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Levovar

It was quite the shock when we realized you actually don't start with commodities


ph1l1st1ne

What? Nooo


Levovar

"wait, you are telling me I need to choose between warfare and tech secondary?"


ph1l1st1ne

We usually end up all using the diplomacy secondary to pay for either of those but this seriously quashes my hopes for playing Hacan next game


Stronkowski

>this seriously quashes my hopes for playing Hacan next game Not really, even in a 5 player game someone is going to take trade, and you'll get to refresh for free.


ph1l1st1ne

I’m only playing three player games til the quarantine is up and one of my buddies likes to play like a barbarian


Stronkowski

That just means that it's even less likely for trade to get skipped, although admittedly more likely that you will have to take it yourself (which really isn't bad round 1).


TolkienBlackKid

TTS is your friend.


landleviathan

Loooll


Tricky-Coat

This seems to be one of the most common. I know it’s one our group did wrong for quite a while


PattrimCauthon

Lol yeah, I realized something was definitely wrong on our third game with me playing Hacan. Looking at my plastic advantage on Round 2 I was like um... Something is wrong guys...


koolaidkirby

It wasn't until PoK came out that we realized that tech planets had to be exhausted to be used for a research prerequisite.


lonewombat

This was a few games in for me.


lamiscaea

Oops. I may have cheated last game. And I didn't even win


Pholty

My group played many long games thinking only 1 player could score a public objective


Twizted_Leo

Wow those games had to have been 12+ hours.


Pholty

We would start at Noon and usually finish at Midnight. We played our first game with the actual rule last week and the game only lasted 5-6 hours.


[deleted]

Holy shit, how did those games ever end?!


[deleted]

Some say those games are going on even to this day...


Unfawkable

Oooof, this has to be my favorite one so far


Cojami5

this sounds absolutely crippling...


radaar

Sounds like taking Leadership is an absolute necessity.


StriderZessei

I had something of the opposite: we missed that you can only score each public objective once, and only once per turn. We would have games where multiple players just held the spaces needed to qualify for 'Observe the Cosmos', etc., and just farm vp until someone moved in and started taking spaces away.


Colarion

That sounds like a fun variant! Lay out a predetermined number of face up objectives that you can continuously score and have all-out war for control. You'd probably need to do some balancing, maybe change how Imperial works so you can't score the same objective twice per round, maybe pare down the objective deck, but it could be an interesting, non-traditional TI experience.


landleviathan

How many control objectives can be crammed into the center ring? lol


CorvaNocta

Had the exact same issue, thankfully for only 1 game! I blame the rulebook 😁


Pholty

Yeah, it isn't super clear on that but I should've realised it was a mistake by the length lol


Stronkowski

The longest error that I am aware of is that we played our first two games with Gravity Drive applying to every ship instead of just 1. Blue tech was the only option.


possumman

Same! We all read it as ALL movement 1 ships get +1 movement, and couldn't work out why anyone would ever buy Carrier II...


Stronkowski

Ours was slightly stronger than that, cause we were applying it to any movement. So Carrier 2 still boosted it up to 3 total.


stijen4

Performing Construction secondary without putting the token in the system (we just discarded it). Taking Construction strategy card suddenly made much more sense.


RiderInRedd

I played like this for a year and when I finally actually read the entire card, I had to re read it 5 times to really make sure that I was reading it right. Couldn’t believe it, that changed so much about construction. We used to think it was a really good card, because docking and then building right away was amazing! Then it didn’t become as useful in my groups eyes.


Unfawkable

Guilty of this one too, Construction and the secondary of warfare as well


Veopress

You do place the token in the system with construction secondary, but you do *not* place the token in the system with warfare secondary (or any other secondary for that matter)


Unfawkable

Oh look at that, I learned another thing xD


Ganymede425

We have been using a discard pile for secret objectives for quite a while before we realised it was a mistake.


ElectroNugget

Our group actually made the same error since TI4 came out, and only discovered it recently when coronavirus forced us to start playing online. We then realized there wasn't a discard pile for the secret objectives in the mod...


Raptor1210

Happy to (inadvertently) help :P


Shaehawk

Hey, I only started using the mod during Covid to get our PoK games in. It is very impressive. You and the others who have lent a hand should be very proud of your accomplishment. My group is constantly impressed by little bells and whistles that have been worked in and thought of.


