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 Emirates 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.
Staff Recommendation
"Twilight Imperium is absolutely one of the most massive, expansive board gaming experiences out there, sitting with the likes of Horus Heresy, Gloomhaven, and Dune in terms of its commitment to theme, depth, and time investment. Entering into Twilight Imperium is basically like becoming part of a gigantic space opera up there with Star Wars or Farscape, especially once you get to the movie series for the latter. While it would be too difficult to explain the rules in a brief review, though they make logical sense once you know them, I will include a link to the video recommended to me for learning the game here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u2xEap5hBM . The game itself comes with two separate rules manuals--one is a Learn to Play and one is more a more in-depth Rules References when disputes occur. The Learn to Play is very well streamlined in this edition of the game and makes setting up your first game so much simpler. For instance, it comes with all the different solar system layouts for different numbers of players, though I highly recommend that the game is at its best with the full 6 players.The solar system is comprised of various different tiles representing planets with resources that you'll want to control, empty spaces, or space anomalies such as asteroid fields. The most important of these tiles is the one called Mecatol Rex, the central planet of the Imperium, over which all the factions are vying for control. In the game, securing this planet means potentially securing yourself enough victory points to pull ahead and steal the win.
In my experience, this particular edition has been streamlined really well, so that on average games last about 6 hours at the maximum number of people; however, this is with everyone watching the rules video beforehand, which I also definitely recommend. I know it sounds like a big commitment, but it is such a highly addictive experience of territory control, political machinations, alliances, betrayals, and battle that there is no other game like it exactly. It is one of the most fun gaming experiences I have ever had. As a final note, I would also recommend playing with friends and/or your regular gaming group, as a huge part of this experience is trying to read your tablemates and sharing in this gigantic experience together, which is just not the same with strangers. I have played with both friends and strangers, so I am speaking from experience on that point. If you can commit the time and love space operas and amazing political games that also involve faction sheets, upgrades, territory control, and battle, then this is the perfect game."
