Post by eldritch on May 20, 2010 18:47:28 GMT -5
I'd thought I'd write up a relatively unique game of Twilight Imperium that I played in for a bit. It utilized a number of relatively unique mechanics that, I think, are worth bringing to general attention (...plus, writing for fun is an excellent form of procrastination). Specifically, the map we used, the determination of starting positions, and determination of objective cards were all relatively unique, and thus worth introducing to those who may not otherwise encounter them. Anyone interested in possible ways to play Twilight Imperium should check them out, even if you skip the actual game. ...I've never written a session report, so bare with me here if it gets a little rough.
Game Setup and Rules
The game went down Saturday, May 1. It featured myself (Alex), Emerson, Kevin, Katy, and Mark. All individuals but myself are friends from London I don't see as often as I used to. Katy had never played the game, Mark had 2 years ago, and Kevin, Emerson and myself used to play it together regularly (so the three of us had it out for each other). It went for about 8 hours, and only 7 turns... Far too long and slowly for my tastes.
The game used a number of alternate rules. I'll be assuming some familiarity with the base game (a quick Google search can find you the base rules, if you don't know them). The strangest thing going was the map:
www.ti3wiki.org/index.php?title=Ultimatum_PBeM_Map:50%25
The map was found on this discussion, which contains other alternate maps by the same author:
www.ti3wiki.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1230085932
This map was very different than anything else I'd seen, and I was interested in trying it. I would recommend it whole-heartedly. It helps to generate some tense and exciting game situations, although it doesn't result in as much interaction as I thought it might. That being said, I don't think our game was a particularly good example of what would normally happen, due to the two new players, and to Kevin and I both playing a very passive game. It is also quite balanced, and someone obviously put a lot of thought into building it.
We also used a number of other optional rules. The map required using a bidding system, whereby after getting race and secret objective card every player takes turns nominating a location and a number of tradegoods, and going around until every player has a location. If you choose a location someone else has already chosen, you have to out-bid them, kicking them off that location, and causing them to have to choose a location again on their next time around – bidding wars for locations do happen (in my limited experience, anyways). Each player then gets tradegoods at the start of the game equal to the highest bid, less whatever they bid. So, obviously, the highest bidder gets nothing, whereas if you bid nothing, you get the highest bid in tradegoods. This might sound confusing, but it's straightforward in practice. I think it would be a worthy modification to the game generally, even if playing with an otherwise normal set up (doing it after all players have placed planets).
We used the alternate strategy cards from the Shattered Empire expansion, as well as the additional races, the racial tech cards, and the alternate tech, political, and action cards. The alternate cards can be found here, if you want a reference:
files.boardgamegeek.com/file/download/4628nbojty/TI3_SE_Strategy_cards.pdf?
We also used the Age of Empire variant (from the core rulebook). Kevin had been urging us to do it for ages, claiming it was the best way to play, all the internet folks at Fortress: AmeriTrash recommend it, and so on. The way I found on BBG to combine the alternate strategy cards and the AoE variant involves putting counters on the objective cards. The person playing Bureaucracy card can choose a counter to take off (but only stage I cards for the first three turns); that objective card can now be claimed. I found that knowing what objectives are coming up only serves to reward avoiding conflict and selectively securing objectives at opportune times, which perpetuates the sort of kingmaking/ Munchkin-esque gameplay that is often prevalent and, to my mind, undesirable in Twilight Imperium anyways. I won't use this rule again.
The following were the starting locations, post bid:
Katy: Sardakk N'orr, starting location III, with a bid of 3
Mark: Mentak Coalition, starting location I, with a bid of 5 (or maybe 4)
Kevin: Federation of Sol, starting location II, with a bid of 5
Emerson: Barony of Letnev, starting location IV, with a bid of 4
Alex: Naalu Collective, starting location V, with a bid of 0
We were unsure of how to do seating; we ended up going Emerson-Kevin-Katy-Mark-Alex. We probably should've switched Katy and Mark – we ended up with a number of objectives dependent on one's neighbour that had weird results because of the seating order.
