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Winter Hibernation Reviews

It’s been a while since I have written anything for the blog, which tends to happen around winter time.  Here in Sweden, winter is a cold, dark, bitter experience that leaves one lethargic and unmotivated.  It’s a kind of hibernation where bringing up the strength to do anything but eat and sleep is difficult.  By February however the light comes back, the snow fall makes everything bright and you start to get your energy back.

Now even though I have been in my winter hibernation that is not to say no gaming has taken place, in fact there has been quite a bit.  I thought it would be great just to do a single article to get myself caught up by doing some mini reviews and drop some tips for a few games my group and I have been playing.   This is going to be a real mixed bag however because while we played quite a few new boardgames, we actually rotated back into some miniature gaming and role-playing games as well.

Lets get right into it.

Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition

While there has been plenty of board gaming, this winter D&D 5th edition really took center stage for my gaming group as we put together a weekly wednesday night game that has become almost a religion for us.   Our campaign is set in the Forgotten Realms and has after over 20 sessions already reached many of those classic D&D heights like fighting dragons, giants, hobgoblins and much more all the while ranging the gambit from city life, dungeon crawling, wilderness adventures and everything in between.  It’s been an absolute blast.

Its new but feels classic, 5e got it just right!

For me personally D&D is a staple of role-playing, really my go to game for a great RPG experience and it has been so for nearly 30 years.  I have played every edition ever put out extensively, really you could say from a perspective of experience I’m about as veteran as you can get.   I was playing D&D when Gygax was a young man. That said however, despite 30 years of D&D I have rarely ever enjoyed the game as a player, which is why this particular campaign has been so much fun much for me.  Not being a GM not only gives you a very different perspective on the game, but allows you to appreciate the rule system in a very different, very personal way.

One thing I can say about 5th Edition D&D is that its probobly one of my favorite versions of the game from a strictly non-nostalgic perspective.  Meaning that I love it for what it is, a fun RPG, while being the fuel for what I consider a classic D&D experience.  It finds a kind of middle ground between classic/old school D&D and modern game design,  while simultaneously remaining rules light enough not to throw role-playing under the bus, but rule-sy enough to keep you interested in reading the books and exploring its nuances.  I still think 1st and 2nd edition offer the most in terms of the spirit of the game as Gygax intended it, not everyone would agree with me, but a fact doesn’t require you to believe it (burn!) but as a modern system, 5e is close enough to that old school method that in the hands of a good DM you can still get those nostalgia moments reminding you of your childhood.

The classics in their original form can still be enjoyed thanks to the Wizards of the Coast reprints.

For anyone who has never played a role-playing game before,  I highly recommend 5e as a place to start.  The rules are simple and streamlined, while the writing is done well enough to inspire your imagination.  If however you’re a 1st or 2nd edition player that has skipped all of the modern, post Gygax versions of the game, if there was one to try, it would be 5e.  Definitely a fantastic game, it gets my stamp of approval.

Twilight Imperium 4th Edition

When FFG announced that they would be putting out a new edition of one of my all time favorites after nearly 10 years of 3rd edition, my body was ready.  I certainly owe this blog a much closer and deeper review than what I’m about to do here, but suffice to say that like always Christian T. Peterson and his team do not disappoint.

This is the epic upgrade you have been looking for.

Twilight Imperium 4th edition takes the established formula of the 4x epic classic and brings it one step closer to perfection.  It remains the robust and dynamic experience we have come to expect while smoothing out some of the rough edges from the previous edition.  It still comes  with all the same flaws inherent to a game like this, namely its nearly unbearable length of play and rules weight.  I personally however accept and embrace it as is,  the depths of this games tactical and strategic lengths is well worth the 6+ hour investment you will need to make to play it.

I still believe that its a 6 player or nothing type game, you simply do not get the full experience with 3, 4 or 5 players, each suffering from various balance issues.   For the inducted veteran, 4e is well worth the coin for the upgrade and like always my suggestion to the uninitiated but interested is, tread carefully.  TI4 is not a board game, its a hobby and the price tag and time investment is too high to have the 5 kilo box sitting on your shelf collecting dust.  Be sure that you have the 6 man gaming group ready to dive in with you, if your twisting arms to get people to play, my suggestion is skip it. This is a game made for hardened veterans and fans of heavy science-fiction board gaming, everyone else is going to hate it.

All that said, for TI fans, this is another step towards that ultimate science-fiction gaming experiance.

New Angeles

By far this years smash hit for me is New Angeles.  I fell in love with this game after a single play as did my gaming group and for good reason, its fan-fucking-tastic.  Definitely a contender for game of the year, New Angeles is a negotiation, backstabbing joy ride that dare I say has effectively created a new genre of board gaming.

This is probably one of the best FFG board games since Twilight Imperium 3rd edition.

Its populated with some clever mechanics, it looks amazing on the table and its driven by a really cool science-fiction theme, all things that speak to me, in on itself enough to recommend it.  This however is really just the icing on the cake,  the real meat of this game is how it establishes the feel of a political drama that plays out in discussions and debates driven by the very difficult to predict motivations of the players.  This is almost a social experiment of sorts, where much of the fun of the game is trying to deduce what the hell people are really up to, what their goals really are and who they are actually playing against and for.

Absolutely love this one, I haven’t played something this fresh since the perfect Blood Rage.  This is one of those games that belongs on every gamers shelf.

I will be doing a full review of this one sometime in the future.

