Eclipse - One of the Few Worth Risking Blindness For

RobertB wrote: I love Eclipse, but Legomancer is right - Turn 9 can have some totally bullshit moves because there is no Turn 10. IMO, if I have a ship that isn't fighting at the end of the game, then I'm leaving points on the board. Clash of Cultures has the same problem unless you use the alternate ending card.

This is true. Winning the game of ECLIPSE doesn't actually a whole lot to do with playing the game of ECLIPSE. The playing is awesome: Tech trees, a cool economy, variable player powers, exploration, space combat. Then, uh, chit pull and swingy planet conquering k thx bye. That "last turn" kind of makes the whole game dumb, but it does need to end somehow.

Gary Sax wrote:

RobertB wrote: I love Eclipse, but Legomancer is right - Turn 9 can have some totally bullshit moves because there is no Turn 10. IMO, if I have a ship that isn't fighting at the end of the game, then I'm leaving points on the board. Clash of Cultures has the same problem unless you use the alternate ending card.

Yep, variable end is required now in my house for CoC, but once you implement it it basically solves 95% of the problem, because if you really max VP at the end of the turn and you don't hit the roll, you essentially the lose the game because you're hanging in the wind.

I've never played with this rule. I kind of like the end game's nastiness and treachery.

Here's the thing - do you guys really witness people winning who didn't seemingly deserve it?

In our games the winner tends to be the person who most accurately executes their strategy in conjunction with properly managing their economy.

Next time you play try this at a very basic level:

Never settle more than 1 explored hex that doesn't have any Econ on it (or grey that you use for Economy). Discard the damn hex. Just do it even though you don't want to. Now, I'm not counting discovery token tiles here, settle those but ditch them later (see below).

Max out economy as fast as possible, place cubes from your orange track on each gray space.

Tactically bankrupt if necessary, do this on purpose to shift off of discovery token tiles with barren resources.

The game is 75% action economy in my opinion. By maintaining flexibility and tons of actions, you can respond and adapt strategically much better than your opponents. That last 25% is huge once everyone becomes proficient with maximizing their action flexibility but until that point you can wreck people by just out-actioning them if you use some tactical intelligence.

I've never felt like some guy lucked into a win or those tile draws has had a substantial impact. Maybe once or twice where our scores were dead close but I chalk that up to being the same as dice deciding a dudes on a map game. If you're both close enough that either could have won, just enjoy the amazing finish and don't worry about the results.

charlest wrote: The game is 75% action economy in my opinion. By maintaining flexibility and tons of actions, you can respond and adapt strategically much better than your opponents. That last 25% is huge once everyone becomes proficient with maximizing their action flexibility but until that point you can wreck people by just out-actioning them if you use some tactical intelligence.

^This. Development in Eclipse is all about maximising your actions.

Stonecutter wrote: I'd say TI3 and Eclipse are both 4X games, where as TI:3 is a more a DoaM (A super trumped up Axis and Allies if you will) and Eclipse is a Civilization game (A super streamlined advanced civ.)

Bah, I'd say TI:3 isn't a true DoaM game either, 'cause the game's flow is dictated by whatever objectives are revealed. Just as many objectives are related to tech than with hitting someone else where it hurts, and you can luck out with one just because you happen to have had that particular tech or 3 different green tech planets in your empire. Some secrets are a lot harder to achieve than others, and some can flat out be denied through a voted law (occupying all wormholes for instance).

I agree wholeheartedly, Charlie. The game is absolutely about making as much money as you can, as fast as you can, to support your galactic empire's ambitions. Fail to get money, you're stuck trading shit 3:1 for actions, so you're literally trading your future for your now (read: US Congress). Fail to manage your economy, it stalls and you start having to lose influence on your colonies (read: Every Eurpoean Imperial venture, ever).

It's just brilliant, and I find it to be really rather simple to teach, but to be fair, I'm a naturally gifted teacher.

SuperflyTNT wrote:

It's just brilliant, and I find it to be really rather simple to teach, but to be fair, I'm a naturally gifted teacher.

Modest, too.

Hey, everybody's got some gifts, and one of mine is the ability to take complex information and distill it down. That's what makes me an effective marketing guy.

People shouldn't be ashamed of their gifts. Me, I can teach. Ask me to cook creme brulee, or bake pretty much anything, hey, I'm not the guy.

Just messin' with you, man.

My group loves this game but I still haven't had a chance to play it. Sounds like fun and I've been itching to play it.