This is to be read in conjunction with the Living Rules. It tries to
describe which optional rules are in force, and clarify some points. At
the very end, I have a more definitive "If we played a game right now"
list of options.

http://boardgamegeek.com/wiki/page/Twilight_Imperium_FAQ is an attempt to
assemble a set of post-Living-Rules clarifications.

The game is played in "rounds" and during each round players take
"turns". This is really confusing. So confusing, a lot of the official
Errata is because the publisher forgot their own mad terminology. I think
I have scored through "turn" on most of the affected cards, and Clare is
coming with her silver pen to write "round" on them, but any time
something says "once per turn", it probably doesn't mean it.

Deals are not normally binding. There's no such thing as an
"instantaneous" deal; one party to the deal must go first, taking it on
trust that the other party will follow through. Promissory Notes create
binding deals; and deals explicitly mandated by the rules (eg the Hacan's
ability to trade Action Cards) are binding, although even then the Hacan
could only trade with one player at a time (eg, they cannot broker a card
swap between two other players without the potential for betrayal).

[Optionally, with a view to speeding up the game; the Hacan _can_ broker
deals bindingly, but they get to see both ACs being traded, and must have
a free AC slot to broker a deal.]

http://www.preeminent.org/steve/games/ti3/ti3demo/ is by no means perfect
(old Strategy Cards, and one or two actual rules errors) but it gives a
good impression of the flow of the game.

PLEASE read the rule in 7.3 about victory timing, or there will be tears
before bedtime.

When something is done "in the order of play", this means that if every
player has a Strategy Card, the thing is done in ascending order of
Strategy Card numbers. Otherwise, it means that it is done clockwise,
starting from the Speaker.

There are one or two Political or Action Cards that let you rifle the draw
piles. Those cards should, for sanity's sake, be removed. If you draw one,
discard it and redraw. (Rationale: the Action Card deck contains several
hundred cards, which a player unfamiliar with the deck would have to look
through in agonising analysis-paralysis).

If you draw a PC or AC pertaining to rules not in play, discard it and
redraw. Do so _even if_ it is one of the Shards ACs that says it can
instead be played as a Trade Good.

You may not reveal your Secret or Preliminary Objective(s), but you
can reveal any other card you hold, to all or to a strict subset of
the other players.

6.1 Preparing the Objective Cards

The "Preliminary Objectives" option changes this procedure, if in play.
Also, start with one Objective revealed (this is the normal rule with
Bureaucracy, it's just easy to miss.)

6.2 Creating the Galaxy

See Z.1 below.

With 5 players, use the layout on page 86 of the rulebook (just the shape
of the map, not the predetermined hex contents).  However, ignore all the
special rules about wormholes.  Hexes 1/2/3/4/5 are just considered
connected as if they were adjacent to each other normally. The pool of
systems comprises 3 Special, 6 Empty, and 16 Regular systems.

With 7 players, use the 8-player map, removing a start position and
the same pattern of hexes around it as for the 5-player map. 7 Special, 10
Empty, and 30 Regular systems.

With 4 players, remove the two lines of dark blue hexes down the side of
the map (page 53, living rulebook) and place 3 Special, 6 Empty, and 16
Regular systems.

With 3... the 3-player map is a bit hard to fix.

Consider specifically ensuring that both wormhole pairs make the cut.
Wormholes greatly open up the board.

7.1 Strategy Phase

In a 4- or 8-player game, add Warfare I to the strategy cards. Remove
it if a player is eliminated. Alternatively, add a ninth card; the ninth
card has priority 9, no primary action, but enables the holder to use the
secondary ability of all Strategy Cards without paying a Command Token,
like the Initiative card from the unexpanded game. The ninth card is in
play if and only if eight cards are actually going to be selected; as soon
as a player is eliminated from such a game, the ninth card cannot be
selected.

Alternative II: the 9th SC lets you bring a Leader, even one previously
killed, into play on a planet or fleet you control. This is the only means
by which Leaders can enter play. This 9th Card remains in play if there
are fewer than 8 picks to be made, but does not accumulate Bonus tokens in
that case.

