u/Perfect_Pitch_6780

Hey counselors!

I just can’t get enough of Twilight Imperium. I’ve got both expansions, all the accoutrements (eg magnet board to track components, 3d printed organizers, etc), and painted (most of) my miniatures, but I can’t organize enough friends regularly enough. So I’m reaching out to the community!

Do you have any advice about how to plug into in-person Twilight Imperium gaming in Seattle? I want like a weekly or monthly 6-person game, that’s the dream! Are the local shops like Meeples or Raygun Lounge or Mox the way to go?

Or are you, like me, stuck “looking for group” in the emerald city? If so direct message me!

Thanks for reading!

Counselors, BEHOLD!! 5 players joining for galactic war and peace (both expansions) in a couple weeks—we have Yin, Sardakk, Nekro, Xxcha, and Sol; MAKE YOUR PREDICTIONS!! What’s going to happen?? BET ON WHO WILL WIN!!

Notes on the map: Each system with one or more planets is adjacent to at least one other system with at least one planet. Each player is adjacent to 4 planets (totaling 8 value), 1 tech skip, and 1 wormhole. Each player is equidistant from others and Mecatol. Each player is equidistant to two value 2 systems, one with each neighbor. Each player has one anomaly obstructing their path to Mecatol. There are 9 hazardous (red) planets, 9 industrial (green) planets, and 8 cultural (blue) planets, with the possibility that that up to two more cultural planets (Mirage and Malice) may be discovered via exploring over the course of the game

The first one is poorer and has no equidistant tiles (very defined “this is my slice”), the second one is richer (particularly on influence) and has one equidistant tile per player and only one valuable system to touching the home. What do you think would make for a cooler 5-player game??? We are using both Prophecy of Kings and Thunder’s Edge, players can choose any factions they want (relatively low experience group, only 1 or 2 games under each guy’s belt)

Hey friends, I don’t know if I can live without these three galactic events. The first is just ripped off the normal Thunder’s Edge galactic event, the other two are homebrews I cooked up inspired by this sub. What are your reactions? Are there galactic events that you cannot live without?

Hidden Agenda: During the Agenda Phase, only the speaker can talk; all other players must remain silent except when declaring action cards. When voting, players secretly and simultaneously text their desired outcome and number of votes to the speaker. After all players have voted, the speaker votes and secretly tallies the results and reveals only the totals to the other players; the speaker reveals who voted for which outcome only when required to resolve the outcome. If a player faction is Argent Flight, he texts his votes to all players before other players text the speaker.

Mandate of Heaven (edited!): If you voluntarily give your Support for the Throne promissory note as part of a transaction, return any other players’ Support for the Throne promissory notes in your play area. A single transaction can only involve a maximum of one Support for the Throne promissory note. While you are one point away from victory, you cannot accept another player’s Support for the Throne promissory note as part of transaction.

Deep Space X: When a player embarks on an expedition to Thunder’s Edge, if the Fracture is not already in play, roll a 10-sided die. If the number is equal to or greater than twice the number of expeditions that have already been made (including the current expedition, e.g. 2 or higher for the first expedition, 4 or higher for the second, etc.), resolve bringing the Fracture into play. When there have been a number of expeditions equal to the number of players, resolve bringing Thunder’s Edge into play.

All but black inked, 3 sets mostly finished

Still not totally sure what I’m going to do with black—probably try to get some white oil paint to fill the lines, I’ve seen it done I’m just not sure how easy it is!

Edit/ update to include my DIY tips and tricks:

It’s a simple enough recipe: prime, black ink wash dip with tweezers, blot with a bar rag and use a cheap brush to remove excess wash, paint pen edge highlights, varnish, voila! It is a lot of minis tho 😅

Step 1: Set out all the minis on some cardboard and prime them using a spray can of clear matte varnish (do this outside, but then take the minis inside to dry in a well ventilated room—you don’t want pollen and dust from outside to stick to the plastic while the primer is drying). I used this as the primer: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000R9QHWO

Step 2: Wait 24 hours for the varnish primer to dry completely. It will feel dry to the touch after about an hour but don’t be fooled. Wait 24 hours.

Step 3: Flip the minis upside down and repeat steps 1 and 2 — prime the other side.

Step 4: Wait 24 hours for the varnish primer to dry completely.

Step 5: Dip the minis in black ink wash (I used this one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0058HZJME), one at a time, using cheap tweezers. Do not thin, water down, or otherwise mess with the wash. Just stir the wash gently (avoid bubbles—bubbles are the mind killer), and dip the mini slowly with tweezers one and a time. Hold the mini up above the wash jar for a minute or two to let the big drips drop off. Then remove excess wash (where the wash may have pooled) with a cheap paint brush, and blot away pooled wash with a bar rag as applicable. Sometimes brushing away the excess wash is easier, as with the command deck of a dreadnaught, sometimes blotting it with a bar rag is easier, as with the rim of the war sun.

