I could bring it... but seeing how a typical game with 4-5 players usually takes 6-7 hours (with folks who know the rules and have played a few times already), this just isn't FTL.con material. You are always welcome to come to Bremen for a game though. Just give me a heads-up in advance so I can get another 2-3 players and we're golden.
Since we'll be there for more then 6-7 hours, I don't see the issue
Seriously though, it's not gonna happen. I have to warn you, I might take you up on that offer though - never been to Bremen before!
Well then, plan ahead, and offer us a date. Most weekends are fine.
With every breath the air grows stale, deathly cold winds howl and wail, raging thunder pounds like drums, when something wicked this way comes!
Engoduun wrote:
Stormparkiet wrote:
Corran Horn wrote:
I could bring it... but seeing how a typical game with 4-5 players usually takes 6-7 hours (with folks who know the rules and have played a few times already), this just isn't FTL.con material. You are always welcome to come to Bremen for a game though. Just give me a heads-up in advance so I can get another 2-3 players and we're golden.
Since we'll be there for more then 6-7 hours, I don't see the issue
Seriously though, it's not gonna happen. I have to warn you, I might take you up on that offer though - never been to Bremen before!
Well then, plan ahead, and offer us a date. Most weekends are fine.
Agreed!
If I hadn't been serious about the offer, I wouldn't have made it. You are always welcome here!
Even Dominion beats it: 30 * 11.97 = 359 minutes. Or Agricola, with the playing time listed on BGG: 120 * 4.20 = 504 minutes (but for Agricola, the playing time depends on the number of plays; 120 minutes is for a 4 player game)
Playing TI3 in in 4 hours is like having sex in 4 seconds: sure it's humanly possible but hardly an average. Through the Ages on the other hand only takes 240 minutes with the full game, and I doubt every logged play is from a 240 minute game. Ditto for Agricola.
I concede to Dominion, although I don't really think of it as a board game. It's like comparing board games to poker.
One of these days........ We're gonna start at like 6am and have a festival of TI3.
We've had one massive game of TI (still didn't finish) that went for over 7 hours and at the end of it we all felt like seedy, miserable blobs of shit. Somehow, we're convinced it is the lighting, the chairs, anything but the fact that we are not moving for half of our waking hours in the day. God, but we love TI3 so much we'd do it all again.
I'm a morning person and have always dreamed of waking and playing with my morning coffee and all the snacks would be breadfast foods. How is a married family man gonna pull that one off with his friends? One day I'll just plan it and do it.
I love space themes. I also seem to like empire builders with military conquest elements. For this reason, I really want to play this at least once. I know the time investment is huge, but that can be managed for at least one good playthrough.
First of I'm a new dad as well (8 month old son) and my boardgaming has still been going strong.
As for Twilight Imperium, it is a long playthrough and a lot of time invested. I would suggest probably Eclipse if you like the overall theme of TI, but want something a little shorter, or Space Empire 4x if you want something that takes up less space.
Some others that would still fit the space theme but not long times or space would be Cosmic Encounter, Race for the Galaxy and Galactic Emperor.
Actually, I have both Eclipse and Space Empires: 4X and enjoy them both quite a bit. But, when looking at information on those games, Twilight Imperium gets mentioned a lot, and the game looks like something I would be interested in.
I played 8 different games in March, expansions included. To my surprice TI3 tops the list of most plays this month. Usually I get to play a game of TI3 once in every three months or so, but now I had several opportunities all of a sudden. Since it's one of my absolute favorite games, March was a good gaming month for me!
Twilight Imperium (third edition) + expansions *3 Sekigahara: Unification of Japan *2 Diplomacy *1 The Hobbit *1 (new to me) Rex: Final Days of an Empire *1 (new to me) Warmachine Prime Mk II *1
Best experience: Without a doubt its TI3. There is something about this game that makes it such an epic experience every time I play it. A strong contributing factor to that is that I've found a great group of people to play it with. TI3 isn't a game that suits everyone, but it's definately one of my top choises.
New games: Both The Hobbit and Rex are new games to me. The Hobbit was about what I thought it would be. Pretty random, not much depth to it and thus not entirely up my alley. On the other hand it's easy enough to bring to the table when playing with the kids. They would probably enjoy it and it is relatively short. Rex was a bit of a confusing experience. The basic rules of the game are not very complicated but every faction have special abilities and some even special victory conditions. That was a bit difficult to grasp on the first session but I think the game has potential to grow on me and I would like to try it again soon.
I set it up for 8. Two cancelled, so I set it up for 6. Then one who cancelled un-cancelled so I had to set it up for 7. All over 2 days so it wasn't bad.
I am always so close to the win on this one and then someone has a secret victory condition fulfilled to jump up a couple of points ... or has a promisary note for a single point and I am back in second!
That is exactly the same thing that happened to me, it was my first play of the game and I thought "Jeebus, I could actually win this thing!" and then BAM! someone else completed a secret victory condition. Great game though, massive box.
This is the current gold standard, holy grail when it comes to space empire games. It's a longer game to play, and ideally played with 6 players, but addresses practically every problem that exists with other space empire games.
