Twilight Imperium: Fourth Edition – Twilight Codex Volume II: Affinity Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Component Notes
• The Omega Initiative
  • Faction Reference Cards
  • Alliance Reference Cards
• Ixthian Artifacts
  • Relic Cards
• Pax Magnifica
  • Alliance Game Variant
    • Setup
    • Transactions
    • Movement and Control
    • Combat and Unit Abilities
    • Abilities and Effects
    • Elimination
    • Winning the Game
• The Nexus
  • "Three's Company"
  • "Chokepoint"
  • "Race for Mecatol"
  • "Won't You Be My Neighbor?"
  • "Magi's Madness"
  • "Junk Yard Doggo"

Component Notes

These notes appear in the Codex's foreword from the developer and describe the new components in this volume.

• Each new component is marked with the Twilight Codex icon to show that it belongs to the Codex.
• A separate file containing high-quality PDFs of all new components released in the Codex is available from the publisher's website alongside this document.
• To best utilize these components, it is recommended that all components of a given type be sleeved, along with the other cards of that type from the base game, so that players cannot determine if they are from the Codex before drawing them.
• Components that do not need to be shuffled or hidden (for example, technologies) do not need to be sleeved in this way.

The Omega Initiative

The Omega Initiative section is a regular feature that contains supplementary or revised content.

Faction Reference Cards

This edition of the Codex contains a set of reference cards that can be used to draft factions and to provide a quick summary of a faction's capabilities for new players or anyone who needs a reminder. These cards are standard American sized, and are a new card type that is not found in Twilight Imperium: Fourth Edition or the Prophecy of Kings expansion.

The Codex prints one example, for The Ghosts of Creuss (Shaleri Specters). Its contents are:

• Name: The Ghosts of Creuss – Shaleri Specters
• Commodity value: 4 (the faction's commodity value)
• Starting tech: Gravity Drive
• Starting units: 1 carrier, 2 destroyers, 2 fighters, 4 infantry, 1 space dock (the faction's starting components, normally found only on the back side of a faction sheet)
• Faction abilities:
  • You treat alpha and beta wormholes as connected.
  • Your ships that start on wormholes move farther.
  • Your home system is through a wormhole off the board.
• Faction leaders:
  • Connects most wormholes.
  • Generates fighters when moving through wormholes.
  • Swaps the position of two systems that contain wormholes.
• Faction tech:
  • You can place additional wormhole tokens [two blue wormhole icons].
  • Automatically hit a ship during combat in a wormhole [red wormhole icon].
• Promissory: Allows others to place wormhole tokens.

The faction abilities summary focuses on the general effect of an ability rather than its specific timing and mechanical text.

Alliance Reference Cards

This edition of the Codex also includes reference cards for Alliance promissory notes. These can be given to recipients of an Alliance to easily reference what the giving player's commander ability is, once it is unlocked. These cards will also be used in the Alliance Game Variant (see the Pax Magnifica section below). These cards are mini American sized. Additionally, they are a new card type and are not combined with any other cards from Twilight Imperium: Fourth Edition or the Prophecy of Kings expansion.

The Codex prints one example, the Nomad Alliance card:

• Name: Nomad Alliance
• Commander ability: Navarch's Timepiece
• Text: You can produce your flagship without spending resources.

Ixthian Artifacts

The Ixthian Artifacts section is a regular feature that contains entirely new components. As we design, we experiment with many concepts and ideas that don't make it into the final game. This section provides an opportunity for some of those buried ideas—as well as new ideas—to see the light of day, so that players may use them in their games. They are combined with existing components from the base game and Prophecy of Kings.

Relic Cards

Several new relics are included in this edition of the Codex. The first, the lost Titan of Ul from the short story "Artifact," is an additional agent that can be used to build structures. Like other agents, its effect can be lent to other players, and it interacts with abilities such as the Yssaril agent and the Nomad's Temporal Command Suite faction technology.

The next two relics are a little less divergent from the rest of the relic deck, but still touch on concepts new to relics and to the game overall. The Nano-Forge allows a planet to become legendary, changing how it interacts with some abilities and objectives, and the Dynamis Core is the first effect in the game to increase a player's commodity value.

JR-XS455-0 (Lost Titan Prototype, agent)

ACTION: Exhaust this agent and choose a player; that player may spend 3 resources to place a structure on a planet they control. If they do not, they gain 1 trade good.

