Thunder's Edge

Published 31 July 2025 | Twilight Imperium Fourth Edition Thunder's Edge Announcing a New Expansion for Twilight Imperium 4th Edition The galaxy stands on the edge of a blade. Disasters approach from all directions, and the Council lacks the united will to respond to any of the threats. In the midst of this turmoil, new leaders arise, bringing visions of a brighter future. As all heads turn to the mysterious world of Thunder’s Edge, these would-be saviors—or conquerors will all be tested. The question remains: will the future lead to calamity, or prosperity? A great struggle is coming, and only the greatest among them all will triumph. Fantasy Flight Games is thrilled to announce Thunder’s Edge, a new expansion for Twilight Imperium 4th Edition! This colossal expansion brings the classic interstellar conflict to a breaking point, where everything revolves around the titular planet of Thunder’s Edge. New factions take to the galactic stage, new worlds emerge for you to explore (or exploit), and multiple new mechanics provide you with more tools in your struggle for the throne. Also included are rules and components for a brand-new way to play the game, Twilight’s Fall, which is almost an entirely new game in and of itself! We’ve got a lot to cover today, so without further ado, let’s dive right into Thunder’s Edge! A New Frontier And what better way to begin a preview of Thunder’s Edge than with a look at the titular planet itself? Beginning the game off the board, the legend of Thunder’s Edge starts with an expedition. At the end of your turn, you can choose to “commit to the expedition” and lay claim to an unclaimed piece of the planet. Each “slice” of Thunder’s Edge has a different cost associated with it, and each slice can only be claimed once. The first time you claim one of the expedition slices, you gain your faction’s “breakthrough,” which is a new faction-specific component that we’ll go over in a moment. After all six slices of Thunder’s Edge are claimed, the expedition is complete, and the player who claimed the final slice flips the tile to its planet side and places it in a system of their choice (so long as that system doesn’t have a planet, supernova, or printed wormhole). Then, the player who claimed the most slices takes control of it, placing infantry on the planet equal to the number of slices they’d claimed.   As a legendary planet, controlling Thunder’s Edge provides some hefty boons. In addition to the planet itself providing an impressive 5 resources, the Jupiter Brain ability on its legendary planet card grants you access to your breakthrough (if you don’t already have it) and lets you perform an extra action at the end of your turn once per round. Being able to perform two actions in one turn breaks open the door to all sorts of possibilities, which means control of this new frontier world could quite literally decide the fate of the game!   Speaking of breaking open possibilities, let’s talk about breakthroughs! In Thunder’s Edge, every faction in the game (including the base game and the Prophecy of Kings expansion) gains one of these special new cards that must be unlocked during gameplay. Every breakthrough has two effects: a special ability, and a “synergy” between two technology colors. The abilities on these breakthroughs are, as you’d expect, quite powerful. For example, the Arborec’s Psychospore $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#156AA').colorbox(opts); }); breakthrough lets them use an action to remove a command token from a system and gain an infantry there, opening that system up for an additional tactical action that round. In the Embers of Muaat’s case, their Stellar Genesis $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#C3C').colorbox(opts); }); breakthrough lets them create an entirely new planet! In addition to their abilities, each breakthrough grants synergy between two technology colors. This is a fairly simple yet powerful effect: whenever you are researching technology or scoring technology-related objectives, you can treat the technology colors on your breakthrough as either of the two for the purpose of fulfilling requirements (but not both). This means that the Arborec’s breakthrough allows them to treat their red technology/technology specialties as green ones or vice versa, while the Embers of Muaat’s breakthrough lets them treat red as yellow or yellow as red. You can choose which color to use between the two at any given time, but you can’t use both at once, so be sure to plan accordingly! Naturally, gaining your faction’s breakthrough is a serious boon, but there’s something else that can be triggered alongside them: The Fracture. This enigmatic area of space isn’t connected to the rest of the galaxy in the traditional sense, and it is chock full of rewards and resources for you and your opponents to explore. Whenever a player gains their breakthrough, they roll a die. If the result is a 1 or a 10, The