The Game
First turn Kevin was speaker, and took technology. I took Warfare to get extra movement for my ships, as I thought I'd need it to get anywhere, given I had no adjacent systems. Emerson took Assembly, making himself Speaker. Trade and Production were also taken. Bureaucracy went unused, so no objectives available at the end of turn. I made a deal with Emerson so that I got the Tequ'ran, Torkan, Hope's End and Meer planets and he got the rest in that area of space, and Katy agreed I could have Lodor, Tsion and Bellatrix. So, lots of friendly co-existence. Taking Warfare ended up being a big mistake – I bought XRD transporter technology anyways (which gives carriers extra movement, making the extra movement from Warfare unnecessary), and mis-played horribly by not waiting for Production to build a carrier. If I'd played right, I could've ended up with a carrier and troops on Bellatrix (as well as Torkan/Tequ'ran, which I did get). A law was enacted, such that players who have (or are tied for) the lowest fleet supply get an extra command counter during the status phase, which inhibited military progress throughout the game.
The next two turns were not that interesting. Katy ended up taking the Loki, New Albion and El'Nath sytems, Mark took Arcturus, Belleg, and Zohbat, Kevin took the three planetary systems adjacent to his homeworld, and Emerson took Arinam (leaving me Meer, as agreed), Mallice, Vefut, Quann, and Perimeter. Turn 3 (I think – maybe turn 2) Mark attacked and took Rigel III from Kevin. Turn 3, I took Assembly, giving Mark the speaker token, and playing out a law that had all players sharing a tech with their trading partners, which everyone but Kevin loved. I took Hyper Metabolism from Kevin. Turn 3, Mark started cranking out Warsuns, and verbally threatening the rest of us (a bad move, in a highly political game – but he didn't know that). As Naalu, I was going for the Advanced Fighters tech to make my inherently good fighters even better, and was looking forward to the culmination of my plans – although, I realized, I was having a hard time teching and building up a military. In part because of my desire to make shock troops at Hope's End, I had the smallest army in the game, by quite a bit.
After being attacked by Mark (so starting about turn 3), Kevin began turtling hardcore. He maintained virtually no fleet aside from a couple carriers, building only ground troops and PDSes. Part way through the game, I noticed he had two PDSes each on his home system, Mirage, and Vega Major, as well as all the tech to make them better. He used the command counters he got (5 per turn! 3 naturally, due to his racial ability, plus 1 for Hyper Metabolism, plus 1 from the aforementioned law, as well as bonus counters from various strategy cards) to put dozens of ground troops on all his planets. He also eventually obtained all the PDS upgrades and already had Gen Synthesis for getting Hyper Metabolism. While he had no fleet, his planets were more trouble than they were worth. Consequently, after taking Rigel III from Kevin, Mark did not attack him any more.
On turn 4, things started heating up. Mark took Mecatol Rex, with a Warsun and a handful of friends, and claimed he was going for my undefended Tequ'ran/Torkan system from there. He'd strangely left his home system pretty defenseless (he claimed it was a show of good faith to Katy – pure crazy). He'd also built a second Warsun (using the Production card) on Zohbat. Kevin and I both had no military to speak of (aside from Kevin's ground forces). Emerson had built up enough to deter any threat, but was spread out enough not to look threatening (despite a questionable build-up on Mallice). Katy, however, had taken the Warfare card, and had a mid-sized fleet (a carrier with a couple of fighters and ground troops, a cruiser or two, and a destroyer) on the ion storm next to her home system, where she deployed the High Alert token. That ion storm also contained a token with the A wormhole on it, which had us all a little nervous, as she could get, well, pretty much anywhere from there. Kevin, Emerson and myself, all concerned about Mark and thinking it was clearly the right thing for Katy to do, urged her to backstab him, but she was clearly having none of it. I had the sense all three of us thought she really didn't get what was going on. Mark, a little worried about our urgings, moved his Warsun to his home system. Katy, to my surprise, (and not too thrilled with us for publicly telling her to attack him, causing him to move his Warsun to his home system) attacked him anyways, which is what she'd been planning to do all along, playing the lot of us for chumps. Unfortunately for Katy, the combination of the Warsun and some bad luck was enough to undo her plans – the battle ended in a draw, as all ships on both sides were destroyed. This had the good news (for those of us who weren't Mark) of crippling Mark's military pretty hard. It turns out her Secret Objective was taking someone's home system, which was certainly an interesting objective to have, given the board setup and closeness of home systems.