[Rationale: Bureaucracy is not much use on early turns.]

7.2 Action Phase

Besides a Tactical, Strategic, Transfer Action, or Pass, it is common
for Action Cards or Racial Abilities to be used "in place of an
action".

[Removed a brake on the Yssaril here; while they are very strong, the
Political Intrigue game weakens them.]

7.2.1 Strategic Action

The active player "may never" execute the Secondary Ability of their own
Strategy Card, it says... unless specifically permitted, eg by a
racial ability. (In general, racial abilities, action cards, etc. may
overrule the rulebook, but this is a particularly misleading example
with its bold "may never".)

7.2.2 Tactical Action and Combat

Unless a card permits it, two players can never have ground units on the
same planet or space units in the same hex unless they are about to
proceed to a Space Battle or Invasion Combat, and the end result of that
combat must be that at most one player has units on the contested planet
or hex.

If it seems that during any other point in the Sequence of Play, units
from more than one player can stack on a planet or in a hex, you've
probably made a mistake.

7.3 Status Phase

It is likely we'll use the "Long War" option, 12.2, so the game will
run to 13 Victory Points.

As in the FAQ, you may not score a Preliminary and a Secret Objective
(or two Secret Objectives, which some Political Cards make possible)
at the same time.

Bubble Victories (experimental): a player who scores a Public and
Preliminary/Secret Objective on the same round may not claim a victory
during the Status Phase of that round if they needed the VP from the
Preliminary or Secret Objective to do so.

If they had enough VP to win without one of the Objectives, they may do so
even after scoring both of them; they also might still win as a result of
Imperium Rex coming up next round; they could win in the next Status Phase
even if they have scored no more VPs; and if they scored a VP from any other
source (eg an Artifact) or gained a Support of the Throne Promissory Note
they would win immediately.

(The intention is that you can't pull a surprise victory by sandbagging
your Secret Objective, but that you can't actually lose out by claiming
two objectives in the Status Phase.)

When the "Imperium Rex" objective card is drawn, the game ends immediately.
(This is the standard rule, not a variant. It is here because this document
previously listed a variant). An eliminated player who leads on VP cannot
win at Imperium Rex, although their opponents should feel suitably
humiliated.

For the purposes of Objectives referring to home systems, the "Creuss"
system is a home system. The "Creuss Gate" system is not, although it is
for other purposes. For the purposes of the "Threatening" secret
objective, the Creuss Gate is adjacent to Creuss if you could move through
the wormhole.

7.3.X Victory Timing and other gotchas

The game can be won at any time; after taking an artifact, after getting a
Support of the Throne Promissory Note, when a Political Card awards VPs,
etc. However, there is no tie-breaker procedure except at Imperium Rex.
Nearly all game actions happen in a closely defined order; when a
Political Card assigns VPs to players, they are assigned in the order of
play.

You can't score Public, Preliminary, or Secret Objectives unless you
control your home system (or you are the Saar), but you are not otherwise
prevented from winning.

There's a Stage II objective that requires you to destroy GFs. Destroying
Mechanised Units also qualifies.

8 Space Battles

12.16 Tactical Retreats will be in force. Note that the criterion for
a system being used for a normal retreat is "no enemy ships", but for
a tactical retreat it is "no enemy units".

In the rules as written, a retreat or withdrawal is cancelled if the enemy
has no units in system. Change to "no space units". When a force retreats
or withdraws, PDS which did not fire at it during its previous movement
may fire at it, if in range. Both these changes are intended to discourage
"forward retreats" which cheese the retreat rules to advance.

There's an important FAQ about pre-combat abilities such as
Anti-Fighter Barrage and Assault Cannon on page 99. These are resolved
in an order selected by the defender.

As a guiding principle, space units (including fighters, even if you do
not have the Advanced Fighters technology) belonging to more than one
player can never be in the same hex unless a Space Battle then takes
place. (Units can move through a hex with enemy units in some
circumstances).

10.1.4 Ghosts of Creuss

If the Ghosts are in the game, the Wormhole Nexus (12.14) should
probably always be used.

