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Tier Ranking the Races II - Twilight Imperium 4th Edition: Prophecy of Kings update
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 ส.ค. 2024
- Rulebreaker brings you an in-depth, feature length update to the Tier Rankings for every faction in Twilight Imperium 4th Edition. This video includes every race from the base game, the Prophecy of Kings expansion and the Codex updates.
Each faction is discussed, with visual references to their main cards and most notable abilities and features.
Also! Special thanks to everyone who commented on the original Tier Rankings video for inspiring me to be wrong this second time! I'd love to hear your opinions on the video, the game, and the tiers chosen for your favourite races in the comments.
Enjoy!
Music used under license, by Joel Steudler Music.
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
2:50 Arborec
5:07 Argent Flight
6:56 Embers of Muatt
9:12 Empyrean
11:11 Ghosts of Creuss
13:39 Emirates of Hacan
15:59 Universities of Jol-Nar
18:56 Council Keleres
21:09 L1Z1X Mindnet
23:40 Barony of Letnev
26:51 Mahact Gene-Sorcerors
31:00 Mentak Coaltion
34:28 Naalu Collective
37:52 Naaz-Rohka Alliance
40:26 Nekro Virus
43:01 Nomad
46:22 Clan of Saar
49:50 Sardakk N'Orr
51:55 Federation of Sol
54:28 Titans of Ul
58:00 Vuil'raith Cabal
1:00:43 Winnu
1:04:47 Xxcha Kingdom
1:07:25 Yin Brotherhood
1:10:10 Yssaril Tribes
1:12:51 Outro
In a room with 6 players, you'll find 7 opinions on tier rankings.
Good job, well thought out and explained.
really depends on how your group plays. My group is extremely aggressive which makes races that start out weak very hard to do well with.
This was a very good ranking of the ti4 races in both expansions great thoughts of opinions on all the races fantastic job and time put into this video.
Thanks, Mando!
The Nekro flagship + 4 mechs (+ a bit more capacity and chaff) is effectively 4 extra dreadnoughts at half price that can also invade against a player you've copied a faction tech from. If not, it's "only" 4 extra Cruiser II that can sustain damage and invade. Damn, that's good.
Thanks for this :)
I would place the Vuil’Rath higher. Assuming four main areas… military, movement, economy and diplomacy. The Vuil’Rath are really high in the first 3. which is rare..... you can move out quickly... pick a fight you can win... consume ships and snowball. You must be aggressive to succeed though. They’ve won and been close to winning several times in our games.
We must throw them into our next game here and see how it goes.
I love to see that my favourite faction, the Jol-Nar, is one of the top factions. I completely agree!
Yes. They're powerhouses!
They really have been all along, their tech focus means they can specialise into any area reactively to respond to the game situation, E-Res Siphons is the second best defensive tech in the game, and tech VPs are practically free. I think it's generally easier to win with come-from-behind races like this as well.
I always thought the best small change in the game was to simply remove all tech objectives from the game. The problem with them is they're the only objective in the game that's polarized between "free" and "impossible". If you have the techs (that help you anyway), they're free. If you didn't move along the path that the objective needs (which you can't know ahead of time), it's impossible. With every other objective, it's a test of having a good economy, owning a lot of planets, or having a strong/mobile military. All of those take planning and risk. Tech doesn't.
Plus it would really help balance out how randomly OP the Jol'Nar can be. If 4VP worth of tech objectives come up, it's basically an auto-win for them.
Excellent tier list!! You helped me reevaluate my perceptions concerning a few of the factions. I do think Nekro could be low to mid A-tier considering their unit flexibility with the mechs, I also think Vuil'raith is not as fragile as you make them out to be and are not instant targets for getting mobbed up on. Also, Keleris as a lower C tier was a bit of a surprise for me. I haven't played with them yet, but just from looking at their abilities and seeing other people's reviews of them, I'd have to imagine that they would be a low B tier at worst and probably a low to mid A tier at best.
Awesome video again. Really Nice. One thing i noticed with necro last game, their mecs in combination with their mothership is absplutely disgusting. They can participate in space combat and as far as we could figure out that also means they can use their sustain damage. Please correct me if i'm wrong because it felt broken. With other words you can get a mothership with 5x sustain damage.
This is the correct way to play (sadly XD): the mechs "become ships" through the flagship ability, so they are smaller ships with the sustain damage ability :')
my dude, i like the vid so far. But, could you place time stamps for each factions? Keep up the vids!
Yes! Whoops, the video went live early without it, so updating now. Consider it a preview :)
Refresh and you should see the timestamps now.
All good now.
