Twilight Imperium 4: Prophecy of Kings — Quick Review

Here at Shelfside, we utterly adore Twilight Imperium 4, and with the new ffg expansion, Prophecy of Kings, we have even more of an excuse to keep on playing some TI4 on tabletop board game nights! Pok is the newest and latest expansion for Twilight Imperium 4th edition, with new races, factions, mechanics, and more epic space fighting that you know and love! This quick review covers the general new instructions and gameplay mechanisms found in the rulebook, which mostly has awesome new lore and only 2 pages of new rulings! Despite that, all these new components, cards, and tiles come together to completely upend the strategy, and the meta has vastly shifted with all these crazy new effects and potential theory-crafting. More planets, factions, actions, agendas, objectives, tech, you name it, this is literally more TI4 in a nutshell, and we love it! Though, it does lean on the heavier, more complex side of games for sure...

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Table of Contents:
Intro - (0:00)
Overview - (00:15)
Pros - (1:09)
Cons - (13:54)
Tentative Score - (16:08)
Ashton's Personal Score - (19:55)

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[FiLtheThriL]

I would watch the hell out of a long edited playthrough with occasional confessionals. I believe in you guys. I know what I'm asking. I believe in you.

[ianmcclellan]

❤️ Once you're used to it (i.e 2-3 games with PoK), you can't ever go back. I'm glad you guys tried it and had fun. It does make teaching TI slightly more complex, and rounds last a bit longer, but points are typically a little easier to acquire, meaning fewer total rounds of play. Maybe at most one extra hour of time per game on average, but totally worth it imo.

[daikage]

I just played in an 8 player PoK TI4 game over the weekend. It was insane. Do recommend.

[Muhd_Akmal]

After going Prophecy of Kings, you can never go back. The agents, mechs and explorations just gels with the base game so smoothly. Not to mention the 7 new awesome factions! All kneel before the Mahact!

[TheSnowman]

Good review Ashton. I just got into TI4 thanks to your video and this came out at the perfect time as I’ve been consuming as much TI content as possible.

[graehamwatts]

Dude great video, probably the best review. I’ve watched so far of expansion, and I really liked how you did it with a fun flair, but still explain some of the great dynamics, and even got into some of the details about each faction

[josephfinnegan]

I do hear that most games with experienced players tend to end a round sooner than they normally did with only the base game, so cutting out a round could make up for having the other rounds being a bit chunkier, in terms of time

[pacerat]

A part of me wants this, but another part knows that this would be too much for the people I play with. It may also be too much for my table to handle. I really like the balancing of the factions and additional objectives. It would be nice if there were a PoK-lite.

[RaK]

After playing with the expansion I could never go back. And even with its heavy price tag I would recommend this to anyone. Buy it, learn it, teach it, play it from the first match on.

I started with TI4 and although I liked it very much I felt that the game was lacking in some parts. The expansion with its exploration mechanic, legendary planets and the new leader abilities fixed almost every issue I had.

Contrary to first assumptions the game does not even last longer because it usually it takes a round or two less than before to reach 10VP thanks to the new powers. So playing an epic 14 points match is now more achievable than before. The only real limiting factor now is table space. If you can manage that, this game becomes something truly special. My last round was in November last year. My next is going to be im February. And I'm already excited about it as if it was tomorrow.

[thomasromanelli]

Loved your video and enthusiasm for TI4! BTW, saw Quantum on your shelf in the background... 👍

[BB-pnqv]

"Quick" lol, well for TI I guess this is technically quick.

[hunterhire]

6:16 it makes thematic sense if you watched some, mech based, anime. The mechs stand on the ships firing at enemies, and the enemy pilots target them as if they were turrets.

[arcanitejedi]

Excellent review. Much more balanced and close to 'objective' overview of the expansion than the recent shut up and sit down review. Think you guys really understood who this is for and what it does to the base game.

[sirhc]

You guys really love this Rex: Final days of an Empire spin off ;)

[n.riffer]

You know what the funny thing?

All people complaining about TI and the 7+ hours of playtime

But if you do a easy peacy Boardgame-sunday with friend and you play a little bit of Dominion and Quarks, or maybe Magic the Gathering, you will sit on the table for 7 hours too.

[donbooger]

Great review, I havent played the expansion yet but you said what I was thinking. They are adding more to my biggest, longest game, I was kind of hoping it wasn't going to be that but it turns out its good, really good.

I will have to get it then, but my biggest and longest game just got better but it got bigger and longer.

[Orlandofurioso]

In true TI4 tradition, the expansion alone has more cards and plastic than two average boardgames combined

[acerumble]

Have heard there are some issues with how well the new races mesh with the base ones, as well as how it changes a lot of fundamental TI4 mechanics rather than simply being 'more of a good thing'. Would be interested in somewhere down the road a revisit to this once opportunity comes back around to play thru with actual people in the same room a few times. Thanks for the entertaining and informative video!

[tigerpjm]

I only ever played PoK, so your review of TI as an "easy" game to learn made me feel a bit like I was stupid.

But it was all PoK's fault!

[SilentNSly]

Ooo… An Aborec-Nomad alliance sounds fun to try