The Best Board Games: Twilight Imperium (SU&SD's Top 100)

God, that storage solution is horrifying. Fair enough using bags, but have one per player/faction, for christ's sake! Said with affection.

Great episode and with happy ending for me. There is only one place to put it.

(no second meanings)

Star Trek Ascension is a licensed TI game.

I love the Twimper phase after setup when everyone says "It's Twimping time!" before the frist Strategy phase.

That was awesome

While I accept the RULES of watching - that I now think Twilight Imperium is the top game ever.... I do secretly wish it was underneath Quest for El Dorado.

Waiting to see where I think Gloomhaven fits when you try it on for size on your list.

Just played my first game! 14 hours of fun 😭🤣

An incredible game!!! 🤩🤩🤩

Havent paid attention since the little guy was placed on the box. Just watched the lil yellow guy😮

I've done 1 single 8 Player game. A friend of mine said to 7 people, some of whomever lived hours away "hey, my birthday is soon, as a gift, we play TI Prophacy of King's all day"

And we did, it waa glorious

You need to play Eclipse. It's a 2-3 hour version, not a half day - and the complexity of having a sprawling empire is cooked into the base rules.

I've never played a TI. But the way Matt talks about it is very much how I feel about Diplomacy. It's been a hot minute since I've played and most of my plays were not at the full 7 but it was so fun making stupid mistakes and learning how to read the board a little together. Doing stupid things like moving all your pieces onto one border in hopes to make people think you're zigging when you're zagging.

Folded Space and other “custom fit” game organization companies will change your life.

Love TI4. Base game is all we’ve played. It’s epic, rewards so many play styles, and the stories you can take away from a session are legendary.

Arkham Horror is basically my equivalent to Twilight Imperium. A million fidly pieces? Check. Takes all day to play? Check. Haven't played it since college when I lived with all the people I'd play with? Check. (Has a streamlined sister game that I own but don't bother bringing to the table because at that point I'd rather play the big game? Check.)

0:55 Hey, tell me my opinion faster! Why does it take half an hour for me to know what I know? :S

I am so lucky, as I have a core group of players that I play this bi-monthly.

This game is my white whale. It's been sitting on my shelf for the last two years. I collect board games too, so I'm not upset that I bought it, but MAN I just want to get a group together to play it. One day, I know it'll happen.

Despite the comparison, I feel like TI and Eclipse are actually rather different games. Eclipse is going harder for the "4X video game as a board game" feel, and diplomacy barely exists. On the other hand, being able to custom-design your spacecraft and the physical goodies are just amazing.

I couldn't have had a more negative experience as the new person to a group of experienced TI players... I was used, abused and betrayed like a wet rag... but I understand why people love it so much. I'll never play it again, but as a lover of boardgames, space operas and sci-fi I will always admire it from afar. I'll stick to Stellaris.

I still play TI3 😭

I'm confused... I feel like I want that role play experience so I should go for TI3 with expansions?

The big un!

TI4 is an 'occasion game'. You organise the whole day - breaks for snacks, breaks for meals, how are people going to get home. You have to start with coffee and ease yourself into the beers slowly. Despite the grandiosity and sprawl, it can be silly and bonkers and infinitely malleable to the experience you want to have, rather than the rigorous and unforgiving optimisation engine of games like Dune Imperium. Anyone who takes a runaway lead will quickly find themselves stranded from alliances, so you kinda sorta have to shimmy and finagle your way across the finish line while no one is watching. My impression is that games that try to streamline the experience (Eclipse, etc) get the tech tree and the 4X etc, but whiff on the interpersonal possibilities that TI4 enthusiasts revel in.

(Official TI4 tournament play seems terribly stilted and regimented, but maybe that's just me.)

I'm happy to volunteer myself for getting kidnapped and forced to play this!

I it play 3-4 times a year. I would play it more. I 100% agree with your placement and that for some people I'd never recommend it.

TI4 changed my life...

Matt, there is a subset of us async TI players that just want to get silly with TI. Best part is you never have to work hard to find 5 other middle-aged men and/or dads to block-out a day again.

Join us.

I once watched a full 7 player, maybe even 8 player group play two games back to back in 11 hours.

I might try this on tabletop simulator sometime if I can find players

Been playing TI since first edition but love all the editions and have an amazing friend group for it. My definitive favorite game

We stopped playing the first edition when one player would not stop saying "Mentak" in a quite annoying way. We also developed an interesting variant with much more emphasis on the Fall of Mercatol Rex by essentially combining the game with Junta.

Base game of TI can be won in 3 hours. It's the expansions that make it takes weeks

to the top!!!

So, this can be played in an hour or 2? Right? Right, hello-Tom? Matt?? All day??? WHAT??? But, I have algae to grow, i need to watch 2 Test matches and my nose hairs need trimming. AAARRRGGGHHH.

Your closing lines sum it all up perfectly. There are lots of board games where your takeaway will be, "that was a nice little board game." But Twilight Imperium will always get you going "that was incredible!" after completing a game.

Colored command tokens + control tokens are the way to play.

Oh yeah and can be stop the narrative that it's 8-12 hours. I've played it like 5 times in 4-5 hours. And yes the game is great at three players. People who say you HAVE to play at 8 players are just trying to justify their massive time investment by claiming superiority. The truth is they LIKE to play super long games with super high player counts. This is no necessary to enjoy the game.

My greatest TI moment of all time was when I was playing a game with my wife. I had a giant warfleet poised to invade Mechatol Rex. My wife played the alien artifact and it wiped out 9/10ths of my fleet including my capital ship. I laughed like crazy because it was so over-the-top. She said "I don't want to be that mean I'll take it back!". I said no way that's the most epic thing I've ever seen. It was the conclusion of Vision of Escaflowne or Return of the Jedi. Wipe out an entire fleet with one giant explosion.

I have seen people get REALLY upset when they try to invade late game and I just play all my "jamming" strategy cards over and over. Sorry, but if you don't want to be out-maneuvered, get strategy cards.

Best thing about the 4th Edition was that it simplified tech and gave you all the alien species. Bad things: all the expansions and modules were gone.

I bought expansions for 3rd Edition and can't get anyone to play with me. Completely replacing core actions is the big one. I always hated the Imperial Action.