10.9.1 Playing Action Cards

This somewhat odd procedure is here because one or two Action Cards,
if you predicted they were coming, could be mitigated with an Action
Card of your own. The obvious example is "Direct Hit" which can
destroy a damaged Dreadnought, and the card which would allow you to
repair it (if you were ahead in the order of play).

Optional: Abandon the rulebook Action Card procedure. You may play an
Action Card in response to another player's Action Card if you are ahead
in the order of play (clockwise from the Speaker if there are no Strategy
Cards assigned); yours is resolved first. Yours might also be responded to
by another player even further ahead in the order of play. If yours becomes
impossible to resolve, it is returned to your hand, but if it can be
resolved it must be even if the outcome is not what you originally
anticipated.

The Nanotechnology tech blocks Action Cards from being played on your
capital ships. This applies to cards played specifically on ships; for
example, Direct Hit and Recheck. It would not apply to cards that interact
with ships indirectly such as Moment of Triumph (which gives a bonus when
played after destroying an opponent's warsun).

10.10 Voting in the Galactic Council

Bear in mind that voting is clockwise from the player on the Speaker's
left. However, with Political Intrigue, Spies are revealed clockwise from
the Speaker, and Promissory Notes are offered clockwise from the Speaker.
If it becomes relevant somehow, the results of Political Cards are also
resolved clockwise from the Speaker. (The last of these is unclear in the
rules.)

Sadly, notwithstanding the element of mystery, players should probably
know which Representatives the other players have. There are one or two
with major implications.

10.12.4 Running Out of Trade Goods

Is a silly rule. It's unlikely to come up with the extra TG counters in
one of the expansions, but unless persuaded otherwise I will ignore it.

11.1 Space Dock

Space docks are "memoryless"; there's no inherent prohibition on
producing units at a space dock on the turn it was built. It's
difficult to arrange, though, because space docks are built as the
last stage in a system's activation; but you might use the Production
strategy to produce units there later, or use an Action Card that
"deactivates" the system.

[Rationale: reduces book-keeping. Any SD on the board is just like any
other, rather than one built this turn having a special status not
reflected by a counter.]

11.4 PDS

Some Great Race reference sheets list the cost of a PDS as 1 resource.
This is wrong; it's 2.

11 Units carrying other units

Ground Forces, Shock Troops, PDS, and Mechanised Units are on a
specific Carrier or War Sun (or Cruiser/Dreadnought, with Stasis
Capsules). If their host vessel is destroyed, they are lost, even if
capacity exists elsewhere. They can only be taken off their support unit
during Planetary Landings; a Carrier cannot (eg) collect Ground Forces
from another Carrier before moving elsewhere.

Fighters, however, aren't on a specific support unit. Only if their
numbers exceed the total available support are they lost; note that
Fighter capacity is never counted during Space Battles, so you can lose
all your Carriers during a battle and the Fighters can fight on. (They're
in trouble at the end of the battle, though.)

Note that Gravity Rifts have a chance to destroy all ships moving out of
them; this includes Fighters. (This is bad news for Fighters - not only
might the Rift destroy their Carrier and leave them dead with no support,
but it might destroy each of them individually).

12.2 Option: Long War

Yes. What, I want to make a really long game even longer? My
experience is that standard-length TI3 games finish just slightly too
early.

12.3 Option: Age of Empire

No. It's a poor fit with the "optional" Strategy Cards (12.8).

12.4 Option: Distant Suns

No. Makes exploration a crapshoot, and seriously slows the opening
game for no benefit.

12.5 Option: Leaders

No. Leaders add a lot of complication for little benefit.

12.6 Option: Sabotage Runs

No. Complete crapshoot.

12.7 Option: Variant ISC

No - by 12.8 the ISC is not in play.

12.8 Option: Variant Strategy Cards

Yes. These should not really be seen as a variant, but a fix to the
originally published game.

12.9 Option: Variant Objectives

Maybe; they arguably promote aggression, but also rather are open to "quid
pro quo" wars where players trade off minor victories which happen to
grant VPs.