Thank you for sharing your impressions about how the factions have been performing now that PoK has been out in the wild for going on three years now. I don't necessarily agree with all of your assessments, but I also recognize that whatever your local meta may be, it likely introduces some innocuous biases. While there are always under-performing factions, I hope that future Codex content, Omega variants and continued inputs from a very active and thoughtful community support the game in such a way that C-tier shrinks and D-tier disappears altogether.
I would be curious to see if you have had any experience with the fan-based factions associated with Discordant Stars, and how they integrate into the ranking system above. 🖖
Surprised by the Muatt rating. They were like a C for me in base game, but a few extra tools in PoK made them really shine. They're one of my favorite factions and while I am no tournament player or anything, I am still undefeated with Muatt since TI4 came out. The hero ability is also crazy satisfying. Also surprised by Naz rokha(however its spelled), they're a powerhouse and A tier easily in all the games I've seen them.
Muatt are one of my favourites from a thematic perspective. They just never seem to win in my group. They're actually pretty distant losers a lot of the time, sadly. They actually haven't won since I made this video either.
@@RulebreakerBoardgames I played Muatt again once since making that comment and won again but it was very close. Still undefeated lol. Although now people seem to have caught on that they can easily be bullied basically out of the entire game early on if needed. I did have to bribe someone with faction promissory to be left alone which was a good trade off for me
This is a great video!
The one ranking that I don't really understand is the Mahact.
It sounds to me like you are saying, 'They are so good that people will gang up on you making them bad'.
But isn't that the case with any faction that is being played really well?
Either way they sound fun to me! Thanks for the video 😀
Mahact are a weird one. They're kinda designed to be everyone against the Mahact due to their "steal tokens" ability, which paints a target on them. Much more so than any other faction.
@@RulebreakerBoardgames
Yeah, that’s fair. I went back and watched the your Mahact video to get the whole story and I understand now.
Everyone makes enemies, but not all add so much insult to injury.
It already stinks to lose a combat, but now you’re also losing a command token from you supply too? And it’s powering up their fleet AND they get to take my commander ability AAAND any it empowers them to skip my turn if I attack a system with their mech?!
That’s not just enemy territory, that’s super villain level lol.
Please keep up the great content!
You’ve definitely earned a subscription with your level of quality!
@@blakewright7024 Given the lore supervillain seems pretty appropriate lol. They, Nekros, and the Cabal are all basically existential threats to the galaxy.
Definitely wanna try playing them sometime, but I'm too good natured to be that aggressive 😅
Maybe after I get some more experience playing.
The only thing I disagree with is Cabal (should be higher), Creuss (should be higher), Council (should be higher), Yssaril (should be higher), Mahact (should be higher), Mentak (should be lower), and Sol (should be lower) .... but this is what makes this game so great!
Great tierlist! Gotta say I disagree with the Naalu ranking though, I’d say they are solidly S tier. Suprising you didnt mention their agent who breaks the fundamental rules of the game! (Tactical action without using a token) but otherwise great video
Yeah, I love the Naalu. I think I might have to bump them up. I've won again with them since posting this video.
The thing that is missed in Nekro is a discussion of the way the Flagship combines with the mechs. If you can assimilate your neighbours' racial tech, you can have a fleet that is your flagship plus three mechs, each of which hits on 4 during space combat and has sustain damage and can also then invade. In effect, they become easily the most powerful dreadnoughts in the game... And, of course, they only cost 2 resources to replace.
This is a huge disincentive for two players at the table to attack you. Even without the +2 bonus, that flagship / mech combination is still lethal. It gets even worse if they're able to assimilate an infantry unit upgrade, like Spec Ops 2 - at that point a fleet with the flagship, 4 mechs, 2 carriers and a bunch of infantry is basically completely unstoppable.
Solid list. The only one I strongly disagree with is NRA, I'd say they're S tier or high A tier. They have the best mechs in the game. They're exploring lets them have a crazy good CC economy and they can stall for days. They can go in all sorts of directions tech wise which makes them very flexible. I've won with them and I just felt like I always had an answer for everything.
A side note, I'd say the cabal are the best of the "global threat" factions because the more you take them on the stronger they get by capturing everyones units. Especially if they have a good enough eccon. going where they can just hang on to all your plastic.
Naaz Rohka, really? Wow, maybe I need to play as them again and not get too bogged down in the explores.
Yea, i was thinking the same thing. In our boardgame group Naazrokha is considered the strongest faction in the game. Their mechs are very versatile and they dont need to come out of their slice to win the game thanks to their faction ability.
I don't know that I disagree with the Creuss placement, because I think they're more fun / interesting than actually good. The playstyle is mischief and sowing chaos, IMO - basically, using wormholes to give other players on the board easy opportunities to attack each other, while you're safe in your very inaccessible home system. Which is a difficult thing to pull off, IMO.
