History TabletopGame / TwilightImperium

** A regular tree of pre-requisites was present in the first, second and third editions. It was infamously clunky, particularly in the 3rd edition, requiring a flow chart for each player to know what and how to research.

* BadLuckMitigationMechanic: Certain Action cards allow players to either re-roll the combat outcome or add +1 to it.

* TechTree: 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.

* 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).

* 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.
* 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.

** 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). 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.

* TacticalRockPaperScissors: Fighters are your CannonFodder, good mostly at taking hits for other units. Destroyers are dedicated anti-fighter units that're 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.

** 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 (they get 4 of them at a price of a single Cruiser). 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.

* 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 that over their planets).

** The Hacan often have absurdly large ''money'' reserves that allow them to effortlessly rebuild an entire fleet from a scratch as if nothing happened.

* DefenselessTransports: Nope. Carriers share their Combat rating with Fighters an 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.

* WeHaveReserves: If you have sufficient resources, you may be tempted to use this as a tactic. Two races also have a shade of this in their special rules: Humans can raise additional ground troops, and the Yin Brotherhood can employ suicide tactics in space battles. Hacan are an atypical example, since they tend to have absurd ''money'' reserves that allow them to effortlessly rebuild an entire fleet from a scratch as if noting happened.

* MightyGlacier: For all their firepower, unupgraded Dreadnoughts have 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.

* MasterOfNone: Cruisers, especially without the upgrade technology. They have no special abilities, they aren't particularly cheap, fast or combat-worthy, but after fighters, they are doing to make the backbone of your fleets, specifically due to how crap they are - there is a ''lot'' of them in each player's pool in exchange for their lackluster stats. Even the requirements for their upgrade are all over the place. However, once they ''do'' upgrade, they turn into {{Lightning Bruiser}}s.

* MasterOfNone: Cruisers, especially without the upgrade technology. They have no special abilities, they aren't particularly cheap, fast or combat-worthy, but after fighters, they are doing to make the backbone of your fleets, specifically due to how crap they are - there is a ''lot'' of them in each player's pool in exchange for their lackluster stats. Even the requirements for their upgrade are all over the place. However, once they ''do'' upgrade, they turn into {{Lighting Bruiser}}s.

* MoreDakka: Several ship types and ground troops (especially if you are playing as [[strike: humans]] Terrans) seem to encourage you to make as many as you can.

* 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.
** Unless your faction has some additional bonus to it or you start with the tech, ''Scanlink Drone Network'' tech from ''Prophecy of Kings'' is massively inefficient, even if on paper it offers extra value to your planets and allows to re-scan them indefinitely. First, you need to get that tech, then you need to spend Command token on that system to perform the action. The later you get that tech, the less useful it will be, while it's not exactly a top priority tech. On the flip-side, if you ''start with it'', you don't actually get any benefits from the fact it in the first turn, either, because you get regular exploration of new planets anyway. And your homeworlds can't be scanned, ever.

* 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)

* 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. Hecans 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.

* WeHaveReserves: If you have sufficient resources, you may be tempted to use this as a tactic. Two races also have a shade of this in their special rules: Humans can raise additional ground troops, and the Yin Brotherhood can employ suicide tactics in space battles.

** Unless your faction has some additional bonus to it or you start with the tech, ''Scanlink Drone Network'' tech from ''Prophecy of Kings'' is massively inefficient, even if on paper it offers extra value to your planets and allows to re-scan them indefinitely. First, you need to get that tech, then you need to spend Command token on that system to perform the action. The later you get that tech, the less useful it will be, while it's not exactly a top priority tech. And your homeworlds can't be scanned, anyway..

* NoWarpingZone: Most red-bordered map hexes restrict the movement of ships through them, at least until said ships are upgraded with certain technologies.

* 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.

* AsteroidThicket: Special technology is the only way to get through systems filled with asteroids.
* AwesomeButImpractical: Many abilities or even entire factions might qualify, but the 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.
** There is also 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.

%%* {{BFG}}: Certain weapons upgrades.

* BindingAncientTreaty: One of these falling apart is the [[AllThereInTheManual background]] for the game..
* BizarreAlienBiology: A few races qualify. The Arborec are sentient plants, the Ghosts of Creuss are sentient energy patterns from another dimension animating suits of armor, and the Embers of Muaat seem to be living flame.

* CoolStarship: The Dreadnought and the [=WarSun=] are both [[IncrediblyLamePun dreadfully]] awesome.
* ConservationOfNinjutsu: Not by default, but a few Action cards will have you shooting your own fighters and the like if you find yourself attacking in inconveniently superior numbers.

* CorralledCosmos: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] if you have extra players using the expansion, but mostly played straight.

* DefenselessTransports: carriers have minimal defenses. Though if they're carrying fighters instead of ground troops those can protect them.

* FantasticScience: Most acquired technology in the game.
* FishPeople: The same race that count as BrainInAJar.
* GalacticConqueror: One possible way to achieve victory.
* GambitPileup: Likely to happen with several opponents trying to out-think each other.
* 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.

* IntrepidMerchant: the Hacan (Lion guys) have this as their hat.
* InvisibilityCloak: You can develop a cloaking device like technology, that let's you move through systems occupied by enemy ships.

* OurWormholesAreDifferent: Yes. Wormholes.
* ThePlan: You might want to be capable of everything in this list if you want to win.

%%* PlayingBothSides: It will probably happen.

* RandomNumberGod: The dice can certainly ruin all your plans if they don't cooperate.

%%* SpaceColdWar: Pretty much the point of the game, unless it turns into a hot war.

* StandardSciFiFleet: There are the standard types here, but you won't necessarily have all of them depending on how you decide to play.

* TelepathicSpacemen: The Naalu. Their telepathy lets them always act first in turn order, and retreat before a battle even begins.

%%* TwoDSpace: Kind of required, what with the whole [[BoardGame board game thing]].

''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 a minimum of three players and maximum of six can choose from among [[MassiveRaceSelection ten different alien races]]. Gameplay strategies may include battles, trade, politics, and/or any combination of these strategies. 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.

Once 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.

* ApocalypseHow: The Stellar Converter relic from Prophecy of Kings can do this to a single planet, destroying it completely.

* TwoDSpace: [[NecessaryWeasel Kind of required]], what with the whole [[BoardGame board game thing]].

** The [=WarSun=] ship. [[{{Expy}} Oddly similar]] to the Death Star from ''StarWars''.

* {{BFG}}: Certain weapons upgrades.

* PlayingBothSides: It will probably happen.

** The ship pieces are obvious shout-outs to older SpaceOpera ships. [[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]].

* SpaceColdWar: Pretty much the point of the game, unless it turns into a hot war.

* SpaceDoesNotWorkThatWay: Map edges. But it is a tabletop game, after all. Possibly justified in that all races want to get to Mecatol, which is in the middle, not expand outwards.

* AwesomeButImpractical: Many abilities or even entire factions might qualify, but the 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. 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.