Star Wars Armada

My gaming group has a tendency to cycle in and out various types of gaming, we will go through board game, miniature game or role-playing game phases at unpredictable intervals.  When we go in however, we go big and hard like porn stars.  Star Wars Armada for quite a long time was THE game for us, in fact its one of the few games we have as a group participated in official tournaments, something that was entirely new to us.  We even have a store and regional champion in our midst.

Just as quickly however it fell out of favor, but not because we stopped liking it or anything, its more that we simply got into something else and like yesterdays news Armada got set aside.   Well recently Armada made a comeback and suddenly we are buying into the new wave 7 ships, building lists and planning events.   Why?  Because Armada remains without question one of the best miniature games on the market today.  Yes its a bit heavy and I totally understand why it doesn’t compete in popularity with the likes of X-Wing and 40k, but from a perspective of game design, mechanics and sheer epic size and feel, it is among the best there is.  This is the gamers miniature game, its far less about rolling dice, painting mini’s and list building and far more about planning and execution.

FFG has done a great job of keeping each wave relevant, but it’s far from perfect.

For me personally the fact that there is no fussing about with painting and assembly is a huge plus, but really of all the selling points of Armada, capital ship combat in the Star Wars universe has to be at the top of the list.  It shines thematically as much as it does competitively.  It’s a game of layers upon layers of depth, a game of strategic and tactical subtlety which results in an endless stream of lessons as you get better at the game and gain a higher understanding of its nuances.  There is already so much strategy to explore in this game with what has already been released and with each new wave they throw in the next curve ball that has everyone scrambling and re-assessing everything to find that new key strategy that brings them the wins.  Its a fantastic experience that no miniature game fan should miss.

Now it comes with a disclaimer label and I’m not going to sit on a pedestal and tell you everything is rosy, there are some issues.  Like all miniature games it kind of suffers at the hands of the competitive meta math mining where certain combinations one can say are at the very least stupid, if not outright broken.  In the case of Armada these combos are effective but not overwhelming, yet sufficiently irritating to kick of more than a handful of forum debates.  Combos often abused by the masses creates this effect of negativity that can let some of the steam out of the game.  Right now in Armada I’m a bit cranky about the activation spam lists and mechanics like Relay which I don’t think really fit the games core premise.  This sort of thing however is quite normal in miniature games and in local groups like mine its a none issue. In our group  people create clever lists, but they always maintain that the premise of the game is about capital ship combat and fun is always paramount.  So long as your gaming group adheres to some restraint, these mechanical loopholes are usually not a problem.

X-Wing remains the king of the hill for the general masses, its light nature, simple rules and quick gameplay is hard to compete with.

All and all I think Armada remains the best option for gamers looking for a proper miniature gaming challenge, but generally I tend to still recommend X-Wing for most gamers over Armada.  X-Wing is quick to play, easy to learn and maintains that fun spark, though like Armada is has a few rambunctious nuisance upgrades and ship that can really throw a wrench into the ferries wheel.  Armada I find is a bit too heavy for most as well, like I said, its a gamers game, even I burn out on it eventually as it requires a lot of thought and energy to stay competitive, but if you strand me on an island with one miniature game, I rather it be Armada over anything else.

Sid Meier’s Civilization: A New Dawn

I was really excited for this one, in fact I bought it kind of blind without really reading reviews or investigating the game much.  This was mainly because it was FFG at the helm and the game was from the same designer that brought us the amazing New Angeles.

It looked good from a far, but ended up being far from good.

I don’t want to say I was disappointed, it was a considerable improvement over FFG’s previous lackluster attempt at bringing us the classic PC game to board game form, but I was not blown away by it either.  Far more Euroish than is good for it, the game while streamlined and a fairly straightforward experience lacked that feel of building up a civilization you might be seeking in a game with the word Sid Meier in the title.  It lacked epicness if I can invent a word and for a game that takes you from the stone age to the future age, you think this would be the one focal point for the designers.

It’s kind of a typical Euro fair with rather obtuse mechanics and abstracted to the point where you realize it could just as easily had a different theme entirely.  You don’t really build much in the game, the differences  between nations and their strategic choices is quite benign and, like FFG’s previous attempt, they failed to produce a good combat system which is also a key feature of Sid Meiers game and it should be here as well.  Oh and I really hated the art style of the board game with as much disdain as I have for the art style of the new PC version.

It was an ok, one might say below average game. for me the search for the ultimate Twilight Imperium like epic for the civilization building genre continues, this was definitely not it.  It fell short of expectation and I don’t foresee it getting a whole lot of table time in the future.  Through The Ages and Nations remain the two reigning champions of this genre even though neither is played on a map.

18XX Series (1830 Railroads & Robber Barons)

One thing I got really into this winter is the 18XX series of games. These economic railroad and business management games really sparked my nostalgic love for classic PC games like Railroad Tycoon, Transport Tycoon and Capitalism.  Now I will say this up front, this is not a genre of games my local gaming buddies are into so I have to scratch this itch outside of my normal channels, hence it has hindered my efforts but I can say without reservation that there is real magic here.

If it looks complicated, its because it is. I would rate it at a 10 out of 10 in terms of complexity of rules, so be sure your up for it, there are far simpler train games out there for the less initiated.

The 18XX series has you running transportation empires, building them from scratch and over decades of time you slowly but surely develop your railroad business with a keen eye on the economic fluctuations of the stock-market and the cut throat competition of the other players.  This is definitely what I would call ”High Complexity” gaming, its rather slow and requires a general love for the genre and perhaps a bit of nostalgia seasoning.  Still it has this great attention to thematic detail giving you a really authentic sense of time and place.  I ended up picking up several of these games including 1830, which is among the first and perhaps most famous in the genre.

