Twilight Imperium 4 Faction Guide | The Arborec

A component review and in-depth look at The Arborec faction from Twilight Imperium 4th Edition, upgraded by the Prophecy of Kings expansion, designed by Dane Beltrami and published by Fantasy Flight Games.
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==Timestamps:========================================
00:00 - Intro
00:50 - Component Overview
08:36 - Analysis
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[@valarukar1893]

I'm about 99% sure that they only get one cruiser to start, not that it actually changes gameplay much, but other than that, great job!

[@Philipoupou]

"1 Carrier 1 Cruiser 2 Fighters 4 Infantry 1 Space Dock 1 PDS" Yup, you are right.

[@YourMichael]

I think the most important tech to get round one for this faction is sarween tools because from then on when you move two infantry you can get two more infantry for free without exhausting any planets and be able to build out multiple fleets

[@Philipoupou]

Love the video! Little thing with codex : Magen Defense Grid Ω (R): At the start of ground combat on a planet that contains 1 or more of your structures, you may produce 1 hit and assign it to 1 of your opponent's ground forces. (Ω) The tech has been changed with Codex. Thanks for your work!

[@CardboardCrashCourse]

Thank you for the clarification, an old one must’ve slipped into my green box. Thank you!

[@Hennu_TRM]

I think most players before PoK were pretty firmly agreed that green and yellow is not a great tech path for the Arborec because the benefits to the infantry are pretty marginal compared to what can be gained by bolstering your other weaknesses. I understand things are a bit different in PoK, but I don't think that changes the tech situation to favor green tech more. For starters, you basically need to pickup Sarween Tools as your first tech. Everyone says this (including pretty much the rest of this youtube comment section). Being able to basically put down 2 infantry for free with every activation is huge. Also, I think some of the best advice I've heard for TI4 in general is that you should plan your tech path to include 4 techs, maybe 5 at most. This is because any tech you research beyond the first 4-5 is a) not going to be something you play with for most of the game, and b) may be something very specific that you need in a certain situation depending on how the game develops. So if we try to plan only 4-5 techs and one of those is Sarween, lets look at our options. The green tech path then seems quite slow because the things you want are Hypermetabolism, Letani 2, and Bioplasmosis. But those are all two green tech prereqs so we have to take 2 dead techs to get down this path. Now our path is 6 techs long and two of them we don't really care about. Furthermore, we haven't done anything to bolster our movement or our space combat. All we gain is the ability to put more infantry on the board where we want them. But we were kind of good at that to begin with just because of Letani 1. Compare that to a blue tech path. We still get Sarween first. Then we get antimass, followed by grav drive. Our 4th tech is Dreadnaught 2 or Carrier 2. In this case our movement and/or space combat are significantly better because we can move multiple ships with 2 movement and maybe we have upgraded dread. In PoK, I feel that upgrading carriers and/or dreads makes sense because you can upgrade ships into them with your agent. Sure our infantry aren't quite as good and we don't have quite as many of them where we want them but if we're smart about our movement and production we can have infantry on all of our planets and can have a decent number at the front. The other tech path I might consider in PoK is red. We still start with Sarween. But then we get AI dev. Then we get pds 2 and then War Sun. Pds 2 gives us a nice defensive boost for our ground forces and space combat (arguably not as necessary if we're smart with our mechs but still nice). Then War Sun covers our offensive and space combat needs. The movement and capacity of War Sun is great for our infantry that we definitely will have. The main problem here is you need to be able to afford a War Sun, or probably two War Suns for this to be really effective. We can't upgrade into them with our agent so that's a little unfortunate. It seems like it's probably a good idea to save as many resources on production as possible because our main ability is we can have a lot of instances of production (which is why Sarween is pretty essential to begin with). I think these two paths I've suggested grant the Arborec significant advantages that shore up their weaknesses and complement their strengths. I think the green tech path strengthens their strengths a bit more but doesn't address other areas that are problematic. Also the green tech path is so slow. By the time you get hypermetabolism (which I agree would be really helpful) you are already 3-4 techs deep and you haven't really accomplished anything except boost your economy. This is the struggle though; you do need to boost your economy but if you spend all your resources/techs on that you fall massively behind in terms of movement and space combat potential. Basically what I'm saying is I think a well-rounded Arborec tech path should be built around the fact that Sarween tools ASAP is probably the only worthwhile/necessary investment in your infantry/production/economy. Just get that and make due with it. Then focus on other things you need. I think the ability to make a credible threat to a system 2 tiles away is extremely helpful. More helpful than having a ball of infantry that can move one system away but only to a planet you already control.

[@qpeocn]

Blue path is always my go-to for the arborec. It works wonders for me. They can hold their own once upgraded dreadnought and carriers are the board. If you manage production well, by midgame to late game, they are a formidable force that will more than often come from behind to win it all.

