Twilight Imperium - Strategy

Strategy

Generally each player will attempt to expand quickly into the unclaimed systems around their home world, and then use those resources to achieve the revealed public goals, which usually involve control or expenditure of resources, technology, or units (currency) in order to score victory points. It is not generally necessary to engage in combat in order to win the game.

In the base game, half of the secret objectives (which are all worth 2 victory points) involve control of the former imperial capital Mecatol Rex, and controlling the planet grants the most political influence of any planet in the game. These facts and its central location usually lead to conflict over the ownership of Mecatol Rex. In the expansion, Shattered Empire, 5 out of 13 secret objectives involve control of Mecatol Rex.

A decisive factor in most games is the choice of the Imperial Strategy card. Executing the card's strategy immediately scores the controlling player 2 victory points, and reveals the next public goal card (the only way outside of the secret objectives to score victory points). With a group of players that have previously played the game, the Imperial Strategy card generally circulates regularly around the table, with each player taking it as a first choice when possible, and a player who succeeds in taking the card out of turn is usually seen as a threat by the other players. The card effectively acts as a clock on the game, since it is almost always chosen each turn.

Many fans were unhappy with the original Imperial Strategy Card, which they saw as far too powerful, and an alternate was included in the expansion, which allows a player to qualify for multiple objectives, instead of the usual one.