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Oh, that's a good idea. Will have to remember that for the next time I play Nekro Virus.
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Mar 23, 2016 04:27
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HerraS posted:If you don't have a 45 minute debate of the finer details of intergalactic diplomacy before every move the game would be boring and fast! I think if you have a group of people who are all really focused on winning and don't feel like they're in an arms race it'd go a lot faster. And if you prune out the terrible political cards like a person said before. Plus you'd all need really high levels of familiarity with the game.
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Mar 23, 2016 20:20
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I recently came across the following rules explanation video in my adventures across the internet. It is quite new, very succinct, perhaps even amusing, and far and away the best one I've seen. May come in handy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muB1zGDGVzk
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Apr 5, 2016 04:47
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Propaganda Machine posted:I recently came across the following rules explanation video in my adventures across the internet. It is quite new, very succinct, perhaps even amusing, and far and away the best one I've seen. May come in handy! This guys video is an order of magnitude shorter than any TI3 rules explanation I have ever seen. I hope he does more videos in the same format.
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Apr 5, 2016 04:57
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So I might be getting in an eight player game of this on Saturday. Wish me luck.
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Aug 17, 2016 17:39
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The one time I played 8 it took forever but half the people were new. Good luck!
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Aug 17, 2016 18:33
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Elyv posted:The one time I played 8 it took forever but half the people were new. Good luck! Luckily not going to be a problem. We'll only have two new players and they're getting a 3-4 player teaching game before Saturday.
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Aug 17, 2016 18:36
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Trasson posted:So I might be getting in an eight player game of this on Saturday. Wish me luck. Good luck! Try to be the first to capture Mecatol, then try to engineer it so that 3 other people can easily capture it. Nobody will try in fear of the rest, meaning you win.
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Aug 17, 2016 22:03
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Won a peaceful 6-player game as Hacan the other weekend. No space battles needed for Mr. Whiskers!
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Aug 18, 2016 00:00
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Soulfucker posted:Won a peaceful 6-player game as Hacan the other weekend. No space battles needed for Mr. Whiskers! The correct way to Hacan is to not make the Hacan die for their empire. (*This can be challenging when the number of players does not equal 4 or 8)
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Aug 18, 2016 00:33
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So I was doing a teaching gane earlier, and a thought occurred to me. Fighters and Ground Forces are one Resource for two. Are there any bad effects from allowing a one of each for one resource purchase? It's one of those little changes that might streamline teaching this monstrosity. The other thing I was thinking for my upcoming game is a change to setup. By the book, everyone receives a race at random. Which is kind of boring. Random factions work in 7 Wonders where a game is about a half hour long, but when you're talking this sort of length it can be unfortunate getting stuck with someone you don't want to play as. Straight ordered picking means the bottom player just gets less choices through sheer luck. Another problem is galaxy construction. It sucks to be the person with two Supernovas and a bunch of wimpy planets near you while someone else has New Albion/Starpoint, the Rigels, and Loki et al. So, I thought of a plan to fix both. During galaxy setup, players construct the galaxy first, leaving the spaces where a home system would go blank. At this point in time, they don't know where they'll be, encouraging them to spread out the good and bad stuff they have. Then, players will be shuffled into a pick order, and they will snake pick race and home system location. On each pick, going down the list and then reversing, they can pick a race or they can select a home system location, their choice. This should let everyone choose their race without making the last picks lose out (as the lower they are for race selection, the higher they are for starting location) while dramatically lowering the chance for someone to get map screwed. The one thing I haven't decided is Secret Objectives. We normally do draw two pick one, and where in this process it occurs is an open question.
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Aug 19, 2016 12:33
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I don't know what other groups do, but we would give each person 2 races and they would pick one. For galaxy construction, we split the stack into planets/open space/obstacles, and each person gets the same number of planets, the same number of open space, and the same number of obstacles. I forget what those numbers are, though.
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Aug 19, 2016 15:09
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Trasson posted:So I was doing a teaching gane earlier, and a thought occurred to me. Leave the costs as is. No use encouraging bad habits right from the get-go. As far as galaxy setup, try drafting. Each player gets their stack of tiles, picks one, and hands the rest of the stack to the player on their left. Continue this round robin until all stacks run out. This should help balance the starting systems out quite a bit.
