On Nov 12, 2022, played my second game of Twilight Imperium 4 at Dallas’ House. These are my notes to myself after that game. I played less well that the first game, which was frustrating, since I thought I learned more after that first game.
You really have to lean into your Factions abilities, even if you don't feel like it. I played Yssaril and didn't feel like being the player who looks at and takes other people's action cards, but then I felt extra weak and lost compared to every faction around me. That part probably is a normal feeling, but I think I definitely was extra hobbling myself. I could have seen the cards of my enemies and taken the best ones and been prepared for the others. I could have bargained not looking/taking for things of value like trade goods. Billy was smart, he parlayed his factional advantage into tangibles (money) and I exchanged ceasefire cards with him when I was weak to his freshly purchased fleet with all his money. Also saw Gary playing L1Z1X not using his built-in aggression enough, which made him trail all game. Same with Rachel as Naalu, she used her easy-to-use ability, but not the one requiring being dickly. Also, why didn't I build my flagship? Its power would have been useful in the endgame, not that I challenged for the win, but I could have done something about the winner.
You have to defend your “pie slice” (saw that on BGG, accurate), but the flip side of that is that you can't make Alliances on both sides of you. This gives you nowhere to expand, and puts you in ‘make nice’ positions that could be disadvantageous to you in the long run. Both Rachel and I did this and we were not successfully in getting VPs toward the endgame. Granted that Billy did this and was the winner with Hacan, but he employed other strategies, such as aggressively getting VP without fighting but leaning into his factional abilities, as above. I had to cross an asteroid field (tech required), or go around through and inside hex (mechatol-adjacent) that would require contest, or fly through empty space hex (so far! Telegraphing) to engage with Billy's yellow Hacan, and it just seemed too inconvenient, so I didn't do it. I kept looking at the empty hex as a waste. However, on the other side of me, I parked ships at the wormhole exit for protection and they just sat there as well in empty space. Eventually Billy occupied the hex between us and made that pathway closed as well.
Don't make a lot of easy deals with people, especially for unspecified future considerations. This is definitely disadvantageous to you, especially if you are giving someone VPs for nothing and no pathway. This should be expensive for them in goods or cards or planets or something. You won't recover (relative to them at least) from this. Also, you should talk down other players from them doing the same thing. I did this last game, and somehow got sweet-talked into it again this game. Granted, it is bad to fight hard over something that relatively advantages another player vs. you wrt VPs and get depleted and be third-partied anyway, but why are you playing if not for some conflict?
If you don't have a goal in mind on every turn that gets VPs or puts you on direct track to them, you need other secret goals and it's worth money to get them. I sat on secret goals for most of the game that I knew I could not cash in, and I didn't have overriding considerations for any of the public goals. I turtled–protecting not much–and took too long to ramp up to the one major attack I did, in which Nik foiled one of the two secret goal VPs I would have gotten, because eventually, and just before my attack while holding a bombardment objective, he placed a PDS on the planet I meant to attack–I attacked anyway for the 1 VP and just earned enmity from both Gary and Nik (the attack was successful, despite my error not using Yssaril tech I could have gotten to take away Gary's devastating action cards).
Billy won, did more things right and played well. He even helped me in my big battle and played nice with a system he took (still didn't/wasn't in a position to stop him for his objective VP).
Dallas played well, challenged for the win, but made a critical mistake mid-game, partly unaware of how randomizing players and action cards can be, but more than that, not protecting his expensive War Sun with soaking escorts. He brought fighters but didn't think of the cards/tech that evade fighters. Don't Let This Happen. It made him furious, but I would have been the same! Jol-Nar held his own against Nik's Sol and vs Gary's L1Z1X, dealing with incursions/VP tradeoffs. He definitely leaned into his tech, but did have a few scraps.
Nik played very well, his strength in Faction got him to mechatol Rex first and he defended it very well all game. He should have reached across the board to blunt Billy's Hacan, the obvious threat, but he also made huge error early game exposing his home world that Gary as Red L1Z1X honorably let him recover from. That said, he was worried afterwards about his flanks and rear getting harried and I think that blunted his aggression. Making a late-game alliance with Gary's L1Z1Z might have been a better early strategy, assuming he could convince L1Z1X to expand right over Green Naalu and blunt Yellow Hacan threat.
Rachel's Naalu did a lot of alliance stuff with Gary's Red faction, but it didn't look like she got a lot out of it, some VPs from friendly horse-trading and allowances, but she never had a fight, either, until maybe the end, and never used the alliance to take Mechatol from Nik's Blue, and just hung around (like me!)