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I started playing Twilight Imperium recently, and at least once a month I've managed to get games in this summer. Both base game and Prophecy of Kings. Out of all my games, my favorite time was a base game with only 3 people when I played Arborec. I went in with the common knowledge that they were among the worst factions, but boy did they shine when I had room to expand on a decent start (warfare & tech pic with a nearby yellow skip). I had infantry all over the board by turn four, including neighboring opponent's home systems. The Jol'Nar player got X89 at some point (she called it her "round-up") and started wiping out my nice little gardens off planets but by then it was too late.

So question to you Dakka... what are some of your favorite factions to play for fun, and why?

I've only played Sardakk N'Orr, The Argent Flight, The Cabal and The Barony of Letnev, twice the first faction and once the last three. The Cabal was probably the most interesting from gameplay point of view, but due to different circumstances I've ended up doing essentially nothing of note for the entire game, and didn't even get to use any of their racial abilities. The Barony was another loss, because other players deemed me so powerful I was essentially double teamed since turn one. I've won one Argent Flight game, they felt extremely flexible and good in space combat. Sardakk are my favourite from their appearance, but they have really bland abilities and are quite bad at technology, I've come close to winning both times.

Out of my opponents, however, I've always felt that Naalu are just broken and deserve to be double teamed whenever they're on the table, because their faction abilities, at least to my novice point of view, seem absurdly good in comparison to something Sardakk get.

Sardak seem like a good choice for experienced players who are looking for a challenge. They look like they benefit a lot from PoK with their agents and exploration too.

Naalu has actually won the majority of my games, too. In the hands of veteran players I don't think their slow start is much of a downside when compared to their 0 token, which basically cinched them the game each time.

Zero token + cutting your fleet pool via their faction technology + additional retreat via strategy token + ability to make their fighters invulnerable to anti-fighter barrage. After adding everything up, they are very frustrating to fight.