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Ask and you shall receive! The long-awaited errata for Twilight Imperium is finally revealed! The most frequently asked questions are finally answered! And for those who have cried out for a shorter version of the game, we present Empire's End, the official tournament rules. If you have any alternate rules or scenarios you have created, please send them to us; we would be glad to post them here for other TI players to enjoy.

NEW! Several TI players have sent their rules variants, and we have posted them here.

Twilight Imperium FAQ

Below we answer some of the most common questions about Twilight Imperium:

Q: Is the counter mix limiting? (i.e., can I only build as many spaceships as there are counters?)
A: No, you may build as many ships as your heart desires. If you run out of counters, borrow from an unused race, make new counters out of paper, buy another copy of the game, use poker chips, pennies, marbles, or younger siblings.

Q: Do Tech Levels begin to the left or to the right of the red line indicated on the player-sheets?
A: There is an error in the rules where an example indicates that the N'orr begin the game with weapons Tech Level two. This is incorrect. All players begin their Tech to the LEFT of the red line (thus the N'orr start at Weapons Tech level one)

Q: Do your initial levels of Tech count towards your progression requirements?
A: Yes

Q: Can the Yssaril purchase a Tech for 25 credits the same turn that the Tech is being purchased for the first time by another race?
A: No. The Yssaril can only purchase cheaper Tech if that advance was held by another player before the start of the Technology Phase.

Q: What happens when either card pile runs out of cards?
A: Simply reshuffle discarded cards and make a new draw-pile.

Q: How does the Yssarils special skill work with the 'Neural Motivator' Tech?
A: The Yssaril draws two cards for every draw, and must then immediately discard one of the two. (Take two at a time, and discard one before drawing the next two, etc.)

Q: In case of a tie in Influence what happens?
A: Ties are broken by, in order: Resources, Tech Levels, credits on hand, coin flip.

Q: Can the attacker withdraw through a Wormhole?
A: No, the attacker must retreat to the system nearest his/her own homesystem. If this system is occupied by another race, the attacking player cannot retreat.

Q: In what order are units purchased?
A: Simultaneously. If there is a problem with 'timing' of decision-making, purchasing should be done simultaneously but in secret.

Q: Can I attack the Hacan even though we have a Trade Agreement? I can't break a Trade Agreement with the Hacan, and an attack would do just that.
A: You may attack freely. The Hacan's Trade Agreements are not broken when hostilities begin. Also, the Hacan are free to attack you, regardless of any Trade Agreement.

Q: Can a player be killed (i.e., Assassinated or Executed) more than once per turn?
A: No!

Q: Do all players complete their Movement Segment before any Space Battles are resolved?
A: No. One player must complete his/her 'Individual Turn' phase in its entirety (Movement, Space Battles, and Invasion Combat) before another player can take his/her 'Individual Turn' phase. Note that it is important to recalculate Influence after every individual turn -- since the power-balance might have shifted.

Q: There is a tie in the voting process, what happens?
A: The person with highest Influence may determine the outcome of the vote. (If there is a tie in highest Influence also, look at Resources, etc.)

Q: In the Distant Suns supplement, the Winnaran Custodians are supposed to have two neutral P.D.S counters on Mecatol Rex, but the supplement includes only one neutral P.D.S counter. Is there a counter missing or was this an oversight?
A: There is indeed a typo in the rules booklet. The Winnnaran Custodians have only one P.D.S.

Q: There are cards which effectively outlaw combat for a certain number of turns, forcing the player who breaks this truce to pay a fine for doing so. If a player plays the “Alien Artifact” card, thus destroying a plant and all ships in the planet’s hex, is that player penalized for initiating combat?
A: No. Detonating the “Alien Artifact” is not considered a “battle action” and can be exercised during the truce.

Q: Is there an E-mail address to which I can address my TI questions?
A: Yes -- but only if you have already re-read the rules at least twice and consulted all your gaming friends first. Questions may be directed to townmail@sprintmail.com and if they are good enough (and they should be), they will be added to this FAQ.