Turn 5 was a brief reprieve. I'd taken the trade card a couple of times, as I was finding myself short of resources. Consequently, due to Mark's threatening Warsun on Mecatol Rex, I dropped four dreadnaughts on Hope's End, where I had a Starbase. I had holding Mecatol Rex as part of my secret objective, so I planned on invading it eventually, if Mark didn't invade me first. Mark rebuilt his Warsun – and wasn't able to do much else. A political card showed up that had a 50/50 chance of either doing no small damage to Mecatol Rex and the surrounding systems or giving us all two technologies. Luckily (for Mark and I, who had ships on or near Mecatol Rex), it ended up getting us the techs, putting me within striking distance of the Advanced Fighters I'd been eager for. Katy built up a little bit, but mostly spent her resources on tech.
Turn 6 got the action flowing again. I finally got Advanced Fighters. I might've been able to get it earlier, but I'd been sidetracked on a previous turn by getting my racial tech to encourage people not to attack me (my racial tech has players losing a command counter out of their fleet supply which, combined with my ability to run away before the battle, strongly discouraged anyone from attacking me). After getting Advanced Fighters, I built a host of the things on my starbase on Hope's End. Worried about my buildup, Mark used an action card to destroy that starbase – an action that only ensured future enmity. Alas, the game ended before I had a chance to wreak revenge.
Towards the end of the turn (after Katy had passed), things got crazy, as Emerson invaded Katy's home system (!). His attack took everyone at the table by surprise (especially Katy, who was not pleased). He'd built up a pretty solid fleet on Mallice, and was able to sweep a strong force in with relative ease, while still leaving a sizable force back. On his next action, he was about to invade another system of hers (the only other starbase she had), when he took a look at his secret objective and started swearing. Turns out, his secret objective was to knock a neighbouring player's last starbase off the board – only, he missed the neighbouring part. He could've easily taken my home system (as he and I were neighbours) if he'd been aware of the particulars of the secret objective. I believe this turn Emerson took back the Speaker token, as well. Also, Kevin engaged in his first military move of the game, taking back the planet that Mark took from him some turns back.
Turn 7 was the somewhat anti-climactic conclusion of the game. I Signal Jammed Mark on Mecatol Rex (putting one of his command counters on the system, rendering the system and its ships inaccessible to him), only to have Kevin Signal Jam my large Hope's End fleet, preventing me from getting to Mecatol Rex and working some wonders, and also stopping me from rebuilding my starbase. Katy took back her home system with what remained of her fleet, and Emerson built up, focusing on his home system. Kevin, as he had the whole game, continued throwing down ground troops ad nauseum. ...Which meant, as it had all game, we had all passed long before he did. Suddenly, once we'd passed, he sprang into action. While his fleet was pretty much non-existent, he was able to take the undefended Sumerian/Arcturus system and both planets of the Bereg/Lirta IV system, giving him ten planets. He then played Bureaucracy, making a stage II objective available whereby, if he had more influence than his two neighbours combined, he gained 3 points. He did, in fact, have that much influence (Katy was one of his neighbours due to our seating arrangement, and only had 4 influence). I'd noticed he'd been the only person taking Bureaucracy, and it turned out he was now at eight points. At the end of the turn, he claimed another stage II objective that required having 10 planets to get 2 points for the win. It was a clever win for Kevin that I don't think anyone saw coming (at least I didn't), but it did feel awfully anti-climactic.
After the game as we were putting it away, we'd realized he'd misplayed the Bureaucracy card. There'd been a bonus counter on it, which he thought meant he could free up another objective card of his choice, but actually it had to be the next one available (they were played out in a row precisely for this reason). So he wouldn't actually been able to get the requisite number of points that turn. However, we called it in his favour anyways, as he was significantly in the lead.
Summary
The game wasn't as exciting as some Twilight Imperium games I've played. Nonetheless, it did show the potential of some of the additional rules we'd used. Three particularly bare noting.
First, choosing start locations by bidding for them seems like a great way to go. It makes people feel like they had a bit of choice in their starting location, rather than risking getting screwed by bad luck in a long game right from the get-go.
Second, the map we used was amazing. I never would have considered having the start locations dispersed throughout the map, rather than on the edges. It created a fair bit of tension, encouraged player interaction, and discouraged turtling, as everyone was close to each other. If these are things that you want more of in Twilight Imperium (and not everyone does), you should try this map. It was remarkably balanced, with important systems in locations where they were generally accessible. The placement of victory point counters made otherwise worthless systems (ion storms and nebulas) strategically important. All in all, it was pretty cool, and I hope to try this map again some day.
