Twilight Imperium 3: Shattered Empire, Saturday, 30 Dec 2006
Update: We're going to play starting at 1000 AM on Saturday at Dragon's Lair. Right now we're up to three players... The more the merrier!
I know it will require careful planning to organize a game of Twilight Imperium 3 (AKA My Precious....) over the holidays, and in fact I myself am not yet ready to suggest a date. However, I thought this would be a good time to at least start a discussion thread about the new expansion and for people to express interest.
So, for starters, here's some good links you might be interested in to learn more about the expansion set:
Recent session report on BGG - Good because they tried most of the bells and whistles
Fantasy Flight Games' Twilight Imperium 3 website - The expansion set rules plus a series of designer's notes articles on the expansion are posted here.
Overall, it seems FFG gave the game the full pimp-my-ride treatment, with tons of chrome added everywhere. In particular the new strategy cards; the conflict-oriented objective deck; race-specific tech; and new races seem particularly cool.
The week after Christmas, in particular, seems like a promising time to schedule an all-day game. Ideally we could get at least a 4-player game going.
Labels: planning
posted by Ben @ 9:56 PM
23 comments
23 Comments:
I was called in for a project at work, so my weekdays are now occupied. I'm only off X-mas, the day after, and New Year's Day. So a Saturday or Sunday would work best for me.
(((Ben in his best impression of Capt James Kirk at the climax of Star Trek 2: Wrath of Khan))): "Chad!!!!"
...that said, I'm sure I can make an upcoming Saturday work. :)
The simulated early turns optional rule that shaves 1-2 hours off the game's play time will probably be a popular one with all but the most hard core of players.
simulated = simultaneous?
I'd be interested. I could 12/26 and 12/28 (until about 5pm).
Put me in the interested category. I'll be off starting this coming Fri through a few days after Christmas.
My inlaws go back to Tennessee on the 27th (I think) and Amy goes back to work on either the 27th or 28th, but I have the entire week of Christmas off, so Thursday and Friday during the day are good for me. I'd play TI3 if that's all that's going on, but would prefer other stuff.
The fates have conspired to keep me from playing any of the TI3 sessions we've had so far and it appears as if it will happen again. Hopefully we can also get it on the table sometime in January after I return?
Michael: You may always assume I'm ready and available to play TI:3.
Both Dec 26 and Dec 28 work for me as well, but I'd hate to leave Chad out.
How about Saturday, Dec 30th?
On the 26th and/or 28th we could do WoW or Descent....
I'm off work until after the new year. I may be gone the 26th, but should be available if sessions happen.
Like Jeff, I'm ambivalent towards TI3, but I'm sure other things will get scheduled...
My fellow gamers, I hav ebeen quiet the past several weeks. The school year with the kids has hit with a vengence. Cub Scouts,homework, school projects,...
But a good game of TI3 always motivates me to push out the other stuff and make room. Please count me in. I may even be able to offer my house again if needed. Hope all of you are doing well!
Hooray, Carlos! Let me know what days you're available. Right now we're looking at potentially Dec 26, 28, or 30, depending on what works best. It would be great to have at least a rematch of the same group we had last time.
For me December 26th won't work. I will be wrapping up Christmas activities with family. Any other time beyond that is probably OK unless somethink else comes up.
It will be interesting to see if we have Shattered Empire by then. We should.
Sorry for my absense.
The 30th would be the only day out of the options that I could play.
Sounds like Saturday, 30 December 2006 is the most likely date.
Rob: Will this work for you? Perhaps we can play some other stuff on either/both 26 and 28 Dec...
Word from HQ. Shattered Empires has shipped.
Previously interested parties, please check your in-box for a Google Calendar invite...
One particularly nice bit of chrome added to the expansion is the Imperial soldier planet (i.e., similar to Dune's Sardukar homeworld). The owner of this planet gets to tap it each turn to produce two shock troop units in lieu of using the planet for resources.
Nice....Salusa Secundus...
Speaking of Dune, they've also added a "Technological Jihad" political card to the game... it causes bad things to happen when you complete tech advances.
Meredith is getting the cold that I had. My duties as a good husband are going to trump my desired to conquer the universe. Sorry to say, but I'm out of this game.
Well, I guess that's better than my sick cat excuse from yesterday! I'm hopeful we'll play again in the coming weeks as well.
I've never played but I'm willing to give it a try. I'll bow out to make room for more experienced players, but I'll play if you need another player. I'll show up at DL at 10.
Alvin
Looks like I can make it tomorrow now, so I will see everyone there at 10am
Excellent! I'll see everyone at 10 AM. We'll take lunch in shifts (so as to guard the game/room) at around 12 PM.
Al: As a newby it might help you to skim the basic set rules at FFG's website. Otherwise, there should be enough players to bring you up to speed pretty quickly.
The expansion set options I'm proposing for tomorrow are (listed in rulebook order for those following along):
1. Variant ISC: No (see #2). Nice to see my favorite variant get a boost to optional status though!
2. Variant Strategy Cards: Yes. Might as well give these a shot... Note, we have to use the vanilla way of revealing objectives with this set, as Age of Empires ( i.e., all revealed at start) doesn't work with these.
3. Variant Objectives: Yes, sure why not.... A simple drop in replacement. Actually, you can mix these in with the old ones rather than swapping them out, which should be a good mix.
4. Race-specific techs. Yes.
5. Artifacts: No. Unless we get a 6-player game going, I think the map will be too small for these.
6. Shock troops: Yes, too cool not to use.
7. Space mines: Yes. Simple to implement, and they make Cruisers worth their price.
8. Wormhole Nexus: Yes. Really, its just an extra map square.
9. Facilities: Yes, though these seem a pretty insignificant addition.
10. Tactical retreats: Yes. This is really a game patch, I think.
11. New Distant Suns: No (see #12)
12. Territorial Distant Suns: This is nice, as this takes most of the luck-factor out of Distant Suns while keeping the excitement. Though this adds significant flavor to the game, it does add some luck factor and game length. Opinions?
13. Custodians of Mecatol Rex: Yes, I really like preventing the cheap grab.
14. Voice of the council: Undecided. I think this would only make sense with 5-6 or more players.
15. Simulated early turns. Undecided. With a small number of players and small map, this might not work right. With 5-6 people, this will cut at least an hour of game time with no loss in fun.
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