Space Cats Peace Turtles

286: First Edition First Look

One project we wanted to tackle this year on the show was doing more to explore the history of this game we know and love. So to start that journey, we wanted to learn to properly play Twilight Imperium: First Edition from way back in 1997. It's the game that launched this franchise as well as Fantasy Flight Games as a company and we were curious how many elements are central parts of the TI DNA. Turns out...it's pretty good! Go figure!
1:06:07 Homebrew Review - Absol's Relics
1:13:12 Agenda Phase: Lucreitiel "How much of the meta do you think is "truly" best practice for the game, vs how much is simply evolved against only what is "considered" current best practice? Do you think if we could magically totally reset everyone's knowledge of TI strategy that we'd eventually arrive at the same meta, or would different strategies and then counters become dominant?"
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/

285: What is the Midgame?

Listen, y'all. I don't know what to tell you. Sometimes you've got questions and we've got answers. Sometimes we ask questions because we secretly have answers we think are clever. And sometimes Matt asks a question thinking he'll find an answer along the way and that answer never really turn up. The concept of "the midgame" is referred to in a lot of our commentary and faction guides, but it's hard to say what we specifically mean by that. So we THOUGHT it'd be good to try and define that and offer up some strategic advice for your Midgames. But it turns out asking the question was a bigger challenge than we planned for...
0:00 The Early and Late Game
34:04 The Midgame
1:09:54 Homebrew Review: wekker: Action card: Facsimile Fabrication
1:14:41 The Agenda Phase
ElBlastoDo you think that there's a strategic advantage to being nice in TI (washing, letting score for little-no cost, etc)?
MerkiHow could the game be changed to have a 6pm game complete in 4-5 hours? Losing the least amount of the TI experience.
BigAlCupachinoWhat pie do you buy yourself and what qualities do you look for?What pie would you buy for the other if heading over to their place?
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/

284: Super Mahact Gene-Sorcerers Guide

Prepare to KNEEL! It's been two years since we last approached the topic of Mahact, and so much about our understanding of Prophecy of Kings has changed. So it's time to set the record straight, especially as we've seen Mahact's win-rate skyrocket in the last year or so. What makes this faction so complicated and how can you best control the reins?
0:00 - Mahact Component Introduction
40:53 - Problems, Tech, and Economics
1:16:39 - Round 1 Strategy Cards
1:27:03 - Mid Game and Late Game
2:09:22 - Homebrew Review - TimeThief: Alternate Space Docks
2:14:17 - The Agenda Phase - Seras: "Given an unlimited budget, where would you hold an IRL tournament finals?"
Keep an eye out on this feed for an upcoming Tournament Recap bonus episode!
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/

283: Learn to Learn: Spirit Island

It's our first strategic foray into Spirit Island, but we're still rookies over here. But we've got a good grasp on how the game is played now and we'd like to relay our experience of learning the game to you. Hopefully we can provide some tips to getting started but mostly we want you to not be intimidated by the many many words that Spirit Island is going to throw at you. But stick around if Spirit Island isn't for you, because we have a prolonged TI topic about being kind to each other and a small handful of Tournament Recaps!
0:00 - Learn to Learn Spirit Island
1:13:08 - The Agenda Phase: Visioness - I want to hear about strategies to mend relationships when things get heated in a game.
1:35:18 - Tournament Recap: Qualifiers 7, 8, 10, 11, & 12.
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/

282: Our Friend Dane

There's no codex or expansion or rules FAQ. Sometimes we just want to talk to our friend Dane and learn more about him and force him to be our friend. And we figured you all would want to be his friend to, so you get to listen in as we chat about his roots in board game designing, his love of Final Fantasy, and we also force him to answer a whole slew of strange TI design questions! It's a fun episode, y'all!
Dane's 5 Year Anniversary Portrait: https://twitter.com/FFGames/status/1603819802648248325?s=20&t=LNXTnyvA6_A2OW5ffv-RxQ
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/

281: A Guide to Setup

We've taught you how to learn this game and how to teach this game, but we've never taught you the proper way to set it up! So today is a treat for relatively new players or players looking to change up their faction drafting and map building as well as different tools to help enhance the Twilight Imperium experience. We've got tips, tricks, and herbal supplements to get you feeling 150%!!
0:00 - Faction Drafting and Map Building
45:57 - Online and In Person Toolshttps://milty.shenanigans.be/
1:21:05 - Homebrew Review: Garbozia Legendary Planet by Bradley Sigma
1:28:17 - The Agenda Phase: Wysper - If you could change one rule, what would it be?
1:33:33 - Tournament Recap: Qualifiers 5, 9, 11, 14, & 15
Links Mentioned in Episode
Map building - https://joepinion.github.io/ti4-map-lab/ and https://keeganw.github.io/ti4/
Miltydrafting - https://miltydraft.com/ and https://milty.shenanigans.be/
Color Picker - https://www.ti.vetinari.net/
Battle Calculator - https://ti4battle.com/
Extracomputer - https://extraboard.net/extracomputer
Homebrew Card Maker - http://ti4-card-images.appspot.com/static/card.html
Printable Hyperlanes - https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/161185/ti4-hyperlane-sector-5-players
 
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/

280: 2023 Premiere

It's a new year! Our custom 'round these parts is to use this time to take stock of how the last year of episode and Patron bonuses went and what we can do going forward. This year is very little change in how things operate on the Patreon, but some big changes coming your way for the show. And part of those changes was our desire to hash out the next slew of episodes with you in the room and then get your feedback on what the next few months of the show looks like! So take a listen and then hop on the discord and tell us what you want to hear more of!
1:41:25 - Tournament Recap: Qualifiers 1, 2, 3, 4, & 6
Come to our Portland Live Show March 22! https://portland.heliumcomedy.com/shows/200093
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/

279: Holiday Spectacular 2022

We played a game on Dec 27 2022. There were 7 of us. That game should be on Youtube. It was a good game! You should go watch it. This episode is what we recorded right after that game, when we were all quite tired. Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, we love you, see you in Tournament 5!
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/

278: The 300% Definitive Faction Ranking Tattoo Death Sentence

And you all thought we'd learned to listen to you. HA! Don't forget who steers this ship. There are only two opinions that matter and they are ours and they are absolute. You are just lucky enough that we grace you with our guidance and thoughts! Our yearly faction ranking is here and it has never been more correct than this...
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/

277: Sidereal Confluence

December had two Galactic Council polls, the latter of which was for us to feature ANOTHER non-Twilight Imperium board game. They chose the space negotiation game Sidereal Confluence. It's a wild, non-violent game about slinging cubes and makin' deals as fast as you can before there's no deals left to make. But the bigger question is how would SCPT cover a game with so much math and interpersonal conflict? We're good at neither!
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/