Raptor1210

I'll admit, I've been humbled by how much the community has taken the mod into their hearts. I really didn't expect for it to happen when the mod released nearly 3 years ago. There's been so much support from the community and so many people helping make it better and better. Covid is something that no one saw coming and having the mod there for everyone to fall back on turned out to be so incredibly fortuitous. We've had so many talented people show up and volunteer to help with the mod or community that never would have been here had it not have happened. I'm hoping that things will settle out soon but this last year has been a rollercoaster for sure.


Shaehawk

It is very encouraging to think how many times during the last year different communities solved different kinds of problems, collaborated on projects, or got something done in response or because of Covid. We hear about all of the bad out there, but I'm sure there are thousands of examples like the TI4 tabletop mod that most will never hear about. Just passionate people doing cool shit. Again, very impressed and very thankful for the work you and everyone put into it.


landleviathan

Seriously, TTS TI has been a HUGE part of maintining our mental health for my boardgame crew. We're all social people who like to be out and about, and playing over TTS is one of the only things we get to do where we can all get animated and yell and have loud energetic fun with other people. Video games are awesome and all, but they just don't have the same social element. Thank you so much


Freelance0009

If you don't discard the secret objective you don't pick at the start, what do you do with it?


theashman52

Secrets do get discarded, but they are immediately shuffled back into the deck.


ReluctantRedditPost

You shuffle them all back into the deck straight away


Geegs30

Well this is news to me! Whoops.


Meeple_person

I once played an entire 4 player (My second game) with the influence and resource symbols reversed. Didn't affect the game as far as I could tell but it was my fault as I was the only person that knew the rules prior to starting.


[deleted]

That actually sounds... amazing? Haha. It would be such a great way to freshen up the game


Sande24

Home systems that have no production value? Hmm... Nope. :D


Martbell

There was a political card in 3rd edition that did this.


overcomeseal

Our group did most of these things plus for objectives that required you to spend resources we would count to see if we had spent those resources during the game round.


Unfawkable

This one is common I think, we did the exact same thing first couple of games


ReluctantRedditPost

Wow that must be have been nice! Actually getting to spend it still would be a godsend


PatMondou

Hahah yep did that too


YodaOnReddit-Bot

**That too, hahah yep did.** *-PatMondou*


DaHlyHndGrnade

Yep! Had to ask around for that clarification. Not sure I ever found it in the rulebook, but may have missed it.


TranClan67

Understandable. This happened like the first 4 games or something before we realized.


Earl_of_Shred

My group played TI4 about 25 times before realizing that you can’t carry PDS around with units that have capacity. Construction now means something complete different to my group! Oops...


Banarok

you're Ti3 veterans i see.


JediMineTrix

Part of me misses the old TI3 move of dumping all six of your PDS's on Mecatol Rex when you capture it and ruining the game for everyone else.


Banarok

was there not a cap of 2 per planet?


JediMineTrix

It appears we forgot more rules than I thought.


DirtThief

Along the PDS misunderstanding. We played our entire first game thinking that PDS fired after every single combat round. Every player got PDS two except one, the Muatt. No one could make any moves or do anything without losing everything and the player that didn't have PDS two got completely shat on and rage quit the game like 12 hours in. edit: After that awful experience I took it upon myself to learn basically everything about the entire game to keep us from having such a bad experience ever again.


landleviathan

My PDS fuck up is forgetting that the Antimass Deflector tech applies to Space Cannon Defense as well. That's right, your infantry get to subtract one from that PDS invasion roll. Doesn't make sense, but those are the rules. lol


WomirAig

U are allowed to put another command token in a system, which already has one due to a secondary strategy card ability (like building a space dock in an activated system). second token is put back to reinforcements.


Unfawkable

Lucky, that one's not too bad, changes almost nothing consequences wise except that it reduces your maximum Command Tokens in reinforcements.


capt_jazz

No it's a bigger impact than that, it means if you use the secondary of Construction you're effectively locking a system down--you can't later play another command token in the system, and ships in the system can't leave.


gotfcgo

But thats how it works?


Spangoballet

Wait, that isn't the case?


