Played this Saturday in my first game of TI4 and crushed it against bunch of veteran players. Got Mecatol on turn 3 and won on turn 5 even after all 5 other players charged me. If you can get a few systems with 2 or more planets they are insane and once you dig in no one is able to take your planets. Lost only two the entire game. Also their commander was amazing, the 2 or 3 extra trade goods per round is suprisingly good.
So far they look great! Was a heavy contender for the win in our 7 player game this saturday. Their flagship is poor but I see it as getting a free carrier that can defend itself early game. The SDN tech combined with the sleeper tokens / deploy PDS / deploy Mech + Inf / Deploy flagship makes for some weirdly great combos! Hero i also a super ability that should be played early in the game.
Nice review! This faction is hard to gauge, but definitely intriguing. Sounds like early game expansion to far-flung tech planets will be necessary, and might promote some early conflict (always good fun!)
Starting with ships with move 2 and capacity, and starting with a blue tech so you can get gravity drive first round, it looks like these guys will be good at taking Mecatol Rex if they get lucky enough with influence nearby for the custodian token. In round 2 they could have two ships and two infantry on Mecatol, that plus their agent means they could probably win any early fight there. Then if they use the Construction card, they can get a pds on Mecatol ( I don’t think you can explore Mecatol because it doesn’t have a planet type) and then if you wanted to, you could use their mech ability to swap the second pds from Construction for a mech and an infantry. Then in round 3, you could activate the system to swap a pds for your flagship and completely secure Mecatol Rex for a good while. Of course, I’m not an expert at this game, and this is a bit conditional, so there might be plenty of reasons why this won’t happen in an actual game.
@@RulebreakerBoardgames they are INSANE! Half the cost of a dreadnought, almost the same dice hit (5 or 6 isn’t that much of a difference compared to 8/9 or even 7/8) but move much further and have more capacity. For these stats I gladly pass upon the bombardment...
@@RulebreakerBoardgames Well I won and I found them to be awesome. They have an early expansion because they have a move two unit with capacity. They tend to score objectives early game because they can move quickly. People also discount the destroyers as not a threat and leave openings and a destroyer carrying one infantry and 4 mechs is a scary thing. Lastly their tech lets them hunker down at the last round when the whole table turns against you. Build PDSs in systems abject to your home system with a destroyer and an infantry they will have to bring 5 infantry to clear the planet and take down your PDS just to clear the way for the main fleet gunning to your home system.
I will! I'm planning to do a new video for each of the base game factions with a look at all their Leaders and Mechs, plus a brief update on my impressions of how they affect their play styles. I expect these will follow along after the new faction overviews quite quickly.
For the Mech's ability, where it says 'when you would place a PDS' then presumably you must realistically have been allowed to place a PDS on the planet i.e. still have space for one PDS, in order to use this ability? If you have 2 PDSs, then you can't use this ability I think? Also, can the PDS' production ability only produce ground forces and not space?
The Terraform promissory note is interesting because it's a one-use. It doesn't appear to go back to the Ul player after use, so once a planet has that token, it has it for the whole game.
@@RulebreakerBoardgames It's also possible for the Ul player to make a deal with an ally that involves letting the ally invade one of their planets for a turn, use the note to upgrade it, and then leave so the Ul can reclaim it - giving the Ul the benefit of the note. Obviously would require some trust, but I can imagine for example doing that in a scenario where someone has a secret objective to have a ship in a system adjacent to another player's home system.
@@RulebreakerBoardgames what if you gave the promissory note to a player then went and took the planet they upgraded? just getting into this game, its great! love the videos
Thanks for this overview. The Titans possess the best unit in the game (Saturn Engine), that is very robust /versatile for its cost. They'll want to upgrade their cruisers ASAP. However, I feel with only 2 commodities they may be CC-starved, especially with a low-influence homeworld. I'm not yet sure which tech path serves them best- RY (unit upgrades and exploration) or BG (movement)?
Great comment and great point. I would wager RY tech path. I always meta games on planet starved maps in three player games. As such, it may be predictable that unit upgrades would be the way to go. Hel-Titans and Saturn Engines will be the work horses of these guys and with little to trade (Terraforming not withstanding) getting there will be a challenge. The tech secondary will use up Elysium every turn. But for the saving grace that ground units are almost free I think this is finally a second race who wants/needs Construction T1.
