Customer Reviews

Twilight Imperium: Shattered Empire Expansion

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a must-have for anyone who owns Twilight Imperium Third Edition. The addition of two more colors to allow eight-player games (and extra systems to expand the game "board" along with other extra pieces (like trade goods) to fit the extra players) is alone worth the price of admission. Then they add four more species, all of whom are as balanced as the original species are (which is to say, mostly balanced). There are also scads of new concepts, from shock troops to artifacts to species-based technologies! But if the new concepts and expanded gameplay weren't enough for you, they also put the errata from their website into the expansion's rulebook, and they reprinted a bunch of cards to replace the originals! In some cases, this was to fix poorly worded cards; in other cases it was to open the card up to the new tech or concepts in the expansion.

Mixing the expansion with the original game is a tiny bit complicated (keeping track of which cards are to be added, which are to be set aside as optional, and which are replacements), and if you care enough to do it right, it does take some time to make sure you are not just jumbling everything all together. Fortunately, the rulebook lays out for you exactly what is replaced, and what is new and optional. And even if things *do* get all jumbled together, they made it incredibly easy to separate out the expansion pieces by putting the expansion's logo on most cards and tokens in the expansion! And trust me, putting this game away in a proper manner is a key to playing it again. When you feel like playing, you don't want to spend an hour separating out everything; you want to have done that after the last game, so it's ready when you are.

There is enough room in the original box to fit all the original parts and the expansion parts as well, but the expansion box does not fit inside the original box unless you are willing to remove the original game's inner cardboard divider (with very nice art on it). There's nothing to removing it; it's not glued in or anything. I just find that the divider works very well for keeping the expansion and original pieces that should be separate, separate.

So, here's a rundown of everything that's new in this set:

28 new system tiles

2 new sets of plastic units in orange and gray (the ships, ground forces, PDS units, Space Docks, etc.)

4 new species sheets

64 command counters (16 each for the new species)

88 control markers (14 each for the new species, and 2 additional markers for the 10 original species)

12 leader counters (3 each for the new species)

8 new variant strategy cards (not to be mixed in)

1 variant Imperial strategy card (optional to mix in)

8 new trade contract cards (2 each for the new species)

28 new objective cards (some to mix in, others not)

40 new action cards (5 are replacements, the rest are to be mixed in)

32 new political cards (to be mixed in)

98 technology cards (two full sets for the new colors, some replacement cards for the original decks, and additional cards to be mixed in)

14 species-specific technology cards

28 new planet cards

16 facility cards (8 colonies and 8 refineries)

8 unit reference cards

12 shock trooper tokens

12 space mine tokens

2 Mecatol custodian tokens

8 artifact tokens

1 High Alert token (for use with the variant strategy cards)

22 domain counters (including new counters for more variety in the "Distant Suns" option)

12 fighter supplement tokens (in +3 denominations)

12 ground force supplement tokens (in +3 denominations)

12 trade goods

3 wormhole tokens (including new wormhole Charlie)

In short, this expansion is *absolutely* worth purchasing. You will get even more enjoyment from a game that already has nearly unlimited replay value!

Shattered Empire is the first expansion for Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition (Fantasy Flight's flagship game). Twilight Imperium is a game where players vie for the imperial throne of the galaxy. Each player takes on the role of a race with its own special abilities and starting units. Starting out with one planetary system, players move out, conquering planets, negotiating trade agreements, and passing interstellar laws in their efforts to make themselves emperor.

Each player selects, in turn order, a strategy card. The eight strategy cards cover the broad strategies any civilization would utilize to further its goals (Initiative, Diplomacy, Political, Logistics, Trade, Warfare, Technology and Imperial). Each strategy card has an initiative number which dictates the player order for the coming game round. Thus, players must weigh the strategy which gives them the strategy bonus they need but also gives them the initiative value they want.

