RULES TO PLAY TWILIGHT IMPERIUM 3RD EDITION SOLITAIRE
Notes: -These rules have been tested using 6 of the ten races. There are still many things
to be modified but I believe they are good enough to represent a starting point. Please
message me regarding anything you might like or dislike, things you want to modify or
anything else that crosses your mind to make this document better, I’d appreciate any
help I can get making the game work for all of us who don’t have patient gaming friends.
-From time to time I will make italic markings on the text to explain why or how I came
to various conclusions. This will make the document longer to read so if you’re not
interested just skip those.
-Obviously I’m not taking credit for any idea listed here as there is none personal or at
least original, rather a mix of various mechanics I encountered in other games. I do want
to thank the designer Christian T. Petersen and FFG for this wonderful game and by no
means am I planning to spoil their work, rather I’m trying to adapt it to frustrated TI
players everywhere.
THE PLOT
The GOOD campaign: Your once united federation of planets fell to the might of a
ruthless conqueror and as soon as he took control of Mecatol Rex he exiled you to the
outer ring. Years pass and your little community expands, taking control of the system
and setting it’s eyes back on the Imperial throne. Now it’s the time to begin your quest
towards freeing the galaxy from the evil tyrant and reuniting it under your democratic
leadership…or something :P.
The BAD campaign: All the above reversed. You’re sick of pitiful democratic council
and it’s endless winnings so you gather an army and start taking system after system with
the goal of achieving enough fame to kick the president back to his proper place, the
outer ring and claim the throne of an evil empire that will last for eons to come. (Insert
evil laugh).
Regardless, the goal of the game remains the same: acquiring 10 VP before the other side
takes you out and you do that by completing your objectives.
SETUP
1. Randomize the Home Systems and choose one to represent your race or take any
one you like. Take the corresponding Race sheet, Control Markers, Trade Cards
and Command Counters.
2. Select a color for you and the corresponding Technology Deck and select another
color for the AI player.
3. The Action Cards Deck: because many cards refer to another human player it’s
very hard to make a list of all the cards to be removed. You can do 2 things: either
you shuffle the entire deck and discard/ redraw any card not usable in this solo
variant or remove those cards prior and then shuffle the deck. In the absence of a
detailed list option number 1 seems the most convenient one.
4. The Political Deck: I haven’t found a way to integrate this yet, due to the fact that
it’s very hard to negotiate with yourself ;). Secondly, there are many things to
keep your attention busy so adding those would complicate a bit the game. Since
there are another 6 races involved in the game and only 2 sides playing it (more
on this later) I guess it would be fairly easy to determine a sort of random voting
system. Add it if you have a larger attention span than mine :D. The downside of
not using the Political Deck is that influence points of the planets are hardly used
in this variant and of course much of the flavor is gone.
5. Take your planet cards face up and put the remaining planets in the play area.
6. Place the 8 Strategy Cards in the play area and the Bonus markers.
7. Create the objective deck. Use the standard rules but read the objectives first
before shuffling them. Some of the blue and red objectives refer to other human
opponents, so no point shuffling them. Place the Public objectives somewhere
near the scoring track and then PLACE THE FIRST 2 FACE UP. In the standard
game you get objectives displayed even if you do not select the ISC card yourself.
In this variant you MUST pick ISC to get the objectives and doing so has some
nasty consequences. Hence the need to start the game with a little head start.
8. Place the Victory Point Track and 2 markers. A control marker for you to indicate
the points you have and a marker for the AI to indicate his aggressiveness level.
Many of your actions will make the AI marker go up the track to indicate the fact
that the AI is aware of your actions and is planning a counterattack.
