Top 10 Twilight Imperium Factions

[Music] [Music] ugh [Music] oh [Music] i'm the board game captain and today i'm going to be counting down my top 10 favorite twilight imperium races now i know what you're thinking that is actually most of the races in the box there's only a handful that aren't aren't within my top ten in fourth edition there are seven races that did not make it to my top ten but all of the ten races or races i really like and races i will go out of my way to play once in a while uh they're all races i very much enjoyed in third edition though in some cases have been much improved and i've actually rearranged where my order would be at for fourth edition so for those who are unfamiliar twilight imperium is one of the most iconic board games in all of modern board gaming it's gone through four editions the current of course being twilight imperium fourth edition or ti4 and it is a enormous sort of um conquer the galaxy sort of game where each player takes on one of the factions and you fight it out militarily politically economically etc in a giant huge all-day affair to try to conquer the galaxy become the new rulers of the entire galaxy the game is huge the game is epic the game usually lasts around six hours or even more which is why i say it's like an all-day affair but it is worth it because i have never had a bad time playing twilight imperium it is the sort of thing that you really do set aside a whole day for and invite people over just to play before we get started i just wanted to draw attention to the shirt i'm wearing my i drink and i game it's what i do shirt with my mug of beer and my d20 there this is one of the shirts on our teespring store if you'd like to buy this or any of the other shirts or mugs on our teespring store of which there are plenty to choose from there is a link to our teespring store in the description down below and they will also be a link to it at the end of this video now without any further ado let's get into my top 10 favorite twilight imperium races for ti4 [Music] number 10. so my number 10 race is the emirates of hakan now the emirates of hakan are a race of cat people from a desert planet and what these guys are about is they are a hundred percent all about that trade these guys are the masters of galactic trade so first off their first ability is masters of trade you do not have to spend a command token to resolve the secondary ability on the trade strategy card so right there that's huge because trade is something that happens a lot and not having to spend a token is going to save you tokens you're going to be able to do trading every time somebody does trade next uh guild ships you can negotiate transactions with players who are not your neighbors so this is is really cool especially the larger the game is anything larger than a three-player game you can negotiate with everybody around the table and that is really awesome now in a three-player game this is a bit of a wasted ability because everyone is going to wind up being your neighbors anyway but in a four or five or six player game this becomes phenomenal the more players the better this is and finally orbiters when you are negotiating a transaction uh card can be exchanged as part of that transaction so you can use your action cards as resources towards your negotiations uh that is really really cool these guys are a lot of fun to play economically speaking they're really powerful they change their abilities a little bit from from uh third edition to fourth i i really like they used to have an ability in third edition where they could just like nix other people's trade deals but you know what these are all still really cool and i don't think they dropped on my top tennis that far uh from the way they were on third though i do think they are they have been nerfed a little bit [Music] number nine [Music] so my number nine favorite faction in t twilight imperium fourth edition is the yisserial tribes now the israel tribes are really sneaky and crafty and have lots of action card based abilities they're really really cool uh let me let me tell you some of the reasons why you would want to have the israel truck so first off they've got this ability called scheming which is really cool it says when you draw one or more action cards you get to draw an additional action card then choose and discard one action card from your hand that's really awesome next we have crafty where you can have any number of action cards in your hand no limit and game effects cannot prevent you from using this ability so there's no way to stop them from building up a huge hand of action cards to be able to just throw out at a moment's notice i have had these guys really do well in in later game comments where suddenly i'm throwing out action card after action card uh to really benefit me in the particular conflict um being able to stockpile action cards and use them when they want to make these guys one of the trickiest and sneakiest factions and that's why the israel tribes are my number nine [Music] number eight my number eight is a very much more simplistic group and i just like them for how deadly they can be and that is the sardac or now the sardac and the ore uh are a group they start with a fair amount of military power they got two carriers one cruiser five infantry and they have this amazing ability where they get to apply a plus one to the end result of each of their units combat roles that's their their only ability and it's all they need because this is deadly these guys i mean they're just incredibly powerful people dread getting into combat with you and the i mean right away you want to be manufacturing ships ground troops and sending them out and threatening people's borders because these guys are scary as hell big insect people uh yeah and that's why the sardac noir is my number eight favorite faction in twilight imperium fourth edition [Music] number seven now the next faction is another one that i really enjoy for the military prowess as well though it doesn't work quite the same way it's a little more nuanced than it is the barony of letnev and the baron you've let and have one thing is they start with a dreadnought out on the table which is very intimidating and then in addition they have some really great uh abilities that involve them pumping money into