Twilight Imperium, a huge 4X space game and household name in the hobbyist board game sphere, has announced a new major boxed expansion. Thunder's Edge will be arriving in October this year, bringing fresh factions, a brand new game mode, and a mechanic built around a powerful legendary planet which can upend the course of a game.
The second ever big expansion for the fourth-edition of this much-acclaimed strategy board game, Thunder's Edge is named after this legendary planet that players can struggle over.
It's unlocked via an expedition, where players can pay costs to add different 'slices' to the planet, like a vast pie. Then, once it's complete, whoever controls the most seizes the planet. There are hefty boons to be gained for holding Thunder's Edge. Firstly, you can take two actions a turn, but you also gain your race's breakthrough, unique, unlockable abilities that are another new feature in this box.
As you'd expect, there are other ways to spice up the game in Thunder's Edge, ranging from event cards that make a big tweak to how Twilight Imperium is played, to a whole new scenario, Twilight's Edge, where everyone plays a different Mahact Gene-Sorcerer king.
Other key features include fracture space, a strange region that can be unlocked and explored through the course of play, and which is full of neutral forces (with their own new pieces) to fight.
There are also five extra factions in the game. Only one has been revealed so far, The Last Basion, a plucky heroic alliance that can galvanise units and liberate planets, making the most out of a small number of planets and forces.
Fantasy Flight says it will be revealing more information about the rest prior to release. And we'll have to wait as, try as we might, we can't zoom in on the art and read the rules for the spandex-covered lizards which also feature.
Finally, the Codex cards from the smaller, digital expansions that were previously only available if you printed them yourself, are included in this box.
Thunder's Edge if available for preorder for $130 from Asmodee's online store. It's releasing October 24, 2025 and requires the base game (but not any previous expansion) to play.
If you've got any great Twilight Imperium war stories, we'd love to hear them over on the Wargmer Discord. We can also recommend more of the best board games, and if you have very specific tastes: the best space board games and alien board games.