Twilight Imperium 4 Faction Guide | Universities of Jol-Nar

A component review and in-depth look at The Universities of Jol-Nar 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
00:45 - Component Overview
9:45 - Analysis
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==Other Twilight Imperium:===========================
TI4 Faction Guide Playlist: • TI4 Faction Guides
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==All rights for art and components are reserved to FFG 2022, and background music rights are reserved to MediaTunes 2016.===============================

[@CardboardCrashCourse]

What is your preferred tech path with the Jol-Nar?

[@23Silverknight]

E-res Siphons and whatever tech fits the objectives. 😆

[@SigurdBraathen]

All of them! My road is wide! (^___^)

[@bonogiamboni4830]

Lol, "path". I'll take your entire stock.

[@SigurdBraathen]

@@bonogiamboni4830I'm with you, fellow Hylar! (^___^)

[@jezstratton5113]

Off for a 6 player game in the morning - thanks for all the tips and info

[@lucasterra8783]

Great job as usual!

[@CardboardCrashCourse]

Thanks Lucas! Appreciate you!

[@theguardians7779]

Just as a slight correction, the hero does not affect any unit-tech upgrades. It specifically says for each non-unit technology you can replace it, so your guide is slightly misleading.

[@tibett25]

Haha a friend just planed with this tactic and played his game to make the move and we all corrected him. So he showed us this video now and we read the rules. So yeah, unit techs have no color and you can not chose these with the hero ability.

[@jakecrowe3797]

Just tried as well, and realized I was wrong. 😭

[@camoz123]

I think he has fixed it now

[@fl3871]

Thanks for the great video and the useful insight about technology skilling. Maybe you could show the cards of the technologies you mention during discussing pros and cons? Because I am a noob and don't know what each technology by name does. So a small blend-in would be super helpful. Keep up with those ti4 faction videos!

[@ianpfister1660]

I was coming to the comment section just now to say this exact thing! I've been loving these videos to prep myself for my first game, so it's hard for me to visualize the techs without actually seeing them on screen

[@Shiva-kk1fh]

Jol-bar’s biggest weakness would be wul-raith seeing as any unit upgrades can be seen as an opportunity for cabal to just take it and build their own/hold hostage

[@g0bi]

Thank for the guide!

[@CardboardCrashCourse]

You’re welcome, G0bi!

[@JackljS91]

Played my first game of TI in like 15 years and got this faction : finished 2nd with 9 points and, judging by this video, I played things more or less as they should be so that's reassuring! A fun faction to play and powerful too. Nice vid

[@CardboardCrashCourse]

Thanks! Glad to have you

[@pwootton24]

I’m playing Jol-Nar tomorrow! I’ve watched this like 5 times

[@janolthof2487]

Going deep yellow turn one, wich is also in their reach, is also a viable option in my opinion. You can use integrated economy to fill up your slice with plastic and redistribute ground forces with transit diodes plus your Transit diodes can also help you fill out your slice with just the 2 infantry.. It al depends on your start and your starting strategy card.

[@SigurdBraathen]

Interesting, but you need 6 resources for Tech secondary, before Tech is played, obviously. How would you do that? AFAIK the "best" options is if Trade is played before Tech. Whether Trade player refreshes you and X-1 you (requires neighbour or Hacan) or refreshes you for promise of 1 TG later or you refresh yourself and neighbour "flip" your commodities (requires you to be neighbour with someone, which should mean they moves a ship next to your H.S. or you move a ship out, not gaining planets or gaining planets but not getting to use I.E.) Or you could do one tactical action for gaining planets, then follow up on Diplo (if picked). This *may* even give extra resources for producing infantry with I.E. In order to both afford getting the I.E. tech *and* affording some infantry you probably will have to both gain t.g. from Trade and resources from planets refreshed with Diplo. How's the timing/order of that? If Hacan is present and they can be persuaded of the benefit of buying your promissory note for I.E. OR if you get to pick Trade strategy card you should be all set, right? If not, then.. uhm... Warfare? or whatever other strategy card. and: You would ideally want to have 6 resources for Trade secondary *and* take a system second round and then someone plays Diplo (which is always(?) played as the Diplo owner's second action, isn't it?) and you refresh planets so you can afford buying infantry or mechs when you take your next planets.. uhm... This makes head hurt. Please stop! But seriously: Integrated Economy round 1 seems very potent and very difficult to accomplish. What are the requirements, you'd say? ( I know you typed "It al depends on your start and your starting strategy card." )

