Twilight Imperium: Third Edition Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Welcome
• The Object of the Game
• Game Contents and Preparation
• Component Overview
  • The Map Hexes
  • The Plastic Game Units
  • The Planet Cards
  • The Technology Cards
  • The Action Cards
  • The Political Cards
  • The Objective Cards (Public and Secret)
  • The Trade Cards
  • The Strategy Cards
  • The Bonus Counters
  • Command Counters
  • The Control Markers
  • The Trade Good Counters
  • The Victory Point Track
  • The Speaker (First Player) Token
  • Ground Force and Fighter Unit Supplement Tokens
  • The Race Sheets
• Number of Players
• Game Setup
• The Game Round
  • The Strategy Phase
• Creating the Galaxy
  • The Action Phase
    • The Player Action
  • The Strategic Action
  • The Tactical Action
    • The Activation Sequence in Detail
      • 1) Activate a System
      • 2) Move Ships into System
      • 3) PDS Fire
      • 4) Space Battles
      • 5) Planetary Landings
      • 6) Invasion Combat
      • 6) Produce Units
    • Concluding a Tactical Action
  • The Transfer Action
    • • 1) Activate Two Systems
      • 2) Movement
      • 3) PDS Fire
      • 4) Planetary Landings
      • 5) Production
  • End of the Action Phase
  • The Status Phase
    • • 1) Qualify for Public/Secret Objectives
      • Winning the Game
      • 2) Repair Damaged Ships
      • 3) Remove Command Counters
      • 4) Refresh Planet Cards
      • 5) Players receive 1 Action Card and 2 Command Counters
      • 6) Redistribute Command Areas
      • 7) Return Strategy Cards
  • End of a Round
• Space Battles
  • The Battle Round
    • • 1. Announce Retreats/Withdrawals
      • 2. Roll Combat Dice
      • 3. Remove Casualties
      • 4. Execute Withdrawals/Retreats
      • End of a Space Battle
• Invasion Combat
  • Before Combat
    • • The Invasion Combat Round
• Other Game Concepts and Rules
  • The Systems
    • Home Systems (Interior Yellow Border)
    • Special Systems (Interior Red Border)
    • Regular Systems
  • Wormholes
  • Unit Limitations
  • The Fighter and Ground Force Supplement Counters
  • The Command Counters
• The Race Sheet
  • The Fleet Supply Area
  • The Command Pool Area
  • The Strategy Allocation Area
  • Spending Resources and Influence
    • Exhausting Planets
    • Paying Costs
  • The Action Cards
    • How to Play an Action Card
    • The Sabotage Action Card
    • "Play as an Action"
• The Political Cards and the Galactic Council
  • The Political Agenda
    • "Elect" Votes
    • "For or Against" Votes
    • Laws
  • Voting in the Galactic Council
    • Abstaining and Tie Votes
• Technology Advances
  • Acquiring a Technology Advance
  • Planetary Technology Specialties
• Trade Contracts and Trade Agreements
  • Opening Trade Agreements
    • Receiving Trade Goods
  • The Trade Goods Counters
    • Breaking Trade Agreements
    • The Power of the Merchants Guild
• The Objective Cards
  • The Secret Objective Card
• Rules for Units
  • The Space Dock
    • Building a New Space Dock
  • The Ground Force Unit
  • The Carrier Unit
  • The Planetary Defense System (PDS) Unit
  • The Fighter Unit
  • The Cruiser Unit
  • The Destroyer Unit
  • The Dreadnought Unit
  • The War Sun
• Optional Rules
  • Three, Four, and Five Player Games
  • The Three Player Game
  • The Four Player Game
  • The Five Player Game
  • Game Option: The Long War
  • Game Option: Age of Empire
  • Game Option: Distant Suns
    • The Domain Counters
  • Game Option: Leaders
  • Game Option: Sabotage Runs
• Problems, Questions and Support
• Credits
• Strategy Card Summary
  • 1. The Initiative Strategy
  • 2. The Diplomacy Strategy
  • 3. The Political Strategy
  • 4. The Logistics Strategy
  • 5. The Trade Strategy
  • 6. The Warfare Strategy
  • 7. The Technology Strategy
  • 8. The Imperial Strategy
• Designer Notes
• Technology Advancement Tree
• Domain Effects (Distant Suns Option)

Welcome

Welcome to a galaxy of epic conquest, interstellar trade, and political intrigue. TWILIGHT IMPERIUM is an exciting board game in which 3-6 players seek to build a galactic empire by the cunning use of strategy, diplomacy, and resource management. By taking on the role of a great interstellar race, players will seek the ultimate goal: to claim the Imperial Throne on Mecatol Rex and lead the galaxy to a new age of glory.

But the road to the Imperial Throne is long and the galaxy holds many dangers. Do you have what it takes to lead your race out of the troubled Twilight Age? Do you have the determination to move your race forward using a balance of diplomacy, careful planning, and the use of force? Are you ready to direct the scientific development, military might, and economic growth for an entire interstellar civilization?

If so, your time has come!

The Object of the Game

To win a game of TWILIGHT IMPERIUM ("TI"), players seek to accumulate a total of 10 victory points by achieving objectives and carefully choosing helpful strategies. The game ends when one player gains his 10th victory point or immediately after any other game-ending condition applies (see later).

Game Contents and Preparation

Enclosed in your TI box, you will find the following components.

• Six frames of highly detailed plastic components in six colors. Each frame contains the following:
  • 5 Dreadnoughts
  • 4 Carriers
  • 8 Cruisers
  • 8 Destroyers
  • 2 War Suns
  • 12 Ground Forces
  • 10 Fighters
  • 6 Planetary Defense Systems (PDS)
  • 3 Space Docks
• 144 Technology Cards (24 each in six decks separated by color)
• 51 Planet Cards
• 103 Action Cards
• 60 Political Cards
• 30 Objective Cards (Secret and Public)
• 20 Trade Cards (2 each for 10 races)
• 10 Race Sheets
• 30 Leader Counters
• 8 Cardboard Strategy Cards
• 160 Command Counters (16 each for 10 races)
• 150 Control Markers (15 each for 10 races)
• 8 Bonus Counters
• 40 Trade Goods Counters
• 23 Fighter Supplement Counters
• 23 Ground Force Supplement Counters
• 1 Speaker Token
• 1 Victory Point Track
• 43 Hexagonal Board Tiles
• This rules booklet
• 4 10-sided dice (note that in TI, the "0" result represents the number "10")
• 44 Domain Counters

Before you play your first game of TWILIGHT IMPERIUM, carefully detach the plastic components from their frames and separate all cards into individual deck types. Carefully punch out the cardboard pieces so that they do not tear. Be sure to keep all components out of the reach of small children and animals.

Component Overview

We will here summarize the various components of TI, so that you may recognize them while reading these rules.

The Map Hexes

Before every game of TI, players will create a unique game board by connecting the provided hexagon map pieces. Each individual piece is called a "system." The systems of TI each represent an area of space, its planets, and/or other elements of interest. Systems that contain an interior yellow outline are Home Systems from which the great races hail. Systems containing an interior red outline are Special Systems (such as Asteroid Fields) governed by special rules.

The Plastic Game Units

The detailed plastic pieces of TI (collectively called "units") represent the military personnel, shipyards, defense systems, and spaceships that players will command. Units not employed on the game board are kept in a player's reinforcement area.

The Planet Cards

Representing the multitude of planets in TI, Planet Cards are used by players to indicate ownership over each individual planet and are "exhausted" (turned face down) when their owner "spends" the planets' resources or influence.

The Technology Cards

At the beginning of the game, each player receives an identical Technology Deck (separated by color) consisting of 24 technology advances. Throughout the game, when a player purchases (or otherwise acquires) a technology, the corresponding Technology Card is taken from his deck and placed face-up before him.

The Action Cards

The Action Cards of TI provide players with a variety of helpful events, maneuvers, bonuses, and other advantages. Players receive Action Cards throughout the game by a variety of activities.

The Political Cards

Often the representatives of the great races must meet in the hallowed halls of the Galactic Council on Mecatol Rex to debate, deliberate, and enact policy for the custodial imperial charter. When a player executes the primary ability of the Political Strategy Card during the Action Phase (see later), he must draw and resolve the top card of the Political Deck. Each Political Card contains an agenda that all players must vote upon. The effects of an agenda can range from a minor formality, to a major change in the very structure of the game.

The Objective Cards (Public and Secret)

In order to win TI, players need to accumulate 10 victory points. The primary way for players to receive such is by qualifying for the requirements of an Objective Card. The victory points provided by Public Objective Cards are attainable by all players, whereas those from Secret Objective Cards are individual to each player.

The Trade Cards

Each race has two Trade Contract cards which they can use to form trade agreements with other players. Each Trade Card has a numerical trade value which varies from race to race.

The Strategy Cards

Each of the eight cardboard Strategy Cards represents a powerful short-term strategy. During the Strategy Phase of each game round, each player will select one Strategy Card and must later use its primary ability. Each Strategy Card also enables an important secondary ability that other players may execute after the primary ability is resolved.

The Bonus Counters

After all players have selected a Strategy Card during the Strategy Phase, there will (in a six-player game) be two Strategy Cards remaining in the common play area. Before the Strategy Phase ends, the two remaining Strategy Cards both receive a Bonus Counter that is placed on top of the Strategy Card itself. A player that later selects such a Strategy Card will be able to use the Bonus Counter to receive an additional Command Counter or Trade Good.

Command Counters

The Command Counter in TI is the abstract but integral resource representing the domestic mandate, budget, organization, logistics, and preparedness of your race. When a player receives a Command Counter from his reinforcements, he must place it in either the Fleet Supply area, Strategy Allocation area, or Command Pool area on his Race Sheet. In order to execute tactical actions (such as moving, building, or initiating combat on the board), take advantage of the secondary abilities of Strategy Cards, or manage his fleets, a player must wisely allocate and spend Command Counters.

The Control Markers

At the beginning of the game, each player is provided with a generous number of flag-shaped Control Markers, each bearing the insignia of that player's race. The Control Markers are used to represent a race wherever appropriate, such as on the Victory Point Track, on successfully achieved Objective Cards, and (most often) to indicate ownership of planets.

The Trade Good Counters

These counters represent the wealth and rewards of interstellar commerce. They are primarily obtained by active trade agreements while the Trade Strategy Card is being executed. A player's Trade Goods can be used as a direct substitute for either resources or influence, and are frequently used as currency among players to pay for bribes or other considerations.

The Victory Point Track

The Victory Point Track is used to indicate each player's accumulation of victory points. Note that the main side of the Victory Point Track has spaces numbered from 0 to 10, whereas the reverse side is numbered 0 to 14. The reverse side is be used with the optional rule "The Long War" found on page 32.

The Speaker (First Player) Token

This token is claimed each round by the player who selects the Initiative Strategy Card during the Strategy Phase. The player who controls the Speaker Token always chooses the first Strategy Card during the next Strategy Phase.

Ground Force and Fighter Unit Supplement Tokens

The Ground Force and the Fighter units are the only units in the game that players may purchase unlimited quantities of. All other unit types are limited to the figures provided with the game. The Fighter and Ground Force supplement tokens represent the extra Fighter and Ground Force units that players may add to their forces.

The Race Sheets

Enclosed in your game, you will find 10 large cardboard sheets, each representing one of the great races of the TI universe. After selecting a race to play, each player receives the corresponding Race Sheet, which provides each player with specific information for his race as well as helpful game information tables. The Race Sheet is also used for keeping track of a player's active Command Counters and Trade Goods.

Number of Players

These rules are written assuming that you will be playing TI with 6 players. TI plays just as well with fewer players, and rules for playing with 3-5 players are provided on page 31 of this rules set.

Game Setup

Before you start playing, follow the steps below:

1. Separate the 10 Home Systems from the other hexagonal gameboard pieces. Randomize the Home Systems face down and allow every player to draw one at random. This process determines which race a player will control throughout the game. All players then take the Race Sheet, Control Markers, Trade Cards, and Command Counters corresponding to their race.

2. Each player selects one of the six available colors and takes the plastic units and Technology Deck corresponding to that color.

3. Find an area of the table that is convenient for all players to reach. Designate this space the "common play area." Then shuffle the Action Card deck and the Political Card deck and place them separately in the common play area. Also place the Fighter and Ground Force Supplement Counters in the common play area.

4. Each player takes the individual Planet Cards corresponding to the planets of his Home System and places these face up in his play area. Place the remaining Planet Cards, representing the neutral planets at the start of the game, in the common play area.

5. Place all the Trade Goods Counters in a single pile (the "Trade Supply") in the common play area.

6. Now place the 8 Strategy Cards side-by-side in numerical order with their "active" side up, prominently in the common play area.

7. Create the Objective Deck, by following the directions in the "Preparing the Objective Cards" sidebar. Do not forget to place the unused Secret and Public Objective Cards back in the box, while allowing no players to look at them.

8. Now place the Victory Point Track in the common play area and place one Control Marker for each player in the space marked "0."

9. Players must now create the game board (or "galaxy"). Please read and carry out the instructions for doing so in the "Setting up the Galaxy" sidebar on page 8 before proceeding.

10. After the galaxy has been created, all players place their "setup units" (as indicated by their Race Sheets) on their Home Systems. If a Home System contains several planets, any Space Dock, Ground Forces, and PDS may be placed among them according to the player's wishes. All players then find and place their "Starting Technology" cards face up in their respective play areas.

11. All players now take their starting Command Counters from their reinforcements, placing them on their Race Sheets as follows: 2 Command Counters in the Strategy Allocation area, 3 Command Counters in the Command Pool area, and 3 Command Counters in the Fleet Supply area (with the "Fleet" side up).

You are now ready to start the game.

REINFORCEMENTS

Every player maintains a "reinforcement" area consisting of his unused plastic units and Command Counters. Whenever a player builds a unit, it is taken from his available reinforcements and thereafter placed on the board. (An exception to this is the Fighter and Ground Force Supplement counter, see later). Whenever a player receives a new Command Counter, it is taken from his available reinforcements and placed in one of the three appropriate boxes on his Race Sheet (Command Pool, Fleet Supply, or Strategy Allocation).

Preparing the Objective Cards

Before the game begins, the Secret Objective Cards must be distributed and the Public Objective Deck properly prepared.

First separate all the Objective Cards into the three different types: Secret Objectives, Public "Stage I" Objectives, and Public "Stage II" Objectives. Then proceed to the following:

1. Shuffle the 10 Secret Objective Cards and deal a random card face down to every player. All players should read their Secret Objective Card and then place the card face down in their play area. A player is never allowed, for whatever reason, to show an opponent his Secret Objective Card. Place the remaining Secret Objective Cards back in the box, allowing no player to look at them.

2. Now take the 10 Stage II Public Objective Cards and remove the "Game Over" card. Shuffle the remaining 9 Stage II cards and draw 3 random cards (at all times keeping them hidden from all players). After drawing the 3 random cards, take the "Game Over" card and shuffle it with the 3 randomly chosen cards. You should now have 4 randomized Stage II Public Objective Cards, one of which is the "Game Over" card. Place these 4 cards face down in a stack in the common play area. Place the remaining Stage II cards back in the box, allowing no player to look at them.

3. Then shuffle the 10 Stage I Public Objective Cards and draw 6 random cards. Place the 6 cards on top of the 4 Stage II cards, now forming a single deck of 10 Public Objective Cards in the common play area. This deck always consists of 6 random "Stage I" cards on top of 4 random "Stage II" cards (one of which is the "Game Over" card). This deck is the "Public Objective Deck."

NOTE: It is important that the unused Objective Cards (Secret, Public Stage I & II) are placed back in the box so they remain hidden from players both before and during the game. Otherwise, experienced players would be able to deduce which objectives are in play before they are revealed.

The Game Round

After you have finished setting up the game, players will begin playing the game by starting with the Strategy Phase of the first game round.

TWILIGHT IMPERIUM is played over a consecutive number of game rounds with each round consisting of the following phases:

1. The Strategy Phase
2. The Action Phase
3. The Status Phase

After every Status Phase, if no player has yet declared victory, simply begin another game round starting with another Strategy Phase, etc. In this way the game continues, repeating the three phases above, until a player has achieved 10 victory points or until another game-ending condition is met.

Victory points are generally claimed during the Status Phase as players fulfill the requirements printed on the Public and Secret Objective Cards. In order to meet these various objectives, players must seek to expand their empires, forge alliances with other races, negotiate for the best outcome during the Galactic Council, and choose the optimal Strategy Cards during the Strategy Phase.

The Strategy Phase

During every Strategy Phase, each player must choose one available Strategy Card from the common play area (The chosen Strategy Card grants its player a special ability during the upcoming Action Phase.) At the beginning of every Strategy Phase, there are 8 possible Strategy Cards (or "strategies") that players may choose from. These are: Warfare, Political, Trade, Initiative, Imperial, Logistics, Diplomacy, or Technology.

