Episode 233: Twilight Inscription

…players take on the role of space faction, building a space civilization, doing space stuff to leave their mark…on space. The game in a roll and write that plays 1-8 players and the play time is listed as 90-120 mins.

At the beginning of the game, players choose a faction that gives you unique ongoing AND triggered abilities. Players also get 4 player boards (Navigation, Expansion, Warfare, and Industry) and a bright orange marker. An event deck is prepared and is also the time keeping element of the game as one card is flipped at the start of each round. These event cards mostly give you resources but they will also trigger warfare, production, and council events. When resources are given in an event, you chose which board you want to interact with this round. Each board uses those resources differently. After choosing, the dice are rolled and more resources are given.

Lets talk about the boards a bit, because this is the meat of the game. On the Expansion board, you are moving around, claiming planets or goods, finding powerful artifacts, or just getting points.,

On the expansion board, you using those resources to expand out on those claimed planets, when completing a row or column, you get stuff, rare goods, normal goods, votes, and population (which are end game points). Goods are used to give you production. Rare goods usually give you access to technology.

On the warfare board, you are building ships to fight your neighbors when the warfare event is played. Win a war gets you stuff, losing the war loses you points.

On the Industry board, you are using your resources to claim goods, in an interesting way as you can only claim something if it is next to something you eliminated (or scratched off).

All the boards interact with each other in cool ways.

A production event gives you wild resources depending on how much you have developed your production through industry, expansion, and navigation.

A council event lets players vote on results that could be good or bad for everyone. You get more votes through expansion and industry.

Finally, warfare triggers the end game. There are objectives in the games that are first come first serve for better points, but anyone who accomplishes them will get points. Whoever has the most points at the end, will be the king of….space.