Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context TabletopGame / TwilightImperium

Go To

1[[quoteright:348:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TI2_375.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:348: How many board games let you play as a lion? [[RecycledINSPACE In space?!]]]]
3
4-> ''The creative conquest of space will serve as a wonderful substitute for war.''
5-->-- James S. [=McDonnell=]
6
7The throne to the galactic empire is empty and several alien races put forth bids for it. Your goal is to guide your race to meet the conditions necessary to claim the throne and take control of the known galaxy/universe.
8
9''Twilight Imperium'' (now in its fourth edition) is a tabletop/board game that uses hex map tiles to build a new map for each game. The setting is a galaxy where 3 to 6 players can choose from among [[MassiveRaceSelection ten different alien races]]. Gameplay strategies may include battles, trade, and/or politics. In fact, it is entirely possible and not all that uncommon to win the game without fighting a single battle, by earning points for accomplishing goals not related to combat.
10
11The game set includes the map tiles, race sheets, ten-sided dice, several different types of cards (action, political, technology, and objective), plastic pieces for starships and ground forces, and many other extras. The ultimate goal of the game: [[TakeOverTheWorld To conquer the universe]]? To destroy your enemies? Nope: To get ten objective points.
12
13The players begin the game by taking turns using the system tiles to create the map of the galaxy. Putting empty systems or systems with obstacles by your opponents and keeping all the resource-rich planets for yourself can lead to alliances or vendettas forming before the game really begins.
14
15Once the map is built, each player starts off with preset [[CoolShip ships]], resources, a home system, and certain special abilities. Markers dictate how many tactical actions can be taken in a round, how many strategic actions, and how many ships may be assembled into a fleet. Through the use of these tokens the player can move fleets, increase fleet size, or activate strategy cards. Objective points are collected by achieving randomly-selected goals or controlling certain systems, most prominently Mecatol Rex, the former Imperial capital. Each turn, each player chooses a strategy card that lets them perform a special action and lets all the other players perform a "secondary" action. Strategies aid in building ships, attacking other players, forcing cease fires, developing new technology, fostering trade, or most importantly: scoring victory points directly.
16
17The ''Shattered Empire'' expansion set added several new races and enough plastic pieces to play the game with up to 8 players, along with lots and lots of cool optional rules.
18
19The ''Shards of the Throne'' expansion added a few more new races, a few more cool new optional rules, and a more structured scenario covering the end of the old empire with a fixed map.
20
21The fourth edition of ''Twilight Imperium'' was released in 2017. It includes some of the content from the third edition's expansions, such as factional technology, flagships, and all the factions. It also makes a number of tweaks to the game's mechanics, largely with a mind to fixing perceived flaws with the previous edition.
22
23The ''Prophecy of Kings'' expansion for the fourth edition was released in 2020, adding a similar variety of features as the original ''Shattered Empire'' expansion did, including more pieces for up to 8 players, leaders, an exploration mechanic and 7 new races, bringing the total to 24.
24
25Fantasy Flight Games also released TheRoleplayingGame of this setting, but unfortunately it was short-lived (approximately two years, tops) as company restructuring and fears over the extensive ShoutOut use becoming fodder for plagiarism lawsuits took their toll. Hints have emerged during [=GenCon=] 2020 that Edge Studios (the successor to [=FFG=]'s own now-closed [=RPG=] division) is developing a new roleplaying game for the Twilight Imperium universe using the ''TabletopGame/{{Genesys}}'' rules.
26
27----
28!!This board game features examples of:
29
30* TwentyBearAsses: The vast majority of objectives is about having or doing X of Y, like controlling 6 planets, having 2 upgrade unit techs or winning a battle involving a specific unit.
31* FourX: A board game example, but contains all four elements. You explore new planets, expand over them and exploit their resources, while the vast majority of interaction with other players will be trying to exterminate their fleets (and take over their planets).
32* AllPlanetsAreEarthLike: [[AvertedTrope Averted:]] Each planet has its own unique description. [[GameplayAndStorySegregation Not that the descriptions have much real effect on the game.]]
33* AntiHoarding: At least when it comes to fleets and ships in them. You can only have as many battleships per hex as your Fleet counter (Fighters don't count towards it, as long as you can get them within the transport Capacity of units of the fleet and[=/=]or the space dock). Any single ship above the counter will be ''instantly'' destroyed.