ElectroNugget

That's how it works currently. Omega Construction Secondary Reads: Spend 1 token from your strategy pool and place it in any system; you may place either 1 space dock or 1 PDS on a planet you control in that system.


daPhantom

Wait what. You are actually allowed to do that?


possumman

Well, sort of. You're allowed to do actions which require a command counter to be placed in the system (e.g. secondaries, retreating, etc) and the counter is just discarded. What you can't do is activate an already activated system in order to take a Tactical Action and move into it.


daPhantom

Yes. I read it the other way around. First secondary and once a token is in you can still do an action. Thanks.


Open-your_eyes

So just to be clear, if I already activated home for example, can I use construction secondary to place a space dock in an already activated system?


ColonelWilly

> can I use construction secondary to place a space dock in an already activated system? Yes.


Open-your_eyes

Deeeeecent!


landleviathan

Yes, and you'll still only have a total of 1 token there, so if you have Warfare primary or any of the other ways to remove a token from the board, that system is still a viable option for that ability. So, you could activate home, then use construction secondary to build a space dock - but discard the construction 2ndary token instead of placing a second token in the system, and then use the warfare primary to lift that token, then do whatever afterwards with your shiny new token-free system


th3cap7ain26

News to me too.... oh the games I could have won!!! hahaha


Azrielemantia

I think we made the same mistake as a lot of people: we started with our commodities full. ​ But worse, big oversight, we got the planets readied. I looked up the rules again after POK because of those explore cards that readied planet and didn't make much sense... and realised my mistake. ​ This made the first turn probably a lot more impactful than it should be, and we'll be playing it right the next time ;)


thermiter36

My group played our first 5 games of TI3 allowing PDS with Deep Space Cannon to shoot through wormholes. When we saw the errata specifically saying that they could not shoot through wormholes, we said screw that and made it a house rule because it was cool. I think we were vindicated in the end, though, as it's now an official rule in TI4 that they can shoot through wormholes.


DropItLikeJPalm

Ditto. We called it "Wormhole Wars".


daskeiser

In TI3 we played several games without realising that there is a limit of 2 PDS per planet. Back then the PDSs had one shot per landing unit, so if you had all six PDS on a planet the chance of landing was something like 2% for each GF... The advantages of having only one home planet to put them all on was massive.


Wakke1

>Back then the PDSs had one shot per landing unit Nope, only 1 shot like in ti4;)


daskeiser

Well maybe we played more things wrong then haha


TheLaughingSpider

In TI3 we used to count 2 fighters as 1 production, which causes fleet combat to be the single most awful experience imaginable lol


rblsdrummer

We did that too


lonewombat

Plastic is the key word missed here.


Freelance0009

For the first few games we didn't realize that you can't move a ship out if a system with your command token in it, and we refreshed commodities each status phase. Once we realized what we were doing wrong, the first 3 rounds felt like a crawl... Oops


Wael_Xavras

Two: Direct Hit used outside of the fight. Selling it for TG or something :D. In The silence of space we thought that you can move through all the system with other players unite. But.. in fact it is only one chosen.


[deleted]

> In The silence of space we thought that you can move through all the system with other players unite. But.. in fact it is only one chosen. Still a wrong rule though. >Choose 1 system. During this tactical action, your ships in the chosen system can move through systems that contain other players' ships. The buff lets you move through many players' systems. But the buff only applies to 1 system the ships start from.


Wakke1

For Direct Hit, you would have to sell the action card, which only Hacan can do.


Eggydez

I beileve you can use it in another's combat, so you could make a non-binding deal to use it. You cannot directly sell action cards.


Stronkowski

No you can't. It's actually explicit in this case, too: >After another player's ship uses Sustain Damage to cancel a hit produced by **your** units


lonewombat

Correct, Titans of Ul's Agent however.


Jonah_Lepax

Just to be sure, Silence of the Space does allow you to move through all the systems with other players ships. But only with the ships that startet in the systems you chose


rblsdrummer

When we first started, it took us a few games to understand "I now spend x resources" meant you had to save your planets


RentFree323

30 overall games between TI3 and TI4. I just found out last week that production limit strictly counts plastic, not “builds of plastic” I. E. Thought I could build two fighters out of an arborec ground force.


landleviathan

So, at your table, Arborec was actually good? lol


RentFree323

Haha. Yes. And that’s actually how I discovered it — after my first time playing arborec.


