We played our first game yesterday, just the three players as one couldn’t make it unexpectedly, but I’ll say that 3-player Twilight Imperium is quite a lot of fun - more than I had assumed, which makes me think I should have grabbed this years ago.
The game took about 7 hours (we started at around 4:30pm and finished at 11:30 - but we also had a LOT of questions to look up in the rules and also it took quite a bit to read through research options, faction abilities, agenda’s and action cards when they came up, all of it was new to us). And talk about analysis paralysis - this game has a lot of things you CAN do in a given turn, but which one secures a precious victory point, or denies your opponents one? It’s a crazy fascinating game, and that’s even before the Agenda phase kicks off and the wildest shit comes up for vote.
My son (on the right in this photo) randomly got the trading cat faction, and they proved incredibly effective all around. He spread quickly and early but not fast enough to grab Mecatol Rex, which I did. I was playing as Sardakk N’orr, a peace loving insect race that wanted no problems from anyone. Yeah, no one else believed me either.
I expanded into Mecatol Rex early, which was fun (achievement unlocked!) but @ShivaX decided “who voted for this!?” and marshaled a fleet of stinking human ships and overthrew the government (which admittedly at this point was a guy orbiting in a carrier).
The game proceeded smoothly, we had some great moments where we realized the political side of the game is probably the most interesting for a bit there - just the most uncomfortable situations arise from there and that stuff was great! Like at one point I abstained from voting, because I played an action card that let me predict the outcome (which was that no one wanted to be able to produce only 1 fighter or infantry for the cost of 2) - and as @ShivaX was playing humans and had a massive fleet of fighters, I predicted correctly earning a victory point. The anguish on those guys’ faces when they voted was delicious. No one wanted to cripple their production abilities, but no one wanted me to have a free victory point, either. :)
Too late, however, I realized the humans vile plan. He had gained a few victory points already from holding Rex this long, and there were now public objectives worth 2 VP’s so I upgraded my fleet to very powerful ships indeed - including enhanced anti-fighter destroyers and faction specific dreadnoughts. I invaded Mecatol Rex, the vengeance of my earlier lost carrier coming to bear on his face.
My ships lined up and readied an anti-fighter barrage that swept through his fighters, while my own fighters (thanks to an action card) were prototypes that gained +2 to combat rolls, and in the end of this exchange, He played a card that provided a boost to morale, and +1 to all combat rolls for the first round. I lost 2 or 3 ships and took damage on several others while crippling his ships and decimating his numbers in the opening round. I then played a card that repaired my two damaged dreadnoughts and wiped out the rest of his forces handily. The N’orr may not know much, but they know how to crush their opponents fleet into space debris. This is when I realized the combat was one of my favorite things in the game, too. I love the mechanics here, super fast but also interesting.
However, I couldn’t bring infantry with me, not enough time to swing around and grab them, and he had a PDS stopping me from bombing his planet, so he still gained his VP and managed to complete as well a secret victory condition, but my son did see this one coming and tried to prevent it, but didn’t comitt enough forces to the task and failed by a hair’s breadth.
And so thus Shiva took the first victory… but now we all know how to play! :)