[@janolthof2487]

@@SigurdBraathen Well, the ideal scenario is to have trade of course; then a neighbor who is willing to be trade buddies say any other 4 commodity faction. The other factions will not flip technology, as they will (hopefully) want to take a look at the option for double teching themselves.. The other possibility is that you have tech. and a neighbor who wants to trade with you (other 4 commodity faction again) You are also taking two good planets in this scenario, and getting something usefull out of those, wich is also not impossible. Third option is having diplo yourself and taking two planets, next tactical turn flipping them, then building a couple of new infantry via warfare for your carrier who stayed at home. In all above scenario's you have one of the best promissory notes to bargain with in the game, use it!

[@janolthof2487]

@@SigurdBraathen I never said it would be easy..😅

[@janolthof2487]

@@SigurdBraathen Turn one transid diodes is easy for them, and helpes you fill out your slice with your measley 2 infantry; you could also go for that and then turn two go nuts with tech

[@sanguineaurora8765]

-1 doesn't decrease hit chance by %10. Mathematically; A fighter that hits on a 9 now only hits on a 10. That is an effectively %50 decrease to hit chance. Lower the hit chance of a unit, worse this ability is. For example; A cruiser II hits on a 6+ which is a %50 chance to hit. You decrease this to a %40 chance to hit. Going by this math, your chance to hit is reduced effectively by %20. So yes, -1 to combat rolls is THAT bad. Similarly Sardakk's +1 to hit is THAT good especially with units that have lower base hit chances. If you put Sardakk and Jol head to head, given an equal resources combat, Sarkakk is going to have MUCH better combat rolls. For a cruiser II example, a -1 against a +1 is effectively %40 hit chance difference. After the first round, that is going to snowball and Sardakk is going to be left with more than %60 of their ships intact while Jol is annihilated. It's not just a single hit here and there, you have to consider the damage you do and number of ships you reduce that also reduce the enemy's total combat power round by round.

[@EnglishDreadnought]

Yes, this was a major flaw in an otherwise excellent guide.

[@randyrussell2408]

There is still only a 10% chance that any given roll will result in a fail due to the weakness, and a 90% chance the weakness will result in no effect. Which I think is the most actionable way to look at it.

[@EnglishDreadnought]

@@randyrussell2408 No, while that is true, what you said is exactly the way of putting it that confuses people. There best way to look at it is: the Weakness converts half of all your fighter hits into misses. It converts a quarter of all your cruiser hits into misses. Etc.

[@Gerd367]

The math on the hits per roll for the flagship at 17:08 is also incorrect because of a similar error. The Letnev flagship does produce 1.2 hits per roll (12 hits on ten dice rolls), but the Jol-Nar only produces 0.8 hits per roll (4 hits on ten dice rolls, with two additional hits for 9 and 10 each, totaling 8). I think he was confusing his math with the thought that Jol-Nar's flagship also hits on a 5 like Letnev, instead of on a 7.

[@danielfrohn339]

You forgot to multiply by 2 for the 2 dice. It produces 1.6 hits per roll, making it the highest in the game

[@The_True_J]

The Jol-Nar are banned in my games. They are the beginner faction. If we have someone playing for the first time, they can play as Jol-Nar if they want to, otherwise they're banned. A competent player can use then so effectively that the game isn't trying to win, its trying to win before the Jol-Nar player auto wins. For a beginner, I feel like they're perfect because they are so good that any player can easily cover beginner mistakes with them. So while the rest of us are playing more strategically, the Jol-Nar beginner can easily compete and feel like they are engaged in the game. It's just if the player has played before, the Jol-Nar is just too easy to take a massive lead.