Not only does the Strategy Card provide an important ability, but it also determines the order of play (as indicated by its number; see the the sidebar on page 11 for more information on the order of play).

At the beginning of every Strategy Phase, the player who controls the Speaker Token (the "Speaker") may choose the first Strategy Card from the common play area. When selecting a Strategy Card, a player simply chooses and takes an available Strategy Card from the common play area and places it before him (with the "active" side facing up). That card is now no longer available for selection by the other players. After the Speaker has picked his Strategy Card, the other players, in clockwise order from the Speaker, select one of the remaining Strategy Cards. In this way

A STRATEGY CARD

Creating the Galaxy

TI uses a unique game board consisting of multiple hexagon pieces ("systems") that are brought together in a unique combination at the beginning of every game. Before a game of TI begins, players build the galaxy by following these steps:

1. After all players have drawn their Home Systems, find the Mecatol Rex system and place it in the middle of the table. Then randomly determine one player to be "first player." Give the "Speaker" Token to the first player. He then shuffles the remaining 32 systems, randomly removes two systems (by placing them back in the box without looking at them), and deals five systems, face down, to every player. Players may look at their dealt systems but should not show them to the other players.

2. The first player now selects one of the sides of Mecatol Rex, and drags his Home System about two feet towards himself in a straight line away from the chosen side (see diagram). Then the player to his left does the same, etc., until all players have chosen a side and placed their Home Systems on the table (note that the sixth player must chose the last remaining side of Mecatol Rex). Players should now shift their seating around the table to best accommodate their Home System placement.

3. Then players, in clockwise order, starting with the first player, begin creating the galaxy by placing, one at a time, a single system face up adjacent to the Mecatol Rex system. After the first ring around Mecatol is completed, players continue to place systems in the second ring until that is completed, and then finally proceed to the third ring. When all the systems are placed, the galaxy is finally created.

The following rules apply to placing systems:

• A system cannot be placed in the second ring before the first ring surrounding Mecatol Rex has been completed. Likewise, a tile cannot be placed in the third ring before the second ring is completed (see diagram).
• As soon as the correct placement for your Home System becomes available, connect your Home System to the galaxy at its fixed spot (which is exactly 3 systems out from the chosen side of Mecatol Rex, see diagram). Connecting your Home System is automatic and does not cost you a placement "turn."
• You may not place a Special System (with an inner red border) adjacent to another Special System, unless you have no other option.
• The order of placement switches counterclockwise after all players have placed a round of tiles, and yet again clockwise after that, etc. This in effect will make the player who placed the last system, place the first system in the next round (thus actually placing two systems in a row). Example of turn order: P1, P2, P3, P4, P5, P6, P6, P5, P4, P3, P2, P1, P1, P2…
• If you placed a system that did not contain a planet during your last placement, you must, if able, place a system that does contain a planet during your next placement. If you are unable to do so, you must reveal your remaining systems to the other players to prove this. Then place one of your available systems.

When creating the board, the actual shape of the galaxy and the position of Home Systems will differ depending on the number of players. If you are playing a game with less than six players, please consult the optional rules on page 31 of this rules booklet.

every player will pick an available Strategy Card before the Action Phase begins. Note that being farther clockwise from the Speaker gives a player an increasingly limited choice of Strategy Cards (i.e., the player to the immediate right of the Speaker will only have three cards to choose from).

After all players have selected a Strategy Card, there will be two cards remaining in the common play area. The Speaker places a Bonus Counter on the two remaining unchosen Strategy Cards.

A BONUS COUNTER

In this way, should a Strategy Card not be picked for several consecutive rounds, multiple Bonus Counters will accumulate on it. The presence of Bonus Counters makes a Strategy Card more attractive in subsequent rounds. When a player selects a Strategy Card that contains one or more Bonus Counters, that player may immediately exchange each Bonus Counter for either a Trade Good or a Command Counter (either of which is immediately placed on the player's Race Sheet).

After all players have chosen their Strategy Cards and the Bonus Counters have been placed on the remaining cards, the Strategy Phase ends and the game proceeds to the Action Phase.

Note that the last player to claim the Speaker Token will keep the Speaker Token until another player selects the Initiative card during a future Strategy Phase.

The Action Phase

The Action Phase forms the heart of TI. It is during the Action Phase that players will execute the special abilities of their Strategy Cards, produce new units at their Space Docks, conquer new planets, and move their fleets into battle. The Action Phase is resolved over a number of player turns in which each player may take a single action. Each player turn is taken in the order of play (see sidebar on the next page), with players one after the other taking one action to complete their turn. After the last player in the order of play has taken his turn, play returns once more to the first player in the order of play who may take an action, followed by the second player, and so on. In this way, players keep taking one action at a time, following the order of play, until all players have passed and the Action Phase ends.

A player that is currently in the process of taking his turn (i.e., action) is called the active player.

The Player Action

When it is a player's turn to take an action, he must execute one of the following:

1. Strategic Action
2. Tactical Action
3. Transfer Action
4. Pass

These actions are described in detail throughout the yellow sections below.

Suggested Player Area — (diagram of a player's play area showing Active Technology Advances, Available Trade Contracts and active Trade Agreements, Available/Exhausted Planet cards, Reinforcements Area, Technology Deck, Control Markers, Race Sheet, Trade Goods, Active Command Counters, Available Command Counters, Available Units, Secret Objective Card (kept hidden), Action Cards (kept hidden).)

The Strategic Action

A player must, at some point during the Action Phase, execute a Strategic Action (except for the player holding the Initiative Strategy Card, who has no Strategic Action). When a player chooses to take his Strategic Action, he first reads and then resolves the Primary Ability as printed on his Strategy Card.

After the active player has finished resolving the Primary Ability, the other players, in clockwise order from the active player, may each spend one Command Counter from their Strategy Allocation area on their Race sheet to execute the Secondary Ability of the current Strategy Card.

Special Exception: Players do not have to spend a Command Counter from their Strategy Allocation area when executing the Secondary Ability of the Logistics Strategy Card.

The active player may never execute the Secondary Ability of his own Strategy Card.

After all players have completed (or passed on) the Secondary Ability, the active player's Strategy Card is flipped over onto its "Inactive" side and the player action is over.

A player may only take one Strategic Action per round. Likewise, a player may only execute any given Secondary Ability once (but a player may, if he has a sufficient number of Command Counters in his Strategy Allocation area, participate in the Secondary Ability of several Strategy Cards).

The initiative number on each Strategy Card only determines the order of play. Players may execute their Strategic Action at a time of their choosing, regardless of its initiative number. It is likely, for example, that the player holding the Trade Strategy will take his Strategic Action before the player holding the Logistics Strategy, even if the Logistics Strategy has a lower initiative number.

Details for each specific Strategy Card can be found on pages 36-38.

The Tactical Action

The Tactical Action is the primary function for engagement on the game board. It is during a Tactical Actions that you will move your fleets on the board, engage in space battles, transport your Ground Forces to new planets, build new units, etc.

The process of taking a Tactical Action always follows the "Activation Sequence" below:

THE ACTIVATION SEQUENCE

1. Activate a system
2. Move ships into the system
3. PDS fire
4. Space Battle
5. Planetary Landings
6. Invasion Combat
7. Produce Units

Except for the first step (the activation itself), each individual step of the Activation Sequence is only resolved if the condition for its resolution applies or is initiated by the active player. A player, for example, may activate a system to produce new units there during step 7, but does not necessarily have to move any ships into the system during step 2. Or, a player may activate a system and move ships into the system, but if the system contains no enemy ships, there is no Space Battle during step 4, etc.

On the other hand, step 2 through 7 cannot be executed unless preceded by the initial activation. If a player has no Command Counters left in his Command Pool, he cannot take a Tactical action, and therefore not move ships, fight battles, produce units, etc.

"Friendly" and "Enemy"

When the cards and rules of TI refer to a "friendly" unit or planet, it refers to a unit or planet belonging to you (i.e., a single player). Although you may have an alliance or be personally friendly with another player, for the purposes of TI rules, only your own units and planets are "friendly."

When the rules refer to an "enemy" planet or unit, it refers to any unit or planet not controlled by you (i.e., controlled by any other player). Even though you may have an alliance with another player, and even though you may consider the other players your personal friends, for the purposes of TI rules, the units and planets of other players are considered "enemy."

The Activation Sequence in Detail

Below, each step in the Activation Sequence is described in detail. Rules for how to resolve Space Battles and Invasion Combat can be found on pages 15 through 18.

1) Activate a System

Take an available Command Counter from your Command Pool and use it to activate a system by placing the Command Counter directly on a system (place the counter face up so that your race's insignia is showing).

You cannot activate a system if one of your Command Counters has already been placed in the system (by a prior activation or by other means). You can, however, activate a system that contains one (or more) Command Counters belonging to other races (you may ignore their presence).

A system that contains a player's Command Counter is considered to have been activated by that player.

In summary: When the TI rules and cards refer to an "activated" system, this means a system that contains a Command Counter of the player in question. As a general rule, for purposes of activation and movement, a player can ignore the presence of Command Counters on the board belonging to other players. This means, for example, that every race can activate a specific system. In such a case, that system would contain a Command Counter from each race and would be considered "activated" by all players.

Although the Command Counters on the board belonging to other players do not limit where you may activate a system, it can be helpful to study which systems an opponent has activated, since those systems cannot be activated again by that player this round, nor can his ships in his activated systems move.

2) Move Ships into System

After you have activated a system, you may move friendly ships (within movement range) into the activated system. Only movement into the activated system is allowed.

The rules for moving ships during a Tactical Action are as follows:

• Every ship (except for Fighter units, which move with Carriers or War Suns) has a movement value found on the unit table located on every player's Race Sheet. A movement of "1" indicates that a ship can move from its current system into an adjacent system. A movement of 2 indicates that the ship may move up to two systems from its current system, etc.
• A Carrier/War Sun may pick up Ground Force and PDS units at any stage during the movement step (before, during, and even in the activated system itself). Ground Force and PDS units aboard a Carrier, however, cannot be "dropped off" by the Carrier until the Planetary Landing step of the Activation Sequence. If the last Ground Force unit on a planet is picked up by a Carrier, the owner of the planet must place a Control Marker on the planet to indicate that he controls it.
• A ship is never allowed to move through a system occupied by enemy ships (except Fighters). The only way to enter a system that contains enemy ships is to activate that system itself.
• A ship may not move if it is located in a system that already has been activated by the active player (i.e., contains a friendly Command Counter placed prior to the current activation). It therefore follows that once a ship has moved into an activated system, the very Command Counter used for the activation will prevent the ship from moving again during the same round. Ships are allowed to move through systems containing friendly Command Counters.

Certain effects by Strategy or Action Cards can remove Command Counters from the board, allowing systems to be activated again by the same player (and allowing any friendly units in such a system to move again, etc).

In summary: Only ships that can actually enter the activated system may move. Ships that are out of movement range, that need to pass through a system containing enemy units, or are in a system already activated, may not move. Remember, any ship moving must always end its movement in the system that was just activated. See the detailed graphical example of a Tactical activation and movement on page 13.

Order of Play

Each Strategy Card has an Initiative Number printed near its top. This number represents what place in the order of play its owner will be. Thus, the player who has the Initiative Strategy card is always first, followed by the player who controls the Diplomacy Strategy card, etc.

The order of play, as dictated by the Strategy Cards, is as follows:

1 Initiative Strategy 2 Diplomacy Strategy 3 Political Strategy 4 Logistics Strategy 5 Trade Strategy 6 Warfare Strategy 7 Technology Strategy 8 Imperial Strategy

When the turn order advances to an unchosen Strategy Card in the common play area, simply skip it and proceed to the next number. If, for example, no player picked the Initiative Strategy card during the Strategy Phase, the first player in the turn order would be the player who selected the Diplomacy Strategy.

3) PDS Fire

After the active player has finished moving his ships into the activated system, enemy PDS in range may fire at the active player's fleet. For every "hit," the activating player must remove a casualty from the fleet (note that Dreadnoughts and War Suns can take one "Damage" before they are destroyed, see page 30).

After enemy PDS units have fired, any PDS in range owned by the active player may then fire at enemy ships in the activated system. For more details on PDS units, see page 29.

Definition of a Fleet

For the purposes of the TI rules and cards, a fleet is defined as all spaceships (Fighters, Cruisers, Carriers, Dreadnoughts, Destroyers, and War Sun units) controlled by one player in one system at any given time.

4) Space Battles

First determine whether a Space Battle will occur in the activated system.

If the active player has moved one or more ships into a system that contains ships controlled by an opponent (even a Fighter) a Space Battle must be initiated between the two players. A Space Battle will continue until only one player has ships remaining in the system.

If a Space Battle is initiated, the active player is the attacker, and the player whose ships were in the system before activation is the defender.

For complete rules of how to resolve a Space Battle, please see the "Space Battles" section on page 15.

5) Planetary Landings

After any Space Battles are completed, the active player may now commence Planetary Landings by landing Ground Force and PDS units from his Carriers onto planets in the activated system.

If a system contains multiple planets, the active player may split any landing forces between them in any way he sees fit, but may not change his mind once the Invasion Combat step begins.

There are three types of Planetary Landings.

Friendly Landing: A player lands units on a planet already under his control. Simply add the new units to the ones already there, if any.

Neutral Landing: A player lands units on a neutral planet (i.e., a planet controlled by no other player). After landing at least one Ground Force unit on the neutral planet, the active player takes the corresponding Planet Card from the Planet Deck and places it exhausted in his play area.

Note that only a Ground Force unit can take over a planet. If a PDS unit lands alone on a neutral or enemy planet, it is immediately destroyed.

Hostile Landing (also called an "Invasion"): A player lands units on a planet containing one or more of an enemy player's Ground Force units. This will result in an Invasion Combat during the Invasion Combat step.

If a player lands units on a planet that is controlled by an opponent, but does not contain any enemy Ground Forces, the planet falls without resistance. The invader simply removes the opponent's Control Marker and takes the corresponding Planet Card from the opponent, placing it exhausted into his play area.

6) Invasion Combat

After planetary landings, should any planet contain Ground Forces of two different players, that planet must now engage in Invasion Combat. If a system has several planets engaged in Invasion Combat, the battles are resolved one-at-a-time in the order decided by the active player.

Landing PDS units with an Invasion

The invading player is allowed to land PDS units with his Ground Forces during the Planetary Landings step. Such PDS units do not participate in Invasion Combat, nor can they be taken as a combat casualty. If the last invading Ground Force unit is destroyed during Invasion Combat, all invading PDS are immediately destroyed with no further effect.

Details for how to resolve Invasion Combat are found in the "Invasion Combat" section on page 17.

6) Produce Units

As the final step of a Tactical Action, the active player may produce new units at one or more friendly Space Docks in the activated system.

During this step, it is also possible for the active player to produce a new Space Dock unit on an eligible planet in the activated system (provided that the planet has been under the player's control for the entire round).

See more information on how to produce units under the Space Dock on page 26.

Concluding a Tactical Action

After resolving the steps of the Activation Sequence (Activate a system, Movement, PDS fire, Space Battles, Planetary Landings, Invasion Combat, and Production), the Tactical Action is over and the opportunity to take an action proceeds to the next player in the order of play.

The Transfer Action

The Transfer Action is a simple reorganization of units that cannot be effectively handled by the Tactical Action. The Transfer Action simultaneously activates two adjacent systems that only contain units belonging to the active player and allows units in either system to simultaneously move between the two systems. In addition to this movement, the active player may also produce units in one of the two systems if a Space Dock is present in either.

The process of taking a Transfer Action always follows the steps of the Transfer Sequence:

THE TRANSFER SEQUENCE

1. Activate two systems
2. Movement between systems
3. PDS Fire
4. Planetary Landings
5. Production (in one system)

Below, each step of the Transfer Sequence is described in detail:

1) Activate Two Systems

After announcing a Transfer Action, the active player takes one Command Counter from his Command Pool and activates a system by placing the Command Counter upon it. Then the active player takes a Command Counter from his reinforcements and activates another system adjacent to the one just activated. Both activated systems must contain at least one unit controlled by the active player and must contain absolutely no enemy units (including Ground Forces and PDS).

REMINDER: When "activating a system" the active player places a Command Counter physically on the system itself (with his race insignia facing up). It is never possible for a player to activate a system that is already activated (i.e., already contains one of his Command Counters).

Example of Activation and Movement

In the example above, the N'orr player has just initiated a Tactical Action during the Action Phase. As the first step, he takes a Command Counter from his Command Pool and places it on the system occupied by the Xxcha fleet and planet.

