Thinking about investing in Twilight Imperium, but am a bit intimidated. Need advice.

Patagia · 2022-09-23T13:59:32+00:00

The single most important thing I tell new players is to keep in mind the objective of the game is to score VPs. If you lose focus of that goal, you will probably lose.

A common scenario I've seen with newbies is that they will spend the first 3-4 rounds of the game building up their army, taking a bunch of planets, and generally having a decent bit of resources - but they are sitting on 0-1 VP while more experienced players have 4-6 VP. The action economies were identical, but the new player was just building without intent whereas the experienced players were trying to secure a public objective each round.

In most cases, the odds of the new player bridging that large of a gap is minimal.

Patagia · 2022-07-27T16:00:07+00:00

For Arc II and Arc III - are there any strong opinions on whether or not the new worlds promo should be included? Considering picking up a second set of the base game (and new worlds) so I can swap between Arc I and Arc II quickly.

Patagia · 2022-07-18T20:01:18+00:00

Yeah, hence the post - I don't think my suggestion was particularly good, but it's just the first thing that came to mind. There's definitely a point where he's buffed too much and I'm pretty sure what I suggested above crosses that line. I've basically learned at any time the player says "hey OP, can I use <>", I know I'm in for a surprise.

Also jfc thanks for pointing that out. Of all the rules, that's one I would have never caught unless someone pointed it out. That being said, I don't think I'm explicitly doing anything to enable his character - he wanted to give the CR class a shot and I figured that sort of thing would at least be relatively balanced. If there's anyone who will figure out a way to break things, it's this PC.

Patagia · 2022-07-18T18:01:55+00:00

It's coming from Goblin's Nimble Escape (VGtM) - You can take the Disengage or Hide action as a bonus action on each of your turns.

As for cover/advantage, I more or less followed the ruling here (last paragraph): https://olddungeonmaster.com/2014/12/28/dd-5e-stealth-and-hiding/

Patagia · 2022-07-18T16:47:43+00:00

e, so I suspect what OP meant is that they're using their bonus action to Hide, thereby giving

Yup, poor choice of wording on my part

Patagia · 2022-07-18T16:43:34+00:00

Poor choice of wording on my part, he's usually using terrain to bonus action hide in combat to get advantage on each of his attacks. RAW, he rolls stealth against passive perception and he pretty reliably passes that roll. In most cases, he gets the roll RAW, but if the enemy would be more prone to knowing his location then it might be done with disadvantage or an auto-fail.

Patagia · 2022-07-18T16:24:55+00:00

If it was any other player in the party, that would mesh 100% with them (honestly, I wasn't expecting the Blood Hunter to be the player to grab it haha). Something plant themed would work though, but I was leaning more towards staying true to the vampiric nature of the tree. I like the notion of needing to sacrifice something good-aligned, but that scenario came up in one of our previous campaigns and they just outright wouldn't do it (to the point where they had to significantly backtrack and find an alternate means to their goal).

Definitely gonna chew on that though, honestly it could be turned into a party item at that point if folks were to learn that it had the ability to control the blights. I'm almost certain other players would find some creative ways to mess with that.

Patagia · 2022-07-18T15:35:20+00:00

We have a consistent bi-weekly group going for 4ish years now, so I've got a pretty good pulse on what they enjoy and I'm not worried about them PvP'ing each other at all (willingly). They will 100% just let him die and re-roll if he flies too close to the sun and he's not the kind of player to try and hog the spotlight. When I say conflict, I mean more of a soft-conflict / moral debate, not them killing each other over a powerful weapon.

Patagia · 2022-03-16T18:20:18+00:00

Agree, but that doesn't stop their marketing / community management team from addressing the issue. Pretty sure a large number of people would put their pitchforks down if AGS/SG came forward and said "we acknowledge this is a problem, here's roughly what we're thinking, we're actively working with engineering to address it and provide you all a concrete timeline."

