Space Cats Peace Turtles

We’ve been waiting to return to this episode topic for a long time. This show is never really about learning how to play Twilight Imperium, but more about how to think about Twilight Imperium. And in keeping with how we always like to approach new games, we wanted to go back to basics and try to explain what you can do to help yourself learn this game. Sure, you need someone to teach you the mechanics, but what kind of mindset do you need before you start THAT process? We hope this guide is helpful to the newest of players and those just curious about what all this Twilight Imperium business is about.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

It’s one of those major threshold episodes of a podcast where we decide to get rather celebratory. For Episode 200, we wanted to throw a party for our Weird Bear patrons, who have done a lot for us over the years. But turns out, they didn’t want to party. They wanted an opportunity to present a list of demands, and we were obligated to grant quorum to the first inaugural Weird Bearholder’s Meeting. So come listen to hear what a handful of the most active members of our community want from our show going forward!

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

This game is weird and has a lot of strange interactions and timings. Since Prophecy of Kings’ release, things have been pretty confusing with some abilities, and our fearless leader Dane Beltrami is here to show us the light. We don’t have a formal Living Rules Reference, but he has been able to answer a lot of questions that some amazing community members have collected into one place. So, let’s go over some of these biggest questions with the man himself!

You can find the pseudo-official FAQ here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_93kw7KkzvAXoQAxRioxo7iAt-Ar6BMIxdNf4Lv25rI/edit?usp=sharing

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

We’re still wrapping up our Prophecy of Kings introductions over here. This time, the Galactic Council wanted us to answer the question “Are the New Factions Too Good?” And in keeping with our previous eye-catching headlines, I’m not sure we even answer the question. But we do have a fun, wandering conversation about where we feel all of the factions compare to each other at this point.

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

With the new faction introductions and component guides done, we wanted to take stock of what we’ve learned about Prophecy of Kings in these few months that it’s been out. This episode goes over how we feel about our recent episodes, our main takeaways for how the strategy has evolved, and a bit of what we think is to come!

Ginger’s Mahact Guide referenced in this episode

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

7 new factions entered and now the 7 new factions have all been properly introduced. Today concludes our mission to quickly cover each of the factions that debuted in Prophecy of Kings. And it only took us six months! The Vuil’raith Cabal is an infamously mean faction that players try their best to avoid in our tournament, so let’s explore why that is and what we should do about it!

5:55 - Vuil’raith Cabal Introduction

12:32 - Abilities

38:28 - Strategy Cards

1:09:12 - Exploration

1:13:17 - Technology

1:27:22 - Trade/Meta

1:45:27 - Victory Points

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

Our friend Shawn is in town and Molly is home sick on recording today, so prepare yourself to be a fly on the wall of a conversation between three friends about how they play against each other and what they think about when they sit down to play. There’s plenty of Molly blabbering in this, and I cut out as much as I could, but this episode has one of those unpolished vibes. Don’t get mad at me about it!

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

As the tournament has gone on and we’ve seen some Prophecy of Kings meta develop, one thing keeps catching our eye. The ways players treat the Speaker Token and try to get an advantage in Speaker Order. So, similar to our recent Objectives episode, it felt important to talk about this Speaker Order tempo throughout the game and how tournament players are manipulating it. We also get lost in some theorycrafting of different ways to utilize Speaker Order.

4:07 - Horsebrew Faction Lore

15:37 - Speaker Order

26:26 - Round 1

35:07 - Politics

41:20 - Round 2

50:57 - Round 3

58:33 - Round 4

1:04:21 - Round 5

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

We’re on the final lap of our Prophecy of Kings faction introductions, and Hunter completes his task with the Empyrean. It’s a wildly fun faction that has a little bit of everything, while rarely feeling “too good.” So, how do you best take advantage of all of these tools? I dunno, but here’s our ideas!

Vagabond Errata - 5:54

Empyrean Overview - 14:32

Strategy Cards - 44:39

Tech - 1:08:24

Exploration - 1:16:57

Trade - 1:22:01

Victory Points - 1:42:57

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com

The Galactic Council decided that this month you all needed to be punished. So Hunter and Matt are putting on their designer caps and improvising a Homebrew faction. We took Whose Line Is It Anyways?-style prompts on our Discord and just dove right in. And you know what, I think we came up with something PRETTY GOOD. If...you know, you’re into game-breaking unplayable ideas...

Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com