After activating the system, he proceeds to the second step in the Activation Sequence. As the N'orr player may now move ships into the activated system, his movement options are as follows:

1. The Dreadnought has a movement rate of 1. Since the activated system is 2 spaces away, it is too far preventing the Dreadnought from moving into the activated system.

2. Although these two Cruisers are in two different systems, they each have a movement rate of "2," which allows them to reach the activated system. The two Cruisers may move into the activated system. The top Cruiser will move through a system that contains another N'orr Command Counter, which is perfectly legal.

3. This fleet of one Destroyer, one Carrier and four Fighters are all within movement range, and may all move into the activated system. If he wishes, the N'orr player may split the fleet and only move some of the ships (although the Fighters should stay with the Carrier).

4. These two Destroyers are within movement range of the activated system, but their system was already activated earlier by the N'orr player. This prevents them from moving to the activated system.

5. This N'orr Cruiser is within movement range to reach the activated system, but it cannot move through the Supernova or through the system containing two Xxcha Destroyers. This prevents the Cruiser from moving to the activated system.

After moving units into the activated system (being careful not to exceed his Fleet Supply) the N'orr player will engage in Space Battle against the Xxcha fleet there.

2) Movement

The active player may now move friendly ships between the two activated systems. As during a Tactical Action, Fighters, PDS, and Ground Force units must be transported by Carrier/War Sun.

3) PDS Fire

After the active player has finished moving, enemy PDS in range may fire at the active player's fleets in the activated systems. PDS units that are in range of both activated systems may fire at only one of the systems, not both.

4) Planetary Landings

During this step, any Ground Force and PDS units onboard Carriers in the activated systems may land on friendly planets in their system. Note that during a Transfer Action you may only land forces on friendly systems, not neutral planets or planets containing an enemy Control Marker.

5) Production

The active player may now produce units at his Space Docks in one of the activated systems (but not both).

Passing

If a player does not wish to take any additional actions, he may choose to pass. A player is only allowed to pass if he has already taken his Strategic Action (except for the player who controls the Initiative Strategy, who has no Strategic Action). All players must therefore, at some point during the Action Phase, take their Strategic Action (and thereby allow other players to execute the Secondary Ability of their Strategy Card).

After a player has passed, he is no longer allowed to take any additional actions this round. When it normally would have been his turn in the order of play, simply skip him, and proceed to the next player.

Exception: A player who has passed, is allowed to execute the Secondary Ability of Strategy Cards that are resolved later during the phase.

Example: After taking several actions, including his Strategic Action, the Xxcha player decides to pass. After doing so, the game goes on for several additional cycles until the Letnev player decides to take his Strategic Action. After the Letnev has resolved the Primary Ability of the Strategy Card, the other players, including the Xxcha, are allowed to execute its Secondary Ability.

End of the Action Phase

The Action Phase continues, repeating the order of play, until all players have passed. This could potentially result in a remaining player taking several consecutive actions, while all other players, having passed, must wait for him to finish his actions.

Once all players have passed, the game proceeds to the Status Phase.

The Status Phase

The Status Phase, when compared to either the Strategy or Action Phase, is a straightforward experience. It is during the Status Phase that many of the game functions are "reset," such as players refreshing Planet Cards, discarding Command Counters from the board, etc. It is also during the Status Phase that players may gain victory points by meeting the requirements of a Public and/or Secret Objective Card.

To resolve the Status Phase, follow the Status Sequence below:

The Status Sequence

1. Qualify for Public/Secret Objective Cards
2. Repair Damaged Ships
3. Remove Command Counters
4. Refresh Planet Cards
5. Receive 1 Action Card and 2 Command Counters
6. Redistribute Command Areas
7. Return Strategy Cards

The Status Sequence steps are described here in detail:

1) Qualify for Public/Secret Objectives

In the order of play, each player may announce that he has met the requirements of one face-up Public Objective Card and/or his Secret Objective Card.

After a player announces that he has met the objectives of a face up Public Objective Card, he must prove to his opponents that his claim is valid. After doing so, the player places one of his Control Markers on the claimed Objective Card (indicating that he has claimed that objective), and then advances his Control Marker on the Victory Point Track the appropriate number of spaces.

Once a player has received Victory Points for a specific Objective Card, he may not qualify for that Objective Card again.

In addition, if a player has met the requirements of his Secret Objective Card, he may now reveal the card, prove that its objectives are met, and then claim its victory points.

Important Exception: A player may never qualify for a Public or Secret Objective Card if he does not control all the planets in his Home System.

The "Imperium Rex" Objective Card

While the Primary Ability of the Imperial Strategy card is resolved, it is possible that the "Imperium Rex" objective card is drawn from the Objective Deck. When this card is drawn, the game ends immediately and a winner is declared The winner is the player who has the most victory points (the active player does not receive the 2 victory points). If there is a tie, then the greater number of resolved Objective Cards breaks the tie; if there is still a tie, then the greater number of planets, then unused Command Counters, and then the total number of Command Counters on a player's Race Sheet. If still tied, then the game ends in a draw between the tying players.

Winning the Game

When a player advances his Control Marker to the 10th step of the Victory Point Track, he has gained the power needed to claim the Imperial Throne on Mecatol Rex. The Winnaran Custodians will step aside for their new emperor, who must lead the galaxy to a new age of prosperity and peace.

As players, one at a time, qualify for Objective Cards by following the order of play, one player will always reach 10 victory points first. That player is the winner of the game, even if other players would also have achieved 10 or more victory points later in the order of play.

It is also possible for a player to win the game during this step if he is the first to meet the requirements of either the "Supremacy" or "Domination" card (provided that either card is face up in the common play area).

2) Repair Damaged Ships

All damaged Dreadnought and War Sun units are returned to their normal upright position on the game board. They are no longer considered to be damaged.

3) Remove Command Counters

Each player now removes all his Command Counters from the game board, placing them in his reinforcements pile.

4) Refresh Planet Cards

Each player refreshes his exhausted Planet Cards by turning them face up.

5) Players receive 1 Action Card and 2 Command Counters

Each player now receives one Action Card from the Action Card deck and two Command Counters from his reinforcements (placing each Command Counter in either of the three appropriate areas of his Race Sheet).

6) Redistribute Command Areas

Each player (in order of play, if necessary) may now redistribute the Command Counters between the Strategy Allocation, Command Pool, and Fleet Supply areas on his Race Sheet. If a player reduces the number of Command Counters in his Fleet Supply, remember to check that all of his fleets on the board are in compliance with his new fleet size limit.

7) Return Strategy Cards

Each player now returns his Strategy Card to the common play area. Here the eight Strategy Cards will be ready for the beginning of the next game round.

End of a Round

After the Status Phase has been completed (and provided no winner has yet emerged), the game round is over and another game round begins with a new Strategy Phase. In this way, the game is played over a series of game rounds until a winner has been determined.

Space Battles

If the active system contains ships belonging to the active player and ships belonging to an opponent, a Space Battle must be fought.

A Space Battle is fought over a consecutive number of combat rounds until only ships of one player remain (or the ships of both players have been simultaneously destroyed).

Before Combat

Before the actual Space Battle begins, resolve any pre-combat actions such as Destroyer Anti-Fighter Barrage and then Sabotage Runs (the Sabotage Run is an optional rule found on page 35).

Destroyer Anti-Fighter Barrage

Before the first round of Space Battle, roll two dice for each Destroyer unit in the battle. For every result equal to or higher than the Destroyer's combat value (all combat values can be found on the unit table on every player's Race Sheet), the opponent must take one Fighter unit as an immediate casualty. Such eliminated Fighter units are removed immediately and placed back among a player's reinforcements; they do not receive return fire and will not participate in the upcoming Space Battle.

A fleet containing no Fighter units is unaffected by pre-combat Destroyer fire.

The Battle Round

After finishing any "before combat" actions, continue to the actual combat. A Space Battle always follows the Space Battle Sequence:

The Space Battle Sequence

1. Announce withdrawals/retreats
2. Roll combat dice
3. Remove casualties
4. Execute withdrawals/retreats

After step 4, if both players still have ships remaining in the system, repeat the Space Battle Sequence until only one player has ships remaining, or all ships in the system have been destroyed.

Below, each step of the Space Battle Sequence is described in detail:

1. Announce Retreats/Withdrawals

The attacker first has the option to announce his withdrawal from battle. If the attacker chooses not to declare a withdrawal, then the defender may declare a retreat. Note that if the attacker does decide to withdraw, the defender may not declare a retreat.

Any actual withdrawals/retreats occur at the last step of the combat phase. This means that all Space Battles will have at least one round of combat.

2. Roll Combat Dice

During this step, both players simultaneously roll one combat die for every one of their spaceships in the battle (with the exception of the War Sun, which rolls three dice). For each result that is equal to or higher than the combat value of its ship, a "hit" is scored (all base combat values can be found on the unit table on a player's Race Sheet). Players must remember the total number of successful hits as they move to the next step.

Example: The attacking player has a fleet of three Cruisers and one Dreadnought. During the first battle round, he rolls for his attacking ships. He takes three dice for the Cruisers (Combat Value 7) and rolls a 2, 5, and 7 -- one hit. Then he takes one die for his Dreadnought and rolls a 6 -- a hit. The attacking player announces that he has inflicted a total of two hits on the defending fleet. The defending player has two Fighters (supported by a Space Dock in the system) and one Destroyer. He takes two dice for the Fighter units and rolls a 3 and a 5 -- both misses. Then he takes one die for his Destroyer and rolls a 0 (a 10) a hit. The defending player announces that he has inflicted one total hit on the attacking fleet.

Space Battle Example

1. In this example, the Xxcha player has just activated a N'orr system, moving a fleet of one Carrier unit (carrying two Ground Forces), three Fighter units (also supported by the Carrier) and one Cruiser unit.

As the N'orr has two Destroyer units in the battle, and the Xxcha has Fighter units, the N'orr Destroyers each will roll two dice for their pre-combat "Destroyer Anti-Fighter Barrage." The results are 2, 2, 5, and 6 (all misses). The players then proceed to the first step of the Space Battle Sequence. The Xxcha player announces that he will not withdraw, and the N'orr player announces that he does not wish to retreat.

2. The Xxcha player now rolls combat dice for his units. His Fighters roll a 3, 5, and a 10 (one hit), his Carrier a 6 (a miss), and finally his Cruiser an 8 (one hit). The Xxcha player announces that he has made 2 successful hits.

Then the N'orr player rolls three combat dice for his spaceships. The N'orr Cruiser rolls a 8 (a hit) and the two Destroyer units roll a 9 and a 10 (both hits). The N'orr player announces that he has made 3 successful hits.

As casualties, the Xxcha player elects to destroy three Fighter units. The N'orr player removes his two Destroyer units.

3. The second round of Space Battle combat now begins. The Xxcha player declares that he will not withdraw, and the N'orr that he will not retreat.

The Xxcha player then proceeds to roll a 9 with his Cruiser (hit), and 1 with his Carrier (a miss). The N'orr player rolls a 3 with his Cruiser (a miss). As he must sustain one casualty, the N'orr player must destroy his remaining Cruiser, and the Space Battle is now over with the Xxcha player victorious.

During the Planetary Landings step of the Activation Sequence, the Xxcha plans to land the two Ground Forces on the N'orr planet, starting an Invasion Combat.

3. Remove Casualties

Each player must now take a number of casualties equal to the number of hits scored by the opponent in step 2.

First the attacking player removes his casualties. For every casualty, he must destroy one of his ships of his choice or damage one of his Dreadnoughts or War Suns (if a damaged Dreadnought or War Sun receives a second hit, it is destroyed). Destroyed ships are placed among a player's reinforcements, and become available for production once again. After the attacking player has removed all his casualties, the defending player must then remove his casualties.

Note that whenever a player removes casualties in TI, the casualty is always determined by the affected player. Since Fighters are the cheapest unit to produce, they make effective "cannon fodder" and are thus typically among the first units to be chosen as casualties.

Example: The defending player scored one hit. The attacking player then chooses to damage his Dreadnought (soaking up a casualty). The attacker scored a total of two hits. The defending player chooses to remove two Fighter units as casualties and places them back with his reinforcements.

4. Execute Withdrawals/Retreats

If the attacking player announced a withdrawal or the defending player announced a retreat during step 1 of the Space Battle Sequence, that player may now execute the withdrawal/retreat, following the rules below.

• A withdrawal or retreat is not allowed if, at this point in the battle, the opposing player has no units left in the system. Even if a player announced a withdrawal or retreat at the beginning of the combat round, if he has somehow managed to destroy all the opposing units, the withdrawal/retreat is cancelled and the units must remain in the system.
• When executing a withdrawal or retreat, a player must withdraw his entire fleet to an adjacent system that has previously been activated by the withdrawing/retreating player. If a player has no previously activated systems adjacent to the contested system, he may not withdraw or retreat.

After a successful withdrawal or retreat, make sure that the withdrawing/retreating player is still in compliance with his Fleet Supply (see rules for Fleet Supply on page 21) and has sufficient Fighter capacity (see the Fighter units description on page 29) in the new system. If not, he must immediately destroy the excess ships.

End of a Space Battle

After the first Space Battle round is completed, if both players still have surviving ships in the system, another Space Battle round begins. This continues until only one player has ships in the system (or the ships of both players have been eliminated).

Invasion Combat

After the active player has landed one or more Ground Force units during the Planetary Landings step of a Tactical Action, an Invasion Combat must be fought if the destination planet holds any enemy Ground Force units.

Invasion Combat is executed almost identically to Space Battle, with the notable exception that no withdrawals or retreats are allowed.

Before Combat

Before the actual Invasion Combat begins, players must resolve pre-combat actions such as planetary bombardments and defensive PDS fire.

Bombardments

Dreadnought and War Sun units in the activated system may bombard a planet before the player undertakes Invasion Combat (exception: a War Sun unit may bombard a planet even if no Invasion Combat is about to take place). Simply roll one combat die for every Dreadnought, three for every War Sun, and remove one enemy Ground Force on the contested planet for every result equal to or higher than the combat value of the bombarding unit.

Remember that a Dreadnought may not bombard a planet that contains at least one enemy PDS due to the presence of a planetary shield.

Ground Forces destroyed by bombardment are removed immediately, do not receive return fire, and will not participate in the upcoming Invasion Combat.

PDS Fire

After the attacking player has finished his bombardment, the defending player may fire a single shot with each PDS unit on the contested planet. The defending player rolls a die for every PDS unit present, and for every result equal to or greater than the combat value of the PDS unit, an invading Ground Force is destroyed. Attacking Ground Force units destroyed by defending PDS do not receive return fire and will not participate in the upcoming Invasion Combat.

The Invasion Combat Round

After any bombardment and defensive PDS fire has been resolved, the players proceed to the Invasion Combat itself. Like a Space Battle, Invasion Combat is fought over a series of consecutive combat rounds until only one player's Ground Forces (or none) remain.

To resolve an Invasion Combat round, follow the Invasion Combat Sequence:

The Invasion Combat Sequence

1. Roll combat dice
2. Casualties are removed

The sequence is here described in detail:

1) Roll Combat Dice

Both players simultaneously roll one die for every friendly Ground Force unit on the planet. For every result equal to or higher than the combat value of the Ground Force unit, the player scores a "hit." Players must remember their total number of successful hits as they move to the next step.

2) Remove Casualties

Each player must now take a number of Ground Force unit casualties equal to the number of hits scored by the opponent in step 1. Casualties are, as always, returned to a player's reinforcement pile.

If, at this point, both players still have Ground Force units remaining on the planet, another Invasion Combat round is initiated. This continues until only one (or no) player has Ground Force units left on the planet.

Invasion Success?

If all defending Ground Forces were destroyed and at least one attacking Ground Force survived the battle, the invasion is a success. All defending PDS units and any Space Dock on the planet are immediately destroyed. The attacking player then claims the Planet Card from the previous owner and places it, exhausted, into his play area.

Since combat is simultaneous, it is possible that all the Ground Forces on both sides were destroyed. If this is the case, the defending player retains control over the planet and simply places one of his Control Markers on the vacant planet to indicate this.

Receiving Planet Cards

Whenever a player receives a Planet Card, by either successfully taking over a neutral planet or by successfully invading an enemy planet, he claims the corresponding Planet Card and places it exhausted in his play area. A newly claimed Planet Card is always received exhausted, even if the previous owner had not yet exhausted it.

The Races of TWILIGHT IMPERIUM

Universities of Jol Nar The Naalu Collective The L1z1x Mindnet The Mentak Coalition The Barony of Letnev The Xxcha Kingdom The Yssaril Tribes The Emirates of Hacan The Sardakk N'orr The Federation of Sol

Other Game Concepts and Rules

The Systems

There are three types of systems in TWILIGHT IMPERIUM:

Home Systems (Interior Yellow Border)

These represent the starting systems for each of the 10 great races. At the beginning of the game, players randomly draw one of these systems to determine which race they will play.