I recommend this title with a caution that there is nothing ”easy” about getting into these games, its definitely and absolutely for hardcore veteran gamers with a specific economic simulator itch to scratch.  You will read the rulebook several times before anything clicks and you need to play several games before the lights really come on, then you can spend a few years playing the virtually hundreds of titles in the genre each with its own take on the same premise.  But in the right group, games like this are truly a gamers greatest reward, a unique experience on a level of gaming most games never even come close to.  If you love railroad economic games, this is the final frontier in the genre, but be warned its not for the feint of heart.

Seven Wonder Duel

This is a game that I introduced to my 9 year old daughter in hopes that I might turn her into a proper gamer.  I failed with my son who went the cool route becoming a guitar jamming rockstar but my daughter is a lot more like me and took to Seven Wonders Duel like a moth to a flame.  Sometimes you love a game because you love the people that play it with you and Seven Wonders Duel definitely falls into that category for me.

There is strategy on many levels in this one with a lot of dynamics, it really has that infinite replay-ability thing going for it.

My daughter and I probably play this game at least 3 or 4 times each week and I give no quarter when I play her.  She beats me frequently, fair and square and that in itself makes me love this game even more. Its not complex by any stretch of the imagination, but far more complex than I would have expected a 9 year old to grasp.  True, my daughter is smarter than your average bear, but I actually believe this game to be quite kid friendly.  Its colorful, the rules are fairly simple to remember and because you don’t actually count up the score until the end, it keeps their attention as they ”hope for the win”.

I definitly like Duel better than the original, it has a quaint family game quality and the fact that its specifically designed for two players means my daughter and I never have to beg the none gamers in the family to join us.

Great game, highly recommend it, in particular if you are trying to induct one of your kids into the board gaming hobby or trying to turn your wife into a gamer.

Legend of the Five Rings

This FFG reboot of the classic CCG is born out of one of my favorite fantasy settings of all time, so upon its announcement I pre-ordered without hesitation.  It found its way on my most anticipated games of the year list and its one of the few that did not let me down.

In Legend of the Five Rings you take control of one of the many uniquely themed clans with different flavors of stereotypical medieval Japanese samurai from the world of Rokugan.  Its a very unique and rather specific setting that might not speak to everyone but in terms of a dueling card game it does a fantastic job of setting up a very engaging head to head match.  For me the theme is everything here however and I absolutely adore the art in this one.

Maybe its just my love for Japanese themed art, but Legend of the Five rings gets a 5 out of 5 stars for theme adaptation from me based on the art alone.

I can’t say for sure that I will become a collector, I may just stop at the core set, but I think this is a really thinky game that is easy enough to teach that you can just spring it on someone, yet has that almost expected depth we have grown accustomed to from FFG card games.  Its always my hope that I will show it to someone who falls for it giving me a chance to drive deeper into the game, but so far no one in my group has really taken the dive.  Its not surprising, among my gaming group most of us have our preferred go to card game, so its more common for one person to collect rather than everyone getting into it.  Among my gaming group we already have Star Wars The Card Game, Game of Thrones 2nd edition and Lord of the Rings.  In each case there is just that one collector that supports the game for everyone elses enjoyment and I think Legend of the Five Rings will fall into that same category.

All and all though, of all the FFG dueling card games that have been put out over the years, this one is right up their with Game of Thrones for me.  It has that tightness of gameplay that ensures every match is really close, while also producing that ”lets play again” feeling that you get from a great game.  So far everyone I have showed it to enjoyed the game, but it hasn’t exactly blown anyones doors of.

Sometimes it really does just come down to theme, if you like that medieval Samurai theme, this is definitely the game for you, it handles the material wonderfully.

Arkham Horror

My love for Lord of the Rings the card game goes quite deep, but unlike 99% of the games on my shelf, I have bought this one for entirely selfish reasons as I play predominantly solo and that’s the way I like it.

Arkham Horror is the new cooperative card game from FFG and offers that same solo opportunity as Lord of the Rings, so I very naturally jumped at the chance to explore it.

If your a fan of Lovecraft, this is an absolute must play. Easily one of the best games in this setting I have played and that includes all the board games.

Right out of the gate I was captivated by how richly the gameplay captured the pulp horror theme, between the locals, the types of cards the limitation and tightness of resource and the really imaginative scenario’s.  The one complaint I always had about Lord of the Rings was that the campaign mode was a bit lackluster and linear, I absolutely adore the handling of campaign mode in this game as you can effectively play through the entire story-line with the same characters.  Upgrading equipment and cards as you go, tracking stats between plays and experiencing different branching of the same story or repeat plays.

The card play itself is very good, I still prefer Lord of the Rings over this one, but that’s because I think Lord of the Rings is more of a deck builder.  Its more focused on strategies and overcoming obstacles through the act of preparation in constructing card combinations that are designed for a specific task.  In Arkham Horror deck building is kind of a afterthought really, there is some, but your mostly focused on playing the game and making clever use of the resources you have rather than trying to out smart the scenarios with clever deck building.

I also prefer this one more in a group as compared to Lord of the Rings which I play almost exclusively solo.  This one works well with 2, 3 or even 4 players and if you pick up the expansions you can really make a whole night out of it.  Still its actually quite fun and quite challenging solo, I have definitely burned quite a few evenings hunched over the table trying to unravel the mysterious of the underworld.