The 'geek suggests shuffling the whole lot together and seeing what falls
out. The trouble with this is three pairs are _very_ similar; two pairs of
the form "I control Mecatol Rex and...", and one pair of Stage II
objectives, "I now control 10 / 11 planets outside my home system".

I suggest the following: select one objective, face down, from each
problematic pair. Take all the remaining objectives for a given stage
(except Imperium Rex) and shuffle them. Discard half of those, add the
"problematic pair" objectives selected beforehand, and treat that as the
objective deck.

12.10 Option: Race-Specific Technologies

Yes. This again I see as a fix, balancing out the races somewhat.

12.11 Option: Artifacts

Yes. Artifacts are placed, if possible, before players know where they
will sit.

Each artifact also provides a technology speciality in its colour,
just like a planet with a technology speciality. (Rationale: as it
stands, artifacts are worthless except on the turn of victory.) But
remember the victory conditions specifically require you to control
"planets" with tech specialities.

12.12 Option: Shock Troops

Not created in combat; doesn't come up often, and fiddly to remember.
Allow them to be created with the refresh ability of Hope's End.

Shock Troops must be taken as casualties before Ground Forces, but
remember that Mechanised Units are not Ground Forces.

Shock Troops do _not_ require a Ground Force to keep them company. (This
rule is there because they have no empire affiliation on the counter, but
of course they are either on a particular empire's ships or on a planet
which can have an ownership flag placed.)

12.13 Option: Space Mines

No. Encourages "turtling".

12.14 Option: The Wormhole Nexus

Probably yes, makes the board a bit more interesting.

12.15 Option: Facilities

No. There are serious issues with the players who go first bogarting
all the facilities.

12.16 Option: Tactical Retreats

Yes. Retreats are pretty useless without this rule.

12.18 Option: Custodians of Mecatol Rex

Yes. Mecatol Rex is a plum prize.

In a change from the printed FAQs, the Fighters and Ground Forces of the
Custodians (and, if eg Distant Suns is in play, any other non-player
military units) work exactly like player military units in terms of
special abilities such as the Yin's conversion.

12.19 Option: Voice of the Council

No. Bluntly, you forget it exists, and unless someone has a massive vote
advantage it'll just go to whoever has the fewest VPs anyway.

12.20 Option: Simulated Early Turns

No.

12.21 Option: Preliminary Objectives

No. They vary wildly in difficulty.

12.22 Option: Flagships

Yes. Adds flavour to the Great Races

12.23 Option: Final Frontier

No, as with Distant Suns.

12.24 Option: Mechanised Units

Yes. These need a bit of clarification. They don't normally count as
Ground Forces; they don't benefit from techs or Action Cards that
improve GFs, but they also can't be targetted by Action Cards that
affect GFs, like Plague or Local Unrest, unless it would make it
impossible to resolve the card (for example, there's one where player
A's GFs are withdrawn from a planet and player B places some
GFs. Player A's MUs would also be withdrawn). Because they're not GFs,
they're immune to PDS fire, planetary bombardment, the X-89 Bacterial
weapon, etc. They fight in ground combat like GFs (with their superior
attack roll and Sustain Damage), they're dropped off Carriers like GFs
(and PDS), and if you have an MU on a planet, you control it.

There's an objective that requires you to defeat GFs. Per the official
errata, defeating a MU counts as defeating a GF for this objective.

12.25 Option: Mercenaries

Probably not.

12.26 Option: Political Intrigue

Yes. We found this to be satisfying.

[Alternative from the 'geek: if all a player's Representatives
are dead, they may send a generic Councillor who has no bonus votes or
special abilities. This prevents irrevocable lockout by repeated
assassinations.]

Note that you can only _offer_ one Promissory Note per Political Card. If
it's refused, too bad; and the player you are thinking of offering one to
is perfectly at liberty to lie about whether they'd accept one, then
refuse it, preventing you offering it to someone else.

The Support of the Throne Promissory Note does stack, if you get more than
one. It does not affect the victory at Imperium Rex at all.
(Clarification)

The Political Card "Necessary Bureaucracy" makes no sense with
Representatives. Best guess; the second Political Card is drawn and voted
on as in a game without Political Intrigue. Optionally, remove the cursed
thing.

