Space Cats Peace Turtles

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/

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/

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/

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/

The first of your two December Galactic Council episodes is another opportunity for us to make a list of demands for Dane before the holidays. The dust from Codex 3 is beginning to settle, and rather than be happy with what we've got, it's time to beg for more delicious board game content. So we sat down and thought through what we'd most like to see in another Codex if Dane were ever to make another. 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/

THERE'S IMPORTANT BUSINESS TO TEND TO. The Tournament 5 Signups email is going out December 10 at 20:00 UTC. This is to all members of our Patreon who were active during the months of October and November. We also detail our hopeful schedule for this year's tournament and what everyone can expect. Then it's time to have fun. The Galactic Council wanted us to play Spirit Island, and I bet only a few of them knew we'd like it as much as we did. So let's talk about WHY we liked it and what that could mean for the show. 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/

Matt's been playing games with the Homebrewer's Guild this year and he had a very specific project in mind. Today's episode is a sort of Abstract of the findings of that project. We were after a sort of "Tournament Mode" or some set of rules that could shake up that conventional Tempo of a game of Twilight Imperium without too much rules overhead. Was any of it successful? Well here's your report. 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/

This is a major part of almost every faction guide, but it feels like a very long time since we last checked up on and took stock of how we feel about Technology. What's good? How much should you expect to get per game? What are some of the trends we see in competitive play? The answer to all of these questions is of course "Blue Tech." 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/

Hunter's got the week off while Matt and Absol talk about the third and final novel in Tim Pratt's Twilight Imperium series! All of the main characters from our first book are back in this spy adventure and this might be the best book of the whole set! Save for some Arborec nits Absol desperately needs to pick, this book has a lot of fun in it and feels more political than any of the previous entries. Our first half is a spoiler-free review if you'd like to check the book out, and after that we break the book down more in-depth for those less sure they'll have the time to give it a read. 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/

The Galactic Council decided it wanted us to spend some time this month playing and researching Alliance Mode, the variant provided in Codex 2. It's a silly variant that isn't even fully play-tested, so expect hiccups and a lack of rules clarity. But if you're willing to allow your Twilight Imperium to be fun, instead of a serious no-fun cage match, it's probably worth checking out! Although it's not for those looking for a shorter playtime. (without some modifications that we recommend) 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/