Twilight Imperium 4 Faction Guide | The Titans of Ul

welcome test tummies to the cardboard crash course i'm ethan i'll be your safety instructor for today and we're going to be looking at the titans of ul a faction introduced in the prophecy of kings expansion for twilight imperium 4th edition this is going to be both a component overview as well as a more in-depth guide later in the video so you can go ahead and skip there from the link in the description if you're more interested in that so without further ado let's go ahead and head on out here we start off by looking at the titans faction sheet this is a long forgotten army of mountain-sized behemoths that were guardians and laborers created by and programmed to rule under the gene sorcerer kings of millennia past when the tyrant kings were sealed away their titans found themselves without purpose some became gardeners of the outer worlds some collected together to build a planet from scratch calling it elysium and some simply fell asleep awaiting their master's return we find ourselves at this very moment the titans reawakening from their call from their kings and revealing themselves once again to the galaxy so when you choose the titans at the beginning of the game along with the control and command counters that every faction receives you will be getting seven unique titan counters these are five sleeper tokens which inherently don't do anything on their own but will be interacted with by a lot of their abilities and two tokens that are attachments that represent what the titans can do with their terraforming abilities also at the beginning of the game you will be receiving your starting fleet which for them consists of one dreadnought two cruisers two fighters three infantry and one space dock so notably right off the bat this is missing both carriers and pds units that's because the cruisers and pds are specific to the titans which we'll get to in just a moment here they start on the planet of elysium which is a four resource and one influenced planet this is a incredible resource at the beginning of the game for those four resources because it'll let you boost up your army and get exactly what you need to be able to explore as fast as possible the one influence however is pretty detrimental to them as they love having the command counters so that's something that we'll have to be improving later on [Music] they start with two different technologies here the first one is a technology from the base game called anti-mass deflectors it's blue and has no prerequisites and says your ships can move into and through asteroid fields it also says when other players units use space cannon against your units apply -1 to the result of each dirl so this is a little bit of a gimmick for them it's nice having the ability to move through asteroids but they're not going to come up with that too often and the space cannon is really just more for flavor as you're going to be using your own space cannons more than defending against other people's still not bad to have them the other technology that they start with is scanlink drone network this is a technology from the prophecy of kings expansion that is a yellow with no prerequisites and says when you activate a system you may explore one planet inland system that contains one or more of your units normally you won't be able to re-explore planets that you already own and you can only explore them when you first take them from the planet deck this is going to be integral to their strategy as they love re-exploring things and reactivating things they already own let's go ahead and take a look at those faction-specific units to start with here these saturn engines are our cruisers they have the normal two cost seven combat and two movement of most cruisers but they also have a single capacity which lets them fly off with the infantry you start with as soon as the game starts and plant things all over the map it upgrades to the saturn engine 2 using a green yellow and red and has the same cost of 2 but upgrades to 6 combat 3 movement 2 capacity and gain sustained damage the sustained damage and two capacity is are specific to them and really do a lot of work out in the field i like this a lot their pds unit is also their other faction technology this is the hell titan this unit is treated as both a structure and a ground force but cannot be transported it has a combat value of seven which means not only will it do space cannon but also participate in ground combat and has the abilities planetary shield space cannon 6 sustained damage and production 1. so this is a really powerful titan that sits on the planet shoots down things as they come in and continues to launch at them on the planet surface this can upgrade to the hell titan 2 with a yellow and red technology and gets a combat value of 6 instead of 7. this can also fire into adjacent systems using its space cannon and the space cannon ability goes down from six to five this is a really decent upgrade and can do a lot of work for defense let's go ahead next and talk about the abilities printed on their faction sheet the first one is pterogenesis this says after you explore a planet that does not have a sleeper token you may place or move one sleeper token onto that planet so like i said the sleeper tokens don't have inherent value but they'll combo perfectly with this next ability awaken it says after you activate a system that contains one or more of your sleeper tokens you may replace each of those tokens with one pds from your reinforcements your hell titans are going to be able to show up by reactivating systems that you already have the tokens in this is a really unique strategy to them and provides for some really interesting plays the one thing to keep in mind is that it says after you activate a system and not after you perform an action in a system which means that the hell titan that appears will be able to use its production ability on the same turn its final ability is coalescence it says if your flagship or your awaken ability places your units into the same space area or onto the same planet as another player's units your units must participate in ground combat during the space combat or ground combat steps so this is really lesson of ability and more as a rules clarification disguised as an ability players may not know immediately that they have to participate in the combat the same time the pds appears but it is nice to have printed on the faction sheet for a reminder so it says that you can deploy your flagship so let's go ahead and check that out it is the aranos it has a deployability which is a new keyword in the expansion that lets you place from your reinforcements instead of paying the cost for the unit it says after you activate a system that contains one or more of your pds you may replace one of those pdfs with this unit so of course you only have one flagship but if you activate once to drop a sleeper activate another time to grab a pds and then activate a third time you will be able to grab your flagship for free now it's normally eight cost which i hope you'll never be paid but has a combat value of seven times two a movement of one a capacity of three and sustained damage on the vanilla test this is not a great flagship but getting it for free is always very very nice the final faction specific unit is of course the mech this is hecaton curus and has another deployability that says when you would place a pds on a planet you may place one mech and one infantry from that planet instead this also has the normal cost of 2 combat value of 6 and sustained damage abilities of most mechs in the game so when