who can teach the others, as was the case in ours.

My first game saw me playing the Empyrean. I wanted to try the Mentak Coalition out of the gate, but a running joke about my fascination with pirate characters in tabletop and my own desire to be less than confrontational in my first game won out. I chose the Empyrean because I also quite like the idea of a spaceborne species, and they reminded me of the Masters of the Bazaar from Fallen London. This game saw me rush down and hold the strategy card for tech for two turns in a row, which ended up doing more harm than good. I was starved for command counters to move my units with and resources to build the newly upgraded units. By the end of the game I could produce independent fighters that could move vast distances, but the game concluded before I could use them to any great effect. Most of the other players were also new, meaning there was a general reluctance to pass around each other's borders which limited the usefulness of my Aetherpassage ability. Still, I ended in first after grubbing several support for the throne cards when the group decided to wrap up.

For the next game I gave into the urges of my soul and played the pirate faction. This game saw the University player find themself with several support for the throne cards and possession of Mecatol Rex at about the midpoint of the game, ready to win handily. This resulted in a gang-up for the ages, which I felt rather bad for as one of those support for the throne cards had been mine. For what it is worth, I did offer to help defend them in exchange for the card back, but the deal was not taken. Seeing this done to someone was a good lesson to learn about not giving out support for the throne in the early game, and especially about not jumping on a bandwagon of handing them out. The University player was fully removed from the game after only a turn as a result of this mistake on my part. Ironically, they had such a lead from objectives and Mecatol Rex that they still ended up winning two turns and several hours later.

As for myself, I had a splendid time playing the Mentak Coalition. Being able to skim off the top of any adjacent transaction in the game was delicious, and as long as I kept a single happy neighbor I was relatively secure. At least, I thought so. Eventually one player was fed up with my constant thievery and sent a massive fleet through a wormhole to threaten my homeworld. Only some farcical negotiations on my part saved the day, which I will now relay in full:

>Myself: "Please don't wipe me, I'll give you the promissory note that prevents me from stealing anything else and a political secret."

>Other player: "I don't know."

>Myself: "Do you really want to waste all this effort on me? You've left your own home system entirely undefended with hostile neighbors. Let me go and I can help you!"

>Other player: "Alright, I suppose"

>Myself: "So you'll give me a ceasefire in exchange for a political secret?"

>Other player: "Here you go"

>Myself: "You forgot to ask for the card that stops me from pirating you. This was a transaction, so I'll just take a little off the top."

Then I took my rightful trade good token and made a noise befitting Hector Barbossa himself.

A merry life and a short one mates! Yarr harr!

The ceasefire bought me a turn, but by the end of the game I was hurting for lost territory as the onslaught continued. Better to have died a pirate than lived as a coward, I say.

The most recent game was played as Embers of Muaat. They were picked for being space-dwarves with Death Stars, which should be more than enough justification. This game I won cleanly with 10 VP and only one support for the throne card. However, much of that came from a glorious start. While assembling the map I managed to get four tech-skip planets, one of each type. For a faction with excellent units locked behind tech this was a Godsend. But even more unbelievably, the first level two objective revealed was to own five tech-skip planets. I managed to hire the Trade Emirates to conquer and then sell one to me, which was then taken by a fourth party to stop me before I could score the objective. Fortunately, I was able to bargain my way into getting another of the Emirate's tech planets for free since they had failed to bring me the one I originally paid for. I believe it was equal parts negotiation and pity which saved me there. At the same time I was in control of Mecatol Rex, but only because the faction which had smashed my level two war sun and escorts had forgotten to bring any infantry with them, rendering the planet technically mine as I scored the imperial strategy card for another victory point. So many little things added up to push me far ahead, but for each stroke of luck there was another due to desperate bargaining and fourth-dimensional thought, and no small manner of adaptation. The Embers themselves were fun, but limited in their outside interactions. I should have used their agent ability to give units to other factions for money, but it was too tempting to get two free dreadnoughts every turn instead. Playing a galactic blacksmith will have to be saved for a future game.

You might be able to guess that my favorite faction is the one that involves misdirection and constant piracy. There is such a thing as playing to type, but at the same time I loved always being in on the action even outside of my own turn, able to butt in on other trade deals to skim a little off the top. Keeping any sort of anti-piracy force from forming was a game all in its own too. The next time we play, perhaps November, I hope to try them again and see if I can get away with another golden age or if the other players have grown wise.

Yo-ho, yo-ho...