The Twilight Codex

The Omega Initiative section is a regular feature that contains revised content. With each edition of the Codex we will revisit existing components and provide alternative versions that expand their usage. Components from this section replace preexisting components of the same name and type.

Ordinian

During this scenario, players fight for control of a disabled Argent Flight flagship, the Coatl, which begins the game in the Ordinian nebula in the center of the game board. Like a standard game, the game ends when a player gains their tenth victory point.

Setup

The rules for setup are modified as follows:

2. ASSIGN FACTIONS: Each player chooses from among the following factions: The Arborec The Embers of Muaat The Ghosts of Creuss The L1Z1X Mindnet The Nekro Virus The Barony of Letnev
3. GATHER FACTION SPECIFIC COMPONENTS: The Nekro Virus player does not take the “Valefar Assimilator X” or “Y” faction technologies. Instead, that player uses the “???_EXCEPTION_NO_ID_???” and “????_REDACTED_????” technologies that it has assimilated from the Argent Flight.
6. CREATE GAME BOARD: Players create the game board using the diagram on the right. NOTE: Mecatol Rex is not used.
7. PLACE CUSTODIANS TOKEN: Place the custodians token on the nebula system tile located at the center of the game board with its ‘6’ side faceup.
11. GATHER STARTING COMPONENTS: The Nekro Virus player places the Alastor, two dreadnoughts, and two fighters from their reinforcements in the Nebula at the center of the game board in addition to their regular starting units. The Nekro Virus player also begins with its assimilated technologies in play as if they were Nekro faction technologies.

The Argent Flight

The custodians token represents the Argent Flight flagship, the Coatl. Standard rules for the custodians token are not used.

The Coatl (custodians token) has the following unique properties:

• A player gains control of the Coatl if they are the only player that has ships in its system. A player loses control of the Coatl if they no longer have ships in its system.
• Players cannot use SPACE CANNON abilities of their units against ships in the system that contains the Coatl.
• The Coatl begins the game damaged. At the start of a player’s turn, if they control the Coatl, they can spend 6 resources to repair it and flip it to its ‘1 Victory Point’ side. After the Coatl is repaired, the agenda phase is added to the game. Controlling the repaired Coatl is worth 1 victory point to the player that controls it.
• The repaired Coatl is treated as a ship with a move value of 1 for the purposes of the movement step only, and the player that controls the Coatl can move it as if it were one of their ships. It does not participate in combat, it cannot retreat, and it cannot be destroyed.
• Game effects that refer to Mecatol Rex or its system instead refer to the system that contains the Coatl.
• If the Coatl is in a player’s home system, it is worth 1 additional victory point to that player, and they cast 6 additional votes on each agenda during the agenda phase.

Twilight Imperium: Fourth Edition has had a number of rules updates and errata since its release. Each of these can be found in the Living Rules Reference, available on our website. Several of the more impactful adjustments are listed below, and printable versions of adjusted components are available alongside the Twilight Codex components.

Diplomacy Strategy Card

The “Diplomacy” strategy card’s primary ability has received errata to allow the resolving player to refresh any two of their planets, rather than each planet in the chosen system. This adjustment was made to increase the power of the primary ability when compared to the secondary ability, and to make it a more worthwhile pick during the strategy phase.

Hyper Metabolism

An error in the original printing of Twilight Imperium left this biotic technology with incorrect text. Instead of providing two command tokens during the status phase—which is already the default—the technology provides three, increasing the total number of command tokens received by one.

Gravity Rifts

To avoid a number of unusual mechanical interactions, the timing and exact effect of gravity rifts has been adjusted. Now, units will roll for the gravity rift as they pass through it rather than in the destination system, and units that fail to survive the roll are removed from the board and returned to players’ reinforcements rather than being destroyed—meaning that abilities that trigger when a unit is destroyed are not resolved.

Retreating With Infantry

Retreating from a combat while transporting ground forces that are on planets in the active system—previously a cumbersome and often confusing process—has been streamlined. Players no longer need to move ground forces from a planet to the space area during the “Announce Retreats” step. Instead, when a ship moves as part of a retreat, it can transport ground forces that are on planets in its system as normal.

Rerolls During Combat

Abilities that reroll or modify dice during combat no longer need to be used immediately following a single die roll. Instead, a player can roll dice for all of their units in the combat before deciding which—if any—to reroll.

