We survived the holidays, which means we survived yet another Holiday Spectacular. This year’s show was extra special because we were able to play with all of the members of our original Twilight Imperium crew. Most of us played our classic factions, but the game itself was a wild ride with some players taking the game significantly less seriously than others. Today, we chat with one of those players, Shawn, about the game, as well as some games of Dune and Root that we’ve been playing over the holiday break. Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com   Join in on the discussion here, on our Discord, or at our Board Game Geek Guild. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. And send us your in game moments for Play of the Week! and This Imperium Life at spacecatspeaceturtles@gmail.com We appreciate all of the feedback and discussion, but there are more ways you can contribute! If you want to join in and decide future games and topics to cover, visit our Patreon

Patience_is_a_Virtue is a bit of a legend in the TTS community due to the strange situations he seems to always get himself in. And the reason he gets into these situations? Because he hasn’t told his wife, family, or job that he plays this game online with other nerds. He has quit many times in the past, but the fun community consistently brings him back in. But, the fact that no one in his real life knows he’s playing remains the same. So today, we get to the WHY, HOW, and WHAT?! Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com   Join in on the discussion here, on our Discord, or at our Board Game Geek Guild. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. And send us your in game moments for Play of the Week! and This Imperium Life at spacecatspeaceturtles@gmail.com We appreciate all of the feedback and discussion, but there are more ways you can contribute! If you want to join in and decide future games and topics to cover, visit our Patreon

Cole Wehrle, designer of Oath and Root, discusses the upcoming game Oath, its design goals, and insights on Root. He also talks about his history with Twilight Imperium. The podcast covers Oath overview, Cole's interview on Oath, Root, and Twilight Imperium.

The tournament is looming over us, and with many players starting to get in practice games this seemed like the perfect time to go over a lot of our rules and expectations for the tournament. But, in addition to our specific guidelines, this episode serves as an analysis of what role we feel the moderator of a game is meant to fill and when it is important to follow strict timing procedure. So hopefully you can find this useful whether you’re in the tournament or not!   Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com   Join in on the discussion here, on our Discord, or at our Board Game Geek Guild. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. And send us your in game moments for Play of the Week! and This Imperium Life at spacecatspeaceturtles@gmail.com We appreciate all of the feedback and discussion, but there are more ways you can contribute! If you want to join in and decide future games and topics to cover, visit our Patreon

It’s our second official foray into the world of Dune. To get things started, it seemed important to start digging into each of the factions. We didn’t start with something as brave as a “strategy guide,” but getting started with an in-depth overview and analysis of House Atreides seemed safe. They’re a great starter faction, especially if you want to learn the components quickly and have an urge to make bold plays!   Music by Brian Kupillas. Find more at wanderinglake.bandcamp.com   Join in on the discussion here, on our Discord, or at our Board Game Geek Guild. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. And send us your in game moments for Play of the Week! and This Imperium Life at spacecatspeaceturtles@gmail.com We appreciate all of the feedback and discussion, but there are more ways you can contribute! If you want to join in and decide future games and topics to cover, visit our Patreon

Our third new Strategy Guide is for our toughest faction yet. Sardakk N’Orr start with some glaring weaknesses, and many question the power of their only true ability. Today we uncover what could be some reliable strategies to employ and the best ways to overcome these weaknesses.   4:22 Sardakk N’Orr Overview 28:33 Early Game Rounds 56:05 Tech Paths 1:11:30 Trading 1:16:23 Mid Game 1:23:51 Late Game 1:30:00 Pre-Errata   Check out the Schroeder Semifinal Sardakk game mentioned!   Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com   Join in on the discussion here, on our Discord, or at our Board Game Geek Guild. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. And send us your in game moments for Play of the Week! and This Imperium Life at spacecatspeaceturtles@gmail.com We appreciate all of the feedback and discussion, but there are more ways you can contribute! If you want to join in and decide future games and topics to cover, visit our Patreon

Tournament Signups are already FULL! This is a wildly unexpected outcome, but to celebrate it, today we’re showing off the Preliminary round’s map. 36 games will be played on this map with our draft method, so we’re hoping to learn a lot about it over the coming months, but here are our first thoughts!   Find the map here!   Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com   Join in on the discussion here, on our Discord, or at our Board Game Geek Guild. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. And send us your in game moments for Play of the Week! and This Imperium Life at spacecatspeaceturtles@gmail.com We appreciate all of the feedback and discussion, but there are more ways you can contribute! If you want to join in and decide future games and topics to cover, visit our Patreon

This month the Galactic Council has gifted us with another great episode for newer players. Does the Agenda Phase always leave you wishing you had gained more? Is it tricky figuring out just how you’re supposed to navigate the plethora of action cards that seem to all go off at the same time. Just how much should you pay for votes? We will probably answer these questions, but only if you play your Construction Rider against.   Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com   Join in on the discussion here, on our Discord, or at our Board Game Geek Guild. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. And send us your in game moments for Play of the Week! and This Imperium Life at spacecatspeaceturtles@gmail.com We appreciate all of the feedback and discussion, but there are more ways you can contribute! If you want to join in and decide future games and topics to cover, visit our Patreon

Space Kitty Mantis joins us this week to explain the WILD variant known as Frankendraft. It’s like taking Twilight Imperium, throwing it in a blender, and seeing what kind of smoothie you end up with. We played a game of it with Mantis and others, and it was an absolutely hilarious experience. This episode covers the basics of Frankendraft, and details how OUR draft went and what kind of “factions” are possible.   Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com   Join in on the discussion here, on our Discord, or at our Board Game Geek Guild. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. And send us your in game moments for Play of the Week! and This Imperium Life at spacecatspeaceturtles@gmail.com We appreciate all of the feedback and discussion, but there are more ways you can contribute! If you want to join in and decide future games and topics to cover, visit our Patreon

We’re very excited to finally present our first “officially unofficial” episode about Dune! We set out to establish a Game 2 months ago, and it’s time to dig into it! First up is a crash course on how to best get into Dune. Many of us are learning to play the game for the first time, so we wanted to give our tips on the easiest ways to get started and what to focus on first! This isn’t a “learn to play” Dune (for a great resource, visit here), but instead is how to LEARN to learn to play Dune.   Music by Brian Kupillas. Find more at wanderinglake.bandcamp.com   Join in on the discussion here, on our Discord, or at our Board Game Geek Guild. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. And send us your in game moments for Play of the Week! and This Imperium Life at spacecatspeaceturtles@gmail.com We appreciate all of the feedback and discussion, but there are more ways you can contribute! If you want to join in and decide future games and topics to cover, visit our Patreon