Twilight Imperium: Fourth Edition rules – how to play and how to score

Twilight Imperium: Fourth Edition quick rules

The goal

Each player leads a faction trying to claim the throne of the galaxy: you explore, conquer, negotiate and fight. But victory comes mostly from objectives, which earn victory points. The first to 10 points wins immediately, 14 in a long game.

A round in four phases

Each round goes through a strategy phase, an action phase and a status phase. Once a player has freed Mecatol Rex, the planet at the center, an agenda phase is added to every round. Keep the rulebook handy for units, technologies and abilities.

The strategy phase

Starting with the speaker, each player picks one of the eight strategy cards, two with three or four players. The card’s initiative number sets turn order, lowest first, and only its owner takes its primary action. A trade good goes on each unchosen card.

Command tokens

They are split into three pools: tactic, to activate systems; fleet, which limits ships per system, not counting fighters; strategy, to follow the secondary abilities of other players’ cards.

The action phase

In initiative order, each player takes one action per turn until everyone has passed: tactical, strategic with their card, or a component action printed on a card. You cannot pass before using your strategy card.

The tactical action

Activate a system with a token from your tactic pool, if it doesn’t already hold one of yours. Move in ships from systems without your token, fight enemy ships, invade the planets with your ground forces, then you may produce in that system.

Planets and combat

A planet has resources, to produce and research, and influence, to gain tokens and vote: you spend them by exhausting its card. In combat, each unit rolls a die and hits if the result meets its combat value; each hit destroys a unit.

The status phase

Each player may score one public and one secret objective, but public objectives require controlling every planet in your home system. The speaker reveals a new objective; each player draws an action card, takes back their tokens from the board and gains two.

Mecatol Rex and the agenda

To free Mecatol Rex, spend 6 influence during an invasion and land there: the custodians token is worth 1 point. From then on, every round ends with votes on two agendas, one vote per point of influence on exhausted planets.

Game end

The game ends as soon as a player reaches 10 points, or 14 in a long game; if several get there at once, the earliest in initiative order wins. It also ends when there is no public objective left to reveal: the most points wins.

Beginner pitfalls

Save your command tokens, watch your fleet pool and guard your home system: without it, no public objectives. And read the objectives early: they win the game, not the battles.

With the expansions

Prophecy of Kings allows up to eight players, with leaders (agent, commander, hero), mechs and planet exploration. Thunder’s Edge adds six factions, their breakthroughs, the Thunder’s Edge expedition, The Fracture and galactic events.

How to score Twilight Imperium: Fourth Edition

Victory points

Your points on the track: public and secret objectives, custodians token, cards and laws. The first to 10 wins immediately, 14 in a long game.

Initiative

An optional line that scores nothing: the number of your strategy card at the end, the lowest if you have two. On a tie, the lowest number wins.

Game end

An optional line for the record: winning score reached, or no objective left to reveal.

Faction

Your faction, for statistics; it doesn’t change the score.

Worked example

In the status phase, objectives are scored in initiative order. Mia, holding strategy card number 3, has 8 points: she scores a stage I public objective and a secret objective, 1 point each, and reaches 10 points. The game ends immediately: Jake, holding card number 5, had 9 points and could have scored next, but never gets the chance. Mia wins with 10 points.

Common mistakes

• Scoring a public objective without controlling your whole home system: it isn’t allowed.
• Scoring more than one public objective per status phase: one public and one secret at most.
• Forgetting the custodians token point, earned by freeing Mecatol Rex.
• Playing on after 10 points: the game ends immediately.

How to set up Twilight Imperium: Fourth Edition

Setup takes a while: the galaxy is built anew every game. Add the expansion steps if you play with them.