Space Cats Peace Turtles

This week we're back in the shadows, we have your guide for the Yssaril Tribes! This tricky faction is full o' surprises. Don't turn your back on these guys! Also this episode is kinda grumpy and we apologize for that we were feelin' spicy.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

You asked and we're here to provide! For months Dane has been leaving a trail of bread crumbs. And recently that trail led to some substantial components! The Galactic Council has asked us to talk about what seems to be brewing in Dane's Workshop. Here's the thing...it's not actually very much so get ready for us to make a lot out of very little....

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

Hunter's out on tour this week which means Matt needed a new friend! Good for him he works with some pretty cool folks, including Nick Brachmann! Nick is a Senior Developer at Leder Games and is responsible for the upcoming Ahoy: New Horizons expansion. It more than doubles what is possible in Ahoy and Matt has been playing a lot of it recently. Let's talk game development, creativity, and fostering strategic depth! Also MAPS.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

It's a Muaat Guide! Embers of Muaat is one of those factions that some people in the community insist is "actually really good." I haven't been convinced, but they do have tools that can FEEL good if everything else went right. What does it take to get this faction from their bad start and to a game that feels good?

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

More Arcs! And this time, we've got Hunter around. He's been thinking about the Overseer for months now and is ready to get it all off of his chest. Meanwhile, EJ and Matt are back, this time with the Upstart and Rebel. It's a mix of Leaders that all seem to want to strike very early in different ways which honestly made it incredibly difficult to play them against each other so many times! Some games of Arcs are all about chapter 5 and it turns our some games the whole game gets played in the first two chapters and the rest of the time you're just living with your mistakes...

Please go to Hunter's comedy shows and Space Cats Live!

https://linktr.ee/HunterDonaldson

Music provided by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

Here begins a series of SCPT episodes that will absolutely get to the deep dark depths of strategy you've been waiting for. The show really begins here, everything else has just been a precursor. He who controls the direct hit, controls the universe! 

Please go to Hunter's comedy shows and Space Cats Live!

https://linktr.ee/HunterDonaldson

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

Sit your butts down and get ready to be schooled in the classroom by your god-tier Winnu player: THE MATT MARTENS. Jk Winnu is bad and we'll cover in depth the why and the how. There is a lot of useful information here for those of you that feel the determination to pilot them regardless of their ineptitude. It's one of our shorter super guides but it also makes a strong case so I hope you enjoy it!

Hunter standup and Space Cats Live shows: https://linktr.ee/HunterDonaldson

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

We've got one more episode about the big Championship match we had back on May 4th. When the Finals finish, everyone involved is always so exhausted that it's impossible to squeeze in any post-game report or interview. So instead, we decided to wait a week and take a full hour to hang out with this year's winner! See, good things come to those who wait.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

In this episode we talk about the Finals of the SCPT 2024 Twillight Imperium tournament. THERE ARE SPOILERS. So don't listen if you don't want the outcome of the tournament spoiled. We also talk generally about how the tournament went and what we see as the future of our events. It's a bit of a beach episode, but one that could have future consequences.

Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

THE FINALS ARE ON MAY 4th, Saturday starting at 15:00 UTC (10AM Central).

Come watch at https://www.twitch.tv/spacecatspeaceturtles

As is our yearly tradition we bring you interviews from Matt and Hunter with all six of your finalists. Special thanks to them and everyone who has supported our patreon and the tournament over the years, we really couldn't do it without you!

Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

It is finally time to dig in deeper to Arcs! The base game adds asymmetry to each player via the Leaders, and it's more asymmetry than many of us realized. Our excitement just wasn't enough; we had to go and recruit Shut Up and Sit Down's Tom Brewster to join us in presenting three Leaders and offering up what strategic insights we could muster. We started with three Leaders available in the Leaders and Lore expansion, the Agitator, the Quartermaster, and the Noble. Why did we start with expansion leaders over the ones available in the base game? Hey, quit asking so many questions! We got a fun special guest and you're embarrassing us in front of him!

Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

This week we're back to our classic formula and doing a deep dive on one of our favorite aggressive factions: THE L1Z1X. This one has a fun energy and we really go to town on these guys, I wish we had more positives to say but I think spiritually L1 is too cool to be the best so let's just enjoy them for what they do best. Watch the Semi-Finals this weekend! Game 4 and 5 will be on Saturday and Sunday starting at 10AM central US time.

https://www.twitch.tv/spacecatspeaceturtles

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

This month's Galactic Council Poll episode is coming to your a week early! We needed the time to prepare for new episodes. We also talk a lot about the upcoming TOURNAMENT 6 SEMI-FINALS. This episode contains the schedule for those games in the rundown so check that out. See you at the first 3 semis games this weekend at https://www.twitch.tv/spacecatspeaceturtles

SE7EN's new track to commemorate playing in the prelims (strong language):

https://soundcloud.com/user-293112643/ti-dis-2?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

This episode is for the competitive scene as the boys talk about how they feel about the soon to be finished prelims round of this year's tournament.  How has the process been? Are there things we would like to improve? When do the semis start? All these questions will be answered somehow!

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

Uh oh, it looks like we've saved a lot of the "bad" factions for last which means all of these Super guides are about to get a lot more FUN. Mentak, the most autocorrected faction, is definitively COOL and NEAT, but can struggle to score points... Let us examine why!

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

kRuthless guide to the mentak:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1--oDRBYUV61y-f3b7HU-TSC-riEzesQPIYhfcxJG5bY/edit?usp=sharing

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

Beach episode time! This week we've taken the Galactic Council poll results and really ran with it. Instead of just hearing about what games Matt and Hunter are looking forward to we've basically asked everyone we know to submit their games. Get your pen and paper out because you about to get a big ol' list of interesting suggestions from people with excellent taste, also EJ is in there.

Special thanks to Cole, Nick, Brooke, Ted, and Alita of Leder Games.

Normal Regular thanks to EJ Sanders of the Walmart Corporation.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

This week, we're tackling a much requested topic. 8 Player Games! Matt and Hunter have both done some research and are reporting on strategic differences they found in their limited experience. Lot's of talk is devoted to why we don't prefer the player count so prepare yourself.

We've also got an excellent discussion with Tactic Blue on the upcoming Discordant Stars Twilight Imperium Homebrew Expansion that you'll definitely want to hear about.

At the end of the episode we have some surprise guests you'll definitely want to hear from. 

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

More Arcs! We're having a lovely time learning this new game and before we start diving into guides for different Leaders and eventually getting into the Campaign expansion (where we'll spend most of our time), we needed one more episode covering the basics. We've talked about the limited action economy of the game and alluded to the fact that you are able to improve upon it, but it's time to discuss that in depth! Resources and the Court Deck are your key to improving your action set and taking better control of the game, so let's learn about them!

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

Let's do another Faction Strategy Guide! Universities of Jol-Nar are discussed a lot. They've been around since the very beginning, and in every edition of the game they've been a powerful faction. They have a -1 to combat and that just doesn't seem to hold them back! So what makes them good and how can we best harness their power?

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

Let's travel back in time to the year 2000! FFG was still a young company and Christian T. Petersen decided to take another stab at the design of our favorite game. At times, Second Edition almost feels like the version lost to time. It's quite simple in it's approach to the game and it chooses to add very little over the course of it's life. It's mostly just a refinement of the rules of First Edition, but let's take a closer look to see what that means.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

We've both been in the process of trying to find new homes in Minnesota, which means it's time for a beach episode where we dip into our mailbag! Our patrons submitted these questions for our Agenda Phase segments, but this is a collection of, generally, more off topic questions than usual. That just means it's a good time to hang out with your friends Matt and Hunter. And no criticism!

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

More Arcs! It's getting incredibly fun starting to dig into the meat of this game. You can refer back to episode 333 to hear our Learn to Learn guide about the game, but now we're going to start getting more specific! We wanted to kick things off with a component episode where we cover the Actions in the game as well as the Ambitions you'll be using to score points and win. There's a lot to chew on and we're really only at the surface, so get ready for a lot of Arcs episodes to come.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

Despite the chaos in both our lives, Matt's ready with another Super Faction Guide! Due to the wonders of Async, Matt's found a lot more opportunity to work on guides and this is one that definitely benefited from that since he got to play big meaty games with Clan of Saar legends TheDeftPiper and Imsen. This is a powerful faction whose strategy is more about pumping the breaks a bit so you aren't the premiere target at the table. How can you preserve peace when you show up to the party with your knife collection?

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

The Prelims are already a couple of weeks underway and we're learning a LOT. This definitely feels like a new, distinct year for the tournament given the outcome of the majority of these games. So what does that mean for folks testing their mettle in the prelims or for people wanting to adapt to the newest waves in the meta? Let's take a closer look at what makes the Prelims of our tournament unique and what players can do to try and find success.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

The topic of "winmaking" is constantly evolving and changing. Every year we see tournament play handle shenanigans at the end of the game differently and it's nice to check in from time to time and evaluate the community. Today, we have two very special guests to help us in that endeavor! The designer of Twilight Imperium 4th Edition, Dane Beltrami, and rules guru and creator of Miltydraft, Milty!

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

New Year, New Us, New Job, New Game, New Lease on Life. This is the beginning of hopefully a long series of episode covering Arcs by Leder Games! They made a game so enticing to us that Matt went and got a job with them. Today, we're just starting out by offering up advice to those interested in checking out the game and how to go into it with the right mindset. What kind of game does Arcs feel like to play? What is the process of getting better? What are the pitfalls in your way? Explore with us!

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

New year and there are some big plans and changes in the works. Today we'll do our best to reveal and talk about what we can but also expect more updates in the future. 2024 is going to be a very cool year for Space Cats Peace Turtles and we hope you'll all be along for the ride.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

This episode is a particularly stupid energy coming right off the back of our Holiday Spectacular stream that featured hot "wings" and cool kids. Thanks for a wonderful year everyone, we love each of you individually.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

It's that time of year again! These Twilight Imperium factions have been out here all year running amok and making us look stupid because last year we did a really good faction ranking but you all played wrong. So we've adjusted some numbers and let you all contribute as little as we could possibly allow and now we have the true Definitive Ranking of all faction in the game. This time we mean it!

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

Hunter has been playing in this year's Patreon Tournament Qualifiers since October. He's had about a half dozen games and he's finally made it through to the Prelims! It's good timing, because we always had this week's episode slated as his chance to talk about his experience, whether he'd made it or not! So what is it like to play in your own tournament? Do people treat you differently? Probably not, right?

For TI tutorials in Italian, find Il Cap Games, mentioned in the show, at https://youtu.be/osCe7-lbblU?si=JymbjbWaUMDF0w89

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

Who needs this? Well hopefully, you're someone relatively new to Twilight Imperium and a friend of yours has suggested you play Federation of Sol and you're looking to jumpstart your winrate. If so, welcome. You've made an excellent choice of faction because Sol is really good and we're here to explain why. Hopefully, you come out of this with ways to consistently do well! Also we love you.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

A new series of Twilight Imperium books is right around the corner! Empire Falling, the first of the new trilogy by Robbie MacNiven releases December 5th and we were lucky enough to get Robbie on to discuss writing for established universes, historical fiction, and which TI faction is the most Scottish!

Interview starts at 22:30

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

Matt's back in action! His last guide was for a fast faction that doesn't always have a way to close out games. This time, to shake things up, he's going with a fast faction that doesn't always have a way to close out games! It's the Ghosts of Creuss and actually they're maybe a little bit better than Cabal but that's just because you get more blue tech, probably...

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

We're about halfway through this years Qualifiers in the tournament and it seemed high time we celebrate the people that make the tournament a pleasurable viewing experience! Over the years, more and more amazing folks have taken on the task of streaming games of Twilight Imperium and it takes such an immense amount of effort that there's honestly not enough praise we could heap upon them. So for now, here are their delightful voices to brighten your day...

20:13 BigAlCupaChino (https://www.twitch.tv/bigalcupachino)

33:12 Rand (https://www.twitch.tv/tijunkies)

49:36 clawforce (https://www.twitch.tv/clawforce)

1:03:58 EJ (https://twitch.tv/uvula9000)

1:16:54 Duke LukeM (https://www.twitch.tv/dukelukem_ti)

1:26:30 Elspeth (https://www.twitch.tv/jeolircam)

1:35:34 Karnal (https://www.twitch.tv/karnal313)

1:57:29 Jasper (https://www.twitch.tv/jasperti4)

2:07:41 Root (https://www.twitch.tv/root711)

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

You are not prepared for this one. We have 82 system tiles in Twilight Imperium. In theory, the visuals matter quite a lot for this discussion or would at least make this go a lot faster...but then again why should it be easy? What follows is a 2 hour decent into madness to try and sort all of the system tiles into tiers. What do those tiers signify? Who knows? Is there any consistency to the sorting? Who cares? You asked for this...

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

We're back on that old grind. We've done "Super Guides" as our way of revisiting base game factions post-PoK, but up until this point it has also been a mark of a faction that received new components via a Codex. But from here on out, it's all faction untouched since the introduction of PoK. That doesn't mean there's nothing to say, of course! And one of the bigger factions to tackle when it comes to strange exceptions to rules and weird ways to get lost is the Nekro Virus. You could compare this faction to an old taped together hunk of junk if it wasn't so good at punching you in the face and winning games. Let's break down why (and just ignore those tournament statistics, okay?)

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

The Homebrewer's Guild has been hard at work on a big project. The work has been largely philosophical up until this point and it was finally time to lay track down before we design this train. So today, we'd like to catch you all up to speed on the project known as Twilight Imperium Zero Edition. This is intended to be our fun modification to Twilight Imperium and act as a stripped down, simpler version of Twilight Imperium. Exactly what form that takes will be a longer process, but for now we can talk about some of the things we want to see.

In addition to talking design goals, we decide to make a Prophecy of Kings compliant faction design for the Lazax Empire so that we have something to work backwards from once we decide to design them as a faction in Zero Edition.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

It's a crossover episode! Our video game podcast, Old Gamer's Almanac, is doing a big Starcraft blowout this month and we wanted to get this show in on the fun. What better way than attempting an exhaustive strategy overview of one of the game's factions! 