@@johnmodlich530 Love your comment! However, I think Construction SC is a sub-optimal play for Titans given that they want to get out their Sleeper tokens and re-explore their own systems with SDN. Ironically, they may become the "new PDS faction" because the Hel Titan I/II is a faction tech that does a lot to advance the game state. The one seeming weakness is the need for a strong CC economy to drive re-exploration of their systems with SDN, spread additional Sleeper tokens and bolster Fleet Supply to get the most out of Saturn Engine II. It could be a real challenge to do well in a game where Titans occupy an influence-poor slice. 🖖
@@thomasromanelli2561 I am finding your points in lots of places online. In an optimal situation where the active player is speaker or to the right of speaker I agree that Construction R1 is sub optimal. However when compared to Diplo omega or Imperial, when we have sixth pic Construction is decidedly more effective. Chasing that much further towards Tungstantus on a system where we already have a sleeper token(s?) brings us those trade goods that much faster. We can leave sleeper tokens there all day long and if we're in a system with only one rich planet it couldn't hurt to replace an already existing PDS with Ouranos round 2. So yes, if we get first pick, I see every reason to choose technology and go for that AIDA. But if we've got last pick, Construction is the answer.
The most important thing is they can have essentially 13 dreadnoughts and 8 of them have more movement and half the cost. free flagship makes them faction that will have amazing and super mobile army even without much resources
Explore stuff and always try to trade artifacts. Always use your agent, if you can't do it on your planets the try to untap opponents planets for trade goods Your flagship with 2-4 mechs is a real beast
So question about sleeper tokens.. So if someone takes the planet and your token is still there after the fact, how would you activate/awaken that token? Is it only by when your ships enter the same system to try and take it back ? Or you can still move a CC on the planet since you have a sleeper?
Question for experts, if a player explores the planet attached with terraform, do you draw a fragment for each trait since this planet has 3? I've read the rule of exploration, I need more then an interpretation to understand it.
Timing question with these guys: I’m assuming that AWAKEN and Deploying the flagship has to be done in 2 separate turns? Meaning you can’t activate the system, place a pds and then immediately deploy the flagship?
Yes, the timing window for DEPLOY on the Flagship is after you activate the system. That timing window would be before Awaken is resolved. So you are correct, it would be on another turn.
Titans look very strong, unless there is a Nekro player in the game. If so, you really shouldn't upgrade that cruiser. If they take that tech from you, they will have cruisers that hit on 6s that can carry mechs that hit on 4s against the Ul player, which when combined with their flagship work as ships that hit on 4s, because they're ground forces. So if you can imagine a Nekro fleet that is Flagship and 4 cruisers (total capacity 11) you could have 4 Mechs and 7 infantry. So you'd have 9 dice hitting on 9s (7 infantry + 2 for flagship), 4 dice hitting on 6 and 4 dice hitting on 4s when facing the Ul player. The infantry can soak damage, and then any that are left invade after space combat with the mechs, which still hit on 4s. That's a fairly obscene invasion force for a cost of 27.5 resources.
@@RulebreakerBoardgames Deal. Interested to see your vid for the Naalu... I suspect that the advent of the Argent Flight might make them a risky race to play from here on out.
Having played a few games against them...I don't use the OP word much, but they are OP. If allowed to turtle, they can lock down their home system and surrounding systems with approximately 9+ PDS IIs plus bonuses. I had this happen and couldn't get anywhere near close enough.
It is not hecaton cherries :)))) is cheires == hands, so the ones with hundred arms en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hecatoncheires forvo.com/word/ἑκατόγχειρες/ if you want to hear it in ancient greek
@@RulebreakerBoardgames I love that their home system is a nebula, especially since last game I played someone tried to take my home system 😅; and its interesting they have so many abilities that make people want to take your side
@@RulebreakerBoardgames Personally, I find the forced promissory notes thing to be hightly interesting, as it is usually heavily underutilized in the games I had so far (only played like 4-5 times, unfortunately, owned the game for a couple of years now :( )
This is an awesome, fun and powerful faction to play as. However, if Vuil'Raith Cabal is in the game, I would not recommend playing the Titans of Ul. Those god damn kaiju will just take away all of your upgraded cruisers and refuse to give them back....:( My advice, if you play as the Titans against the Cabal, exterminate them as fast as possible! Do not hesitate, show no mercy! Remember, the Titans of Ul seek something more permanent than a mere empire, and those giant wannabe Godzilla-anno-1998-look-a-likes stand in the way!