[@VoicesofHonour]

14:10 "although your space docks cannot actually produce?" hold up, I know you love your Letani's, but your space docks can produce just fine, just no infantry. Note that this is worded as "infantry" not "ground forces", so your mechs can be produced by space docks just fine

[@Nightsky107]

Thank you for all your hard work on each of these. I so much appreciate your time, insight and energy :) I eagerly look forward to the rest, and I have watched each of these at least 2x.

[@eastwood-gr1ze]

Great video! I've been waiting for this factions overview for awhile as I love their lore.

[@jamert8820]

Never played before, but will be playing in a couple of weeks. Watching all of these faction videos to get a feel for who best fits my play style. These are amazing dude. Great job, and keep it up!

[@phoenixfire2403]

Ideas for fighting the Arborec: focus on bombardment and try to eliminate sources of income. For example, prevent their trade partner from trading with them.

[@davidjacobson9591]

Their commander ability in combination with their mech ability makes them very hard to counter with Bombardment unless you have things to counteract Planetary Shield. Commander ability allows them to produce one unit when activated by another player. Their mechs have planetary shield (which stops bombardment). So if you're bringing in normal dreadnoughts without anything like an L1Z1X commander, Barony flagship, or Warsun- the Arborec can simply produce a single mech and deny any bombardment rolls.

[@ianm5782]

Nice guide, I always end up playing Bluberec because I get locked out of tech R1 and end up feeling that the value in green is not worth chasing. Then I just go blue for the extra capacity and movement from Carrier 2. I also find their Flagship a little disappointing, though I actually saw it work well in getting a bunch of infantry on my HS in a game recently, allowing me to properly reinforce there (from 0 infantry).

[@CardboardCrashCourse]

Thank you again to you all! I’d love to hear how you play the Arborec. Check out more Faction Guides here: kzbin.info/aero/PLlF0bVnTB2IncBqxdUqt7d0EFjrkuDszz

[@davidjacobson9591]

I will never understand the reasons behind giving Arborec Magen Defense grid to start. It doesn't make any sense mechanically or thematically. Their new mechs *almost* gave them some nice synergy with the tech, but then it was promptly taken away by Codex 2. Also, really sad they gave the factions whose only boon was near limitless production a hero that gives them limitless production. The only use for it really is to stack even more infantry on all your planets with at least one infantry, but its not like having enough infantry was a problem they ever had.

[@qpeocn]

Slow and steady wins the race.

[@isaaclegate7541]

I don’t see the link to get the codex in the description

[@axel-virus5933]

Talking about the tech tree for arboreck and not mentioning Sarween tools is like a guide to losing games, to be honest. It's the technology for the first choice for them in almost every situation, especially for the new players. This is allow to grow fast and constantly every time you moving.

[@jasonhamilton9384]

Where can I find videos that doesn’t have any expansion add ons?

[@lostinvirginia9169]

I don't understand why infantry are being destroyed when re-exploring hazardous planets using scanlink drone network. What am I missing?

[@aaronbruckner]

A lot of hazardous cards read: "return 1 infantry to reinforcements and gain X unless you have a mech"

[@bobbyfasciano4137]

Playing a game with Arborec next week and really looking forward to it. Q: do you think it’s worth it to get my flagship? I’ll already have so much production late game and it’s worded so awkwardly as it doesn’t actually have a production ability. Is it worth it to skip flagship and go right to war suns? Thanks

[@athullnexus5450]

So for the flagship ability at 3:58. When you point out that it says “Produce” and not “Production” does that mean we can make the units for free or do we still have to pay for the units?

[@CardboardCrashCourse]

You still have to pay for the units. It just wouldn’t trigger the actual PRODUCTION keyword or anything that gets triggered because of it

[@athullnexus5450]

@@CardboardCrashCourse ooooh. Thanks a lot for clarifying.

[@GPBlue-zl3sx]

How do I get copies of the omega cards? If I ask FF, will they send them to me for a fee?

[@CardboardCrashCourse]

The link to an Etsy store is in the description. You may either choose that route or print them yourself, either on your own printer or through MakePlayingCards.com. There is no official way to purchase them.

[@GPBlue-zl3sx]

@@CardboardCrashCourse Your description doesn't have a link to an etsy store. It has: Discord, Patreon, Tiktok, Instagram, Twitter and CCC Merch link. Also links to how to plays.

[@toondemaere3080]

So space docks are really not that important for the Arborec right? They will always have sufficient production capacity with their letani warriors. So the only thing holding them back are resources available and fleed capacity. Why would you build space docks as arborec?

[@taurussilver7037]

What's the plan for the next faction?

[@CardboardCrashCourse]

Tomorrow at noon CST!