Twilight Imperium: Fourth Edition – Twilight Codex Volume I: Ordinian Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Component Notes
• The Omega Initiative
  • Faction Technologies
  • Basic Technologies
  • Promissory Notes
• Ixthian Artifacts
  • Action Cards
• Pax Magnifica: Ordinian
  • Setup
  • The Argent Flight
  • Ordinian Faction Technologies
• The Nexus
  • "Right Cat Soup" (6-Player Galaxy Preset)
    • Designer Notes
• Rules Updates
  • Diplomacy Strategy Card
  • Hyper Metabolism
  • Gravity Rifts
  • Retreating with Infantry
  • Rerolls During Combat

Component Notes

The Codex's new components are marked with the Codex icon. The developer recommends that all components of a given type be sleeved, along with the other cards of that type from the base game, so that players cannot determine if they are from the Codex before drawing them. Components that do not need to be shuffled or hidden (for example, technologies) do not need to be sleeved in this way.

The Omega Initiative

The Omega Initiative section is a regular feature that contains revised content. With each edition of the Codex, existing components are revisited and alternative versions are provided that expand their usage. Components from this section replace preexisting components of the same name and type.

Faction Technologies

Wormhole Generator Ω (The Ghosts of Creuss)

ACTION: Exhaust this card to place or move a Creuss wormhole token into either a system that contains a planet you control or a non-home system that does not contain another player's ships.

Yin Spinner Ω (The Yin Brotherhood)

After you produce units, place up to 2 infantry from your reinforcements on any planet you control or in any space area that contains 1 or more of your ships.

Magmus Reactor Ω (The Embers of Muaat)

Your ships can move into supernovas.

Each supernova that contains 1 or more of your units gains the PRODUCTION 5 ability as if it were 1 of your units.

Basic Technologies

Magen Defense Grid Ω

At the start of ground combat on a planet that contains 1 or more of your structures, you may produce 1 hit and assign it to 1 of your opponent's ground forces.

X-89 Bacterial Weapon Ω

After 1 or more of your units use BOMBARDMENT against a planet, if at least 1 of your opponent's infantry was destroyed, you may destroy all of your opponent's infantry on that planet.

Promissory Notes

War Funding Ω

After you and your opponent roll dice during space combat:

You may reroll all of your opponent's dice.

You may reroll any number of your dice.

Then, return this card to the Letnev player.

Greyfire Mutagen Ω

At the start of a ground combat against 2 or more ground forces that are not controlled by the Yin player:

Replace 1 of your opponent's infantry with 1 infantry from your reinforcements.

Then, return this card to the Yin player.

Stymie Ω

After another player moves ships into a system that contains 1 or more of your units:

You may place 1 command token from that player's reinforcements in any non-home system.

Then, return this card to the Arborec player.

Acquiescence Ω

When the Winnu player resolves a strategic action:

You do not have to spend or place a command token to resolve the secondary ability of that strategy card.

Then, return this card to the Winnu player.

Cybernetic Enhancements Ω

When you gain command tokens during the status phase:

Gain 1 additional command token.

Then, return this card to the L1Z1X player.

Ixthian Artifacts

The Ixthian Artifacts section is a regular feature that contains entirely new components. These are combined with existing components from the base game and Prophecy of Kings.

Action Cards

Insider Information

After an agenda is revealed:

Look at the top card of the agenda deck.

Plagiarize

ACTION: Spend 5 influence and choose a non-faction technology owned by 1 of your neighbors; gain that technology.

Master Plan

After you perform an action:

You may perform an additional action this turn.

Rally

After you activate a system that contains another player's ships:

Place 2 command tokens from your reinforcements in your fleet pool.

Scramble Frequency

After another player makes a BOMBARDMENT, SPACE CANNON, or ANTI-FIGHTER BARRAGE roll:

That player rerolls all of their dice.

Forward Supply Base

After another player activates a system that contains your units:

Gain 3 trade goods. Then, choose another player to gain 1 trade good.