their war machine efforts to really get lots of power so the first thing is they got the munitions reserves at the start of each round of space combat you can spend two trade goods and you can reroll any number of your dice during that combat round in a round where you're gonna have a lot of dice this becomes incredibly incredibly valuable oh man is that great their next ability is armada the maximum number of non-fighter ships you can have in each system is equal to two more than the number of tokens in your fleet pool so they are allowed to have larger fleets than the other races and they can spend trade goods to re-roll dice in combat these guys are fantastic and they are deadly and scary this is another group that as long as you are prepped for the battle as long as you've got some trade goods there and and you've got a decent sized fleet people are scared to death to get into combat with you and that is really cool and that is why they are my number seven favorite faction in twilight imperium fourth edition [Music] number six [Music] now my number six favorite faction uh is very different from the last couple in that it's not about combat at all it's about utility more and that is the ghosts of kruse so the ghosts of kruse they're not incredibly impressive militarily but they've got these great abilities that all revolve around wormhole manipulation so first off you got quantum entanglement you treat all systems that contain either an alpha or beta wormhole as adjacent to each other which means you can go in an alpha wormhole and come out a beta wormhole how amazing is that because you know not always does both alpha and betas come up let's say there's just an alpha and a beta on the field you can still use those to tr to jump around whereas other factions cannot they have the slipstream ability that during their tactical actions they get to apply a plus one to the move value of each of your ships that starts its movement in your home system or in a system that contains one of the wormholes so when coming out of a wormhole or coming out of your home system your ships can move faster than normal this is really great for the home system for being able to speed ships up to the front lines when you need them there right after the turn in which you built them and the final ability is the crew skate when you create the game board instead of placing where you would place your home system you place the crew skate and then your home system is off like in a pocket dimension that you need that crew skate which is a different kind of wormhole to get to it makes a little harder to assail your home system um and that is also just it's just like a little perk and it's really kind of neat and really kind of interesting uh yeah these guys now i have a lot of trouble winning with these guys but the reason they're so high on my list is i never have a bad time with them their wormhole manipulation and up speed when coming out of wormholes is really fun um again i don't think i've ever actually won with them but i always have a good time playing the ghosts of crews and that is why the ghosts of cruz are my number six favorite faction in twilight imperium fourth edition [Music] number five [Music] my next faction is not militarily powerful at all but they are interesting for a different reason they are the universities of joel nar now the universities of joel nor are all about science and scientific advancement um they're not about combat though if you get enough upgrades to your ships they might actually become a threat in combat and they're gonna upgrade their uh various scientific advancements way faster than any other faction on the table you're basically guaranteed of that so the first thing is the reason why they're not very good at combat they have a negative ability called fragile apply a negative one to the result of your unit's combat roles so yes so they're not super good at fighting but then you have brilliant when you spend a command token to resolve the secondary ability of the technology strategy card you can resolve the primary ability instead so with these guys i never choose the the technology strategy card at all i let everyone else take it and then i just keep being like oh i get the primary ability anyway oh i get the primary ability anyway and you you will gain unbelievable amounts of technological advancements then they have analytical when you research a technology that is not a unit upgrade technology you can ignore one of the prerequisites this allows them to bypass some of the prerequisites allows them to get some more advanced technology way faster i usually find that i eventually come to a point where even though i don't want to attack my enemies because of that whole negative one my enemies still don't want to attack me because i have so many unit upgrades so many general upgrades and technologies that they look over the giant swarm of tech over me and they're like yeah never mind and that is why they are my number five favorite faction in twilight imperium fourth edition number four my number four faction is one that can be a little sneaky a little political and quite defensive and this is the zucha kingdom now the zucha kingdom is one that gets lots of cool abilities that allows them to do interesting things they've got the peace support ability this one can be a little sneaky i like this after you resolve the primary or secondary ability of the diplomacy strategy card you may gain control of one planet other than mechatrol rex that does not contain any units and is in a system that is adjacent to a planet you control stealing a free planet yes please and then they have this ability called quash which basically allows them to spend one token from their strategy pool to anytime someone calls up a agenda they can be like no never mind we're going to take the next agenda and that is also really uh awesome gives them lots of abilities in the areas of politics but also they have some technological upgrades that make them good defensively give them bonuses when they're being attacked they are the kind of people that want to set up a good cold war front and then wait for you to come and attack them and make you pay for it tooth and nail uh these guys are a lot of fun to play i've never had a bad time being the zucha kingdom and that is why they are my number