Errata and Card Clarifications

Below we have tried to clarify/correct certain cards that have been the object of some debate:

Card: 'Blitz'
Play this card after you have successfully invaded another players occupied planet. Rather than destroy any P.D.S. and Spacedock that might have been on the planet, you replace these counters with corresponding counters of you own race. Your attack was so fast and efficient that it allowed you to 'conquer' the enemy P.D.S. and Spacedock.

Card: Evolution
You may purchase a 'Skill' that will remain with you for the rest of the game. Skills are: Technology, Trade, Diplomacy, Warfare, Piracy, and Espionage. These skills can be used to play certain Action Cards.

Card: Fantastic Rhetoric
This card should be played immediately before you vote. The 10 votes do not change the voting order.

Card: Lucky Shot
You may only shoot down a Cruiser or a Dreadnought. Ignore the mention of 'Capital Ship'.

Card: Master of Trade
This card can only be played immediately after the final Trade Agreement is initiated.

Card: Elite Fighter
You are only allowed to buy one Elite Fighter for each of these Action Cards. You should play this card as you are buying a new Fighter and dedicate that it is Elite.

Card: Planned Investment
You are investing in the growth of another race. If the recipients total resource value grows (by invading another planet, purchasing Sarween Tools, selecting a Capital planet, etc.) you receive triple the amount invested. Remember the investment does not pay of until the end of the entire turn sequence. If the recipient's resource value stays the same, or declines, you loose your investment.

Card: Rally Of the People
These two Dreadnoughts do not count towards any production limit.

Card: Scientist Assassination
The player of the card decides which Tech level will be reduced. Players can be reduced below the original level, but cannot have negative Tech.

Card: Skilled Retreat
This only affects one engagement. If the Attacker has other battles elsewhere, he/she continues the Space Battle Segment with these.

Card: The Wind of Change
This card should be played before any round of Space Combat in which you participate. (Given that you have a Fighter to spare, that is!)

Card: Arms Reduction
Players are reduced to two Dreadnoughts, and may not build any additional Dreadnoughts. Players who had more than two Dreadnought at the time the Law passed, must destroy all in excess of two.

Card: Industry Leader
The Industry Leaders do not receive 10 credits when themselves buying an additional advance in the category in which they lead. To be considered the Industry Leader, a player must have the highest Tech Level before the Technology phase begins.

Card: Humane Labor
The resource value of a planet is ignored when determining the production limit, though effects that modify the production limit are still effective (e.g., General Tech Level One: Industrial Efficiency.)

Card: Quarantine
Note that no planet in a homesystem may be elected for Quarantine.

Errata: Capital Ships

If you are playing with the ‘Capital Ships’ rules option, please note the following changes:

A player is not allowed to place a ‘Damage Marker’ on a Capital Ship unless the number of Capital Ships is equal to or higher than the number of friendly Cruisers and Fighters in the engagement.

Furthermore, a player can not place a Damage Marker on a Capital Ship if there are two or more of his/her damaged Capital Ships already in the battle. Thus, if a player has two or more participating damaged Capital Ships, he/she can not place any further damage markers, but must destroy one of the already damaged Capital Ships.

Example:The N’orr is fighting Sol. There have already been two rounds of battle. The N’orr has two Fighters, one damaged Carrier, one damaged Dreadnought, and one undamaged Dreadnought. Sol has one Cruiser, one damaged Dreadnought, and two undamaged Carriers.

Since both of the players have as many, or more, Capital Ships than non-Capital ships, they may both allocate damage to their Capital Ships. Now Sol rolls for his forces and scores one hit. The N’orr has three choices: he can either kill a fighter, kill the damaged Dreadnought, or kill the damaged Carrier. (N’orr can not elect to have his undamaged Dreadnought take a hit because he has two damaged Capital Ships in this battle). The N’orr chooses to kill a Fighter. Now the N’orr rolls for his forces and scores one hit. Sol has three choices: kill the Cruiser, kill the damaged Dreadnought, or take a hit on one of the undamaged Carriers. (Since Sol only has one undamaged Capital Ship in the battle he may take another hit on a Capital Ship.) Sol take a hit on one of the undamaged Carriers. The battle rages on. (Next round, neither party can take a hit on an undamaged Capital Ship because they will both have two damaged Capital Ships.)