Great game, highly recommend it, another hit by FFG who are quickly gaining a reputation for producing some of the best collectible card games in existence.

Conclusion

And with that you are caught up.  That was more or less my winter.  We of coursed played many of the games I have covered in previous reviews, this certainly wasn’t everything but definitely among the most notable.  I have quite a few reviews to write and I definitely want to get back into some What Makes It Tick articles.   The hibernation is over, time to get back to some writing.

 

 

What Makes It Tick

What Makes It Tick: Twilight Imperium Part III

Twilight Imperium has a lot of intricacy, just learning the rules can take time but actually learning the subtle long term impact of the very wide range of potential strategies, racial benefits, technologies, strategy cards, political cards, different resources and positions, just to name a few things, takes many… many plays.

There are however some established, classic strategic and tactical concepts that can always be deployed and while I’m not going to get too deep with the specifics, I have constructed a short list lof some of the top tips & tricks.

Mecatol Rex For The Win

The importance of controlling and denying control of Mecatol Rex, the central planet of the game cannot be overstated.  While most players will prioritize “production” and “military” instinctively, the truth is that in TI3, all players will ultimately build up military forces that will be fairly evenly matched.  More than that, war is a poor path to victory and even when facing a much smaller force, you will be sacrificing resources to go to war, weakening your position whether you win or lose the war.  This is mainly because TI3 is in the scope of things, is actually a pretty short game in terms of rounds.  Most games with experienced players will end somewhere between round 6-8.

Most inexperienced players will question the value of Influence and skip Mecatol Rex as a target until they realize that controlling Mecatol Rex is about a whole lot more than that.

Hence production is really about creating a line of deterrents, its like investing in the future mutual destruction of anyone who decides to go to war with you, but usually that investment isn’t going to be turned into Victory Points through an act of war.

The true defining and usually deciding factor of a TI3 victory will be the player who diversifies the best.  You need to have technology, resources, influence, command token advantage, fleet supply advantage, military strength and political/diplomatic control.

To that end Mecatol Rex is an amazing contributor.  Its a single planet that provides 7 resources (1 production and a whopping 6 Influence).  More than that though a wide range of secret objectives are only possible to accomplish through the control of Mecatol Rex, not to mention that its a platform of control as you can project your force from the center of the galaxy at any player.  Of course having 6 influence each round is amazing as it gives you political control during voting, its a core resource in several public objectives and its used in the secondaries of several strategy cards.  There are a lot of benefits to be had just by controlling the planet.

More importantly however is that simply by controlling it, you are likely denying several players the opportunity to complete their secret objectives (2 points) which is key since in the vast majority of games, a player that completes his secret objective will win the game.

Mecatol Guardians is a variant introduced in Shattered Empire, effectively NPC units that protect the planet it to make it harder to take…. this however is just a cat in a box.

Mecatol Rex as a result is a key, strategic position and a worthy investment in most games for you.  In particular controlling it early can create a stacking effect of benefits, the longer you control the better position you will be in.

Controlling Mecatol Rex is however not about space combat, its about ground combat and as such its all about getting ground forces on the planet.  Its unlikely that should another player or more typically players decide to take it from you, that you will be able to stop them.   Its a central planet, everyone will be able to get to it.  Invading someone on Mecatol Rex with ground forces however is a considerably more difficult task thanks to the logistics of moving troops, in particular if a defending player has really built up his ground defenses.  Hence taking control of Mectol Rex and keeping it in your grasp is key, even if you only control the planet.

Command Token Management & Stalling

All the resources, military and planning in the world will fail if you do a poor job of managing your most vital resource in the game, Command Tokens.  Without question the most common thing you will hear at the end of a TI3 game is about how someone would have one if they had just one more Command Token.  It cannot be overstated how critical action economy is in TI3, every move you make will cost you command tokens, you must conserve them, spend them wisely and do everything in your power to create a reserve.  If you find yourself playing a game of TI3 two command tokens at a time that you earn in the status phase, or praying that someone will kick of the strategy card that earns you additional tokens you are not only going to lose, you are going to lose horribly.

There are a number of really important conservation methods when it comes to command tokens but the topic gets fairly complex.  I think the simplest and most direct advise I can give is to simply ask yourself “Why am I taking this action”?

One of several races with an ability to stall by spending command tokens. While they don’t help to conserve, at least you get something for your expenditure.

Simply put, you want to make sure every time you put down a command token that its with a very specific purpose in mind that garners a clear benefit, preferably one that will lead to a victory point.  You want to avoid dropping tokens just to “stall”.  Aka you don’t want to pass, but you have no worthy actions to take.  Often, in particular in early parts of the round it may be more prudent to pass.  More commonly however you are going to want to stall.

Knowing that at some point (likely all the time) you will be in that situation, you really want to find and hold on to anything that would allow you to stall.  Whether its a racial ability, an action card, a strategy card or something else.  You really want to have at least a couple of ways you can stall your turn each and every round of the game, barring perhaps the first round as this is largely for optimizing expansion.

You might at this point realize that some races are better equipped to do this then others, some even have an outright “pass” ability like the Yssaril Tribes.  Well, this is exactly why the tribes are often referred to as “the best” race in TI3.  The ability to stall, is very powerful and comes in handy throughout the game and it’s squarely because of this ability to conserve command tokens.  You will need to stall often with every race, but command token conservation is all about not stalling by spending command tokens.

