Space Cats Peace Turtles

IT'S BACK! Over 100 episodes have gone by since our last iteration of This Imperium Life, the show written by all of YOU. We stopped doing it when we felt like the base game well had run a bit dry, but with Prophecy of Kings having been out essentially an entire year, we've been collecting lots of your stories of your best moments in TI! Here are just SOME of our favorites.   Music provided by Ben...

Despite the hype of the ongoing Invitational Tournament, we're still out here working on your preliminary faction guides. Up this week are two polar opposites: the infinite variable that is the Emirates of Hacan next to the fairly understood and simple L1Z1X Mindnet. The Hacan side of things is wildly open-ended, so be nice. You've got some concrete L1 advice, so count your blessings! Music provid...

Can the Galactic Council ever be appeased? Likely not, but we're here to do our civic duty and provide them with the second of the two tied options from last month. Here is EVERY SINGLE TECH, tiered and feared. No contradicting opinions necessary. We nailed it. Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com   To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreo...

Our special event, the Invitational Tournament, is upon us and before the games begin we wanted to go over the draft structure we'll be using. We're taking an existing community draft procedure called Miltydraft and making some slight modifications. So before we talk about our version, it's important to set the stage by going over the basics of why Miltydraft is so popular! Music provided by Ben P...

What a world we're in. This time last year, if we'd packaged the Winnu and Clan of Saar into an episode together, it would have been to showcase the two polar opposites of Twilight Imperium. But now, the two sing some similar songs and often times feel like sides of the same coin. Winnu has risen to be quite the powerhouse, and Clan of Saar has kept up the pace just fine. So, how do these two fact...

War were declared. For the second month in a row, the Galactic Council has gone rogue and tied our two poll options. So, for this month, we're just doing one of them and I guess we'll do the other later or something. So for now, here's Matt and Hunter improvising a scenario mode for Twilight Imperium, a la Alliance mode or the Shard of the Throne scenario from TI3. Is it chaotic? Yes. Is it playab...

Hunter is moving back to Portland this week, which meant something fun to squeeze in while he's gone. What better than returning to everyone's favorite interview series Fireside Chats with Root (Alec). This one gets extra confusing because Root sat down with a major member of the Root board game community, Bott Bott, to pick his brain about all things Twilight Imperium, Root, and Oath (and also Pa...

Here lies a wonderful example of our new project! We're so excited to announce the launch of our new show, The Old Gamer's Almanac, the definitive ranking of all video games ever, one week at a time. We're throwing this one your way so you get a feel for how we hope the rest of the show plays out, but don't hesitate to pause this and head over to the Old Gamer's Almanac podcast feed and listen to...

Oh Look! A new podcast has been spotted! As we teased recently, we are starting another show! Old Gamer's Almanac is the definitive ranking of all video games ever, one week at a time. We know how much this audience likes lists, and we've made the lifelong commitment to playing every video game that exists in order to accurately rank them. If the video game industry would just stop for a bit while...

Hunter is about to move away, and we wanted to take the time to reminisce on the ongoing game of Oath we've been able to play while in the same region. We break down our thoughts about the strategy and our game's specific evolving story. Before that is some errata for our episode on Agendas, as well as a very special announcement regarding a new show we've been working on! Stick around next week f...

It feels like ages since we’ve had a proper episode in which we just sit and read every card. Our original Agendas episode was among our longest episodes, and was one of our first component focused episodes. But a lot has been learned and a lot has changed since then, so we figured it was time to revisit the topic of Agendas.   Additionally, we get to announce our next big project! We’re going to...

This week, we're tearing through a couple more factions as we try to lay some framework to better understand how the base game factions have changed since Prophecy of Kings released. How far have the Yin fallen? How high have the Nekro risen? Whose ground forces are best? Hint: it's not the faction that it SHOULD be...   0:00 - Yin Brotherhood 52:59 - Nekro Virus   Music provided by Ben Prunty. Fi...