Nano-Forge (relic)

ACTION: Attach this card to a non-legendary, non-home planet you control; its resource and influence values are increased by 2 and it is a legendary planet. This action cannot be performed once attached.

Dynamis Core (relic)

While this card is in your play area, your commodity value is increased by 2.

ACTION: Purge this card to gain trade goods equal to your printed commodity value +2.

Pax Magnifica

The Pax Magnifica section is a regular feature that contains unique scenarios and game variants that change how the game is played.

Alliance Game Variant

In this game variant, players form teams of two against 1–3 other alliances. This variant can be played with four, six, or eight players and is compatible with premade maps for those player counts and any number of faction, seat, or ally drafting methods that players wish to experiment with.

Setup

The rules for setup are modified as follows:

2. CHOOSE FACTIONS: Each player must also be assigned an ally. Determine which pairs of players will be allies.

3. CHOOSE COLOR: Each player purges their "Alliance" promissory note. Then, each player takes the Alliance reference card (found in this document) that corresponds to their ally and places it into their play area.

   Additionally, each player flips their commander to its unlocked side; all commanders are unlocked at the start of the game.

   Note: While the Mahact Gene-Sorcerers faction does not typically have an "Alliance" promissory note, they do have an Alliance reference card.

Transactions

When performing transactions with your ally, players follow a modified set of rules:

• When you exchange commodities with your ally, they do not convert into trade goods.
• While you may receive promissory notes from your ally as part of a transaction (to later give to another player, for example), you cannot resolve those promissory notes.

Movement and Control

• Your ships may move through and into systems that contain your ally's ships; this does not trigger a space combat.
• Your ground forces may land on planets that contain your ally's ground forces; this does not trigger a ground combat or cause you to gain control of that planet.
• When a game effect allows a player to redistribute command tokens, they may also exchange planet cards with their ally, provided that the receiving player has at least 1 ground force or structure on that planet. This exchange does not change the ready or exhausted state of a planet card and does not trigger abilities that occur when you gain control of a planet.
• You may, if your ally allows it, transport their fighters and ground forces using your units that have capacity.
• When your ally activates a system, you may simultaneously perform a tactical action into that system with your ally; if you do, you must spend and place a token from your tactic pool as normal.

Combat and Unit Abilities

• During a combat or unit ability roll where a player and their ally each have units present, both can participate in the same combat; their rolls are combined and hits are assigned as normal. When an opposing force produces hits against allied players, the allies will decide together which units the hits will be assigned against; if they cannot come to a consensus, the active player assigns the hits.
• Effects that produce hits that are assigned by an opponent against an allied pair can be assigned to either ally's units in any combination.

Abilities and Effects

• Your ally's units count as neither your units nor as "other players'" units for the purpose of resolving game effects and abilities.
• Your ally's planets count as your planets for the purpose of resolving abilities, but you cannot exhaust them and they do not count for other game effects (such as scoring objectives or unlocking leaders).

Elimination

• A player cannot be eliminated as long as their ally controls a planet.

Winning the Game

• The game is played using the "14" side of the victory point track. One player must have 14 victory points and their ally must have at least 10 victory points in order for that alliance to win the game.

The Nexus

The Nexus is a regular feature of the Twilight Codex devoted to showcasing community developed content. This edition of the Codex features the winners of the preset map design contest. The preset maps are reproduced here as designer notes only; each map's system layout is printed as a diagram in the Codex.

"Three's Company"

3-player galaxy preset. Author: Rex "Wekker" Hearn.

Designer notes: This map is much more tight than your normal three-player map. Make sure you study the hyperlanes closely as they add a lot of interesting movement options for each player. The most important thing to note is that each player's slice includes the three neighboring systems as well as the asteroid field to their right. The two other systems in each "wing" of the map are both equidistant between two home systems (this includes the triple planet system and legendary planets). Control objectives will be hard on this map, but they are all achievable with some ingenuity and maybe a bit of bullying as well. Mecatol, Mallice, and Mirage will be key to pulling out the win.

– Wekker

"Chokepoint"

4-player galaxy preset. Author: Matthew Pana.

Designer notes: This map was made in contrast with normal map conventions, with Mecatol hidden away behind a chokepoint rather than being as accessible as possible. The purpose of this map is to see if the table would work together against the player on Mecatol, or would they rather fight amongst themselves over legendary planets or the strategically valuable Everra system. In an attempt to make things fairer, "Arma" and "Chrysus" have better systems adjacent to them and share Hope's End to make up for being four systems away from Mecatol.