you awaken instead of bringing down a hell titan you can put this and an infantry on there for a different kind of defense or if you run out of hell titans you can continue doing the awaken ability with this so they only have a two commodity value which makes them a little less important to trade with but i don't think they're really going to be struggling with resources because of how sellable their leaders are so let's go ahead and check those out first we have the agent tellurian this is an exhaustible ability that says when a hit is produced against a unit you may exhaust this card to cancel that hit this is a very straightforward ability that may not be useful right in the early game but anyone at the table will be willing to pay for this because nobody likes getting hit and their units being destroyed so this of course is powerful used by yourself but if you see somebody in a situation where their whole fleet would be wiped out or they'd lose capacity in a system this is great to solve them next is the commander tungstantis this is an unlockable ability that is unlocked by having five structures on the game board of course you start with a space dock so you're only going to have to put down four and this shouldn't be too difficult with the awaken ability when you unlock him he gains a passive ability that says when one or more of your units use production you may gain one trade good now this would be helpful against anyone and provides is a really really good opportunity to sell your alliance promissory note but is especially good with them and maybe selling it to arborek because they have that production won on their hell titans this means that as you continue to reactivate systems you'll be using production many many times throughout the turn instead of just dropping it all with one space stock so you'll be getting a lot of money off of this finally on their leaders we have pull the progenitor the hero he has the same unlock as having three scored objectives as everyone else but when he unlocks he's gonna gain the ability geoform which is an action that says ready elysium and attach this card to it its resource and influence values are each increased by three and it gains the space cannon five times three ability as if it were a unit so this is going to be used with the token that i mentioned earlier and it's going to show as a increase to elysium to the point of having it as a 7 4. this is great and should be used immediately it'll continue to give you an insane amounts of resources and good amount of influence throughout the game as soon as you get it and i suggest pushing towards it as soon as possible finally we have their promissory note which is called terraform this is an ability that you give another player that as an action they can attach this card to a non-home planet they control other than mechatal wrecks its resources and influence value are each increased by one and it's treated as having all three planet traits so this is used with this token which allows them to permanently change one of their planets now this is the first promissory note in the game that is a one-off ability but i like it a lot because any single person would be willing to sell this and it seems as more of a fun faction ability than a bargaining tool that you'll have to work to trade with so there's the titans of old components this is a really fun faction and provides for some interesting terraforming abilities as well as permanent defensive capabilities i think that they have a lot of combos and we'll go ahead and check those out as well as some strategy cards they like and different things you can be doing around the table so i think we can all agree that these guys are very powerful a main core strategy in this game is reactivating systems you already have and growing your fleet and protecting your pie slice of the board from everybody else at the table and these guys just do that so much better than everyone else getting those sleeper tokens and then pds and then even your flagship is really really nice and lets them hold down their part of the board and never get touched by anyone else now before i get into anything i would like to say that the pink pieces are great for them it's all over their faction sheet it's all it looks like inside their bodies but if you can't do it then the green or blue are great because of the lore about them being gardeners and very peaceful nature focused creatures so i digress now their start is interesting they have scanlink drone network which is integral to their strategy i mean you have to explore to drop the sleeper tokens so you're going to want to keep re-exploring the same planets you have but any mass deflectors is not more useful to them than any other faction would be dropping a asteroid field right in front of their system is gonna be hurtful to them so it's nice to have but the whole thing about -1 to other people's space cannon rolls is kind of just a flavor thing i think because you're not really going to want to go and spread really deep into other people's systems more just keep your own the resource and influences of their home planet are nice on the resource aspect and crippling on the influence aspect this is because these guys have a major weakness to them they love command counters but have no immediate way of getting extras they're not sold they're not necro so they need as much influence as possible and their home planet just does not provide the resources are nice because you are going to be able to get extra saturn engines even carriers to carry more things across the board but i just can't forgive that one influence it's okay we'll be able to change it later though these guys are really more of a exploration faction than i think it first seems the scanlink drone network lets them re-explore things of course but lets them get attachments on things lets them grab extra influence and resources from things let's look at tech skips and use their mechs and more and more throughout the game that is really going to snowball into their slice being almost as crazy as nasraka's this is also because their hell titans and their saturn engines i think should be upgraded throughout the game and they have sort of a strange assortment of different upgrade prerequisites to them the green yellow and red from the saturn engine 2 has to be worked around because this upgrade is so so crazy powerful and really nice to have the sustain damage on the cruiser especially when you're going to spread these across the board with the three movement and two capacity is so powerful because the second somebody else moves in you're going to be soaking up hit after hit with just a two cost unit on the other hand the hell titans are not as necessary as the saturn engine too you already have the planetary shield production one and the sustained damage from hell titan and i don't really think that dropping down their combat value and their space can value is as important as it seems especially in the early game but is still pretty nice it is important to keep in mind that they do have that strange timing window of being able to activate a sleeper token drop down a hell titan and produce in the same turn this lets them get all kinds of crazy stuff out on the board and really makes them feel like an arbor wreck or a sar player now their hekaton curus their mech is very nice because not only does it let you continue to use your awaken ability even after you have all six pds on the board but this does combo with construction and if you have an extra command counter which you won't always have you can actually use this to drop an infantry and a mech somewhere