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Old Gamer's Almanac music by nightcorey. https://soundcloud.com/nightcorey

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

We spent a week hanging out with the fine folks over at Leder Games and learned more about their ongoing projects while we were there. Nick Brachmann joined us to walk through everything he's planning to add to Ahoy in its upcoming expansions and Cole Wehrle followed up with us to show us more of Arcs' development.

11:05 - The Ahoy additions add new complexity and richness to the strategy, which is something we've really been craving for that game.

44:35 - As for Arcs, we focus the conversation on the more TI-adjacent mechanics like negotiation heavy Summits, Edicts, and Events as well as talk about the thematic Flagships.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

We've been teasing it for WEEKS and it's finally here. After a huge hiatus, we're pleased to finally present another This Imperium Life, our show where we share YOUR stories of the best moments of Twilight Imperium

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

It's the weekend before the tournament starts and in the madness we decided to answer all of your burning questions! That's right, after over 6 years, we're finally doing a mailbag episode. We cover a lot of TI topics, but also focus on tournament questions for a good amount of time.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

Tournament 6 looms before us and in the build up to it we wanted to take a look back. We sat down with the 5 previous winners of the Patreon Tournament and got their take on the changes to the Qualifiers as well as any advice they could offer to people hoping to succeed in the tournament. You could basically ignore all of the advice from all other episodes of this show because these are the 5 people who have the proven track record!

Jonno's Twilight Imperium Mastery Institute: https://www.jtimi.eu/

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

The Space Cats are a domineering force when it comes to Twilight Imperium. They're the closest thing the game has to a mascot and when they're in game a lot of things seem to revolve around them. They've also often been accused of dramatically slowing the game down. Today we evaluate what it means to sit down at a table where the Hacan are playing, but not BY YOU. How can you utilize their wares to improve your own position? Are there things you need to do to slow them down? Is Quantum Datahub Node a death sentence for the table?!

1:05:14 - Homebrewer's Guild: Barony of Letnev Heroes!

1:21:02 - The Agenda Phase: ncurry asks “In a vacuum, would you rather have Naalu's 0 token or draw Obsidian?  If you chose the 0, what about it versus a custodian point?  If you instead chose Obsidian, what about the 0 versus Classified Document Leaks? I guess more generally, it comes down to do you value locking down R5 speaker order or the potential for an extra point more?”

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

We did an episode about the Async Twilight Imperium discord (https://discord.gg/vY3nBkegkn) a while ago, but it's had a slew of major developments over recent months and it was well worth revisiting. Not to mention we wanted to have a conversation about our first Tournament Champion, The 9 of Spades, and it's his newest fascination. So it seemed best to wrap it all up in one episode together! 9 of Spades also finds himself trapped in the Dadlands with Matt and playing TI asynchronously has been a welcome return to everyone's favorite board game!

45:37 - Homebrew Review: Let's Talk Twilight Imperium Zero Edition

50:53 - The Agenda Phase: Craiken asks “Can you tell us more about the TI dream video? Has there been any progress on that front?”

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

Also....Sanctuary by Utada Hikaru...

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

We JUST finished Tournament 5 but TOO BAD, it's time to talk about Tournament 6. We've got details on the structure and process on how to play in the 2024 tournament that starts in October of 2023. Once our website is up again we'll have the details typed out for you to pass around to your friends and hopefully I'll remember to come back and change this episode description when that link is available. Until then, listen to this to learn how radically different the tournament will be from years prior!

After that, we give some details on the episodes to expect for the last few months of 2023.

1:16:12 - The Agenda Phase: Brassbird Asks: “I've been listening for a long time and I love a lot of your old content. Which old school SCPT episodes are your favorite? Which ones do you think are deserving of a reboot or revisit?”

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

Early this year, we set out on a goal, (well a few goals really, but one of them was:) to learn GreaterThanGames' Spirit Island and hopefully help you learn it as well. We tackled the 8 spirits provided in the base game and have learned a lot along the way. It was the first time for this show to try and tackle a cooperative game, so today we're going to kind of rate and reflect on how we did and what it means to cover a game like this! Also there's a very extended edition of the Homebrew Review where we discuss many iterations of Yin's Impulse Core tech.

For more Spirit Island content check out:

Kindred Spirits Podcast: On Spotify or plenty of other podcast platforms!

Kalen Noreth: https://www.youtube.com/@kalennoreth

1:17:29 - Homebrew Review: Impulse Core Homebrew Royale

Music provided by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

We went to GenCon, had a live show, then checked out what our friends over at Leder Games have been working on. Sam from Lord of the Board (https://www.youtube.com/@LordoftheBoard) joined us to demo a base game session of Arcs and chat with Cole as well as a demo of and chat about the "pre-alpha" build of Patrick Leder's "working title Blok." It was a splendid time with wonderful people and we hope you love our little conversations.

7:38 - Arcs with Cole Wehrle

36:40 - Blok with Patrick Leder

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

This episode was recorded LIVE at the Helium Comedy Club in Indianapolis, IN during the week of GenCon 2023! If you want to hear all of the stand-up, you'll have to come in person yourself someday, but this recording includes Old Gamer's Almanac playthrough of an old Sonic the Hedgehog Choose Your Own Adventure book as well as the SCPT Live show.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

The Galactic Council went chaotic evil this week and wanted us to provide you with the sequel to everyone's favorite episode: TI The Movie. This time we have to design a mini-series set in the Twilight Imperium universe, meant to be released on HBO circa 2010. We totally took the prompt really seriously and this is a very earnest attempt at that. There's no funny business, there's no references to the Watchmen, and there are absolutely no Muppets.

Agenda Phase: RockPaperLizard asks “Would you be interested as content creators in recording games specifically oriented for ‘Listenability.’”

To check out the Community Plays TI Discord: https://discord.gg/FXWFN6g5Q

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

We've done it! After today, all of the Prophecy of Kings factions will have been revisited on this show as part of our Super Guide series! Don't talk to me about Council Keleres! We finish up with the Nomad, which is the first faction we ever learned about on this show and we've come a long way since then. Nomad has had some high highs, but they feel like they're slowing down a bit in their performance. What made them so good before and why have we seen that change over time?

Come see us perform live during GenCon at the Helium Comedy Club on August 3 at 8:00 PM! https://indianapolis.heliumcomedy.com/shows/218650

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

It's our last venture into the base game Spirits for Spirit Island! And we didn't do it on purpose, but we're each going out of spirits that didn't click with us quite as much, but that didn't stop them from being engaging to learn!

Also we've got a lengthy Homebrew Review and Agenda Phase as well as a big important announcement at the end regarding our upcoming Weird Bear Exhibition "Tournament."

0:00 - Lightning's Swift Strike

56:14 - Shadows Flicker Like Flames

1:32:49 - Homebrew Review: William's Willard's Mentak Coalition Abilities

1:40:36 - Agenda Phase: DragoThaxton asks “Describe your dream TI4 IRL gameday"

Music provided by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

Tickets to our August 3rd show in Indianapolis: https://indianapolis.heliumcomedy.com/shows/218650

We're nearing the end of our super POK faction guides and today we get to tackle the first faction we ever dug deep into in POK, the Titans of Ul. They're a powerful faction that has always performed very well in our tournaments, but this year had a bit of a decline. (into the middle of the pack, so don't freak out) What makes this faction so strong and how can you make the most of their toolkit?

1:25:36 - Agenda Phase: OfficialDaveAcct asks “You mentioned in your Empyrean episode that you thought that faction was a great faction for a new player. What other factions would you recommend for someone's first time playing Twilight Imperium and why?”

1:33:57 - Homebrew Review: Simple's Vuil'Raight Idol Action Card

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

It's been a whole year and now it's time for us to prepare for the upcoming SCPT Patreon Tournament Finals! We've got interviews from all of the wonderful players and I'm so excited for you to hear them. Special thanks to JadiimJedi, Arratain, Sir Craigsworth, dzhiriki, Aljce, and Deshuga.

*SOME EXPLICIT LANGUAGE*

Are you going to Gen-Con this year? Maybe you should come see our live show at the Helium in Indianapolis:

https://indianapolis.heliumcomedy.com/shows/218650

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

The galactic council have bestowed us with a wonderful treat. The semis of Tournament 5 have concluded and before we get to the Finals, we are taking a look back at tournaments gone by. After some fun honorable mentions, we present to you Matt and Hunter's Top 10 Tournament Moments!

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

The Moments

1. Duke ascends to valhalla (https://youtu.be/kCIjhyynpPE?t=3294)
2. Craiken’s participation in the tournament (https://youtu.be/oGrbxKIwFxU)
3. Jeol-Ir Cam (Tournament 3) (https://youtu.be/QQcOWT8EFCQ?t=2179)
4. The Meta has 4 home systems (https://youtu.be/UBs_BHKIJ3E)
5. Planet Erf uses Dice Magic (https://clips.twitch.tv/InventiveSaltyEggplantRedCoat-4lrGrE3Xw5v7aOvm)
6. Jasper sabos 3 flank speeds (https://youtu.be/GZIPRaxqPbs?t=2231)
7. Cody loses due to holding to his deal (https://www.twitch.tv/spacecatspeaceturtles/clip/SmoggyBigGooseYouWHY-5VmlHhDoWVr1kwLU?filter=clips&range=all&sort=time)
8. Ixthian destroys squidtm’s entire game worst tournament ixthian (https://clips.twitch.tv/KnottyColorfulRadishBCWarrior-oCsxEodwTrqZ8wT-)
9. The players elect a winner (Qualifier 18 Tournament 5)
10. Clown fiesta with Spanish Streamers (https://youtu.be/wzJEHyqpO1o)

Honorable Mentions

1. Teddy can’t score his secrets and Visioness has a perfect opening (https://youtu.be/K9z4v6sSMIA)
2. “The Plan” (https://www.twitch.tv/spacecatspeaceturtles/clip/FriendlyWimpySmoothieKeyboardCat-TE3JbLN0eyhbpJrX?filter=clips&range=all&sort=time)
3. “Boot the dude”
4. Rando retakes his HS in a stacked prelims game (https://youtu.be/GGiQvx8bjEA)

And now the thrilling conclusion to the tale of Gasha, Rick, Wrexx, Borin, and Ser. It's time for our heroes to sort out a bit of a bug situation, learn the secrets of mysterious artifacts, and handle a bit of a ghost issue. 

We've really loved making these and it's been especially rewarding to hear everyone respond so positively to them. We absolutely hope to make more in the future!

To join other fans looking to roleplay in the Twilight Imperium universe using this system, check out the RPG Cats Tabletop Turtles Discord! (https://discord.gg/CxEHsBxWNP)

Music by Michael Keane. Find most at the Twilight Symphonium: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSGXR2L8DPl_sHV_8m-R2CQ

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

We're back with more Spirit Island content! This week, we were tired of being pushed around, so we're talking about two spirits that do a lot of pushing back, the fear based Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares and the nuclear missile that is River Surges in Sunlight. After that, it's some Agenda Phase and the finale of the Tournament Prelims Recaps!

0:00 - Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares

50:47 - River Surges in Sunlight

1:27:39 - The Agenda Phase: Will asks: “What is your favorite, and least favorite, codex change?”

1:41:06 - Tournament Recaps: Games 33, 34, 35, & 36!

Music provided by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

We've been having TOO MUCH FUN over here at SCPT the last few weeks, so it's time for some more chunky content. Today is a guide to the Vuil'raith Cabal that it feels like we've been working on for two years. Have we finally unlocked the secret to this faction, or has Matt mostly just learned to stop sweating the small stuff? Or is he capable of learning to stop sweating...

0:00 - Cabal Guide

1:46:26 - Homebrew Review: Wekker’s “Anomalous Anomalies Assortment”

1:53:10 - Agenda Phase: My Cabbages! asks "When you are dealt a hard to achieve secret objective do you start working on it right away or ignore it and plan to draw another later?"

2:06:45 - Prelims Report: Games 15, 29, 30, 31, & 32.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

Our story continues as Borin, Ser, Gasha, Rick, and Wrexx must consult with a Naalu diplomat, investigate a violent rebellious group, and earn the chance to speak with a Sardakk N'orr general. They're far from the most qualified but they might be the luckiest group the Council Keleres could send to handle this galactic crisis.

Music by Michael Keane. Find most at the Twilight Symphonium: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSGXR2L8DPl_sHV_8m-R2CQ

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

Thank you to everyone who has played Twilight Imperium. Thank you to everyone who has helped foster this magnificent community. Thank you to everyone who has listened to our show. Thank you to everyone we've played with. You all mean the world to us.

Special Thanks to this episode's contributors:

Dane Beltrami, Corey Konieczka, Chris Hosch, Sam Gregor-Stewart, Shea Parker, Ruel Gaviola, Tom Brewster, Rand and Henry from TI Junkies, Calvin Wong Tze Loon, Cole Wehrle, and Patrick Leder.

0:00 - Twilight Imperium Is

10:52 - Memories

22:39 - Stories

30:34 - Factions

37:45 - Nourishment

39:59 - How to Play

45:17 - Contribution

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by

Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

Jesse Gallagher. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD5hjK3sDzk2W-jw9roHuVw

Unicorn Heads. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbDplVvtIq05AdyYKjVSUIw

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

We are excited to present part one of our three part series playing Embers of the Imperium, the Twilight Imperium RPG. This is available from Edge Studios as a sourcebook to their Genesys RPG system. The de facto lore goddess Absol takes Hunter, Matt, Sun Sanders, and Kate Thompson on a journey into Lisis space to settle a dispute between the local government, the Naalu Collective, and the Sardakk N'Orr. The Council Keleres is trying to keep tensions amongst its governments low, but unfortunately they won't be able to send their best to solve this deeply complicated crisis.