Arguably a race with a terrible start, command token conversation and building up reserves is your priority in such a case.

Perhaps the best method of conserving command tokens is to simply build up a big reserve, so that you can spare command tokens to stall with. Some races benefit from this in one way or the other,  like Federation of Sol for example gets a direct benefit for simply spending a command token (get 2 free ground forces) while other races have absolutely no default way to do this, building a reserve is more important for these races.  In some cases it’s absolutely vital and a first priority.

Projecting Mutual Destruction

I have already mentioned several times in previous articles that TI3 is not a war game, but do not be fooled into thinking that means that there will not be war, nor that you can skimp on the projection of your military force.  In fact, this is not only a priority but constant.  You must always be building up a threatening, versatile force, ready to strike and bleed your enemies.

That said, the purpose of this build up is not a prelude to invasion or as a part of an ultimate plan to win a great war, its actually to project a military that is strong enough that anyone who attacks you would be assuring your mutual destruction.  It should be clear that to attack you, is to wage a war in which there will be two clear losers.  Its kind of like two world powers building up nuclear weapons, if the war ever does happen, its over for the both of you.

War is usually not a great move, but some races are much better equipped then others for conflict.

The reason is simple, you are here to earn victory points and carve a piece of the galaxy that offers enough resources that getting more from the control of other players in not necessary.  The galaxy however is far too small for everyone to get their fair share and as such, its inevitable that some players will have no choice but to fight for their claim.  You want to make sure that you make a poor target and that someone else appears to be a much better one.

Creating a proper military defense is not just about “more units”, its about creating nets of impossible odds and”stupid moves” that must be made to invade you.  You want to make it costly and that means DPS in a net protecting your key assets, lots of throw away fighters to use as cannon fodder and plenty of shooty units, preferably upgraded with technology.  Don’t skimp on ground forces either, you want to make sure that even if someone manages to take control of space, they are still not going to get your planets.  Finally you want to make sure that you can always counter-strike, so position your units in such a way as to ensure that if any spot is attacked, you have the means to make an immediate counter attack resulting in your opponent losing his units and gaining nothing for it.

Is this easy to do?  No its hard, it takes practice and there are insurmountable variables that can effect the decisions that must go into this.  This can only be learned through experience, but the important lesson you should take away here is that, the goal is always a threatening, costly defense that can only be overcome through a stupidly expensive engagement.  The goal here is to discourage attacks in the first place.

A Weak Mans War

One final piece of advice is regarding the relative starting strength and dynamic starting positions in the game.  TI3 is not a fair game, in each game there will always be players who have a clearly better and clearly worse start.  You might think that starting of in a position of strength is good, but its actually not.  Weakness leads to alliances and cooperation, strength leads to hostility and ultimately war.  Being in a weak position means you have just cause to agitate the fragile peace in the galaxy.  Out of a weak position you want to trigger wars, but you also want to make sure that your participation is just a gesture.

Play the wounded dog, in fact the longer you can maintain the illusion of being out of contention for the game the better (real or imagined).  Always remember that wars are not won on the battlefield, they are won through diplomacy, politics and manipulation with the your enemies enemy.  There is no better method to ensure victory than to draw in two players into a conflict between them with the illusion that you are taking sides.  When playing from a weak position your goal is to always create conflict between players.  Point out the possible moves, the possible threats to each other, theorize about how people will act, what actions they might take and never be afraid to make some shit up.  Put doubt in the minds of everyone and stir chaos, distract the shit out of them and push them to make mistakes.

If you ever find yourself playing the Xxcha, stirring the shit is your top priority, they are the definition of a weak starting hand.

Weak positions typically mean smaller military and fewer opportunities, as such you must create your own options, but often as it so happens it can be impossible to recover from a weak position.  Its in these cases you really learn the most about how TI3 is really played.  Its a mind game, a game of guesstimating about what people will, might or can do.  When you aren’t a threat, no one can accuse you and say “hey your trying to distract us so you can sneak in the win”, often identifying a weak position of a player is not hard to do.  Hence your weakness becomes your legitimacy, there is a sense of “he has no reason to lie” in the atmosphere that surrounds a player in a weak position.  Leverage the shit out of that, force everyone to play their hand in the open by being observant and vocal.

Its hard to play from a weak position, but it might surprise you to know that of all the victories I have ever had, starting from a weak position accounts for about 70% of my wins.  The truth is that there are no weak positions in TI3, there are just perceptions of that.  Winning from a weak position is all about the spin and to win you must be the spinster.

How that was all helpful, see you guys next time.

What Makes It Tick

What Makes It Tick: Twilight Imperium Part II

In our next TI3 article we are going to be talking about some theorycrafting surrounding this amazing epic.  We are going to talk about the meta game, table action, some do’s and don’ts and a few strategy tips to get you started all built around the theory of the Revenge Factor.

The Revenge Factor

The revenge factor is a concept that applies to a lot of games but no place is the theory more prevalent than in Twilight Imperium thanks to its rich political environment where everything is connected in one way or the other.

First lets talk about the theory itself, what is the “Revenge Factor”.  It basically breaks down like this.  In Twilight Imperium, almost every action you take is going to negatively effect someone at the table in some way.  Its a very confrontational game.  In a game of TI3 every player always has a general status of either being in contention or out of contention for the win.  While this status can change over the course of the game, the later the game becomes the less likely someone that is out of contention for the win will make a comeback and be back in contention.  This is important to understand because the revenge factor effectively kicks in when a players status changes from in contention to out of contention, whether imagined or real.

