Twilight Empire 5 ?
Twilight Inscription takes place in a world already known from other games, which makes fans feel at home immediately, seeing the concepts of the classic 4X genre: navigation and world discovery, expansion, industry development and military build-up. Technologies, trade, voting rights and the alien races from the last installment of the series also return, along with their special abilities.
Players who have not had contact with this world will feel a bit lost in the terminology, but they will quickly catch the connections between the mechanics.
The first cruisers
We can learn Twilight Inscription in two ways: by reading the standard manual or the included “quick start” guide, which guides us through the first turns. I tried the latter method and it worked great – the sheets are discussed one by one, and the mechanics are introduced gradually. After four turns, read a few pages of the full rulebook and you’re ready to play the full game.
The rules of the game are not overly complicated – most turns consist in spending resources from cards and dice, which create a pool to be used by each player. We choose one of the four sheets and, according to the legend, cross out the appropriate fields. All players make a move simultaneously, so the game doesn’t drag out even when more people are involved.
How resources are spent depends on the selected active sheet. On the navigation board, we connect systems, conquer planets, discover relics. The expansion focuses on the use of planetary resources, here we will increase the population and develop technologies. The industry sheet is used to acquire resources, to produce trade goods. By activating Military, we will build a fleet that will be used to fight our neighbors.
A bit of technique and Hacan is lost
We use dry-erase markers on laminated sheets to cross out fields, spend resources, draw fleets and connections. The developers of the game are very thorough in describing how to use them during the game and suggest that a paper towel is the best way to clean the sheets after playing. Orange chalk markers leave an easy-to-read mark on a dark color, but with careless wiping they can smudge or stain our hands. Personally, I prefer the use of a pad with sheets and a pencil in crossword puzzles.
The box contains double-sided, laminated sheets, markers, good quality cards and massive dice, which gives the impression of communing with the game in the deluxe edition.
There are a lot of symbols on the sheets that define, among others: resources, capitals, speakers, voices, relics, anomalies, specializations, trade goods, population and victory points. After familiarizing yourself with the rules, their operation becomes clear, but it is very easy to get nystagmus, forget or omit something. In the later stages of the game, there are turns when we have 6 resources to spend, we use our race’s special rule, we unlock a technology to take advantage of its rule, which gives us instant goods that increase the production of trade goods, so we don’t mind spending two, to draw a relic that immediately tells us to spend even more resources and … phew. Such turns give no small satisfaction, but require a perfect knowledge of the rules and terms used in the game.
Contact points
Crossword puzzles are usually not focused on confrontation and great interaction with other players, it’s similar here. We notice opponents at the table in several situations.
Votes – three times during the game we reveal a card with an effect that affects everyone. Players allocate their accumulated votes for or against the law. This element, which is intended to lead to table talks and meticulous counting of votes, often comes down to a minor cutscene where both card effects are irrelevant to most players.
Tasks – a task is assigned to each sheet – a goal to be fulfilled, defined by the appropriate crossing out of symbols. The first player to meet the conditions of a given objective scores the greater of the two point values. Players who meet the conditions later in the game – lower. It is a solution that sets the directions for our development and evokes emotions related to the race. A similar task is to fly to Mecatol Rex – the earlier we are there, the greater the bonus.
Wars – this is where the greatest interaction between players is. By expanding the fleet, we add strength to the clash with our two neighbors. After drawing the appropriate card (4 throughout the game), we compare who has more strength points in the pair and select the winner. Winning the war usually gives you more capital, losing – negative points at the end of the game. And again – it should be exciting, but sometimes it is known in advance who will win the clash and that it is not worth investing in the army.
Great absentees – trade, diplomacy, resource capture, extensive combat. What best described Twilight Imperium was the momentum – which Inscription no longer matches. There are proudly sounding names referring to mechanics from earlier games. Trade and exchange of trade goods required proper preparation and presence on the board. Now we produce and consume goods without any trade between players. Votes on laws in the Senate were crucial to the game, they could turn strategies upside down, vote buying and all kinds of informal arrangements were possible. The struggle was closely related to technological development. And nothing spoils the opponents’ plans like capturing a key system. Fighting to capture resources was at the heart of the game. InTwilight Inscription all these mechanics have been greatly reduced, so we lose connection with the original.
Solo Inscription
The game has a single player mode. Then we add a virtual opponent (also used in a two-player game), which develops the army and strives to complete tasks. The operation of this system is very simple and does not knock us out of rhythm, which often happens in other titles. In solo mode, the voting rules have been simplified, which only requires the number of votes of the virtual player to be exceeded in order to resolve the positive effect. At the same time, I feel like this change puts us more into voting than multiplayer.
The difficulty level of the solo mode can be adjusted, but we are still fighting to beat our own score. There is nothing extra here, such as a campaign or variable starting conditions or rules for a given game.
Dusk
Playing Twilight Imperium is a bit like a guinea pig – I don’t feel like I’m playing a well-designed and refined crossword puzzle, or that I’m playing Twilight Imperium . In addition, despite the different races and asymmetrical sides of the sheets, I have the impression that the games did not differ drastically from each other. In one I could more easily cross off resources on one of the sheets, in the other I had alternative ways to use certain resources. At the end of the game with players who already knew the rules well, everyone had a similar level of development and sheet completion, and the details decided about the win. The game lacks moments that would be remembered for a long time, such as fragments of Twilight Imperium games. Here, no one will “enter anyone’s base”, will not destroy half of the fleet with one lucky throw, will not play a card that will ruin someone’s plans. And that’s my main caveat.
