The Dawn of a New Imperium
"Sir, we are approaching target, T-15 seconds"
"Bring the shields down 50%, activate the ion deep space cannon" barked Captain Johnson.
"10-4" retorted Lieutenant Smith.
As they drew nearer, the other officers in the control room gasped loudly.
"It is huge... almost the size of our home planet!!" exclaims Petty Officer Dawson.
"Now is NOT the time to panic! Get ready, men. We will take that beast down." Captain Johnson replied nonchalantly.
As the vessel drew nearer, the mammoth sphere structure eclipsed the twin suns of Mecatol Rex. At that moment, the vessel was plunged into total darkness.
"FIRE!!!"
The first bolt of blue beam cuts through the emptiness of space, finding its way towards the mechanical planet-like ship. The bolt hits its target dead center. Then, there was an akward silence. No loud explosion. Nothing can be heard at all.
"Impossible! Nothing can withstand a Lazzax Dreadnaught's Ion Blast at almost full power." retorted arrogant arrogant Captain, "Bring the ship's main shield and power down by another 30%, set thrusters to minimal and concentrate all power to the ion cannon."
"But, sir..." answered a visibily shaken Smith.
"Just do it!"
"Affirmative, sir." replied Lieutinent Smith with a heavy heart "All set."
"FIRE!!!"
Again a flash of beam energy is fired from the vessel, it was twice the size and speed of the previous beam. The bolt hits the planet sized ship dead center. This time, however, an explosion was heard, somewhat muffle but it was clear that the monster had taken a direct hit.
A few moments later, a loud explosion was heard, and in a flash of blinding light, the beast disintegrated into nothingness.
"We did it sir, We took it down." said the Lieutenant.
"Hm..." was the Captain's only reply.
The Captain was a man of few words. He was respected and feared throughout the known Imperium as a master tactician and warmonger. But at that very moment, he was puzzled, very puzzled. He thought to himself, what or who made this must be insane and how was it possible - a ship the size of a planet. So many questions, so little answers.
"But... how are we going to get home? All of our fuel cells are almost depleted." Dawson asked, breaking the Captain's chain of thought.
The Captain answered calmly, "Radio for help. They should be here in a minute or two.."
Looming in the distance, unknown to the crew of "The Devourer", was another ship, identical to the one that they had just destroyed moments ago. But this time, it was accompanied by an entourage of 60 medium-sized ships...
A deep voice within the belly of the 'beastly' ship calmly proclaimed, in a very somber voice "Today, Mecatol Rex. Tomorrow the Galaxy... Hahahahahha...."
Welcome to the world of Twilight Imperium : Third Edition. The game of Intergalactic warfare, trade and politics for 3-8 players (The expansion adds two additional players).
The game is played out over a modular hex board, representing the known galaxy in Twilight Imperium. There are 14 unique races to choose from and control, forming the major races fighting for control over the galaxy. Each race has its own starting home planet, special abilities and starting race technologies.
The game comes in a really bix box, which is part of the Fantasy Flight Games big box series (the other three being Descent: Journeys into the Dark, World of Warcraft and Tide of Iron)
The box is jam packed with more than 300 miniature ships, 400+ cards, thousands of tokens, 4 ten-sided dice, counters (lots of them), and around 50+ hexagon tiles (to make the game board). It also comes with oversized race sheets, one for each race represented in the game, detailing the racial abilities, starting home planets, starting technologies, costs, movement and combat value of each ship found in TI3.
The rulebook is a massive 30+ full coloured book filled with beautiful illustrations.
The recommended length of play for the base set is around 3-8 hours, of which, is quite long but it is well worth your time.
In conclusion, TI3 is a massive and highly replayable game as each and every session is played very differently (modular gameboard, lots of races to choose from). And because of this, TI3 has a huge following here on BGCafe.net. Even I, have my own personal copy, complete with the expansion set. And it is, by far, one of the best space theme wargame out there.
So, are you ready to take on the known galaxy? Do you have what it takes? Play on and find out.