Guns and Swords and Uniforms (Futurewolfie’s Top 6 Combat Mechanisms)

4. Twilight Imperium (3^rd Edition)

There are few games with quite as epic of a feel as Twilight Imperium. This is the civilization game in my opinion, forcing you to deal with not just expanding your galactic reach, but managing the logistics of your fleets, expanding your tech, setting up trade routes, and dealing with political battles. And not just the “hey if you attack the L1z1X over there I promise to leave your borders alone” sort of metagame politics, but actually sending representatives to the galactic council to vote on game-changing new rules. It’s expansive, it takes forever to play, it has a very thick rulebook, and it is a game I would play every weekend if I could.

But this is about the combat, so let’s go there. Even though Combat is not actually all that central to the game (seriously, I just built that fleet so you wouldn’t attack me), it is executed brilliantly, and for two main reasons.

First is the use of dice; sure, your fleet battles are decided by dice rolls. But the way you construct your fleets allows you to try to create an effective fleet with as few resources you can manage while maximizing your firepower. You’ve also got a nice tech tree that increases your likelihood of rolling a success as the game progresses. So your strategy lies in building a solid fleet and reinforcing it with tech; since you’re managing the whole civilization, this feels genuine, and your unfortunate losses can be attributed to the fact that you apparently hired a McClellan to lead your battle instead of a Grant or Lee.

More importantly, though, you’ve got the incredible Command Counter system. This thing is one of the most brilliant methods of managing massive fleet movement on a large board I’ve ever heard of. You use Command Counters to activate systems, which allow any of your ships in range to move to that system. Ships in a system that already has a command counter are locked down, and systems with a Command Counter present can’t be activated again. It’s a pretty clever mechanism and it serves to create a dynamic, flowing battlefield. Instead of each player moving all their units at once (a common element of dudes-on-a-map games), the command counters serve as markers for which systems and ships have been used already so players can alternate movements, keeping everyone involved more often. You also have to manage the logistics of your fleet by accruing more Command Counter and dividing them wisely between maximum fleet size, activity on the galactic map, and secondary actions that can give you a needed boost.

It is deep, dynamic, and interesting, and for me it really sets Twilight Imperium apart from other war-oriented games.