34* AsteroidThicket: Special technology is the only way to get through systems filled with asteroids. Some factions start with it, others have to research it first.
35* AwesomeButImpractical: The Stellar Converter relic. At first glance the ability to blow up a planet might seem cool, but it is limited to non-home, non-legendary, non-Mecatol Rex systems. Unless someone conveniently parks a huge contingent of ground forces on a planet near you to target, it often won't accomplish much more than killing a couple infantry and pissing off whoever you used it on. While it ''might'' happen to be useful, many players actively avoid creating situations where the Converted would bite their asses.
36* AwesomeMomentOfCrowning: You winning the game means you become TheEmperor.
37* BadLuckMitigationMechanic: Certain Action cards allow players to either re-roll the combat outcome or add +1 to it. Some factions even have it as part of their specialty.
38* TheBattlestar:
39** The [=WarSun=] ship. [[{{Expy}} Oddly similar]] to the Death Star from ''Franchise/StarWars''.
40** Most of the race-specific Flagship units from the second expansion also qualify as Battlestars.
41* {{BFG}}: PDS, the Planetary Defense System. Artillery big enough to fling projectiles capable of taking down [=WarSuns=], and in case of certain factions, ''fire half across the galaxy''.
42* BigCreepyCrawlies: The Sardakk N'orr are giant insects, and their racial ability lets them fight better.
43* BilingualBonus:
44** ''Pax Magnifica Bellum Gloriosum'', the Latin motto on the box, translates roughly as "peace is magnificent, war is glorious!"
45** The name used for the Earth, Jord, means "earth" in the Scandinavian languages. Not ''the'' Earth, mind, just earth.
46* BindingAncientTreaty: One of these falling apart is the [[AllThereInTheManual background]] for the game.
47* BizarreAlienBiology: A few races qualify. The Arborec are sentient plants, the Ghosts of Creuss are [[EnergyBeings sentient energy patterns]] from another dimension animating suits of armor, and the Embers of Muaat seem to be living flame.
48* BizarreAlienReproduction: All Arborec unit is organic, and they don't need space docks (factories) to produce new units, instead they use their infantry for that purpose. They must have a very unique reproduction cycle, as a single Arborec infantry can produce even the largest ships/battlestations.
49* BodyHorror:
50** The [=L1Z1X=] were derived from the Lazax, only they have altered themselves cybernetically so far that they aren't really the same race anymore.
51** The Arborec from the ''Shards of the Throne'' expansion definitely count. They're a race of sentient plants that infest the corpses of other races with their spores, turning them into zombies they can use to communicate. The race description suggests this practice has led to them developing imperial ambitions through osmosis.
52* BrainInAJar: The Hylar of the ''Universities of Jol-Nar''. Or dare I say, the ''Universities of [[IncrediblyLamePun In-Jar]]''?
53* CannonFodder: Fighters. You produce 2 by default and they are the cheapest type of ship to build (even if you were making just one), there is no limit for how many can be build and their main role is to soak up incoming damage during combat. Oh, and destroyers get a special attack that allows them to simply wipe out a bunch of fighters before the fight even starts. Said that, they can ''still'' win all on their own, especially with the upgrade.
54* CasualInterstellarTravel: Played so straight it hurts. Also highly depends on how many parsecs per hex. Though one hex includes planets [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale explicitly stated to be in different solar systems]]
55** Though an "instantaneous point-to-point" type FTL would explain all the mechanics but deep-space cannons.
56* CatFolk: The Lion-like Hacan and the Panther-like Rohka.
57* ChangingGameplayPriorities: The objectives are revealed one-by-one each turn, which adds new goals each round. Secret goals, depending on edition, are either assigned at random at the start of the game or can be drawn later on. Since the only way to win is to score 10 objective points, this might force people to radically change whatever they were doing (or even break their alliances) just to score points.
58* CoolButInefficient: Many abilities or even entire factions might qualify, but War Sun unit deserves particular mention. While it is incredibly powerful and versatile, possessing devastating firepower, high movement and capacity, and a massive bombardment to support invasions.... it is also dreadfully expensive and requires many prerequisite technologies, meaning that by the time anyone could even feasibly produce one, the game may be nearly over (by which time players typically cannot afford to divert resources or attention away from scoring objectives). It can also be destroyed in a single devastating hit if a player risks using its "Sustain Damage" ability and the opponent has the dreaded "Direct Hit" action card.