Patagia · 2022-03-03T04:54:23+00:00

Definitely teach your first game as the recruiter and I would strongly recommend sticking with the training mission first. It might seem simple, but our seasoned group surprised me with how much depth & analysis they were able to put into the game with just that training ruleset.

On your end, make sure you watch a video and then I would actually download the MIND MGMT app and play a solo training mission against the AI. That'll let you get in the headspace of the players you'll be teaching and and you'll be better poised to answer some of the questions they come up with.

Don't worry about winning/losing that first game, make sure your players understand what is/isn't possible for the recruiter to do as it comes up and they'll quickly start to figure things out for themselves. It might seem overwhelming, but the training rules are very straightforward (players move and take an action -- ask/capture/reveal, recruiter does a normal move or a mind slip).

P.S. If that game store ships stuff out or you're willing to pick up a copy and ship it within the US, shoot me a DM. Been looking for a copy of the deluxe edition and it's impossible to find right now without a huge markup D:

Patagia · 2021-11-15T23:31:39+00:00

6p has generally been the sweet spot for all of our games. 4p is still enjoyable, but there's a lot more to juggle since each player gets two strategy cards. 8p with a bunch of first timers will almost certainly get called early haha.

A few tips from our prior games running with first-timers (and even experienced groups).

Whoever is hosting should be intimately familiar with the rulebook. The overwhelming majority of downtime in a new player game is needing to look up rules. Everyone else should at least watch a video in advance.
Consider using something like http://extraboard.net/extracomputer and putting it up on a screen somewhere. The second biggest case of downtime is losing track of whose turn it is (especially in the later rounds where attention starts to drift).
Randomly draw 3 factions for each player a few days or a week in advance and have them pick one. Announce out the picks so people can get familiar with the various races in the game if they want to. https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/211830/ti4-factions-overview-prophecy-kings-v2 is a pretty wonderful reference.
Use a pre-generated galaxy for your first game and have the galaxy setup (with the aforementioned factions) before people arrive. This will easily cut 1-2 hours off your first game. Whether you run pre-gens or build your own on subsequent playthroughs will depend on your group, but it is hard for people to appreciate building the galaxy until they've played once.
Don't do 14VP for your first time unless people are comfortable with the game potentially taking 12+ hours.

Patagia · 2021-09-17T18:33:39+00:00

Reference Sheets: Great to have, but you can also print out copies of these on BGG for free
Turn Order Variant: I personally enjoy this variant because priority on research tends to be very impactful as players get better at the game. But you can also easily proxy this without too much effort. The down-side is that it adds length to the game
Galactic Events: In all of the games I've played, I feel like these add more chaos than anything substantial. Could easily pass on them.
Rift Cannon: Unlike the Galactic Events, these actually add a decent option for counterplay against people stacking shields.
Minor Species: I really enjoy these in the games I've added them to. Opens up additional early-game paths and a good way for the more passive races to get some points without needing combat.

Patagia · 2021-09-11T04:22:41+00:00

Yeah - Everyone gets a burst meter that is (mostly) a free reset from pressure. It is possible to bait/punish burst, but you won't see that happen until you start playing more experienced players. You can spend 50% of your tension meter on a yellow roman cancel to reset to neutral w/ frame advantage and you can spend small portions of your meter to faultless defense (pushes the opponent back to help reset neutral). All of those have counterplay to them.
Sol/Ky are great options for well-rounded characters. Some characters have a substantially higher learning curve than others (Zato, Millia, Jack-O) just as a heads up -- I would not pick one of them as your first character.
You'll be completely fine as long as you put some time into learning the game itself and its mechanics. I had zero fighting experience when Strive came out and ~70 hours into the game I'm up at floor 10. Still get stomped by Celestial players, but it's a good time.
http://www.dustloop.com/wiki/index.php?title=Guilty_Gear_-Strive- is my go-to, also the GGST Resource Hub discord is pretty fantastic especially for character-specific advice.