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Aug 19, 2016 23:18
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Nitis posted:As far as galaxy setup, try drafting. Each player gets their stack of tiles, picks one, and hands the rest of the stack to the player on their left. Continue this round robin until all stacks run out. This should help balance the starting systems out quite a bit. We do this and it mostly works out ok. It also makes for a tough decision when you get an empty wormhole tile. Do you take that and influence the galaxy by placing the wormhole? Or do you go for the planet tile? Always take the wormhole.
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Aug 20, 2016 13:16
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Is there a way to make this game more combat-oriented, and not have it hinge on one player getting one round ahead in VPs?
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Aug 21, 2016 22:15
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DJ Dizzy posted:Is there a way to make this game more combat-oriented, and not have it hinge on one player getting one round ahead in VPs? Yes, use Shattered Empires.
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Aug 21, 2016 23:43
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We do that, and it still devolves into a 6-player cold war.
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Aug 22, 2016 01:55
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DJ Dizzy posted:Is there a way to make this game more combat-oriented, and not have it hinge on one player getting one round ahead in VPs? TI rewards deterrence and tactical strikes, not protracted engagements that tax your production and leave you vulnerable to a third party. While the SE objectives and artifacts will give more opportunities to use combat to gain, the game is fundamentally about navigating your way to 10 VPs, and it will never not be that.
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Aug 22, 2016 08:52
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DJ Dizzy posted:We do that, and it still devolves into a 6-player cold war. Sounds to me like you're playing it correctly.
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Aug 22, 2016 22:47
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DJ Dizzy posted:We do that, and it still devolves into a 6-player cold war. Well, yeah. When two players fight, the winner is all of the other players. TI isn't a wargame. Military power is used for expansion, threats, and standoff, not conquest. Trip report on my Saturday game sometime later. We had two cancellations but still did a four ring galaxy and it was interesting.
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Aug 22, 2016 23:24
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DJ Dizzy posted:Is there a way to make this game more combat-oriented, and not have it hinge on one player getting one round ahead in VPs? Play with the Nekro Virus from Shards of the Throne. They can only tech up by killing units. If one side is continuously fighting, it cascades down to the rest of the board.
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Aug 23, 2016 07:25
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Nitis posted:As far as galaxy setup, try drafting. Each player gets their stack of tiles, picks one, and hands the rest of the stack to the player on their left. Continue this round robin until all stacks run out. This should help balance the starting systems out quite a bit. Use the maps on the FFG website. They're balanced and work fine. I finally sold my copy! It's sad to see go but it's not worth having it around for one game a year.
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Aug 23, 2016 11:58
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Taear posted:Use the maps on the FFG website. They're balanced and work fine. I love the preset maps that FFG provides as it does encourage a hotter cold war as the planets are spread out more. I somehow play with 5 more than any other player count and that weird 5 player preset map is great. When I introduce this game to new players the very first thing I bring up is that this isn't Risk and you win this game by getting the most points. Each and every action you take must directly build toward an objective or you are destined to lose.
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Aug 23, 2016 13:26
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I am playing my third game ever of TI today. 6 player, mostly base rules except imperial 2 and age of empires. One of the other players has played before. Fingers crossed we can finish this game.
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Sep 5, 2016 16:55
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Malloreon posted:I am playing my third game ever of TI today. 6 player, mostly base rules except imperial 2 and age of empires. One of the other players has played before.