Special Systems (Interior Red Border)

The Special Systems represent three unique types of interstellar terrain, governed by the following rules:

Asteroid Field

A player's ships may not move through an Asteroid Field unless that player has gained the Anti-mass Deflector (Red) technology. If a player does have the required technology, he may move his ships through an Asteroid Field, but it is never possible, by any means, for a ship to end its movement in an Asteroid Field. An Asteroid Field may never be activated.

Nebula

A Nebula is governed by the following rules:

• A Fleet defending a Nebula receives +1 to its combat rolls during any Space Battle here
• Ships can never move through a Nebula (but ships can move into a Nebula via normal activation)
• A ship leaving a Nebula always has its movement reduced to 1 (regardless of technology modifiers and Action Cards).

Supernova

These fiery dying stars are incredibly dangerous and absolutely impassable. A Supernova may never be activated.

Regular Systems

Regular systems are either empty, or contain one to two planets (see the "Planets of Twilight Imperium" sidebar for more information). Some regular systems also contain an end of either the Alpha or Beta Wormhole. The large majority of the TI galaxy consists of regular systems, and they form the battlegrounds and points of contention for the great races.

Although considered a regular system, the Mecatol Rex system always forms the center of the galaxy and is never randomly distributed to players before the galaxy is created.

Wormholes

In TI, Wormholes are spatial anomalies that connect distant areas of space. A system containing one end of a Wormhole is considered adjacent (even for the purposes of a transfer action) to a system containing another end of its Wormhole type (Alpha or Beta).

For example, a ship with a movement rate of 1 may move from a system containing a Beta Wormhole, directly to another system containing a Beta Wormhole (remember that all movement is still part of an Activation Sequence in which ships must end their movement in the activated system).

If only one Wormhole of a type is in play, it has no function and is ignored.

Unit Limitations

Except for Fighters and Ground Forces, players are limited to the number of units provided in the game. If all of a player's units of a specific type are on the board, that player may not produce additional units of that kind until one is destroyed and returned to the player's reinforcement pile.

Example: A player has been using all of his 5 Dreadnought units in his campaign against the Letnev. Last round, he was unable to build another Dreadnought unit, since all 5 of his Dreadnought units were in play. During a Space Battle this round, however, the player loses a Dreadnought. The destroyed Dreadnought is placed back with his reinforcements, allowing the player to build the Dreadnought unit again (provided that he has the resources to pay for it and a Command Counter in his Command Pool to activate a system containing a Space Dock).

Scuttling units

At any time during the Status Phase, players are allowed to scuttle (destroy) any of their own units on the board. Scuttled units are simply returned to the player's reinforcement pile and become available for production during the next Action Phase.

The Fighter and Ground Force Supplement Counters

Unlike every other unit type, players are allowed to build more Fighter and Ground Force units than supplied with the game. To build these additional units, players must use the Fighter or Ground Force Supplement Counters. These counters are neutral, can be used by any player, and are governed by the following rules:

The presence of a Supplement Counter simply states "there is one additional unit of this type here!" There must always be at least one actual unit (controlled by the same player) of the appropriate type in the same system, or on the same planet, as a Supplement Counter.

Players may, at any time, replace any number of Ground Forces and/or Fighters in a system/planet with an equal number of Fighter/Ground Force Supplement Counters as long as at least one original unit remains. The actual units are placed back among a player's reinforcements, and the appropriate Supplement Counters are taken from the common play area and placed on the board in the same spot.

Likewise, players may, at any time, replace Supplement Counters on the board with actual units from their reinforcements (if able). Players must do this when they want to split the forces without sufficient actual units present.

Example: On a planet containing three Xxcha Ground Force units, the Xxcha player may replace two of the Ground Force units with two Ground Force Supplement Counters (by placing the actual units back with his reinforcements, and placing the two Ground Force Supplement Counters under the remaining unit). The planet is still considered to have three Ground Force units, and the Xxcha player may choose to replace the Supplement Counters with actual units from his reinforcements at any time. Note that the Xxcha player may not have replaced all three Ground Forces with Supplement Counters, since one actual unit must always be with Supplement Counters of its kind.

Be careful that, in multi-planet systems, each planet with Ground Force Supplement Counters contain at least one actual Ground Force unit.

It is only really necessary for a player to use Supplement Counters if he is about to run out of actual units in his reinforcement pile. In some instances, it is possible that there is too little physical room on a given planet/system, and that a player may wish to create more room by replacing some Ground Force/Fighter units with counters.

A player may, during production, produce Supplement Counters, but only if the producing system/planet contains at least one actual unit of that type after the production is complete.

As stated, Supplement Counters are simply additional units of the indicated type, and therefore also must behave under all the same rules as the actual unit. In other words, Fighter Supplement Counters must have sufficient Carrier/Space Dock/War Sun capacity in order to exist. Ground Force Supplement Counters must be transported by a Carrier in order to move to another planet, etc.

Note that when Supplement Counters are transported by a Carrier or War Sun, at least one actual unit of that type must also be transported by that same Carrier/War Sun.

If a Supplement Counter is on system/planet without an actual unit of its type, it is immediately removed.

An easy way to manage your Supplement Counters is to always place them under an actual unit of their type in the area. As long as a Supplement Counter is under an actual unit of its type, it will always conform to the rules.

The Planets of TWILIGHT IMPERIUM

The real points of interest in the TI galaxy are its planets. Each planet is printed with its resource value, influence value, and possibly a technology specialty. When a player successfully invades a planet (neutral or enemy), he immediately claims its corresponding Planet Card.

Resources represent a planet's economic surplus, which can be used by its owner to purchase units and technology.

Influence represents a planet's population, knowledge base, and/or political importance. Influence is used to acquire Command Counters, to play certain Action Cards, and to provide vital votes at the Galactic Council.

Technology specialties represent a certain local knowledge or a natural resource important to a specific area of science. This provides the owner of the planet with a discount resource towards purchasing advances of that technology type.

The Command Counters

At the start of the game, players are each provided with a total of 16 Command Counters. During the game, these counters will be either on a player's Race Sheet or with his reinforcements.

The Race Sheet

The Race Sheet provides a wealth of useful information and is used to manage a player's active Command Counters. Here is a brief explanation of the player Race Sheet:

1. Race Title and Symbol — The symbol and title of the represented race.
2. Starting Units and Special Abilities — The starting units/technologies, and the special abilities of the race.
3. Phase and Sequence Tables — A detailed overview of the important phases and sequences of the game round.
4. Unit Data — A detailed chart with the costs, combat value, movement rating, and special abilities of each unit type.
5. The Strategy Allocation Area — Command Counters herein can be spent to execute the secondary abilities of Strategy cards (and a few other special functions).
6. The Fleet Supply — Command Counters herein are flipped to their "Fleet" side, so that they do not mix with the other Command Counters on the Race Sheet. The number of Command Counters herein determines the allowable size of a player's fleets.
7. The Command Pool — A player must spend Command Counters from this area when activating systems on the game board (when taking a Tactical or Transfer Action).
8. The Trade Goods Area — When a player receives a Trade Good counter, it is placed in this area. A player may give Trade Goods to other players at any time, or use Trade Good as a substitute for spending either one resource or one influence.

Whenever a player receives a Command Counter from his reinforcements, he must immediately place it on his Race Sheet in one of the three following areas:

• The Strategy Allocation Area
• The Fleet Supply Area
• The Command Pool Area

These three areas represent three distinctly different vital areas of managing your race. Once a player places a Command Counter in one of these areas, he may not move it to a different area until the upcoming Status Phase. Decisions on where to place and how to spend Command Counters are among the most important that a player will make during the game.

When a player spends a Command Counter, or uses a Command Counter to activate a system, he must remove the counter from the appropriate area of his Race Sheet and return it to his reinforcements.

In detail, the effects and rules for each of the three areas are as follows:

The Fleet Supply Area

The number of Command Counters in a player's Fleet Supply area dictates the maximum number of ships (not including Fighters) that a player may have in any given system on the board. A player may never move units, build units, or otherwise acquire units in any system so that the number of ships herein (again, excluding Fighters) exceed the number of Command Counters in his Fleet Supply area. If, for any reason, the number of ships in a system should exceed the number of Command Counters in a player's Fleet Supply, the owner of those ships must immediately remove enough ships from the system (by placing them back with his reinforcements) until the number of ships is again in compliance with the number of Command Counters in his Fleet Supply area.

When a player places a Command Counter in his Fleet Supply area, it is placed with the "Fleet" side up, to indicate that it is a part of the Fleet Supply area. In this way, other players can easily identify your fleet limit from across the table, and it helps prevent your counters from mixing with the Command Counters in the two other areas.

As a player increases the number of Command Counters in his Fleet Supply area, he may increase the size of his fleets on the board correspondingly.

It is important to note that a player may have any number of active fleets on the board, as long as each fleet contains a number of ships that is equal to, or less, than its owner's Fleet Supply limit.

As noted, Fighter units do not count toward the Fleet Supply limit. A player may thus have any number of Fighter units in a given system, as long as he has the capacity to support them (see the Fighter unit on page 29).

The Command Pool Area

After a player decides to take a Tactical or Transfer Action during the Action Phase, he must take an available Command Counter from his Command Pool in order to activate a system on the board. If a player has no Command Counters remaining in his Command Pool, he is not able to take Tactical or Transfer Actions. In other words, the number of Command Counters in a player's Command Pool dictates the amount of activity he can initiate on the board.

The Strategy Allocation Area

Generally, Command Counters in the Strategy Allocation area are spent to execute the Secondary Abilities of Strategy Cards. Some races have special abilities and some Action Cards require their players to spend Command Counters from their Strategy Allocation area for other effects.

Spending Resources and Influence

Throughout a game of TI, you will need to spend resources and influence for many different purposes. Both resources and influence are provided by the planets under your control, and you will use their corresponding Planet Cards to keep track of your expenditures.

Exhausting Planets

Whenever you want to spend influence or resources you must exhaust one of your Planet Cards by turning it face down. This provides you with the resources or influence of that planet. Each Planet Card (and the planets on the board themselves) shows the specific information on how many resources and how much influence is gained from exhausting that specific planet (see the diagram above). A face down Planet Card cannot be exhausted again until it is refreshed during the Status Phase (or by another effect). When a card is refreshed, it is simply returned to its face-up position.

When you exhaust a planet for its resources or influence, it provides you with all of its resources or influence. You cannot use the resources or influence of a planet partially, nor can you save a portion for later.

Example of Spending Resources and Production

The N'orr player has just activated a system containing one of his Space Docks. As the final step of the Activation Sequence, he now wishes to produce units in the system.

The N'orr player takes 1 Carrier, one Destroyer, and one Cruiser from his reinforcements. Referring to his Race Sheet, the N'orr player notes that the cost for these units are as follows:

1 Carrier — 3 Resources 1 Destroyer — 2 Resources 1 Cruiser — 1 Resources Total = 6 Resources

The planet can produce up to 5 units, so the production capacity of the planet is not a problem. To pay for three units, however, the N'orr player must spend 6 resources. As he has no Trade Goods on his Race Sheet, the N'orr player takes three of his ready Planet Cards, with a combined resource value of 6, and exhausts those planet cards (by flipping them face down) to pay for the three units that he wishes to buy.

After paying for the production, the N'orr player takes the three units and places them in the activated system. Since the activated system already held a Carrier unit, he now has a fleet of 4 units (remember that Fighters do not count towards Fleet Size) in the system. Since the N'orr player has 4 command counters on his Fleet Supply, the Fleet is not in violation of the N'orr Fleet limit.

Note that when exhausting a planet, it will provide you with either its resource value or its influence value, but not both. Before exhausting a planet, you must announce whether you are exhausting it for its resources or for its influence (in most cases it is clear for what purpose you are exhausting a planet).

Paying Costs

Whenever a player wishes to spend resources or influence, he simply announces the total amount of resources/influence that he wishes to spend, and then exhausts the number of Planet Cards with that (or greater) combined amount of resources/influence.

In other words, when a player is producing units at a Space Dock during the Production step of the Activation Sequence, he may simply announce how many resources he is going to spend in total. Then he exhausts the appropriate number of planets and places the produced units on the board (see rules for producing units under the Space Dock unit on page 26). This means that you are not producing (and spending resources on) a single unit at a time, but rather purchasing the production with one lump sum. The same goes for spending influence.

Any spare resources or influence provided by an exhausted Planet Card are lost.

Special Note: You do not have to exhaust a specific Planet Card to pay for the cost of production at that exact planet; any resources will do.

The Action Cards

Throughout the game, players will come into possession of Action Cards. Action Cards should be kept hidden from other players.

An Action Card can only be used given the specific circumstances (or phase) printed on each individual card.

A player may never have more than 7 Action Cards at any one time. If, after receiving additional cards, a player has more than 7 Action Cards in his hand, he must immediately choose and discard cards until he has 7. If a player at 7 cards is about to draw additional cards, he should draw and discard one Action Card at a time.

A player may never play two identical Action Cards for the same situation and/or on the same entity during one round. Example: A player cannot play two "Flank Speed" Action Cards on the same fleet in one round. The player may, however, play a "Flank Speed" on two different fleets in the same round.

How to Play an Action Card

If a player wishes to play an Action Card, he must publicly announce that he wishes to play an Action Card. Then other players, at that time, may announce that they also wish to play an Action Card. After all players have been given the opportunity to announce that they are playing Action Cards, all the Action Cards are revealed and resolved in order of play.

If Action Cards are about to played at a time where players do not have Strategy Cards, then resolve them in clockwise order starting with the Speaker.

The Sabotage Action Card

A player does not have to announce the playing of a Sabotage card. The Sabotage card is simply played immediately after an Action Card has been revealed, cancelling its effect. Then both cards are discarded.

"Play as an Action"

Some Action Cards read "Play: As an action." This Action Card must played by its owner during the Action Phase instead of taking a regular action.

The Political Cards and the Galactic Council

When the player who controls the Political Strategy Card executes his Strategic Action, a Political Card must be drawn and the Galactic Council convenes to debate and vote upon its agenda.

The Political Agenda

Every Political Card contains an agenda that requires a vote in the Galactic Council (i.e., the players). As the first step of convening the Galactic Council, the active player reads aloud the drawn Political Card and makes it clear what kind of vote is about to be cast.

There are two types of agenda votes:

"Elect" Votes

When a political agenda asks the Galactic Council to elect something or someone, each player may choose who or what to nominate (i.e., elect) when casting his vote. That player's entire vote is now attributed towards that subject. The subject with the highest number (not necessarily the majority) of the total votes is considered elected. After this, follow the instructions on the Political Card.

"For or Against" Votes

Most agendas will ask the Galactic Council to vote for or against a certain agenda. In this type of vote, players indicate either "for" or "against" when casting their vote, The majority of all votes cast will decide the outcome.

Laws

Some agendas are "Laws." Laws represent permanent changes to the rules and/or flow of the game. When a Law is voted "for," first enact any effects of the "for" result and then place the Political Card face up in the common play area. The effects of this card are now permanent. If voted "against," resolve any effects that an "against" result may have and then discard the card.

Although the council might have adopted a Law earlier in the game, the balance of power can later have shifted, and old Laws soon become unpopular. If this happens, how can the council reverse the old Law?

Among the Political Cards, there are certain agendas that allow older Laws to be either reevaluated or discarded. Note that these cards are few and that most enacted Laws are in the game to stay, so be careful how you vote.

Voting in the Galactic Council

After the active player has read the agenda out loud, the Galactic Council must resolve the agenda in the following way:

1. Players first debate, threaten, lure, or convince each other to vote in their favor. Trade Good Counters may be used as "bribes" but no promises or agreements in TI are binding (even after receiving a bribe or pay-off).

Rules and Cards

If the effect of a card seems to contradict the rules of the game, the card text is always correct.

2. Players then vote upon the agenda. Voting is done clockwise one player at a time, starting with the player to the left of the Speaker (thus the Speaker will always cast the last vote). When voting, a player has as many votes as the total combined influence value of all his unexhausted planets (and a minimum of 1 vote). Example: The Letnev player controls five planets, but has exhausted three of them. His two remaining unexhausted planets have influence values of "2" and "1." The Letnev player therefore has a total of 3 votes during the Galactic Council.

When voting, a player must cast all his votes or none. Votes cannot be split. Voting does not cause your Planet Cards to exhaust.

Trade Good counters cannot be used to gain additional votes.

The Galactic Council is meant to be a fun, active engagement in which players forge alliances, use their political prowess, engage in saber-rattling, and "act their race." As powerful agendas are presented to the council, weaker players can seek to hurt strong neighbors politically via the enactment of damaging Laws or other agendas.