59* CoolStarship: The Dreadnought and the [=WarSun=] are both awesome ships that are also a force to reckon with.
60* ConservationOfNinjutsu: Certain Action cards become only useful when you start ''losing'' the fight or at least getting your units into damaged state, rather than opening it with an extra salvo or a sneak attack to even the odds.
61* ConvenientlyClosePlanet: It would make playing the game rather difficult if this were not the case.
62* CorralledCosmos: The board representing the entire galaxy consists of 37 hexes, and each player starts with their own hex in it already. Controlling 6 planets or hexes are seen as feats worth a point, in a game resolved after collecting 10.
63* CyberneticsEatYourSoul: The [=L1Z1X=] Mindnet are a completely cyborg race that seem to have lost touch with their original race characteristics. Rather reminiscent of a certain ''Franchise/StarTrek'' species...
64* {{Cyborg}}: The [=L1Z1X=].
65* DavidVersusGoliath: A single fighter is perfectly capable of demolishing an entire armada, as long as the rolls are right. The sheer randomness of the combat resolution means there are rarely situations where retreat is better (since a first round of combat is going to happen anyway).
66* DefenselessTransports: Nope. Carriers share their Combat rating with Fighters and Destroyers and while obviously not intended to fight, they ''still roll for attack'' whenever in combat, and can take down units like every other ship, even if they need to roll 9 or 10 to do so.
67* DeflectorShields: Defense weapons that you can set up on captured planets double as shields to prevent bombardment.
68* DigitalTabletopGameAdaptation: There is no official version, but there are 1st, 3rd and 4th edition mods for ''Tabletop Simulator''.
69* DiscOneNuke:
70** Players are given tiles to build the universe the game will be set in. It is entirely possible - if unlikely - to get a legendary planet and some solid systems with technology bonuses, and then simply put them right next to your homeworld system.
71** Certain Action cards and Exploration results offer massive early game advantages. Highlights include: the ability to Ready just colonised planets (or re-Ready them after they were Exhausted), the extra research option ''without'' Technology strategic card being played or downright ''stealing'' tech from other players, free trade goods and commodities, free units, forcing players to give away their promissory notes and attaching a wide plethora of bonuses to planets, or even free Command tokens. Particularly, the option to Ready new planets and access trade goods massively increases starting resources.
72* DivideAndConquer: A reasonable strategy if you control politics or trade.
73* DolledUpInstallment: ''REX: Final Days of an Empire'', as a result of getting the rights to remake the classic ''Dune'' board game but not the actual IP rights.
74* DraftingMechanic:
75** The universe is constructed by players being dealt tiles from the common pool and then adding them one by one, starting from a ring around Mecatol Rex and expanding further.
76** Strategic cards are a shared pool, where players start with the Speaker and then pick them one by one until everyone gets one.
77** Action and Exploration cards are drafted from a shared pool during the game.
78* DrawExtraCards: Certain Exploration outcomes and the Neural Motivator tech offer the option to draw additional Action cards, either right here and now or during the action phase.
79* EarthIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse: Totally averted. The seat of the empire's throne lies on another planet called Mecatol Rex, and it is in the middle of the map.
80* EarthShatteringKaboom: The Prophecy of Kings expansion has a relic called the Stellar Converter, which allows you to destroy planets. As mentioned above, it's [[AwesomeButImpractical a bit of a letdown]], because you cannot target Mecatol Rex, homeworlds or legendary systems, which means that almost any planet that would be worth using it on is out of the question.
81* AnEconomyIsYou: PlayedWith. Trade only happens when players engage in it, and it requires first having commodities. Normally, it takes to play Trade strategic card, but there are exceptions to this. However, controlled planets work as a source of resources without engaging with other players and it is entirely possible to win the game despite never trading with others and sticking to yourself.
82* EmptyLevels: Without expansion, the most likely outcome of trying to research tier 3 technology will be first getting something completely useless for your faction, just to qualify for the quota to unlock tier 3 technology.
83* EveryManHasHisPrice:
84** Bribery, an Action card, and Gila the Silvertongue, the Hacan Commander, allow players to cast additional votes by paying trade goods for those: 1 with Bribery and 2 with Hacan.
