How to Play Twilight Imperium 4th Edition

Rulebreaker teaches you how to play one of the biggest and most epic of games, Twilight Imperium 4th Edition by Fantasy Flight Games!
The battle for Mecatol Rex and the galaxy itself has begun!
This video is intended to get you started, focusing on the concepts of the Tactical Action, Movement, Combat and the flow of play each round, rather than every tiny detail there is in the game. With the knowledge you gain from watching, you should be able to get started and play Twilight Imperium right away and enjoy the epic battle for galactic conquest!
Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
creativecommons...

[@steffenruehl2201]

According to the German rulebook, when making a retreat both players have a full attack round, not only the player not retreating. Nice video, very helpful. Thank you!

[@RulebreakerBoardgames]

Oooh I will have to check that out in more detail and add a note if that's the case! Thank you.

[@tomdenson]

@@RulebreakerBoardgames This is the case in the English version as well, the video is incorrect - this caused confusion for us in our first game after watching this video.

[@bigrascal7]

You've mixed up a ti3 rule and a ti4 rule. You get to use all your influence in the agenda faze and then refresh your planets in 4th edition

[@KMReviews]

I was just gonna comment about that

[@markhatton7126]

I really like his videos. I love the pace, and the methodical style. Really worth watching.

[@garrisongage7572]

thank u watched the 30 minute how to play guide on youtube by rftm and still had no clue how to play. Ur guide explained it 10x better than the vid with 200k views

[@RulebreakerBoardgames]

Thank you so much, this comment has made my day.

[@deltafrombnet9393]

Of all the guides I watched in my attempt to learn the game, this one is easily the best.

[@hishihananomia]

Niice!!! Finally an easy.to follow video that taught me how to get started with TI.! Thank you :)

[@LNCNMN13]

Exceptionally straight forward and comprehensive tutorial for the beginning player. Great information that provides quick examples of the games stages. Combat portion was explained in simple to follow steps that was crucial in dominating MY galaxy. Great job!

[@RulebreakerBoardgames]

Glad you found it useful :)

[@michaelmayhill5464]

Fantastic job. I’m new to TI, and have found ALL your TI videos invaluable in learning to play. I’ll be hosting my first full 6 player game next month, and I’m linking this How to Play video to all the players, plus the video for each of their chosen factions. Thanks SO much for the extremely high quality work; it’s helping us new players a ton.

[@RulebreakerBoardgames]

Hey, that means a whole lot to me. Thank you. have a fantastic game and make sure you budget the whole day to play it!

[@notpresidentduterte3979]

I love your tutorials on Twilight Imperium! The tutorials on the races are excellent! I now know how to use them! There were many missed opportunities when I played the races. With your tutorials on the race specific abilities, I now know how to use them! Many thanks!

[@RulebreakerBoardgames]

You're very welcome. There is still a lot of stuff to learn in the game beyond what I've shown in these videos. They're a good start. Maybe I should follow my own advice in them, then I might win more often!

[@Charlie-px2qs]

You declare retreat at combat step 1. There is then a full round of combat that functions as normal. A player can only retreat to a system with their units or a system in which they control a planet.

[@Charlie-px2qs]

@AsiaNPC iirc you can't declare a retreat with nowhere valid to retreat to.

[@Charlie-px2qs]

@AsiaNPC I recommend kzbin.info/www/bejne/laaVqXiXpZqbeK8 - just bear in mind that every tutorial has an error or two!

[@Trueflights]

I know this is an older video, so I'm sure someone has pointed it out by now, but at 47:00 you mention that planets used for voting are exhausted for the following turn. This is incorrect. In the Rules Reference, step 8.4 of the Agenda Phase: "Each player readies each of their exhausted planets. Then, a new game round begins starting with the Strategy Phase" Other than that, this is an excellent reference for new players learning the game.

[@korbendallas1014]

Well explained, you should do strategy videos for each race.

[@aricoboyo]

This is excellent. Great job with the teach - the best I’ve seen.

[@Usumgallu]

50:00 the best tip in this video. Always acknowledge when your turn is going to be and think what you're going to do beforehand. Also if you don't understand some rule or a card, ask it while it's not your turn or read the manual. With unorganized "oh is it my turn now? hmmm... what should I do..." kind of players the six player game will easily take 12+ hours or even two days. I've had games where just the first round has taken over two hours in a six player game. And usually it just goes worse when people have more cards, diplomacy, fights etc. and they get tired. Don't ruin the game by making it sluggish.