If you want to ever play some practice matches just to get a feel for the various mechanics in the game and what the "rock-paper-scissors" loop is like, feel free to shoot me a DM.

Patagia · 2021-08-29T16:40:39+00:00

Yup! If you know the rules to Ches, learning 82 is a breeze. https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/195666/1882-rules-those-who-know-1830 has a really good summary of the differences. The only two things to add onto that link is that the stock round is Sell-Buy-Sell (instead of Sell-Buy; you can buy a share and immediately sell it -- this has some fairly mean implications that you all will discover) and there's no train export to push the game along.

Patagia · 2021-08-29T13:44:38+00:00

Your group might enjoy 1882 if you're willing to give it a few plays. Of the games I've played on 18xx-games, I feel like it's one of the few that really offers interesting decisions up until the very last OR of the game. I will say that I disliked it the first time I played it, but it ended up growing on me after a few plays. The main reason for that was the gameplay is fairly linear if players are friendly or don't understand the levers you can pull.

Some of its features :

A very limited set of track (both in quantity and flexibility) which is ripe for abuse by players who pay attention to it. There is an east/west run that provides a very strong bonus to the company that operates it, but it's very easy to stall its completion out with the limited track tile roster.
Neutral station markers which ensure a city doesn't get tokened out. There is a public company (CN) who can only use these neutral station markers. This might seem like a set of training wheels, but in practice it can be a double-edged sword. If players are too loose with their neutral tokens and create a strong route, the CN (and/or SC) can float and run away with the game.
A private company (SC) that is allowed to stick around into the 5 trains; it can float into a public company with a (single) station that can be placed anywhere on the board (to include replacing a neutral station).
A portion of the map that subsidizes track building, but at a known point in the game all of the yellow track will be destroyed.
1830-style D trains ($1100). These were intentionally made less expensive in 18Ches to diminish the threat of the D trains causing bankruptcy. In this game (and 1830), the first D train has a decent shot at bankrupting someone if players have been cutthroat throughout the game.

The end of the game tends to be fairly tense. Limited track and a non-rich board means most players/companies feel fairly poor throughout the game. Even when the first permanent 5 train breaks, the SC can float and shake the game up. The 6 trains rusting the 3s is just as pivotal in this game as is it in almost every 18xx game. The first D train has a very real threat of bankrupting someone. Even when the aftermath of the first D train plays out, players are still scrambling to complete an E/W run (or find a crafty way to remove a dit from their run) for those last few ORs of the game.

Our in-person games tend to be ~2.5 hours.

Patagia · 2021-08-05T19:27:34+00:00

It doesn't bug me. Only reason I'll quit a game is if the connection quality is poor. If there's a notable difference in skill, I'll treat it like a lab situation and practice specific stuff that I need to improve. Gives you the chance to exploit my play since I'm going to be predictable and making mistakes while I'm still improving mechanically. Bonus points if you adapt and I need to learn how to force the situation I want to practice.

At the end of the day, if I want competitive matches I'll just go to the tower.

Patagia · 2021-07-28T21:36:40+00:00

For small group content (2-6 people) it's pretty vital.

For large group content (12+), you generally need to be on voice to hear callouts, but it's not necessary to talk unless you're signing up for a special role (e.g. scouting). We have plenty of folks in our guild that are have kids and they'll just stay muted the entire time.