Music by Michael Keane. Find most at the Twilight Symphonium: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSGXR2L8DPl_sHV_8m-R2CQ

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

Our Super Faction Guide schedule has been shaken up a bit and a part of that is because the Empyrean one was just so dang easy to right we were able to get it out ahead of schedule. Hunter loves these ding dang bat-folk and honestly not a WHOLE LOT has changed since our Introduction to the faction. We have some things we feel you can rely on less, but mostly have fun getting rich and not dying easy!

0:00 - Empyrean Overview

54:05 - Empyrean Tech, Trade, etc.

1:35:40 - Homebrew Review: Relic Stan’s “Gyroscopic Gamma Cannon” faction

1:41:13 - Agenda Phase: Phi Smith asks “If you had to run a tournament for literally any boardgame other than Root or TI, what game would it be?”

1:52:26 - Prelims Report: Games 25, 26, 27, 28, & 29.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

We've been doing our part as historical record keepers recently by looking back and previous editions of Twilight Imperium and noting how the game has changed over time. Today, we'd like to dig deep with you and walk through 1st Edition's life-cycle. What are the Twilight Imperium "fundamentals" and what has been tossed out over the decades?

For tickets to our GenCon Live Show, visit https://indianapolis.heliumcomedy.com/shows/218650

0:00 - The History of Twilight Imperium 1st Edition

1:52:40 - Homebrew Review: AddictUnraveled’s Conquest and Galactic Progression Chart

2:00:50 - Agenda Phase: Moutstainz asks “How do you explain this game to someone who has never played before?”

2:10:58 - Prelims Report: Games 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, $ 24.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

The Galactic Council gave us permission to goof around this week and we couldn't be happier. We get to combine our two loves: Root and Twilight Imperium. Our task? To take a Root faction and distill it's essence into a crystal then smash that crystal against a treasure chest, open the treasure chest, and pull out a Twilight Imperium faction. We wanted to do this really earnestly, okay? But then really wild, funny ideas were too good to pass up...

0:00 Deciding Which Faction

30:04 - Translating the Faction

2:21:03 - Agenda Phase: Imsen asks: “Why should I swap supports with you guys?”

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

We're back with more Spirit Island! It's exciting to continue exploring this game and this week we're both tackling potentially more complex factions. But stick around after for plenty of TI talk, including another round of Prelims Reports! I did it three weeks in a row everybody! A new record!

0:00 - Errata for 290 (Spirit Guides - Vital Strength of Earth and Thunderspeaker)

13:49 - Ocean's Hungry Grasp

1:13:21 - Spread of Rampant Greent

1:53:58 - Homebrew Review: BradleySigma’s Test Site 7 planet: New planet & tile. It’s a unit upgrade technology speciality; you can exhaust the planet when researching a unit upgrade technology to ignore one prerequisite of any color.

1:57:39 - Agenda Phase: LuckyLizzard asks: Please on the spot create a TI "knock knock" joke.
 HG Kool-Aid asks: What do you love about TI the most? What's the most enjoyable part of the game for you?

2:07:39 - Prelims Recap: Games 11, 12, 13, 16

Music provided by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

This week we got distracted and decided to run with it. We couldn't stop thinking about how we haven't seen a Codex yet this year and we just wanted to sit and dream up what sort of potential there could be to more Twilight Imperium content. We've done wishlists before, but this is a bit more off the cuff. Also we don't necessarily agree on most points, so come join us for a back and forth discussion about what we'd like to see added to TI!

0:00 - Dreaming

1:47:36 - Homebrew Review: Wekker's Bioplasmosis

1:52:46 - The Agenda Phase: Wonderflonium asks “I would like to hear more about Hunter's comedy work: favorite venue, stories from the road, hecklers, etc. If there needs to be a TI tie-in, which faction would make the best comedy audience?”

2:01:50 - Prelims Report Games 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, & 10.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

Since PoK, we've had two player counts that have gone relatively unexplored by this show. We change 50% of that today! We're talking about some of our recent 7 player games and our takeaways about the differences between 6 and 7 player (with some healthy chat about 5 player games sprinkled in). Also, there is a whole segment about Magi's Madness, the 7 player asymmetric map released in Codex 2 (https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/ff/fe/fffe5e9d-33fb-4149-a3a2-cd6dfadb4de3/ti_codex_ii_rules_web.pdf)

0:00 - 7 Player Games

43:23 - Magi's Madness

1:03:07 - Homebrew Review: William Willard’s “The Big Naaz Cowboy”

1:07:00 - Agenda Phase: Walter asks “Will you consider going back to premade (non-Milty) maps in future tournaments?”

1:26:04 - Tournament Recap: Prelims Games 1, 2, 3, & 4.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

This was a live recording of the Space Cats Peace Turtles Portland Hootenanny Liveshow at Helium Comedy Club on March 22, including opening act Old Gamer's Almanac!

Featuring: E.J. Sanders, Jamie Carbone, Steven Wilber, Katie Nguyen, Aaron Harleman, and Sun Sanders!

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

We're in full prep and travel mode for our Portland live show and Hootenanny, but we have a special treat for you! We've been a part of a couple of "Fog of War" games recently and decided to bring resident Fog of War Weird Bear Correspondent Brassbird in to help us make sense of this very odd game mode. It's an adventurous, cutthroat, thematic way to play and there are a number of ways to try it out!

Also, Matt and Absol read the first short story from The Stars Beyond, A Ghost of a Chance and are here with reactions and analysis. It's the first extended universe story we've read that wasn't written by Tim Pratt, so it's time to see how other author's handle our beloved franchise.

00:00 Fog of War with Brassbird

52:05 A Ghost of a Chance with Absol

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

NEW GAME NEW THEME. We've dabbled in Spirit Island as a show so far, but it's time to fully take the plunge. We've been practicing as some specific factions and we now come to you as two novices hoping to help you get started with two of the base game factions Vital Strength of the Earth and Thunderspeaker. Some of you definitely know more of us, but this episode is primarily geared to the people that don't yet! But also, this is the kind of episode where you get to jump over on the discord and roast us over the coals for all the things you think you know better!

0:00 - Vital Strength of the Earth

1:02:17 - Thunderspeaker

1:55:56 - Twilight Imperium Homebrew Review - BradleySigma's "Resonance Cascade" agenda

1:59:06 - The Agenda Phase: Nick asks: “What do you look for in a slice when Milty Draft?”

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

It's time to get back to trusty ol' faithful. Argent Flight just have a lot of things that make sense and go well together. Despite that, they've actually had a bit of a rocky history in competitive play. However, that rockiness is generally in relation to wins, but not necessarily total points scored. That's right, it's time to talk about how to reliably not stall out at 9 points as one of the more defensive factions in the game.

0:00 Argent Flight Overview

39:32 Problems and Strengths

46:56 Technology

1:02:35 Trading

1:14:26 Early Game

1:30:28 Mid and Late Game

1:57:45 Homebrew Review - Absol's Neural Motivator

1:59:50 The Agenda Phase - Eagan asks: “is fighting to be elected for Search Warrant worth it? Are there some factions that are better with it/need it more than others?”

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

The Galactic Council finally got to vote on an episode again and they've chosen a very very odd one. Hunter and Matt are not ethicists or philosophers and yet we are tasked with ranking the 25 TI factions on the basis of their morality. Some of this will be based on their established lore, but some of it will be based on mechanical and strategic implications. Anyways, this is really stupid and please take none of it even remotely seriously.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

Hey look! It's a really good faction. That doesn't mean we can't sit around for 2 hours and talk about the "best" ways to win games as the Naaz-Rokha Alliance. Sometimes it's fun to crush your opponents with friendship and kindness, okay? Open your heart up to kissing that little goblin on your back.

0:00 - Component Overview

40:29 - Strengths and Technology

1:16:41 - Economics

1:32:30 Round 1 Strategy Cards

1:46:10 - Mid and Late Game

1:59:15 - Homebrew Review - Baldrick:  An unnamed Green tech. ACTION: Exhaust this card to discard 1 AC or 1 SO. Then, draw a new card of the same type.

2:00:54 - Agenda Phase - Furniture Damage: "Which factions do you think have the strongest flavor? And do their in-game mechanics reflect that strong flavor?"

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

One project we wanted to tackle this year on the show was doing more to explore the history of this game we know and love. So to start that journey, we wanted to learn to properly play Twilight Imperium: First Edition from way back in 1997. It's the game that launched this franchise as well as Fantasy Flight Games as a company and we were curious how many elements are central parts of the TI DNA. Turns out...it's pretty good! Go figure!

1:06:07 Homebrew Review - Absol's Relics

1:13:12 Agenda Phase: Lucreitiel "How much of the meta do you think is "truly" best practice for the game, vs how much is simply evolved against only what is "considered" current best practice? Do you think if we could magically totally reset everyone's knowledge of TI strategy that we'd eventually arrive at the same meta, or would different strategies and then counters become dominant?"

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

Listen, y'all. I don't know what to tell you. Sometimes you've got questions and we've got answers. Sometimes we ask questions because we secretly have answers we think are clever. And sometimes Matt asks a question thinking he'll find an answer along the way and that answer never really turn up. The concept of "the midgame" is referred to in a lot of our commentary and faction guides, but it's hard to say what we specifically mean by that. So we THOUGHT it'd be good to try and define that and offer up some strategic advice for your Midgames. But it turns out asking the question was a bigger challenge than we planned for...

0:00 The Early and Late Game

34:04 The Midgame

1:09:54 Homebrew Review: wekker: Action card: Facsimile Fabrication

1:14:41 The Agenda Phase

ElBlasto
Do you think that there's a strategic advantage to being nice in TI (washing, letting score for little-no cost, etc)?

Merki
How could the game be changed to have a 6pm game complete in 4-5 hours? Losing the least amount of the TI experience.

BigAlCupachino
What pie do you buy yourself and what qualities do you look for?
What pie would you buy for the other if heading over to their place?

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

Prepare to KNEEL! It's been two years since we last approached the topic of Mahact, and so much about our understanding of Prophecy of Kings has changed. So it's time to set the record straight, especially as we've seen Mahact's win-rate skyrocket in the last year or so. What makes this faction so complicated and how can you best control the reins?

0:00 - Mahact Component Introduction

40:53 - Problems, Tech, and Economics

1:16:39 - Round 1 Strategy Cards

1:27:03 - Mid Game and Late Game

2:09:22 - Homebrew Review - TimeThief: Alternate Space Docks

2:14:17 - The Agenda Phase - Seras: "Given an unlimited budget, where would you hold an IRL tournament finals?"

Keep an eye out on this feed for an upcoming Tournament Recap bonus episode!

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

It's our first strategic foray into Spirit Island, but we're still rookies over here. But we've got a good grasp on how the game is played now and we'd like to relay our experience of learning the game to you. Hopefully we can provide some tips to getting started but mostly we want you to not be intimidated by the many many words that Spirit Island is going to throw at you. But stick around if Spirit Island isn't for you, because we have a prolonged TI topic about being kind to each other and a small handful of Tournament Recaps!

0:00 - Learn to Learn Spirit Island

1:13:08 - The Agenda Phase: Visioness - I want to hear about strategies to mend relationships when things get heated in a game.

1:35:18 - Tournament Recap: Qualifiers 7, 8, 10, 11, & 12.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

There's no codex or expansion or rules FAQ. Sometimes we just want to talk to our friend Dane and learn more about him and force him to be our friend. And we figured you all would want to be his friend to, so you get to listen in as we chat about his roots in board game designing, his love of Final Fantasy, and we also force him to answer a whole slew of strange TI design questions! It's a fun episode, y'all!

Dane's 5 Year Anniversary Portrait: https://twitter.com/FFGames/status/1603819802648248325?s=20&t=LNXTnyvA6_A2OW5ffv-RxQ

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

We've taught you how to learn this game and how to teach this game, but we've never taught you the proper way to set it up! So today is a treat for relatively new players or players looking to change up their faction drafting and map building as well as different tools to help enhance the Twilight Imperium experience. We've got tips, tricks, and herbal supplements to get you feeling 150%!!

0:00 - Faction Drafting and Map Building

45:57 - Online and In Person Toolshttps://milty.shenanigans.be/

1:21:05 - Homebrew Review: Garbozia Legendary Planet by Bradley Sigma

1:28:17 - The Agenda Phase: Wysper - If you could change one rule, what would it be?

1:33:33 - Tournament Recap: Qualifiers 5, 9, 11, 14, & 15

Links Mentioned in Episode

Map building - https://joepinion.github.io/ti4-map-lab/ and https://keeganw.github.io/ti4/

Miltydrafting - https://miltydraft.com/ and https://milty.shenanigans.be/

Color Picker - https://www.ti.vetinari.net/

Battle Calculator - https://ti4battle.com/

Extracomputer - https://extraboard.net/extracomputer

Homebrew Card Maker - http://ti4-card-images.appspot.com/static/card.html

Printable Hyperlanes - https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/161185/ti4-hyperlane-sector-5-players

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

It's a new year! Our custom 'round these parts is to use this time to take stock of how the last year of episode and Patron bonuses went and what we can do going forward. This year is very little change in how things operate on the Patreon, but some big changes coming your way for the show. And part of those changes was our desire to hash out the next slew of episodes with you in the room and then get your feedback on what the next few months of the show looks like! So take a listen and then hop on the discord and tell us what you want to hear more of!

1:41:25 - Tournament Recap: Qualifiers 1, 2, 3, 4, & 6

Come to our Portland Live Show March 22! https://portland.heliumcomedy.com/shows/200093

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

We played a game on Dec 27 2022. There were 7 of us. That game should be on Youtube. It was a good game! You should go watch it. This episode is what we recorded right after that game, when we were all quite tired. Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, we love you, see you in Tournament 5!

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

And you all thought we'd learned to listen to you. HA! Don't forget who steers this ship. There are only two opinions that matter and they are ours and they are absolute. You are just lucky enough that we grace you with our guidance and thoughts! Our yearly faction ranking is here and it has never been more correct than this...

