Same here. All those pieces just seem to scare everyone away when I bring this one out to the table.

Hello David:

Your experience with TI3 varies depending on who you play with. This game is excellent when you play with players who know what they are doing. It truly reproduces some of the epic feeling of a space opera...

Otherwise, you and your group would get lost in the mechanics of the game.

David, I would also advise caution. If your buddies are largely uncrtitical, just into having a marathon space-brawl, and don't mind sifting through the many layers of the game, go for it.

I would compare TI3 to a very flashy, fun sci-fi movie with tons of f-x but not a lot of plot or good writing. We have yet to see the next great space empire game.

I like this game a lot. I also tweak it alot. The list of variants I can and do play with is a bit frightening.

So basically I have to agree with Nate that this game is not quite the classic it could be.

Nate... a few years on from your post but I think Ti3 with the expansion is one of the best space empire games in print (2008). It is certainly not about space combat, and there are plenty of different approaches one can take to winning the game.


Great Game!

-M

I have the "Eon" edition with all the expansions except for #4 Flares (anyone have a spare lying around?). First played this at school about 25 years ago. Have been trying to get my kids (13, 8, & 6) into it.

I have the Mayfair version with the expansion. Then we switched the paper pieces out for glass beads and have enjoyed it greatly. An all time classic.

Good but not great. Exactly. However, I liked this a good deal more than its overweight younger brother. There was a purity of design and a simplicity than has gotten buried under too much gunk. Don't sell it yet!

I see this one and the 3rd edition on the list, but not the 2nd. 2nd edition was a cleaned up version of the 1st, and might be the best of all.

I prefer the ealier editions of this game. It's an asymmetrical situation and a lot of fun, even if it is a dice fest.

I've got the pictured version that I could dig up for a play if you like David. Played it a bit many years ago.

The original was a true classic (and badly unbalanced).
I've heard the newer rendition pales in comparison.

Both GDW editions were very good; the 2nd just incorporated a bit of errata. It had an awesome campaign system, where the end of a war led to an inter-war period that set the stage for the next war.

The uniquely interesting feature of this game is the fact that it simulates multiple conflicts over time. Empires lose the will to fight and sue for peace, and irresistable dreadnoughts rust into useless hulks during intervals of disuse. The Imperial player represents a sector governor subject to the whims of the Emperor, and must ask permission to construct the largest ships. Thus, though the Empire has the might to defeat the Earth player, its local representative is handicapped by the Emperor's wariness; his requests for men and materiel must be balanced against competing demands from the rest of the Empire. Good graphics quality, very evocative of the theme. Fairly clear rules, easy to learn. Recommended.

Really the most close to Star Wars like game you can find. love this game and also love Zina Adora and Thysa Kimbo.
Great game, but really difficult to the rebels.

I'm in the process of designing a game aiming with this kind of flavor, but not quite as complicated. I've bogged down in writing text for a lot of cards, but I hope it will be fun.

When I worked at Avalon Hill back in 1999, I was working on a new version of FitG to coincide with a PC game release. The boardgame was going to have more streamlined rules and faster play, but was sadly never completed. Still, it's always a game (and project) I have fond memories of and would love to finish one day!

First saw this played during the lunch break at High school 26 years ago. Got my own copy a while back but yet to sit down and play. My 8yo is a Star Wars fan so just maybe in a couple of years....

Boogie down, Buck! Undoubtedly an attempt to play Risk in space, this is not a bad game at all, if you go in with the idea that it IS Risk-like. Decent planetary mechanics, and pretty fun overall. Unfortunately (I have a geeklist entry on this one somewhere!!), my dog literally ate most of one of the races back in the '90s. Right after we had to put him on medication, so he was actually doggie-deranged...

I always think of this one as "Axis & Allies in Space." As a war-within-a-solar-system game it had some good stuff in it. The mechanic of planets orbiting at different rates, generating windows of opportunity for both buildup and invasions, was a lot of fun.

If you mentally detach from the "Buck Rogers" idea and play it as a straight space game, it's worth playing (or hunting, if you don't have it).

I'd agree that this is "Axis & Allies" in space (but so is Throneworld).

The mechanics for movement of the planets are rather neat.

Labor Day 2005. I went into storage to get my old GameMaster games and this one. Well, some flooding had occurred and Buck Rogers had gotten wet and crushed by the soggy games on top of it. I haven't had the heart to cut it open and see what I can salvage (I'm sure the plastic bits are fine) yet.

Simply count this one in with the Gamemaster Series. Great game! If you like games lik Axis & Allies and Shogun of course!

