Space Cats Peace Turtles
An unofficial podcast for fans of Twilight Imperium and other strategy board games. Each episode is a humorous analysis of mechanics and strategies for new and experienced players alike!
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Episodes
Tuesday Apr 25, 2023
Tuesday Apr 25, 2023
The Galactic Council gave us permission to goof around this week and we couldn't be happier. We get to combine our two loves: Root and Twilight Imperium. Our task? To take a Root faction and distill it's essence into a crystal then smash that crystal against a treasure chest, open the treasure chest, and pull out a Twilight Imperium faction. We wanted to do this really earnestly, okay? But then really wild, funny ideas were too good to pass up...
0:00 Deciding Which Faction
30:04 - Translating the Faction
2:21:03 - Agenda Phase: Imsen asks: “Why should I swap supports with you guys?”
Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com
Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/
To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/
Wednesday Apr 19, 2023
Wednesday Apr 19, 2023
We're back with more Spirit Island! It's exciting to continue exploring this game and this week we're both tackling potentially more complex factions. But stick around after for plenty of TI talk, including another round of Prelims Reports! I did it three weeks in a row everybody! A new record!
0:00 - Errata for 290 (Spirit Guides - Vital Strength of Earth and Thunderspeaker)
13:49 - Ocean's Hungry Grasp
1:13:21 - Spread of Rampant Greent
1:53:58 - Homebrew Review: BradleySigma’s Test Site 7 planet: New planet & tile. It’s a unit upgrade technology speciality; you can exhaust the planet when researching a unit upgrade technology to ignore one prerequisite of any color.
1:57:39 - Agenda Phase: LuckyLizzard asks: Please on the spot create a TI "knock knock" joke. HG Kool-Aid asks: What do you love about TI the most? What's the most enjoyable part of the game for you?
2:07:39 - Prelims Recap: Games 11, 12, 13, 16
Music provided by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/
To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/
Wednesday Apr 12, 2023
Wednesday Apr 12, 2023
This week we got distracted and decided to run with it. We couldn't stop thinking about how we haven't seen a Codex yet this year and we just wanted to sit and dream up what sort of potential there could be to more Twilight Imperium content. We've done wishlists before, but this is a bit more off the cuff. Also we don't necessarily agree on most points, so come join us for a back and forth discussion about what we'd like to see added to TI!
0:00 - Dreaming
1:47:36 - Homebrew Review: Wekker's Bioplasmosis
1:52:46 - The Agenda Phase: Wonderflonium asks “I would like to hear more about Hunter's comedy work: favorite venue, stories from the road, hecklers, etc. If there needs to be a TI tie-in, which faction would make the best comedy audience?”
2:01:50 - Prelims Report Games 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, & 10.
Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com
Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/
To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/
Wednesday Apr 05, 2023
Wednesday Apr 05, 2023
Since PoK, we've had two player counts that have gone relatively unexplored by this show. We change 50% of that today! We're talking about some of our recent 7 player games and our takeaways about the differences between 6 and 7 player (with some healthy chat about 5 player games sprinkled in). Also, there is a whole segment about Magi's Madness, the 7 player asymmetric map released in Codex 2 (https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/ff/fe/fffe5e9d-33fb-4149-a3a2-cd6dfadb4de3/ti_codex_ii_rules_web.pdf)
0:00 - 7 Player Games
43:23 - Magi's Madness
1:03:07 - Homebrew Review: William Willard’s “The Big Naaz Cowboy”
1:07:00 - Agenda Phase: Walter asks “Will you consider going back to premade (non-Milty) maps in future tournaments?”
1:26:04 - Tournament Recap: Prelims Games 1, 2, 3, & 4.
Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com
Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/
To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/
Wednesday Mar 29, 2023
Wednesday Mar 29, 2023
This was a live recording of the Space Cats Peace Turtles Portland Hootenanny Liveshow at Helium Comedy Club on March 22, including opening act Old Gamer's Almanac!