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

December had two Galactic Council polls, the latter of which was for us to feature ANOTHER non-Twilight Imperium board game. They chose the space negotiation game Sidereal Confluence. It's a wild, non-violent game about slinging cubes and makin' deals as fast as you can before there's no deals left to make. But the bigger question is how would SCPT cover a game with so much math and interpersonal conflict? We're good at neither!

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

The first of your two December Galactic Council episodes is another opportunity for us to make a list of demands for Dane before the holidays. The dust from Codex 3 is beginning to settle, and rather than be happy with what we've got, it's time to beg for more delicious board game content. So we sat down and thought through what we'd most like to see in another Codex if Dane were ever to make another.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

THERE'S IMPORTANT BUSINESS TO TEND TO. The Tournament 5 Signups email is going out December 10 at 20:00 UTC. This is to all members of our Patreon who were active during the months of October and November. We also detail our hopeful schedule for this year's tournament and what everyone can expect. Then it's time to have fun. The Galactic Council wanted us to play Spirit Island, and I bet only a few of them knew we'd like it as much as we did. So let's talk about WHY we liked it and what that could mean for the show.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

Matt's been playing games with the Homebrewer's Guild this year and he had a very specific project in mind. Today's episode is a sort of Abstract of the findings of that project. We were after a sort of "Tournament Mode" or some set of rules that could shake up that conventional Tempo of a game of Twilight Imperium without too much rules overhead. Was any of it successful? Well here's your report.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

This is a major part of almost every faction guide, but it feels like a very long time since we last checked up on and took stock of how we feel about Technology. What's good? How much should you expect to get per game? What are some of the trends we see in competitive play? The answer to all of these questions is of course "Blue Tech."

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

Hunter's got the week off while Matt and Absol talk about the third and final novel in Tim Pratt's Twilight Imperium series! All of the main characters from our first book are back in this spy adventure and this might be the best book of the whole set! Save for some Arborec nits Absol desperately needs to pick, this book has a lot of fun in it and feels more political than any of the previous entries. Our first half is a spoiler-free review if you'd like to check the book out, and after that we break the book down more in-depth for those less sure they'll have the time to give it a read.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

The Galactic Council decided it wanted us to spend some time this month playing and researching Alliance Mode, the variant provided in Codex 2. It's a silly variant that isn't even fully play-tested, so expect hiccups and a lack of rules clarity. But if you're willing to allow your Twilight Imperium to be fun, instead of a serious no-fun cage match, it's probably worth checking out! Although it's not for those looking for a shorter playtime. (without some modifications that we recommend)

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

With this episode, we put a sort of wrap on Codex 3 required update episodes! A few factions drastically changed, and none more than the Naalu Collective. Naalu's "ranking" amongst the factions has been quite a roller coaster, but with these recent additions the snakes are back on top. So, how do you wield the raw power of such a strong faction? How much gas is too much?? Similar to our recent Win From Ahead episode, we're going to talk a lot about tempo and how to pump the breaks today...

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

It is a wild one this week. Matt has been away on vacation and so Hunter has been left to his own devices! So obviously, it's beach episode time. Hunter brought his buddies on to just talk about various board games we like as if this is some normal boring regular cool podcast.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

This is us revisiting a classic SCPT topic. When we first asked "How does one win from ahead?" I don't think we even fully knew what being "ahead" truly meant. Not only that, but an expansion and multiple codices have released since then, so it seemed an important time to make another attempt at an answer. More important, winning from ahead seems harder than ever and it's time to get to the bottom of WHY

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

Oh my dear, another year is upon us. It is officially sign-up season for the next SCPT Patreon Twilight Imperium Tournament. The first half of this episode is most of the things you need to know about the upcoming sign-ups as well as new Patreon Goals, followed by a discussion of our experience with the Asynchronous TI Discord server (https://discord.gg/vY3nBkegkn)

Async TI begins at 42:47

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

We've been taking some time recently to revisit old topics deserving of an update. One of those is surprisingly recent: Exploration. We've only had this mechanic since Prophecy of Kings was released, but we've learned a lot since we first introduced it, and it's about time we cleaned up our thoughts a bit. So, here we'll read the exploration cards for every deck, including Frontier and Relic, and analyze what a player is meant to do with all of that.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

We're big time important kids and our opinions matter. That's why we were sent a copy of Twilight Inscription to give our unbiased, unfiltered, uncompromised, objective review. You came here for hard hitting journalism and boy howdy I tell ya that's what we're here to deliver. Game Journalism matters A LOT, and we take our roles very seriously.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

We're making our way back through all of the factions, starting with those that got recent updates in Codex 3. Xxcha only received a new hero, but it seems that simple change was enough to make us reconsider everything about this faction. It's now an economic powerhouse if you play it right and it's time to explore how to do that and what it means for the faction! 

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

It's been so long since we've tuned into Root, and there's been a new expansion out for a while now! This isn't a strategy guide, but we do intend to do some down the road. Instead, this is an overview of all of the things that came with the Marauder Expansion, as well as what Root even looks like these days. There's more than just these big box expansions and it can all be a bit hard to follow, so consider this your guide to Root in 2022!

Mentioned in the show:

Woodland War Machine Podcast

Weird Root YouTube and Twitch.

GIVEPAUSE hobby

Also not mentioned, but we love him: Lord of the Board

ALSO ALSO check out: NitroRev and Nevakanezah

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

August's Galactic Council Episode is the season wrap on GC episodes that fit this kind of vibe. For a while now we've been doing GC episodes off the cuff, and for the next batch we want to put in a bit more time on each episode. But for this "Improv Finale," we've saved the best for last. It's time for the Definitive Hero Tier List.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

I know you just loaded up this episode and saw that timecode. That ain't no joke. This episode is nearly 3 hours and 35 minutes long and it's because we have to talk about every single Action Card in the game. Yes, we HAVE to. Never forget that this is our job and we will treat it as such. Prophecy of Kings and Codex 1 both introduced a lot of new cards that we have not talked about in depth so prepare your mind and body. It is time.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

We ran around GenCon for three days and talked to some amazing folks!

0:00 - First up, James Kniffen, the designer of the new TI Roll and Write Twilight Inscription. We discuss his background with FFG and what inspired this crazy genre shift for our beloved franchise

13:13 - Then, Sam Gregor-Stewart whose team at Edge have been trying to release the hotly anticipated Twilight Imperium sourcebook for the Genesys RPG, Embers of the Imperium. We're digging deep into what to expect with some of the upcoming lore, and where the inspirations for this book came from.

28:50 - Finally, we got to hang out with our dear friends Leder Games. Cole and Patrick joined us to discuss Ahoy, Arcs, and what it's like to be back at conventions as well as in a new bigger office!

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

We were finally able to return to GenCon for the first time since 2019, and this time we got to hold a a real live show at the local Helium Comedy Club. Our other podcast, Old Gamer's Almanac, opened for us because they are incredibly kind and to be honest they went kind of long. But once they were done, we had some time to also do some live SCPT shenanigans. Listen, this isn't your normal episode, but it is an extra fun one, so please enjoy.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

We packing in a quick episode between the Tournament Finals and GenCon, so here's one where we talk about exactly 5 things: Generic Promissory Notes! It's the basics to how to handle, as any faction, your Political Secret, Trade Agreement, Ceasefire, Alliance, and Support for the Throne!

Go watch the Finals!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0mfWgfuGJs

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

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IT'S A BIG EPISODE! The tournament Finals are literally upon us, but that doesn't mean we can't bring you fresh, dense, gritty strategy talk. We've been playing with Yin since their Codex 3 update, and it's time to talk about where the faction is. Newflash: they're still not very good. It's almost like there's a fundamental flaw in their entire design ethos, BUT WHO AM I? JUST SOME DUMB GUY. Please enjoy this look at how to do "well" as the Yin Brotherhood.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

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The Galactic Council let us know you were all begging for more information about all of the work being done of the virtual mod of Twilight Imperium for Tabletop Playground! Well we brought Darrell on to give us the scoop! In here, we talk a bit about Darrell, the old TTS mod, what TTPG has done so far, and where we think things could go! There's almost TOO much information in this podcast, so you buckle right the heck up.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

It's our favorite episode of every year! We sat down with the six finalists of this year's tournaments to learn a bit more about who they are and how they approach a game like Twilight Imperium. Not only is it great prep to understand them better when we all watch the finals on July 30 at 13:00 UTC, but you might just learn a bit about this game we hold near and dear along the way!

Again, THE FINALS WILL BE JULY 30 AT 13:00 UTC! Come watch live at https://www.twitch.tv/spacecatspeaceturtles

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

If you want the fastest path to getting better at Twilight Imperium, than look no further. Tempo is the key to unlocking top level play and understanding the game, and here we are today breaking it down for you. What does the standard path to 10 points look like? When do you know if you're behind tempo? How do you stop someone who is ahead of tempo? Let's explore!

0:00 Keleres Guide Errata

25:15 Points and Tempo

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You're telling me they can fit a 25th faction into this thing? Well by gum, someone ought to teach me how to use all of 'em. Wait, someone HAS? Well butter my biscuit, ain't that just about the most important service anyone has ever provided. Just you wait, I'mma listen to that final faction guide and I'mma take them's there's advice and wear it like a badge of honor. I won't question it or disagree or nothin'. Just gonna do as I'm told and play the game perty near good.

This is our guide to the Council Keleres. I don't know why I wrote all of that the way I did.

Come see us at our live show at GenCon! https://indianapolis.heliumcomedy.com/shows/176808

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

The Galactic Council chose violence this month. It's a question that apparently gets asked from time to time, and it's now OUR TIME to settle the score. Can anyone be good at Twilight Imperium? What does it MEAN to be good at this game (or any game for that matter)? What does it look like to get better at this game?

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

IT'S TIME FOR A BIG EPISODE! This one is long and it's because it's basically two episodes crammed together; how lucky are you? First is an deep analysis of everything to do with the Agenda Phase and all relevant abilities. Following that is the OFFICIAL reading of every single Agenda that you have been craving for years. What a wild show you listen to...

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This one snuck up on us and we almost forgot to celebrate. In fact, it's not even almost, we DID forget to celebrate. But we did take the time to make a sort of beginner's guide to this very podcast. So if you're new to the game or the community, this episode is intended to serve as your gateway into the various depths before you. How deep do you want to dig in? There's something for everyone, even the freaks who liked Twilight Imperium: The Movie!

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

We love Leder Games and so of course we're over the moon that they have another Kickstarter running right now. But to make things even more exciting, IT'S A SPACE GAME. WE TALK A LOT ABOUT SPACE GAMES! So we invited Cole Wehrle on to discuss all things Arcs and help us get ready for this newest release. Enjoy!

Kickstart Arcs yourself at: https://bit.ly/ArcsKSStream

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We've been breaking up our Codex 3 coverage into parts, and the Galactic Council voted for the next topic to be the changes to the Naalu Collective. Although this episode is also frontloaded with a lot of announcements and a hefty supply of Council Keleres Errata!

0:00 - Announcements

15:32 - Council Keleres Errata

27:57 - Naalu Codex 3 Update

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

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OH NO! There's a new flagship which means we could waste no time in bringing you everyone's favorite digestible audio content: the Flagship Tournament. This year the rules are even more arbitrary and honestly I edit over a lot of it, so just...you just hang in there okay?

Also there is a video of this exact same episode that you may find more consumable. Here it is: https://youtu.be/h2qA5S_EIIM

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

Codex 3: Vigil is finally proven to be real and we were (mostly) not lying! The biggest introduction is the 25th faction to Twilight Imperium, The Council Keleres. So rather than give you an episode overviewing the codex, this topic is big enough to break away and just sit down to theorycraft what we think will be the right moves to make with the Keleres.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

The Galactic Council is being a bit self-indulgent this month. This episode is detailing the exploits of the very chaotic Community Plays TI discord server. Set up to allow multiple people to simultaneously operate one faction in a play by forum format, these games immediate devolve into memes and inexplicable choices and we are all the better for it.

If you want to play in the Community game, visit https://discord.gg/5sjPPXEPhH

To see the wedding ceremony referenced in this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_-sRIy0lFU

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

The Root Winter Tournament has been going on since November of 2021, and it finally has a Championship match in sight. To celebrate and prepare you all to go check out that game, we brought on Guerric and Lily to walk us through how the tournament has gone so far and what Root even looks like these days! Turns out the game keeps getting smarter and smarter, leaving Matt and Hunter in the dust. Looks like we'll have to become the Beavis and Butthead of Root...

Watch the Root Finals Sunday, May 1 at 12:00pm EDT at https://www.twitch.tv/guerricsamplesgames
Catch up on previous games at https://www.youtube.com/c/GuerricSamplesGames
View the Stats for the tournament at https://makecraftgame.com/
And find more MakeCraftGame at https://www.twitch.tv/makecraftgame and https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV3Q18ebHUYlYFmXA95xdLg

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

We wanted to get nostalgic and talk about how far we've come. What was going to be a general overview decided to get more narrow. So today, we're talking about the history of 3rd Edition and how it improved on what came before but also paved the path for 4th Edition. We'd love to give the same treatment going forward to 2nd and 1st edition, so consider this the start of a mini-series we'll return to over time!

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

The kind of content we design for newer players changes over time, and this particular episode is probably a long time overdue. As the community has grown and analysis has solidified, a lot of terms have started to stick in place. Some of them are logical expressions of ideas, some of them or horrible tangentially related jokes about a concept. None of this makes it any easier for a newcomer, so it's finally time we put together a proper glossary of these terms.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

We're continuing our investigation of the Vuil'raith Cabal, and today seemed like a good chance to do a progress report. We come to you not with highly analyzed takeaways, but instead a handful of notes and anecdotes that we're gradually using to build a case for Cabal. Think of this like us "showing our work" when it comes to experimenting with factions.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

Wowee, what a treat. Our dearest friend and board game designer Dane is here to present the upcoming release of Codex 3: Vigil! There's a slew of new things packed in it, most notably an ENTIRE NEW FACTION. We cover it all in some broad strokes, and reveal a few specific components. This is slated to drop later in April, which we had too much fun while recording to remember to mention. GET HYPE!