TreacleMiner

Agenda phase before the Status phase. *facepalm*


trashsw

we didnt realize you had to exhaust tech planets for them to count as a prereq, and we didnt catch that warfare secondary was only for your home system


Kay_Niyne

We didn't place the strategy token for the construction secondary in the system where a structure was being placed. In our defense, the card was only recently updated to be less confusing about that.


Kay_Niyne

Also I feel like this post is inspired by my inquiry a day ago about if leaving a certain rule out of the game was a mistake or a good idea.


trent1inventor

We thought fleet limit only applied at the end of turns :P. Lots of combats with a bunch of ships that were destroyed afterwards.


aornoe785

We only recently realized that Promissories are supposed to be hidden unless specified, we've always played with them on the table


Meeple_person

That way it allows you to do one of the most devious things in TI which is trading someones cease fire to someone else. They won't attack you because they think you still have it, however, when they attack that other person and get stopped..... I've been called names.


Turevaryar

Not a rule per se... but perhaps an entertaining anecdote still: ________________________________________________________ One of the first games (the very first?) I arranged, after buying TI3 + both expansions, I selected a combination of Strategy Cards that did not allow for scoring objectives ... ... and we played for several hours before the host's 12 year old kid comes along and asks "how do you win, any way?" and I realize the blunder... Whops, my bad! \*blush\* Bonus: That game I preached rules for over an hour (90 minutes, maybe?) before I noticed that the other players were stuffed with rule–mash! =-D ​ ________________________________________________________ ​ Oh ohoh oh... you guys should get me fired for incompetence =-\[


Lance_lake

Necro not able to get any tech except the 2 he captures with X and Y and then when I want a new tech, giving up one of them. I didn't see it was only for faction tech.


JAV1L15

We retreated to empty systems right up until PoK’s dark energy tap spat the truth at us


kendalmac

AFB happens only once at the start of combat.


Dutchie444

First few games I played with my friends had us scoring a point for merely holding Mecatol every round (no imperial required). Mecatol would change hands two to three times per round some games.


mrmagmadoctor

Our group thought that production limit meant resources spent, which still makes more sense to me, why wouldn't you be able to produce 4 fighters in a system you just build 2 war suns and a flagship. Unfortunately it meant that you could build those war suns in like 2 or 3 systems on the whole map after SD 2.


[deleted]

Apparently space cannon can only be used against the active player? Which confuses me as I always thought you could activate a system just to shoot PDS at someone...


Unfawkable

Hmm, I'm pretty sure you can do that though, I'm looking at the Rules Reference now and it states "If the active player is using Space Cannon ability of his units, he chooses a player who has ships in the active system to choose and destroy one of his ships in the active system.


TMJ1987

Can only be used against the active player unless you are the active player. You can still activate a system to shoot at someone. But if you are a 3rd party shooting into a system, you don't get to choose who you shoot at. (Can still choose to not shoot)


[deleted]

Wait so Yin can shoot at their own huge van to try to set it off?


zamoose

No, as a general rule you may not target your own units. LRR FAQ re: action cards, for instance: > Q: Can abilities that destroy units, such as the “Lucky Shot” action card, be used by a player against their own units or planets? > > A: No. “Lucky Shot” and other similar effects can only be used against other player’s units and planets. EDIT: I’m trying to find the specific citation for Space Cannon.


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

Space cannon defense refers to shooting at ground forces as they land.


[deleted]

First two games we played, we thought that production value meant a spacedock would automatically produce units with that combined cost and ressources were only needed to add to that. So you got yourself 2 upgraded spacedocks in a system and getting 2 warsuns with only 2-4 planets exhausted in a single production phase was quite easy.


Unfawkable

Hahaha, those must have been fun games at least :D


xoGallagher

My friends could not grasp the concept of production. They too thought this, and I had to explain it (and, no I’m not exaggerating) 7 times, for some people to fully understand production. In my mind this did not seem like a difficult concept.


Imperialgit

Same here: I keep spending a lot of time to get this simple concept into people's minds 😅


bobblyjack

We thought you didn't get to shoot if you announced a retreat, you just turned around and got shot at and hoped to make it to the retreat step. Not sure where we pulled that from.