9. Create the galaxy. Use the rules to create a 6 player galaxy with the following
exceptions/additions: The inner ring is made up of 6 other randomly drawn Home
Systems. If you plan to use the Political Deck also, then treat those as a galactic
council. Every time you take a vote, the 6 races will cast theirs at random between
you or the AI, you will use the combined influence of your planets and the AI will
use the influence provided by Mecatol Rex…x2…or more…or you can make some
sort of system to integrate your current position on the VP track. Like the farther
you are, the more likely the others will vote with you…I don’t know...still has to
be tested. Anyway, back to the galaxy. Place all the other systems randomly,
starting anywhere you want and going clockwise or anticlockwise. Go round the
board till you get a 6 player galaxy. You may not move to another ring until you
finished the previous, you may not place Special Systems adjacent to another
Special System or your Home System. You might get good systems nearby, you
might get crappy ones or empty fields…life in the great void is even harder than
here on Earth :D
10. Place your starting units and technologies as stated on the race sheet.
11. Place CC on your race sheet as per standard rules.
THE GAME ROUND
Much like the original game, the game is divided into phases:
- the strategy phase
- the action phase
- the AI phase
- the status phase
I won’t go into details about them all, just use the standard rules. Rather I will highlight
the differences in each.
THE STRATEGY PHASE
Shuffle the SC without looking at them (duh!) and then do the following:
- place one SC down with the inactive side up and put a bonus marker on it. If there
were other bonus markers, they stack. If the AI player gets the SC card with
bonuses, they are lost.
- place another 3 SC face up in the AI play area. Those are the cards played by the
AI player, so order is important, don’t mix them as they are placed down.
- Choose 3 cards from the remaining 4. Those are the SC you can use on your turn.
- Place the 8th SC down with the inactive side up and place a bonus marker on it.
Much of the game relies on the need to constantly adapt to the other players. You may not
always choose the best card but are rather forced to change your strategy each turn. To
simulate this I have opted for the system above, which seems to be working rather good,
giving you enough options but also enough restrictions.
Additional rules regarding Strategy phase:
- You can react to the SC played by the AI player just as you would do in a
standard game, by paying one CC from strategy area or for free in you chose
Initiative and played it in that round. If you do so you may use the secondary
ability of the SC.
- Before shuffling the cards you can pay 2 CC from your strategy area to force a SC
to be available for you to select. That card goes immediately to you and is not
shuffled with the rest.
- Bonus counters can be traded for CC or TG just like in the standard game.
- The AI player will NEVER use the primary or secondary abilities of his SC.
THE ACTION PHASE
It goes very much like the one in the standard game, except for the AI player. Whoever
hold the lowest nr SC goes first. No matter what you do, the AI player will always play
the topmost SC in his stack. So an action turn would go like this (let’s assume you have a
lower nr SC)
- your move: play action card, play SC, tactical or transfer
- AI player plays his 1st topmost card. You may pay CC to react to it
- your move: play action card, play SC, tactical or transfer
- AI player plays his 2nd SC
- your move: play action card, play SC, tactical or transfer
- AI plays his last SC
- your move: play action card, play SC, tactical or transfer
- AI gains one TG (put it on Mecatol Rex, this is where the AI armada is gathering)
and his marker advances 1 step up the track (this is to ensure that even if you do
nothing on your turn, the AI player may still advance and may have a slight
chance of attacking you)
- your move: play action card, play SC, tactical or transfer
- AI passes
- You play until you must, or choose to pass
All the rules from the core game are used during the action phase
Special rules regarding Tactical action:
Whenever activating the systems under AI control you must pay a certain cost of CC
from your Command pool to reinforcements, as follows:
- outer ring: 1CC
- second ring: 2 CC
- inner ring: 3 CC
- Mecatol Rex: 4 CC
Note that activating your own systems in the inner rings, or systems where you control
the “skies”, even if you haven’t taken control of any planets in that system does not cost
additional CC.
During play-testing I noticed that the amount of CC I had was always going up and the
Logistics SC was rather useless so I made up this rule to put it to use. Another option
would be to pay with the influence of your planets whenever trying to attack AI systems,
but I liked the CC rule better.
Whenever successfully attacking a system/planet under AI control, the AI marker will go
up the track to indicate an imminent retaliation.