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

The Nekro Virus, as it appears on the faction sheet and faction materials in Twilight Imperium 4th Edition and Prophecy of Kings.

Narrated by Matt Martens.

Co-Produced by Phoenix "Absol197" Gruber.

The Halloween Dawn by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Source: http://www.twinmusicom.org/song/248/the-halloween-dawn

Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org

The Emirates of Hacan, as it appears on the faction sheet and faction materials in Twilight Imperium 4th Edition and Prophecy of Kings.

Narrated by Phoenix "Absol197" Gruber

Co-Produced by Matt Martens.

Namaste by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Artist: http://audionautix.com/

This is a Galactic Council episode. I repeat, this is a Galactic Council episode. There are many, many places out there where you can get this kind of content, but today you're stuck with these two idiots. I would say that no one asked for this, but turns out a sizable enough percentage of patrons did, so here we are. Here's some top 10 lists from two guys who have not played nearly enough board games for you to take their opinions very seriously.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

Matt's Top 10
10. Twilight Imperium
9. Subjective Guess Who
8. Letters from Whitechapel
7. Real Monopoly (Finance-Bro Monopoly and gambling)
6. Root
5. Inside of Your Best Friend (Fishbowl)
4. Burgle Bros
3. Camel Up
2. One Night Ultimate Werewolf
1. Cosmic Encounter

Hunter's Top 10
10. City of Horror
9. Diplomacy
8. Fury of Dracula
7. Carcassonne
6. Monster of the Week
5. Root
4. One Night Ultimate Werewolf
3. Twilight Struggle
2. Cosmic Encounter
1. Twilight Imperium 4th Edition

The Lore Compendium, as released in the Guide to the Imperium for Twilight Imperium 4th Edition and Prophecy of Kings Expansion.

Narrated and Produced by Phoenix "Absol197" Gruber and Matt Martens

Maestro Tlakaelel by Jesse Gallagher

The Shining in Dubai by Unicorn Heads

Houston Vibes Score by Unicorn Heads

I Am a Man Who Will Fight for Your Honor by Chris Zabriskie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Source: http://chriszabriskie.com/honor/

Artist: http://chriszabriskie.com/

Firebrand by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100830

Artist: http://incompetech.com/

The Naalu Collective, as it appears on the faction sheet and faction materials in Twilight Imperium 4th Edition and Prophecy of Kings.

Narrated by Phoenix "Absol197" Gruber

Co-Produced by Matt Martens

Dreams Become Real by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1500027

Artist: http://incompetech.com/

The Arborec, as it appears on the faction sheet and faction materials in Twilight Imperium 4th Edition and Prophecy of Kings.

Narrated by Matt Martens

Co-produced by Phoenix "Absol197" Gruber

Are you a new or experience player trying to find a new group to play with? Or are you scheduling a game and decided to invite a new friend to join your typical group? Maybe you're looking to play online for the first time casually or in a tournament. Well we hope this episode can be a resource for you. In it we discuss what it's like to join a game with strangers and how to navigate the tricky social balances of Twilight Imperium. The Superbowl of Board Games is a pretty wild way to meet someone, and we think it's helpful if you go in with the right expectations.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

Enter "Season....3? 4. 3?" It's a new arc of the show where we, you guessed it, dive deep into the board game Twilight Imperium. How deep? Well now we plan to do cover a single faction over the course of numerous weeks. We don't anticipate every faction getting the same structure, but we're starting with Vuil'raith Cabal and they're in a bit of a rough position currently. So, to begin their journey, we decided we'd need to throw the playbook out and theorycraft new and crazy idea. Join us, won't you?

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

This coming weekend will conclude the massive 2022 Patreon Tournament Qualifiers. 480 players have competed in 80 games and now those winners will match up against our 136 players who received a bye into the Prelims. So how will those Prelim games differ from the Qualifiers? And more important, how is one expected to WIN one of those confounded games? Well we got answers to BOTH questions today, so lucky you!!

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

The Galactic Council chose the right option this month! The Qualifiers have been raging in the background and we haven't done any sort of overview of how it's been going. But Stads over at The Qualifier Report has been keeping up with EVERYTHING and is here to spill the details. We chat statistics, share some stories, tell you some of the best games to seek out, and play a quiz show about some of the craziest things to happen in the tournament so far!

To watch almost every game of the 2022 Qualifiers so far, check out this YouTube playlist curated by BigAlCupachino: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvT90Ksrv-ArlfkAg0xWtxO0W0dW-L5Gt

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

This is our 17th base game faction to update for Prophecy of Kings and our 24th faction to cover since the release. Which means we've DONE IT. Consider this one a season finale for the "Introduction to Prophecy of Kings," which means now the real show can begin. It's a long winding road ahead, but let's make sure we give the Peace Turtles their time to show in this conclusion to the last year and a half.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

We're almost done with this phase of strategy guides and as we wrap up we though it'd be fun to take the temperature of something we've been thinking a lot about. Prophecy of Kings added a lot of things that made people excited for War Suns again, the question is if it actually fulfilled the promise. So today, we're going to explore the viability of War Suns for all 24 factions!

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

We're tackling some bottom tier factions today, which means it's time to let loose a little and have fun. You're probably not finding a win with these factions most games ANYWAYS, but how can you still have a decent time? Well, we'll question what it means to play ethically and I'm sure you won't be surprised which of us believes ethical play is important and which doesn't. Let's call this one "the episode where all of the die hard faction fans will get mad at us."

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

The Galactic Council gave us a tall order this month. We are tasked with doing Dane Beltrami's job and designing a SECOND potential expansion for Twilight Imperium. Prophecy of Kings covered a LOT of ground and it's hard to say anything else even should be added, but here's some brainstorming for ya anyways!

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

We're nearing the end of our preliminary guides and today we get to NOT talk about blue tech! Jol-Nar is regarded as one of the higher tier factions, depending on who you ask, and it's primarily due to their monumental amount of flexibility when it comes to tech and defenses. Mentak are seemingly the opposite when it comes to flexibility; these days it's Mirror Computing or bust!

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

It's a new year, so we wanted to do some quick Patreon bookkeeping to update everyone on our plans for 2022! Additionally, we wanted to react to and synthesize some errata from last week's faction hootenanny and talk about what the dream world scenario where we are wrong would look like and how various factions might perform differently than what our tier list suggested. Finally there's some very stupid tournament predictions for everyone to keep track of and hold us to, so that should be fun!

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

CW: Discrimination

This is not your regularly scheduled episode of SCPT. Some events took place over the weekend regarding Tabletop Simulator and it's developer, Berserk Games. We felt it was necessary to catch everyone up to speed and to make our intents and desires clear. This conversation deals with topics of discrimination in the board gaming community. We hope everyone will listen closely and join us in doing everything we can to make every Twilight Imperium table a safe one for all players.

For additional context to the events described, please read: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vTE7Ufo6FCGqegHFk1Vqkc2IIQgivyaWr10a7H6DJSWOuXPyrPoCc8_JyqCscRQuH5ir6NQ4pTdp5ud/pub

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

IT'S A NEW YEAR which means it's time for a new Faction Tier list. This is our annual tradition around here to redefine how we perceive the meta going into the new tournament. Last year's list was a bit of a goof considering how much we knew we didn't know about the game. But we've learned a lot since then, so we can definitely say this one is DEFINITIVE. You're welcome to disagree with our tiers, but you will be capital-W "Wrong."

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

Here's a quick one for your Holiday and New Year ears. We talk about the attempted goofy game we played with our friends and what went wrong. We hope to do it again though, so this was just the preview for how good Survivor: Twilight Imperium can be.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

It's almost holiday time, but we have a Galactic Council episode to attend to first! This month, the Sidereal Confluence coalition was betrayed and we instead saw Round One Negotiations rise to the top, which is a perfect opportunity to return to the basics of how to get all the things you want round one, and determining what those wants even are! If only the galactic council was better at negotiating their way into functioning coalitions...

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

The Lazax Empire, as it appears on the faction sheet in Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition.

Written by Christian T. Petersen

Narrated by Phoenix "Absol197" Gruber

Dama-May - Primal Drive by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1200086

Artist: http://incompetech.com/

Well normally I would think an episode like this isn't gonna attract that many listeners, but SO MANY OF YOU signed up for next year's tournament that this announcement episode became a pretty important thing. In it we detail how we will get through the 2022 Patreon Tournament, with an emphasis on the Qualifiers, as well as some discussion on the structure and rules that will be in place in the games themselves. Thank you again to everyone who signed up, you have blown us away with your support and enthusiasm and we look forward to a raucous 2022.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

The theme of this week's Preliminary Guide is "The Big Stick." We've got two factions who can pack a big punch, but don't always have the point acquisition to make a successful game. Neither are "bad" factions, but there are tricks to both, and it can be hard to navigate their toolsets to find a victory. The best part of all: we don't talk about blue tech very much! So come listen just for that!

Rasmus' Muaat Guide: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ltvKIXpCXY5qTXZ4rxCWHIfFQNvGzNdO6L2cZPA6siI/edit?usp=sharing

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

As promised, a narration of the short story included with Fantasy Flight Games' Rex: Final Days of an Empire.

Written by Christian T. Petersen

Narrated by Matt Martens

Music:

Dreaming in 432Hz - Unicorn Heads

Satya Yuga - Jesse Gallagher

The galactic council worked together this month to give us a real treat! It's lore time and we're kicking it off with some lore that's slightly harder to get a hold of: the board game Rex: Final Days of an Empire. We're taking a look at the little clues into factions thousands of years before the setting of Twilight Imperium and during the fall of the Lazax Empire. It's a fun little ride with Matt's best attempts at some stupid accents as well as a wonderfully difficult quiz provided by the resident lore expert, Absol!

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

There's gonna be a lot of chatter about ground forces today. We're looking at two sides of the really tough infantry coin in Federation of Sol (Good) and Sardakk N'orr (Bad). (Yin is the Ugly) Some say Sol doesn't even need a guide, so we made an attempt to make that half of the episode for especially new players looking for a good beginner faction. Sardakk is a considerably more difficult nut to crack, however.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

Hunter is out this week, and we took the opportunity to bring on noted lore aficionado, Absol! She and Matt both read the second Twilight Imperium novel by Tim Pratt, The Necropolis Empire. So here is our review, overview, as well as some lore implications of this especially good adventure sci-fi story!

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

Well we've teased this idea for many weeks now and finally were able to gather a panel to discuss winmaking. Our thoughts were outlined in depth in episode 203, but this topic bring about different feelings for everyone. So we decided to sit with three prominent players with many different takes on what constitutes winmaking and whether or not we should care. teddysjamforyou is the champion of this year's Patreon Tournament is primarily a player who chooses to follow bliss an fun. TheDeftPiper was a part of our invitational and views winmaking as a necessary tool to be used. And finally, patience_is_a_virtue practically wrote the book about winmaking and has a lot of research and analysis he's been working on for years to bring to the table. Let's enter the final Winmaking Gauntlet!

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

IT'S BACK! Over 100 episodes have gone by since our last iteration of This Imperium Life, the show written by all of YOU. We stopped doing it when we felt like the base game well had run a bit dry, but with Prophecy of Kings having been out essentially an entire year, we've been collecting lots of your stories of your best moments in TI! Here are just SOME of our favorites.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

Despite the hype of the ongoing Invitational Tournament, we're still out here working on your preliminary faction guides. Up this week are two polar opposites: the infinite variable that is the Emirates of Hacan next to the fairly understood and simple L1Z1X Mindnet. The Hacan side of things is wildly open-ended, so be nice. You've got some concrete L1 advice, so count your blessings!

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

Can the Galactic Council ever be appeased? Likely not, but we're here to do our civic duty and provide them with the second of the two tied options from last month. Here is EVERY SINGLE TECH, tiered and feared. No contradicting opinions necessary. We nailed it.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

Our special event, the Invitational Tournament, is upon us and before the games begin we wanted to go over the draft structure we'll be using. We're taking an existing community draft procedure called Miltydraft and making some slight modifications. So before we talk about our version, it's important to set the stage by going over the basics of why Miltydraft is so popular!

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

What a world we're in. This time last year, if we'd packaged the Winnu and Clan of Saar into an episode together, it would have been to showcase the two polar opposites of Twilight Imperium. But now, the two sing some similar songs and often times feel like sides of the same coin. Winnu has risen to be quite the powerhouse, and Clan of Saar has kept up the pace just fine. So, how do these two factions operate these days and what strategies are we trying out in this post-PoK landscape? Let's dive in.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

War were declared. For the second month in a row, the Galactic Council has gone rogue and tied our two poll options. So, for this month, we're just doing one of them and I guess we'll do the other later or something. So for now, here's Matt and Hunter improvising a scenario mode for Twilight Imperium, a la Alliance mode or the Shard of the Throne scenario from TI3. Is it chaotic? Yes. Is it playable? I make no promises. We also cheat a little and talk about an additional scenario we intend to do for this year's Holiday Spectacular!

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

Hunter is moving back to Portland this week, which meant something fun to squeeze in while he's gone. What better than returning to everyone's favorite interview series Fireside Chats with Root (Alec). This one gets extra confusing because Root sat down with a major member of the Root board game community, Bott Bott, to pick his brain about all things Twilight Imperium, Root, and Oath (and also Pax games, Lord of the Rings Risk, Stratego, you name it! This is a delightful discussion with a focus on board game Entanglement and various tournament scenes. Sit back and enjoy!

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

Here lies a wonderful example of our new project! We're so excited to announce the launch of our new show, The Old Gamer's Almanac, the definitive ranking of all video games ever, one week at a time. We're throwing this one your way so you get a feel for how we hope the rest of the show plays out, but don't hesitate to pause this and head over to the Old Gamer's Almanac podcast feed and listen to all three episodes now!

