I want to buy Twilight Imperium 3. However...

[xodarap 33]

I just want to know if the game is still in print.  It has taken quite awhile to find enough people willing to play a game of this size but is Twilight Imperium 3 and all of it's expansions still in print?  The FFG store only has the base game.  Thanks! 

[whittaker007 22]

Yeah, pretty sure it is. If not there is still stock in a number of online retailers. In the last few months I've bought it and both expansions.

 

A long game, difficult to master and hard to get to the table, but definitely worth your time. There's really no epic space-opera strategy game quite like it.

 

I strongly recommend the Shattered Empire expansion which has much better balanced strategy cards that improves the game no end. Other than that it and the other expansion add more stuff - more plastic pieces, more planets, more races, more planets, more political and action cards, and some optional variants that increase variety. All good stuff, but not really necessary.

 

If you just go with the base game I suggest making your own strategy cards based on those in Shattered Empires.

[Forgottenlore 9,838]

Yeah, it's still in print. FFG just has a difficult time, sometimes, making stuff fast enough to keep up with demand. You should have seen some of the shortages in the early days of x-wing.

The upcoming page says the 2 expansions are both "awaiting reprint". Given FFGs previous record, that probably means at least 3-4 months before they get restocked.

I would recomend grabbing the base game now, playing, and then if it goes over well with your group getting the expansions once they are available again.

Oh, and check the games download section for some useful play aids and the "Imperial 2" strategy card, which improves the base game a lot. The alternate strategy cards in Shattered Empire are good, but they can wait until you actually have them.

[mr.thomasschmidt 91]

Hi. I'm new to this game as well and just wondered what you mean by "Imperial 2" strategy card? There's nothing like that in the download section. Only the 3 rule books, a FAQ, a preset maps and some alternate rules. Could you be more specific please?

[BigKahuna 737]

The Imperial II Strategy Card is actually part of the first expansion, I think what he is referring to is the alternative ISC rule found in the rules variant section under "The Ancient Throne".  Though you have a complete overview of all strategy cards in each of the rulebooks in the back that are downloadable PDF's so you can use them just as easy as the Ancient Throne Variant.  In fact if you print out the PDF the size of the printed card is scaled to match the actual board stock cards so its easier to print, cut out and use.  I don't think that is an accident.

 

The reason this is almost always referenced is that its pretty universally agreed that the original Imperial Strategy card that comes with the original core set ranges from "horrifically unbalanced" to "Not very good" depending on who you ask.  Few would argue for its use and pretty much any variant of that card is better.  

[Forgottenlore 9,838]

Sorry, yes. The "ancient throne" optional rule in the variant rules download is what I was talking about. In the first expansion you get an actual strategy card with that text that is named "imperial II". I thought the downloads section had an image of the card as a separate file.

The original imperial strategy card isn't exactly "broken", but it does seriously warp how the game is played.

[mr.thomasschmidt 91]

Okay. Thanks for clarifying it

[xodarap 33]

Yeah, pretty sure it is. If not there is still stock in a number of online retailers. In the last few months I've bought it and both expansions.

 

A long game, difficult to master and hard to get to the table, but definitely worth your time. There's really no epic space-opera strategy game quite like it.

 

I strongly recommend the Shattered Empire expansion which has much better balanced strategy cards that improves the game no end. Other than that it and the other expansion add more stuff - more plastic pieces, more planets, more races, more planets, more political and action cards, and some optional variants that increase variety. All good stuff, but not really necessary.

 

If you just go with the base game I suggest making your own strategy cards based on those in Shattered Empires.

Thanks very much for your reply.  The political aspect is what I was really interested in.  Is it really feasible to win that way or is politics just there so it can eventually affect combat?  I don't just want that, but I want all of the various strategies to really be ones you can use to win if that makes any sense. 

[xodarap 33]

Yeah, it's still in print. FFG just has a difficult time, sometimes, making stuff fast enough to keep up with demand. You should have seen some of the shortages in the early days of x-wing.

The upcoming page says the 2 expansions are both "awaiting reprint". Given FFGs previous record, that probably means at least 3-4 months before they get restocked.

I would recomend grabbing the base game now, playing, and then if it goes over well with your group getting the expansions once they are available again.

Oh, and check the games download section for some useful play aids and the "Imperial 2" strategy card, which improves the base game a lot. The alternate strategy cards in Shattered Empire are good, but they can wait until you actually have them.

Thanks for your reply!  I really think I'm going to get this but I don't want just another "combat" game.  Of the games I own I have ONE that doesn't deal with combat (Formula D) I also don't house rule anything because people that are new to games but actually are wanting to play an Epic one will think I'm trying to pull something.  I like to just go with the rules as written.  Thanks for letting me know, I'm really glad that FFG isn't going to discontinue this classic.  What led me to it was all of the game reviews I saw for other games that compared them to Twilight Imperium and just how much it was mentioned.  I figured forget the middle man, go to the source.

[Forgottenlore 9,838]

The political aspect is what I was really interested in.  Is it really feasible to win that way or is politics just there so it can eventually affect combat?  I don't just want that, but I want all of the various strategies to really be ones you can use to win if that makes any sense.

That is a difficult question to answer. In my opinion, the political aspect of the game is a little too random to reliably focus on heavily as a strategy for winning, on the otherhand, combat isn't the main focus of the game either. You win by scoring enough objectives, and what objectives are available is randomly determined. So you could have a game where combat is going to totally dominate strategy, but you could also have a game where scoring victory points depends heavily on spending resources on objectives instead of on military units and so everyone's fleets stay reletively small. The game requires that you balance the various aspects in your strategy, rather than specialize heavily.

That said, if the right political card comes up at the right time, it can absolutely change the entire course of the game.