Third, I didn't like the Age of Empires optional rule. I felt like it discouraged combat and player interaction to a certain extent, as precise planning that sidestepped possible opposition was rewarded over generally building and expanding your galactic empire. I prefer the expansionist aspects of Twilight Imperium, and think of the objective cards as a carrot to encourage generally considered (rather than precisely planned) play. I can certainly understand how other players who prefer a particular style of game would find the Age of Empires option quite interesting.
Game Setup and Rules
The game went down Saturday, May 1. It featured myself (Alex), Emerson, Kevin, Katy, and Mark. All individuals but myself are friends from London I don't see as often as I used to. Katy had never played the game, Mark had 2 years ago, and Kevin, Emerson and myself used to play it together regularly (so the three of us had it out for each other). It went for about 8 hours, and only 7 turns... Far too long and slowly for my tastes.
The game used a number of alternate rules. I'll be assuming some familiarity with the base game (a quick Google search can find you the base rules, if you don't know them). The strangest thing going was the map:
www.ti3wiki.org/index.php?title=Ultimatum_PBeM_Map:50%25
The map was found on this discussion, which contains other alternate maps by the same author:
www.ti3wiki.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1230085932
This map was very different than anything else I'd seen, and I was interested in trying it. I would recommend it whole-heartedly. It helps to generate some tense and exciting game situations, although it doesn't result in as much interaction as I thought it might. That being said, I don't think our game was a particularly good example of what would normally happen, due to the two new players, and to Kevin and I both playing a very passive game. It is also quite balanced, and someone obviously put a lot of thought into building it.
We also used a number of other optional rules. The map required using a bidding system, whereby after getting race and secret objective card every player takes turns nominating a location and a number of tradegoods, and going around until every player has a location. If you choose a location someone else has already chosen, you have to out-bid them, kicking them off that location, and causing them to have to choose a location again on their next time around – bidding wars for locations do happen (in my limited experience, anyways). Each player then gets tradegoods at the start of the game equal to the highest bid, less whatever they bid. So, obviously, the highest bidder gets nothing, whereas if you bid nothing, you get the highest bid in tradegoods. This might sound confusing, but it's straightforward in practice. I think it would be a worthy modification to the game generally, even if playing with an otherwise normal set up (doing it after all players have placed planets).
We used the alternate strategy cards from the Shattered Empire expansion, as well as the additional races, the racial tech cards, and the alternate tech, political, and action cards. The alternate cards can be found here, if you want a reference:
files.boardgamegeek.com/file/download/4628nbojty/TI3_SE_Strategy_cards.pdf?
We also used the Age of Empire variant (from the core rulebook). Kevin had been urging us to do it for ages, claiming it was the best way to play, all the internet folks at Fortress: AmeriTrash recommend it, and so on. The way I found on BBG to combine the alternate strategy cards and the AoE variant involves putting counters on the objective cards. The person playing Bureaucracy card can choose a counter to take off (but only stage I cards for the first three turns); that objective card can now be claimed. I found that knowing what objectives are coming up only serves to reward avoiding conflict and selectively securing objectives at opportune times, which perpetuates the sort of kingmaking/ Munchkin-esque gameplay that is often prevalent and, to my mind, undesirable in Twilight Imperium anyways. I won't use this rule again.
The following were the starting locations, post bid:
Katy: Sardakk N'orr, starting location III, with a bid of 3
Mark: Mentak Coalition, starting location I, with a bid of 5 (or maybe 4)
Kevin: Federation of Sol, starting location II, with a bid of 5
Emerson: Barony of Letnev, starting location IV, with a bid of 4
Alex: Naalu Collective, starting location V, with a bid of 0
We were unsure of how to do seating; we ended up going Emerson-Kevin-Katy-Mark-Alex. We probably should've switched Katy and Mark – we ended up with a number of objectives dependent on one's neighbour that had weird results because of the seating order.
The Game
First turn Kevin was speaker, and took technology. I took Warfare to get extra movement for my ships, as I thought I'd need it to get anywhere, given I had no adjacent systems. Emerson took Assembly, making himself Speaker. Trade and Production were also taken. Bureaucracy went unused, so no objectives available at the end of turn. I made a deal with Emerson so that I got the Tequ'ran, Torkan, Hope's End and Meer planets and he got the rest in that area of space, and Katy agreed I could have Lodor, Tsion and Bellatrix. So, lots of friendly co-existence. Taking Warfare ended up being a big mistake – I bought XRD transporter technology anyways (which gives carriers extra movement, making the extra movement from Warfare unnecessary), and mis-played horribly by not waiting for Production to build a carrier. If I'd played right, I could've ended up with a carrier and troops on Bellatrix (as well as Torkan/Tequ'ran, which I did get). A law was enacted, such that players who have (or are tied for) the lowest fleet supply get an extra command counter during the status phase, which inhibited military progress throughout the game.