We're finally able to dive into the future of Faction Guides, and this is what we have to start with. This won't be exhaustive, but it's a first pass to see where the base game factions are falling in the grander scheme of PoK. Consider these opening ideas that lay the framework for future, more thorough guides about specific strategies within each faction. Up first, the underrated Barony of Letne...

This month's Galactic Council broke the system. They had two tournament related options, but the votes were split perfectly 50/50. So, we're just doing both! We start with a conversation about how all of the factions performed in this year's tournament and why they performed that way then follow it up with a discussion of the tournament drafts of yesteryear and how this year's faired. Then we get...

And with that, the 2021 SCPT Patreon Tournament is over. We had an absolute blast, and we’re also completely exhausted from an amazing weekend. So, this episode is a casual recap of the Finals that turned into over an hour and a half of analysis. We thought it’d be a short beach episode, and we were as wrong as ever. But you’re not complaining, you freak.   Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more...

Another year has passed. 336 players entered this tournament, and now only 6 remain. Before we crown the 2021 Champion, we first wanted to meet these players and get a closer look at how they think about the game. This is the Road to the Finals! Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com To learn more about our Discord, Twitter, Patreon, Merch, and more...

The semifinals of our tournament are complete, and we’re a couple weeks away from our Championship game. As such, we need to take stock of the tournament so far to get a sense of what strategies and drafts have worked and how our finalists got here. Next week, we’ll continue the hype with interviews with all 6 of our finalists!   Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or ben...

This week we have a special treat to reward you all for making it through the Semifinals! It’s an interview with the author of Aconyte Books’ Twilight Imperium series of novels, Tim Pratt! We discuss the setting, Tim’s influences, and there’s a bit about some horses.    Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com To learn more about our Discord, Twitter,...

Abandon all hope, ye who enter. What lies here is the worst, most infinite conversation topic in all of gaming. There is no returning from this place. There is only the void. We’re starting this, and we know some of you want to do this, so okay. Here’s the first of probably a few episodes on the topic of everyone’s favorite accusation to lob when they’re not going to win.   Music provided by Ben P...

Hey, no joke, we love this game. And if you listen to this show, we know you will love it too. And Leder Games does pay us sometimes, but they did not pay us to tell you how good their new game Oath is. That’s all us, baby. But we do sort of have a vested interest in its success. But also, like, we chose to have that vested interest. Like we knew the game was good and THEN were like “what if you s...

We’ve been waiting to return to this episode topic for a long time. This show is never really about learning how to play Twilight Imperium, but more about how to think about Twilight Imperium. And in keeping with how we always like to approach new games, we wanted to go back to basics and try to explain what you can do to help yourself learn this game. Sure, you need someone to teach you the mecha...

It’s one of those major threshold episodes of a podcast where we decide to get rather celebratory. For Episode 200, we wanted to throw a party for our Weird Bear patrons, who have done a lot for us over the years. But turns out, they didn’t want to party. They wanted an opportunity to present a list of demands, and we were obligated to grant quorum to the first inaugural Weird Bearholder’s Meeting...

This game is weird and has a lot of strange interactions and timings. Since Prophecy of Kings’ release, things have been pretty confusing with some abilities, and our fearless leader Dane Beltrami is here to show us the light. We don’t have a formal Living Rules Reference, but he has been able to answer a lot of questions that some amazing community members have collected into one place. So, let’s...

We’re still wrapping up our Prophecy of Kings introductions over here. This time, the Galactic Council wanted us to answer the question “Are the New Factions Too Good?” And in keeping with our previous eye-catching headlines, I’m not sure we even answer the question. But we do have a fun, wandering conversation about where we feel all of the factions compare to each other at this point.   Music pr...

With the new faction introductions and component guides done, we wanted to take stock of what we’ve learned about Prophecy of Kings in these few months that it’s been out. This episode goes over how we feel about our recent episodes, our main takeaways for how the strategy has evolved, and a bit of what we think is to come!   Ginger’s Mahact Guide referenced in this episode   Music provided by Ben...