85** On a meta-level, it is entirely possible to simply ''pay people off'' in a binding contract to do something for you here and now.
86* ExpansionPack: Each edition came with its own expansions. The current, 4th edition came out with four so far: ''Prophecy of Kings'' and three Volumes of ''Codex'', while at least one more ''Codex'' is expected to arrive.
87* ExtraTurn: Normally, players have only one action per their action phase, and it goes around the table until players pass (either because they run out of Command tokens or simply decided to do so), concluding the turn itself when everyone has passed. Fleet Logistics tech allows for two actions per move, which can be handy.
88* FantasticRacism: Almost every race has another race that they absolutely cannot stand, though that's only in the background fluff. Anyone can ally with anyone in the actual game.
89* FantasticScience: Most acquired technology in the game is a [[TechnoBabble completely nonsensical futuristic nonsense]] that simply adds specific options to your faction.
90* FishPeople: Universities of Jol-Nar. Also doubles as BrainInAJar.
91* FlavorText: Omnipresent. All the cards have some flavour text, and then there is the backside of faction cards, covering their lore.
92* GalacticConqueror: One possible way to achieve victory is to straight-out conquer other players. Good luck achieving that, thou. To a lesser extent, conquering specific number of planets (sometimes of specific type, sometimes just a number), or even homeworlds of other factions, is often part of objectives, both public and secret.
93* GambitPileup: Likely to happen with several opponents trying to out-think each other. The final two-three turns of the game are usually all about the pile-up imploding, with everyone at their ropes to get the missing points to the final 10.
94* GunboatDiplomacy: Directly attacking other players in this game isn't considered as an effective way to achieve victory, so players with aggressive races tends to use this method of negotiation. Also, just because some race isn't combat oriented, that doesn't mean they can't use their ships for leverage.
95* HalfHumanHybrid: [[AvertedTrope Averted]]: The cyborg race is actually completely non-human.
96* HardCodedHostility: There are some "aggressive" races in the game, but [[GunboatDiplomacy most of them can be played without causing much conflict]]. And there are races like the [[TheAssimilator Nekro Virus]], which must attack other players to absorb technology as they can't develop them on their own. They are considered so hostile, they can't even participate in the political aspect of the game.
97* HiveMind: The [=L1Z1X=] Mindnet. [[PunctuatedForEmphasis MIND. NET.]]
98* HumanoidAliens: Most of the races, though not all.
99* HumansAreWarriors: The Federation of Sol gets more ground troops and command counters for them.
100* ILied: Contracts are binding, when they happen instantly on declared conditions, and non-binding, when players aren't obligated in ''any'' way to fulfil their side of the bargain. Of course, usually ItOnlyWorksOnce, since lying to another player is a great way to lose trust from everyone at the table.
101* ImpossibleTask: Some of the secret missions can look like this, and a few map combinations will make them actually impossible. For instance the mission to capture all the wormholes is impossible if there aren't any on the board.
102* InsignificantLittleBluePlanet: Huma- I mean, Terran- erm, [[CallAHumanASmeerp Those People From Jord]] are seen as latecomers to the galactic scene. They're pretty good at making lots of ground troops but don't have a whole lot of other advantages over other races.
103* InterstellarWeapon: Planetary defense systems can be upgraded to fire at adjacent hexes. It's not very powerful, but it's fun.
104* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: Most of the smaller ships (and the regular ground troops) require you roll an 8 or higher on a d10 to obtain a hit on an enemy ship, especially when they haven't been upgraded. Be prepared to do lots of rolling before you hit ''anything''.
105* IntrepidMerchant: The Hacan (Lion guys) have this as their hat.
106* InvisibilityCloak: You can develop a cloaking device like technology, that let's you move through systems occupied by enemy ships, ignoring their presence or zone of control.
107* ItsTheOnlyWayToBeSure: With the X-89 Bacterial Weapon tech upgrade, you can kill every unit in a planet's surface with a single bomb. In case of some races (like the Arborec or Sol) that could be the only way to get rid of them after they get hold of a planet.
108* KillSat: The [=WarSun=] type ship.
109* LandfillBeyondTheStars: One of the neutral systems, "Garbozia", is described as this. The name is something of a giveaway.
110* LiteralWildCard: Trade goods can be used instead of resources to get things done. With the right cards (or faction), they can even replace influence.