The next two turns were not that interesting. Katy ended up taking the Loki, New Albion and El'Nath sytems, Mark took Arcturus, Belleg, and Zohbat, Kevin took the three planetary systems adjacent to his homeworld, and Emerson took Arinam (leaving me Meer, as agreed), Mallice, Vefut, Quann, and Perimeter. Turn 3 (I think – maybe turn 2) Mark attacked and took Rigel III from Kevin. Turn 3, I took Assembly, giving Mark the speaker token, and playing out a law that had all players sharing a tech with their trading partners, which everyone but Kevin loved. I took Hyper Metabolism from Kevin. Turn 3, Mark started cranking out Warsuns, and verbally threatening the rest of us (a bad move, in a highly political game – but he didn't know that). As Naalu, I was going for the Advanced Fighters tech to make my inherently good fighters even better, and was looking forward to the culmination of my plans – although, I realized, I was having a hard time teching and building up a military. In part because of my desire to make shock troops at Hope's End, I had the smallest army in the game, by quite a bit.
After being attacked by Mark (so starting about turn 3), Kevin began turtling hardcore. He maintained virtually no fleet aside from a couple carriers, building only ground troops and PDSes. Part way through the game, I noticed he had two PDSes each on his home system, Mirage, and Vega Major, as well as all the tech to make them better. He used the command counters he got (5 per turn! 3 naturally, due to his racial ability, plus 1 for Hyper Metabolism, plus 1 from the aforementioned law, as well as bonus counters from various strategy cards) to put dozens of ground troops on all his planets. He also eventually obtained all the PDS upgrades and already had Gen Synthesis for getting Hyper Metabolism. While he had no fleet, his planets were more trouble than they were worth. Consequently, after taking Rigel III from Kevin, Mark did not attack him any more.
On turn 4, things started heating up. Mark took Mecatol Rex, with a Warsun and a handful of friends, and claimed he was going for my undefended Tequ'ran/Torkan system from there. He'd strangely left his home system pretty defenseless (he claimed it was a show of good faith to Katy – pure crazy). He'd also built a second Warsun (using the Production card) on Zohbat. Kevin and I both had no military to speak of (aside from Kevin's ground forces). Emerson had built up enough to deter any threat, but was spread out enough not to look threatening (despite a questionable build-up on Mallice). Katy, however, had taken the Warfare card, and had a mid-sized fleet (a carrier with a couple of fighters and ground troops, a cruiser or two, and a destroyer) on the ion storm next to her home system, where she deployed the High Alert token. That ion storm also contained a token with the A wormhole on it, which had us all a little nervous, as she could get, well, pretty much anywhere from there. Kevin, Emerson and myself, all concerned about Mark and thinking it was clearly the right thing for Katy to do, urged her to backstab him, but she was clearly having none of it. I had the sense all three of us thought she really didn't get what was going on. Mark, a little worried about our urgings, moved his Warsun to his home system. Katy, to my surprise, (and not too thrilled with us for publicly telling her to attack him, causing him to move his Warsun to his home system) attacked him anyways, which is what she'd been planning to do all along, playing the lot of us for chumps. Unfortunately for Katy, the combination of the Warsun and some bad luck was enough to undo her plans – the battle ended in a draw, as all ships on both sides were destroyed. This had the good news (for those of us who weren't Mark) of crippling Mark's military pretty hard. It turns out her Secret Objective was taking someone's home system, which was certainly an interesting objective to have, given the board setup and closeness of home systems.
Turn 5 was a brief reprieve. I'd taken the trade card a couple of times, as I was finding myself short of resources. Consequently, due to Mark's threatening Warsun on Mecatol Rex, I dropped four dreadnaughts on Hope's End, where I had a Starbase. I had holding Mecatol Rex as part of my secret objective, so I planned on invading it eventually, if Mark didn't invade me first. Mark rebuilt his Warsun – and wasn't able to do much else. A political card showed up that had a 50/50 chance of either doing no small damage to Mecatol Rex and the surrounding systems or giving us all two technologies. Luckily (for Mark and I, who had ships on or near Mecatol Rex), it ended up getting us the techs, putting me within striking distance of the Advanced Fighters I'd been eager for. Katy built up a little bit, but mostly spent her resources on tech.