Lots of games have Revenge Factor elements, GoT The Card Game is another good example, in particular in multiplayer games. Be weary of injuring people in this game, if you put them out of contention, it doesn’t take much for someone to take you with them.

Another property of the Revenge factor is understanding that in Twilight Imperium, barring very unusual circumstances, you can always sacrifice yourself to take someone with you.  Basically if you realize that you are not going to win, you are likely still in a position to target someone and make sure they don’t win either through a wide range of actions, from playing cards, the way you vote in political rounds, using special abilities or just outright attacks, self-destructive or otherwise.

The Revenge Factor thus is the act of realizing that you are out of contention, identifying the person who caused you to be out of contention and then actively pursuing him/her and ensuring, while you won’t win, neither will they, aka, getting your revenge.

Anyone who has ever played a confrontational game like TI3 knows what this is, perhaps they call it something else but that element of “getting even” is always a prevalent force.  In TI3 this is amplified by the fact that there are so many ways to negatively effect someone at the table.

The phenomenon takes different shape depending on the player count, typically the higher the player count the more likely two players will find themselves in a pointless conflict that will put them both out of contention for the win.

The “Revenge Factor” is a very real thing and I find in almost every TI3 game I have ever lost, its been as a result of this table phenomenon.  In a lot of ways, its really not possible to win a game of TI3 entirely on your own in most circumstances, external events, alliances and political maneuvering in which you end up getting help, either willing or unwittingly is an absolute must to secure a win.  If someone is really gunning for you, willing to sacrifice their own potential victory,  victory for you is very unlikely.  Again, in most circumstances, their are obviously often exceptions but to really come to grips with this phenomenon you must both understand it, embrace it and vigilantly prepare for it.

There are many different ways to deal with the “Revenge Factor”.

First and foremost, be conservative in how you negatively impact people.  Simply lashing out randomly or negatively effecting someone just because you can, in particular if there is no benefit to you (no way to earn points for it yourself) is a sure fire way to become a target of someones revenge.  Avoid this.

A good way to do this is to always ask yourself a simple question.  How does this action help me.  If the answer is not “I will get a victory point as a result”, its usually not worth it, at least not during the early and mid game.  Things change a lot in late game where there might not be enough time to get revenge but we will talk about how to manage the end game very specifically in a later article.

This is a game about victory points, never forget this, this IS the only way to win. Swapping plastic in a war that does not yield VP’s out of spite is a sure fire way to lose the game.

The second way to avoid being the target of revenge is to anticipate and prepare for it.  Holding coveted cards like Sabotage, sitting on a Diplomacy Strategy card, creating neutral zones using military units, simply having a much larger military or even arranging a negative action through diplomatic talks with the player so he knows “ok he is going to do this so he can get a point, in trade for X or Y”.  All these things and much more can be done to anticipate or curve someone lashing out.  Understanding what a player could potentially do in response and being ready for it is important but be weary of screwing with a player who has a hand full of action cards, is within striking distance of a system you need, has more command tokens than you or is in position to help one of your other enemies at the table.  Action cards in particular can create a lot of chaos, you never want to be the target of someones action card wrath.  They can do a lot of damage and its a common strategy to stack your hand for just this purpose.

Finally and perhaps most importantly hold out negative actions for the end game.  A typical game of TI3 doesn’t end with a player getting that last and final point in the final round of the game.  It more often happens that a player scores 2, 3 or even 4 points in a single round.  Often referred to as “making  your play”, essentially the act of setting up a way to score multiple points in a single round so that players don’t have time to respond and are caught of guard.  If your sitting on 8 or 9 points in the final round, odds are you are about to play a round in which every person at the table is going to be trying to stop you, but if your sitting on 6 points people will assume there is plenty of time to deal with you.  Hence sitting on those big Fuck You actions until the right moment and then unloading to score big in a single round is the most effective way to ensure no one ever gets a chance to get revenge on you.

The golden rule in TI3 is that at 6 points you’re a threat in contention for the win. At 9 points, you’re just the guy about to get his ass handed to him by 5 other players.

Now that is not to say you should not make plays against people throughout the game, but remember the first part of this theory.  Players aren’t going to suicide it on you just because you play a Local Unrest on them in round one because they will still feel in contention for the win and won’t want to risk too much, but if you do something that really knocks them on their ass and they perceive that they are going to lose the game because of it, in particularly early or mid game, its a good chance you will have brought the wrath upon yourself and you will be dealing with a player taping your resources for the rest of the game on a suicide mission to take you with them,  making it difficult if not impossible to win.

Building political and economic power is a far better way to advance, then taking it away from someone else.

That is in a nutshell the revenge factor, know it, learn to love it and of course always be prepared to institute your own revenge should someone foolishly go after you.  Stack those action cards, arrange your military on the borders of your enemies and always be ready to pay them back 10 fold for their foolishness.  You really want to set this precedence at the table.  Everyone should know that, to screw with you is to unleash the demon, make them pay for coming after you and let them know that if they take you out of contention, your going to take them with you.

That’s it for today, hope you enjoyed the article and good luck!

