Planets and Systems (Third Edition)

The game board for Twilight Imperium is formed using modular system tiles. Each tile represents a single system in the galaxy, which may contain one or more planets or other celestial bodies.

As players move about the galaxy and expand their empire beyond their home systems, they will gain control of new planets

## Home Systems

Each player begins the game with their units on a system with planet(s) unique to their chosen faction, known as their home system. Home system tiles are differentiated by having yellow borders

## Mecatol Rex

Mecatol Rex is the planet placed in the center of the game board during setup. It contains the ruins of the Lazax Empire and its control is sought after by all playable factions

## Regular Systems

Regular systems contain 1-3 planets with varying numbers of resources and influence

Some planets have a technology specialty, marked by the symbol for either green, blue, yellow or red technology. A player that has control of one or more of these planets may satisfy a prerequisite when researching technology (i.e. they can be used as 'technology skips/discounts')

Note that Yellow (General) technology specialty planets are not counted for the purpose of Objectives

### Shattered Empire

The Shattered Empire Expansion introduced 14 new regular systems

Some of these have special Refresh Abilities, indicated by a symbol marked to the right of the influence value. A refresh ability allows a player to exhaust that planet during the status phase to obtain designated unit/trade goods. Units obtained in this method must be placed on that planet.

* allows the player to obtain 2 Fighters (Need to have a ship with capacity in the system)
* allows the player to obtain 2 Ground Forces
* allows the player to obtain 2 Shock Troops (Need to already have a Ground Force on the planet or they revert to normal Ground Forces)
* indicates a Trade Station, which can be refreshed for 2 Trade Goods

### Shards of the Throne

The Shards of the Throne Expansion introduced 5 new regular systems, all having at least 1 technology specialty

### Gallery

A regular system with 3 planets introduced in the Shattered Empire expansionA regular system with a planet that has a Yellow Technology specialtyThe planet Mirage with the Fighter refresh symbolThe Arcturus system, which contains Sumerian, a Space Station

## Special Systems

There are multiple Special Systems in the game. Special systems contain cosmic phenomena which affect ships' movement. These are identified by having a red border (with the exception of the Wormhole Nexus' green border)

* Asteroid Field
	+ Cannot be moved into and can never be activated
	+ Can only be moved through with the use of the Antimass Deflector technology
* Nebula
	+ Can only be moved into but never through
	+ Any ship leaving a nebula has its movement reduced to 1 (regardless of technology modifiers and action cards)
	+ Any ship defending in a nebula gets +1 to all Combat rolls
* Supernova: Cannot be activated, entered or traveled through
* Ion Storm (Introduced in the Shattered Empire Expansion)
	+ Can only be moved into but never through
	+ PDS cannot fire at ships in Ion Storms
	+ Fighters do not roll dice during combat inside Ion Storms, but may still be taken as casualties
* Wormhole Nexus (Introduced in the Shattered Empire Expansion): Contains 1 planet (Malice:0 resources, 3 influence) as well as 1 Alpha and 1 Beta Wormhole
	+ Placed off the board and can only be traveled to using Alpha or Beta wormholes
	+ Adjacent to any system with an Alpha or Beta wormhole
* Gravity Rift (Introduced in the Shards of the Throne Expansion)
	+ Can be moved into and through
	+ When ships move out of or through they must roll a die. On a 1-5 that ship is destroyed
	+ If multiple ships move out on the same activation, there is a separate roll for each (non-Fighter) ship
	+ If a ship with capacity is destroyed; all units it is carrying are also destroyed
* Cormund System (Introduced in the Shards of the Throne Expansion): Contains 1 planet (Cormund: 2 resources, 0 influence) as well as a Gravity Rift
* Everra System (Introduced in the Shards of the Throne Expansion): Contains 1 planet (Everra: 3 resources, 1 influence) as well as a Nebula

## Empty Systems

Some systems contain no planets or special phenomena. These systems have no notable features and may be traveled into and out of as normal