Abstaining and Tie Votes

A player may always choose to abstain from voting during any agenda. If so, his votes are simply not counted for purposes of resolving the agenda (including determining a majority). If there is a tie vote, even a tie of "0" (in which all players have abstained), the player holding the Speaker Token breaks the tie.

Technology Advances

Before the game begins, each player is provided with an identical deck of 24 Technology advances, and each player starts the game with a few "Starting Technology" advances. When a player has successfully acquired (or received at the start of the game) a Technology advance, he takes the respective Technology Card and places it face up before him in his play area. In this way, players will slowly accumulate Technology Cards, each providing a helpful advantage described on the card itself.

Example: After acquiring the "Deep Space Cannon" technology, a player's PDS units may fire at adjacent systems, rather than just their own.

Technology Cards are normally acquired during the resolution of the Technology Strategy Card, but can also be acquired via certain Action and Political Cards.

Players may not give each other Technology advances.

There are four different technology areas, each attributed the following color:

Warfare Technology = Red Biotechnology = Green Propulsion Technology = Blue General Technology = Yellow

Acquiring a Technology Advance

In general Technology advances are acquired when the Technology Strategy Card is executed during the Action Phase. The active player receives a free Technology advance, and other players may pay 8 resources to acquire one Technology advance.

Most Technology advances (but not all) have prerequisite technologies. Before a Technology advance can be acquired, a player must already have obtained all prerequisite technologies printed on the card.

Example: The "Micro Technology" advance requires that a player has either the "Stasis Capsules" or "Sarween Tools" Technology advances already. If the player has neither of these prerequisites technologies in his play area, he is not allowed to acquire the "Micro Technology" advance.

A player is not allowed to acquire a technology (via Action Cards, or otherwise) if he does not already have the prerequisite technologies face up in his play area.

You will find a handy "Tech Tree" diagram on page 42-43 of this rules booklet, and you will also find this diagram available for download at www.fantasyflightgames.com.

Planetary Technology Specialties

Some planets have a technology specialty (a printed technology symbol by the planet itself and on the Planet Card). Technology specialties represent a certain local knowledge or a natural resource important to a specific area of science. The presence of a technology specialty gives the owner of the planet the ability to purchase a Technology Card (of the specific type: red, green, or blue) for 1 less than its normal cost when executing the secondary ability of the Technology Strategy Card. If a player controls multiple planets with technology specialties of the same color/type, the cost to acquire that technology type is lowered by 1 for each such planet.

Example: If a player controls three planets with the green technology specialty (Biotech), he may subtract three from the cost of purchasing green Technology Cards.

Technology specialty discounts do not apply if the contributing Planet Card(s) is exhausted. (It is not necessary to exhaust a planet with the technology specialty in order to receive the discount, nor is it necessary to exhaust that specific planet to buy the Technology advance).

Trade Contracts and Trade Agreements

In TI, trading is an important avenue for players to gain additional resources and influence. Trade can be used as important political leverage against hostile players or to help seal an important alliance.

At the beginning of the game, each race is provided with two Trade Cards, each with a numerical trade value printed on the "trade agreement" side of the card (you may notice that some races have Trade Cards of differing trade values). At the beginning of the game, players should place these cards with the "Trade Contract" side up in their playing area. This side has no trade value, as players derive no value from their own Trade Cards.

Opening Trade Agreements

When the primary ability of the Trade Strategy Card is being resolved during the Action Phase, the active player may allow players (himself included) to forge trade agreements.

A trade agreement is initiated between two players who agree to trade with each other. After agreeing to trade, each of the two players must give the partner one of their own Trade Cards. Upon receiving another player's Trade Card, a player should place it before him with the trade agreement side face up.

Only one Trade Card for each player may be exchanged, not more.

Definition of an "Empty" System

The TI rules and cards will sometimes refer to an "empty" system. An empty system is a system completely free of units, including units belonging to the active player. In other words, an empty system is one that is free from ship, Ground Force, PDS, or Space Dock units. The system may, however, contain planets, Control Markers, and Command Counters. Special Systems are not considered empty systems.

Since every race has only two Trade Cards, each player may only have two active trade agreements at any one time.

Before a trade agreement can be completed, the agreement must first be approved by the active player. If approved (and that may take some bribes to the active player), the players may exchange Trade cards.

Two players may only make one trade agreement with each other. Thus, for a player to utilize both of his Trade Cards, he must make trade agreements with two different opponents. If able, a player may initiate both of his trade agreements during the same execution of a Trade Strategy Card.

It is important to note that since each player only has two Trade Cards, he cannot make more than two trade agreements.

Receiving Trade Goods

While executing the primary ability of the Trade Strategy Card, the first player receives Trade Goods for his trade agreements (and 3 extra trade goods).

After the active player has completed the primary ability, the other players, clockwise from the active player, may execute the secondary ability of the Trade Strategy Card to receive Trade Goods for their trade agreements.

Note that players are not allowed to collect trade income from trade agreements formed during the same action. It is not possible for a player to make a trade agreement during the primary ability of the Trade Strategy Card, and then immediately collect trade income from the new trade agreement by executing the secondary ability.

A player receives Trade Goods by simply counting the total trade value of any trade agreements in his play area. The player then takes that number of Trade Goods from the common play area and places them on the Trade Goods area of his Race Sheet.

Example: The Xxcha currently has an active trade agreement with the Jol Nar player (as illustrated on the "Player Area" diagram on page 9). After the active player has finished the primary ability of the Trade Strategy Card, the Xxcha spends one Command Counter from his Strategy Allocation area to execute the secondary ability of the Trade Strategy Card. The Jol Nar trade agreement has a trade value of "3." The Xxcha player takes three Trade Good counters from the common play area and places them on the Trade Goods area of his Race Sheet.

The Trade Goods Counters

Players may spend Trade Good counters from their Trade Goods area as a substitute for spending either one resource or one influence. In this way, a player can pay for a Dreadnought unit by spending 5 Trade Goods from his Trade Goods area, or by exhausting Planet Cards for 3 resources, and paying the remaining 2 resources with Trade Goods (or any combination thereof).

When a player spends a Trade Good, he simply moves it from his Trade Goods area to the common play area.

Players are allowed to give other players Trade Goods from their Race Sheet at any time. This makes the Trade Goods counter a flexible currency with which to bribe, pay, or assist other players economically.

Running out of Trade Goods

There are exactly 40 Trade Goods in the game, if the Trade supply in the common play area is empty, then players cannot receive additional Trade Goods until a player spends some and returns them to the common play area once more. Since there is a limit to the total number of Trade Goods, it is important to adhere to the player order of executing the secondary ability of the Trade Strategy Card, which is always done in clockwise order from the active player.

Breaking Trade Agreements

Any player involved in a trade agreement may unilaterally break the agreement during the Status Phase. Such a player simply announces that he is ending the agreement and immediately returns the Trade Card to its owner and retrieves his own Trade Card from the former trading partner (a player's own Trade Cards are always returned with the "Trade Contract" side face up, as they provide no trade value for their owner). It is not possible for a player to automatically break a trade agreement with the Hacan race, as per the Hacan's special ability.

If two trading players become involved in open war against each other (by one player initiating either a Space Battle or Invasion Combat against the other), a trade agreement between the two players is automatically broken (and the Trade Cards returned to their owners). The two players may later open another trade agreement, but this will again be broken if another Space Battle or Invasion Combat occurs between them. Trade agreements with the Hacan player are broken in the event of open war between the Hacan and its trading partner.

Note that only Space Battles and Invasion Combat will automatically break a trade agreement between two players. Playing Action Cards or taking shots with a PDS, etc., does not cause an automatic break.

Invading a planet that contains only an enemy Control Marker is still considered Invasion Combat for purposes of cancelling trade agreements.

The Power of the Merchants Guild

When executing the primary ability of the Trade Strategy, the active player may choose to exercise his control of the Merchant's guild in a destructive way, rather than facilitating the wealth of other races.

As described in option "b" of the Trade Strategy Card, the active player, instead of receiving Trade Goods and opening trade negotiations, may instead choose to cancel every trade agreement in play.

If the active player chooses this option, all Trade Cards (including those of the active player and the Hacan) are returned to their owners.

The Objective Cards

The Objective Cards represent the primary way for players to receive victory points. Each Objective Card (both Secret and Public) contains a requirement and a victory point award for meeting that requirement. The Public Objective Cards are slowly revealed as the Imperial Strategy Card is resolved during the Action Phase.

During the first step of the Status Phase, players may qualify for the requirements of one revealed Public Objective Card in order to receive the corresponding victory points. Note that a player cannot gain victory points from a Public Objective Card that is not yet revealed.

Some Objective Cards state "Now I…". This requires a player to actually fulfill the requirement during the first step of the Status Phase. For example, one Objective Card reads "I now spend 20 Resources (2 victory points)." In order for a player to receive these two victory points, he must have enough Trade Goods and unexhausted planets to spend 20 resources during the first step of the Status Phase.

A player may only receive victory points from a specific revealed Objective Card once per game. After collecting victory points from an Objective Card, a player should, to serve as a reminder, place one of his Control Markers on the card.

The Secret Objective Card

At the beginning of the game, each player receives a Secret Objective Card. A player is not allowed to show other players his Secret Objective Card until he is able to meet its objectives during the first step of the Status Phase. A player who reveals his Secret Objective Card without being able to meet its requirements loses his Secret Objective Card, which is placed back in the box. Such a player will not be able to receive victory points from a Secret Objective for the duration of the game.

During the Status Phase, a player may qualify for one Public Objective Card and/or his Secret Objective Card. A player cannot qualify for more than one Public Objective Cards in one round.

Rules for Units

Following is a detailed breakdown of the characteristics and rules for the 9 different unit types in TI that players have at their disposal.

The Space Dock

Units Available: 3 Cost: 4

The Space Dock unit represents a military industrial complex, shipyard, and recruiting station in close orbit of a specific planet. In order to build units (other than another Space Dock) in a given system or on a specific planet, a Space Dock must be present there.

Building a New Space Dock

In order to build a new Space Dock on a planet, the following requirements must be met:

1. The system (that contains the planet on which you want to build the Space Dock) has just been activated, and is currently at the "Production" step of the Activation or Transfer Sequence.

2. The active player must have controlled the planet for the entire current round. Thus, it is not possible to build a Space Dock on a planet that has just been acquired during the current round.

3. The planet does not already contain a Space Dock (only one Space Dock per planet is allowed).

4. The system does not contain any enemy ships.

If these requirements are met, the activating player may take an available Space Dock from his reinforcements, spend 4 resources, and place the Space Dock on the chosen planet. Next round the Space Dock may begin producing units for its owner. It is important to remember that a Space Dock is tied to a specific planet and is not considered to be "in space," and so does not participate in Space Battle, nor can it be attacked directly by enemy ships.

Building Units at a Space Dock

In order to produce new units (other than a new Space Dock), players must activate (via a Tactical or Transfer Action) a system that contains at least one friendly Space Dock. As the last step in resolving the activation of the system, the activating player may spend resources to build units at the Space Dock, governed by the following rules:

• A Space Dock may only build a number of units (regardless of type) equal to the resource value of its planet plus two. This means that a Space Dock located on a planet with a resource value of 3 may produce up to 5 different units (3 for the resource value of the planet, plus 2 for the Space Dock itself). This restriction is for the number of units, regardless of their total resource cost. Thus the above planet with a production limit of 5 may produce 5 Dreadnoughts or 5 Fighters (or any combination of those, and other, units).

• New spaceships (Fighters, Cruisers, Carriers, Destroyers, Dreadnoughts, and War Suns), when built, are placed directly (and always exist) in space. Each system represents one area of space. Unlike Ground Forces, PDS, and the Space Dock itself, spaceships are never considered to be on, attached to, or affiliated with a planet in their current system.

• Ground Force and PDS units are always built and placed on the planet containing the Space Dock. Ground Force and PDS units cannot move to another planet (including other planets in the same system) unless transported by a Carrier or War Sun.

• Note that when purchasing either Fighter or Ground Force units, 1 resource provides two units. If, due to the production limit of a Space Dock, a player wishes to only purchase 1 Ground Force or Fighter unit, the single unit still costs 1 resource. A player may not "mix and match" when purchasing Ground Forces and Fighters, such as purchasing one of each for only one resource.

Other Rules for Space Docks

• A Space Dock has the capacity to support 3 Fighter units in its system (see later).

• If a system contains at least one enemy spaceship, all friendly Space Docks in that system are considered under blockade, and may not produce spaceship units while the enemy units are in the system. A Space Dock under blockade may still build Ground Forces and PDS on its planet during the Production step of the Activation Sequence.

Strategy Tip: Cruisers and Destroyers are especially useful for swooping in from afar to blockade your Space Docks. Be cautious if fast enemy ships are within range, and try not to rely on just one Space Dock for your production, especially later in the game.

The Ground Force Unit

Units available: 12 (plus supplement counters) Cost: 1 (produces two Ground Force units)

The Ground Force unit represents a player's military and occupational forces. It is an essential unit necessary to take over neutral planets, invade enemy planets, or defend your own planets against enemy invasion. Ground Forces are governed by the following rules:

• Ground Forces, when produced, are placed on the planet of the producing Space Dock. Ground Forces are primarily transported around the galaxy by Carrier units (although the War Sun unit, as well as certain Technology advancements, can facilitate other means of Ground Force transportation). A Ground Force unit is never considered to be in "space," as it is always either on a planet or being transported inside a Carrier/War Sun.

• A Carrier unit may, at any point during its movement, pick up a Ground Force unit located on a planet in the same system as the moving Carrier (see more details under the Carrier unit).

Exception: A Carrier, when moving through an already activated system, may not pick up Ground Forces there.

• During the Planetary Landings step of the Activation Sequence, Ground Forces on a Carrier unit may move directly onto any friendly, hostile, or neutral planet in the same system.

Controlling Planets

To take control of a planet, a player must always have successfully landed at least one friendly Ground Force on that planet. Unless the planet is later lost to another player by invasion, a planet will remain under a player's control for the remainder of the game. If the last of a player's Ground Force units leaves a planet, the player simply places one of his Control Markers on the planet to indicate his ownership.

Example of Carrier Transport

The N'orr player has activated a system two spaces away from his Carrier unit. Since the N'orr player owns the XRD TRANSPORTER Technology advance, his Carrier units can move an extra space. The Carrier unit above is therefore capable of reaching the activated system.

Before moving, the Carrier picks up the 4 Ground Force units in its starting system. Now the N'orr player must choose between the two possible routes to the activated system.

1. When moving along this route, the Carrier will move through a system that the N'orr player has already activated earlier in the same round. Although this does not affect the movement of the Carrier, the Carrier may not pick up the Ground Force unit in that system because of the prior activation.

2. By choosing to move along this route, the Carrier could pick up the Ground Force unit while moving through the lower middle system.

When arriving at the activated system, the N'orr player may even pick up the Ground Force units there (as long as the Carrier does not exceed its maximum of 6 units).

After moving, the N'orr Carrier will drop its Ground Force units on the neutral planet during the Planetary Landings step of the Activation Sequence.

Example: During the previous round, the Xxcha player invaded the neutral planet Dal Bootha with a single Ground Force unit. This round the Xxcha player wishes to move his Ground Force on Dal Bootha to a different planet. During his turn of the Action Phase, he activates another system and moves the Carrier here. Before moving out of the Dal Bootha system, his Carrier picks up the Ground Force unit here. As the Ground Force is picked up, the Xxcha player places one of his Control Markers on Dal Bootha to indicate his continued control over the planet.

Examples of PDS fire

1. The N'orr player has just activated a system containing an Xxcha fleet. After the N'orr fleet has moved into the activated system, the N'orr player may fire upon the Xxcha Fleet with his PDS unit in the adjacent system. This is allowed because the N'orr player has acquired the "Deep Space Cannon" Technology advance which allows his PDS the extra range to fire upon adjacent systems when activated.

2. The N'orr player has activated a system containing an Xxcha planet with two PDS.

After the N'orr fleet has finished moving into the system, the two Xxcha PDS units (and possible other enemy PDS units in range, if any) may fire at the N'orr fleet in the system.

3. During the Planetary Landings step of the Activation Sequence, the N'orr player decides to land three Ground Force units on the Xxcha planet containing one Ground Force unit and one PDS.

Before Invasion Combat begins, the Xxcha PDS unit may fire at the invading Ground Force units.

The Carrier Unit

Units Available: 4 Cost: 3

The Carrier unit is the primary vehicle for expanding territory by transporting friendly Ground Forces and PDS units from system to system. In addition to the mundane task of transportation, the Carrier can also be a formidable weapon as it may bring swarms of deadly and inexpensive Fighter units to bear against your enemies.