- You don't take monster turns where you move all your units at once. Instead you activate individual systems or special actions that keeps the turns moving.
- You don't just put all your ships into one wrecking-ball fleet. You actually need to keep your military spread out a little and it all makes sense to do so.
- This game has a real diplomacy system (including regular galactic council votes), which is why you really want 6 players.
- There's a real tech development system where you'll be planning your tech path like in MOO3.
- There are a plethora of game options and dozens of races to choose from that are all interesting and significantly different.
if you seen risk or another wargame is hard to put back in his box is hard... is because you haven´t tried out HELLISH HELL level with twilight imperium.
Lots of ships, Chits, political cards, chits, tokens, chits....
not to mention the planet cards, that for good gaming sake must be placed in alphabetical order for next games.
if you don´t store this game in order your next setup could have HIGH time to deploy.
But once you come up with a good (and easy) sorting solution, it's not so bad. I've got the base game + all expansions in the base box. It isn't the fastest to clean up, admittedly, but if you have a system it's pretty straightforward!
I have a custom system to pick up and put away as well, Just ask my game group they probably think i am anal about my TI game because i wont let them help with most of it...(I am) but thats besides the point...
I have a break down routine that takes no more than 15 minutes.
Basically i have only those items i need for a base game separate from the unique use items. Races, Race tech, ships, ambassadors and race related chits are stored in individual containers. then i have 8 tech/Promisorry note decks. Then i have Three deck container for planets, Politicals, Objectives...
Yes, this game is long. Yes, this game is big. Yes, this game is expansive. But it is worth it! An AWESOME game indeed! Always looking forward to play it, and everybody in my gaming group does as well.
I've played a friend's copy once. I really want to play it again until I try to schedule a full day for it and get a few others to do the same. I still greatly admire the game and wish to own it, but I know it would never get played.
I'm really hoping that if FFG does a 4th edition it will play quicker and retain the epic feeling.
And how, Caleb. Love the concept, the fact that the galaxy can be different every time (or at least it could in the versions I played), the variable faction powers, the cool bits.
But it always takes an eternity to play, and there are so many games that are long but well worth the investment of time and energy for me. I just didn't feel like this one was.
With every breath the air grows stale, deathly cold winds howl and wail, raging thunder pounds like drums, when something wicked this way comes!
Here's a brief overview of the nice gaming weekend I had:
Friday Game night with a group Reinhard introduced Daniel and myself to. A pleasant mix of fun people, some casual gamers, some mid-level gamers (the host has stuff like Power Grid and Pandemic in his gaming closet, so that's a good sign!) and some total geeks (well, Daniel, Reinhard and myself, anyway ) - 9 people total. After meeting up we started out with an 8-player (Daniel showed up later) game of Zombie Dice, just to warm up. Then we split up into 2 groups of for. Our group played Star Munchkin (with expansion) and was just finished when Daniel showed up - so we played another round. I'm not the biggest Munchkin fan, but on occasion it's fun. And with the right people even more so, so this was good fun. Then we played Through the Desert, which was fun and drew a few curious looks from the other group ("Ooooh, camels!" ). Daniel won by a large margin. Ollie and Joost had played for the first time and both found it an interesting game, but Ollie said it's not something he'd play too often because he's colorblind to a degree and found it hard to tell the camels apart (I didn't know this, otherwise I wouldn't have suggested this game). Then we followed up with Puerto Rico, which was a nice surprise. I liked how the game works and how well things fit together to form a working economic system. Plus, I came in second after Joost (with his massive corn-to-VP engine!), so that helped, too. All in all a fun evening and an experience that will definitely be repeated. I was already asked to bring RoboRally next time...
Saturday I arrived at High Noon at Reinhard's place and was the first one to arrive... So I pulled out the copy of Martian Dice I had brought and introduced Reinhard to it. He loved it, even though he lost the game. Then Mathias and Maja showed up and we started with the real reason for our early meet-up: Twilight Imperium (third edition) (with both expansions). Reinhard had the Mentak, Maja the Arborec, Mathias the Yssaril and I had the Sol. Everyone played safe for a few turns, with only minor conflicts here and there. Things grew more heated when just about everyone hit 5 VP at the same time and everyone was looking for ways to pull ahead. Shortly after, it was 7 (Sol), 6 (Mentak), 6 (Arborec), 5 (Yssaril). And then the real fun began as Reinhard put an unprotected Space Dock within my reach (to grab the 3 Space Docks VP), which I promptly destroyed. He retaliated, obliterating almost my entire left flank... So I struck out against the Yssaril, destroying one fleet and Space Dock and grabbing one of his planets. Mathias retaliated too, annihilating my entire right flank... I was left with a total of 3 Ground Forces and 6 Cruisers on the board by the end of the turn - and then I won the game! I was able to fulfill a 1 VP public objective and I had pocketed my secret objective of destroying 2 Space Docks from different players in one turn! I had almost nothing left, but I had achieved victory. I had gambled away my forces because I knew I wouldn't need them any longer.