Music by nightcorey. https://soundcloud.com/nightcorey

Email us your thoughts on the ongoing list at oldgamersalmanac (at) gmail(dot)com. Or come talk to us on our main Discord (Space Cats Peace Turtles).

Oh Look! A new podcast has been spotted! As we teased recently, we are starting another show!

Old Gamer's Almanac is the definitive ranking of all video games ever, one week at a time. We know how much this audience likes lists, and we've made the lifelong commitment to playing every video game that exists in order to accurately rank them. If the video game industry would just stop for a bit while we catch up, that would make it a lot easier.

Please subscribe to the new show by going to https://oldgamersalmanac.podbean.com/ or finding Old Gamer's Almanac in your podcast app of choice! The first episodes launch Sep 21, 2021! Some aggregators take more time to populate new shows than others, so please give us a bit of time for some of the rollouts, but let us know if the show isn't popping up on your app of choice and we'll try to help out!

Hunter is about to move away, and we wanted to take the time to reminisce on the ongoing game of Oath we've been able to play while in the same region. We break down our thoughts about the strategy and our game's specific evolving story.

Before that is some errata for our episode on Agendas, as well as a very special announcement regarding a new show we've been working on! Stick around next week for the premiere of Old Gamer's Almanac!

8:47 - Twilight Imperium Talk
21:17 - Oath Talk

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

It feels like ages since we’ve had a proper episode in which we just sit and read every card. Our original Agendas episode was among our longest episodes, and was one of our first component focused episodes. But a lot has been learned and a lot has changed since then, so we figured it was time to revisit the topic of Agendas.

Additionally, we get to announce our next big project! We’re going to be holding an Invitational Tournament in October, comprised of 36 players from the previous 3 years of our Patreon tournament! It’s a fun celebration of many players we’ve seen before, and it’s a fun chance to introduce a possible new drafting system! Who knows, it might be what we use in next year’s Patreon Tournament!

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

This week, we're tearing through a couple more factions as we try to lay some framework to better understand how the base game factions have changed since Prophecy of Kings released. How far have the Yin fallen? How high have the Nekro risen? Whose ground forces are best? Hint: it's not the faction that it SHOULD be...

0:00 - Yin Brotherhood

52:59 - Nekro Virus

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

We're finally able to dive into the future of Faction Guides, and this is what we have to start with. This won't be exhaustive, but it's a first pass to see where the base game factions are falling in the grander scheme of PoK. Consider these opening ideas that lay the framework for future, more thorough guides about specific strategies within each faction. Up first, the underrated Barony of Letnev and the nosedive into irrelevancy that is the Naalu Collective!

0:00 - Barony of Letnev

40:16 - Naalu Collective

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

This month's Galactic Council broke the system. They had two tournament related options, but the votes were split perfectly 50/50. So, we're just doing both! We start with a conversation about how all of the factions performed in this year's tournament and why they performed that way then follow it up with a discussion of the tournament drafts of yesteryear and how this year's faired. Then we get to be a bit theoretical and dream up some ideas for what we could expect from next year's tournament draft.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

And with that, the 2021 SCPT Patreon Tournament is over. We had an absolute blast, and we’re also completely exhausted from an amazing weekend. So, this episode is a casual recap of the Finals that turned into over an hour and a half of analysis. We thought it’d be a short beach episode, and we were as wrong as ever. But you’re not complaining, you freak.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

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Another year has passed. 336 players entered this tournament, and now only 6 remain. Before we crown the 2021 Champion, we first wanted to meet these players and get a closer look at how they think about the game. This is the Road to the Finals!

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The semifinals of our tournament are complete, and we’re a couple weeks away from our Championship game. As such, we need to take stock of the tournament so far to get a sense of what strategies and drafts have worked and how our finalists got here. Next week, we’ll continue the hype with interviews with all 6 of our finalists!

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This week we have a special treat to reward you all for making it through the Semifinals! It’s an interview with the author of Aconyte Books’ Twilight Imperium series of novels, Tim Pratt! We discuss the setting, Tim’s influences, and there’s a bit about some horses. 

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Abandon all hope, ye who enter. What lies here is the worst, most infinite conversation topic in all of gaming. There is no returning from this place. There is only the void. We’re starting this, and we know some of you want to do this, so okay. Here’s the first of probably a few episodes on the topic of everyone’s favorite accusation to lob when they’re not going to win.

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Hey, no joke, we love this game. And if you listen to this show, we know you will love it too. And Leder Games does pay us sometimes, but they did not pay us to tell you how good their new game Oath is. That’s all us, baby. But we do sort of have a vested interest in its success. But also, like, we chose to have that vested interest. Like we knew the game was good and THEN were like “what if you sometimes paid us?” Okay, we’re not journalists and I no longer feel I owe you any sort of editorial statement of integrity. Just play this game because it’s super good, mmkay?

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We’ve been waiting to return to this episode topic for a long time. This show is never really about learning how to play Twilight Imperium, but more about how to think about Twilight Imperium. And in keeping with how we always like to approach new games, we wanted to go back to basics and try to explain what you can do to help yourself learn this game. Sure, you need someone to teach you the mechanics, but what kind of mindset do you need before you start THAT process? We hope this guide is helpful to the newest of players and those just curious about what all this Twilight Imperium business is about.

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It’s one of those major threshold episodes of a podcast where we decide to get rather celebratory. For Episode 200, we wanted to throw a party for our Weird Bear patrons, who have done a lot for us over the years. But turns out, they didn’t want to party. They wanted an opportunity to present a list of demands, and we were obligated to grant quorum to the first inaugural Weird Bearholder’s Meeting. So come listen to hear what a handful of the most active members of our community want from our show going forward!

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This game is weird and has a lot of strange interactions and timings. Since Prophecy of Kings’ release, things have been pretty confusing with some abilities, and our fearless leader Dane Beltrami is here to show us the light. We don’t have a formal Living Rules Reference, but he has been able to answer a lot of questions that some amazing community members have collected into one place. So, let’s go over some of these biggest questions with the man himself!

You can find the pseudo-official FAQ here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_93kw7KkzvAXoQAxRioxo7iAt-Ar6BMIxdNf4Lv25rI/edit?usp=sharing

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We’re still wrapping up our Prophecy of Kings introductions over here. This time, the Galactic Council wanted us to answer the question “Are the New Factions Too Good?” And in keeping with our previous eye-catching headlines, I’m not sure we even answer the question. But we do have a fun, wandering conversation about where we feel all of the factions compare to each other at this point.

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With the new faction introductions and component guides done, we wanted to take stock of what we’ve learned about Prophecy of Kings in these few months that it’s been out. This episode goes over how we feel about our recent episodes, our main takeaways for how the strategy has evolved, and a bit of what we think is to come!

Ginger’s Mahact Guide referenced in this episode

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7 new factions entered and now the 7 new factions have all been properly introduced. Today concludes our mission to quickly cover each of the factions that debuted in Prophecy of Kings. And it only took us six months! The Vuil’raith Cabal is an infamously mean faction that players try their best to avoid in our tournament, so let’s explore why that is and what we should do about it!

5:55 - Vuil’raith Cabal Introduction

12:32 - Abilities

38:28 - Strategy Cards

1:09:12 - Exploration

1:13:17 - Technology

1:27:22 - Trade/Meta

1:45:27 - Victory Points

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Our friend Shawn is in town and Molly is home sick on recording today, so prepare yourself to be a fly on the wall of a conversation between three friends about how they play against each other and what they think about when they sit down to play. There’s plenty of Molly blabbering in this, and I cut out as much as I could, but this episode has one of those unpolished vibes. Don’t get mad at me about it!

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As the tournament has gone on and we’ve seen some Prophecy of Kings meta develop, one thing keeps catching our eye. The ways players treat the Speaker Token and try to get an advantage in Speaker Order. So, similar to our recent Objectives episode, it felt important to talk about this Speaker Order tempo throughout the game and how tournament players are manipulating it. We also get lost in some theorycrafting of different ways to utilize Speaker Order.

4:07 - Horsebrew Faction Lore

15:37 - Speaker Order

26:26 - Round 1

35:07 - Politics

41:20 - Round 2

50:57 - Round 3

58:33 - Round 4

1:04:21 - Round 5

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We’re on the final lap of our Prophecy of Kings faction introductions, and Hunter completes his task with the Empyrean. It’s a wildly fun faction that has a little bit of everything, while rarely feeling “too good.” So, how do you best take advantage of all of these tools? I dunno, but here’s our ideas!

Vagabond Errata - 5:54

Empyrean Overview - 14:32

Strategy Cards - 44:39

Tech - 1:08:24

Exploration - 1:16:57

Trade - 1:22:01

Victory Points - 1:42:57

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The Galactic Council decided that this month you all needed to be punished. So Hunter and Matt are putting on their designer caps and improvising a Homebrew faction. We took Whose Line Is It Anyways?-style prompts on our Discord and just dove right in. And you know what, I think we came up with something PRETTY GOOD. If...you know, you’re into game-breaking unplayable ideas...

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What a fun treat for you all today. Long ago we promised a follow up to our Learning the Vagabond episode where we would discuss the 3 expansion classes of Vagabond. But that’s not the treat, that’s just the typical episode you’re getting from Matt and Hunter. No, the REAL treat is after that, where we are joined by our friends Jake, Sam, and Kyle from Woodland War Machine! This one was an absolute blast, so join us while we rag on the Vagabond

Woodland War Machine podcast by Good Time Society

And find our wonderful guests on Twitter:

@thejakemichels

@SamDeRoest

@kyle_acheson

@goodtimesociety

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It’s back to back Faction Introductions! This time, Matt tackled the Argent Flight answering the question “What if Base Game Xxcha was good and fit Matt’s playstyle?” These are wonderful little birds that have a wide range of possibilities but are perhaps best served by leaning into their strengths and playing up some “win-more” mechanics.

00:00 - Mahact Gene-Sorcerers Errata

16:09 - Argent Flight Overview

49:55 - Strategy Cards

1:12:09 - Tech

1:23:46 - Exploration

1:25:49 - Trade/Meta

1:50:39 - Victory Points

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Kneel, they say. Former rules of the galaxy, they say. Well, with such powerful lore, you may have expected a more imposing faction. But instead, the Mahact Gene-Sorcerer’s are perhaps best known for their winslaying prowess and their rules tomfoolery. Let’s take a closer look and figure out how this faction can help themselves win without tripping over pedantic technicalities along the way!

13:04 - Mahact Gene-Sorcerers Overview

42:55 - Strategy Cards

1:02:13 - Tech

1:10:12 - Trade/Meta

1:21:49 - Commanders

1:31:55 - Exploration

1:34:57 - Victory Points

1:47:27 - Our Messy Hero

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The conclusion to last week’s cliffhanger, we wrap up discussion on every objective in the game, and spend some time analyzing what the structure of all of these points means for the pace of winning. When and how should you be trying to score your 10 victory points? What is a “free” point? Also there’s some errata at the beginning here about the Galactic Council episode we recently published and the...disagreements that have grown around it.

0:40 - Errata for 187 “Is Arborec the Worst Faction?”

15:37 - Tech and Economy Objectives

34:47 - Miscellaneous Component Objectives

52:35 - Battle and Other Objectives

1:17:55 - Analysis

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Lot of assumptions in that title that I'm sure will get some responses on its own. Regardless, this is our first Galactic Council episode in our new format! This is an unprepared episode where Matt and Hunter blindly approach a topic and see where the conversation takes them. It was wildly fun to do, so we hope you enjoy it and look forward to future Galactic Council episodes.

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The fact that we’ve never done an episode specifically about Objectives and Victory Points is either a huge misstep, or completely unnecessary. But here’s one anyways! This is part one where we go over all of the types of victory points, and cover our first section of objectives: Control Objectives. We talked way too much, and so this episode turned into a two-parter.

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With all of the recent episodes about Exploration and Relics, we were clearly building up to SOMETHING. And that something is finally here. The Naaz-Rokha Alliance are white hot right now, so we’re already overdue for introducing them. Spoiler: they’re a really good faction and you probably didn’t even need us to tell you how to do well with them.

Patience’s Tech Path Guide

4:02 - Root: Underground Duchy Errata

14:30 - Naaz-Rokha Alliance Overview
55:25 - Strategy Cards
1:16:59 - Exploration
1:26:09 - Technology
1:48:05 - Trade/Meta
1:58:46 - Victory Points and Conclusions

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Today we get to complete the meat of our Learning Root episodes (don’t worry, we have more planned!) by learning the Underground Duchy. A faction of order and structure, fittingly, has many detailed ways of playing. Here, we cover what we believe to be one of the safest and easiest to pick up Duchy strategies, saving some of the more complicated stuff for the future.

6:30 - Ep 183 Errata (Relics and Legendary Planets)

15:40 - Learning the Underground Duchy

20:34 - Setup and Abilities

30:28 - Turn Structure

48:55 - Opening Ideas

55:48 - Crafty Corner: Base Deck

1:14:58 - Crafty Corner: Exiles and Partisans

1:35:50 - Pitfalls

1:41:40 - Where do we find our victory?

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Exploration has been sufficiently covered, but we left Relics on the table. There’s only a handful of them to cover, so to round out the episode, we’re also squeezing Legendary Planets into the discussion for today’s component episode. Stick around to make sure you hear about all 13 relics in Prophecy of Kings!

7:21 - Nomad Introduction Errata

15:54 - Legendary Planets
42:03 - Relics
1:14:21 - Still talking about Relics
1:29:15 - Our affinity for Prophecy of Kings and all its new cool stuff

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We’ve done a close look at the Nomad before, but that was back in the before-times when we were only being given a teaser of them by Dane. Now we’ve had time to sink our teeth in, and so, we can now present our Introduction to the, by far, coolest new faction in the game. They drive a Volkswagen around the galaxy while traveling through time, what more could you ask for?

