Game Twilight Imperium: Strategy Guide

Twilight Imperium is the core game of Fantasy Flight Games, revised twice and being an all-time favorite of players with a large internet community and lively PBeM-scene. The box is full with nice plastic ships in different colors, stoutly-printed hexagonal system tiles and a thick rulebook. Everyone looking at it knows instinctively that he has a big baby in his hands that will consume much of their time. And in fact, Twilight Imperium features one of the longest playtimes of all FFG games: at least four hours in a four-player game in which everyone knows the rules and everything goes smooth and fast. But it is more reasonable to assume you need five hours for a four-player-game and to add one additional hour for every player above that.

So, an eight-player game takes at the very least eight hours; more realistic will be ten to twelve since with a game that long you will want to take a break to eat and stuff. You should be perfectly aware of that fact when you open the box because once the game starts, everyone is committed, since players very rarely get eliminated, unlike the equally long classic “Diplomacy.” When you bring new players to the table, make clear to them what awaits them once you open the box. Nothing is more unsatisfying than having to stop a game right in the middle because one player doesn’t want to play on anymore.

That said, play at every opportunity you have. Twilight Imperium is a really great game, easily one of the best empire building games there is, maybe even the prime of its class. But be advised: the expansion “Shattered Empire” is highly recommended for play, because the vanilla game has some serious flaws (like the overpowered fighters or the very imbalanced strategy cards) that needn’t spoil your game experience. TI3 is also very forgiving about houserules, of which I’ll recommend several. This topic gets addressed at appropriate points and at the end of this guide.

A last word on theme: unlike normal board games, especially euro games, TI3 features are a well-written background and very thematic rules that fit in quite nicely. It is rewarding to read the backstories and to delve a bit into the theme, because all the races and many rules are designed after the background, and if you know a certain background for a certain race, you will soon recognize that a certain play style goes with it. That might greatly influence your choosing of a race.