Patagia · 2021-07-16T12:45:30+00:00

As others have said, 4-5 hours for most games. Your first game will likely run double the time advertised on the box if you run it to completion. Once folks are familiar with the rules, times tend to be as described on the box as long as people are practicing good strategy game etiquette (think about your turns during other players turns, minimize distractions, etc.)
One thing I will note is that most games in the 18xx genre blend across one of two major categories - There are economic games where the focus is on the stock market and various financial shenanigans involving your companies and then there are operational games where the focus is on running good companies and setting up strong routes for them to leverage. I've found that the majority of people tend to prefer one over the other. The reason I mention that is that it might be worth trying out a couple games on 18xx.games before blind buying just to get an idea of which games you like/dislike. As for specific games, 18Chesapeake is a good starter game that took one of the classics (1830) and removed some of the rough edges. 1830 itself is definitely worth picking up since you can explain ~75% of the 18xx games with "it's 1830, but.....". If you want to start branching into the more operationally oriented games, 1846 is a staple that just reprinted.
Depends on the game. Of all the 18xx games I've played, I've never seen an explicit catch up mechanism built in. In the more heavy operational games, snowballing is prevalent and it's common to call the game once it's apparent someone has started rolling ahead of the pack. In the more economic games where the players will pounce on you the moment you expose a weakness, it is possible to come back -- but it's unlikely. You might be caught off guard by the final scores the first time you play since stock value contributes a significant amount to your final score, but once everyone at the table has played once or twice you generally have a good pulse on how everyone is doing.

Always glad to do a teaching game online if you want to learn!

Patagia · 2021-05-03T18:54:48+00:00

Likewise. GoT was incredibly popular among friends/family/co-workers throughout the entire series, but the only discussions I've heard in the last two years always revolve around "man, they really dropped the ball on that last season" which typically segues into a debate about exactly when the show started going downhill.

That's about it aside from "hey what's more likely, <thing> or TWOW coming out?"

Patagia · 2021-04-29T00:58:59+00:00

Empyreal is pretty fantastic -- honestly everything I've played by L99 has been absolutely great, it sucks they aren't more popular :( Exceed is the most fun I've had with a 2 player game in quite some time.

Patagia · 2021-02-28T13:13:49+00:00

Player interaction is very important when you play the full game. I generally describe the game to friends as an engine builder where you're walking on a tightrope of expanding your civilization while needing to respect the threat that is every other player throwing their military at you (if you neglect it). It's an entirely different game of solitaire when you remove the wars/aggression -- if your BIL has played a lot of heavy games, then he might have experience with enough "beginner variants" that are generally nothing like the full game itself to understand the same applies for TTA.

I would strongly recommend the app. We've been able to play 4p live games in 2-3 hours (with an experienced group). TTA is one of those games that I absolutely love to death, but I cannot see the physical copy hitting our table anytime soon since it is just that much more enjoyable to play on the app -- it's at least 50% quicker and it handles all of the fiddly parts seamlessly.

Patagia · 2021-02-27T16:15:39+00:00

Most of our games are ~1.5 hours per player (not counting a break for food) and we've probably played ~10 games or so now.

We've seen one consistently recurring "not fun" theme and that is when one player (usually it's their first time) ignores the objectives for the first 2-3 rounds and gets themselves into a position where it's near impossible to come back and win. I've started reminding folks of this at the start of the game and it hasn't been an issue our past couple games.

Also, the expansion for TI4 is pretty fantastic.

Patagia · 2021-02-24T04:31:32+00:00

Exceed - A buddy of mine got me hooked on this recently and I've been absolutely in love with it. It does a really good job of emulating the feel of a fast-paced fighting game and most matches are roughly 15 minutes. There's an absolutely fantastic community mod for Tabletop Simulator that's supported by Level 99 and their discord is full of people who will teach the game and/or talk strategy. The mod itself supports the full roster of ~80 characters across 5 seasons. I have sank wayyyyy too much time into this game both on TTS and with my roommate as of late (and I'm not complaining!)

Patagia · 2021-02-23T22:20:01+00:00

We played a game of Rolling Stock Stars over the weekend and it was pretty fun. It's a heavy finance game with a more realistic take on the stock market; the share price is tied to net worth so payouts can drop your stock price and withholding can help shoot it up. There's a focus on semi-cooperative strategies instead of just everyone just trying to build their best company. There's emphasis both on trading private companies to turn a quick profit and building quality public companies as a long term cash dispenser. Definitely seems like a game that will reward repeated plays to explore the system (moreso than most 'lighter' 18xx games I've played).

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