Those cruzers are just cheap, upgraded dreadnaunts. Way OP cause you can build a ton and get to the other side of the game in 1 turn with the warefare strategy card
Played this Saturday in my first game of TI4 and crushed it against bunch of veteran players. Got Mecatol on turn 3 and won on turn 5 even after all 5 other players charged me. If you can get a few systems with 2 or more planets they are insane and once you dig in no one is able to take your planets. Lost only two the entire game. Also their commander was amazing, the 2 or 3 extra trade goods per round is suprisingly good.
So far they look great! Was a heavy contender for the win in our 7 player game this saturday.
Their flagship is poor but I see it as getting a free carrier that can defend itself early game.
The SDN tech combined with the sleeper tokens / deploy PDS / deploy Mech + Inf / Deploy flagship makes for some weirdly great combos! Hero i also a super ability that should be played early in the game.
Hype!
I played them last Sunday. It's an awesome race to play, very strong indeed!
Ah cool. Hype!!!
Yes, yes yes! I've been looking forward to these. Can you do nomad next?
Naaz-Rokha is coming up next, but all 7 new Factions are coming very soon.
Nice review! This faction is hard to gauge, but definitely intriguing. Sounds like early game expansion to far-flung tech planets will be necessary, and might promote some early conflict (always good fun!)
Yeah, I am curious about how aggressive they will get. if you play with them soon, please return here with your impressions. I'll do the same.
@@RulebreakerBoardgames
With lockdown rules as they are in UK - that wont be for a loooooong time alas!
@@barnabyalsop5601 There's tabletop simulator though
Starting with ships with move 2 and capacity, and starting with a blue tech so you can get gravity drive first round, it looks like these guys will be good at taking Mecatol Rex if they get lucky enough with influence nearby for the custodian token.
In round 2 they could have two ships and two infantry on Mecatol, that plus their agent means they could probably win any early fight there.
Then if they use the Construction card, they can get a pds on Mecatol ( I don’t think you can explore Mecatol because it doesn’t have a planet type) and then if you wanted to, you could use their mech ability to swap the second pds from Construction for a mech and an infantry.
Then in round 3, you could activate the system to swap a pds for your flagship and completely secure Mecatol Rex for a good while.
Of course, I’m not an expert at this game, and this is a bit conditional, so there might be plenty of reasons why this won’t happen in an actual game.
Yeah, of course. Every game is different, right? But there's a lot of potential here.
looks intresting, but it will be hard to play with pds. They have pretty strong cruisers on late game
That upgraded Saturn Engine cruiser looks like a total beast.
@@RulebreakerBoardgames they are INSANE! Half the cost of a dreadnought, almost the same dice hit (5 or 6 isn’t that much of a difference compared to 8/9 or even 7/8) but move much further and have more capacity. For these stats I gladly pass upon the bombardment...
They will be the next one I play. The one I played so far is argent flight.
How did the Argent play? I have done some practice play with them and I am not sure if they are as immediately strong as some of the others.
@@RulebreakerBoardgames Well I won and I found them to be awesome. They have an early expansion because they have a move two unit with capacity. They tend to score objectives early game because they can move quickly. People also discount the destroyers as not a threat and leave openings and a destroyer carrying one infantry and 4 mechs is a scary thing. Lastly their tech lets them hunker down at the last round when the whole table turns against you. Build PDSs in systems abject to your home system with a destroyer and an infantry they will have to bring 5 infantry to clear the planet and take down your PDS just to clear the way for the main fleet gunning to your home system.
Will you be going back and updating all the old races to include the changes?
You could do one mega episode like you did where you ranked all of the, but instead talk about the new stuff and how the strategy has changed.
I will! I'm planning to do a new video for each of the base game factions with a look at all their Leaders and Mechs, plus a brief update on my impressions of how they affect their play styles. I expect these will follow along after the new faction overviews quite quickly.
Great video. Thank you for the read through!