What Makes It Tick

What Makes It Tick: Twilight Imperium Part I

One of my favorite games of all time, Twilight Imperium can only be described as a thematic epic, a game of galactic civilization building and management, dripping with intrigue, politics, diplomacy, trade, war, exploration and just all around 4x goodness.  I always say that if I was to be stuck on an island with 5 of my best friends and we could only bring one game with us, this is definitely the one I would choose.  With near infinite re-playbility,  mountains of strategic depth and an almost overwhelming set of variants and options this has to be one of the most dynamic board games in existence.

Starting this month I will be focusing in on Twilight Imperium both in this blog, on the pod cast and in my own personal gaming group.

Now I realize that Twilight Imperium is a rather niche thing.  We are talking about a pretty complex game that really requires 6 dedicated players and runs the better part of 6 hours.  Not to mention the science-fiction subject matter.  We are talking about a game here that eliminates a lot of people in a lot of ways.  For those of you who hear science-fiction, epic, six hours, six players and it brings a smile to your face, then this article series is definitely for you.

This is already a very long game when setup in the standard way, but fans being fans will do crazy setups like this that will take days as opposed to hours. There is a special place in hell for these people, I’m looking forward to meeting them.

In the course of this article series we are going to explore this game inside and out.  We are going to look at strategies, the races, tricks of the trade, pitfalls and most importantly how to win.  First however let’s just kick things off with a general overview, lets assume for a second you don’t own Twilight Imperium yet and you are considering picking it up.  Consider this a sort of list of important things to know about TI3.

It’s a game about a war but not a war game

Whenever I describe TI3 I always begin by telling people that despite appearances, while this game is definitely about a great galactic war, it is not mechanically speaking a game of war.  Now don’t get me wrong here, you will definitely be fighting.  You will build mighty space fleets and send them into grand battles, fighting over planets and resources, but these aspects of TI3 are really a distraction and perhaps better to say an extension of the treacherous intrigue, diplomacy and politics that are the true driving force of the game.

Looking at an image like this it’s not hard to imagine someone mistaking this for a war game.

To win Twilight Imperium you must score points and there is only one way to do that which is to complete public and secret objectives.  Waging war for war’s sake will not win you the game in all but the rarest circumstance, or when using some select variants and its very much more likely that simply going on a war path even when pursuing points will ultimately lead you to a crushing defeat.  So always keep in mind as you approach TI3 that while you must always build up your military and prepare for war, successful players will use their war machine with precision, as a means to an end and most commonly to distract their opponents from their real agenda which should always be kept hidden.

This is of course also important if you are buying this game because you think it’s a “war in space” game, it’s not and you definitely should not buy this game if that is what you are after.

This is more a hobby than a game

While I would never fault someone for giving TI3 a try, the truth is that TI3 is designed from the ground up for dedicated players, people who are interested in studying and learning about the ins and outs of this complex game.  This is an event game, something you plan an evening around, going into it knowing it’s going to take up the whole night.  It’s not a game you simply pull out on a random board game night.  It’s definitely not for casual gamers either and for best results it’s important that all participants prepare for the game by reading the rulebook on their own. In other words, it takes motivated, interested players who are eager to play to be successful.

There are a lot of mini mechanics built into the options and variants of TI3 like the political system for example. Its important everyone familiarize themselves with these else getting a good experience becomes very difficult if not impossible.

I note this here because if you are considering purchasing TI3 you must keep this in mind. You want a gaming group setup ready to dive in with interest and excitement, a group that is aware of what TI3 really is and be on board with it.  You don’t want to twist arms and convince reluctant people to play this game, it simply does not work out well and given the expense of the game, it would be a shame to shell out so much money for something that collects dust on your shelf.

Getting both expansions with the core game is really kind of a must. TI3 is kind of an all or nothing thing. The good news is you will never have trouble finding someone to sell it to if you take good care of your game.

So be sure you really have a gaming group ready to commit to the game before you buy, else you will find yourself like many do, on the forums posting “looking for TI3 games in X, Y area”.  You don’t want this big beautiful box on your shelf that never see’s the light of day.

It’s a game for 6 players, no more no less

This might be a controversial opinion and so I say this with full disclosure that this Is just that, my opinion.  To me, TI3 with anything more or less than 6 players changes the experience and in most cases considerably reduces it to the point where I would consider other games before I play a 3, 4 or 5 player game of TI3.  Here is how I see the breakdown.

3 Player Game
In a 3 player game the core problem is that intrigue, politics and diplomacy suffer greatly and since this is really the focus of the game, that is a real deal breaker for me.  You have a triad so any alliances or political coordination results in a 2 on 1 situation and this makes for a very poor TI3 experience in my humble opinion.  TI3 really shines in an environment of multiple political plays, diplomatic situations and intrigues motivated by a field of players, without it, it really just becomes a game of war rather than a game about a war.  It effectively devolves into an overly complicated game of RISK.

The 3 player setup is a triangle so at least the map is balanced, but without the intrigue, diplomacy and politics it makes for a very shallow experience.

4 Player Game
This is probably the only alternative I would consider to be “ok” in a pinch or when one is desperate to play, but still largely skip-able especially considering the wide range of awesome 4 player games available.  The main problem here is that each player gets 2 strategy cards which diminishes the game greatly because you know with 100% certainty every secondary ability of every strategy card will be played.  The dynamic becomes predictable and it really gives certain races a much bigger advantage then they would normally have throwing the balance off.  The map is even which is good and I don’t necessarily hate 4 player games, but generally speaking I think there are better options out there in the 4x genre for a 4 player game than TI3.  I think new players will hate it considerably less, but as you gain experience you will recognize the subtle differences.

