Space Cats Peace Turtles

323: Super Nekro Virus Guide

We're back on that old grind. We've done "Super Guides" as our way of revisiting base game factions post-PoK, but up until this point it has also been a mark of a faction that received new components via a Codex. But from here on out, it's all faction untouched since the introduction of PoK. That doesn't mean there's nothing to say, of course! And one of the bigger factions to tackle when it comes to strange exceptions to rules and weird ways to get lost is the Nekro Virus. You could compare this faction to an old taped together hunk of junk if it wasn't so good at punching you in the face and winning games. Let's break down why (and just ignore those tournament statistics, okay?)
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/

322: TI Zero Edition First Update

The Homebrewer's Guild has been hard at work on a big project. The work has been largely philosophical up until this point and it was finally time to lay track down before we design this train. So today, we'd like to catch you all up to speed on the project known as Twilight Imperium Zero Edition. This is intended to be our fun modification to Twilight Imperium and act as a stripped down, simpler version of Twilight Imperium. Exactly what form that takes will be a longer process, but for now we can talk about some of the things we want to see.
In addition to talking design goals, we decide to make a Prophecy of Kings compliant faction design for the Lazax Empire so that we have something to work backwards from once we decide to design them as a faction in Zero Edition.
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/

321: A Guide to Terran

It's a crossover episode! Our video game podcast, Old Gamer's Almanac, is doing a big Starcraft blowout this month and we wanted to get this show in on the fun. What better way than attempting an exhaustive strategy overview of one of the game's factions! 
Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com
Old Gamer's Almanac music by nightcorey. https://soundcloud.com/nightcorey
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/

320: Leder Games’ Project Update

We spent a week hanging out with the fine folks over at Leder Games and learned more about their ongoing projects while we were there. Nick Brachmann joined us to walk through everything he's planning to add to Ahoy in its upcoming expansions and Cole Wehrle followed up with us to show us more of Arcs' development.
11:05 - The Ahoy additions add new complexity and richness to the strategy, which is something we've really been craving for that game.
44:35 - As for Arcs, we focus the conversation on the more TI-adjacent mechanics like negotiation heavy Summits, Edicts, and Events as well as talk about the thematic Flagships.
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/

319: This Imperium Life

We've been teasing it for WEEKS and it's finally here. After a huge hiatus, we're pleased to finally present another This Imperium Life, our show where we share YOUR stories of the best moments of Twilight Imperium
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/

318: Agenda Phase 2023 Mailbag

It's the weekend before the tournament starts and in the madness we decided to answer all of your burning questions! That's right, after over 6 years, we're finally doing a mailbag episode. We cover a lot of TI topics, but also focus on tournament questions for a good amount of time.
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/

317: Tournament Champions’ Advice

Tournament 6 looms before us and in the build up to it we wanted to take a look back. We sat down with the 5 previous winners of the Patreon Tournament and got their take on the changes to the Qualifiers as well as any advice they could offer to people hoping to succeed in the tournament. You could basically ignore all of the advice from all other episodes of this show because these are the 5 people who have the proven track record!
Jonno's Twilight Imperium Mastery Institute: https://www.jtimi.eu/
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/

316: Playing Against the Emirates of Hacan

The Space Cats are a domineering force when it comes to Twilight Imperium. They're the closest thing the game has to a mascot and when they're in game a lot of things seem to revolve around them. They've also often been accused of dramatically slowing the game down. Today we evaluate what it means to sit down at a table where the Hacan are playing, but not BY YOU. How can you utilize their wares to improve your own position? Are there things you need to do to slow them down? Is Quantum Datahub Node a death sentence for the table?!
1:05:14 - Homebrewer's Guild: Barony of Letnev Heroes!
1:21:02 - The Agenda Phase: ncurry asks “In a vacuum, would you rather have Naalu's 0 token or draw Obsidian?  If you chose the 0, what about it versus a custodian point?  If you instead chose Obsidian, what about the 0 versus Classified Document Leaks? I guess more generally, it comes down to do you value locking down R5 speaker order or the potential for an extra point more?”
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/

315: Async [w/ the 9 of Spades]

We did an episode about the Async Twilight Imperium discord (https://discord.gg/vY3nBkegkn) a while ago, but it's had a slew of major developments over recent months and it was well worth revisiting. Not to mention we wanted to have a conversation about our first Tournament Champion, The 9 of Spades, and it's his newest fascination. So it seemed best to wrap it all up in one episode together! 9 of Spades also finds himself trapped in the Dadlands with Matt and playing TI asynchronously has been a welcome return to everyone's favorite board game!
45:37 - Homebrew Review: Let's Talk Twilight Imperium Zero Edition
50:53 - The Agenda Phase: Craiken asks “Can you tell us more about the TI dream video? Has there been any progress on that front?”
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/
Also....Sanctuary by Utada Hikaru...
 
To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

314: Tournament 6 and the Rest of 2023

We JUST finished Tournament 5 but TOO BAD, it's time to talk about Tournament 6. We've got details on the structure and process on how to play in the 2024 tournament that starts in October of 2023. Once our website is up again we'll have the details typed out for you to pass around to your friends and hopefully I'll remember to come back and change this episode description when that link is available. Until then, listen to this to learn how radically different the tournament will be from years prior!
After that, we give some details on the episodes to expect for the last few months of 2023.
1:16:12 - The Agenda Phase: Brassbird Asks: “I've been listening for a long time and I love a lot of your old content. Which old school SCPT episodes are your favorite? Which ones do you think are deserving of a reboot or revisit?”
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/