Faction Reference Cards

The Omega Initiative section is a regular feature that contains supplementary or revised content. This edition of the Codex contains a set of reference cards that can be used to draft factions and to provide a quick summary of a faction’s capabilities for new players or anyone who needs a reminder.

One of these reference cards is presented in the diagram below. The rest can be found in the high-quality PDF found alongside this document. These cards are standard poker sized, and are a new card type that is not found in Twilight Imperium: Fourth Edition or the Prophecy of Kings expansion.

Alliance Reference Cards

This edition of the codex also includes the oft-requested reference cards for Alliance promissory notes. These can be given to recipients of an Alliance to easily reference what the giving player’s commander ability is, once it is unlocked. These cards will also be used in the Alliance Game Variant found in the Pax Magnifica section of this Codex on page 13.

One of these reference cards is presented to the right. The rest can be found in the high-quality PDF found alongside this document. These cards are mini American sized. Additionally, they are a new card type and are not combined with any other cards from Twilight Imperium: Fourth Edition or the Prophecy of Kings expansion.

Alliance Game Variant

In this game variant, players form teams of two against 1–3 other alliances. This variant can be played with four, six, or eight players and is compatible with premade maps for those player counts and any number of faction, seat, or ally drafting methods that players wish to experiment with.

Setup

The rules for setup are modified as follows:

2. CHOOSE FACTIONS: Each player must also be assigned an ally. Determine which pairs of players will be allies.
3. CHOOSE COLOR: Each player purges their “Alliance” promissory note. Then, each player takes the Alliance reference card (found in this document) that corresponds to their ally and places it into their play area. Additionally, each player flips their commander to its unlocked side; all commanders are unlocked at the start of the game. NOTE: While the Mahact Gene-Sorcerers faction does not typically have an “Alliance” promissory note, they do have an Alliance reference card.

Transactions

When performing transactions with your ally, players follow a modified set of rules:

convert into trade goods.

of a transaction (to later give to another player, for example), you cannot resolve those promissory notes.

Movement and Control

your ally’s ships; this does not trigger a space combat.

ally; this does not trigger a ground combat or cause you to gain control of that planet.

tokens, they may also exchange planet cards with their ally, provided that the receiving player has at least 1 ground force or structure on that planet. This exchange does not change the ready or exhausted state of a planet card and does not trigger abilities that occur when you gain control of a planet.

• When your ally activates a system, you may simultaneously perform a tactical action into that system with your ally; if you do, you must spend and place a token from your tactic pool as normal.
• You may, if your ally allows it, transport, support, and commit their fighters and ground forces using your units that have capacity.

Combat and Unit Abilities

• During a combat or unit ability roll where a player and their ally each have units present, both can participate in the same combat; their rolls are combined and hits are assigned as normal. When an opposing force produces hits against allied players, the allies will decide together which units the hits will be assigned against; if they cannot come to a consensus, the active player assigns the hits.
• Effects that produce hits that are assigned by an opponent against an allied pair can be assigned to either ally’s units in any combination.

Abilities and Effects

• Your ally’s units count as neither your units nor as ‘other players’ units for the purpose of resolving game effects and abilities.
• Abilities that trigger when a player activates a system that contains another player’s units, planets, or command tokens do not trigger when those players are allies.
• Your unit abilities (space cannon, planetary shield, etc.) do not affect your ally.
• Agent abilities can be used on your ally.
• Your ally’s planets count as your planets for the purpose of resolving abilities, but you cannot exhaust them and they do not count for scoring objectives or scoring the “Imperial” victory point.

Elimination

• A player cannot be eliminated as long as their ally controls a planet.

Winning the Game

• The game is played using the “14” side of the victory point track. One player must have 14 victory points and their ally must have at least 10 victory points in order for that alliance to win the game.

The Omega Initiative section is a regular feature that contains supplementary or revised content. This edition of the Codex contains several reworks of Prophecy of Kings leader content, as well as a fresh take on a particular set of secret objectives.

These cards can be found in the high-quality PDF found alongside this document. They are standard American mini cards, and replace their corresponding counterparts from the Prophecy of Kings expansion.

Xxcha Hero

To reduce the wild and oftentimes unstoppable swing (or miss) of the Xxcha hero, Political Data Nexus has been reenvisioned to help the Xxcha both in and out of the Agenda phase in a new and unique way.

The Yin Brotherhood

The Yin Brotherhood are the first faction to have leaders that have gone through the Omega Initiative, and all three of its leaders have received reworks of varying degrees.

