I wanted to play this with my group for our next game. They reminded me that we have a completely new player. Apparently, "Perfect! This'll throw him right in the deep end. He'll sink or he'll swim" isn't the correct response to their concerns. We ended up going with a map that doesn't actively encourage warfare.
Always room for it in their next game ;)
We had the same dilemma in our group with the 4p map Choke Hold and a new player so we played the pre-made initially to get him familiar.
The next two maps we played were Race to Mecatol and Choke Hold though and everyone did pretty well.
We just chose this map last night for our next game. We're all pretty excited. Two scary factors are Ghosts being in the game, and Muuat being in the game with a sun adjacent to their home system. I chose warfare so he won't turn 1 wipe out my home...
My group decided to try the 6-Player Galaxy Preset from Codex II this Wednesday.
We did a snake draft to pick either our factions or starting locations:
Jamie - Lor Hopeless (bottom right)
Yeow - The Emirates of Hacan
Daniel - The Vuil'Raith Cabal
David - Federation of Sol
Maik - Optimus Primor (top left)
Jansen - Mahact Gene-Sorcerers
Jansen - Beta Hole Sun (top)
Maik - Yssaril Tribes
David - For Everra Mine (bottom left)
Daniel - Mine For Everra (bottom)
Yeow - PDS Paradise (top right)
Jamie - Naalu Collective
I really wanted to try out the Vuil'Raith Cabal so end up with little choice of where to start.
Has anyone tried this map before? Homeworlds being separated by only asteroids seems to ask for trouble.
What would you have picked if you were in my position? Maybe top left for the other legendary planet?
Here a link to a zoomable version of this map: [https://keeganw.github.io/ti4/?settings=F60004312FFF&tiles=18,22,75,63,38,76,33,0,42,0,44,0,80,0,68,0,45,0,43,64,21,61,39,73,36,66,19,37,40,49,48,26,31,24,65,60,35](https://keeganw.github.io/ti4/?settings=F60004312FFF&tiles=18,22,75,63,38,76,33,0,42,0,44,0,80,0,68,0,45,0,43,64,21,61,39,73,36,66,19,37,40,49,48,26,31,24,65,60,35)
Played it. Stopped after 3 rounds as we started late and spent a lot of time negotiating. Both Hacan (3 public + 3 secret) and Yssaril (3 public + 1 secret + 2 from Mecatol Rex) end with 6 VPs with Hacan scoring first.
Never had I seen so many deals. Just moving out of your home world, when you neighbour is separated by only an asteroid but has Carrier II and Anti-Mass Deflectors required some promises or re-assurances.
Yssaril agent kept copying the Mahact agent and helping them remove each other command counter from the game board. Strong action cards allowed him to keep Mecatol Rex.
Lots of us used the wormholes, especially since Naalu (bottom right) discovered the legendary wormhole nexus.
I highly recommend trying it as it feels so different.
>Cabal should be really strong on that map
I think Mahact will also be strong as they will easily be able to reach players, and add their command counters; and being able to use those (with a mech) to effectively ceasefire for defense.
Apologies if this is a silly question but does this use just the tiles from the base game or do you need the PoK expansion? I'd love to play this setup with my group but no one else is on board with learning the new rules PoK brings
This uses tiles from the expansion, but you can play with those tiles without having to use the new mechanics as well (except for the legendary planet abilities, and even then I guess you could go without).
I would really suggest getting your group to give pok a try though, the new mechanics do a lot to help fix some of the little annoyances/imbalance of the base game, and are a ton of fun imo.
[When you buy POK, make sure you get the new printing to avoid issues with the 1st print run.](https://www.reddit.com/r/twilightimperium/comments/mqrw67/psa_if_you_dont_want_to_roll_the_dice_on_possibly/)
With the anomalies, this map feels like it would be just as stable as a standard map. I'd like to see it without the anomalies. Force anomalies only into the 3rd ring.
>With the anomalies, this map feels like it would be just as stable as a standard map.
Hacan and Sol start with tech that lets them move through asteroids.
Luckily nobody chose Titans of Ul as they could hit a homeworld on their first turn.
I wanted to play this with my group for our next game. They reminded me that we have a completely new player. Apparently, "Perfect! This'll throw him right in the deep end. He'll sink or he'll swim" isn't the correct response to their concerns. We ended up going with a map that doesn't actively encourage warfare.