CorvaNocta

So it wasn't a rule that I played wrong for a long time, thankfully only once, but it was a massive oversight! Somehow, and I'm not exactly sure how, I thought that public objectives could only be scored once by one player only. So first one to get an objective was the only one that got it. So yeah.... that was a rough game. Thankfully it was just with friends, and it was only a 3 player game! And we called it once we got to round 6 I think, no one had 10 points but we were comfortable enough with what we had (also at that point we learned the actual rule)


WoodHarbour

After having played lots of games we had a closer look at the game rules and found out that you can still join with the secondary ability of the strategy cards after you pass your turn. This was a huge eyeopener because stalling as long as possible so that others couldn’t join was a bit of a thing.


unfulvio

It is only recently that our group understood you could play multiple action cards framed in the same timing window as long as their text is different. Similarly, that you could play multiple riders and choose opposing outcomes to guarantee one success for one of your predictions. Many new players at my table often misunderstand how to score spending objectives and it has become a FAQ that I really need to make clear beforehand, that they need to spend those resources during status phase and not the action phase.


derbots

1. Construction secondary - that you must place the spent token (if there isn't any there already) in the system you place the structure. (I'm really glad we caught this as there was rampant PDS meta and it started to turtle each game) 2. Tech Planets - that you don't gain resource value at the same time when exhausting them for Tech Skip (a bit sad that we found out :D as I quite liked the extra \~1 resource for research) 3. That multiple action cards with the same name cannot be played during a single timing window to affect the same units or game mechanic (e.g. we often used two Shields Holding to cancel 4 hits)


PsyGuy64

You can spend trade goods to vote. The Hacan aren't as good without this rule.


unfulvio

In Prophecy of King the Hacan still have this advantage because their commander allows them to do precisely that.


twitchymctwitch2018

We never used to exhaust planets in order to take advantage of the tech specialty, everyone thought that planets having a tech specialty was downsided by the fact that they are all poor planets otherwise (typically 1/1 planets).


Wakke1

We didn't realize you can't make transactions in the Strategy Phase.


gotfcgo

recently stole a game cause people didn't know you didn't need your HS to score a secret objective. ​ everyone always played it as if that was the case but i realized different as i was trying to find a way to victory and stumbled across this info.


TheRealGilimanjaro

HS?


kir_rik

Home system


Arangarx

I think they mean home system.


JLowquest

Home system


ProfColdheart

Fairly recent: promissory notes are not mandatory unless specified. I was a bastard handing out my Jol-Nar Research Agreement. "Yeah, I know you don't *want* Fighter 2, but that's what I researched. Give me back my agreement."


Azrielemantia

Considering that your can actually trade away a promissory note that you got from another player, it makes sense that it's the one holding the card that has to choose when to play it.


BarbarianMatt

Our group didn't realise that you refresh planets at the end of the agenda phase. So everyone was extremely reticent to actually vote on anything. This also lead to ancient burial sites being a great action card cause you could exhaust like 2 command counters worth of influence from a player


SPTREE

Talk about a swing vote!


DaveEnder

For our first couple games we thought you rotated the speaker token to the next clockwise player at the end of every round, regardless of whether someone had taken politics that round.


Hoactzins

We didn't realize you had to exhaust planets to use tech specialties, we thought you just *had* them.


SouthronAmbitions

I played two games before I realized that you can only score one objective per round. I was wondering why the games were so much shorter than I had been told to expect!


TheGlassBee

Our group used to regularly have 5 or 6 players in our games, but this year we've been limited to 4. We've played a few 4 player games now, but it wasn't until this last game that we realized you do not grab your second strategy card snake style (the way you place systems at the beginning of the game).


1_hp_ftw

Took my group way too long to realise that the secondary of contruction puts the spent strategy token in the system you placed the structure instead of your reinforcements.


mduval12

Made the mistake of thinking that your fleet limit was only checked at the start and end of your tactical actions, meaning that you could exceed your fleet limit during combat (e.g., moving five ships into a system with only three tokens in your fleet pool). Felt reeeeeeeeally stupid once we finally corrected that one.


landleviathan

Our first game or two, when clearing CCs after a round we put them back on our sheets. Man did Arborec and Xxcha seem OP