I saw this in a shop for £10.Did not have the money at the time,so went back the next day.
Guess what,it had gone

Reportedly there will be a new version with bits from the original three movies out this year. AT-AT, anyone?

I've played it. It is just okay. Not really a space empire game in that it portrays a civil war, not a war of imperial conquest.

You'll find, strangely, that either the Republic or the Separtists always seem to win. But for different groups, it's a different answer.

Does that mean the game is balanced? I don't know.

This is currently available at Woolworths for only £9.99. There seem to be plenty of copies.

I hate vanilla Risk, but was pleasantly surprised with this one. It plays quickly, cleanly, and somehow manages to evoke the theme of Star Wars with just a minimal rule set and Risk underneath. Well done.

In fact, since it plays so quickly and plays well with 2-4, it has replaced our default Risk game, should we ever choose to play. 2210 is "better", but longer by far.

And the boardgame that inspired the first classic space empire computer game, Reach for the Stars. And RFTS was a clear inspiration for Master of Orion.

RFTS...I want those 6 months of my life back!

I think this could be a great game for someone like GMT to reissue with the board redone in 3d, nice counter-art and the bookeeping elements reduced & streamlined

To my recall this is the board game precursor to Masters of Orion. Been a while since I looked it over (alas, it is unplayed...).

A reprint might not be a bad idea - hey, you could NOT possibly screw it up as much as MOO3 was screwed up.

The new version of Reach for the Stars was actually kind of lame. I'm sticking to Galatic Civ, Starships Unlimited, and Master of Orion 1.

One of my favorites.

Although this is a good game, his would not fit your parameters for selection, as it is a game of individual spaceship combat within a single solar system. (For another similar game by the same designer, see "Mayday," also by GDW).

The "Triplanetary" game I remember (apparently not listed in the BGG database) was more like Stellar Conquest (before that game was published) and dealt with exploration and exploitation of the galaxy. It was not limited to the Solar System as the GDW game is.

This 'Triplanetary' is a classic. The first 'crayon' game I remember playing. But as commented above doesn't really fit the Space Empire theme of this list.

Also,. the GDW one shown is NOT based upon Doc Smith's novel.

It is playable, it is kind of cool, but it was too fiddly for my tastes.

My original GDW version came rolled up, both the map and some plastic that covered it. Later they put out a 2nd edition in a flat box, which I have now.

Very clever 2D vector movement, with gravity hexes around the planets. The base scenario, where you had to race around the solar systems, was my favorite solitaire game 30-odd years ago.

An interesting game, primarily for the elegant simulation of vector movement. In my opinion, it's more fun to play "regatta" type scenarios than to play space combat scenarios. First one to orbit the Sun and all the planets and retun to Terra wins!

Thanks, I was unaware of this one.

Fun for a few plays but eventually the "Rock, Paper, Scissors" combat system bogs the game down.

I'd say it was more like Wizard's Quest than Risk, but regardless it was a very good beer & pretzels game that worked great with 2, 3, 4 or 6 players.

I always loved SPI's "hard science" covers.

Even if mental power/psionics is the basis for movement

The map for this looked fabulous under blacklight.

And you gotta love a game that has a turn scale of "Generational" and map scale of 1 hex = 30,000 light years (give or take).

Don't exaggerate, each hex is more like 1,200 light years give or take.

F&E is actually not a redevelopment of Fed Space; the only concepts between the two are movement and map. The rest (And for Fed SPace, that's negligible, and F&E is huge), F&E is an order of magnitude more complex, or more.

Where Fed Space grand campaign could easily be played in a weekend, an F&E small single-border scenario can be a weekend; the grand campaign can take months.

Fed Space was by far the more playable game.

Not having played this F&E, I could only go by the Relationships table on the F&E game entry. The consensus appears to be that F&E is a redevelopment of Federation Space, but from your comments I'd agree it sounds like a pretty major redevelopment.

Well, all the similarities come from covering the same source material: Star Fleet Battles.

It's a more-or-less science-fiction version of Empires of the Middle Ages.

This one I've got. Haven't played it for a while. I got it because it was an adaption of the Mideval Empires game which I very much liked.

A gem, that is, until one side has the other with his back to the wall, at which point a single die-roll on a table can end the game.

Thanks Roberto, it looks interesting.

This really gives a good feel for the exploration and development of space empires, not just conquering others' territory.

I have fond memories of this one, it was quite good.

Have to call this one on the basis of a lack of empire building. Fleet tactics card game ala Modern Naval Battles...

Did anyone else try buying dice to match the colors on the cards?