111* LostColony:
112** A few of the planets that are unclaimed when you start the game are said to have belonged to certain races at [[ItsALongStory some point in history]].
113** There is also an optional rule which allows some planets to be lost colonies when you first explore them. Unfortunately they may be some other race's lost colony as well, handing one of your opponents a free planet when you explore it.
114* LuckBasedMission: Public and secret missions are randomly assigned. If you are lucky, you might have the objective already fulfilled or within hand's reach. If you are unlucky, it might be downright impossible to finish.
115* MagikarpPower: Faction technologies tend to have pretty steep requirements that are rarely combined with starting technology (meaning additional research to unlock them), but offer ''very'' powerful options in return. This might even involve researching EmptyLevels of technology, just to qualify for the faction tech.
116* MassiveRaceSelection: Ten in the regular game, four more in the first expansion, and four more in the second (one of which is only playable in a single scenario, but that's still ''seventeen'' races in the regular game). The fourth edition has all seventeen of the third edition's races in the core box, and with all of the expansions, there are ''twenty five'' to pick from.
117* MasterOfNone: Cruisers, in their vanilla form. They have no special abilities, they aren't particularly cheap, fast or combat-worthy; but they are going to be the workhorse of your fleets, precisely because they are so average - and there are a ''lot'' of them in each player's pool. Even the tech requirements for their upgrades are all over the place. Once they ''do'' get upgraded they turn into {{Lightning Bruiser}}s.
118* {{Mecha}}: Each faction gets theirs. They operate as a stronger version of infantry, with much better Combat value and also two, instead of just one HP.
119* MechanicalMonster: The Nekro Virus is an offshoot of the [=L1Z1X=] Mindnet obsessed with rendering all organic life into a fine paste, then dumping the paste into a gravity rift.
120** YouWillBeAssimilated applies as well, but only for tech — if the Nekro Virus player blows up an enemy unit in battle he gets to copy a technology belonging to the unit's owner.
121* MeleeATrois: Requires at least three people to play.
122* MentalFusion: The [=L1Z1X=] Mindnet, a race suspiciously similar to the Borg from ''Franchise/StarTrek''.
123* MetaGame: Various seemingly nonsensical or weirdly aggressive actions from other players are usually a cue on their secret goal. Being able to read those is what decides most of the games, particularly when it's a head-to-head point count in the late game.
124* MightyGlacier: For all of their firepower, un-upgraded Dreadnoughts have a Move rating of 1. In fact, their upgrade doesn't increase their Combat rating - it solves the issue of how slow they are while making them ''also'' even more resilient.
125* MoneyGrinding: What trade is for: you replenish Commodities (each faction has their own pool of those, from 2 to 6, plus potentially more from planetary Attachments or Artifacts) one way or another and then exchange them at a mutually agreed rate with other players, turning them into [[LiteralWildCard trade goods]].
126* MoreDakka: Several ship types and ground troops (especially if you are playing as [[strike: humans]] Jords) seem to encourage you to make as many as you can.
127* MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning: Since each race is limited by the number of playing pieces available, sometimes it can be more convenient to deliberately loose poorly-placed ships in a battle so that they can be rebuilt at a more advantageous location without having to travel through the intervening space. Ships can be scuttled without fighting a battle for this purpose as well.
128* NamingYourColonyWorld: Although the game makers were nice enough to name all the planets for you, they certainly used several of the methods here.
129* NoSell: Upgraded Dreadnought combine the default Sustain Hit ability with being immune to the "Direct Hit" Action card, making them significantly hard to take down.
130* NoWarpingZone: Most red-bordered map hexes restrict the movement of ships through them, at least until said ships are upgraded with certain technologies.
131* NotWorthKilling: Probably a good idea if you don't want to start a war with everyone. Unless you [[AxCrazy like]] [[AttackAttackAttack that sort of thing]].
132* NumberedHomeworld: The [=L1Z1X=] Mindnet have their homeplanet numbered as the galactic center: "[0,0,0]".
133* OneFederationLimit: With enough expansions, you can have an Empire, Barony, Federation, Emirates, Universities, Mindnet, Kingdom, Coalition, Collective, Tribes, Clan, and Brotherhood: although not all of these will be in play at the same time.
134* OneHitKill: With a few exceptions, most units need to only take a single hit to be destroyed.