Turn 6 got the action flowing again. I finally got Advanced Fighters. I might've been able to get it earlier, but I'd been sidetracked on a previous turn by getting my racial tech to encourage people not to attack me (my racial tech has players losing a command counter out of their fleet supply which, combined with my ability to run away before the battle, strongly discouraged anyone from attacking me). After getting Advanced Fighters, I built a host of the things on my starbase on Hope's End. Worried about my buildup, Mark used an action card to destroy that starbase – an action that only ensured future enmity. Alas, the game ended before I had a chance to wreak revenge.
Towards the end of the turn (after Katy had passed), things got crazy, as Emerson invaded Katy's home system (!). His attack took everyone at the table by surprise (especially Katy, who was not pleased). He'd built up a pretty solid fleet on Mallice, and was able to sweep a strong force in with relative ease, while still leaving a sizable force back. On his next action, he was about to invade another system of hers (the only other starbase she had), when he took a look at his secret objective and started swearing. Turns out, his secret objective was to knock a neighbouring player's last starbase off the board – only, he missed the neighbouring part. He could've easily taken my home system (as he and I were neighbours) if he'd been aware of the particulars of the secret objective. I believe this turn Emerson took back the Speaker token, as well. Also, Kevin engaged in his first military move of the game, taking back the planet that Mark took from him some turns back.
Turn 7 was the somewhat anti-climactic conclusion of the game. I Signal Jammed Mark on Mecatol Rex (putting one of his command counters on the system, rendering the system and its ships inaccessible to him), only to have Kevin Signal Jam my large Hope's End fleet, preventing me from getting to Mecatol Rex and working some wonders, and also stopping me from rebuilding my starbase. Katy took back her home system with what remained of her fleet, and Emerson built up, focusing on his home system. Kevin, as he had the whole game, continued throwing down ground troops ad nauseum. ...Which meant, as it had all game, we had all passed long before he did. Suddenly, once we'd passed, he sprang into action. While his fleet was pretty much non-existent, he was able to take the undefended Sumerian/Arcturus system and both planets of the Bereg/Lirta IV system, giving him ten planets. He then played Bureaucracy, making a stage II objective available whereby, if he had more influence than his two neighbours combined, he gained 3 points. He did, in fact, have that much influence (Katy was one of his neighbours due to our seating arrangement, and only had 4 influence). I'd noticed he'd been the only person taking Bureaucracy, and it turned out he was now at eight points. At the end of the turn, he claimed another stage II objective that required having 10 planets to get 2 points for the win. It was a clever win for Kevin that I don't think anyone saw coming (at least I didn't), but it did feel awfully anti-climactic.
After the game as we were putting it away, we'd realized he'd misplayed the Bureaucracy card. There'd been a bonus counter on it, which he thought meant he could free up another objective card of his choice, but actually it had to be the next one available (they were played out in a row precisely for this reason). So he wouldn't actually been able to get the requisite number of points that turn. However, we called it in his favour anyways, as he was significantly in the lead.
Summary
The game wasn't as exciting as some Twilight Imperium games I've played. Nonetheless, it did show the potential of some of the additional rules we'd used. Three particularly bare noting.
First, choosing start locations by bidding for them seems like a great way to go. It makes people feel like they had a bit of choice in their starting location, rather than risking getting screwed by bad luck in a long game right from the get-go.
Second, the map we used was amazing. I never would have considered having the start locations dispersed throughout the map, rather than on the edges. It created a fair bit of tension, encouraged player interaction, and discouraged turtling, as everyone was close to each other. If these are things that you want more of in Twilight Imperium (and not everyone does), you should try this map. It was remarkably balanced, with important systems in locations where they were generally accessible. The placement of victory point counters made otherwise worthless systems (ion storms and nebulas) strategically important. All in all, it was pretty cool, and I hope to try this map again some day.
Third, I didn't like the Age of Empires optional rule. I felt like it discouraged combat and player interaction to a certain extent, as precise planning that sidestepped possible opposition was rewarded over generally building and expanding your galactic empire. I prefer the expansionist aspects of Twilight Imperium, and think of the objective cards as a carrot to encourage generally considered (rather than precisely planned) play. I can certainly understand how other players who prefer a particular style of game would find the Age of Empires option quite interesting.