During the action phase, players activate systems, move and build ships, buy technologies, pass interstellar laws and negotiate trade agreements. This is the meat of the game. What path to victory will you take? Conquer your opponent? Negotiate trades with your neighbors? Force uncomfortable laws to the forum? This game has it all.

The most innovate aspect of this game is the supply system. Players have command counters. Using the Logistics strategy card gives you more. You use command counters to increase your supply, allowing you build larger fleets. You may also use command counters to activate systems, allowing you to build and/or move ships. Command counters also let you use the secondary abilities of your opponents' strategy cards.

Players accumulate victory points by meeting the requirements of objectives. These could be conquest, trade or technological related. A broad strategy is needed to have a competitive edge.

The game ends when a player reaches 10 victory points or when the "Imperium Rex" objective is revealed. Whoever has the most points is declared the emperor.

The expansion is necessary. There is little value in playing the base game now that Shattered Empire is available. Shattered Empire includes new strategy cards, some of which are indispensible. Shattered empire includes new technologies which make the units more balanced. This expansion also includes more chrome like shocktroops, space mines and facilities. If you like Twilight Imperium, this is a must buy.

This game, while worthy of a 5***** rating is not without its baggage. The Imperial strategy card is quite bad. You should use the Imperial II card (or play with the expansion). Also, the technology tree is overly convoluted. Some of the laws are not as spikey as they need to be. Due to the game's adaptability, I can easily overlook these flaws.

Twilight Imperium takes about 4 to 6 hours to play. This means you will spend the better part of a day playing this epic game. This is not a gateway game. Newbies will be overwhelmed by its depth and complexity. This game is strictly for the hardcore gamer. If you ever wanted to play a space game with awesome bits, epic theme and multiple paths to victory, Twilight Imperium is the game for you.

If you enjoyed Twilight Imperium, you will love the expansion. It introduces new political options, space mines, all new cards, race specific technologies, 4 new races, planets, troop types, planet encounter cards, space refineries, space colonies, and all new strategy cards. The expantion fixes a few problems with the old game, makeing the whole thing run much more solidly. It also expands the game alowing up to 8 players. There are 32 new optional rules and expansion cards for your enjoyment.

Definately worth it, if your into stratagy games.

This expansion adds so much and fixes so much that it is a must have. It fixes some of the VP issues that the original had, adds on new races, the opportunity to have an 8 player game, and the chance for a much much bigger map. Seriously, if you enjoyed the main game, you must get the expansion.

TI3 has been a favourite game for a number of years even though I don't get to play it as often as I would like. This expansion adds, and cleans up the few issues the base game had. If you want to pick up the base game, I would highly recommend this expansion to go with it. You won't be disappointed.

This expansion to TI tweaks many of the original rules, and adds new options and components to the already robust game. The end result is more balanced game play.

If you enjoyed the original game, you'll enjoy the expansion. The extra options in board tiles are nice, the new action cards and techs are interesting (destroyers are worth using now thanks to one particular tech), and the ability to play 8 player games is nice (if you can muster 8 players for 14 hours...)

A very good expansion set, it fixes many minor problems of the original while adding its own innovations.

A great expansion for Twilight Imperium lovers. With new races and enough tiles for a 4th ring on the board, you can now play an 8 player game and spend all day doing it. You can check out Fantasy Flight's website for the specifics and rules if you have any doubts, but the additions have opened up entirely new methods of play in our games.

If you have Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition, then this an expansion that you might want to get. Basically what you get are more races to play with, two more sets of plastic figures, so you can play with up to eight players, more planets with a few new types of planets, and an alternative set of strategy cards. I'd say the most useful thing in this expansion is the new set of strategy cards. It allows you to change the game play in different ways to suit the tastes of your gaming group. In particular there are two alternative cards to the Imperial card, which help fix some issues that players had with the original Imperial card (it provided too many free points). I highly recommend this to any owners of Twilight Imperium. You'll be glad that you got this expansion.