using that construction ability which is kind of strange but useful in some cases so moving on i think that it's important to look at the tech paths for them hyper metabolism is your best friend it fixes up that weakness a little bit and is almost completely necessary for their strategy so how do we get there i suggest psychoarchaeology and biostems now psychoarchaeology is one that lets you use the text not technology specialties on planets even when they're exhausted so the reason this is important is because they're going to be getting so many attachments on planets that they're going to be using all of that influence already to grab extra command counters on the planets that they've gotten the attachments on and are still going to want to use them to get the saturn engines the hell titans and maybe carriers and other things with assorted costs all the time using the technology card so this is going to be really helpful throughout the game now bioscience is helpful for pretty much the same reason all those attachments are really going to benefit you with this card and then of course hyper metabolism now the other tech path that i think is important is blue for them you are going to need a red one to get the saturn engine so we'll talk about in a second but blue is very important especially when you get things like sling relay to make more saturn engines in your home system gravity drive to move a saturn engine even farther to where you need to be and then fleet logistics to activate multiple sleeper tokens before anybody else can react light wave deflector is also really nice because getting sleeper tokens across the board in places where people wouldn't normally let you go is really great for them so green and blue is what i suggest you are going to want to get ai development algorithm though as well this counts as both a red one or whatever else you need so this is going to let you get the hell titan and the saturn engine and then immediately move over to be able to be used as a green or blue later on so very very important to their strategy now the titan's commodity value being two is not really as much of a detriment to them as i think it is for something like the volvray cabal the titans have very very sellable cards their agent being able to cancel any hit across the board is really not always going to be used on yourself because you're so defensive people may not even be willing to attack you in the first place so anybody who's dealing with anyone else across the board is going to pay you to save one of their ships and you can trade in that window also their alliance promissory note is going to be sold every single game because gaining a trade good is so important to people like the arab wreck or the tsar or things that are going to use production all the time but is also just straight up important to anyone their final syllable card is that promissory note a plus one plus one and any planet traits is just going to be important to anybody now if somebody's looking for it it probably means that they have some kind of objective or something that they have to take care of so be careful who you're giving it to but in the early game when you're just giving it to anybody i think that selling it for a few trade goods is going to be worth both your investment and theirs because they're going to be getting a resource or an influence every turn off of this about three is going to be worth it because they're going to get more in the long run especially if they take diplomacy but it's going to be worth it for you because you get everything right off the bat and are able to use it right away moving on to their other attachment the hero is crazy getting a plus three plus three and space cannon five times three on elysium is really fun because nobody will ever take it or at least they shouldn't this is not a hero that you wait for the perfect moment to use like most are this is a hero that i think you should use as soon as possible getting either three resources or three influence every turn and way more if you're using diplomacy or other cards like that is so much fun it's not really worth waiting for to use the planet and then get the card and then use the planet again i think you should just plant it down and use it all in one go because it's going to boost the space stock on its production to a crazy amount so finally let's talk about those strategy cards we'll go ahead and go through the list really quickly and see how they feel about each of them first off is leadership i don't think i should have to explain why this is very very very important to their strategy the three command counters will do so much for them more than any other faction really diplomacy is great after you've already upgraded elysium but i don't think that is really that necessary because defensive things are super overkill for them like i said they're even more defensive than the extra themselves so diplomacy is only used in a last-ditch scenario or when you really need the bonus resources off of it politics is sort of neutral for them getting extra action cards for stalls or being able to grab the speaker token for exactly what you need the next turn is really case-by-case basis and if you're left last in turn order then this is not a bad one to grab construction right off the bat you might think you may never need to grab construction because you're getting hell tights for free but i think that's important to use this anyway because dropping hell titans on the board is going to let you produce more in the early game and you can still use that awaken ability with your max even after you've run out of health heights to drop down trade is very very nice for them this just essentially says get three influence getting this in the early game is not a bad choice if you're late in turn owner but i don't really think it's better than something like leadership if you get to choose one of the first warfare is really interesting if you need a sleeper and then a pds or a pds and then a flagship really really bad in one turn let's say you're grabbing a flagship objective or something like that then of course grab warfare they can do that now technology is great for them in the early game getting ai development algorithm and then moving into their faction tax is really really important but i don't think that it's too bad if they don't get the primary off of it and just have to take the secondary because they only need to get really one tech per turn to be on their way to success now finally imperial this might seem like a great idea right away because when you hear defensive faction you may think oh holding down mkhitaryan and not letting it go this is true but keep in mind that mkhitaryan rex can't get attachments on it can't be explored so you won't be able to drop sleeper tokens on it now if you've hit it drop construction on it and really hold it down i don't think that anyone else is really gonna have the chance to take it unless they get that objective that nukes the whole thing so it's really fun for them but not necessary so overall we've got leadership construction and trade and i love those three for the titans of old so there we have it if you like the video go ahead and leave a like and maybe consider subscribing as i will be making more of these i will have a full twilight imperium and prophecy of kings rules guide that will be in the card in the top right corner once we get to it but for until then the playlist will keep growing with these guides as well as other card game and board game content on the channel thank you very much for watching and have a great time playing the titans of old bye bye