[@hilarianspy]

Hello, i just find this guide and i don't agee with most thing you say. Hilars is my favorite race and i playd about 15 games for them in original game and about 5 in expansion, and playd at all about 70 games. I think that its absolutely broken, especially in original game but freagle is really bad but a little later about it. First of all i disagree that you should go red and blue, cause you always need Transit Diodes to bring back 2 infantry at your home system to take second system and take 2 system on turn 2, using that tech. Also for such a big number of game i spot that Hyper Metabolism is a tech you always need, it is one of the most best technology in the game and its a path to X-89 Bacterial Weapon that you dont need in every game, but with Sols or Arborec its necessary. On turn 2 you always take Gravity Drive and Dreadnought 2 or carrier 2 and rush mecatol, you dont need it to hold it, you just need to take as many VP as you can and then just sell it and leave. You dont need to rush upgrades because the true power of Hilars is diplomacy: you have the greatest national promise that everyone wants you have 4 commodities and absolutely broken Yellow tech that gives you 4 trade goods and you can give some of them to protect yourself, also you can help any player that is under attack to continue this war and get -2 enemies. At the end i can say that if you dont like diplomacy and many promises and contracts(than why do you play TI) Hilars is not for you. You become much more stronger if you have a friend from right or left, so Twilight imperium not about war, its about contracts, promises and betrays and you dont need war tech in every game.

[@bonogiamboni4830]

Just out of curiosity, when you say their best tech paths are blue and red and they can easily go for both, then say AI dev is great to get the discount on your production if you have unit upgrades, and also say that the unit upgrades remove their military weakness, which do you think should be researched first? Units then techs? Techs then units? A mix?

[@bonogiamboni4830]

Also, "winnu underdog". Lol. Lmao, even. In base game yeah but sure as shit not in PoK.

[@CardboardCrashCourse]

Unit upgrades are almost always better researched 2nd. Planning for a war and then upgrading a unit tech applies that ability to the same amount of units, but researching something such as AI Dev or Gravity Drive is diminishing returns the longer you hold out. So in short, position with regular techs and then boost power with unit techs in that order. (P.S. you’re totally correct, but people still have the wrong idea of them… ;) )

[@bonogiamboni4830]

@@CardboardCrashCourse well AI dev only has returns if you have unit upgrades in the first place (unless you're going for a turn 1 war sun you'll never use the prereq skipping part) so maybe it's better to go blue first to position, then red and unit upgrades. That said it obviously depends on what you're going for and what the table is like.

[@vincenzofogliani5330]

The card “Research agreement” makes both players (jol-nar and the player who owns the card) obtain the evolution card or just the one who owns Research agreement?

[@lukewild7407]

Both

[@toondemaere3080]

op

[@CardboardCrashCourse]

Correct!

[@TurtleDude05]

These videos are super interesting. Even for someone who doesn't really play the game.

[@Camtrain1989]

The irony. I got slammed by a Jol-Nar player last night, and now this was recommended to me 😅 I learned a lot! Firm handshakes as always

[@CardboardCrashCourse]

🤝 You’ll do great next time, Wizard!

[@phoenixfire2403]

Ideas for fighting the Jol-Nar: Go for swarm fleets, such as fighters, in order to generate as many hits as possible. Alternatively, go for fewer, but reliable hits, such as from dreadnaught fleets and maybe research assault cannon if it isn't too far out of the way.

[@SigurdBraathen]

"We cannot halt progress for the sake of Mortality ..." ... uhm, Morality, perhaps?! ;)

[@CardboardCrashCourse]

Whoops :D