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Sep 5, 2016 17:00
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ImpactVector posted:Hope you have a block of about 10 hours set aside for it. (I usually figure 1.5 hours per inexperienced/rusty player. Plus an hour for map creation and rules if you're not doing a premade map.) We did a premade map, and spent about 90 minutes going back over the rules once everyone arrived. the game itself took about 6h45m. I was the Lizix, with to my right Hacan, Mentak, Sardakk, Nekro, and Arborec around the table. I had the supernova blocking me from Mecatol. My secret objective was "control mecatol, spaced dock, 4 dreadnoughts," which was perfect for Lizix. I scored 1 victory point in every single round 1-5 and 7, and in 6 I scored 2 by taking out an enemy space dock. No one took Mecatol for the first 6 rounds, it was as if everyone was scared everyone else would gang up on them. I missed my window to do so, and wasn't able to make it up in time. Meanwhile Nekro had been on my tail most of the game, and Hacan made some impressive gains really fast by taking Imperial 2 a few times. The tough part was by round 7's end (age of empires, so we knew the game would end after round 8) I had completed all of the public objectives, and by then it was probably too late to take Mecatol and score the final 2. I tried anyway, but two players before me someone took Warfare, meaning I didn't have the activations necessary to get my huge fleet to Mecatol in time. Nekro ended with 10, Hacan with 9, and me with 8. Great game, can't wait to play again.
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Sep 6, 2016 04:14
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I can't imagine being in a board position where I have had the diversity to complete all public objectives. Great work.
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Sep 6, 2016 06:04
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dishwasherlove posted:I can't imagine being in a board position where I have had the diversity to complete all public objectives. Great work. I was super fortunate, I agree. the public objectives were: Level 1 - spend 3 command counters from not-Fleet - successfully invade a planet containing at least one opposing GF - spend 10 influence - control all 3 research discounts - spend 6 trade goods - 5 tech advances Level 2 - destroy enemy space dock - control all planets in two other home systems (win) - 4 non fighters in two other home systems (win) Lizix start with 4 techs, so taking Tech round 1 scored the 5 tech To my immediate left and right were the red and blue tech discounts, and the green was on the other side of the supernova, so that was round 2 We went trade-happy early and Hacan gave me one of his to keep me from attacking him (he was to my immediate right) so round 3 got that Round 4 spent 10 influence Round 5 ended with 3 extra command counters 6 I destroyed a space dock 7 I defeated a single GF during an invasion My issue was that to my left, Arborec was doing nothing to stop Nekro from advancing, and Nekro realized I was going to run away with VP, so he parked a gigantic fleet near my home system. I could have had 4 dreads in Mecatol and built the space dock the same turn (first round we passed a law allowing space dock construction on newly conquered worlds), but by the time I was confident enough to do it, Nekro was breathing down my back. I still thought I had a shot until he completed his secret objective round 6, taking the advantage. By rounds 7-8 I was spending all my actions preventing Nekro from winning from the other two Level 2 objectives - Arborec's home system was long conquered and Nekro gave up on me in favor of trying to conquer Hacan or Sardakk. It took 4 non-Nekro players working semi cooperatively to prevent an early victory, and in doing so, Nekro got 10, Hacan moved to 9, and I was stuck at 8. What I didn't understand or remember about Imperial 2 is that it gives you a VP for controlling Mecatol Rex. if I had had that in mind from the start I would have charged for MR as soon as my 4th dread was built, and I think I might have ended the game after round 6. Fate Accomplice fucked around with this message at 19:26 on Sep 6, 2016 |
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Sep 6, 2016 19:23
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As an aside, I don't suppose there's a group that plays TI in the Doylestown/Horsham area of Pennsylvania? I recently relocated from California to PA, and lost my group. /sadpanda
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Sep 9, 2016 23:29
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Are people interested in setting up a weekly/bi-weekly session of TI3 on TTS? It seems to work fine.
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Oct 17, 2016 02:42
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I would be, my friends and me have all gotten ourselves significant others, so we no longer have significant time to play TI3 every other month 
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Oct 19, 2016 16:10
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nimby posted:I would be, my friends and me have all gotten ourselves significant others, so we no longer have significant time to play TI3 every other month The eternal gamer problem. Those who have time to play have not the funds, those with the funds have no time. 
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Oct 19, 2016 16:47
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DJ Dizzy posted:Are people interested in setting up a weekly/bi-weekly session of TI3 on TTS? It seems to work fine. I'm interested and I have an active group in north NJ/NYC area.(anyone else around that plays? We get together 2-3x per month.