"Ignis Solum" has a red and yellow tech skip and a supernova for protection from "Incrementum". Muaat looks like a great choice here. However, "Ignis Solum" will constantly have to be worried about "Arma" using the gravity rift against them.

"Arma" has a fantastic system adjacent to it (Bereg/Lirta IV), and has a gravity rift, which can be used to threaten the rest of the galaxy.

"Chrysus" has the most resources out of any slice but is somewhat lacking in nearby influence. Perhaps the blue tech skip can help alleviate that issue with an early gravity drive?

Finally, "Incrementum" has by far the most influence, as well as a green tech skip. Factions that rely heavily on command tokens, such as Xxcha or Titans, would benefit from this slice. However, they will also be under constant threat of "Arma" using the gravity rift through the beta wormhole to go directly into their home system, so make sure to keep that wormhole blocked.

– Matthew

"Race for Mecatol"

5-player galaxy preset. Author: Jacob Turner.

Designer notes: This map's hyperlane tiles make the special planets easy to take and easy to lose. The top asteroid field and supernova combo is both a blessing and a curse: it creates a protective barrier for most factions, with the caveat that it limits expansion. The Embers of Muaat and the Clan of Saar will find it a great place to hide. A lack of territory is likely to cause the top and bottom positions to fight, leaving the middle position to its own business. The middle position has access to empty space and anomalies, which may make it the most flexible and formidable spot of the bunch. The galaxy is a little disjointed, but the wormholes tie it all together. Enjoy the galactic conquest!

– Jacob

"Won't You Be My Neighbor?"

6-player galaxy preset. Author: Daniel Young.

Designer notes: Constant proximity to other players will create a sense of tension that lasts throughout the entire game. Aside from two slices that have six non-home planets each, no control objective can be met without crossing into another player's space. Sooner or later, you will need something your neighbor has. Each player is adjacent to three planets of the same type, but will have to venture into enemy territory for a fourth. Similarly, trying to nab a third technology specialty could get bloody.

My main goal was to force a lot more interaction between players by smooshing everyone into the second ring. Anomalies between each home world should prevent any game-ruining or friendship-ending round one eliminations.

Don't get complacent after a Support for the Throne swap. You may feel safer, but wrap-around Pac-Man style wormholes mean there will always be plenty of other neighbors knocking on your door.

– Daniel

"Magi's Madness"

7-player galaxy preset. Author: Paul Brown.

Designer notes: Getting silly with this one! Non-standard player and Mecatol Rex positions mix it up a little. Every home system has a three-tile path and a four-tile path to Mecatol Rex. The four players on one half will be all up in each other's faces, and the three players on the other side will be fighting over the two legendary planets.

Empty space: the "Final Frontier." "The Floor is Lava" has lots of hazardous planets AND a supernova? I suggest a simple snake draft of factions and home system locations to balance out certain factions being powerful in the center seats, then randomly determine speaker. "Ambassador" has a wormhole to the other half of the galaxy. Maybe they can take Quann on the other side? Easy access to an alpha wormhole as well. "Non Euclidean" has weird hyperlanes and anomalies for no good reason. Yay! But seriously, I wouldn't want to have to push into this territory.

Map captions: "All aboard the 'Pain Train': now boarding to Mecatol Rex." "'Why can't I hold all (these planets)' has so much territory to grab but its three neighbors are going to want a piece of the pie." "'Mountain Fortress' is snug and comfortable where it is. Why would it want to go anywhere else?"

– Paul

"Junk Yard Doggo"

8-player galaxy preset. Author: Phillip Henning.

Designer notes: When I joined the Army I learned to shoot, move, communicate, fight, and survive in the "Junk Yard Dogs" A.K.A 4th Platoon, Bravo "Bulldogs" Company, 1st battalion of the 61st Infantry Regiment. J.Y.D. was mean, hard, unforgiving, and often intentionally stacked against you. This map is too, and is not recommended for new or casual players. It can, however, be an excellent learning tool for exploring map balance and player-driven rebalance through diplomacy, trades, and play—if you can find a group willing to challenge themselves. Join the "Junk Yard Doggos" and turn your 4x play into 8x: Explore Options, Expand Borders, Exchange Resources, Exploit Opportunities, Exterminate Enemies, Exert Control, Exalt Victories, and Excel Yourself. I am making it a personal goal to win a game from each of the 8 starts and I will race you to see who can do it first!

– Phillip