4:36 - Exploration Errata

12:49 - The Nomad Introduction
17:22 - Overview
57:37 - Strategy Cards
1:18:07 - Problems
1:19:42 - Technology
1:44:31 - Trade/Meta
1:55:17 - Exploration
1:57:11 - Victory Points
2:05:20 - Final Thoughts

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It’s time to explore more Prophecy of Kings mechanics! And what better topic than Exploration? It’s the major new mechanical introduction in the expansion and has made the early game vastly different from Base game. This episode doesn’t get into Relics yet, but we discuss the four Exploration decks and what to expect from each of them.

5:20 - Fractured Void Review Errata
10:17 - Exploration Overview and Relic Fragments
23:54 - Exploration Deck Composition and Analysis

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What a delightful change of pace the Galactic Council has granted us this month! After some delay, we finally got to spend some time talking about the Twilight Imperium novel, The Fractured Void. We aren’t necessarily literary critics, and we aren’t even experts in TI lore, but we read the book and here’s what we think!

11:55 - Root: Corvid Conspiracy Errata
19:46 - Fractured Void Review - No Spoilers
41:44 - Fractured Void Review - Spoilers

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After some quick Tournament Structure errata, we finally get to sink our teeth into the Underworld expansion talking about the Corvid Conspiracy. We’re on record saying the Lizard Cult is a bad faction, but we didn’t realize how bad it can get. The Corvids can certainly shine, but what we’ve seen from the tournament is a faction that is easy to stop and just enough self-balancing that it can be hard to find your footing. But let’s learn them so you can make your own judgement!

4:20 - Ep 178 Errata (Tournament Structure and Signups)

14:00 - Learning the Corvid Conspiracy

20:13 - Abilities

25:16 - Setup

26:39 - Plot Tokens

34:31 - Birdsong

41:18 - Daylight

47:12 - Evening

52:19 - Opening Ideas

1:01:01 - Crafty Corner: Base Deck

1:11:34 - Crafty Corner: Exiles and Partisans

1:23:31 - Pitfalls

1:30:45 - Where do we find our victory?

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Twilight Imperium tournament season is upon us and Hunter and Matt are officially freaked out. There are clearly a lot of people vying for a spot in the upcoming Patreon tournament, so today we decided we needed to set the record straight on the structure of the tournament and give some important sign up information. This is one of those episodes that exists in the moment and won’t really be listenable in even just a couple months, but...it’s important information! And if you don’t care about that information, there is Tech Overview errata and some community “drama” that we address regarding whether or not our show is “gospel.”

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As part of the groundwork for truly learning about all of the new things brought to us by Prophecy of Kings, we wanted to take time to break down the new tech and talk a bit about how tech paths have changed, generally, since base game. This episode doesn’t dig into any faction tech, as we’ll do that in faction overviews, but it’s a basic look meant to familiarize us with generic tech.

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The galactic council took it easy on us this month. We get to relish in the casual conversations of our current favorite factions. But we took the opportunity to touch on some other topics as well, like how the meta might evolves over the next year, how War Suns might fare, and what to do about “powerful” factions. 

42:50 - Titans of Ul Introduction Errata

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The day of awakening is finally upon us. We have risen from the Buzzfeed slumber and come to you prepared to begin covering the factions as they stand in Prophecy of Kings. First up, we wanted to go a little easy on ourselves, so we have a Titan of Ul introduction. They’re a good faction. Maybe too good. Time will tell...

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The Root Patreon Tournament is officially underway and officially sponsored, so what better way to celebrate than an unofficial episode about how to learn to play the Riverfolk Company? These otters are significantly more versatile than their expansion companions the Lizards, but in some ways require just as much skill to comprehend all of the tools in your kit.

6:58 - Abilities & Setup

10:50 - Company Economy

14:06 - Services

30:36 - Trade Posts

33:58 - Birdsong

39:31 - Daylight & Evening

56:40 - Opening Ideas

1:03:22 - Crafty Corner

1:22:22 - Pitfalls

1:26:32 - Where we find our victory

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We kick off our Root tournament this weekend, which means the show is about to get crazy busy! So, we decided it was important to set the table for 2021 and go over how we plan to structure future episodes as well as the changes made to the Patreon.

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This year’s Holiday Spectacular stream took a lot out of us, and there are so many other things going on that we have a rather short episode for you. It’s a salt filled trip taking a look at what happened, and how we intend to get even next year...

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It is a time-honored tradition around these parts to wrap up the year with a Faction Tier List. But the whole game just changed and there’s no way any of our thoughts are going to be any good in a year, so we decided to get a little loose with this year’s tier list. So, we present the 100% First Annual Prophecy of Kings Faction Tier List but it’s not a tier list, it’s a Hootenanny, and it is infallible and perfect. #NailedIt

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This is a weird one, brought to you by our Galactic Council patrons! It’s the return of the infamous Flagship Tournament, where all of the flagships fight in head to head matches with arbitrary complicated rules! Who will be crowned the greatest flagship of them all? Jokes on you, we rigged it! Anyways, this episode is also available in video form on our YouTube and I highly encourage you to go experience it there!

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Tournament Season is officially on the horizon, and to get things moving, we have business to attend to! This episode covers everything you need to know to get signed up for the upcoming Root tournament as well as loads of information about the 2021 SCPT Twilight Imperium Patreon Tournament. We talk new draft rules, the new time limit rules, and a bit about the Prelims map. I hope you like tournaments, because THAT’S MY WHOLE LIFE NOW.

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Prophecy of Kings has officially released and to commemorate it, Alec sat down for another Fireside Chat, this time with Dane Beltrami himself! Dane is no stranger to the show, but this is a wonderful casual interview that dives a bit deeper into game development and Dane's insights on the game we all know and love.

It’s bookkeeping day! We’ve got some upcoming tournaments that we wanted to talk about. But that’s not all! With copies of Prophecy of Kings officially out in the wild, we wanted to talk about what we anticipate as players and and as content creators in the Twilight Imperium scene. We talk show goals as well as personal goals for a post-expansion era of SCPT. 

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It feels like forever since we let this show get weird, y’know? Well, today is a weird one. Copies of Prophecy of Kings are shipping to many people this week, which means it’s time to put the final nail in base game’s coffin by assigning every faction a rank! We’re done with subjective tier lists, it’s time to give you the meat you’ve always craved. We took all 17 base game factions and definitively determined the exact order of power. There’s a lot of exact and perfect science in this episode, so I hope your mind can handle it...

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With all that messy Twilight Imperium business behind us, we can return to the real work. And it is WORK. This week, we have a guide for “the worst faction” in Root, The Lizard Cult. Despite their setbacks, they’re incredibly fun, and hopefully we can help you unlock their potential. Just give us a chance!

12:07 - Abilities

15:24 - Setup

22:39 - Birdsong

29:33 - Daylight

37:50 - Evening

41:55 - Opening Ideas

47:59 - Crafty Corner

1:07:25 - Pitfalls

1:11:25 - Where we find our victory

Music by Brian Kupillas. Find more at wanderinglake.bandcamp.com

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As part of our 24 hour Extra Life livestream, we recorded this episode LIVE with surprise guest Dane Beltrami. It has a looser structure than you might be used to, but we say goodbye to things we will and won’t miss from a TI4 that lacks Prophecy of Kings, and talk a bit about the things we’re most excited for. The audio is a little bit rough in this one, apologies!

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For more info about Twilight Imperium: Prophecy of Kings, be sure to visit https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/

It’s the last time that finishing the 17th of a thing will mean we are done with that project. It’s been a project over a year in the making, but today marks the end of our base game faction Strategy Guides. And to wrap things up, we have a faction that required some time. And if we hadn’t had an expansion so closely on the horizon, we may have let it bake a little while longer. But even a little while longer in the over wouldn’t have made these plants any better, and so perhaps it is as it should be. This guide is not hopeful, but it is honest, and the truth is that Arborec is a very bad faction, and it’s going to take some serious work and some serious luck to find success. So, let’s talk about how best to make that happen (or not, man. I can only do so much!).

11:44- Overview
40:03 - Problems
50:15 - Round One Strategy Cards
1:08:16 - Tech Paths
1:26:53 - Trading/Meta
1:31:40 - Mid-Game
1:33:40 - Late Game 

1:43:39 - Nekro Virus Errata

1:51:41 - Arborec and Barony of Letnev Commanders and Objective: Improve Infrastructure.

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Be careful. Two chill bros chill out hard in this eppy, and totally wax spiritual, man. They get straight up lifted and...this is Matt, and I haven't really done any drugs and don't know what I'm doing. Anyways, here's a great chat between Alec and TgWelch. Please enjoy it.

8:45 - Hacan Commander: Gila the Silvertongue

It’s spooky season, and that means we get to talk about one of the spookiest factions out there: the Nekro Virus. What once was seen as aggressive, bloodthirsty killing machines are now a deal-oriented accountant wearing brass knuckles. Nekro is a good faction, but only if you dig a bit into the math and strategy that lies under the surface. So let’s dive in!

6:31 - Abilities and Starting Units/Tech

16:12 - First Round Strategy Cards

37:20 - Problems

39:55 - Tech Paths

50:57 - Trading and Meta

1:03:6 - Mid-Game

1:06:37 - Late Game

1:14:41 - Ghosts of Creuss Strategy Guide Errata

1:23:18 - System: Jeol Ir/Accoen and Nekro Virus Hero: Polymorphic Algorithm

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We’re nearing the end of these base game Strategy Guides. Five years after the release of 3rd Edition, FFG released the Shards of the Throne expansion and included three new factions. Among those was what would quickly become one of the most beloved factions of the entire game, the Ghosts of Creuss. The Ghosts are so cool and interesting, they are TI4 designer Dane Beltrami’s favorite faction. Anyways...here’s a guide we threw together. We think it’s pretty good.

4:05 - Abilities and Starting Units/Tech

16:30 - First Round Strategy Cards

42:13 - Problems

45:08 - Tech Paths

57:30 - Trading and Meta

1:08:50 - Mid-Game

1:15:11 - Late Game

1:22:07 - Muaat Strategy Guide Errata

1:35:38 - Agenda: Nexus Sovereignty and Vuil’Raith Cabal Agent: The Stillness of Stars

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Do you even understand what this episode cost? Hunter has gone back into the oven to further explore the strategies of the Embers of Muaat, and he’s a harder, colder man because of it. He may be forever changed, but at least we’ll finally know whether Red Tech or Blue Tech is better. You have to listen to this one, because it physically hurt Hunter to make.

8:15 - Abilities and Starting Units/Tech

23:13 - Problems

27:40 - First Round Strategy Cards

43:16 - Tech Paths

52:06 - Trading and Meta

58:30 - Mid-Game

1:00:36 - Late Game

1:10:49 - Muaat Agent: Umbat and Tech: AI Development Algorithm

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

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This month the Galactic Council foisted upon us a episode so daunting, we had to enlist help from our own private Rules Judge, Milty! Milty is known in the community as the master of all rules, and there is no better person to host our newest game show: Rules Quiz Extravaganza!

1:35:26 -  Explore: Expedition and Sardakk N'orr Mech: Valkyrie Exoskeleton

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I hope you enjoy your outdoor cooking with lots of SALT. Today, we delve into our only remaining base game Root faction, the Vagabond. Much maligned by the rest of the forest creatures, the Vagabond is power, requires focus from the rest of the table to stop, and...honestly can sometimes not be that fun to play as. It is an uphill meta-battle, and here are tools on how to survive your early games as this most infamous racoon.

5:50 - Abilities and Setup

30:28 - Birdsong and Slipping

34:54 - Daylight and Inventory Management

40:48 - Evening

42:28 - Opening Ideas

52:45 - Crafty Corner

1:05:43 - Pitfalls

1:09:17 - Finding a Win

1:15:28 - Yin Brotherhood Strategy Guide Errata

1:22:16 - Prophecy of Kings Reveals! (Xxcha Commander and AC: Deadly Plot)

Music by Brian Kupillas. Find more at wanderinglake.bandcamp.com

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It’s not 2018 anymore, and that means we get to like the Yin and talk about them in a serious context. This might legitimately be Matt’s best faction, and hopefully that translates to some somewhat decent strategic insights. You be the judge! And stick around for the final Yin Brotherhood Prophecy of Kings spoiler!

4:53 - Overview

24:43 - Tech Paths

40:29 - Strategy Cards

59:39 - Problems

1:01:35 - Trading

1:10:00 - Mid-Game

1:13:52 - Late Game

1:26:57 -  Yin Agent: Brother Milor and Agenda: Search Warrant

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This month on Fireside Chats Alec sits down with the creator and moderator of the TI4 on TTS Discord, PhilRoi. He’s a huge figure in the community who puts in tons of effort and hours to ensure everyone has a safe and fun place to organize games of Twilight Imperium online. Not to mention he’s an incredibly kind person who is incredibly easy to talk to!

5:02 - Objective: Explore the Outer Rim

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Development of Leder Games’ Oath has been completed, and a lot has changed since the last time we talked to Cole Wehrle. So, we decided to sit down with him again so he could update us on what’s new, what’s not, and what’s to come! Additionally, we talk about where he sees Root heading in future expansions, as well as the competitive Root scene and our upcoming test tournament!

8:20 - Explore: Enigmatic Device and Jol-Nar Mech: Shield Paling

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For our second consecutive Galactic Council episode, the winner was an update on all of the components and abilities revealed for Prophecy of Kings so far. Now we couldn’t cover EVERYTHING, but today we touch on all of the tech, objectives, and faction stuff we’ve seen. It’s a LOT, so strap in and prepare to get your lace up your analysis shoes. We’re about to go trekkin’.

4:12 - Tech: Bio-Stims and Yssaril Commander: So Ata

To see more reveals, visit Wekker's spreadsheet!

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It’s the day you’ve been waiting all this time for. Nearly 3 years in, and we’ve finally managed to book our significant others to appear on the show. They were a tough get, and we had to offer some major residuals, but we finally got them on board. The Galactic Council submitted loads of questions, and we went through as many of them as we could so that you all could get the inner scoop of what it’s like to be our Partners in TI.