5 Player Game
This to me is the worst of the bunch largely because the map is so uneven.  You end up with 3 players affected negatively by their home world position at the start of the game and this really makes it tough especially for the middle (5th player) who has 2 players only 2 hexes away.  While there are some modifications that can be made to the map as released in the expansions, or via the standard rules of handing out some added trade goods, these solutions are imperfect at best.  I have never cared for any of these solutions and personally avoid 5 player games to avoid the diminished experience.  You especially want to avoid a 5 player game as you are introducing it to new players, the game will immediately be accused of being horribly unbalanced and unfair.

7 & 8 Player Games
TI3 is already a big epic, very long game but at 7 & 8 players it gets too long even for the most dedicated veterans.  You are talking about a 8+ hour game here and while I imagine initially some might be attracted to the size of the game there is just too much down time and the game runs too slow to be worth it.  The experienced is diminished considerably and it becomes too messy to manage.

At the end of the day the perfect, sweet spot is a 6 player game and this is really what you should be shooting for with your gaming group.  I would argue that all player counts can be modified and house ruled to be improved, in fact in later articles I will be talking about some of those house rules and home brewed variants that improve the game for other player counts, but in as a whole, out of the box, 6 player games is where it’s really at its best.

The Shattered Empire Expansion Is a must

Twilight Imperiums greatest strength is its dynamic nature and unfortunately in the original game there is a strategy card called “Imperial”, the number 8 card, which really breaks the spirit of those dynamics.  This is corrected in the Shattered Empire Expansion (as well as Shards of the Throne) by introducing alternatives to this card.  This issue is lovingly referred to as the “Round Robin” effect.

Getting 2 Victory Points in TI3 is very difficult, only a fool would pass on a strategy card that just gives it to you for doing nothing.

The Round Robin Problem
The issue which most TI3 players are familiar with is the round robin effect of the imperial strategy card.  This card effectively gives you 2 free points simply for activating it and 2 victory points in TI3 is huge.  What ends up happening is that every player will quickly realize that whenever you can take the Imperial card you must take it.  Since the person with the speaker token picks strategy cards first, the obvious play if you are the second player during the strategy phase is to get the speaker token hence you will be taking the “Initiative” strategy card which does just that.  Another words the round robin effect is that the speaker takes the Imperial Card and the second player takes the initiative card so he can get the Imperial card next round.  This shuffles down the line and eventually all players will make this move at least once.

This happens every round resulting in most games with the first two picks of each strategy phase being the same.  This goes around the table resulting in each player eventually getting his 2 free points.  The idea here is to speed up the game but there is a negative effect that comes into play at the very end of the game, which creates the arguably game breaking impact.

If you can’t get the Imperial card you must take the Initiative card, making this the other culprit in the predictable round robin cycle.

What happens is that the average TI3 game takes about 7-8 rounds, which means that 1 or 2 players will end up getting the Imperial card twice, aka 4 free points.  This means that the player who gets the speaker token in the first round of the game, something determined randomly with dice at the start of the game, will end up getting 2 more points than everyone else in round 7.  Making him the most likely winner of the game as he only needs to produce 6 other points to win the game (you win at 10 victory points) by round 7.  Not an all to difficult task with most races under normal circumstances.  Any experienced player knows that you aren’t winning the game unless you score a point each round so scoring 6 points by the start of round 7 is something all good players learn to do well.

This round robin cycle is terrible for the game, in particular at a table with more experienced players but in general it is just bad. Fortunately the Shattered Empire Expansion resolves this by offering alternatives to the Imperial card (more on that later).

Now there are of course ways to house rule this so this is not the only reason to get the Shattered Empire expansion. The additional races, action cards, political cards, all of the alternative strategy cards not to mention the added variant options all improve the game dramatically. It’s my recommendation that if you purchase TI3 you automatically purchase Shattered Empire with it directly.  I would also recommend you pick up Shards of the Throne while you’re at it because frankly this game will not be in print forever and the print runs FFG does make are usually small so if you are going to get into TI3 you pretty much want to go all in.

The most commonly used solution to the round robin problem is the bureaucracy strategy card.

That’s just my opinion of course but these expansions add so much to the game, improving the experience so dramatically that if you end up loving TI3, you’re going to really hate yourself if you did not get the expansions along with it.  Besides, this game is always sought after so if you take good care of it you will not have any trouble selling it later if you end up not liking it and recouping your money.

Final Considerations

The final consideration I think anyone considering getting into TI3 should make is definitely to make sure you understand the design aspect of the game.  I think most people who look at this game would categorize it as “Ameri-trash”.  It’s packed full of miniatures, its thematically driven and it uses dice and lots and lots of cards.  The thing is that if you remove the miniatures and dice, pretty much every mechanic in this game is effectively a “Euro Game” mechanic.  In fact, I would consider this a kind of cross over game, but if you don’t like Euro games, if you don’t like Euro mechanics you will find a lot to dislike about TI3.

Prior to the Euro invasion you would never see “victory points” or “objectives” used in an American made game. Just one of the many good things to influence American designers..

TI3 makes heavy use of things like Role-Selection (works like Puerto Rico), command move and bidding just to name a couple.  There is a ton of Euro influence here mixed in with the Ameri-Trash luck/randomness.  I would argue it blends the best of both worlds but in the end this blending of design styles might not be for everyone so be sure you really read the rulebook and consider how you feel about this infrastructure that TI3 is build around.

Ok I think that is a good start to the series, keep an eye on the upcoming articles!