135* OneHitPointWonder: Every single unit that isn't a dreadnought, [=WarSun=] or a mecha will die in a single hit.
136* OneStatToRuleThemAll: Command tokens, which are effectively your action points. ''Anything'' that increases their number is great and often should be prioritised by mid-game, because you by default get only 2 back after each round (Hyper Metabolism tech gives 3, and that's part of the whole "anything that increases") and lack of Command tokes means you have to pass your actions.
137* OurVampiresAreDifferent: The ''Barony of Letnev'' race look suspiciously like vampires. They even have super-strength and the aristocratic air to them. And they're pale!
138* OurWormholesAreDifferent: Alpha and Beta create connected tunnels (all Alphas connected with each other, same with Betas). There is also Gamma, which is something else entirely, leading to a pocket dimension. And to make things really different, certain galactic laws can change how those wormholes operate and can be used. The power of bureaucracy!
139* ThePlan: Each player is pursuing the currently revealed public goals, and each starts with a secret one. The whole game is about planning your moves in such a way to fulfill as many of those goals, which might or might not be possible in the first place.
140* PlanetOfHats: Each faction has their own hat, and it's faction-wide, making their starting homeworlds and later colonised planets uniform to their hat, too.
141* PlanetTerra: The planet itself is called "Jord" (Scandinavian for "earth") but the faction is known as the Federation of Sol.
142* PlayerGeneratedEconomy: While there are ways to get trade goods in other ways, the most reliable one is playing Trade strategy card (netting 3 trade goods) and replenishing commodities, then exchanging them between players. Hacans are particularly good with this, as they can trade with ''everyone'', rather than just the factions they border with.
143* PlayingBothSides: Half of the game isn't as much about the tokens on the table, or factions at play, but (sometimes secret) deals of the players sitting by the table and their (often short-lived) alliances. Hacans take it a step further, since their goal is to get rich by trade - which makes ''both'' sides engaged in a war great trade partners, as they need all the goods they can get.
144* ProgrammingGame: Each turn, you have a finite amount of Command tokens to spend, that have to be spread over your tactical, strategical and fleet pools. Tactical is for your moves, strategical is for using secondary abilities of strategy cards played by ''other'' players and fleet decides how many non-fighter ships per hex you can get. You can only assign those points ''before'' the turn begins, having to anticipate what's gonna happen and who is going to play what.
145* ProudMerchantRace: The Hacan in particular, but many races are better at it than others.
146* PowerCopying: Few of the Action cards allow players to copy technologies (including unit upgrades) from other players.
147* RandomNumberGod: The dice can certainly ruin all your plans if they don't cooperate. It's entirely possible for your 7 warship strong fleet with a swarm of fighters to be wiped out in the first round of combat ''or'' a token force of two fighters and a carrier to resist said invasion.
148* ReadTheFinePrint: The Confounding Legal Text series of action cards. It changes the elected player due to an implied legal loophole.
149* RecycledInSpace: The original Avalon Hill ''Dune'' game was remade as ''[[https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/104363/rex-final-days-empire Rex: Final Days of an Empire]]'', with all of the ''Dune'' licensing replaced by ''Twilight Imperium'' factions.
150* RefiningResources: Commodities only turn into trade goods when exchanged with other factions. Otherwise, they are useless. Commodities first have to be replenished, or at least generated, as factions start with their commodity pool empty.
151* ScaryDogmaticAliens:
152** The Yin Brotherhood, a group of religious fanatic clones. They can convert others and employ suicide ships.
153** The Nekkro Virus as well, with their crusade to exterminate all organic life.
154* ScoringPoints: The game is instantly resolved when any player reaches 10 points. The main source of those is fulfilling objectives, both public and secret ones, but there are a few other ways to score.
155* SeriesMascot: Hacans are present on every box art, poster and marketing material. This works on a meta-level, too: The Emirate is an excellent faction for people completely new to the game, as their faction bonus operates as a set of training wheels, offering near-limitless funding for everything, allowing such players to focus on the rules of the game, rather than ''also'' having to juggle very limited resources, which is always tough to greenhorns.
156* ShoutOut
157** The [[AllThereInTheManual manual]] has several to well-known sci-fi authors and entrepreneurs.