1:51:47 - System: Atlas and L1z1x Commander and Mech: 2RAM and Annihilator

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We’re trying to get our significant others to sit down for this month’s Galactic Council episode, but it’s proving more difficult than we originally planned. So, Alec is here to save the day with yet another Fireside Chat. This time with longstanding patron and Discord rabble-rouser, Billy!

6:47 - Objective: Command an Armada and Barony Agent: Viscount Unlenn

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And so begins the saga of the most temporary strategy guides ever written. Why are we writing guides for a game whose strategy will be radically changed in a matter of months? BECAUSE! When you start something you finish it! Even if it costs you everything. Even if all you’re left with is a Floating Factory and a single infantry sitting alone in a distant asteroid field. See, I still tied it back to Saar, who this strategy guide is about. And also, stick around for a Prophecy of Kings Saar spoiler!

5:27 - Overview

15:27 - Round One

33:56 - Problems

35:54 - Tech

45:34 - Trading/Meta

49:15 - Mid-Game

53:15 - Late Game

58:20 - Root: Woodland Alliance Errata

1:09:17 - Exploration: Freelancers and Saar Mech Reveal!

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Deemed “The Jol-Nar of Root,” the Woodland Alliance is very powerful, and rather straight-forward in what they need to do in order to win. However, they can still have rather intimidating hurdles to get over for new players. So today, we want to cover solid play while avoiding the traps new players fall into. Stick around too, because at the end of the episode, we have more Twilight Imperium: Prophecy of Kings reveals!!

9:25 - Abilities

16:55 - Birdsong, Sympathy, and Bases

24:28 - Daylight, Evening, and Officers

40:27 - Opening Ideas

44:00 - Arts and Crafts

53:31 - Pitfalls and Winning

57:32 - The Winnu Strategy Guide Errata

1:07:08 - Prophecy of Kings Reveals! (Hacan Mech, and Shard of the Throne)

Music by Brian Kupillas. Find more at wanderinglake.bandcamp.com

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There has already been so much new stuff to digest this weekend, but only one thing is actually CURRENTLY playable. Alongside the reveal of Prophecy of Kings on Friday, Fantasy Flight also released the first official Twilight Codex, which contains more Omega components, new action cards, and a whole playable scenario! Today, we sit down with Dane and just talk through every single thing in the document, and Dane shares a few design insights, but mostly we just freak out about all of the cool new stuff.

To download the Codex, visit: https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/94/c5/94c59830-533e-47aa-a708-25634575161b/twilight_codex_v1-compressed.pdf

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AAAAHHHH! It happened. The expansion for Twilight Imperium 4th Edition, Prophecy of Kings, has been announced! And the only way to celebrate this momentous occasion is to bring designer Dane Beltrami onto the show and go in depth into every new mechanic. Additionally, we have been given exclusive access to one of the SEVEN new factions, and will be doing an exhaustive reveal of the lore and abilities of The Nomad. You cannot miss this episode.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

Hunter is hitting the road this week, moving back to Arkansas to be with his baby daddy. In lieu of time to record a proper episode, Alec is here to fill the gap yet again with another Fireside Chat. This time, he sits down with Weird Bear Fargoness and his son, GenCon 2019 Finalist Xenofeline. There aren’t many father/son duos in our community, and the humor and skill these two both bring is so valuable. Enjoy!

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Join in on the discussion here, on our Discord, or at our Board Game Geek Guild. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. And send us your in game moments for Play of the Week! and This Imperium Life at [email protected]

We appreciate all of the feedback and discussion, but there are more ways you can contribute! If you want to join in and decide future games and topics to cover, visit our Patreon

Winnu Winnu, Chicken Dinnu. It’s a faction so bad at winning that they have a celebratory catch phrase. How did we get here? Is there a trick to all of this that makes Winnu truly viable? Or is every win just a fluke? Let’s talk about “strategy” for the faction that really really really wants Mecatol Rex and basically nothing else. Also, if you prefer three and four player games...I’m really sorry that this episode isn’t more for you. I bet you have way more fun with Winnu…

7:16 - Overview

25:30 - Early Game

52:00 - Tech

59:19 - Trade/Meta

1:04:26 - Mid-Game

1:10:44 - Late Game

1:15:40 - Root Eyrie Dynasties Errata

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Join in on the discussion here, on our Discord, or at our Board Game Geek Guild. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. And send us your in game moments for Play of the Week! and This Imperium Life at [email protected]

We appreciate all of the feedback and discussion, but there are more ways you can contribute! If you want to join in and decide future games and topics to cover, visit our Patreon

Birds, man. Lemme tell ya. This was a tough nut to crack, but eventually we found some comfort with The Eyrie Dynasties in Root. They are a good faction, but they can, at times, feel a bit tough to learn and unlock the full potential of. Half programming, and half slow-burn, the Eyrie makes for a faction that, when things go wrong it can feel crippling. But when things go right, they are among the toughest to stop. So join us while we learn to play as these fierce lil’ birds.

9:23 - Abilities

11:49 - Birdsong and The Decree

22:45 - Leaders

30:43 - Daylight and Turmoil

43:48 - Evening

46:22 - Crafty Corner

59:20 - Pitfalls

1:05:30 - Victory

Music by Brian Kupillas. Find more at wanderinglake.bandcamp.com

Join in on the discussion here, on our Discord, or at our Board Game Geek Guild. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. And send us your in game moments for Play of the Week! and This Imperium Life at [email protected]

We appreciate all of the feedback and discussion, but there are more ways you can contribute! If you want to join in and decide future games and topics to cover, visit our Patreon

Open up your cosmic history books and get yourself ready for story-time!

Today Hunter and Alec the person sat down together to talk about the Lore of Twilight Imperium 4th edition. We talk a lot about the opening crawl in the learn to play book and dive deep into several faction sheets. It was actually super fun and I feel a new sense of appreciation for the writing in these games. LIKE DID YOU KNOW THAT THE NEKRO ARE SPOOKY? They are.

Also please watch the FFG inflight report with Hunter and friends on July 29th 7PM Central (5PM Pacific). Watch it on https://www.twitch.tv/ffglive while you listen to us jabber on https://www.twitch.tv/spacecatspeaceturtles

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Join in on the discussion here, on our Discord, or at our Board Game Geek Guild. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. And send us your in game moments for Play of the Week! and This Imperium Life at [email protected]

We appreciate all of the feedback and discussion, but there are more ways you can contribute! If you want to join in and decide future games and topics to cover, visit our Patreon

Introducing a new show within the show, FIRESIDE CHATS.

This week enjoy some special programming from community favorite Root, AKA Alec. Today (actually in April) he sat down with one of our favorite players of all time MAGI to have a wide-ranging conversation about strategy games, TI, and tournaments. 

Check out the beginning of the episode for this week’s rundown and general announcements and stay tuned for our proper Galactic Council episode about Twilight Imperium Lore in a few days. 

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Join in on the discussion here, on our Discord, or at our Board Game Geek Guild. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. And send us your in game moments for Play of the Week! and This Imperium Life at [email protected]

We appreciate all of the feedback and discussion, but there are more ways you can contribute! If you want to join in and decide future games and topics to cover, visit our Patreon

She is industrious. She is stalwart. She is really hard to win Root with. She is the Marquise de Cat. What is often used as the “learning” faction for Root is the one with some of the most problems to overcome. So, to help you in your process of learning all of the varied faction in Root, we wanted to present this overview of the Cats!

6:19 - Abilities & Setup

19:14 - Birdsong, Daylight, & Evening

28:28 - Opening Strategies

37:43 - Crafty Corner

1:02:00 - Pitfalls

1:09:15 - Finding Victory

1:14:18 - L1z1x Errata

Music by Brian Kupillas. Find more at wanderinglake.bandcamp.com

Join in on the discussion here, on our Discord, or at our Board Game Geek Guild. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. And send us your in game moments for Play of the Week! and This Imperium Life at [email protected]

We appreciate all of the feedback and discussion, but there are more ways you can contribute! If you want to join in and decide future games and topics to cover, visit our Patreon

The time rift is still open and the universe is in absolute chaos. This episode careens back and forth between pre-baby and post-baby Matt, and you can expect more in the weeks to come. While Matt and Hunter are trapped in this time loop, they found a chance to talk about the L1z1x Mindnet. Enjoy that talk before eternity folds back in on itself and we all wake up as cyborgs. 

Section Outline: 

Overview - 7:09

Early Game - 20:14

Technology - 42:25

Trading/Meta - 55:00

Mid Game - 58:15

Late Game - 01:01:25

Rundown - 01:09:58

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Join in on the discussion here, on our Discord, or at our Board Game Geek Guild. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. And send us your in game moments for Play of the Week! and This Imperium Life at [email protected]

We appreciate all of the feedback and discussion, but there are more ways you can contribute! If you want to join in and decide future games and topics to cover, visit our Patreon

Today we’re going to mind-meld with the psychic reptiles we love so much, The Naalu Collective! Listen as Matt and Hunter unveil their Naalu strategy guide! Also we have entered the Baby arc of the show where Matt and Hunter will begin hopping through time as they record many episodes early for air so that the baby will have plenty of Matt time. Also stay tuned to the end for a live update on that. ;) If you need any clues it’s Hunter writing this episode summary and I uhh never do that normally. 

Section Outline: 

Overview - 7:09

Early Game - 20:14

Technology - 42:25

Trading/Meta - 55:00

Mid Game - 58:15

Late Game - 01:01:25

Rundown - 01:09:58

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Join in on the discussion here, on our Discord, or at our Board Game Geek Guild. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. And send us your in game moments for Play of the Week! and This Imperium Life at [email protected]

We appreciate all of the feedback and discussion, but there are more ways you can contribute! If you want to join in and decide future games and topics to cover, visit our Patreon

Our original plan was to make an overview episode for the Marquise de Cat in Leder Games’ Root for this week. But, in setting out on that journey, we realized Root requires a bit more setup. So, this week, we want to cover the key actions at your disposal in Root and the ways they impact your positioning and points. Then, when we DO get to faction overviews, we can use these ideas as a framework to better organize our thoughts.

Music by Brian Kupillas. Find more at wanderinglake.bandcamp.com

Join in on the discussion here, on our Discord, or at our Board Game Geek Guild. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. And send us your in game moments for Play of the Week! and This Imperium Life at [email protected]

We appreciate all of the feedback and discussion, but there are more ways you can contribute! If you want to join in and decide future games and topics to cover, visit our Patreon

Kind of a weird tone to start this week’s episode, but that’s just the vibe these days. Eventually, we talk a bit about the 14 point tournament from last weekend that was a wildly fun party for the community. We’ve got thoughts on 14 point games, winmaking, and streaming TI, so maybe there’s something in there for everyone. We certainly hope everyone willing to listen feels welcome, that’s for sure.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Join in on the discussion here, on our Discord, or at our Board Game Geek Guild. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. And send us your in game moments for Play of the Week! and This Imperium Life at [email protected]

We appreciate all of the feedback and discussion, but there are more ways you can contribute! If you want to join in and decide future games and topics to cover, visit our Patreon

What a world we’re in! Last week was a faction guide, and we’ve got another one hot on it’s trail. Yssaril is a faction all about subterfuge and sneakery, and turns out that can be a difficult tool to wield. Action Cards can be a mighty force, but only with the economics to back them up. So, is this faction good? Come listen and find out!

11:58 Yssaril Tribes Overview

25:21 First Round Strategy Cards

50:15 Early Game Problems

54:28 Technology

1:04:50 Trading/Meta

1:14:05 Mid-Game

1:19:52 Late Game

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Join in on the discussion here, on our Discord, or at our Board Game Geek Guild. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. And send us your in game moments for Play of the Week! and This Imperium Life at [email protected]

We appreciate all of the feedback and discussion, but there are more ways you can contribute! If you want to join in and decide future games and topics to cover, visit our Patreon

This episode hit a few snags along the way. Our first recording put us over three, and we ended up getting pillaged, so we had to record another once we’d spent our other episodes. So, here now, finally, is our Mentak Coalition Strategy Guide. They’re a bit more straightforward than some of our previous guides, but that doesn’t mean there are important nuances that any player must tend to. Also, at the top, we chat a bit about our games in the 14 point tournament Semifinals that we both took part in last weekend. More on that experience to come in a future episode, though!

0:00 Matt and Hunter’s games in the 14 Point Tournament Semifinals

19:30 Mentak Overview

36:22 First Round Strategy Cards

58:12 Early Game Problems

1:05:05 Technology

1:23:00 Trading/Meta

1:34:22 Mid-game

1:40:00 Late Game

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Join in on the discussion here, on our Discord, or at our Board Game Geek Guild. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. And send us your in game moments for Play of the Week! and This Imperium Life at [email protected]

We appreciate all of the feedback and discussion, but there are more ways you can contribute! If you want to join in and decide future games and topics to cover, visit our Patreon

It is time to embark on a new journey! We’ve been honing our skills at Leder Games’ Root, and we want to start this game off the way we start all of our games: learning how to LEARN Root. This is different from your Learn to Play guides out there, and instead we discuss the ways to approach the game and the types of tactics to approach if you hope to develop a real love of this game.

Music by Brian Kupillas. Find more at wanderinglake.bandcamp.com

Join in on the discussion here, on our Discord, or at our Board Game Geek Guild. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. And send us your in game moments for Play of the Week! and This Imperium Life at [email protected]

We appreciate all of the feedback and discussion, but there are more ways you can contribute! If you want to join in and decide future games and topics to cover, visit our Patreon

On this month’s edition of the Galactic Council, they bring you something a bit more off the beaten path. Since we have new tech, it seems the hottest topic is what new possibilities have opened up in the world of “tech paths.” So, today we explore some of that space, while also just brainstorming what non-traditional tech paths we could experiment with with each faction.

But first! Dane Beltrami is going to join us and catch us up to speed with the recent Omega release, as well as the even MORE recent Living Rules Reference 1.3!

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Join in on the discussion here, on our Discord, or at our Board Game Geek Guild. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. And send us your in game moments for Play of the Week! and This Imperium Life at [email protected]