Errata: Mines

Note: A Dreadnought can lay only one Mine Counter per turn, and must forfeit any movement to do so. In ‘Empires End’ please utilize the following new Damage Chart for mines:
Roll		Effect
2 -10 		No effect
11 - 15 	1 Hit
16 - 18 	2 Hits
19 - 20 	3 Hits

The above adjustment make Mines a more formidable factor which justifies their presence in a shorter game like ‘Empire’s End’. All other rules pertaining to mines remain unchanged.

Empire's End

Twilight Imperium was developed as a dynamic empire-building game with simple game interfaces, and lots of player interaction. We have had many requests for a game variant that incorporated faster play, and a structure that would allow for more competitive play.

Upon realizing this, we set out to create an 'official' game variant that would incorporate the above and become our official tournament game. Empires End is meant a game-variant and not as a replacement of the current system. Empire's End makes for a faster TI game, and eliminates some aspects of the game in order to make a more competitive game scenario.

Empire's End Alterations:

To play Empire's End, comply with the following alterations to the core system.

  1. Remove 7 empty system board-pieces before shuffling and handing out the gameboard pieces.

  2. When creating the board, if able, you must place a system containing planets every second time that you place a board-piece.

  3. After the first round of creating the gameboard, the last player to place a system now becomes the first player to lay a system during the second round. Continue the second round in reverse order. The order alternates until the board is complete. Note this only applies to board creation, and not to any other portion of the game.

  4. The Empire's End Progression Chart (included with this expansion) has the following progression requirements:

    Progression	Requirements
    Warlord		(Starting)
    Republic	3 Planets Outside Home-System		
    Foundation	6 Tech Advances
    Empire		25 Resources
    Imperium Rex	9 Tech Advances and 25 Influence
    

  5. Empire's End uses both the Alpha and Beta Wormholes. (Please disregard the mention in the core rules that suggests otherwise.)

  6. Before the game, remove the following 'Action Cards':
    • Alien Artifact
    • Climb Mount Nitaka
    • Deep Space Hijack

  7. Before the game remove the following 'Political Cards':
    • Holder of Mecatol Rex
    • Long Term Truce
    • Convention of Nxill
    • The Book of Latvina

  8. To equalize racial abilities with the new progression dynamics and the shorter game, every race starts with the following units in addition to the standard units. (Standard setup: One Spacedock, one Ground Force unit on each planet in your homesystem.)

    N'orr:    2 Cruisers, 1 Ground Force, 1 Carrier
    Letnev:   1 Cruiser, 1 Ground Force, 1 Carrier 
    XXcha: 	  2 Ground Forces, 1 Carrier
    Jol-Nar:  1 Fighter, 1 Carrier
    Hacan: 	  2 Ground Forces, 2 Carriers
    Sol: 	  1 Cruiser, 1 Carrier
    Mentak:   1 Cruiser, 1 Fighter, 1 Carrier
    Yssaril:  2 Ground Forces, 1 Fighter, 1 Carrier
    

  9. Empire's End play utilizes the following optional rules:
    • Assassins (BORDERLANDS)
    • Capital Ships (BORDERLANDS)*Revised
    • Capital Planets (BORDERLANDS)
    • Mines (BORDERLANDS)*Revised
    • Distant Suns (DISTANT SUNS)
    • Winnaran Custodians (DISTANT SUNS)

    Empire's End is a faster game of Twilight Imperium. Empire's End is also the official tournament version of Twilight Imperium.

Scenarios and Rules Variants

Looking to add some spice to your Twilight Imperium game? Try using these scenarios and rules variants submitted by other TI players. Remember, if you have rules variants or scenarios to share with other TI players, just send them to us and we'll post them here.


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