Brother Milor sees his usage expanded to cover ground combat as well as space combat. Use him in conjunction with Quantum Dissemination and Indoctrination for great effect.

With Brother Omar, we revisit the technological prowess of the Yin, breathing new life into their technologies with the ability to pick and choose tech from those already at the table.

With Dannel of the Tenth’s Quantum Dissemination, we see the Greyfire mutagen being turned to more nefarious purposes, and the ability of the Yin to menace the other factions is improved significantly.

The Naalu

Like the Yin Brotherhood, the Naalu Collective also sees a number of revisions with this edition of the Codex. In addition to two of their leaders, their mech has also been adjusted.

The new Z’eu brings the full force of a Naalu operative to the table, affording the Naalu a much greater degree of flexibility in their opening rounds, while remaining an enticing prize for the Naalu to sell later in the game.

The all-knowing Crystalline Sorceress M’aban now allows unfettered access into the minds of the council. Use this knowledge wisely.

The Iconoclast has been given a serious revision, and now extends a degree of protection to any of the Naalu’s crystalline fighters that are within its system.

Secret Objectives

This infamous trio of secret objectives has been adjusted to match expectations a little more closely and should now synergize with various action cards and abilities that make completing them a little more intuitive.

Liberation of Ordinian

During this scenario, players fight over the Nekro-devoured world of Ordinian. The remnants of the Salient Sun joint task force hope to win the hearts and minds of the people of the galactic rim by liberating Ordinian. Meanwhile, suspicious opportunists seek to learn the source of the upstart faction’s rising power...

Setup

This scenario requires six players and the Prophecy of Kings expansion. The rules for setup are modified as follows:

1. DETERMINE SPEAKER: The player who chooses the Nekro Virus in the next step is the speaker.
2. ASSIGN FACTIONS: Each player chooses from among the following factions. Xxcha Kingdom Federation of Sol Ghosts of Creuss Naaz-Rokha Alliance Nekro Virus (Speaker) Nomad
3. GATHER FACTION SPECIFIC COMPONENTS: In addition to the standard faction setup:

• The Xxcha Kingdom and Federation of Sol players are allied; they resolve the setup step 3 from the Alliance game variant in Codex II. They also gain the FSS Orlando hero card.
• The Ghosts of Creuss player replaces their leaders with the three Unknown leaders.
• The Nekro Virus player does not take the “Valefar Assimilator X” or “Y” faction technologies. Instead, that player uses the “???_NULL_REFERENCE_???” and “???_ERROR_ERROR_???” technologies that it has assimilated from stragglers of another titanic struggle...

4. CHOOSE COLOR: The Ghosts of Creuss must choose Red.
6. CREATE GAME BOARD: Players create the game board using the diagram on the right. Place the Ordinian system tile in the center. NOTE: Mecatol Rex is not used.
7. PLACE CUSTODIANS TOKEN: Do not place the custodians token.
11. GATHER STARTING COMPONENTS: In addition to the standard starting components:

• The Nekro Virus player starts with the Ordinian planet card and its legendary planet card. They gain 1 additional command token in their fleet pool and place the following units in the Ordinian (nebula) system: 2 dreadnoughts, 2 carriers, 4 fighters, and 4 infantry.
• The Ghosts of Creuss player places 1 cruiser, 1 carrier, and 2 infantry in the Creuss Gate.
• The Naaz-Rokha Alliance player gains the Circlet of the Void relic.
• The Nomad player gains the Neuraloop relic.

12. PREPARE OBJECTIVES: Place the Liberate Ordinian objective card faceup next to the other Stage I objectives.

Special Rules

• The Federation of Sol and Xxcha Kingdom players represent the Salient Sun joint task force; they are allied using the rules from the Alliance game variant in Codex II. However, the number of victory points they need is different as described the next section.
• Both the Xxcha and Sol player must agree in order to use the FSS Orlando.
• Game effects that refer to Mecatol Rex or its system instead refer to Ordinian and its system.
• After the first Stage II objective is revealed, flip the Liberate Ordinian objective card to its Stage II side (Control Ordinian) and remove all tokens from it; victory points scored from its Stage I side are kept, but the Stage I objective can no longer be scored.

Winning the Game

The game ends when either:

• Within the alliance of The Federation of Sol and the Xxcha Kingdom, one of those players has 12 victory points and the other has 10 victory points.
• Any other player has 10 victory points.