Fantasy Flight has a Learn to Play guide which you
can download here.
We will be playing with some relatively small rule variations on that, but it is still a good idea for you to read that whole document.
If you want a basic outline of the game first, read the General Course section below, then read the Learn to Play guide linked above, and then finally read the Forum House Rules section. If you think you can handle it without the overview then skip that, jump straight into the Learn to Play guide and then read the Forum House Rules section.
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General Course of the Game
The game is broken into multiple Game Rounds. Each Game Round has several Phases:
Strategy Phase - The main part of the Strategy Phase is that each player picks up one Strategy Card. Strategy Cards determine turn order during the Action Phase and grant the player access to one particular Strategic Action. The player who is The Speaker chooses their Strategy Card first, and selection then proceeds clockwise. Additionally, there are a few cards, technologies, and racial abilities that resolve during the Strategy Phase.
Action Phase - This phase is the "guts" of the game. One-by-one, each player performs an Action or passes, until all players have passed. (Unlike Eclipse, there are no "reactions" - once you have passed you can never perform another Action, though you can still use any (non-Action) special abilities or play (non-Action) cards.) Most Actions performed will be Tactical Actions, but various cards, technologies, and racial abilities can grant additional Actions - look for any text which says "As an Action, do ______". Additionally, all players will have one Strategy Action to perform from their chosen Strategy Card and they *must* perform it before they can pass (it does not have to be the last action performed before passing).
Status Phase - This phase serves as both scoring and cleanup. First, each player can score points for fulfilling one Public Objective and/or one Secret Objective (if you qualify for multiple Public Objectives, you have to pick one and hope you still qualify for the second next round). Then a new Public Objective is revealed, everyone gets a free Action Card, ships are repaired, planets are refreshed, and Strategy Cards are returned to the supply.
Agenda Phase - This is the political phase, where players use the influence of their dominion to shape galaxy-wide legislation. Players will have a certain number of votes they can cast (based on the influence of the planets they control and other bonuses), and there will be two political Agendas up for debate in each Agenda Phase which the players must split their vote between. This phase does not occur at the start of the game - it only gets added once someone removes the Custodian tile from Mecatol Rex.
So a typical (3-player) game will look something like this:
Round 1
**
Strategy Phase
****Everyone picks a Strategy Card
**
Action Phase
****Alice: Strategic Action - Diplomacy
****Bob: Tactical Action
****Cindy: Tactical Action
****Alice: Tactical Action
****Bob: Strategic Action - Technology
****Cindy: Production Biomes (an action granted by a Hacan racial technology)
****Alice: Pass
****Bob: Tactical Action
****Cindy: Strategic Action - Imperial
****Bob: Pass
****Cindy: Pass
**
Status Phase
****Everyone scores objectives (if they can)
****New public objective revealed
****Everyone gets an action card
****Cleanup and refresh
Round 2
**
Strategy Phase
****Everyone picks a Strategy Card
**
Action Phase
****Bob: Strategic Action - Trade
****Alice: Tactical Action
****Cindy: Strategic Action - Imperial
****Bob: Tactical Action
****Alice: Strategic Action - Technology
****Cindy: Production Biomes
****Bob: Pass
****Alice: Tactical Action
****Cindy: Pass
****Alice: Tactical Action
****Alice: Orbital Drop (an action granted by Sol's racial ability)
****Alice: Tactical Action
****Alice: Pass
**
Status Phase
****Everyone scores objectives (if they can)
****New public objective revealed
****Everyone gets an action card
****Cleanup and refresh
**
Agenda Phase
****Politics happens
Round 3...
Objectives, Points, and Scoring
The game keeps on going through successive rounds until someone reaches enough points to win. Since it is a first game for most people,
we will be playing to 11 VP.
There are a handful of Public Objectives available at the start of the game, and a new Public Objective is revealed after round. Players also have Secret Objectives (up to a maximum of three). You can acquire more Secret Objectives using the Imperil strategy card. Additionally, if you control Mecatol Rex you can gain 1 VP by using the Imperial strategy card.
Twilight Imperium tends to be shorter than you think. It is easy to get distracted by expanding your empire, warring with other players, pursuing technologies, or building more units "just in case", rather than focusing on objectives and victory points. Because there are limitations on how many objectives you can fulfill each round, you can pay dearly for neglecting objectives and being unable to catch up fast enough later on.
Lastly: note that you cannot score Public Objectives when you do not control all the planets of your home system (unless you are Saar). You *can* still score Secret Objectives and gain VP using the Imperial card.
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Forum House Rules
1. Deferred Secondaries
When a player performs a Strategic Action they execute the Primary part of the strategy card and everyone else has the opportunity to execute the Secondary part of the card.
In the rules-as-written, this all happens right away: Cindy says she's performing the Technology strategy, she immediately executes the Primary effect for herself (gaining 1 tech and spending 6 resources to gain a second tech); immediately after that Alice decides to execute the Secndary (spending a command token and 4 resources to gain a tech); also immediately Bob chooses not to do the Secondary of the card. Only after all of that does the turn pass from Cindy to the next player.
This will slow down the game every time a Strategic Action is performed as we wait for all players to check-in, and the Secondary effects typically have little game impact.
Therefore, executing the Secondary effect of all Strategy Cards will be moved to the start of the player's turn. E.g.: Cindy does the Technology strategic action and executes the Primary, then her turn is over. On Alice's turn she can do the Technology Secondary, then proceed with her own action. If Alice also does a Strategic Action, then on Bob's turn he can do both the Secondary effects from Cindy and Alice's Strategic Actions (or just one, or neither) before he then performs his own action.
To prevent any "luck" from when players do/don't check-in on the forum, all Secondary effects *must* be deferred like this - even if you happen to be online right after a Strategic Action is performed you have to wait until your turn to do the Secondary. Furthermore, if you have multiple Secondary effects to execute before your turn you must perform them in the same order that their Primary effects were executed.
This will slightly devalue the Secondary effects of Politics, Construction, and Warfare, and make trading commodities a bit more logistically annoying, but I think overall it will be a very minor balance impact and a very helpful game-speed improvement.
2. Simultaneous Voting
In the rules-as-written, voting on the Agendas in the Agenda Phase goes player-by-player, one-at-a-time with the Speaker last, first one Agenda and then the next.
This is great for finnagling last-minute deals out of the later voters, but will also take a lot of time waiting for players, so instead we will use a secret, simultaneous ballot. All players will PM me their votes (split between the two Agendas) and once they're all in I'll reveal the results.
Of course, the amount of influence each player has is public knowledge, and you're free to state which way you'll be voting. It should absolutely still be possible and profitable to bribe and otherwise make arrangements for players to vote the way you want them to.
This devalues being The Speaker a bit, since you no longer get to be the final vote. But: The Speaker still picks Strategy Card first, and all tied votes will still resolve in favour of The Speaker.
3. Agenda Reveals
The agendas for the upcoming Agenda phase will only be revealed at the beginning of the Status Phase.
Both agendas will be revealed at the same time, and voting will otherwise remain the same as in the previous game.
Any action cards or abilities that affect the agendas MUST be played during the Status Phase. This includes the Nekro Virus "Galactic Threat" ability, the Xxcha "Quash" ability, VETO action cards, RIDER action cards, and any other abilities or action cards I may have missed.
This post has been edited by Galactic Council: 10 July 2018 - 08:13 PM