12.28 Option: Homeworlds

No. You can't score objectives anyway without holding your home
system.

12.29 Option: Star in the Crown
12.30 Option: Ancient Throne

Irrelevant with variant strategy cards in play.

12.31 Option: Preset Maps

No.

13 Strategy Card Summary

There's no point in reading the instructions for the non-variant
strategy cards.

13.3 Assembly Card

[Here is a change from last time we played, which I think simplifies this
rule enormously.]
If you have three or fewer Political Cards, you may not spend PCs as Trade
Goods.
If you have four or five PCs, you may spend PCs as TGs.
If you have six or more PCs, immediately convert PCs into TGs until you
have five.

When the Assembly card is to be resolved, each player must select a PC from
their hand and give it to the resolving player. The resolving player
selects a PC, either from these cards or from their own hand. They return
the unused cards to their owners. They may not reveal them, but they may
discuss them freely. The player whose PC was chosen draws a replacement.

The resolving player appoints the new Speaker - probably themselves, but
the new Speaker cannot be the same as the old Speaker. The new Speaker
_can_ be the player whose PC was resolved.

Rationale: this gives a good selection of political cards, but allows
someone unsure of the votes to bogart the Speaker token but put a harmless
agenda forward. Conversely a player can easily cooperate with the Assembly
player to bring forward a mutually beneficial agenda.

14.3.3 Controlling a System

The definition of "controlling a system" - control all planets and
have one non-Fighter ship - is important and inobvious.

15.16.1 Jol-Nar and XXcha

This is a bit non-obvious; when the Jol-Nar opt to use the Primary of
Technology "as well" as the Secondary, or the XXcha the Primary of
Diplomacy "instead" of the Secondary, they always pay a Command Counter;
but the Jol-Nar can take the free technology from the Primary without
having bought a technology with the Secondary, and if the XXcha choose
option b) of the Primary ("use the Secondary without paying"), the net
effect is just to save some influence.

15.something Wormholes, Keeper of Gates, and the Hil Colish (Creuss
flagship)

10.4 says "If only one Wormhole of a type is in play, it has no
function and is ignored". This is the special kind of explanatory text
which promotes confusion. It is not ignored; you just can't use it to go
anywhere under normal circumstances. The Ghosts can still use it.

Keeper of Gates is only a valid Secret Objective with at least two
wormhole hexes on the main map and at least one wormhole transit possible
(other than for the Ghosts). It is not necessary to take the Nexus, nor
any D wormhole hex, nor any A or B wormhole hex added to the map later by
a counter (eg Distant Suns or the Ghost's Slave Wormhole Generator).
If those conditions are not met, discard and replace it.

The Hil Colish can't move through its own wormhole. It moves first in
normal space (or through other wormholes); then other Creuss units can
move to its destination hex through the other two D wormholes.

For Gravity Drive, a hex containing a wormhole counts as adjacent to a
wormhole if there is a wormhole connection from that hex (eg, if I'm in a
hex for wormhole A, I get the benefit if another wormhole A hex exists).

Change from rules as written: the Gravity Drive does not stack with any
other technology that boosts ship movement such as Type IV Drive or XRD
transporters. The sole exception is that when the Muaat research Deep
Space Cannon, improving their War Suns' movement to 2 (like everyone
else's), they can still benefit from Gravity Drive.

(Rationale: the Gravity Drive is stupidly good, especially if one tries to
include some wormholes on the map to mix things up a bit. As a dead end
in the tech tree, it does not matter if someone doesn't desire it after it
has been toned down a bit).

Other races cannot move through the Hil Colish's wormhole in either
direction. They can use the Gravity Drive when starting adjacent to it.

15.something else Van Hauge (Yin flagship)

Ground Forces with the Van Hauge DO NOT take damage from PDS fire at
fleets. This is an error.