That said, I think the flagship is worth noting. If you can get PDSII and place a couple of them on your home system, because the flagship contains a delta wormhole, it is adjacent to your home system. Therefore, any PDSII in your home system will fire during the space cannon offense in any combat with your flagship - each PDS is an additional die that hits on 5s.
Also, and this is VERY specific but something I want to try to pull off sometime - Have 2 PDS II on home system. In a game with Quann, capture it and put a couple PDS II on it. Use Wormhole Generator or Icarus Drive to place the Beta wormhole token on Mecatol. Fly through from Quann, capture Mecatol using a fleet containing the flagship. You now have 4 PDS IIs firing at Mecatol through two separate wormholes.
Creuss should definitely be a tier higher I think. I personally think they are at least B tier. They have a ton of potential, and I've seen some crazy, memorable Creuss plays from fellow players that just left me in awe.
They just never win. I like the idea of them, but no matter what happens, in our games they always lose. I can't rate highly a faction that I've never seen win.
Nice one, thx. My Top are Saar, Sol, Ul;)
Who wins in a fight between 'em?
@@RulebreakerBoardgames in TI people win games, not factions;))))
But Saar actually win a lot of our games.
Thank you for your content - great stuff, and nice relaxed presentation
Only win in 11 games was with Ghosts. Put 2 plasma scoring PDS2 on the wormhole nexus (hecka trolly fun when you are stalling in the final round shooting at random systems). If you control Hope's End you have a supply of mechs for defense to open up that PDS to fire as well as dimensional splicer you can assign the hit E.G. taking out lone carriers so the infantry can't land. The hero saved me from getting winslayed. Minister of industry putting 2 war suns next to the Creuss gate? Screw you, I'm moving the gate to the other side of the board. Edit: Creuss has good early game mobility E.G. you can get to Hope's End first and lock it up before other players due to having gravity drive / commander to access anywhere. However when picking this faction you need to consider if the board has a good wormhole setup.
Barony definitely deserves B. Their ground game got a major op power up in kings. Mahact is one of my favorite factions and I haven’t had a game where I didn’t spend a round stomping all my enemies (most of the table) until I get beat back. Their commander is nuts. They’re highly dependent on the factions picked by the table but they win by getting a minor early lead followed by a mid game domination and their infantry boosts their end game survival as they automatically respawn at your home system and provide needed end game cash. Definitely B as well but it really depends on the other factions being played. They take the strengths of other factions and make OP combinations with their own faction abilities. Peace Turtles make you the strongest agenda player. Ground combat commanders with the crimson legion is very strong. Fleet strength/economy commanders interact with their ability to warfare themselves making them capable of using your super fleets better than anyone else can. You have to be focused on getting your early game victory points and fight bargain or buy other faction tokens as quickly as possible. Turn 2
I missed if this was explained. Is this specifically to a player count? Some races do much better with lower verse higher?
Don't agree with everything, but I enjoyed your video anyways very much. 👍🏼☺️
Thanks, Christian
Muaat est plus puissant qu'il n'y paraît.
Ils peuvent avoir deux soleils de guerre en tout cas c'est fun (trop?) mais cela nécessite un gros travail de développement.
Anyway ... two warsun is powerfull and very spectacular !!!
I’ve had my eye on Embers for some time, maybe even for my first game. Do they really come with a heavy non-recommendation?
No, not at all. They can be fun, especially in Prophecy of Kings. It is just quite hard to win with them in my experience. You'll still have a fun time!
you need to make friends and avoid putting a target on you since everyone is looking at your warsuns with distrust.
I still recommend them. Embers is still one of the strongest factions, even with the PoK and codex additions. Their presence alone on the board keeps all other players on guard, and you should use that to your advantage. It does take an experienced player to best utilize them though.
I think Nekro virus are very playgroup-dependent, since they get such a drastic benefit from race-specific infantry tech - Letani or Mahact in particular are massive. Entertainingly, the one time I played Nekro the Letani player actually exploited this politically, saying that she would agree not to research Letani II to stop me stealing it but the moment she was attacked she would research it and let me take it on purpose. It was such an audacious play I had to respect it. I also don't know if Winnu are quite that good. Their massive combat boost for important worlds is big enough to drag them right up from the bottom of the core box list, but it is limited somewhat by just how contested those worlds can be. They're definitely high up in low-combat groups where people are avoiding battle, but in high-combat groups you are a big heatseeker.
I do agree that Muuat are weak, weak enough that they could use a bit of Codex tuning. In the end the starting War Sun mostly just draws antagonism, the upgraded War Sun doesn't come in until quite late in the game, and the only time I've seen them do well is with a player who got excellent value trading out the War Sun promissory note multiple times and starting an arms race. It might also be my group but the Creuss having a homeworld that's very hard to attack moves them up a tier by itself, since 2 or 3 players cooperating to snipe the leaders' home system happen in most games with my group.
