

Space Cats Peace Turtles
Matt Martens and Hunter Donaldson
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!
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jun 16, 2021 • 59min
199: Live Email from Dane
This game is weird and has a lot of strange interactions and timings. Since Prophecy of Kings’ release, things have been pretty confusing with some abilities, and our fearless leader Dane Beltrami is here to show us the light. We don’t have a formal Living Rules Reference, but he has been able to answer a lot of questions that some amazing community members have collected into one place. So, let’s go over some of these biggest questions with the man himself!
You can find the pseudo-official FAQ here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_93kw7KkzvAXoQAxRioxo7iAt-Ar6BMIxdNf4Lv25rI/edit?usp=sharing
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/

Jun 10, 2021 • 1h 4min
198: Are the New Factions TOO Good?
We’re still wrapping up our Prophecy of Kings introductions over here. This time, the Galactic Council wanted us to answer the question “Are the New Factions Too Good?” And in keeping with our previous eye-catching headlines, I’m not sure we even answer the question. But we do have a fun, wandering conversation about where we feel all of the factions compare to each other at this point.
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/

Jun 9, 2021 • 1h 31min
197: Prophecy of Kings Introduction Finale
With the new faction introductions and component guides done, we wanted to take stock of what we’ve learned about Prophecy of Kings in these few months that it’s been out. This episode goes over how we feel about our recent episodes, our main takeaways for how the strategy has evolved, and a bit of what we think is to come!
Ginger’s Mahact Guide referenced in this episode
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/

Jun 2, 2021 • 2h 15min
196 - Vuil'raith Cabal Introduction
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/

May 26, 2021 • 60min
195: Inside Your Best Friend
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/

May 19, 2021 • 1h 20min
194: Speaker Order
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/

May 15, 2021 • 2h 1min
193: Empyrean Introduction
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/

May 11, 2021 • 1h 30min
192: Improvised Homebrew Faction
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/

May 4, 2021 • 1h 30min
191: Learning the Vagabond - Expansions
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/

Apr 27, 2021 • 2h 12min
190: Argent Flight Introduction
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/


