Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)E.T.I.: Estimated Time to Invasion is the second game from Eye-Level Entertainment. It is considerably more ambitious than their card game. The basic idea of the game is that players are one of the leading research companies selected to help defend Earth from an alien invasion. The players research projects that will help defend the Earth, the tricky part is that one of the players is secretly the alien and will reveal himself once enough projects have been completed.
Components
The game has many components. There are 6 company boards, an alien board, 180 green tokens, 30 red tokens, a sand timer, an ISSA badge (start player marker), and 12 company logos. The game has many cards organized into various decks. In all there are 6 human endgame cards, 90 research cards, 40 project cards, 25 event cards, 4 alien endgame cards and 18 agenda cards.
The research cards are relatively standard and are of good quality. The other cards are square and are decent but not as nice as the research cards. Some of the edges feel more than a little rough. There is also an instruction booklet and a flow chart to help with the play of the game.
Overall, the components are of good quality and are evocative of the late 60s theme.
Setting/Theme
The setting for the game is the mid-sixties and the players are the leaders of the top research companies in the world. They have been contacted by the International Space Security Agency to help prepare the Earth to resist a coming alien invasion.
The components have a nice retro-look and definitely help to evoke the late 60s. The game boards, with their simulated leds are sheer genius, there are way too many tokens, but it definitely adds to the feel when you look across your game board and see that string of green lights for things you've accomplished. Overall, I think the theme is entertaining and original and I believe the components help support the theme.
Rules
The rules are pretty straightforward, but the rulebook could be better organized in a few places. The game consists of three phases: set-up, research, and the invasion.
In the setup, each player chooses a company and then the players are randomly assigned endgame strategies. One of the players is always going to be one of the four alien endgames. The players then create their companies based on strength and weaknesses. They start with 1 in each of 4 attributes and are given 3 extra points to assign on their own.
The attributes are Staffing, which governs how many cards you draw during research; Creativity, which allows you to swap adjacent research cards; Analysis, which lets you look at some of your research cards; and Security, which allows you to ignore one or more threats. During this phase, the players also turn over 1 less project card than there are players (so 4 players puts 3 projects in the middle) and choose their starting project to research.
At this point, the game goes into the research phase, which is the majority of the game. Players resolve an event, then simultaneously take one of three actions each turn; they can conduct research, submit findings, or switch projects.
The events change things in the course of the game. Most will give a benefit to the player who wins a vote. The votes are based on completed projects, with each tech level counting as one vote. Some votes are based on stats and projects which helped that stat will get a bonus.
Each project has several attributes, a tech level, a field of study, a fame score, a defense score, a cost, and possibly one or more attribute bonuses. The surviving player with the highest fame will win the game; the defense value is used to stave off the alien invasion.Players who conduct research receive a number of cards face down around their gameboard, which has numbered spaces (called dataports) for 14 cards. The basic number of cards is based on Staffing, but you also get one extra card for every completed project in the same field. Depending on his Analysis rating a player may be able to look at some of these cards.
Players can also Submit Findings, which means they are attempting to complete a project. When findings are submitted, they can either be scored the "safe" way, producing 10 points per card, or the "standard" way, which involves flipping the research cards. The cards come in 3 types: numbers, multipliers, and threats. Numbers range from 10 - 50 and provide that many research points towards the project. Multipliers multiply the value of the number before them. If there isn't a number before them, they have no effect. Threats wipe out the highest number card AFTER them in the sequence.
The player counts up his points and if he has enough points between his findings and databank, he finishes the project. If he doesn't' have enough points, the points are put in the databank. The successful project is put into either his top secret (counts for more defense in the end game) or Public Domain (counts for more fame if you survive). If the project provides a bonus, then the company track for that stat is updated.
If two players complete a project on the same turn, whoever has the highest research total wins (in case of a tie, the president decides). The other player can keep up to 100 of his points.
The last thing a player can do is switch projects. This lets you change your current project and save at least some of your research.
If any projects have been completed, the player who finished them then puts out a new project and any players who are not currently on a project can choose a new one.
Play continues like this until a number of projects have been completed (3 per player in the standard game). Once that happens, the alien may reveal himself - he can also hold off, but must reveal himself when the number of projects is at the next level (4 per player in the standard game).
Once the alien is revealed, the players have a limited number of turns left to play and then the invasion begins.
During the invasion, the alien player uses research cards to attack the other players. This is done by dealing them facedown. There are some manipulations and the alien can also play one additional card for every 2 projects he completed. Once all the attacks are in place, the cards are revealed and totaled. The humans must sacrifice projects with defense equal to or greater than the alien's attack or else his company is destroyed. If all the companies are destroyed, then the alien wins. If one or more survives, the one with the highest fame will win.
Observations
The biggest problem with the game is that there is a bit of a "rich get richer" mechanic. Because most events are resolved by votes and votes are based on completed projects, players who have completed more projects tend to win the votes which give them more projects or attributes. There are some events in place to help thwart this, but I don't think there are enough.
Conversely, if there isn't a runaway leader, it can be very difficult to catch up once you fall behind on projects.
The endgame is a bit tricky and puts the alien player as a bit of a kingmaker. He gets to put 3 cards per player in the standard game and can then look at them or move them around, but typically he can't see many of them. He is basically attacking at random. He then gets to add extra cards based on his mashups. The net effect is that often the strongest human player will get many more attacks and will get blown out while the second-strongest will win. This mechanic can alienate some players.
Recommendation
Despite the problems, I really like this game. The theme is fun and once players see what can happen, they can be on their guard to help prevent it. There are rumors of an expansion and I believe this game could benefit with an expansion that allowed more chances for players to catch up if they fall behind.
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In E.T.I., players become directors of powerful mega-corporations in the early 1960's with the goal of defending the Earth from a pending alien invasion! Players compete to discover increasingly advanced technologies from eight different fields of science and technology. Completing projects increases the power and influence of your lab facility. After a pre-determined number of technologies have been discovered, one of the players will reveal themselves as allied with the aliens! With this the invasion is near! The remaining humans labs must use their fantastic discoveries in Earth's final defense! Will one of the human facilities have the strength to repel the aliens or will the Earth fall? It is in your hands...
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