Channel: Cardboard Crash Course

Views: 5,601

Keywords: Twilight Imperium, Faction Guide, Space Cats Peace Turtles, SCPT, Prophecy of Kings, TI4, Twilight Imperium 4th Edition, PoK, Beginner Guide, Guide, Faction Overview, Gaming, Tabletop Games, Cardboard Crash Course, Card Games, Board Games, TI4 PoK, Titans of Ul, Titans, Ul

Id: 8wBdyexd2hY

Length: 25min 32sec (1532 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 26 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/FreetheNargles]

Some constructive criticism... utilize the video format. The analysis part needs visuals. Just show us generic neighbor scenarios, PDS networks, or tech trees as you're talking about the strategy. Watching you hold a tiny card doesn't really engage me.

[u/Philbob9632]

Hi all! Having a ton of fun making these! I hope you enjoy this one and leave any comments you have on it! Thank you :)

[u/UtileDulciMiscere]

I'm not sure about your tech path, I get that Hypermetabolism is great on them, but I would only go for it if I had green skips.

[u/Magusnebula]

AIDA is only used for unit upgrade skips IIRC, all in all good video

[u/Dear_Bend_293]

IDK I dont think Coalescence is played right? correct me if im wrong our game nite was debating this... plz take a moment to understand....

The definition :
coalescence meaning: 1. the process of coming or growing together to form one thing or system

Coalescence : If your flagship or your AWAKEN fraction ability places your units into the same space area or onto the same planet as another player's units, your units must participate in combat during the "Space Combat" or "Ground Combat" steps.

We had believed this met that when triggered the ul player MUST use all unit types (space, ground, fighter, infantry) to participate in ground or space combat within the system. Reason being bc "your units must participate in combat" during space or ground, players around the table thought this was all units! Robots of destruction right?

A very scary race fitting seeing how destructive i heard they are however now im not finding much info on this ability, its weird to put it down if it was just a little remind on how to play the game, but idk...

Any thoughts would be helpful thank you :)