Twilight Imperium 4th Edition: Prophecy of Kings

Twilight Imperium 4th Edition: Prophecy of Kings

The lost planet of Ixth, fabled paradise of a million dreamers, promised land of a thousand faiths, a legend as old as the Lazax, has been found. Unfortunately, the old tales of Ixth are nothing more than lies, and when an exploratory expedition ventures through a sealed wormhole in Creuss space, they discover a tomb-city outside the galaxy. This city is a prison, constructed for one purpose: to imprison the Mahact Gene-Sorcerers, tyrannical kings of the galaxy before the Lazax ever rose to power. And now that they have reawakened, no power can compel the Mahact to stop their burgeoning conquest.

This massive expansion is packed to bursting with new content that you can add to your games of Twilight Imperium 4th Edition. The galaxy has grown far larger, as seven never-before-seen factions enter the game, each boasting their own unique strengths and weaknesses, from the gene-altering powers of the Mahact, to the watchful guard of the Argent Flight, to the mysterious and ancient Empyrean. And new factions aren’t the only way the galaxy grows bigger! Forty new system and hyperlane tiles add new planets and obstacles to the map, and with two new colors of player components included in the Prophecy of Kings expansion, you can play Twilight Imperium with up to eight players.

But that’s only a fraction of what you’ll find in this expansion! Adding even more flavor to your chosen species, a wealth of unique leader cards arrive to support every faction in the game, giving you powers to unlock during the game. Lumbering mechs stomp onto the battlefield as powerful new ground forces with unique special abilities for every faction. As you venture into the unknown regions of space, brand-new exploration decks seed new planets and the void of space with new discoveries, including fragments you can combine to create awe-inspiring relics. With new action cards, agenda cards, objectives, technologies, promissory notes, legendary planets, and more, Prophecy of Kings is a must-have expansion for any fan of Twilight Imperium 4th Edition!

With two new colors of player plastic, you can play Twilight Imperium with up to eight players.

Kings of the Galaxy

With the seven new factions introduced by this expansion, you’ll have twenty-four options to choose from in every game of Twilight Imperium—each boasting their own strategic approach and playstyle, and each bringing new dimensions to the game.

One of these new factions is the legendary Mahact Gene-Sorcerers, a primal tale from ancient history. In the distant past, the Mahact dynasties terrorized the galaxy. They could warp the forms of living beings, compel eternal obedience with a gesture, and turn the biospheres of entire worlds into seething caustic hells. But in the midst of their decadent rule, a new Empire rose to challenge them. The Lazax, a young and fiery race, led the effort to destroy the Mahact and restore peace. But the shadow of the past was never truly destroyed—only locked away and hidden behind a deactivated wormhole gate.

As they return to battle for control of the galaxy, the Mahact are an intimidating foe. They learn and collect the genetic sequence of their enemies during battle, represented by their Edict ability. The first time you defeat another faction in combat with the Mahact, you’ll take one of their command tokens and place it in your fleet pool. This command token increases your fleet limit, but it has other benefits as well. Most notably, claiming another faction’s command token lets you use the ability of that player’s commander—one of the new leader types that we’ll discuss below!

Few alive today know of the Argent Flight. This collection of related avian subspecies were enslaved by the Mahact and forced to fight in brutal proxy wars, until they were freed by the arrival of a Lazax warlord. To pay their debt, they agreed to contribute their best warriors and scholars to create an order that would safeguard the galaxy and ensure the Mahact would never return. Though they fought their own battles in the shadows against the Mahact’s sleeper agents, with the opening of the wormhole gate and the return of the Mahact, the Argent Flight has begun to gather its forces. The time for secrecy is over, and they must finish what the Lazax started so long ago.

The Argent Flight know their role in galactic politics, and their zeal can give them a real edge in shaping the new laws and directives of the galactic council. You’ll always vote first during the agenda phase, but whenever you cast at least one vote, you automatically cast an additional vote for each player in the game, including yourself, making the Argent Flight a political power to be reckoned with. This faction also boast specialized destroyers—Strike Wing Alpha—with anti-fighter barrages that can also be used to damage your opponent’s most powerful starships.

