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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/