Fighter Conscription

ACTION: Place 1 fighter from your reinforcements in each system that contains 1 or more of your space docks or units that have capacity; they cannot be placed in systems that contain other players' ships.

Blitz

At the start of an invasion:

Each of your non-fighter ships in the active system that do not have BOMBARDMENT gain BOMBARDMENT 6 until the end of the invasion.

Harness Energy

After you activate an anomaly:

Replenish your commodities.

Hack Election

After an agenda is revealed:

During this agenda, voting begins with the player to the right of the speaker and continues counterclockwise.

Reflective Shielding

When one of your ships uses SUSTAIN DAMAGE during combat:

Produce 2 hits against your opponent's ships in the active system.

Impersonation

ACTION: Spend 3 influence to draw 1 secret objective.

Solar Flare

After you activate a system:

During this movement, other players cannot use SPACE CANNON against your ships.

Sanction

After an agenda is revealed:

You cannot vote on this agenda. Predict aloud an outcome of this agenda. If your prediction is correct, each player that voted for that outcome returns 1 command token from their fleet supply to their reinforcements.

Counterstroke

After a player activates a system that contains 1 of your command tokens:

Return that command token to your tactic pool.

Ghost Squad

After a player commits units to land on a planet you control:

Move any number of ground forces from any planet you control in the active system to any other planet you control in the active system.

War Machine (four copies)

When 1 or more of your units use PRODUCTION:

Apply +4 to the total PRODUCTION value of your units and reduce the combined cost of the produced units by 1.

Pax Magnifica: Ordinian

The Pax Magnifica section is a regular feature that contains unique scenarios and game variants that change how the game is played.

During this scenario, players fight for control of a disabled Argent Flight flagship, the Coatl, which begins the game in the Ordinian nebula in the center of the game board. Like a standard game, the game ends when a player gains their tenth victory point.

Setup

The rules for setup are modified as follows:

2. ASSIGN FACTIONS: Each player chooses from among the following factions:

   • The Arborec
   • The Ghosts of Creuss
   • The Nekro Virus
   • The Embers of Muaat
   • The L1Z1X Mindnet
   • The Barony of Letnev

3. GATHER FACTION SPECIFIC COMPONENTS: The Nekro Virus player does not take the "Valefar Assimilator X" or "Y" faction technologies. Instead, that player uses the "???EXCEPTION_NO_ID???" and "????REDACTED????" technologies that it has assimilated from the Argent Flight.

4. CREATE GAME BOARD: Players create the game board using the diagram in the Codex. NOTE: Mecatol Rex is not used.

5. PLACE CUSTODIANS TOKEN: Place the custodians token on the nebula system tile located at the center of the game board with its "6" side faceup.

6. GATHER STARTING COMPONENTS: The Nekro Virus player places the Alastor, two dreadnoughts, and two fighters from their reinforcements in the Nebula at the center of the game board in addition to their regular starting units. The Nekro Virus player also begins with its assimilated technologies in play as if they were Nekro faction technologies.

The Argent Flight

The custodians token represents the Argent Flight flagship, the Coatl. Standard rules for the custodians token are not used. The Coatl has the following unique properties:

• A player gains control of the Coatl if they are the only player that has ships in its system. A player loses control of the Coatl if they no longer have ships in its system.
• Players cannot use SPACE CANNON abilities of their units against ships in the system that contains the Coatl.
• The Coatl begins the game damaged. At the start of a player's turn, if they control the Coatl, they can spend 6 resources to repair it and flip it to its "1 Victory Point" side. After the Coatl is repaired, the agenda phase is added to the game. Controlling the repaired Coatl is worth 1 victory point to the player that controls it.
• The repaired Coatl is treated as a ship with a MOVE value of 1 for the purposes of the movement step only, and the player that controls the Coatl can move it as if it were one of their ships. It does not participate in combat, it cannot retreat, and it cannot be destroyed.
• Game effects that refer to Mecatol Rex or its system instead refer to the system that contains the Coatl.
• If the Coatl is in a player's home system, it is worth 1 additional victory point to that player, and they cast 6 additional votes on each agenda during the agenda phase.