Agents of Change

Even factions from the Core Set find a host of new tricks arriving with the 74 leader cards included in Prophecy of Kings. Every faction now has three types of leaders: an agent, a commander, and a hero. At the beginning of the game, your agent, such as Evelyn DeLouis of the Federation of Sol, or Carth of Golden Sands for the Emirates of Hacan is your only unlocked leader. Agents must be exhausted to use their ability, but they still offer some powerful effects.

Every faction also has access to a commander. These commanders must be unlocked by meeting the requirement on the back of the card, and this requirement varies for every commander. The rewards can be well worth it, however, as you’ll find with Claire Gibson reinforcing Federation infantry, or Ta Zern boosting your unit abilities for the Universities of Jol-Nar. Commander abilities don’t require you to exhaust your leader, and you can use them as often as the opportunity presents itself!

Finally, every faction has access to a powerful hero. You need to score three objectives to unlock your faction’s hero, and once you do, you gain a powerful, once-per-game ability that’s certain to leave its mark on the galaxy! For example, by unlocking Jace X of the 4th Air Legion, you gain the Helio Command Array, which you can use once per game to remove each of your command tokens from the board and return them to your reinforcements. Or, perhaps you’ll impress Adjudicator Ba’al, the Starscourge, unlocking the Nova Seed —an awe-inspiring instrument of destruction that lets you use a war sun to destroy an entire system and all enemy units there, replacing it with the brand-new Muaat supernova tile!

These leaders aren’t the only faction-specific bonus brought about by Prophecy of Kings. Powerful new mechs stomp onto the battlefield, crashing through infantry with ease, and every faction boasts its own unique type of mech. For example, if you fight for the Mahact Gene-Sorcerers, you’ll harness the Starlancer. When an opponent activates a system with your Starlancer, you can spend their token from your fleet pool to immediately end their turn, stopping an attack before it begins. Or, perhaps you’re more drawn to the Icarus Drive —this Ghosts of Creuss mech lets you remove it from the board to place or move a Creuss wormhole in its system, giving you unparalleled tactical flexibility.

As shown above, you’ll find a home for your leader cards and mech card on the brand-new leader sheets that slot seamlessly under your faction sheet—all while boasting a useful quick reference that you can slide out whenever you need to consult it!

Relics of the Unknown

As you venture into the unknown depths of the galaxy, you’ll find forty brand-new planets waiting for you—and for the first time in Prophecy of Kings, you’ll have the experience of setting foot on a new world for the first time. Four exploration decks are included in this expansion—a deck for cultural, hazardous, and industrial planets, as well as a frontier exploration deck for factions who have researched the necessary tech to explore the void of space.

If you’re the first player to take control of a planet, you have the chance to explore that planet, drawing a card from the appropriate exploration deck. You may find a Paradise World, a card that attaches to the planet card and permanently increases its influence for whoever controls it. Or perhaps you’ve found a Volatile Fuel Source, allowing you to use your ground forces to gain another command token. Perhaps most powerful of all, however, you may find a fragment of a relic, such as the Industrial Relic Fragment.

Ancient and incredible relics from time immemorial can be found across the galaxy, but you can’t recover these lost powers unless you piece together the fragments, either through exploration or by exchanging them as part of a transaction. When you have three relic fragments, you can turn them in to draw the top card of the relic deck! You may use your fragments to piece together the Scepter of Emelpar, which lets you spend a token from your reinforcements rather than from your strategy pool—but even more unusual and esoteric relics may lie scattered among the stars.

A New Era of Glorious War

With the Prophecy of Kings expansion, Twilight Imperium 4th Edition enters a new era. New factions enter the struggle, new system tiles expand your galaxy, and you can play with seven or eight players. Leader cards and unique mechs arrive for every faction, exploration decks capture the experience of venturing into the unknown, and relics can give you an edge if you’re able to piece them together. And we haven’t even shown off the brand-new planet cards, action cards, agendas, objectives, promissory notes, technologies, legendary planets, and more!