
Space Cats Peace Turtles
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!
Latest episodes

Feb 25, 2020 • 1h 41min
Ep 123: Dune - Learning the Emperor
We’re nearing the end of our “Learning Dune Factions” series, and before things get a little crazy, we get to take it easy this week with the very basic Emperor. There aren’t many abilities, and many of the Alliances are fairly straight forward. But how do we utilize this basic set of tools to still succeed?
After the guide, there’s three more games worth of Twilight Imperium Tournament Updates!
5:19 - Emperor Overview
12:50 - Alliances
50:46 - Errata: Fremen
53:40 - Tournament Updates!
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

Feb 19, 2020 • 2h 9min
Ep 122: Universities of Jol-Nar Strategy Guide
Some groups see them every game. Some groups ban them from every game. Everyone knows the Jol-Nar are good. But what MAKES them so good, and how can a player best capitalize on their strengths to find wins in their games? Today, we’re going to break this faction down so that you can make your friends all groan, “Ugh, fine. The fish win AGAIN.”
Then, there are five more Tournament updates! The end of the prelims are in sight!!
3:45 - Overview
30:45 - Strategy Cards
59:22 - Problems
1:03:55 - Tech
1:21:55 - Trading
1:27:50 - Mid-Late Game
1:32:20 - Tournament Updates (Games 24-28)
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

Feb 11, 2020 • 1h 39min
Ep 121: Dune - Learning the Fremen
We’re chuggin’ along with these Dune Faction introductions, and this week Matt took the lead on The Fremen. There’s a lot of thematic exceptions to rules with the Fremen, all of which lead to a faction that can hit hard, but has very few tricks up their sleeve. Finding allies can be tricky, so where are these sand people supposed to find a win?? Listen and we’ll tell you!
After the guide, there’s four more games worth of Twilight Imperium Tournament Updates!
5:30 - Fremen Overview
30:10 - Alliances
52:52 - Early Game
1:03:15 - Weaknesses
1:04:51 - How Do You Win?
1:10:56 - Errata: Spacing Guild
1:13:39 - Tournament Updates!
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

Feb 5, 2020 • 52min
Ep 120: Tournament Prelims Updates
There’s a bit of stalling this week. It was meant to be a Galactic Council episode featuring a Player Profile on our friend Alex. However, scheduling mix-ups have delayed that interview, so for now, we’re going to give you everything ELSE we could have given you! Lots of tournament updates and Hacan strategy guide errata! We should have an interview with Alex out to you soon*.
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

Jan 29, 2020 • 1h 51min
Ep 119: Dune - Learning the Spacing Guild
The Spacing Guild in Dune is a faction that makes a lot of money, but has very little battle prowess to back it up. Do you strike at any given opportunity, or hold out for as long as you can? Today we explore how to get your Guild game started. Not to mention some errata for our Atreides and Harkonnen guides.
After the guide, more Twilight Imperium Tournament Updates! We cover 5 more games and give some information on the stats so far!
3:40 - Spacing Guild Overview
20:26 - Alliances
42:27 - Early Game
48:00 - Weaknesses
50:25 - How Do You Win?
56:08 - Errata: Atreides
1:02:00 - Errata: Harkonnen
1:06:40 - Tournament Updates!
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

Jan 22, 2020 • 2h 1min
Ep 118: Emirates of Hacan Strategy Guide
We are the Space Cats. You are the Space Cats. We are all Space Cats, and we must seek to be the greatest Space Cats we can be. So, for your furry pleasure (no, not that furry pleasure), we have our Guide on the Emirates of Hacan. It’s a faction that relies HEAVILY on the relationships at the table, which makes it a very difficult guide to spell out, so stick with us while we describe some pretty wobbly ideas!
11:06 - Overview
38:30 - Round One
1:11:22 - Problems
1:17:30 - Tech Paths
1:27:04 - Trading
1:46:00 - Mid and Late Game
1:51:08 - RULES QUIZ!
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

Jan 14, 2020 • 1h 34min
Ep 117: Dune - Learning Harkonnen
It’s another Dune week, finally! This time, we’re learning how to play Harkonnen. They’re a tricky faction that require a lot of subterfuge. Their abilities don’t amount to a lot if not used properly, so it’s important to think outside of the box!
After the guide, we have a deluge of Tournament Updates. Nine more games were played this week, and we want to keep you up to date on all of them, so get ready!
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

Jan 8, 2020 • 2h 24min
Ep 116: 2020 Tournament Mock Draft
The Galactic Council is just as into tournament season as we are, and as such they have voted for us to do an episode all about Tournament Drafting. We did an episode recently where we went over this year’s Draft Rules, but we didn’t get to expand on what those rules might result in. So today, we do a handful of Mock Drafts just to get a better look at what kind of strategic thoughts come up with drafting and what games can look like on the other side.
After that, there are TOURNAMENT UPDATES. We had three games by the time of this recording, so we have to talk about what happened. And AFTER THAT, there is three weeks worth of errata to make up for! This one is a chunker, so prepare your brain for two and a half hours of SCPT!
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

Dec 31, 2019 • 1h 34min
Ep 115: Absolutely Real, Super Important, 100% 2019 Huge SCPT Faction Tier List
2020 is upon us, and the only appropriate way to close out 2019 is with an annual Faction Tier List. An Absolutely Real, Super Important, 100% 2019 Huge SCPT Faction Tier List. This year we chose to approach the list with the tournament in mind, and this tier list is based on the faction when they are played by 6 high-level, Finalist worthy players. It changes up some of our assumptions about a lot of factions. There are a lot of great factions we’ve routinely see under-perform, and plenty of “bad” factions that hold up just.
Also! There is some very important Patreon information in the back half of this one, so please stick around so you can hear the major changes coming to the show in 2020. Not just for our Patrons, but for the structure of the show itself!
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

Dec 29, 2019 • 1h 2min
Ep 114: 2019 Holiday Spectacular
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