Ordinian Faction Technologies

The Codex prints two technologies for the Nekro Virus player's assimilated Argent Flight technologies. Their names are printed as they appear in the Codex.

"???EXCEPTION_NO_ID???" (The Nekro Virus)

Other players cannot move ships through systems that contain your structures.

Each planet that contains 1 or more of your structures gains the PRODUCTION 1 ability as if it were a unit.

"????REDACTED????" (Nekro Destroyer unit)

When this unit uses ANTI-FIGHTER BARRAGE, each result of 9 or 10 also destroys 1 of your opponent's infantry in the space area of the active system.

ANTI-FIGHTER BARRAGE 6 (x3)

COST 1 · COMBAT 7 · MOVE 2 · CAPACITY 1

The Nexus

The Nexus is a section devoted to showcasing community developed content.

"Right Cat Soup" (6-Player Galaxy Preset)

The galaxy layout for this preset is a hex diagram of numbered system positions, labelled with the regions Northswain, Empyrealis, Eternia, Animus, Pyroclast and Gravitas Rex, with the central system named "Right Cat Soup." That diagram is not reproduced here; consult the printed Codex page for the system placements.

Designer Notes

A couple notable things here.

First, I feel like I should address 'Empyrealis.' Yes, it's a bit unusual, but it has a few things going for it. It has two nice equidistant systems to leap for (28 and 29) while its neighbors gobble up their own nearby systems. Additionally...let's just say there is an expansion faction that I think will appreciate plentiful empty space.

Second, the two green technology specialties near 'Animus' make it a pretty lucrative place to call home. An early Hypermetabolism could really pay off, especially for factions that tend to burn through command tokens.

Finally, 'Gravitas Rex' looks like an incredible spot, due to Abyz/Fria and Arinam/Meer, and certainly they won't be lacking in resources. But with 'Empyrealis' pushing 'Pyroclast' away by jumping quickly to equidistants and 'Animus' having few other expansion options, 'Gravitas Rex' will have to be fighting to hold its systems fairly early on, or risk losing expansion opportunities in the early game.

'Eternia', on the other hand, should make a nice little home for anyone who doesn't particularly want to be bothered. And with a wormhole, too. Ghosts of Creuss, anyone?

Rules Updates

Twilight Imperium: Fourth Edition has had a number of rules updates and errata since its release. Each of these can be found in the Living Rules Reference, available on the Fantasy Flight Games website. Several of the more impactful adjustments are listed below, and printable versions of adjusted components are available alongside the Twilight Codex components.

Diplomacy Strategy Card

The "Diplomacy" strategy card's primary ability has received errata to allow the resolving player to refresh any two of their planets, rather than each planet in the chosen system. This adjustment was made to increase the power of the primary ability when compared to the secondary ability, and to make it a more worthwhile pick during the strategy phase.

Hyper Metabolism

An error in the original printing of Twilight Imperium left this biotic technology with incorrect text. Instead of providing two command tokens during the status phase—which is already the default—the technology provides three, increasing the total number of command tokens received by one.

HYPER METABOLISM

During the status phase, gain 3 command tokens instead of 2.

Gravity Rifts

To avoid a number of unusual mechanical interactions, the timing and exact effect of gravity rifts has been adjusted. Now, units will roll for the gravity rift as they pass through it rather than in the destination system, and units that fail to survive the roll are removed from the board and returned to players' reinforcements rather than being destroyed—meaning that abilities that trigger when a unit is destroyed are not resolved.

Retreating with Infantry

Retreating from a combat while transporting ground forces that are on planets in the active system—previously a cumbersome and often confusing process—has been streamlined. Players no longer need to move ground forces from a planet to the space area during the "Announce Retreats" step. Instead, when a ship moves as part of a retreat, it can transport ground forces that are on planets in its system as normal.

Rerolls During Combat

Abilities that reroll or modify dice during combat no longer need to be used immediately following a single die roll. Instead, a player can roll dice for all of their units in the combat before deciding which—if any—to reroll.