Unboxing: Twilight Imperium 4th Edition
Twilight Imperium has received an upgrade with the 4th edition – come take a look inside the box!
I have fond memories of playing day-long games of Twilight Imperium. And when I say “day-long” games, I mean that! One game in particular lasted for more than 10 hours (we did take a dinner break) – that was back in the 3rd edition of the game with all of the expansions. We capped out at 8 players and created a massive galactic map. We might have tweaked the rules slightly so that we could all fit and we knew what we were getting into, but it was an EPIC game.
Now Fantasy Flight Games has updated just about everything in Twilight Imperium 4th Edition and it’s never looked better:
Where to begin!? Let’s cover some of the basics. This box has everything you need for a 3-6 player game. There are 6 bags worth of ships (roughly 350 plastic units) but there are seventeen civilizations to play. Doing some quick math…I’m pretty sure that means you can’t play all the races in one game. You’re not meant to. There are also 51 galaxy tiles and most games don’t use all of them, either. This is a game that is designed with replay in mind. Considering that each game can take between 4-8 hours, I’d say that FFG is looking to give you some bang for your space bucks!
We talk about the components in the video: The cards, the tokens, the civilization reference cards, the command cards, the plastic ships…you get the idea. There are a LOT of things in this box! While I was going through everything I started to notice that FFG didn’t just repackage the old game – every single thing has been tweaked in some way. For example, the ships are now a hard plastic and not the previous “rubbery” plastic. The civilization cards are larger and easier to read (and have some new upgraded ship options, too). Even the backs of the tiles got new artwork. It’s a complete overhaul graphically…and some of the rules are different now as well.
I won’t go over every single rules change – but I wanted to talk about a few key ones. The first major change is the tech tree. It’s still a massive tech-tree, however, the requirements have been streamlined. Instead of prerequisites for different tech, now the technology upgrades will require you have “X” number of upgrades of specific types. If you remember the old system, with the Biotic, Warfare, Cybernetic tech trees then you’ll recognize this system. It’s just easier to track what you need now. For example a new tech might require you need 2 Biotics and 1 Cybernetic to purchase.
Trade is another area that has gotten a redo. I’ll let FFG explain:
“Trade – Trade contracts do not exist in Twilight Imperium Fourth Edition. Instead, commodities are traded between factions who have ships in adjacent systems. Every time the trade strategy card is used, its primary ability allows a faction to “refresh” their commodities. Then, that faction may choose to let any other factions refresh their commodities for free. Other factions may then use trade’s secondary ability to spend a token from their strategy pool to refresh their commodities. Commodities do nothing on their own, but become traditional trade goods when given to another faction.”
There are lots of these rules changes all over the place. If you’d like to go more in depth you can read the Learn to Play Rules HERE or check out the full Rules Reference HERE.
Twilight Imperium is an EPIC game. It’s going to take a committed group to finish a game but it’s totally worth picking up and playing. When you’re looking for a board game that is top-notch in terms of components, rules interactions, strategy, diplomacy, and empire building Twilight Imperium hits every one of those check-marks. I’m really happy we got an early copy at GenCon 50 and I can’t wait to bust it out to play! Now I have to coordinate with my friends on a day when we can dedicate to a full game… Good thing this is going to be an easy sell!
Twilight Imperium Fourth Edition
For two decades, Twilight Imperium has thrilled gamers with its grand storytelling and tactical strategy. Now players can explore the next step in the Twilight Imperium Legacy with Twilight Imperium Fourth Edition, an epic game of galactic conquest for three to six players.
Each player takes command of one of seventeen unique civilizations to compete for interstellar supremacy through warfare, trade, uncertain allegiances, and political dominance. Every faction offers a completely different play experience, from the wormhole-hopping Ghosts of Creuss to the Emiratates of Hacan, the masters of trade. All of these races have many paths to victory, but only one will sit upon the throne of Mecatol Rex as the new masters of the galaxy.
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Twilight Imperium 4th Edition – 20 years of Epic Galactic Conquest!
Note: We’re pretty sure if you have a previous edition laying around you could very easily port over some of those extra ships/units and expand your game play up to 8 very easily…Or more if you wanted to tweak the rules… Just sayin!