four favorite faction [Music] number three my number three favorite faction is due to a very unique ability and some really cool upgrades that they get later in the game and that is the arborek now the arborek are these like fungus aliens and they have this ability called mitosis your space stocks cannot produce infantry at the start of the status phase place one infantry from your reinforcements on any planet you control so your guys they just kind of reproduce naturally they just you just get free troops and at first it can be a little tough because when you want to build more troops you're not getting them as quickly as you might like but later in the game you wind up with huge amounts and they have some technological upgrades that allow them to to to get more troops and also to spread troops without carriers from planet to planet and take over planets and these guys are freaking awesome for that um it's a little bit of a finesse faction it's okay they can be a little tough to use but they are really interesting and this is another one i win or lose never had a bad time being the arborek and that is why they are my number three favorite twilight imperium faction [Music] number two my number two faction is an incredibly powerful faction it is one that generally people consider to be one of the best in the game uh though of course i've ranked these by how much i enjoy them not by how powerful they are but this is also a very enjoyable faction to play and they are the embers of muat now the embers of muawat um are very powerful for a couple of reasons one reason is that they start with a weaker worst sun at the beginning of the game i mean they're the only faction that starts with the warsaw now it's weaker in that it's slower but uh later if you eventually get the worst on upgrade you will they will become a full-fledged full-fledged war zones in addition uh they have one ability that allows you to spend an action to spend one token from your strategy pool to place either two fighters or a destroyer from your reinforcements in a system that contains your war sun so to a limited extent your war sun is a mobile factory because it allows you to make destroyers and fighters and that is really awesome and their other ability is called gashai physiology and they're allowed to move through systems with supernovas this is just a very utilitarian and awesome ability because no one else can move through systems with supernovas it makes them uh able to come up at your enemies through systems that they would not have expected uh you know a back door through like suddenly you're like oh wow you can do that and you're like yeah i can do that because i'm the embers of moat and that's why they are my number two favorite faction in twilight imperium and now it is time for number one it's time for my number one favorite faction and this might surprise a few people but the the utility of this faction is just amazing i again win or lose never have a bad time being the clan of sar so the clan of sar is really cool because they're based around some really great abilities and a really great alternate version of a space stock so they don't get a space stock instead they get floating factories and they move they have a movement of one so you can move them into a new system and then build stuff this is a huge bonus they got over third edition because in third edition they were not allowed to move and build at the same time now there's no restriction noted so they can actually move and build at the same time which makes them one of the most mobile front lines in the game because they can move their space stocks with their fleets and then build some new ships to join the fleets there as long as you don't get above your your fleet supply now their abilities that are really cool is one they have an ability called scavenge after you gain control of a planet gain one trade good early on in the game where you're just like flying around and taking planets you gain massive amounts of trade goods really fast to help supply your war effort it becomes incredibly valuable this will slow down in the late game when you would have to take enemy planets to be able to get trade goods but still it is a really good ability and a really great way to get going fast the second ability is nomatic which is you can score objectives even if you do not control planets in your home system so this is really cool because you're probably going to move your fleet and your factories out of your home system to get them towards the front line so if your opponents sneak in behind and steal your home system it doesn't really cause a huge negative to you because you're still able to score objectives unlike other players so yeah the clan of star is really cool i think they're they're one of the most fluid and um interesting factions mechanically i love playing these guys uh and that is why they are my number one favorite faction in all of twilight imperium i loved them in third edition though they were nowhere near as good nowhere near as competitive and in fourth edition they've jumped up my list all the way to my number one because they're so awesome the clan of sar so there you have it those are my top 10 favorite factions in twilight imperium 4th edition so let me know in the comments down below what are some of your favorite factions what's your number one favorite faction in twilight imperium uh fourth edition if you want to give me a whole top 10 put it in the comments down below i'd love to read it uh if you enjoyed this video and you'd like to see me do more interesting top times like this be sure to give it a like share it on all forms of social media and if you haven't already please subscribe to the board game captain that's captain spelt with a k on youtube and until next time game on

Channel: The Board Game Kaptain

Views: 30,585

Keywords: board game kaptain, gaming, top 10, top ten, list, dice, count down, countdown, cards, resources, Dane Beltrami, Corey Konieczka, Christian T. Petersen, board game, game, table top, Twilight Imperium, 4th ed, 4th edition, fourth edition, 4x, 4 ex, expand, explore, exploit, exterminate, war, economics, politics, Fantasy Flight Games, Science Fiction, space, area control

Id: 4GcFyVMiRTE

Length: 20min 23sec (1223 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 10 2020