Like the rest of the rules, the deeper you go, the faster the AI marker will go up:
-
Outer ring: move the marker 1 step for every planet you conquer
Second ring: move marker 1 step if winning the space battle and another 1 step
for every planet you conquer
Inner ring: move the marker 2 steps if winning the space battle and another 1 step
for every planet you conquer
Mecatol Rex: move the marker 3 steps if winning the space battle and another 2
steps if conquering the planet.
You are allowed to build at the end of the tactical/transfer action just as you would do in
the standard game. The only difference is that now you must place an EQUAL amount of
TG on Mecatol Rex every time you build something (build…meaning paying for
technologies doesn’t count). This will be the pool the AI player will use to buy ships and
strike back at you, so be careful, the more you build, the larger his armada will be. Note
that you DO NOT give TG to AI pool if you use action card or technologies to purchase
something, only when paying with your own TG or by exhausting planets.
It might seem like you’re giving the AI player a lot of advantage by doing this, but trust
me, because of this it makes for some interesting decisions and timings…when to use the
SC, when to hold back and wait for the right moment to strike, where to build and how
much.
SETUP AND SCRIPT FOR AI PLAYER
In the beginning you will start with your Home System. All the rest of the galaxy is under
AI control, so there are no neutral planets. Even empty fields are patrolled by the ever
watching eye (now where did I read that…) . There is possible however through usage of
certain cards to make a planet neutral, so keep this in mind when playing those cards.
(like “Rare minerals” and the one about riot or rebellion, I can’t remember exactly)
Each system under AI control is guarded by stationary defenses, according to the
following table…the deeper you go in the heart of the empire, the thicker the defenses.
Note that you don’t need to place ALL of them on the board, there aren’t enough
miniatures anyway, just the ones in your vicinity, to help identify at a glance where you
should head next. Also note that these defenses do not regenerate, so it’s possible to
make hit and run attacks on them or use action cards.
GF/planet PDS/planet Fighters Destroyers Cruisers Dreadnaughts
Outer
ring
Second
ring
Inner
ring
Mecatol
Rex
War
sun
1
-
2
-
-
-
-
2
-
4
1
-
-
-
2
1
6
2
1
1
-
3
2
8
4
2
-
1
Of course feel free to tweak this table any way you want to. If you feel it’s too hard to get
through those defenses, lower them a bit. For a more challenging game, add a few
GF/spaceships. However I wouldn’t modify the ones in the Outer ring, you need that ring
less defended or else you won’t progress much.
When does the AI player attack?
At the end of the action phase, the beginning of the AI phase. Simply roll one D10 and
compare it to the current position of the AI marker. If you roll less or equal to its current
location, you’re done for. If you roll higher, breath in relief and skip to the Status phase.
Where does he attack?
Anywhere he can get to and to any system containing a sign of your presence, even if it’s
just a destroyer or a control marker. If you want to make it harder then pick the one
where he could do the maximum damage with the minimum efort. Just like you, the AI
cannot go through enemy fleets, he must stop in the system and initiate space battles.
Identify the “border” systems he could possibly attack and find a random way to
determine where he does that. Use planet cards, dice, coin flipping, close your eyes and
point with your finger, anything will do.
What does he attack with?
Everything he can buy with what he currently possesses in his TG pool. As for the
composition of the task force, this is one tricky option. The rules of the core game
regarding GF and fighters still apply so you can’t bring those unless they are onboard
carriers or war suns. Also his aim would be to regain planets so I’d give him as many GF
as he can but of course he needs spaceships to get through your own defenses. I will try
to make a table as a guideline but feel free to change it any way you like it. Also try to
tweak it to get maximum of results in the system he is currently attacking. If it’s obvious
his GF will not make it past your spaceships, then don’t waste TG on them. Blockading
systems is better than loosing his fleets. Try to be as impartial as possible and come up
with the best attacking combo.
