

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

Jan 30, 2018 • 1h 12min
Ep 018: First Round Strategies - Universities of Jol-Nar
Let's talk about tech baby, let's talk about the fishies. The Universities of Jol-Nar are the master of tech, and that makes nailing down specific strategies with them rather difficult. Nevertheless, Matt Martens and Hunter Donaldson will certainly try to give you ideas on how to start a game with everyone's favorite cybernetically enhanced Chordata. And sticking with the topic of tech, the errata deals with last weeks discussion of the Nekro Virus.

Jan 23, 2018 • 1h 25min
Ep 017: First Round Strategies - Nekro Virus
This episode of the podcast covers the opening strategies for the Nekro Virus faction in Twilight Imperium. They discuss the strategy and abilities of the Nekro Virus race, early game strategies, trading and threats, countering opponents, and the importance of assuming a fair playing field. They also explore specific planet and pie slice choices, maximizing pre-fire abilities, and the strategy of using the Mentak Coalition's ability to pillage resources.

Jan 16, 2018 • 1h 25min
Ep 016: First Round Strategies - Mentak Coalition
Space Pirates are about as old as science fiction itself, and Twilight Imperium's version are one of our favorites! This week, Matt Martens and Hunter Donaldson explore the nuances of the Mentak Coalition's first round and early game. It's a long discussion about a faction that takes advantage of the metagame more than almost any other faction. After that, there's a LOT of errata; first for The Arborec episode from two weeks ago as well as for last week's episode.

Jan 9, 2018 • 1h 14min
Ep 015: 2017 Wrap Up
We're officially recording in the New Year, and we wanted to take a look back at last year before we get any further away from 2017. This episode is a closer look at our Holiday Spectacular game, then discusses our important takeaways from the release of TI4 and the rest of the year. At the end of the episode, instead of errata, we introduce some of our goals for 2018 as well as announce a couple of projects we'll be working on throughout this year. Please search for us on YouTube to find the trailer for our Holiday game, and give us your feedback for how you would best like to get involved with helping us make GenCon Tournament coverage happen!

Jan 2, 2018 • 1h 7min
Ep 014: First Round Strategies - The Arborec
To ring in the New Year, Matt Martens and Hunter Donaldson want to discuss everyone’s favorite sentient kudzu, The Arborec. The focus this time is on the trials of round 1, how to properly snowball, and factions to look out for. After the guide, there’s errata about the Clan of Saar for our episode from two weeks ago.

Dec 27, 2017 • 32min
The 2017 Holiday Spectacular!
This brief episode is a wrap up discussion of the holiday game we played with our dearest friends. Hear about the Xxcha, Letnev, Hacan, Jol-Nar, Yssaril, and Sol! We'll do an edited video of this whole game soon, so stay tuned!

Dec 19, 2017 • 1h 2min
Ep 013: First Round Strategies - Clan of Saar
On the third installment of First Round Strategies, Matt Martens and Hunter Donaldson try to crack the puzzle that is the Clan of Saar. How strong can a glass cannon be in Twilight Imperium? What IS a Saarball? And afterwards, we follow up on community discussion about The Yssaril Tribes.
Also, next week's episode will be out late, so please be patient with us as we work through the holidays. And expect it to be a bit rough around the edges as well! Sorry in advance, but it's also sure to be a very fun episode.

Dec 12, 2017 • 1h 14min
Ep 012: First Round Strategies - Yssaril Tribes
This week’s episode is all about everyone’s favorite stinky goblins. Matt Martens and Hunter Donaldson's discussion revolves around early game strategies for Yssaril Tribes and moving the Tribes into the late game. After that, we pick up a few tips from the community about the Xxcha Kingdom.

Dec 5, 2017 • 1h 8min
Ep 011: First Round Strategies - Xxcha Kingdom
It's finally time! Matt Martens and Hunter Donaldson have played enough games to start discussing strategies for the early game, and they're going to start off that discussion everyone's favorite Adult Spacefaring Peace Turtles: The Xxcha Kingdom. Topics covered in this episode include starting units and technologies, optimal strategy card picks, mid game goals, faction counters, and how one is expected to WIN with the Xxcha. Afterwards, we have a few more pointers, provided by listeners, to add to our Learn to Learn / Learn to Teach episode.

Nov 28, 2017 • 1h 14min
Learn to Learn / Learn to Teach
Are you completely new to Twilight Imperium? This resource is to help you gain a grasp at what it is you're getting into when you step into your very first game. We want everyone to have a positive experience, and we firmly believe that having the right expectations can help mitigate many of the disasters that can befall a new player.
Are you tasked with teaching new players Twilight Imperium? This resource hopes to give you priorities and a general philosophy of how to approach new players. New players' experiences will, oftentimes, be determined by an effective teacher so it is important to go into their first game with some expectations of your own.
After both of these resources, we have Errata for last week's First Impressions. If you want to skip all the newer player stuff, jump to 57:40 to get our reactions to listener feedback from last week's episode.