Fracture enters play. The Fracture has its own set of system tiles, and they can only be accessed through “ingress tokens,” which are placed at certain spots throughout the galaxy when The Fracture enters play. Each planet within The Fracture gives you a relic when you gain control of it, and the new legendary planet Styx $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 462, innerWidth: 300 }; $('#CF01').colorbox(opts); }); also gives you a victory point for as long as you have it, thanks to its ability, A Song Like Marrow $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 462 }; $('#12754').colorbox(opts); }); . However, you won’t be able to just waltz in and take these planets for yourself—after all, this alternate space is already occupied! Thunder’s Edge introduces a set of “neutral units” to the galactic stage, represented by their own set of gray unit pieces. These units are non-player forces that engage you in combat if you enter their turf, and The Fracture enters play with a handful of neutral units guarding each planet. Other effects can occasionally bring neutral units into play as well, making the galaxy feel more alive than ever. An Eventful Galaxy Up until this point, we’ve been covering the new features of Thunder’s Edge that can come up during a game of Twilight Imperium. However, this expansion also introduces a new mechanic that can affect the game from the very beginning: galactic events!   These optional special event cards can be chosen during setup, and each of them provides new modifiers and rules that can significantly impact the way the game is played. For example, the Stellar Atomics $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 514 }; $('#73AE').colorbox(opts); }); event grants each player a one-time delete button that can wipe a planet clean of enemy forces, but also bars them from voting in the agenda phase if they do so. The Age of Commerce $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 514 }; $('#11E4C').colorbox(opts); }); event boosts the galactic economy to soaring heights, while the Age of Fighters $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 514 }; $('#C398').colorbox(opts); }); event changes what space combat looks like for the entire game. The Civilized Society $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 514 }; $('#2CE4').colorbox(opts); }); makes scoring public objectives a much more “civil” affair, while the Dangerous Wilds $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 514 }; $('#1051E').colorbox(opts); }); event fills hazardous planets with deadly fauna that must be dealt with if you want to establish a foothold. There are 20 of these galactic event cards in total, and you can mix and match them to create your own unique Twilight Imperium experience. With so many options at your disposal, no two games will ever be the same! Newcomers to the Galactic Stage Of course, this wouldn’t be an expansion to Twilight Imperium without some new playable factions! There are five new factions included in Thunder’s Edge, each with their own spread of unique abilities, faction-specific mechs and technologies, leaders, and more. Let’s take a look at one of these new factions now: Introducing Last Bastion! Born from what was supposed to be a temporary joint military expedition between the Xxcha Kingdom and the Federation of Sol, the Salient Sun Joint Task Force found themselves in an unwinnable situation when the Nekro Virus interrupted their mission. Despite years of fighting a hopeless battle, the Xxcha and Human soldiers forged an unbreakable bond, and their sheer determination caused others to rally to their cause. Eventually, after clawing their way to victory against impossible odds, the Salient Sun declared themselves an independent state—a bulwark against the destructive forces menacing planets on the rim; a Last Bastion. As a symbol of hope in a harsh frontier, Last Bastion is used to getting the most out of what little resources they have available. Their Liberate ability can potentially allow you to immediately ready a planet if you gain control of it with enough infantry, giving you immediate access to that planet’s resources and influence. This combines well with their space docks, the 4X41C “Helios” VI, which allow the Bastion to increase the effective resource value of their planets. This means the faction can get a surprising amount of mileage out of just a few systems. That said, once the Bastion is able to spread their influence, they can utilize their flagship, the Egeiro, to great effect, gaining a boost in combat capability for every non-home system they’ve placed a flag in! The Bastion’s resourcefulness is certainly one of their greatest strengths, but where they truly shine is in their ability to “galvanize” their forces. A galvanized unit rolls an additional die for all combat rolls and unit abilities, essentially doubling their effectiveness across the board. This represents Last Bastion’s indomitable