Step 6: Lay the dipped mini face up on a bar rag to dry. Wait 24 hours.

Step 7: use a paint pen to edge highlight. I used these: https://a.co/d/0bEBpdQ7 (shake well and run the tip on some scratch paper to get the paint flowing). Just run the paint pen along the edges of the mini’s lines to make them pop, using the color of your choice. The edge highlights make the mini really pop but this is the most labor and skill intensive part by far. Conscript friends and loved ones to help. Particularly those with experience painting nail art, Warhammer, or similar crafty stuff.

Step 8: Repeat steps 1 - 4, using the same clear matte primer as your sealing varnish to avoid chipping and ensure you have a nice non-tacky hand feel.

Step 9: PROFIT!

Hey friends,

I posted here not long ago for some feedback on a 4 player map idea and got some great responses. Based on that, I made 8 for my group, and wanted to share here as well!

Important note: These maps contemplate that the 4-point hyper lane used at the top and bottom creates adjacency with each tile that has an end point. That means your horizontal opponent is 3 moves away via that hyperlane, just like your diagonal opponent (via the wormholes), your vertical opponent, and Mecatol Rex.

Why are these maps cool?

- if you have both expansions, you have enough hyperlane tiles to create these maps out-of-the-box

- each tile adjacent to Mecatol is equidistant between two players

- there are 5.5 tiles per splice, creating one more equidistant tile than the Milty system (specifically the top and bottom tiles) — you can replace these tiles with Supernovas to get exactly 5 tiles per slice like good ol’ Milty

- tech skips are exclusively on tiles with equidistance between 2 players, so you can kind of “choose your own adventure” in terms of tech skips

- balanced number of planets per slice

- balanced planet traits per map

- balanced mix of influence and resources both per slice and per map

- balanced access to anomalies, tech skips, and frontier tokens per slice

Welcome feedback!

Online versions of these maps:

Option 1: Rich Blood

Option 2: Even Spread

Option 3: Neon Lasers

Option 4: Gold Fists

Option 5: Might Right

Option 6: Proton Pistols

Option 7: Tight Fight

Option 8: Eat Cake

https://tidraft.com/maps/113-value-65-tile-15-tech-2-frontier-slices

Do you have thoughts on how to improve this map? Do you think any of the seats are disproportionately stronger than the others? Do you think this map is too rich or too poor? Two few or too many tech tips? How about the wormholes? Are some objectives too easy or too hard?

OK let me tell you why I think this four player map is so great

Each player has equal access to frontier tokens (2 per player) and technology skips (1.5 per player) and opponent home systems and Mecatol Rex

Roughly similar access to planets and anomalies although I acknowledge that there are some imperfections in that regard

The aggregate value of influence and resources is the same for each player with regard to systems to which they are equidistant and systems that are adjacent to their home system

There are no legendaries other than the discoverable ones like Mirage and Mecatol Rex of course because I think those are hard to balance

You only get so many opportunities to play this game and I want you to be able to pick your fraction and do whatever the heck you want, I don’t want your strategy to be dictated by legendary planet abilities

I know people love the Milty draft system, but it’s just not for me. If I’m going to spend 12+ hours on a game, I want everybody to be able to choose a faction they are jazzed on and I want everyone to feel like there’s a fair shot at winning. I don’t want the risk of anybody playing a faction that they’re unexcited about or feeling like they’re stuck with a slice that can’t compete

After one hour of teaching an 11 hours of solid play (playing through dinner), at the bottom of round five we called it for Muaat at 10 points (had originally planned to go to 14)

I was Muaat and I started as the speaker and took warfare as my first strategy draw. That gave me a good expansion start and I was able to discard a secret to get a the Avernus breakthrough on turn one. Nobody took Mecatol in round one and I was lucky enough to get leadership at the round two strategy phase. From there I just sat on Mecatol for three rounds with two War Suns spamming Star Forge with four mechs. I was able to basically balance the other three players off each other by tactfully not expanding any further, and threatening using the nuclear hero and lucky Stellar Converter I’d found while expanding.

MVP of the game was actually Magen Defense Grid (I know I was as surprised as you that I actually spent a tech to research that). I couldn’t control the space over my home system but the other players could never really bring any meaningful number of infantry all the way to my home system, so I was weirdly able to score public objectives the whole game even though it seemed like I was blockaded most of the time

Was f*cking awesome I’m hopeful I can make this into a quarterly thing with these guys!