A Carrier unit has a capacity of 6. You may think of capacity as open "slots," for which each slot may hold a Ground Force, PDS, or Fighter unit. Unlike the Space Dock, which has a special capacity that will support 3 Fighter units (and no Ground Forces or PDS), the Carrier will hold units of all three types (Fighters, Ground Forces, and PDS). A Carrier is not restricted to carrying units of only one kind, but can carry any mix of the three unit types. Example: A Carrier unit holds 4 Fighter units, 1 Ground Force unit, and 1 PDS unit, or any combination thereof.

• A Carrier can never carry more than 6 units, so be careful to keep track of how full your Carriers are. Excess units on a Carrier must be immediately destroyed (chosen by the Carrier's owner).

• If a Carrier is destroyed, any Ground Force and PDS units aboard the Carrier are automatically destroyed. Fighter units can survive if the current system has enough capacity to support the Fighters (supplied by either another Carrier, War Sun, or Space Dock).

• Note that Ground Forces do not participate in any battle while being transported by a Carrier unit. Likewise, while aboard a Carrier, PDS units do not function. Fighters, on the other hand, are not considered "on board" the Carrier, and may participate in any Space Battle in the system.

• A Carrier can only "unload" its Ground Forces and PDS onto a planet, or onto another Carrier, during the Planetary Landings step of the Activation Sequence. Yet, it may pick up units from any system in which it started its movement, passed through while moving, or ended its movement. To this, there are the following exceptions:

• A Carrier may never pick up units in a system that contains enemy spaceships. In other words, a Carrier may not move into a system containing enemy spaceships, pick up units, and then fight a Space Battle.

A Carrier may never pick up units from a system that has been previously activated by the same player.

The Planetary Defense System (PDS) Unit

Units Available: 6 Cost: 2

The PDS unit represents both anti-fleet and planetary invasion countermeasures (missiles and enormous energy cannons) as well as a planetary shield. The rules for using the various abilities of the PDS unit are as follows:

Planetary Shield

During the Invasion Combat step of the Activation Sequence, enemy Dreadnoughts may not bombard a planet containing an enemy PDS unit. (See page 17 for additional information on Invasion Combat.)

Space Cannon

A PDS unit is capable of firing its massive arsenal into space in order to destroy nearby enemy ships. The basic range of a PDS reaches only into its own system, but by acquiring the "Deep Space Cannon" players can extend the range of their PDS units into adjacent systems.

A PDS "space cannon attack" is always fired during the third step of the Activation Sequence, and only given one of the two conditions below:

• After the owner of the PDS has activated a system, and after any friendly ship movement into the system, each of the active player's PDS units in range may fire once at any enemy fleet in the activated system before a Space Battle begins.

Note that the activating player's PDS units (that are in range) may fire even if the player did not move any ships into the system during the activation. In other words, it is possible for a player to activate a system purely for the purposes of firing his PDS at an enemy fleet in range.

• When a player activates a system in range of an enemy PDS unit, the owners of any enemy PDS units in range may, after the movement step of the Activation Sequence, fire once per PDS at any units in the system owned by the activating player. Note that when firing your PDS units during another player's activation, you may only fire at the units controlled by the activating player. It is thus not possible to draw third party PDS fire at an enemy fleet by simply activating its system from afar.

Invasion Defense

Immediately before the first round of an Invasion Combat, any defending PDS units on a planet may fire, once per PDS, at the invading Ground Forces. This is a one-time pre-combat shot only and does not occur before every other round of the subsequent Invasion Combat.

Firing PDS Units

When firing a PDS unit, simply roll one die for each PDS involved. For each result equal to or greater than the combat value of the PDS (normally a 6), the enemy fleet (or invading Ground Force units) must immediately take a casualty without being granted return fire.

PDS Limitation

A player may never have more than two PDS units on a planet. A planet already holding two PDS units cannot produce a third.

Transporting PDS

PDS units are always produced on the planet of the producing Space Dock. PDS units cannot move of their own volition. Like Ground Forces, PDS units must be transported to other planets via a Carrier or War Sun unit.

The Fighter Unit

Units Available: 10 (plus supplement counters) Cost: 1 (to produce two Fighter units)

The Fighter unit is the most inexpensive ship in a player's arsenal. Fighters, which are typically moved into battle by Carrier units, can overwhelm an enemy by their sheer numbers and are vital to bolster a player's fleet against enemy fire.

Fighters are governed by the following rules:

• Fighters cannot move by themselves and require the transport of a Carrier unit to move around the board.

• Fighters are always considered to be in space, even while being transported. Thus fighters will always participate in any Space Battle in their system.

• Fighters require at all times that their present system has sufficient capacity to sustain them. A Space Dock has a capacity for 3 Fighters, a Carrier (if not carrying any Ground Forces or PDS) a capacity of 6, and a War Sun (if not carrying any Ground Forces or PDS) also a capacity of 6. If a system contains more Fighter units than its capacity allows, the owner of the Fighter units must immediately return enough Fighters to his reinforcement pile so that the number of Fighter units and the system's capacity is equal.

Example: A system that contains one Space Dock and one Carrier (currently transporting two Ground Forces) can safely maintain 7 Fighter units (three for the Space Dock and 4 for the Carrier). Should the Carrier leave the system, 4 of the 7 Fighter units must move with the Carrier to prevent an excess of Fighter units in the system.

Note that a system's Fighter capacity is not relevant during a Space Battle. This means that Fighters participating in a Space Battle can continue to fight even if their Carrier has been destroyed. After a Space Battle has ended, however, Fighter units without sufficient supporting capacity are immediately removed.

The Cruiser Unit

Units Available: 8 Cost: 2

The Cruiser unit is among the most effective ships in the TWILIGHT IMPERIUM galaxy. For a fair price, the Cruiser unit delivers an effective punch in combat and gives its owner the flexibility of great speed.

There are no other special rules that govern the Cruiser unit.

The Destroyer Unit

Units Available: 8 Cost: 1

The Destroyer unit, although not as powerful in combat as its larger cousin, the Cruiser, is a fast, inexpensive, and versatile weapon that can deliver a lethal blow to any enemy fleet that relies too heavily on Fighters.

The Destroyer Anti-Fighter Barrage

Before a Space Battle begins, each Destroyer unit (both attacking and defending) may roll two combat dice. For every result equal to or higher than the Destroyer's combat value (normally a 9), the opponent must immediately destroy one Fighter unit. Fighters destroyed in this way are removed before the Space Battle begins and do not receive return fire. Note that the Destroyer units special barrage is only fired once before the actual Space Battle begins, and not before every Space Battle round.

The Dreadnought Unit

Units Available: 5 Cost: 5

No unit in the galaxy, except for the legendary War Sun, can project the firepower and force that is mustered by the awesome Dreadnought. Its massive weaponry, deadly bombardment option, and mighty bulwark, makes it the undisputed foundation of any successful fleet.

The Dreadnought unit provides two unique features: The ability to sustain damage and to execute a planetary bombardment.

Sustaining Damage

A Dreadnought unit can absorb a single hit before it is destroyed. After taking its first hit (as a result of Space Battle, PDS fire, or other), turn the Dreadnought unit on its side to indicate that it has been damaged. If a damaged Dreadnought is forced to take another hit, it is destroyed. Other than being one step closer to destruction, being damaged does not affect the Dreadnought in any other way.

During the Status Phase, all damaged ships are repaired and are returned to their normal upright position.

Planetary Bombardment

Immediately before an Invasion Combat, the invading player's Dreadnoughts in the activated system may bombard enemy Ground Forces on a contested planet. A planetary bombardment is executed by simply allowing the invading player to roll one combat die for each bombarding Dreadnought. For every hit, the defending player must immediately remove one Ground Force unit. Units eliminated by planetary bombardment do not receive return fire and do not participate in the subsequent Invasion Combat. Note that a Dreadnought may not bombard a planet unless that planet is being invaded by friendly forces that landed here during the Planetary Landings step of the Activation Sequence.

A Dreadnought may not bombard a planet that contains at least one PDS. The planet is considered to have a planetary shield protecting it against missile and energy attacks from space.

If a player is invading two or more separate planets (in the same system) during the same activation, the active player must decide how to divide his bombardment. A Dreadnought can only bombard once during every Activation Sequence.

The War Sun

Units Available: 2 Cost: 12

Most galactic historians reject the notion that a "War Sun" existed during the forgone Twilight Wars. The few historians that do argue for its existence mostly provide only vague proof by outlining a combination of multiple, seemingly unconnected, folklore tales and a few old records describing a massive combat vessel developed by the Jol Nar towards the later years of the period. There seems to be some evidence that the Jol Nar, desperately fighting the advancing fleets of the Sardakk N'orr, brought a secret weapon to bear against the main N'orr fleet in the Saudor system. It is plausible that some new weapon was used here, if only evidenced by the fact that the N'orr never advanced farther into Jol Nar space. It is also highly likely that if a War Sun did exist, that it was destroyed during this battle, since no trace or rumor can be found of it after this period. Tangentially collaborating with this conclusion, Xxcha archeologist have found large samples of ancient wreckage on Saudor that is of an unknown make and intent.

Perhaps the greatest credence lent to the War Sun theory, or the existence of some other powerful weapon, has been the inconsistent Jol Nar stance of denial, silence, and restriction of records on the subject.

Without a doubt, the War Sun unit is the definitive combat unit of the galaxy. It is more like a fleet unto itself, than a mere ship. The War Sun boasts an almost unfathomable firepower, powerful construction, tremendous speed, capacity to hold great hosts of troops and fighters, and unparalleled bombardment strength.

The War Sun unit is subject to the following rules:

• A player may not produce a War Sun unit unless he has acquired the "War Sun" Technology advance.

• Like the Dreadnought, a War Sun can sustain a single hit (or "damage") before it is destroyed. As with the Dreadnought, a War Sun is placed onto its side in order to indicate its damaged state and will be destroyed if subjected to another hit. Any damage sustained by a War Sun is automatically repaired during the Status Phase.

• Like the Dreadnought, a War Sun unit is allowed to bombard planets. Unlike the Dreadnought, however, a War Sun ignores the presence of a PDS unit's planetary shield. Also, a War Sun may bombard a planet during the Invasion Combat step of the Activation Sequence, even if no friendly Ground Force units have landed on the planet in an invasion attempt.

• A War Sun unit rolls three combat dice during Space Battles and Bombardments.

• Like the Carrier unit, a War Sun has a capacity of 6 and may transport Ground Forces, PDS, and Fighter units.

Damaged/Undamaged Units

When a Dreadnought or War Sun unit takes its first hit, it is damaged rather than destroyed. Place the unit on its side to indicate its damaged status (As indicated above).

Optional Rules

Below you will find several exciting options for your TI game. All the optional rules provided here are modular and can be used in any combination. It is recommended that you use the options that appeal the most to your particular play group.

Three, Four, and Five Player Games

The main rules so far have assumed that you will be playing TI with 6 players. It is possible, and just as enjoyable, to play the game with fewer players. If you wish to play TI with either 3, 4, or 5 players, a few small changes will be needed to the board setup and the way Strategy Cards are handled.

The Three Player Game

The following exceptions apply to the three player game.

Creating the Galaxy with Three Players

Players should randomly draw races as normal, and place the unused Home Systems back in the box. Mecatol Rex is placed in the middle of the table as usual.

Before shuffling the remaining 32 systems, however, remove 3 empty systems (systems containing a starfield with no planets) and one Asteroid Field, placing these 4 systems back in the box. Then shuffle the remaining 28 systems.

After the systems have been shuffled, remove 4 random systems and place them back in the box without looking at them. Then deal out the remaining 24 systems, so that each player has eight systems.

Players now create the galaxy as normal except the final board constellation and Home System placement should match the illustration for the 3 player game found on the "Galaxy Setup for 3,4, and 5 Players" diagram.

Strategy Cards in the Three Player Game

During the Strategy Phase of a three player game, players must choose 2 Strategy Cards (when normally players would only choose 1). This is done over two rounds of selection, with the second round of selection using the same order of selection as the first round.

Since each player will have two Strategy Cards, players must now execute two separate Strategic Actions at some point during the Action Phase (one for each of their Strategy Cards) before they are allowed to pass. Each individual Strategic Action is resolved as normal. A player may choose which of his Strategy Cards to execute first.

The Four Player Game

The following exceptions apply to the four player game.

Creating the Galaxy with Four Players

Players randomly draw races as normal, placing the unused Home Systems back in the box. Mecatol Rex is placed in the middle of the table as usual.

Shuffle the remaining 32 systems (do not remove any systems beforehand). The first player then deals the systems to the players, with each player receiving 8 systems.

Players now create the galaxy as normal, with the final board constellation and home system placement matching the illustration for the 4 player game as found on the "Galaxy Setup for 3,4, and 5 Players" diagram.

Strategy Cards in the Four Player Game

The four player game uses the same rules for choosing Strategy Cards as in the three player game (with players choosing two Strategy Cards).

Note that in the four player game, since each player selects two Strategy Cards, there will be no Strategy Cards that remain unselected. The "bonus" tokens are therefore not used in the four player game.

The Initiative Strategy may still not be selected by the same player twice in a row, unless that player has no other option.

The Five Player Game

The following exceptions apply to the five player game.

Creating the Galaxy with Five Players

Player's randomly draw races as normal, and the unused Home Systems are placed back in the box. Mecatol Rex is placed in the middle of the table as usual.

Before the galaxy is created (before placing any Home Systems), each player is randomly assigned a number 1 through 5 (using paper, dice, or any other method of randomization). That number assigns each player's position as indicated on the 5 player setup illustration on the "Galaxy Setup for 3, 4, and 5 Players" diagram.

The first player shuffles the remaining 32 systems, removing one random system, placing it back in the box without looking at it. The first player then places another single random system face down next to Mecatol Rex in a position of his choice.

Then he deals the remaining 30 systems to the players (with each player receiving 6 systems each.)

Players now create the galaxy as normal, with the final board constellation and Home System placement matching the illustration found on the "Galaxy Setup for 3, 4, and 5 Players" diagram.

After the entire galaxy has been completed, reveal the face down system that was placed adjacent to Mecatol Rex.

Due to the nature of 5 players in a hexagon-derived board, some players will be closer to each other than others. To compensate for this, players in position 1 and 4 receive four Trade Goods before the game begins (placing them on their Race Sheets), and the player in position 5 receives six Trade Goods before the game begins (placing them on his Race Sheet).

Strategy Cards in the Five Player Game

The five player game uses the same rules for choosing Strategy Cards as in the normal six player game.

Unlike the 6 player game, however, there will be three remaining unselected Strategy Cards. Place a bonus token on each unselected Strategy Card, thus placing a total of three bonus tokens every round instead of two.

Game Option: The Long War

Some players may find the path to 10 victory points too brief. Such players may desire a more definitive, longer, and more epic experience.

You can create this experience by using the optional side of the Victory Point Track, which goes to 14 victory points rather than 10.

In addition, when preparing the Public Objective Deck, randomly select 5 Stage II Public Objective Cards (instead of 3) in addition to the "Game Over Card", and 8 Stage I Public Objective Cards (instead of 6), creating a Public Objective Deck of 14 cards (instead of 10).

Alternative Variant: By using the suggested Public Objective Deck above, your game will end somewhere between turn 9 and 14. If so desired, you can simply omit the "Game Over" card from the Objective Deck. If you do so, you should end the game after the Status phase in which the last Public Objective Card was drawn.

Game Option: Age of Empire

The victory point system of TI, as written, rewards players that seek a balance of planning and flexibility. Some players, however, may desire that the victory objectives of TI be more predictable (which was the case in the two previous editions of TI) so that they may form a more stable long term strategy. This is accomplished in the following way:

After creating the Public Objective Deck as normal, start to draw its cards, starting from the top. After drawing a card, place it face up in the common play area, creating a straight line of cards starting to the left. After drawing and placing the "Game Over" card, if there are any additional cards remaining in the deck, place those cards back in the box (you will not need them).

Now you should have a line of Public Objective Cards somewhere between 7 and 10 cards long with the "Game Over" card in the rightmost position.

During the game, players may qualify for the victory points of any of the revealed Objective Cards from Turn one. No further Public Objective Cards will enter the game. In this way, players know exactly which objectives will give them victory points for the duration of the game.

After the end of the Status Phase of the first game round, place a Turn token (a glass bead, a thimble, a quarter, etc.) on the leftmost card. After every Status Phase is finished, move the Turn token one card to the right. When the Turn token moves onto the Game Over card, the game ends immediately, and the player with the highest number of victory points is the winner (as described in the core rules). In this way, your row of Objective Cards also act as a Turn track.

Game Option: Distant Suns

Included in the game, you will find the octagon-shaped "Domain" counters that form the core of the "Distant Suns" game option. Using Domain Counters dramatically alters the strategy and flavor during the early turns of TI, as they simulate the dangers and rewards of space exploration and colonization.