Featuring: E.J. Sanders, Jamie Carbone, Steven Wilber, Katie Nguyen, Aaron Harleman, and Sun Sanders!
Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com
To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/
Wednesday Mar 22, 2023
Wednesday Mar 22, 2023
We're in full prep and travel mode for our Portland live show and Hootenanny, but we have a special treat for you! We've been a part of a couple of "Fog of War" games recently and decided to bring resident Fog of War Weird Bear Correspondent Brassbird in to help us make sense of this very odd game mode. It's an adventurous, cutthroat, thematic way to play and there are a number of ways to try it out!
Also, Matt and Absol read the first short story from The Stars Beyond, A Ghost of a Chance and are here with reactions and analysis. It's the first extended universe story we've read that wasn't written by Tim Pratt, so it's time to see how other author's handle our beloved franchise.
00:00 Fog of War with Brassbird
52:05 A Ghost of a Chance with Absol
Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com
To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/
Wednesday Mar 15, 2023
Wednesday Mar 15, 2023
NEW GAME NEW THEME. We've dabbled in Spirit Island as a show so far, but it's time to fully take the plunge. We've been practicing as some specific factions and we now come to you as two novices hoping to help you get started with two of the base game factions Vital Strength of the Earth and Thunderspeaker. Some of you definitely know more of us, but this episode is primarily geared to the people that don't yet! But also, this is the kind of episode where you get to jump over on the discord and roast us over the coals for all the things you think you know better!
0:00 - Vital Strength of the Earth
1:02:17 - Thunderspeaker
1:55:56 - Twilight Imperium Homebrew Review - BradleySigma's "Resonance Cascade" agenda
1:59:06 - The Agenda Phase: Nick asks: “What do you look for in a slice when Milty Draft?”
Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com
To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/
Wednesday Mar 08, 2023
Wednesday Mar 08, 2023
It's time to get back to trusty ol' faithful. Argent Flight just have a lot of things that make sense and go well together. Despite that, they've actually had a bit of a rocky history in competitive play. However, that rockiness is generally in relation to wins, but not necessarily total points scored. That's right, it's time to talk about how to reliably not stall out at 9 points as one of the more defensive factions in the game.
0:00 Argent Flight Overview
39:32 Problems and Strengths
46:56 Technology
1:02:35 Trading
1:14:26 Early Game
1:30:28 Mid and Late Game
1:57:45 Homebrew Review - Absol's Neural Motivator
1:59:50 The Agenda Phase - Eagan asks: “is fighting to be elected for Search Warrant worth it? Are there some factions that are better with it/need it more than others?”
Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com
To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/
Wednesday Mar 01, 2023
Wednesday Mar 01, 2023
The Galactic Council finally got to vote on an episode again and they've chosen a very very odd one. Hunter and Matt are not ethicists or philosophers and yet we are tasked with ranking the 25 TI factions on the basis of their morality. Some of this will be based on their established lore, but some of it will be based on mechanical and strategic implications. Anyways, this is really stupid and please take none of it even remotely seriously.
Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com
To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/
Wednesday Feb 22, 2023
Wednesday Feb 22, 2023
Hey look! It's a really good faction. That doesn't mean we can't sit around for 2 hours and talk about the "best" ways to win games as the Naaz-Rokha Alliance. Sometimes it's fun to crush your opponents with friendship and kindness, okay? Open your heart up to kissing that little goblin on your back.
0:00 - Component Overview
40:29 - Strengths and Technology
1:16:41 - Economics
1:32:30 Round 1 Strategy Cards
1:46:10 - Mid and Late Game
1:59:15 - Homebrew Review - Baldrick: An unnamed Green tech. ACTION: Exhaust this card to discard 1 AC or 1 SO. Then, draw a new card of the same type.
2:00:54 - Agenda Phase - Furniture Damage: "Which factions do you think have the strongest flavor? And do their in-game mechanics reflect that strong flavor?"
Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com
To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/