So after that we still had time for a game of Löwenherz, which Reinhard won. Easily. Because everyone else was quarreling over this or that card or border or what-not while he quietly consolidated his forces and holdings and only started pushing when his positions were secure.
Sunday Again: High Noon at Reinhard's place for another go at Twilight Imperium (third edition), this time a 7-player (same players as Saturday, plus Björn, Henning and Timo) game of the historical scenario from Twilight Imperium (third edition): Shards of the Throne. Great variant, with a very different feel from the regular game. Nobody knew what anyone except themselves and the Lazax (Henning) was up to, which led to a lot of paranoia and discussions held in another room. Everyone was building massive fleets, but nobody wanted to drop the hammer and give away his true face first... Until on turn 7 I surprised everyone when my Jol-Nar fleet that had previously threatened Mecatol Rex (and made Henning a bit nervous because we ALWAYS end up in a clinch playing this game!) suddenly turned around and attacked the Hacan homeworlds. Because my objective was to control an enemy home system, I might've won the game right then and there if I hadn't forgotten that you need a specific technology so that Dreadnoughts can bombard a planet protected by PDS... But luckily I had a treaty with Björn (the Hacan player), meaning he would win if I won. And having shown my true face, everyone at the table now knew what I was up to anyway, so we could discuss our plan in the other room without breaking any gentlemen's agreements: Björn would destroy his troops and PDS on his last home system planet at the end of turn 7, so I could conquer it in my first move on turn 8 (the last turn of the game). We moved into positions and everyone was groaning because they now knew exactly what we were up to. On turn 8 we were short-handed on Strategy, ending up with '7 and '8, so everyone else got to act before us. Reinhard built units like mad in a desperate attempt to get his goal of 60 units filled, but fell 6 units short. Maja sprang a massive attack on Mecatol Rex and destroyed the entire Lazax fleet there, but failed to take victory because her planetary invasion was torn apart by Henning's troops. Mathias had a treaty with Henning and hadn't really followed his own goal, so he was dependent on the Lazax winning - which didn't look too good right now. And Timo might've been able to fulfill his goal if I hadn't blocked his largest fleet with a Signal Jamming action card. So I waltzed in and took the last Hacan home world for a combined victory with Björn.
And the funny part is: Björn had a fairly similar plan set up. His goal was to end Turn 8 with the Status Quo upset, but nobody else winning before that - so he intended to capture my home system (which was wide open on his flank), because I had one of his treaty agreements, meaning I would've won if he had won.
Very, very cool gaming weekend. Exhausting, but huge fun!
it does irk my game host a bit that i must play Purple and then my chits and peices dont really match but then almost invairbly some of the races dont seem to have a color anyway at any rate what a great game to start off this list
Loved 1st Ed. Loved it enough I kept the expansion box my brother had so i could actually remember the game.
got 2nd edtion from GAMA as store swag 2 weeks before 3rd edition is announced...it's new, it's un-sprued, it's never been played...it's still sitting on my shelf.
Sold my soul to get 3rd edition...i've had it since 2006...i've played 1/2 a round of a game...i still have the game...it's even sitting on the same shelf as 2nd edtion.
I love TI...we've talked about playing over chirstmas breaks so we have DAYS to play even.....yet...it still sits on my shelf...right below 2nd edition...
My gaming group has been working on a way to play this over a course of a few evenings. As an example; We set up and played a few rounds one evening, stopped, did our "game save" magic, and tore it all down. Set it up a week later from our "save point" and were able to finish that game. We took a few notes of things to do slightly differently, but as soon as we've tried it again, I'm sure we'll be sharing with the BGG community how we did it. Then people could play all 12 hours in three, four-hour sessions.
Twilight imperium is my favorite game ever, and it took me like 4 year to decide to buy it because is a really a YATCH game, for me it was in that classification for long, but I ended purchasing it; i guess many people thing the same about this now 100 bucks game.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals." Agent K. Oh my what he would think of people had he known about what the internet would become.....
And it should have TONS of variants(some that when used together really F things up)
Board games rule my life, and my wife's. That is a good thing, believe it or not ;)
Picking up the layout of the galaxy seems like a pre-game activity. Fortunately, the one time we played, we did not care/know about what we were doing here, so we just put the tiles around real quick.
I sewed cloth bags for almost every tile and the setup now takes about 10-15 minutes (with help of every player!) but with setting up the galaxy. For a 4-6hours game this is no problem in my eyes.
Without them it would take like forever to sort all the ships and tokens. No one would ever do that - does anyone who plays this game not use some sort of storage?
I got the setup down fairly quick by having all the tiles set up by type and have the HS set apart. The planet cards are all alphabetized for easy finding and is reset at the end of the game by one of the players while others help put the rest of it away. I also have each race with its own set of cards in a tuckbox for that race and a set of plastic for each race as well. That makes it easier so that all you have to do is look for the bag with that races name on it and all your ships are in that bag for that race.
When we do play, after 8 hours of playing the after game is pretty annoying to store the game back in the box, a friend in our group was designed to put every planet in alphabetical order for future games faster setup.