After the game board has been created, but before the game begins, randomize the Domain Counters and place one Domain Counter face down on every neutral planet on the board (do not place Domain Counters on any Home System planets or on Mecatol Rex). Place excess Domain Counters back in the box without looking at them.

The Domain Counters

Domain Counters reflect the unknown aspects of deep-space exploration and colonization, functioning as follows:

• A planet's Domain Counter is revealed (and its effects resolved) immediately after a player has landed all his desired Ground Forces there during the "Planetary Landings" step of a Tactical Action.

• After a Domain Counter has been revealed, the active player may not land additional Ground Force units on the planet during the same activation.

• When revealed, the symbol on the front of the Domain Counter represents the encounter/event of the planet. Immediately resolve the effects of that event. On the back of this rules booklet, you will find a detailed description of every Domain Counter effect.

• If a player comes to control a planet without actually landing forces there during a Tactical Action, the Domain Counter is ignored and placed back in the box with no effect.

• If, for any reason, a planet returns to neutrality after being occupied by a player, do not place a new Domain Counter on the planet.

Probing

Immediately after the movement step of a Tactical Action (not a Transfer Action) the active player may choose to probe Domain Counters in the activated system as long as he has at least one Fighter unit in the system.

If probing, the player may secretly look at every face down Domain Counter in the system. After looking, he must return the Domain Counters face down to their respective planets. The player may not look at the counters again, unless he probes once more during a future activation, or lands Ground Forces on the planet.

A player may not land Ground Forces on a planet during the same activation in which he probed the planet.

Special Rule: If the Domain Counter "Lazax Survivors" is probed, remove the counter from the game. The probing player immediately receives one victory point and may immediately draw 3 action cards.

Razing

During the Invasion Combat segment of a Tactical Action, a War Sun or Dreadnought in the same system as a Domain Counter may choose to raze a face down Domain Counter. The active player simply announces that he is razing the planet, then he removes the Domain Counter and returns it to the box without applying its effects.

A War Sun or Dreadnought may not raze a Domain Counter that has already been revealed.

Note that a single War Sun or Dreadnought may only raze one Domain Counter in its system. If a player wishes to raze two Domain Counters in the same system during the same activation, he must have at least two Dreadnoughts/War Suns in the system.

A War Sun or Dreadnought that has been used (or will be used) for razing after the movement step may not be used for bombardment during the same activation.

After razing a planet, a controversial act, the player may face adverse reactions from his own people and the Galactic Council. After razing a Domain Counter, the player should roll the dice and consult the table below.

Result	Effects
1-7	No Effect
8-9	Lose 3 random Action Cards
0	Lose 3 random Action Cards and immediately exhaust all his ready planets.

Special Rule: If a player razes the "Lazax Survivors" Domain Counter, he must immediately discard all of his Action Cards, exhaust all of his planets, and lose all of his Trade Goods. In addition, that player may not vote on the next Political Agenda.

Game Option: Leaders

Included in the game, you will find 30 Leader counters (3 for each race). These represent exceptional personalities that will assist their race in its struggle to attain the imperial throne.

There are five different types of Leaders: Generals, Admirals, Diplomats, Agents, and Scientists.

Placing Leaders

When using this game option, all three of a race's Leaders are placed in their player's Home System before the game begins just like the normal starting units. Like Ground Forces and PDS, a Leader is always considered to be on a planet, or being transported by a ship.

Unlike Ground Forces and PDS, however, any spaceship (including Fighters) may transport one or more Leaders using the same rules as Carriers transporting Ground Force units. Leaders do not count towards the capacity of any ship.

A Leader is not allowed to land on a neutral or hostile planet unless accompanied by at least one Ground Force unit.

If a Leader is part of an Invasion Combat on an enemy (or Neutral planet, if using the Distant Suns option) the Leader will be automatically CAPTURED should the invasion fail against another players planet (or KILLED if the Invasion Combat fails against a neutral planet).

Killing and Capturing Leaders

Leaders are powerful assets, and your opponents would like nothing better than to capture or eliminate these individuals.

In space

If a ship carrying a Leader is destroyed during a Space Battle, roll a die.

On a result of 1-5, the leader is KILLED and permanently removed from play. On a result of 6-8, the Leader escapes and its owner may immediately place the Leader on any friendly planet (not under blockade). On a result of 9-10, the Leader is CAPTURED by the opposing player in the Space Battle (see below).

If a ship is destroyed any time other than during a Space Battle, the Leader is automatically killed and removed from play.

On a planet

If a planet containing a Leader is successfully invaded by an enemy player, roll a die.

On a result of 1-5 the Leader is CAPTURED. On a result of 6-9 the Leader escapes and its owner may immediately place the leader on any friendly planet (not under blockade). On a result of 10, the Leader is killed and removed from the game.

If a Leader is present on a planet whose ownership changes for any other reason than invasion, the Leader automatically escapes and may be placed on any friendly planet.

Leaders can never exist on neutral or enemy planets, nor in space by themselves.

Captive Leaders

When capturing a Leader, the capturing player (the "captor") places the captured Leader in his playing area. During the Status Phase, a captor may freely transfer the captive to another player, including the owner of the Leader (in which case the Leader is FREED and immediately placed on any friendly planet not under blockade, of its owner's choice). Instead of transferring the prisoner, the captor may choose to keep the prisoner another round, or execute the prisoner. If choosing the latter, the captor announces the execution and removes the said Leader from play.

Rescuing a Captive Leader

Every time a planet is successfully invaded, if the planet was controlled by a player holding any captive Leaders, roll a die after a successful invasion. If the result is a 9 or 10, a captive leader has been found by the invader. If more than one prisoner is held by the losing player, the invader may choose which of the captive Leaders to rescue. If the rescued Leader belongs to another race, the invader is now its new captor, and must choose what to do with the new captive during the next Status Phase. If the rescued Leader belongs to the invader, the Leader is immediately placed on any friendly planet (not under blockade) of the invader's choice.

If a player successfully invades the last planet of another player, all captive Leaders held by the eliminated player are transferred to the invader.

Leader Abilities.

The abilities of a Leader depends on the Leader type. The 5 different Leader types and abilities are described in detail below:

Scientist

• A planet that contains a technology specialty and at least one Scientist provides a technology discount of 2 credits rather than 1.
• A planet with at least one Scientist may build a new Space Dock at a cost of 2 rather than 4.
• PDS units on a planet with at least one Scientist receive +1 on all rolls.
• Planets with at least one Scientist and one PDS unit may not be bombarded by a War Sun unit (a War Sun can normally ignore the planetary shield provided by a PDS.)

Diplomat

• If a Diplomat is present on a planet about to be invaded by enemy Ground Forces during the Planetary Invasion step, the Diplomat may delay the invasion by one round. Simply return the enemy Ground Force units to their Carrier(s). A planet protected by a Diplomat may not be protected again by a Diplomat for the remainder of the round, or for the next game round.
• A fleet that contains at least one Diplomat may move through systems containing an opponent's ships, but only if the opponent grants his permission for the transit.

General

• When a General participates as the attacker in an Invasion Combat (by landing with the invading Ground Forces) the active player may re-roll up to two dice during every round of that Invasion Combat.
• Dreadnoughts and War Suns receive -4 to bombardment rolls against a planet that contains at least one General.
• All defending Ground Forces on a planet that contains at least one General receive +1 to their combat rolls during Invasion Combat.

Admiral

• When an Admiral participates in a Space Battle (as attacker or defender), its owner may roll one additional die for the ship that is carrying the Admiral. (Note that only one additional die is rolled, even if the Admiral is on a War Sun.)
• A Dreadnought carrying an Admiral receives +1 movement.
• When attacked by a fleet containing an Admiral, a defending fleet may not retreat unless the defending fleet also contains an Admiral.

Agent

• If an Agent is part of an Invasion Combat as an attacker (by landing on the enemy planet with one or more friendly Ground Forces), enemy PDS may not fire at the invading Ground Forces.
• If an Agent is part of a successful Invasion Combat as an attacker (by landing on the enemy planet with one or more friendly Ground Forces), the active player may replace any enemy PDS and Space Dock on the planet with his own similar units (normally these units would be destroyed).
• An Agent may be sacrificed at any time to act as a "Sabotage" action card. Simply announce the action after another player plays an Action Card, cancelling its effects. Then discard both the Action Card and the Agent.

Game Option: Sabotage Runs

Although the mighty War Sun unit is the undisputed king of space, history has shown that such hubris of creation often hides a fatal flaw that can be exploited by the smallest of spacecraft.

When using this game option, Fighter units have a desperate chance of a pre-Space Battle strike at an enemy War Sun in the contested system. This desperate attack is called the "sabotage run."

Announce the Run

A sabotage run takes place before an actual Space Battle begins, immediately after any Destroyer Anti-Fighter Barrage.

Both players (attacker first) may announce that they are making a Sabotage run against an enemy War Sun in the battle (if no War Sun is present among the enemy units, a player cannot undertake a sabotage run).

If both players have War Suns, the attacker should resolve his sabotage run first, followed by the defender.

After announcing a sabotage run, a player must commit a number of Fighter units to the dangerous task. After a number of Fighters have been committed, the sabotage run is executed over two rounds of die rolls.

1) The Outer Defenses

Roll a die for every Fighter committed to the sabotage run. On an unmodified result of 9 or 10, the Fighter makes it through the outer defenses of the War Sun. All other results destroy the Fighter unit, which receives no return fire.

2) The Inner Defenses

For every Fighter unit that made it past the outer defenses of the War Sun, roll another die (one at a time). If the fighter rolls an unmodified result of 10, the sabotage run is successful and the War Sun is immediately destroyed. Such a destroyed War Sun receives no return fire. All other die results instantly destroy the Fighter unit, which receives no return fire.

Surviving Fighter units are able to participate in the subsequent Space Battle. An unharmed War Sun is able to participate in the Space Battle with no ill effects.

Should an opponent have two War Sun units, a player is allowed to make a sabotage run against both units by dividing his committed Fighters into two separate pools. With each of these pools attacking one specific War Sun, simply resolve each separate sabotage run, one at a time.

Problems, Questions and Support

For online community, FAQ, customer service, and additional information on TWILIGHT IMPERIUM, please visit:

WWW.FANTASYFLIGHTGAMES.COM

Credits

Game Design (all editions): Christian T. Petersen Additional Development (3rd edition): Greg Benage Rules: Christian T. Petersen Editing: Greg Benage Graphic Design: Brian S. Schomburg Cover Artwork: Scott Schomburg Leader Tokens Artwork: Brian Schomburg, Scott Schomburg, Tyler Walpole Fiction and Twilight Imperium Universe: Christian T. Petersen Production Administration: Darrell Hardy Publisher: Christian T. Petersen

1st Edition Creative Input: Morten Nyhus Hornsleth and Peter Mork.

2nd Edition Creative Input: Jeffery P. Boucher-Zamso and Darrell Hardy

1st Edition Playtesting: W. Gregory Klett, Gerald L Ogaard, Justin Bang, Gerald Dokka, Andrew Fredlund, Anders M. & Thomas H. Petersen, Joseph Burke, Christopher Dorn, Morten Nyhus Hornsleth, Leslie Nielsen, Mike, Peter, Andrew, Brian, Debbie, Jason, Rich, Anton, and many other helpful gamers at the (now long departed) Phoenix Games in Burnsville.

2nd Edition Playtesting: Rusty Schmidt, Darrell Hardy, Erik Tyrell, Jeffery P. Boucher-Zamso, and Osta Productions.

3rd Edition Playtesting: Rob Vaughn, Thomas H. Petersen, Scott Nicely, Brian S. Schomburg, Kevin Wilson, Tim Sturm, Greg Benage, Tod Gelle, Darrell Hardy, Mike Zebrowski, John Goodenough, Mike Barton, Pete, Thor, Ewan, and Robert Jankovich.

TWILIGHT IMPERIUM is a trademark of Fantasy Flight Publishing, Inc. Copyright 1997-2004 Fantasy Flight Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The products, or any parts thereof, may not be reproduced without the publisher's consent.

Strategy Card Summary

1. The Initiative Strategy

SPECIAL After selecting this Strategy Card, claim the Speaker Token. During the Action Phase, you do not have to pay Command Counters from your Strategy Allocation area in order to execute the secondary ability of Strategy Cards.

You may not select the Initiative Strategy during the next Strategy Phase.

You do not take a Strategic Action during the Action Phase this round.

The Initiative Strategy Card, unlike the other Strategy Cards, does not give its owner the option of taking a Strategic Action. It does, however, give its owner the Speaker Token (which grants the first pick of Strategy Cards during the next Strategy Phase) and allows its owner to execute the Secondary Ability of other Strategy Cards without spending a Command Counter.

A player may not select the Initiative Strategy Card two rounds in a row.

2. The Diplomacy Strategy

Primary Ability: Diplomatic Envoy Name an opponent. For the remainder of this phase, neither you nor that opponent may activate a system containing units of the other player (including Ground Forces and PDS).

Secondary Ability: Economic Stimulus Spend one Command Counter from your Strategy Allocation area to refresh up to two of your exhausted (non-Home System) Planet Cards.

Choosing and executing a Diplomatic Strategy can provide a key respite for a player about to be overrun by an aggressive neighbor. A Diplomatic Strategy can also be used by an unscrupulous player who first conquers territory from another player, and then (as a later action) selects that player as the target of the primary ability.

By prohibiting the activation of each other's systems, players are effectively barred from attacking each other for the rest of the round. Players may, of course, seek alternative ways to harm the other player, such as invading systems that do not contain units, playing Action Cards, etc.

The secondary ability of the Diplomacy Strategy Card allows players to refresh two Planet Cards already exhausted earlier in the phase. This means that a player could possibly use the resources or influence of a Planet Card twice, or even use the resources of a planet just invaded this phase (as all Planet Cards are exhausted when first claimed by a player).

3. The Political Strategy

Primary Ability: The Galactic Council Draw three Action Cards and receive one Command Counter from your reinforcements. Then draw the top card of the Political Deck and resolve its agenda. After completing the agenda, draw the top three cards of the Political Deck, secretly read them, and then place one card face down on the top of the deck and the rest face down on the bottom of the deck.

Secondary Ability: Seek Destiny Spend one Command Counter from your Strategy Allocation area to draw one Action Card.

The Political Strategy Card provides its owner with a generous allocation of Action Cards, an additional Command Counter, and the ability to manipulate the Political Deck by deciding which of the top three Political Cards will be drawn by the next player to execute the Primary Ability of the Political Strategy Card.

See the Political Card section on page 23 for how to resolve the Political Card drawn by the active player.

The secondary ability of the Political Strategy simply allows players to draw an extra Action Card.

4. The Logistics Strategy

Primary Ability: Comprehensive Operations Receive 4 Command Counters from your reinforcements.

Secondary Ability: Domestic Mandate You may spend influence to receive Command Counters from your reinforcements. You receive 1 Command Counter for every 3 influence you spend.

As Command Counters are a vital component for a player to manage his race, the Logistics Strategy Card is an important and integral part of the game. Its primary ability is powerful as it allows the active player to simply receive 4 Command Counters from his reinforcement pile and add them to his Race Sheet.

The Secondary Ability of the Logistics Strategy Card is the primary vehicle for other players to acquire additional Command Counters. While executing the secondary ability, a player must spend influence by exhausting his Planet Cards. A player may take one Command Counter for every three influence he spends.

IMPORTANT SPECIAL RULE FOR THE LOGISTICS STRATEGY: Unlike most other Strategy Cards, players do not need to spend a Command Counter from their command pool in order to execute this Secondary Ability.

5. The Trade Strategy

Primary Ability: Influence on the Merchant's Guild Choose either a) or b)

a) Immediately receive 3 Trade Goods. Then receive Trade Goods for your active trade agreements. Finally, open trade negotiations among all players. You must approve all new trade agreements.

b) All trade agreements are cancelled. Return all Trade Contracts to their owners.

Secondary Ability: Commerce Spend one Command Counter from your Strategy Allocation area to receive Trade Goods for your active trade agreements.

The Trade Strategy Card is the main vehicle for initiating trade agreements between players. By choosing the "a" option of the Primary Ability, the active player will instantly profit by receiving three free Trade Goods; he also receives Trade Goods for his own trade agreements, and then allows all players (himself included) to open new trade agreements with each other. After two players have agreed to open a new trade agreement, the active player must approve the agreement, or it cannot be made. If he is so inclined, this allows the active player to potentially collect some handsome bribes. Note that the active player has no power (unless executing option "b") over already existing trade agreements.