-
1-8 TG – a mixture of 1/3 cruisers, 2/3 destroyers
9- 15 – 1 carrier with 4-6 GF and the mixture above
16- 20 – replace carrier with war sun or add 1 dreadnaught
21- above – 1 war sun with 6 GF and a mixture of cannon fodder ships…maybe
another carrier with 6 fighters?
If the AI wins the space battle and you have GF, proceed to invasions. Again use your
common sense when deciding what to attack and how much to send. If he wins the
invasions too, you lost control over those planets and they revert to AI ownership.
The victorious AI fleet will stay in the system and not move further, becoming stationary
defenses from now on. Sometimes there will be more, sometimes there will be less
spaceships remaining after the combat. It all depends on how you played so far. If you
gave him enough TG to build war suns and you left border systems undefended, then you
deserve to loose those for the rest of the game ;).
Another side effect of AI attack is loss of Trade Routes. Each time the AI attacks you
loose ALL the trade agreements currently activated ( more on this when detailing SC)
After the AI attacks, whether successfully or not, move his marker back to 0. His
bloodlust is satisfied for now :D. Proceed to Status Phase.
THE STATUS PHASE
It goes much like the original game set of rules, with a few exceptions:
- if you took the 10th VP, you won the game. Note that like in the core standard
game you cannot qualify for objectives unless you own all the planets in your
home system.
- You receive just 1 CC from reinforcements, not 2.
Proceed to next round.
THE STRATEGY CARDS
Of course the SC from the standard game have been tweaked to suit this variant but I
tried to keep them as close to their original intent as possible.
INITIATIVE: You may execute secondary abilities of AI SC without paying from your
strategy allocation area. No secondary ability
DIPLOMACY: Move the AI marker 2 steps back on the track. For secondary ability,
exhaust influence of planets to eliminate TG from AI reinforcements area at the rate of 2
inf/1 TG (if you find this to be too easy, make it 3 inf/1 TG)
POLITICAL: get 3 action cards. If you play with the political deck, then vote on the first
law in the deck. For secondary ability, draw 1 action card.
LOGISTICS: identical to the standard game
TRADE: identical to the standard game. When activating trade agreements, use the ones
provided to your race, unlike the standard rules where you can only use other’s trade
cards to get TG.
WARFARE: identical to the standard game. The only thing added is that immediately
after executing the PRIMARY ability of the card, roll to see if the AI attacks now. Note
that he still gets the chance to attack during the AI phase of the round.
TECHNOLOGY: identical to the standard game
IMPERIAL: identical to the standard game except that you get NO VP for choosing the
ISC (the most radical ISC rule evar =))…seriously, it was being too boring even with 1
VP. You could practically turtle in and hope to get the ISC card every turn. Besides, there
is already a race against the clock). Also, as soon as you play the ISC the AI marker
advances 3 steps up the track. If you think it’s too much then advance just 2. If you use
the secondary ability of the card and build something you still place that amount of TG
into the AI supply zone, you just don’t activate your system.
RACE ABILITIES
Like the SC, I tried to keep as much as possible from the standard game and only tweak
those aspect related to this solo variant. Anything else, like starting tech and units are left
as they were designed in the first place.
UNIVERSITIES OF JOL-NAR: identical to the standard game
THE L1Z1X MINDNET: identical to the standard game
THE NAALU COLLECTIVE: identical to the standard game
THE BARONY OF LETNEV: identical to the standard game
SARDAKK N’ORR: identical to the standard game
THE MENTAK COALITION: identical to the standard game, except the last paragraph.
Since there are no players to take TG from, just take 1 TG anyway each turn.
THE YSSARIL TRIBES: identical to the standard game, except for the last paragraph,
which becomes obsolete.
FEDERATION OF SOL: identical to the standard game
THE XXCHA KINGDOM: identical to the standard game
THE EMIRATES OF HACAN: You get the amount of TG listed on your agreements.
The AI attack can cancel only one of your current trade agreements, not both of them.
Ok, that’s about it, hope this is of some use to you and please send comments and/or
suggestions. Cheers!