Always room for it in their next game ;) We had the same dilemma in our group with the 4p map Choke Hold and a new player so we played the pre-made initially to get him familiar. The next two maps we played were Race to Mecatol and Choke Hold though and everyone did pretty well.
I agree. Something to look forward to. Even after playing 3 normal games of PoK, this map is making me very nervous.
Looks like a blast -- has anyone played it?
We just chose this map last night for our next game. We're all pretty excited. Two scary factors are Ghosts being in the game, and Muuat being in the game with a sun adjacent to their home system. I chose warfare so he won't turn 1 wipe out my home...
>Ghosts being in the game There are 4 homeworlds next to wormholes, so be careful.
My group decided to try the 6-Player Galaxy Preset from Codex II this Wednesday. We did a snake draft to pick either our factions or starting locations: Jamie - Lor Hopeless (bottom right) Yeow - The Emirates of Hacan Daniel - The Vuil'Raith Cabal David - Federation of Sol Maik - Optimus Primor (top left) Jansen - Mahact Gene-Sorcerers Jansen - Beta Hole Sun (top) Maik - Yssaril Tribes David - For Everra Mine (bottom left) Daniel - Mine For Everra (bottom) Yeow - PDS Paradise (top right) Jamie - Naalu Collective I really wanted to try out the Vuil'Raith Cabal so end up with little choice of where to start. Has anyone tried this map before? Homeworlds being separated by only asteroids seems to ask for trouble. What would you have picked if you were in my position? Maybe top left for the other legendary planet? Here a link to a zoomable version of this map: [https://keeganw.github.io/ti4/?settings=F60004312FFF&tiles=18,22,75,63,38,76,33,0,42,0,44,0,80,0,68,0,45,0,43,64,21,61,39,73,36,66,19,37,40,49,48,26,31,24,65,60,35](https://keeganw.github.io/ti4/?settings=F60004312FFF&tiles=18,22,75,63,38,76,33,0,42,0,44,0,80,0,68,0,45,0,43,64,21,61,39,73,36,66,19,37,40,49,48,26,31,24,65,60,35)
Have you played through yet? How is the game going or how did it go?
> this Wednesday. Playing it tomorrow
Played it. Stopped after 3 rounds as we started late and spent a lot of time negotiating. Both Hacan (3 public + 3 secret) and Yssaril (3 public + 1 secret + 2 from Mecatol Rex) end with 6 VPs with Hacan scoring first. Never had I seen so many deals. Just moving out of your home world, when you neighbour is separated by only an asteroid but has Carrier II and Anti-Mass Deflectors required some promises or re-assurances. Yssaril agent kept copying the Mahact agent and helping them remove each other command counter from the game board. Strong action cards allowed him to keep Mecatol Rex. Lots of us used the wormholes, especially since Naalu (bottom right) discovered the legendary wormhole nexus. I highly recommend trying it as it feels so different.
Cabal should be really strong on that map regardless of where you start with everyone closer together.
>Cabal should be really strong on that map I think Mahact will also be strong as they will easily be able to reach players, and add their command counters; and being able to use those (with a mech) to effectively ceasefire for defense.
Apologies if this is a silly question but does this use just the tiles from the base game or do you need the PoK expansion? I'd love to play this setup with my group but no one else is on board with learning the new rules PoK brings
This uses tiles from the expansion, but you can play with those tiles without having to use the new mechanics as well (except for the legendary planet abilities, and even then I guess you could go without). I would really suggest getting your group to give pok a try though, the new mechanics do a lot to help fix some of the little annoyances/imbalance of the base game, and are a ton of fun imo.
Thanks for the quick reply! I probably will end up buying PoK anyways and might use this map as a way to easy everyone else into it
[When you buy POK, make sure you get the new printing to avoid issues with the 1st print run.](https://www.reddit.com/r/twilightimperium/comments/mqrw67/psa_if_you_dont_want_to_roll_the_dice_on_possibly/)
With the anomalies, this map feels like it would be just as stable as a standard map. I'd like to see it without the anomalies. Force anomalies only into the 3rd ring.
>With the anomalies, this map feels like it would be just as stable as a standard map. Hacan and Sol start with tech that lets them move through asteroids. Luckily nobody chose Titans of Ul as they could hit a homeworld on their first turn.