Twilight Imperium Fourth Edition

This game is big -- in scope, complexity, replayability, and both time and table space required. But it is worth every bit. There are very few board games out there that can match this one in what it does. Players play a particular faction or species in a galactic setting where the old empire has fallen and the strongest civilizations are vying for the imperial throne. The balancing is asymmetric - each faction (17 in the base game) has their own unique abilities, and while the units are more-or-less common across factions, there are particulars and abilities that make each fleet feel slightly different. The game board is built from a selection of hexagonal tiles, each representing a system in the galaxy. There are rules for building custom maps by dealing tiles to each player, or you can play from one of the premade maps included in the rulebook or on the Internet to give more balance in exchange for randomness. Starting from your home system, you'll expand your personal empire, exploring and collecting planets and resources along the way to fuel your economy. Strategic alliances and trading with other players, technological advancements, space and ground combats, and political machinations all combine together to allow players to score various public and secret objectives, worth various victory points. First person to 10 points (or 14, if you want a longer game yet) wins. But while victory points are the ultimate goal, the methods to get there can vary from game to game and faction to faction. Some factions are more suited to trade and economic growth, others to political maneuvering, others to warfare, and others are somewhere in between. Depending on the faction you play, the systems on the board, the action cards you're dealt, and the strategy cards you choose, the game is very fluid and ebbs and flows between exciting dice rolls and mundane matters of trade. The replayability of this game is astronomical (pardon the pun). So, some downsides. The first and most obvious is the time commitment. This is not a short game. A minimum of an hour per player is a good baseline for experienced players, but new people just learning can easily be double that. Plus there is extensive setup and teardown time. Proper storage and separation of pieces (and there are a LOT!) is an absolute must. Various tuckboxes, 3D printed trays, retail storage solutions, and the like exist across the Internet -- while the included plastic insert is okay, you're definitely going to want to invest in storage to make setup and teardown easier and faster. And then there are the pieces themselves. The plastic ships are excellent in detail, the cards are printed well with a glossy finish and good feel, and the cardboard components are thick with a sturdy heft and detailed colors. The size required, though ... you'll have a faction card (not quite US letter size), a command pool card (about half that size), planet cards, action cards, technology cards, ships and ground units ... and that's just the player-specific stuff. Common areas include the objectives and objective deck, political agenda deck, strategic action cards, generic tokens for infantry, fighter ships, and trade goods, and on and on. Then there is the game board itself, composed of several dozen tiles, with a six-player map about 2.5 ft in diameter. I have a dedicated gaming table with a 3 ft by 5 ft playing surface, and it's already getting real cozy with just four players. Add in additional players, or the Prophecy of Kings expansion, and you're going to need some TV trays or additional side tables to hold components. Again, solutions for this abound across the Internet -- whiteboards for objective scoring, playing card holders to shrink the horizontal space, etc. -- but it's yet another thing that's "required" and not included in the game. But, above all, this is an excellent heavy strategy game with a sizable commitment. If people go into this expecting Catan-in-space, they're going to be severely disappointed, severely frustrated, or both. With the time commitment, the space required, and the familiarity of rules necessary to exploit the game world to its fullest, this is the best game you'll never play.

A monster of a game, both in physical size and in length of gameplay, but a worthy investment. Great quality materials and super fun to play. I would describe the game as Risk in Space, with the bargaining and negotiating of Catan or Monopoly, the expansive sci-fi universe feel of Star Wars and Star Trek, and the politics, betrayals and world building of Game of Thrones. This game has great replayability if you can find friends to play it with who are down for the long time commitment. Fair warning, this game is extremely complex with a summarized rulebook of about 40 pages and a separate detailed reference rulebook of about the same length. Both are worth reading if you want to be able to understand the gameplay and so you can teach others effectively. Don’t trust the time estimates on the box! The game takes about an hour to set up, an hour to teach, and in my experience, 7-10 hours to play the full game. In addition, I recommend having your players watch a YouTube game tutorial before joining for a first game before coming over so they understand the basics! Should also note that the box is oversize and the game itself needs a lot of table space to play (sometimes 2 tables). Because the map is changeable and because each alien faction has different powers, the gameplay is a little different every game and is balanced in a way that feels fluid and competitive. The game supports various play styles allowing different paths to win the game, ranging from more aggressive to more peaceful/cooperative at the player’s discretion. This game is worth the high price tag, but is not a play everyday kind of game. Make sure players know what they’re getting into and make sure to set a whole day aside to play!

I've only played this game twice so far. I love it though! It's epic, the learning curve is really high though. The first game was almost just all about learning it. The second game though. The game felt way different. Way more conflicts, more alliances, more everything! It's one of the best in it's class. Alright for some serious notes, the game comes with a ton of things, 17 playable factions, a whole lot of plastic ships in each of 6 colors, a lot of tiles to make the galaxy which it can make it for a different game everytime if you want, way too many cards of all sorts. Excellent: 1: A war game that is about controlling the galaxy either through military or politics. 2: The plastic ships are super detailed. You could paint them if you want. just make sure you have someway to color coordinate them. Good: 1: A ton of tiles that make a galaxy, the learning book has a preset for the different player counts. But you can also do a drafting style galaxy setup too which we have yet to do. 2: Way too many cards. I play a lot of card games and seeing this many cards would make me happy and it does, but wow there's a lot. Action cards to change the tide of battle, use them in political events to maybe make a law pass or not. And finally the Technology deck is probably the best way to handle techs in a game this size, everyone has the same 16 main techs, 2 faction specific techs and 9 unit upgrades. It's super easy to get a grasp on. Okay: 1: This game is long! Our first session lasted about 6 hours and was cut short. Second session was almost 10 and we actually finished. 2: It's going to probably be the biggest box on your game shelf. 3: The insert is great if you don't sleeve the cards, but only okay if you do. 4: You should watch a tutorial on how to play while reading the learn to play book. Seriously, it's a lot and some of the more fringe question we had weren't easy to find and had to be looked up elsewhere. Overall Rating: 9.5/10 I can't wait to play it again, a couple of my friends and I discuss this game often and it has a permanent place on my board game shelf.

This is probably the best board game created. Definitely worth its price.

Buy it, the learning curve is horrid, but it is worth it

جميله جدا

Is goed

Gioco arrivato leggermente in ritardo rispetto ai tempi programmati, ma d'altronde l'ho comprato fuori italia perchè nessuno dei miei amici, me compreso voleva attendere la versione in italiano. Imballaggio perfetto, il gioco corrisponde alla descrizione. Non manca nulla. Let's play.