Could you please review the Mahact after the Nomad?
I've had a whole bunch of opinions on release order. I will see how it goes!
Love your videos, man. Thank you for making these!
Thanks! More coming soon
Thank you so much for making these! Super helpful!
Glad you like them!
For the Mech's ability, where it says 'when you would place a PDS' then presumably you must realistically have been allowed to place a PDS on the planet i.e. still have space for one PDS, in order to use this ability? If you have 2 PDSs, then you can't use this ability I think? Also, can the PDS' production ability only produce ground forces and not space?
Very useful, thank you.
The Terraform promissory note is interesting because it's a one-use. It doesn't appear to go back to the Ul player after use, so once a planet has that token, it has it for the whole game.
Very true. One use makes it something to keep an eye on too.
@@RulebreakerBoardgames It's also possible for the Ul player to make a deal with an ally that involves letting the ally invade one of their planets for a turn, use the note to upgrade it, and then leave so the Ul can reclaim it - giving the Ul the benefit of the note. Obviously would require some trust, but I can imagine for example doing that in a scenario where someone has a secret objective to have a ship in a system adjacent to another player's home system.
@@RulebreakerBoardgames what if you gave the promissory note to a player then went and took the planet they upgraded? just getting into this game, its great! love the videos
Thanks for this overview. The Titans possess the best unit in the game (Saturn Engine), that is very robust /versatile for its cost. They'll want to upgrade their cruisers ASAP. However, I feel with only 2 commodities they may be CC-starved, especially with a low-influence homeworld. I'm not yet sure which tech path serves them best- RY (unit upgrades and exploration) or BG (movement)?
That's interesting. It's fun to explore this in gameplay. Can't wait to see what the consensus is.
Great comment and great point. I would wager RY tech path.
I always meta games on planet starved maps in three player games. As such, it may be predictable that unit upgrades would be the way to go. Hel-Titans and Saturn Engines will be the work horses of these guys and with little to trade (Terraforming not withstanding) getting there will be a challenge. The tech secondary will use up Elysium every turn. But for the saving grace that ground units are almost free I think this is finally a second race who wants/needs Construction T1.
@@johnmodlich530 Love your comment! However, I think Construction SC is a sub-optimal play for Titans given that they want to get out their Sleeper tokens and re-explore their own systems with SDN. Ironically, they may become the "new PDS faction" because the Hel Titan I/II is a faction tech that does a lot to advance the game state.
The one seeming weakness is the need for a strong CC economy to drive re-exploration of their systems with SDN, spread additional Sleeper tokens and bolster Fleet Supply to get the most out of Saturn Engine II. It could be a real challenge to do well in a game where Titans occupy an influence-poor slice. 🖖
@@thomasromanelli2561 I am finding your points in lots of places online. In an optimal situation where the active player is speaker or to the right of speaker I agree that Construction R1 is sub optimal. However when compared to Diplo omega or Imperial, when we have sixth pic Construction is decidedly more effective. Chasing that much further towards Tungstantus on a system where we already have a sleeper token(s?) brings us those trade goods that much faster. We can leave sleeper tokens there all day long and if we're in a system with only one rich planet it couldn't hurt to replace an already existing PDS with Ouranos round 2.
So yes, if we get first pick, I see every reason to choose technology and go for that AIDA. But if we've got last pick, Construction is the answer.
The most important thing is they can have essentially 13 dreadnoughts and 8 of them have more movement and half the cost. free flagship makes them faction that will have amazing and super mobile army even without much resources
Any change the Naaz-Rokha would get covered before the 13th? It's not like I have a game scheduled and am trying to get an advantage or anything :p
Explore stuff and always try to trade artifacts. Always use your agent, if you can't do it on your planets the try to untap opponents planets for trade goods
Your flagship with 2-4 mechs is a real beast
Literally just finishing editing Naaz-Rohka as the second video right now! Expect it to land today/tomorrow.
Great start to the new factions! Good job 😁
Cool :)
So question about sleeper tokens.. So if someone takes the planet and your token is still there after the fact, how would you activate/awaken that token? Is it only by when your ships enter the same system to try and take it back ? Or you can still move a CC on the planet since you have a sleeper?
