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Twilight Imperium: Fourth Edition

3-6 players 240-480 min 8.6 Board Game Geek Rating

In Twilight Imperium, 3-6 players command unique galactic factions competing for cosmic dominance. Players build a modular galaxy board, select strategy cards each round, then move fleets to conquer planets, engage in combat, trade, and participate in political councils. Victory comes from accumulating ten points by completing revealed public objectives and secret faction goals through military conquest, technological advancement, and strategic maneuvering.

Published 2017

Twilight Imperium: Fourth Edition

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

1
Build the galaxy
Assemble the galaxy map using the tiles indicated by the chosen map setup
2
Choose factions
Each player selects a faction and takes its faction sheet, starting units, technologies, and tokens
3
Prepare player components
Each player takes a color, command tokens, control tokens, strategy tokens, and places their command sheet nearby
4
Set up home systems
Place each faction’s home system tile in the galaxy as instructed and deploy starting units
5
Prepare decks and supplies
Shuffle and place the Action, Agenda, Objective, and Secret Objective decks; place Trade Goods, Fighters, Infantry, and tokens in supply
6
Set up objectives
Reveal 2 Stage I public objectives and place unrevealed objectives nearby
7
Prepare strategy cards
Place all Strategy Cards face up in the common play area
8
Determine speaker
Randomly choose a player to receive the Speaker token

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

1
Game structure
The game is played over a series of rounds, each consisting of a Strategy Phase, Action Phase, Status Phase, and Agenda Phase
2
Strategy Phase
Starting with the Speaker and proceeding clockwise, each player selects one Strategy Card
3
Action Phase
Players take turns clockwise, performing one action at a time until all players pass
4
Tactical action
Activate a system to move units, conduct space combat, invasion, and production
5
Strategic action
Resolve the primary ability of your chosen Strategy Card
6
Component action
Resolve an action from a card, technology, faction ability, or unit
7
Pass
End your participation in the Action Phase for the round
8
Secondary abilities
When a player resolves a Strategy Card, other players may spend a strategy token to resolve its secondary ability
9
Status Phase
10
Score objectives
Each player may score up to 1 public objective and 1 secret objective
11
Reveal objectives
Reveal 1 new public objective if available
12
Redistribute tokens
Players gain 2 command tokens and redistribute tokens on their command sheet
13
Ready cards
Ready all exhausted planets and cards
14
Repair units
Repair damaged units
15
Agenda Phase
16
Eligibility
Only players who control Mecatol Rex participate
17
Draw agendas
Reveal and resolve 2 Agenda cards through voting using influence
18
Resolve outcomes
Apply the winning agenda effects

Winning

How to claim victory.

1
Victory condition
The first player to reach 10 victory points immediately wins the game
2
Scoring sources
Victory points are earned by scoring public objectives, secret objectives, and certain card effects
3
Game end timing
The game ends instantly when a player reaches the required victory point total, even if this occurs outside the Status Phase

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FULL rules

Looking for the full details? Grab the complete rulebook as a downloadable PDF.

PDF RULEBOOK

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