158** The ship pieces are obvious shout-outs to older SpaceOpera ships. [[Franchise/StarWars There's a Death Star, a Corellian Cruiser, a Tie Fighter, a Star Destroyer,]] [[Series/BattlestarGalactica1978 the Battlestar Galactica,]] and [[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]].
159* SmallUniverseAfterAll: See ConvenientlyClosePlanet above. A three player game will only feature 27 systems, and some of those will be empty. It's still called a galaxy though.
160* SpaceClouds: Nebulae are dense enough to stop movement through them and give a defensive bonus to ships occupying them, and Ion Storms are good anti-fighter terrain.
161* SpaceColdWar: The game starts in this position - there is no actual war ''yet'', but all factions are gearing toward it. And any kind of encounter will turn into instant hostilities.
162* SpaceFighter: Check. Fighters are cheap and not limited by the number of playing pieces in the game, unlike larger ships. They're most effective in large numbers and with some tech upgrades.
163* SpaceMarine: Federation of Sol ground troops in the artwork are obviously space marines. Surprisingly useless for space battles.
164* SpacePirates:
165** The ''Mentak Coalition'' race are essentially space pirates. Their racial advantages let them attack from ambush, salvage enemy ships destroyed in battle, and steal trade goods from other races.
166** The ''Shards of the Throne'' expansion includes an optional rule for random encounters with space pirates in empty systems.
167* SpaceRomans: Many of the factions have this sort of flavour. To begin with, the Lazax themselves are Space Rome, being a former great empire of many cultures, forcing ''Pax Lazax'' through its own military might, brought down by its own decadence.
168** The Winnu are Space Byzantine, seeing themselves as the successor of Space Rome.
169** The Letnev are Space Germans, with parts taken from both UsefulNotes/WorldWarI (the aristocracy) and UsefulNotes/WorldWarII (the fascism).
170** The Hacan are Space Bedouin, nomadic desert spice merchants.
171** The Mentak are Space Australians, with their home planet originally being used as a PenalColony.
172** The Saar are Space Romani, an oppressed people with no fixed home.
173* SpaceStation:
174** The ''Shattered Empire'' expansion has two of these built into the map hexes. They can produce trade goods instead of resources. Conquering one is much easier than conquering planets, too, since you only need to get a ship into the system for the station to surrender to your control.
175** The ''Shards of the Throne'' expansion includes a random Precursor space station that lowers the number of victory points a player needs to win if they control it.
176* StandardSciFiFleet: There are the standard types here: swarms of tiny fighters, slightly larger destroyers (that are anti-fighter unit), cruisers and dreadnought to bring in the bigger guns and also [[TheBattlestar WarSuns]], along with support carriers (that transport land units and unupgraded fighters). You don't need to build them all, but it's definitely worth to have a healthy mix of units in your fleet.
177* StarfishAliens: There's the Arborec (sentient plants), the Nekro Virus (insane machines), the Ghosts of Creuss (other-dimensional energy wisps) and the Embers of Muaat (living flame).
178* SufficientlyAdvancedAlien: A few races start off with more technology bonuses than others. One race gets bonuses for the acquisition of technology.
179* SurprisinglyEliteCannonFodder:
180** The Naalu Collective default Fighters, Hybrid Crystal Fighters, have stats of the upgraded version, and their upgrade offers them ''stats on par with default Cruisers''. Since they are just as cheap as the regular variant, Naalu can spam the hell out of them (you get 4 Fighters at a price of a single Cruiser or, in a more extreme situation 2 Fighters ''for free'' vs. a single Cruiser that costs 2). Those fighters ''still'' can be squashed by the Anti-Fighter Barrage of Destroyers, but once said barrage is over, whatever fighters are left can decimate the fleet they are facing.
181** The Argent Flight gets significantly buffed Destroyers. They have 1 Capacity right off the bat (the only Destroyers with Capacity), allowing them to transport units, have a higher Combat rating, and also decimate enemy ''infantry'' after a successful Anti-Fighter Barrage in case of the upgraded variant. This further combines with their faction bonus, as it offers Argent the option to use SurplusDamageBonus of said Barrage to ''also'' [[DavidVersusGoliath apply damage to any unit with Sustain Damage ability]] - and they get to roll that even if the enemy has no Fighters to begin with.