If I explore a terraformed planet, do I draw all 3 types of exploration cards or just choose the one I want?
Great question. You have to choose the type you want from the three. You do not get all three for a single explore.
Came here to ask the same thing.
Question for experts, if a player explores the planet attached with terraform, do you draw a fragment for each trait since this planet has 3?
I've read the rule of exploration, I need more then an interpretation to understand it.
Timing question with these guys: I’m assuming that AWAKEN and Deploying the flagship has to be done in 2 separate turns? Meaning you can’t activate the system, place a pds and then immediately deploy the flagship?
Yes, the timing window for DEPLOY on the Flagship is after you activate the system. That timing window would be before Awaken is resolved. So you are correct, it would be on another turn.
@@RulebreakerBoardgames thank you!! Love your videos and look forward to the new vids of the old factions with their leaders!😁
Wow, it's hero is one-time use, but permanent. 7 resources from 1 planet is wild
Excellent overview. Sub!
Thanks for the sub, Ian. Glad you liked the video.
Any chance of upping your voice volume next time?
Yes, I have been trying to make the audio better, hopefully it will be improved again next time.
Titans look very strong, unless there is a Nekro player in the game. If so, you really shouldn't upgrade that cruiser. If they take that tech from you, they will have cruisers that hit on 6s that can carry mechs that hit on 4s against the Ul player, which when combined with their flagship work as ships that hit on 4s, because they're ground forces.
So if you can imagine a Nekro fleet that is Flagship and 4 cruisers (total capacity 11) you could have 4 Mechs and 7 infantry. So you'd have 9 dice hitting on 9s (7 infantry + 2 for flagship), 4 dice hitting on 6 and 4 dice hitting on 4s when facing the Ul player. The infantry can soak damage, and then any that are left invade after space combat with the mechs, which still hit on 4s. That's a fairly obscene invasion force for a cost of 27.5 resources.
John, I may need you for math some day.
@@RulebreakerBoardgames Deal. Interested to see your vid for the Naalu... I suspect that the advent of the Argent Flight might make them a risky race to play from here on out.
Having played a few games against them...I don't use the OP word much, but they are OP. If allowed to turtle, they can lock down their home system and surrounding systems with approximately 9+ PDS IIs plus bonuses. I had this happen and couldn't get anywhere near close enough.
How did they have more than 6 PDS's? I thought a player was limited to up to 6 placed PDS's
@@TheCarlKlein but the Titans can convert some units to their special pds. Whether that 6 rule applies to their ability i do not know.
If planet is terraformed, during exploration you pull one card from exploration deck or 3 for each trait?
One total
It is not hecaton cherries :))))
is cheires == hands, so the ones with hundred arms en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hecatoncheires
forvo.com/word/ἑκατόγχειρες/ if you want to hear it in ancient greek
Awaken says one or more sleeper token but teragenasis says you can’t put a sleep token when there already is one, so how could you active one or more
You can move 1 with Terragenesis as well
Different planets in the same system.
Looks good, but I'm looking forward to playing the empyrean
What about the Empyrean has you most excited?
@@RulebreakerBoardgames I love that their home system is a nebula, especially since last game I played someone tried to take my home system 😅; and its interesting they have so many abilities that make people want to take your side
@@RulebreakerBoardgames Personally, I find the forced promissory notes thing to be hightly interesting, as it is usually heavily underutilized in the games I had so far (only played like 4-5 times, unfortunately, owned the game for a couple of years now :( )
This is an awesome, fun and powerful faction to play as. However, if Vuil'Raith Cabal is in the game, I would not recommend playing the Titans of Ul. Those god damn kaiju will just take away all of your upgraded cruisers and refuse to give them back....:( My advice, if you play as the Titans against the Cabal, exterminate them as fast as possible! Do not hesitate, show no mercy!
Remember, the Titans of Ul seek something more permanent than a mere empire, and those giant wannabe Godzilla-anno-1998-look-a-likes stand in the way!
Those cruzers are just cheap, upgraded dreadnaunts. Way OP cause you can build a ton and get to the other side of the game in 1 turn with the warefare strategy card
Yeah, these guys have huge access potential.
I sort of came here expecting some sort of strategy more than just reading their info.
Not bad, but not what I expected.
It's a primer for players new to the game, mainly!
First