[@adamdenzinger576]

Very well done explanation except for two rules; planets are refreshed at the end of the agenda phase, and objectives are scored in the initiative order of strategy cards

[@RulebreakerBoardgames]

Thanks

[@qualityposts2011]

Excellent video; many thanks for helping me play my first game.

[@RulebreakerBoardgames]

Thanks! We're glad you've been able to get this epic monster of a game to the table!

[@pm71241]

TI4 is a relatively light game. It can easily be memorized compared to many wargames and it can be played in 1 sitting.

[@jean-sebastienallie1439]

Very nice video, the best I've seen about this game so far. Any chances we're gonna get the one you were preparing for races in the game? ;)

[@RulebreakerBoardgames]

Yes, that video series is starting quite soon, with scripts already written for some races :) Once our Wingspan video is done, we are moving on to those.

[@KatoGrinsihara]

Two mistakes. You can not retreat into any neighboring system 67.7 The system that a player’s units retreat to must contain one or more of his units, a planet he controls, or both. Additionally, the system cannot contain ships controlled by another player The scoring is not done clockwise by the speaker 70.1 STEP 1-SCORE OBJECTIVES: Following initiative order, each player may score up to one public objective and one secret objective that can be fulfilled during the status phase. To score an objective, he must fulfill the requirements on the card; if he does, he gains a number of victory points indicated on the card.

[@Maravillante]

Every time I'm gonna play the game I come back to this video to refresh the rules

[@nikaatresta3317]

Thanks a lot for making this video! It's really helping me grasp what is going on! Can't wait to play myself!

[@RulebreakerBoardgames]

You are so welcome!

[@libered1]

Thanks so much for the help its clear you put a lot of effort into your videos ! The only Criticism I would give is maybe try to talk louder and work on your Camera presents. But this is just my opinion. Again thank you so much this is so much help!

[@RulebreakerBoardgames]

Thanks Sheena, that's great to hear. I have definitely put a lot of effort into improving lighting and audio in the most recent videos. I hope you will see an improvement there. Thanks for the constructive feedback which is always welcome. Hope you enjoy your games of TI in the future.

[@jameskearney5472]

I watched this and went to play but you had a few of the rules mixed, presumably with 3rd edition . The one that I noticed was you had how retreating works wrong but my friend thought you also got something about Mecatol Rex wrong although I couldn't find anything flicking through the video again.

[@jakobvarsson840]

Super helpful, thanks for doing this

[@benhillsgrove9638]

I have a question involving the upgraded PDS and the tactical action. A had been playing the game with a group about a year ago and they were able to use the PDS to shoot the ships adjacent to their systems ad nauseum by repeating the tactical action until they removed all ships. Is this a part of the standard game or is it a house rule?

[@RulebreakerBoardgames]

That sounds like someone was playing it incorrectly. To use a PDS you need to activate the system with a token, and once you activate a system once you can't do it again until the next round. If someone kept on doing it, they essentially just guaranteed that they would eventually destroy the ships, which is wrong. If I understand you correctly, it sounded as though the people playing would just keep firing PDS forever?

[@benhillsgrove9638]

@@RulebreakerBoardgames yep

[@bastianvillebro6420]

this video is so helpful thank u so much!

[@RulebreakerBoardgames]

You're so welcome!

[@gstone5616]

So the PDS can’t attack ships in that system? They can only attack ‘landing’ infantry ?

[@RulebreakerBoardgames]

PDS can fire at the ships before Invasion starts. If for example the PDS player has no ships in the system, they can fire at the ships that have entered the system, but only once. Once Invasion starts, the PDS can then fire at the landing Infantry

[@gstone5616]

@@RulebreakerBoardgames and if the PDS player does have ships in the system the PDS still gets to fire ? Or just if they have no ships ?

[@sapobar4788]

Many mistakes. To move you have to ativare the destination planet, retreat you do not fire against the retreaters, a fighter cam stand alone

[@KMReviews]

“We will get you started very quickly”.almost any hour video lol

[@RulebreakerBoardgames]

For this game, that's fast. And you will know how to play at the end of it.

[@KMReviews]

@@RulebreakerBoardgames I’ve played before, you do a great job. I just think it was funny to say that it would be quick lol.