Instead of collecting wealth and facilitating new trade agreements, the active player may choose option "b." If he does so, all existing trade agreements are immediately broken, and all Trade Cards are returned to their owners (including trade agreements held by the Hacan).

The Secondary Ability simply allows players to collect Trade Goods for their active trade agreements as described on page 24.

Note: Players cannot collect Trade Goods for a trade agreement just formed during the same Action.

6. The Warfare Strategy

Primary Ability: Major Offensive Immediately retrieve one of your Command Counters from the board and place it back in your Command Pool.

Secondary Ability: Patrols Spend one Command Counter from your Strategy Allocation area to choose one or two of your Destroyer/Cruiser units anywhere on the board. Each unit may now move to an adjacent empty (non-Home) system. Then place one of your Command Counters from your reinforcements in each destination system.

The Warfare Strategy Card's Primary Ability is both extremely flexible and powerful as it gives the active player a plurality of tactical options, such as activating a system twice, or moving a fleet twice, etc.

The Secondary Ability can be very useful under the right circumstances. It allows a player to move up to two Cruiser/Destroyer units (from the same or different systems) to adjacent empty systems (see the definition of an empty system on page 25). These units may move even if their current system is activated (which normally prohibits any movement). Although the destination systems become activated, the Command Counters used for these activations come from your reinforcements and not from your Race Sheet.

The ships are allowed to move into an already activated empty system(s), in which case no Command Counter is placed in the system.

Note that a player executing the Secondary Ability is allowed to move the two Destroyer/Cruiser units into two different systems, or into the same system. The ships must move into an adjacent system (and no farther) regardless of the movement rate of the units.

Since movement is prohibited through a system containing one or more enemy ships (except for Fighters), a lone patrolling Destroyer or Cruiser can effectively act against a deep strike by a fast enemy fleet.

7. The Technology Strategy

Primary Ability: Technological Breakthrough Receive one Technology advance (for which you have the necessary prerequisites).

Secondary Ability: Research and Development Spend one Command Counter from your Strategy Allocation area and spend 8 resources to receive one Technology advance (for which you have the necessary prerequisites).

The Technology Strategy is the primary avenue for players to gain access to the exciting and helpful Technology Cards found in each player's Technology Deck. The primary ability of the Technology Strategy gives the active player a free technology advance of his choice. The active player simply takes a Technology Card from his Technology Deck and places the card face up in his play area. He can now enjoy the benefits of this Technology advance.

IMPORTANT: As noted on page 24, a Technology Card can only be acquired if its player has already acquired its prerequisite technologies (as stated on each Technology Card).

The Secondary Ability allows a player to purchase a Technology advance from his Technology Deck. A player must spend 8 resources to take a Technology Card from his Technology Deck and place it face up in his play area (subject to owning the prerequisite technologies, if any).

8. The Imperial Strategy

Primary Ability: Imperial Claim Draw the top card from the Objective Deck and place it face up in the common play area. Then receive 2 victory points.

Secondary Ability: Rapid Mobilization Spend one Command Counter from your Strategy Allocation area to immediately build units in one of your systems containing one or more friendly Space Docks, even if you have activated this system already. Building units here does not activate the system.

The Primary Ability of the Imperial Strategy Card reveals a Public Objective Card to the common play area, and then provides 2 victory points for the active player.

Should the active player draw the "Game Over" Public Objective Card, the game ends immediately- even before the active player receives his two victory points.

The secondary ability allows a player to produce units in system he has already activated or build units in a unactivated system without activating it. This is a powerful ability, as a player could potentially build units in system twice, or build units in an unactivated system, allowing those new units to move during a later Tactical/Transfer Action of the same game round.

Designer Notes

It started in May 1997. After much toil and many financial woes, my fledgling publishing company (Fantasy Flight Games "FFG") finally managed to publish the first edition of Twilight Imperium ("TI"). In retrospect it turned out to be a perfect period in which to publish a new board game. Although it did not occur to me then, this was the dry time between the almost non-existent publication schedule of the fading Avalon Hill, and still a few years before the invasion of the magnificent "German style" games in the U.S.

The first edition of TI, which also was FFG's inaugural game publication, was a fair success, selling through two print runs and several expansions over the next few years. This success was a defining moment for FFG, as it set the course and direction of where the company is today.

In late 1999, TI sold out of its second printing, and its expansions were all nearly gone as well. At that time, our "Diskwars" game had become a big success, stabilizing the company and allowing me to consider a rework and improvement of TI itself. After years of playing TI and listening to feedback from players, I felt that improvements in game length, balance, and components could be made and would be appreciated.

After a period of redesign and playtesting, FFG released Twilight Imperium Second Edition in the late fall of 2000. The graphical presentation, components, and design had all been dramatically improved. After a successful launch of the main game, we published the expansion "Hope's End" in the summer of 2001. Over this period, it was fun to see a community of TI players and fans starting to emerge. Especially satisfying for me was the fact that many players had taken a genuine liking to the history and races that I had created for the game.

Throughout this time, FFG kept growing, kept evolving, and kept developing and improving its manufacturing knowledge and standards. With the success of "Diskwars" and our d20 role-playing games, FFG had started to move away from "big box" board games in order to concentrate on smaller games such as Tom Jolly's Drakon*, Reiner Knizia's* Kingdoms*, and Bruno Faidutti's* Citadels*.*

The hobby games market was now in the middle of the German board game invasion. Wonderful board games such as The Settlers of Catan*,* Formula De*,* Lost Cities and many others were being discovered and devoured by the board game enthusiasts. The more simulation-oriented "old school" U.S. board games were no longer in vogue, and by many dismissed as dinosaurs in a new age of board games. Although a little harsh, there nevertheless was good reason for the argument. The German board games brought with them a simplicity and elegance that was capable of producing a rewarding game experience with little player down-time. The quality of the German game components was incredible; thick cardboard, linen paper, color rules, and "lay-flat" game boards. Most games had short playing times, lasting less than an hour, allowing players to enjoy two or more games in a single evening.

After a few years, as the German board game style was slowly being taken for granted and the romance with them no longer as new and exciting, some interesting undercurrents arose among the player communities. Although brilliant in mechanics and elegance, the themes of the German games were often thin. Some players started to notice that the sense of immersion was not as rewarding as the games of the "old school" past.

Before TI 2nd edition sold out in the early spring of 2003, I had again started to think about the future of "big box" board games for FFG. Truly inspired by the German game designs, I began to develop an entirely new personal approach to game design. I felt that it would be possible to merge the flavor of "old school" U.S. games with the German design principles. Personally, I felt that my design capability had matured significantly over the preceding few years, and that I was at a place where I was able to execute this vision with some effect.

FFG published my "A Game of Thrones" board game (based on the fantastic series of books by George RR Martin) in the fall of 2003. Encouraged by its immediate success and its positive critical reception, I turned my attention back to TI, which had been growing in my mind for many months.

At this point, FFG was in an entirely different situation than where we had been before publishing either of the two first editions of TI. Our manufacturing capabilities, our graphics capabilities, and our market reach had expanded and grown. As FFG now seemed capable of producing the version of TI that I had always dreamed of, I felt ready to tackle a TI remake. It is possible that FFG could simply have reprinted TI with some nicer pieces and artwork, but I was interested in truly moving the TI experience and system to a whole new level.

After inviting the TI community to make suggestions, and after a great deal of thought, I dug into the design during the spring of 2004. At first, the progress was slow. Not only did the CEO duties of FFG often distract me from the creative process, but the design goals I wanted to achieve were quite ambitious.

These design goals included: 1) To increase player participation. (Like most hobby games of their time, TI and TI2 were dominated by a single-player phase resolution, resulting in a lot of down-time for non-active players), 2) To reduce the game time, 3) To reduce player tendency/incentive to "turtle" (or stall) the game while amassing enormous fleets, and 4) To bring the game fluidly together in a more cohesive whole.

My fundamental answer was TI3's "Command System." This simple resource allocation mechanic allowed me to simulate interlacing board movement and, by using the same resource, to define fleet size limits. By splitting the player turn into Command Counter based single actions, most of the player downtime was removed, fleets where reduced, and almost everything fell into place. Not only did the Command System fix most of my concerns on the higher level of game play, but it dramatically changed the tactical part of the game play into something that I had always wanted. Rather than facing grand-strategic big-fleet "you blinked first" tactics that would often dominate the previous editions, the new design of single "activations" suddenly made tactical timing important and tactical reaction possible.

The Command System provided an almost "simultaneous" staggered movement, enhancing realism and excitement. In TI3, as a player takes his turn, he hopefully will no longer perceive the game board as static and frozen, but consider it in a new light; reactive, unpredictable, and alive.

Although the Command System solved most of my goals, I still needed to simplify the phase structure to streamline the game flow. Improving the tactics was not enough; it was important that TI kept the flavor that made it unique, such as retaining the political cards and interstellar trade. For this, I have relied on one of the most exciting developments and innovations in the "German" school of game design.

The Strategy Card mechanic of TI3 originates from an inspired evolution within German board games. From the small but clever Verrater by Marcel-André Casasola Merkle, to Citadels by Bruno Faidutti, a development had begun that, in my opinion, will change the board games of the future. The principle innovation of these games was that the typical "Phases" were greatly simplified, with the core game engagement now tied elegantly to components (in Citadel's case, the Character Cards) rather than a heavy list of phases. Wolfgang Kramer also touched on this evolution in a different way, with the magnificent El Grande*. In El Grande the essential component, the action cards, do not simulate phases as in Citadels, but prod players forward by having them choose specific strategies in a perfect-information environment. The engaging* Vinci by Philippe Keyaerts introduced the wonderful "increasing value" system that provided balance to unselected abilities by increasing their value every turn until selected. Andreas Seyfarth took this evolution a step further as he combined the above elements (as well as adding his own innovation) in the wonderfully crafted and popular Puerto Rico*. Puerto Rico merged the dynamic phases (Verrater, Citadels), perfect information selection strategy (El Grande), and the increasing value mechanic (Vinci) of its illustrious predecessors.*

This series of brilliant developments provided me with the tools needed to break free of the stagnant linear phase structures that have dominated our simulation games of the past.

In TI, the "Strategy Cards" use and build upon these wonderful innovations. With the Strategy Card being executed as a part of the TI action phase, I could introduce the necessary "Phase" blocks seamlessly into the game flow. Not only did this allow me to retain the TI flavor, but weave the mechanic into the game in a way that smoothly integrated with the Command System.

I think that the end result is quite exciting. Although players will be the final judges of whether I have succeeded in my goals or not, I am hopeful that this version of TI will stand up to its rivals in a period of innovative board game design.

I hope that you will enjoy this version of TI.

Best Wishes,

Christian T. Petersen Pax Magnifica!

Technology Advancement Tree

This section describes each Technology advance shown in the rulebook's Technology Advancement Tree diagram, along with its prerequisites and effect. Technology types are indicated by their icon color: red (Warfare), green (Biotechnology), blue (Propulsion), and yellow (General).

Hylar V Assault Laser (Warfare) — All of your Cruisers and Destroyers now receive +1 on all combat rolls.

Deep Space Cannon (Warfare, requires Hylar V Assault Laser) — Enemy fleets in adjacent systems are now in range of your PDS units.

Graviton Laser System (General, requires Deep Space Cannon) — When you make a combat roll with a PDS unit and miss, you may now make a single re-roll for each roll that missed.

Magen Defense Grid (Warfare, requires Deep Space Cannon) — All of your PDS units now receive +1 on all combat rolls. In addition, all of your defending Ground Forces on a planet with a PDS receive +1 on all combat rolls during Invasion Combat.

XRD Transporters (Propulsion) — All of your Carriers now receive +1 movement.

Light/Wave Deflector (Propulsion, requires XRD Transporters AND Magen Defense Grid) — Your ships may now move through systems containing enemy ships and continue their movement to the activated system.

Assault Cannon (Warfare, requires Graviton Laser System AND Magen Defense Grid) — Before any Space Battle begins, your participating Dreadnoughts may each fire one shot. Any hits are applied immediately, and casualties do not receive return fire.

Transit Diodes (General, requires Magen Defense Grid AND Light/Wave Deflector) — As an action, you may spend one Command Counter from your Strategic Allocation to immediately move up to four of your Ground Forces from any one of your planets to any other planet you control.

X-89 Bacterial Weapon (Biotechnology, requires Assault Cannon AND Transit Diodes) — Your Dreadnought or War Sun units may now use this option before bombarding. Immediately destroy all enemy Ground Forces on the planet. Then discard all of your Action Cards.

Graviton Negator (Warfare, requires Transit Diodes) — Your Dreadnoughts may now bombard planets that contain PDS units. Your Fighters may participate in Invasion Combat. Surviving Fighters are returned to space after the combat and can never establish control of a planet.

Fleet Logistics (Propulsion, requires Graviton Negator) — When taking a Tactical Action, you may now take two Tactical Actions, one after the other, before your turn ends.

Antimass Deflectors (Propulsion) — All of your ships may now move through Asteroid Fields but may never end their movement in an Asteroid Field.

Cybernetics (Biotechnology, requires Antimass Deflectors) — All of your Fighters now receive +1 on all combat rolls.

Gen Synthesis (Biotechnology, requires Cybernetics) — All of your Ground Forces now receive +1 on all combat rolls during Invasion Combat. When one of your Ground Force units is destroyed, roll a die: On a result of 5+, the unit is instead returned to a planet in your Home System.

Type IV Drive (Propulsion, requires Gen Synthesis AND Integrated Economy) — All of your Cruisers and Dreadnoughts now receive +1 movement.

Stasis Capsules (Biotechnology, requires Cybernetics) — Your Cruisers and Dreadnoughts may now carry one Ground Force unit.

Enviro Compensator (General) — The production capacity of your Space Docks is now increased by 1.

Sarween Tools (General, requires Enviro Compensator) — Whenever you produce units at any Space Dock, you now receive one additional resource with which to build units.

Micro Technology (General, requires Stasis Capsules or Sarween Tools) — When you execute the secondary ability of the Trade Strategy, you now receive one additional Trade Good for each of your active trade agreements.

War Sun (Warfare, requires Sarween Tools AND XRD Transporters) — You are now allowed to produce War Sun units.

Neural Motivator (Biotechnology, requires Micro Technology AND Sarween Tools) — You now draw one extra Action Card during each Status Phase.

Integrated Economy (General, requires Micro Technology AND Neural Motivator) — When producing units at your Space Docks, you may now place the new units in any activated, adjacent system that is empty or friendly. You may place PDS and Ground Force units on any friendly planet within this range.

Dacxive Animators (Biotechnology, requires Neural Motivator) — If you win an Invasion Combat, roll once for every Ground Force unit killed (yours and your opponent's). For every roll of 6+, place one Ground Force unit on the planet from your reinforcements.

Advanced Fighters (Propulsion, requires Dacxive Animators AND Integrated Economy) — Your Fighters may now move independently with a movement rate of 2 and receive +1 on all combat rolls. Your Fighters do not require the support of Carriers or Space Docks, and enemy ships may not move through a system your Fighters occupy.

Domain Effects (Distant Suns Option)

The following are the detailed effects for each Domain Counter used with the "Distant Suns" game option (see page 33).

Biohazard — The hostile environment of this planet requires terraforming. The first Ground Force unit to land here is always eliminated while this token remains. The first player to successfully invade this planet may remove this counter.

Wormhole Discovery — A new wormhole has been discovered in the system near this planet. Place this counter in the middle of the system to indicate the presence of the wormhole. This wormhole will connect to its brethren (alpha or beta) following the normal rules for wormholes.

Radiation — The planet contains unexpected high levels of radiation. Kill all the Ground Forces of the initial landing, then remove this counter.

Technological Society — The player to your left must search through your Technology deck and give you a free technology advance for which you have the necessary prerequisites. Then discard this counter.

Hostile Locals — The local population will not be subdued. The indicated number of local Ground Forces will fight any invader (allow another player to roll their combat dice). If an invasion attempt fails, the locals return to their full indicated strength. May not be bombarded. Discard after a successful invasion.

Natural Wealth — This planet has resources available for immediate exploitation. Receive the number of Trade Goods indicated, if able. Then discard this counter.

Lazax Survivors — A discovery of ancient prophecy. You may take this counter to receive 3 additional votes towards all future political agendas. (See additional functions for the Lazax survivors on page 42-43).

Industrial Society — An industrious and friendly populace welcomes you. You may immediately place a free Space Dock here. The Planet card for this planet is not exhausted when you receive it. Discard this counter.

Settlers — Return all of your Ground Forces to their Carrier/War Sun. Roll a die. On a result of 6+, place two free Ground Forces on the planet from your reinforcements. On a roll of 1-5, determine a random opponent. That opponent places two free Ground Forces from his reinforcements on the planet. Then discard this counter.

Peaceful Annexation — The landing proceeds without incident. Discard this counter.

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