Thanks for the reply. I think Embers are due for a Codex buff for sure.
Other than Arborec in D and Yin in C we agree with where everyone lays tier wise. 😊
Though I'd switch up a few placements inside each tier 😅
Mentak is too high, they have the same problem, like Cabals or Mahact if you insist on that agro aspect so high...
Mahact is too low, they can brake the rule of tactic tokens on board, it is sooo powerfull.
I agree as well but it's his subjective list and for the most part, he is spot on. Mentak is more B-C tier.
Thanks for watching, and I appreciate your opinion. I'm determined to get Mahact played again soon.
Stellar converter is imo a bad relic.
BUT Muatt with Nova Seed and Stellar Converter is not only thematically accurate, it's freakin' hilarious!
My first game was the other night, 3 players only as others could not make it, brother and a friend of mine. The friend was playing Winnu and had entrenched themselves deeply on Mecatol. My brother and I were temporarily working together to kick him off. But then my bro got the Stellar converter. I didn't read it closely enough, thought it let him wipe out a whole system, not just destroy a planet. All my units were clustered to prepare for the assault, adjacent to his.
So I panicked, and launched a preemptive strike to drive him back before he could nuke me.
My friend sat pretty on mecatol and watched the Arborek super weapons clashing with the turtle defense forces in a titanic war lol.
Barony needs some codex loving, been saying it since start of PoK. They were fine in base game, but my bluest bois have dropped off too much :'(
Also: hate Xxcha, they're in pretty much all my games and they're annoying as hell, but I also think they're thematically cool and I want to play them XD
Yeah, I am not a fan of the PDS in this game personally, and these guys just really roll with that vibe and win a lot because of it.
How does your group choose the layout and factions?
We typically randomly select a number of factions (usually number of players + 2) and then we build the map before we choose faction. Then we draft starting location OR a faction OR Speaker token and take turns that way.
Typically this leads to us building a map that we automatically balance a bit as we build as nobody knows where they are going to sit once play begins.
It can lead to a player getting a bit of a weaker faction than others sometimes, but typically it works out quite well for us.
You people? What do you mean, "you people"!?
XD naw man, just kidding; great vid!
You people are the greatest, you people :)
Ive yet to win as the nomad in the last three games
If you are able to select them in a game with the Yin, do it and get an alliance with them as soon as possible. It makes their flagship so powerful they should be giving you more than just an alliance in return. Then they can spend the rest of the game being an utter nuisance to everyone else while leaving you alone.
Some factions requires more good RNG than others to do well. Nomad is one of them.
@@qpeocnthis is true: played em once and got nothing but shitty secret objectives, preventing me from unlocking the commander and hero until really late game :')
1. i would add a comment if this is codex III or not.
2. titans naalu and xxcha are totally S , cabal much higher, and sol is at best A
Yes, Codex included.
If you're right, and I'm wrong, I'll happily correct it in the future after more plays.
what's average nummber of your game players？
It varies. We probably play more 4 player games than most groups, but we play 5 and 6 when we can too.
@@RulebreakerBoardgamesI'm curious, have you played TI in Table Top Simulator?
@@yondaime17 I have tried. I'd love to get better at the interface and be able to play a full game on it some day. It's a marathon.
I never got why no one considers Naaz to not be bottom tiers. They're explorers who aren't as good at exploring as the Titans. Their mech ability isn't that great. Their only other ability is getting relic bonuses a little easier, but how is that as good as other races that start out with bonuses?
Distant suns ability makes them the best explorers in the game. Their mechs are insane, hitting 6 x2 on the ground and 8 x2 in the air. Combine that with the flagship and they're rolling 3 dice each. They've also got a great CC economy, turning relic fragments into CCs.
Wow imo clan of sarr is towards bottom tiers
Watch this on 1.25 or 1.5 speed. This dude takes alot of pauses
Are you kidding about Naalu? They got free warfare in every round, that is most broken agent and you say that they didn't get much in PoK expansion, what is wrong with you?
Naalu got a broken agent, and not to mention initiative 0 is still the most broken advantage in the game. However, the tier is correct. Naalu is easily A-S tier regardless
Whoa, this tierlist is one of the most missmatched I've seen online :D I disagree with most of the placings:
S - Clan Sarr, Ardent Flight, Mentak, Vuil'rath, Titans of Ul
A - Jol Nar, Sol Fed, Mahact, Nomad, Yssaril, Xxcha, Naaz Rokha
B - Naalu, Empyrean, L1z1x, Hakan, Necrovirus
C - Creuss, Muatt, Sardakk, Barony, Yin
D - Keleres, Winnu, Arborec
It's all subjective, my friend. You have Winnu in D after Prophecy? Have you played with them? They're much better than in the base game!