Twilight imperium third edition is one of the best games i have come across, it´s really cool, but takes a lot of time, especially if you play a long war (took 14 hours)
Robert Otto created one in May 2022 called Total Civil War 1861-1865 and had it produced in limited quantities as a full boxed set … but at $350 a copy it was expensive (though considering only about 50 … maybe 100 … were printed, it makes sense to me (as a publisher)).
Unfortunately I don’t think he plans on doing it again and the website he had for taking orders is no longer available.
As for why it wasn’t released by MB/Wizards/Et.al. is probably because of a lower demand (even if only perceived) vs other projects. They also pretty much abandoned anything new or novel for the line quite a long time ago and just updated or tweaked and rehashed everything repeatedly. Their last great ‘innovation’ was A&A Zombies. Now that it’s in the hands of Renegade Games, who knows; they’re more open to new games.
TI III, well…a matter of taste really, but what you should try to get your hands on is TI II and its extension, Hope’s End. At least the players I know prefer TI II by far.
So, Twilight Struggle. Great game, or awesome game?
Seriously, one of my very few friends in the area who plays wargames introduced me to it a month or two ago, and I can’t get enough of it. It’s relatively easy to learn to play, but deceptively difficult to get good at (I think I’m improving, but I still lose 8 out of 10 games at least). Anyone else ever played it? (And for that matter, anyone want to arrange to play a game or two either over Vassal or wargameroom.com?)
I have played TI3 many times. But now my gaming group had enough of it for a while. The thing is that you spend most of your time building up an empire (even with simulated early turns), then get into a war and al is won or lost with a major battle, in which both sides spend all their extreme action cards. Then one side will have won that battle and their is no reason whatsoever to stop the war and let your victim live. Except if others attack you in the back.
We also play a lot of Napoleon in Europe (Eagle Games) and there you always have the opportunity to sue for peace. Sure, you’ll lose a couple of provinces, but you may not get DoW-ed by the aggressor for a year and your army is intact.