Strategy Cards (Third Edition)

During the strategy phase, players take turns selecting a strategy card.

Initiative order (turn order for the action phase and status phase) is determined by Strategy Card selection. The lower the Initiative number the higher the initiative.

The majority of strategy cards have a Primary and Secondary ability

* A player can only resolve the primary ability of their own strategy cards.
* A player can only resolve the secondary ability of any strategy cards that were chosen by other players.

There are a total of 22 Strategy Cards in Twilight Imperium Third edition (8 in the Base Game, 9 in the Shattered Empire Expansion (Intended to update/balance the game) and 5 in the Shards of the Throne expansion). Of these, only 8 (One of each number) may be present in a given game

## Setup

During game setup, players must decide which combination of strategy cards they will be using in the game. The options are as follows:

* All 8 Base Game Strategy Cards (1-Initiative, 2-Diplomacy, 3-Political, 4-Logistics, 5-Trade, 6-Warfare, 7-Technology and 8-Imperial)
* Base Game Strategy Cards with Imperial II instead of Imperial (Age of Empire variant only)
* Shattered Empire Strategy Cards Only (1-Leadership, 2-Diplomacy II, 3-Assembly, 4-Production, 5-Trade II, 6-Warfare II, 7-Technology II, 8-Bureaucracy)
* A Mix of Base Game and Expansion Strategy Cards (Any Strategy Card with I/II/III may be swapped out but the rest must remain from either Base Game OR Shattered Empire Expansion)
	+ 1-Initiative, 2-Diplomacy/Diplomacy II, 3-Political/Political II**\***, 4-Logistics, 5-Trade/Trade II/Trade III (m), 6-Warfare/Warfare II, 7-Technology/Technology II, 8-Imperial
	+ 1-Leadership, 2-Diplomacy/Diplomacy II, 3-Assembly/Assembly II**\***, 4-Production, 5-Trade/Trade II/Trade III (m), 6-Warfare/Warfare II, 7-Technology/Technology II, 8-Bureaucracy

(\*) Adds the Political Intrigue option to the game

(m) Adds Mercenaries to the Game

## Shattered Empire Strategy Cards

Imperial II for use in the Age of Empires variant

### Warfare II

The Warfare II Strategy Card allows the use of the High alert token to indicate a "High Alert" System.

All the player's ships that are in the system on High Alert receive +1 movement and +1 to rolls during Space Combat.

* This bonus does not apply to pre-combat abilities and does not affect Ground Forces during Invasion Combat

The active player may optionally move the “High Alert” token with any ships that move out of the system, or they may leave the token where it is. The token is removed at the start of the Status Phase.

The Warfare II secondary ability allows the other players to move any two of their ships in unactivated systems into an adjacent system or systems that they control. This does not activate the destination system(s), meaning that as long as the destination system(s) were not already activated, the moved ships will be able to move later on that round. (Also, because the destination system is not activated, this movement does not trigger PDS Cannon fire.)

Ground Forces may only be picked up or landed during a Tactical or Transfer Action. When using the secondary ability, players may not pick up or land Ground Forces.

## Shards of the Throne Strategy Cards

Political II Strategy card allows the use of the Political Intrigue play optionAssembly II Strategy card allows the use of the Political Intrigue play option when playing with the Shattered Empire Strategy CardsTrade III Strategy card allows the use of Mercenaries in the gameCivilization Strategy card for use in the Fall of the Empire Variant onlyIndustry Strategy card for use in the Fall of the Empire Variant only