182* TacticalRockPaperScissors: Fighters are your CannonFodder, good mostly at taking hits for other units. Destroyers are dedicated anti-fighter units that are really good at clearning swarms of them before the combat even happens, but otherwise are just as bad as fighters. Cruisers are the backbone of your fleet due to being [[MasterOfNone good at nothing in particular]], but relatively cheap and numerous. Dreadnoughts are the powerful heavy-hitters, particularly useful for taking over planets due to their bombardment ability, but there are only 5 of them in your pool. You need a healthy mix of those to make your fleet work (usually 2-3 cruisers and 1-2 dreadnoughts with some fighters and a token destroyer), and at the very least you want to carry a token screening force of fighters to die instead of your battleships.
183* TechTree:
184** A regular tree of pre-requisites was present in the first, second and third editions. It was infamously clunky, particularly in the 3rd edition. A flow chart was provided in the instruction book.
185** 4th edition has a non-standard one. Rather than having a direct tree with interconnected technologies, they are tiered, and players need a corresponding number of techs of a specific type to unlock stuff from the higher tier.
186* TakingYouWithMe: Some units can [[SuicideAttack destroy themselves to kill enemy ships]]. Sardakk N'Orr Dreadnoughts use this tactic very efficiently, and that's the main schtick of the Brotherhood of Yin. Also there are cases when it's rewarding to sacrifice some cheap units to weaken larger enemy fleets. (Like Mentak cruisers, which shoots the enemy before the battle, and for that faction they're unexpensive)
187* TelepathicSpacemen: The Naalu. Their telepathy lets them always act first in turn order, and retreat before a battle even begins. This ''also'' makes their fighters to be much stronger than those from other factions, acting as if already being upgraded from the start (and they ''do'' get an upgrade on top of those).
188* TeleportersAndTransporters: Certain technology allows you to create ground forces on one planet, then transport them to another.
189* ThatsNoMoon: The [=WarSun=].
190* TierSystem:
191** Public objectives are divided into two decks. The first one offers 1 point for fulfilling the objective, and the second one gives 2 points. Five from both decks are randomly assigned to the game during game prep, and revealed one by one, starting with five 1 point objectives.
192** Units come with a default and an upgraded form, which even has a handy "II" to its name.
193** Technologies are tiered by their requirements: default can be freely researched, then there are tiers 1, 2 and 3, for which players need a corresponding number of techs in the same colour.
194* TimedMission: The Imperium Rex objective card sets a time limit on the game. When its drawn, it ends the game immediately with the player with the highest score winning. When exactly the Imperium Rex card comes up is semi-random. It's guaranteed not to be in the first six public goals in a regular game, but it might be anywhere between the 7th and 10th in the deck, and it's guaranteed to be in there somewhere.
195* TriggerHappy: A few races, like the Sarrdak N'orr, have advantages that are only good in battles.
196* TheTurretMaster: Some races prefers to set up a network of sentry-gun like installations on their planets, instead of building a large fleet. Such players may even collect "taxes" from passing ships to not fire at them.
197* TwoDSpace: It's a 2D boad game, so the 3D space is presented as the 37 flat hexes, all on the same plane.
198* UnstableEquilibrium: Once some player gets the ball rolling with either trade goods or Command tokens (and it's possible to get both in order), short of a long string of particularly bad luck, it's very hard to catch up with such a player.
199* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: Slaughter, trick, or [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking trade with]] your opponents so that your race controls the throne of the galactic empire. Then everybody is happy!
200* VariablePlayerGoals: Each player gets his own Secret Goal, worth 2 points. The second expansion offers a new set of "Preliminary Goals" worth 1 point each.
201** In fourth edition, the secret objectives are only worth one point, but players can get more of them. Up to three, to be specific.
202* WeHaveReserves: If you have sufficient resources, you may be tempted to use this as a tactic. Several races receive special rules that can help this.
203** The Arborec receive free ground units every turn.
204** Humans can raise additional ground troops.
205** The Yin Brotherhood can employ suicide tactics in space battles, crashing their destroyers or cruisers into enemy ships.
206** The Hacan often have absurdly large ''money'' reserves that allow them to effortlessly rebuild an entire fleet from scratch as if nothing happened.
207* YouRequireMoreVespeneGas: Everything has its pricetag in ubiquitous resources that can be replaced with just as ubiquitous [[LiteralWildCard trade goods]]. Once you run out of both given turns, you can no longer produce new stuff.

Top