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
Wednesday Jun 02, 2021
Wednesday Jun 02, 2021
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
To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/
Wednesday May 26, 2021
Wednesday May 26, 2021
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
To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/
Wednesday May 19, 2021
Wednesday May 19, 2021
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
To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/
Saturday May 15, 2021
Saturday May 15, 2021
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
To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/
Tuesday May 11, 2021
Tuesday May 11, 2021
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
To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/
Tuesday May 04, 2021
Tuesday May 04, 2021
What a fun treat for you all today. Long ago we promised a follow up to our Learning the Vagabond episode where we would discuss the 3 expansion classes of Vagabond. But that’s not the treat, that’s just the typical episode you’re getting from Matt and Hunter. No, the REAL treat is after that, where we are joined by our friends Jake, Sam, and Kyle from Woodland War Machine! This one was an absolute blast, so join us while we rag on the Vagabond
Woodland War Machine podcast by Good Time Society
And find our wonderful guests on Twitter:
@thejakemichels
@SamDeRoest
@kyle_acheson
@goodtimesociety
Music by Brian Kupillas. Find more at wanderinglake.bandcamp.com
To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/
Tuesday Apr 27, 2021
Tuesday Apr 27, 2021
It’s back to back Faction Introductions! This time, Matt tackled the Argent Flight answering the question “What if Base Game Xxcha was good and fit Matt’s playstyle?” These are wonderful little birds that have a wide range of possibilities but are perhaps best served by leaning into their strengths and playing up some “win-more” mechanics.
00:00 - Mahact Gene-Sorcerers Errata
16:09 - Argent Flight Overview
49:55 - Strategy Cards
1:12:09 - Tech
1:23:46 - Exploration
1:25:49 - Trade/Meta
1:50:39 - Victory Points
Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com
To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/
Tuesday Apr 20, 2021
Tuesday Apr 20, 2021
Kneel, they say. Former rules of the galaxy, they say. Well, with such powerful lore, you may have expected a more imposing faction. But instead, the Mahact Gene-Sorcerer’s are perhaps best known for their winslaying prowess and their rules tomfoolery. Let’s take a closer look and figure out how this faction can help themselves win without tripping over pedantic technicalities along the way!
13:04 - Mahact Gene-Sorcerers Overview
42:55 - Strategy Cards
1:02:13 - Tech
1:10:12 - Trade/Meta
1:21:49 - Commanders
1:31:55 - Exploration
1:34:57 - Victory Points
1:47:27 - Our Messy Hero
Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com
To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/
Wednesday Apr 14, 2021
Wednesday Apr 14, 2021
The conclusion to last week’s cliffhanger, we wrap up discussion on every objective in the game, and spend some time analyzing what the structure of all of these points means for the pace of winning. When and how should you be trying to score your 10 victory points? What is a “free” point? Also there’s some errata at the beginning here about the Galactic Council episode we recently published and the...disagreements that have grown around it.
0:40 - Errata for 187 “Is Arborec the Worst Faction?”
15:37 - Tech and Economy Objectives
34:47 - Miscellaneous Component Objectives
52:35 - Battle and Other Objectives
1:17:55 - Analysis
Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com
To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/
Tuesday Apr 13, 2021
Tuesday Apr 13, 2021
Lot of assumptions in that title that I'm sure will get some responses on its own. Regardless, this is our first Galactic Council episode in our new format! This is an unprepared episode where Matt and Hunter blindly approach a topic and see where the conversation takes them. It was wildly fun to do, so we hope you enjoy it and look forward to future Galactic Council episodes.
Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com
To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/