Before Space Battle, the Yin player chooses how many (some, all, or none)
of the GFs (and Shock Troops) present with the Van Hauge will operate as
Fighters. They are treated as Fighters during the combat sequence for all
purposes, including Action Cards, combat values, combat bonuses,
Technologies, etc; but track which GF came from which ship or planet when
taking casualties. There is no effect if the Van Hauge is destroyed
mid-combat. At the end of combat, return each GF to the ship or planet it
began on; if the ship has been destroyed, the GF is lost, even if the Yin
intended to then use it in a Planetary Landing.

15.something Saar Space Docks

Saar Space Docks may not use Gravity Drive. They are already forbidden in
the errata from using some other movement-related technologies.

Z.1 Distribution of starting positions.

The galaxy is created normally, but players do not know which Great Race
they will play. Additionally, a player's starting position is "nominal";
from the rules below, they can always take that position if they like it,
but if not, they have a chance to take another position.

A player dealt fewer than two tiles with planets may call for a redeal of
system tiles.
OR
System tiles are "drafted" - take one from your initial stack and pass the
rest of the stack to the player on your left. They select one from that
stack and pass it left, and so forth.

Alternative placement rules (trial):

Fill ring 1 before ring 2, etc.

Subject to that, do not place a red-bordered system next to a red-bordered
system, unless there is no alternative.

Subject to that, if you have more planet systems than non-planet systems,
you must play a planet system, and vice versa. If you have more
multi-planet systems than single-planet systems, you must play a
multi-planet system.

Players are assigned Great Races at random after the galaxy is created,
but before this step. If all players are familiar with the Great Races,
the distribution is secret (deal homeworld hexes face down); otherwise it
is public, with players referring to the reference cards.

If a player really hates the Great Race they are dealt, they may
"mulligan" for one Trade Good, either removed from those given out below
or, failing that, as a debt to be paid off as soon as possible in gameplay.

Every player secretly ranks the starting positions in order of
preference. They must produce an absolute ordering, with no ties... unless
they are taking their nominal starting position as first preference.

The orderings are revealed. Any player who selected their nominal starting
position as first preference automatically starts there.

Whenever a player is assigned a starting position, their preference
list is ignored thereafter, and the starting position is eliminated
from all other players' lists.

After that, if any player has a unique first preference, they receive
that starting position.

If everyone doesn't have a starting position, dice randomly to
determine which of the players who've picked the same first preference
get theirs.

Now (after eliminating preference lists and positions as above) return to
checking for unique first preferences, using the new preference lists;
then dice randomly again, and so forth until everyone has a starting
position.

Now look at the players' original preference lists. Each player
receives a number of Trade Goods equal to the position of their
starting position on that list, minus one. Eg, if you received your
fourth preference, you begin with 3 Trade Goods.

Players now bid for the Speaker token; each player's base bid is equal to
the number of TGs they received above. Start with a random player with the
highest base bid and proceed clockwise. Players can now add the TGs they
received above to their base bid. For example, our player above
automatically bids 3, and can pay TGs to bid up to 6; if every other
player had got at least their third preference, the bidding would open
with that player above. Bidding continues until one player makes a bid
which no other player is willing to exceed. Only the successful player
pays for their bid.

[Option: you can use TGs to support another player's bid. You might do
so to make the player on your right Speaker rather than the player on
your left. You would then pay out if their bid succeeded.]

[Rationale: a completely free galaxy creation scheme leads to analysis
paralysis, but the rules-as-written scheme means a bad tile deal can lead
to disaster. This should avoid the analysis paralysis - it's worth trying
to build a good starting position - but means if you get screwed, in the
worst case you can take a haul of trade goods and the Speaker token to
boost your first round.]

If we played a game right now:

The 9th Strategy card: priority 9, no primary action, use secondaries for
free.
Long War: yes
Bubble Victories: yes
Variant Objectives with problematic pairs: yes
The Wormhole Nexus will always be used.
The optional Action Card procedure will be used.
The mix of Trade Goods (or Ground Force/Fighter bonus counters, etc) is
not limiting.
Mercenaries: No.
Infinite supply of Councillor Generics when all Representatives dead: yes.
Remove Necessary Bureaucracy: yes.
Nominate Political Cards before SC selection: yes.
Alternative placement rules: yes
Support other players' Speaker bid: yes