Subject: TI house rules [long] (was: Twilight Imperium) From: scottd@javanet.com (Scott DiBerardino) wrote: > Does anyone know any good optional rules for this game. Also how good are the > expansions? What do they add to the game? First, a review of the expansions: Borderlands: I like the two new races. We use the new rules for capital ships, but don't bther with Assassins or Mines. Overall, a bit expensive but I thought it was worth it. Distant Suns: Thank god for more ground forces counters! However, we use even less of the new rules in this expansion, such as all the Rebellion and Neutral stuff. Too many extra rules and fiddly counters for a game which is quite long enough already. As far as optional rules are concerned, check out what I plan to post to my webpage as soon as I get around to it: T W I L I G H T I M P E R I U M v a r i a n t s /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ by Scott DiBerardino scottd@javanet.com v1.0 4/18/98 RANDOM TECH ADVANCES Turn the tech advances into a deck of cards. Make up six sets. Each player gets a hand of five advances at the start of the game. From this hand, they may choose starting advances of the appropriate types. If they do not have enough, they draw off the deck until they get one they can use. Each player then draws advances until they have five again. Each turn, a player may purchase one advance from their hand for the normal price. Then, if a player has less than five advances in hand, they draw until they have five. If a player draws an advance that they already have in play, they may sell that advance card to another player during the trade phase for any agreed price. The recipient must still purchase the advance normally. OPTIONAL: Allow discarding of a Tech Advance from hand instead of playing one. Reshuffle discards into the draw pile. OPTIONAL: A tech advance costs only 25 Cr when playing with four or five players, and only 20 Cr with two or three players. [because trade agreements are less prevalent] OPTIONAL: A tech advance's cost is reduce by 5 Cr for each player who already has that advance in play. OPTIONAL: Sol starts only with 1 General Tech; no Propulsion Techs. [after some numerical analysis, the Humans are easily the best race] D6 COMBAT SYSTEM Score to hit on a six-sided die: Dreadnought 3+ Carrier 6+ Cruiser 5+ Fighter 6+ PDS 5+ Ground Force 5+ A "+1 bonus" now allows the reroll of each 1, once each round. A "+2 bonus" now allows the reroll of each 1 or 2, once each round. TECH ADVANCES changes and additions OPTIONAL: Fighters cost only 3 Cr. Carriers cost only 8 Cr. Industrial Efficiency (General) Your spacedocks have +2 build capacity. Master of Production (General) You may place purchased units immediately. Such units count double for build capacity. Warp Scanner (General) Once per turn, you may look at the Action and Tech Advance Cards in a rival's hand; or spy on their builds (if secret). Antimass Deflector (Propulsion) Your fleets may enter asteroid fields with no penalty. [They *may* end their turn in one.] Wexcon Invasion Barges (Propulsion) You may invade any number of planets in the same system from a single carrier. Ixlat Star Gates (Propulsion) Your fleets may move from one of your spacedocks to another as if they were wormholes. You may construct spacedocks for only 10 Cr. Fluxar Cargo Bays (Weapons) [I recommend reducing starting Carrier capacity to 4 (and cost to 8 Cr). Optionally, allow Fighters to only take up half a space as well.] Hylar Bombing Device (Weapons) Your dreadnoughts now may bombard with a value of 3+; 7+ if the defending planet has a PDS. [I recommend reducing the starting Dreadnought bombardment value to 7+ (5+ in the D6 system.)] Madnug Power Armor (Weapons) Each of your ground forces rolls two dice in combat instead of one. Atica Long Range Hyper-Torpedoes (Weapons) Your fighters fire first in combat, inflicting losses before the targets can fire. Subject: TI house rules [long] (was: Twilight Imperium) From: scottd@javanet.com (Scott DiBerardino) Date: 1998/05/15 Message-ID: <1d92ga5.15yig78g1c68cN@armory-us1241.javanet.com> Newsgroups: rec.games.board Article Segment 2 of 2 (Get Previous Segment) (Get All 2 Segments) Tylor Fusion Rockets (Weapons) Your cruisers may fire at double base attack value in the first round of combat, but then may not fire for the rest of the combat. X-89 Bacterial Attack Form (Weapons) [I think the chemical weapon action cards are sufficient to represent this.] Type IV Drive (Propulsion) [All ship types now get two individual advances instead.] Deep Space Cannon (Weapon) You may construct PDS for 6 Cr. Neural Motivator (General) You must discard one of the cards drawn immediately. Also remove the following Advances: Spatial Jump, and Transit Diodes. No change to XRD Star Class Transporter, Talkin Deep Space Evasion Computer, Hylar V Assault Laser, Xlite Mass Drive, Micro-Technology, Sarween Tools. VICTORY CONDITIONS Victory Point System: If time runs out, score by the following: Score 1 point for each Resource. Score 1 point for each Influence. Score 2 points for each Tech Advance. OPTIONAL: Score 1 point for each Trade Agreement. BOARD SET-UP FOR LESS THAN SIX PLAYERS The standard set up for six-player Twilight Imperium has a total of 30 non-capital hexes, or 5 per player. To maintain a similar ratio for games with less players, try: FOUR PLAYER SETUP __ __ __/ \__/ \__ KEY /H \__/ \__/H \ * = Mecatol Rex \__/ \__/ \__/ H = Homeworld / \__/ \__/ \ 22 non-capital hexes (5.5 per player) \__/ \__/ \__/ / \__/* \__/ \ \__/ \__/ \__/ / \__/ \__/ \ \__/ \__/ \__/ /H \__/ \__/H \ \__/ \__/ \__/ \__/ \__/ THREE PLAYER SETUP __ __/H \__ KEY __/ \__/ \__ * = Mecatol Rex / \__/ \__/ \ H = Homeworld \__/ \__/ \__/ 15 non-capital hexes (5 per player) / \__/* \__/ \ only one hex between Homeworlds and Mecatol Rex \__/ \__/ \__/ /H \__/ \__/H \ \__/ \__/ \__/ \__/ \__/ \__/ TWO PLAYER SETUP __ __/H \__ KEY / \__/ \ * = Mecatol Rex \__/ \__/ H = Homeworld / \__/ \ 10 non-capital hexes (5 per player) \__/* \__/ only one hex between Homeworlds and Mecatol Rex / \__/ \ \__/ \__/ / \__/ \ \__/H \__/ \__/ -- END TRANSMISSION -scott \\ scottd@javanet.com \\ www.javanet.com/~scottd "I figured if I couldn't pick it up, I gotta have it!" -- Tasty Taste, hefting a bazooka; _Fear of a Black Hat_