spirit and, once again, their ability to get the most out of what little they have. You can galvanize a unit through the use of the Bastion’s Phoenix Standard ability or through effects like those on their mech, the A3 Valiance $(document).ready(function() { var opts = { iframe: true, innerHeight: 300, innerWidth: 461 }; $('#41EE').colorbox(opts); }); , and you’ll want to do so as much as possible to show the galaxy exactly why the Bastion never gave up in the face of impossible odds! We’ll introduce the other four new factions at a later date, so look forward to seeing who else is taking to the galactic stage! In addition to introducing new factions to the game, Thunder’s Edge also provides a pile of resources for all the previously-released factions, including a spread of brand-new faction reference cards! These cards provide a detailed snapshot of each faction’s abilities, starting units/technology, and other details on what makes them stand out among the rest, as well as provide a general complexity gauge to help you narrow down the choices when choosing who to play. Alternatively, since these reference cards all have the same back, you can use them as a handy and easy way to randomize or even draft factions during setup, giving you even more options to help you mix up your game! A Collected Codex By now, we’ve covered quite a bit of what can be found within the Thunder’s Edge expansion, but we’re still not done! Alongside the mountain of new content unique to the expansion itself, Thunder’s Edge also includes a compilation of the standard game components from each Twilight Codex, which were all previously only available through print-and-play. This includes the Codex action cards, relics, exploration cards, the entire Council Keleres faction, and more. Now, every fan of Twilight Imperium can experience this expanded content for the game, even if you couldn’t get it printed before. This means that nearly all the content for Twilight Imperium 4th Edition is now officially collected and available between its three products: the base game, Prophecy of Kings, and now Thunder’s Edge.   But that’s not all! In addition to providing all of the Codex content, Thunder’s Edge also includes a little “faction booster” for the spinoff in the Twilight Imperium franchise, Twilight Inscription! This roll-and-write game already had the first 24 Twilight Imperium factions as playable options, and Thunder’s Edge adds the remaining 6 to round out the roster. That said, if you know someone who only owns Twilight Inscription and still wants to have all the factions, tell them not to worry; the new faction cards will also be uploaded as free print-and-play content to our website around the release of Thunder’s Edge. The epic roll-and-write experience just got a little bigger! Twilight’s Fall Finally, we have a brand-new way to play Twilight Imperium, Twilight’s Fall! Set in a dark alternate future, the Twilight’s Fall mode has each player take up the mantle of a mad Mahact king, building their own custom faction from the scraps of interstellar civilization. With its own spread of unique faction sheets, strategy cards, and components, Twilight’s Fall is practically an entire new game in and of itself. We’ll share more details about this colossal addition to the game in its own dedicated article at a later date, so stay tuned! Echoes of Memory And if that’s not enough Twilight Imperium for you, our partners at Aconyte Books have also just announced their next Twilight Imperium novel, Thunder’s Edge: Echoes of Memory! Written by Sarah Cawkwell, this novel serves as a prequel to the events of the Thunder’s Edge expansion and follows the familiar face of the Hacan war hero Harrugh Gerfara. Here’s a blurb from Aconyte to give you a little taste of what’s to come: The Golden General, Harrugh Gerfara, desperately wants to understand the vast differences between the many species peppering the galaxy. When a traumatic meeting leads to a dire warning about the destruction of the universe, the reluctant hero dons his armor and sets out to explore a mysterious planet called Thunder’s Edge. Guided by incomprehensible visions, his expedition quickly becomes one of pure survival as he and his crew are ambushed by the insidious Nekro Virus. Crash landing into uncharted territory, Harrugh soon realizes Thunder’s Edge’s momentous secrets demand all his cunning to unravel, unleashing a dark fate that will offer salvation or vaporize the world as he knows it. A Gathering Storm With countless new components, five new factions, and an entire new game mode in Twilight’s Fall, Thunder’s Edge is a truly colossal expansion packed to the brim with new content. Fans of Twilight Imperium won’t want to miss out on this juggernaut and the tremendous additions it brings to the game. Look forward to adding Thunder’s Edge to your collection when it arrives on the galactic stage this October!   Written by Peter Schumacher Discuss this article in our forums!