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Nov 13, 2016 23:38
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Hope it's cool for me to super-necro this thread. After admiring this game from afar I finally got it (just the base game) and am gonna be hosting an all day session with my 5 guy game group. It will be all of ours first time playing, and a couple of the dudes have also really wanted to play, so I think the enthusiasm is high. To keep enthusiasm high and to sweeten the pot I've also went full on dorky and got, as a trophy for the winner, one of these  With a metal plate on it that says "Galactic Emperor" and a bottle of Makers. Hopefully by hour 6 people will think, "hey maybe I could get something out of this at least" if they start to fade Anywho, I've read up a poo poo ton and would just like some vets to offer any advice. Here's some stuff I've figured I'm gonna do: - Use Imperial 2 - Trim the action and political decks as advised upthread - Use one of the 5 player pregen setups - Removing the race everyone was saying is awful Now overall I've got a couple questions: - Do I let players just like, straight up choose who they want to play? With all newbies--including me--is that going to help "buy in"? - How do I assign starting slots in a pregen map? Dice roll? - Since what I've read time and time again is to emphasize the value of objective points--and to encourage the people who might not be as interested in a pure war game--I was thinking of using the rule variant where the objective deck is revealed and you place markers on them. Am I wrong in thinking that that helps people more visualize a path to victory?
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Mar 7, 2017 21:49
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Waffles Inc. posted:Now overall I've got a couple questions: Starting spots should also be random. If you're using Imperial II, you're already using the Age of Empires rule. Other ideas to add more VPs to the board: I'm pretty sure the premade maps already have artifacts on them, but make sure to use them and make sure they aren't the "dummy" ones. That'll pull people towards the middle even if they don't care about Rex. I like to use preliminary/secret objectives in a "draw two of each, complete one of each" thing, but that might just be confusing. Other random advice: Make sure everyone has 1.5 hours/player set aside that day. For 5 that means 7.5 hours plus meal breaks. If you're hosting, have everything set up and ready to go before people arrive. Pass a link to the 3 player tutorial around. If even one or two people read it it'll help things go a lot smoother. Other than that it sounds like you have a good plan in place. Good luck!
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Mar 7, 2017 22:16
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Waffles Inc. posted:Now overall I've got a couple questions: Waffles Inc. posted:- How do I assign starting slots in a pregen map? Dice roll? Waffles Inc. posted:- Since what I've read time and time again is to emphasize the value of objective points--and to encourage the people who might not be as interested in a pure war game--I was thinking of using the rule variant where the objective deck is revealed and you place markers on them. Am I wrong in thinking that that helps people more visualize a path to victory?
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Mar 7, 2017 22:18
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Waffles Inc. posted:
In my gaming group we play the "Spot Or Race" variant, where every player rolls a die. High roller gets to choose EITHER a starting spot OR a race, next one down does the same all the way to the low roller, who get to choose both. Then you go back around in the opposite direction, and everyone gets to choose whatever they didn't pick the first time around. Races get picked from a randomly drawn subset of size = number of players + 1, and for pure newbie games I tend to exclude some of the weirder/more broken races, although since you only have the base game I think you can get away with only excluding Yssaril. Maybe Naalu for the 0-init fuckery, but without the expansions they're not quite as brutal. I find this system leaves you with somewhat more balanced starting conditions (especially for player-generated maps where differences between starting spots can be huge) while still mostly allowing players to play a specific race if they really want to.
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Mar 8, 2017 00:03
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Necroing to ask if anyone watched the ITTD stream of TI? It was outside my TZ, so I didn't catch any of it, and now the VOD is locked behind a subscription paywall
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May 5, 2017 07:56
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Papal Mainframe posted:Necroing to ask if anyone watched the ITTD stream of TI? It was outside my TZ, so I didn't catch any of it, and now the VOD is locked behind a subscription paywall I think you can still find it on YouTube somewhere, the quality of the video was horrible however so I quickly gave up on watching it. Also there were people talking through other players explaining their raciale powers and that annoyed the poo poo out of me.
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May 5, 2017 08:43
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lockdar posted:I think you can still find it on YouTube somewhere, the quality of the video was horrible however so I quickly gave up on watching it. Also there were people talking through other players explaining their raciale powers and that annoyed the poo poo out of me. drat. I generally enjoy the Geek And Sundry streams, so I'm bummed it was lovely. Good to know before subbing just to watch it.
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May 5, 2017 09:04
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