Finally got around to opening Eclipse, going through the tutorial and then reading the manual. From first blush without actually playing yet, I would say that Eclipse is medium complexity with a learning curve for deep gameplay. I would agree with a previous poster who opined that people conflate complexity with depth. The key from reading the rules seems to be: 1. understanding the conditions that grant victory points 2. actions are constrained by influence 3. game lasts 9 rounds (multiple turns within a round) Like Starbase Orion (which is more complex), there appears to be viable different paths [strategies] to victory. Where Starbase Orion is classic 4x, Eclipse is an adaptation of a board-game, where the victor is whoever has the most victory points over 9 rounds. My router died at the weekend, so am currently awaiting for its replacement to arrive. Once it does, anyone up for a newbie Eclipse multi-player (async) game? I'll ask a friend if he is interested. Any other takers? VeganTNT? Currymutton?
I played a 6 player game (me and 5 AIs on normal difficulty) for my first game of Eclipse. 2 and a half hours later (!), I seized 3rd place. The game followed a pattern of early exploring, before exploding into a confrontational middle game, and all out war in the end game. From the first round, I had to change my approach because the AIs went first and a number of them chose 'Research' as their first action. Thus, they had first pick on the technology cherry tree and grabbed the 'Hull' technology (ships can take 2 additional damage per Hull upgrade) - only 2 available until it next appears on the Technology track many rounds later. I thus decided to go for early exploration and colonisation (money and materials) and see if I could stay out of everyone's way. Adopting this approach and observing what the AIs were doing, allowed me to become familiar with the game mechanics - every player has the same 6 actions but can only choose 1 action on their turn, before play passes to the next player - and their effect on gameplay. Over the 2 and a half hours, it became clear that Eclipse is a game of prioritisation and agonising decisions. One's actions are limited by influence, thereby one has a specific number of actions per round before passing to avoid bankruptcy. However, the difficulty arises from needing to think about the order in which you perform your actions e.g. if you focus on Explore and colonisation, you'll almost certainly miss out on Research for that round. Yet, you'll have first pick on which systems to Explore and choose wormhole entry that govern that system. Such strategic concerns also govern when to Pass. When all players pass in a round (perform no additional actions), end of round resolution takes place i.e. resolving bankruptcy and any combat, before the next round commences starting with the player who was first to pass in the previous round. Thus, by passing early in a previous round, allows that player to go first in the next round. The usual reason is to have first pick from the Technology tree via the Research action. Another, sneakier reason could be to use a Move action to move a ship (or ships) into another system. Why could the Move action be sneaky given that combat is resolved at the end of the round? Because of the 'pinning' mechanic: when a ship enters a system in which another player's ship resides, then the ship that entered the system pins the other player's ship (unable to move their ship). This could be a defensive move, but as if often the case, the best form of defence is offence. Use a smaller ship to pin a larger fleet, then providing that you have enough influence, perform another move later in the round to move more fleets into the contested system. The aim of the game is not combat, but to obtain Victory Points. That said, a large portion of Victory Points are obtained from combat: destroying Ancient Ships (unless you play as Draco), taking part in combat, being victorious in combat. In my game, whilst I managed to remain neutral and did not instigate combat against another player until the final round, I did destroy a number of Ancient Ships. All around me, conflagration and planetary bombardment took place in the middle, but especially the end game. The challenge is to develop a number of viable strategies, then rip them up and throw them out and start again when players choose their initial starting races, choose their various actions and engage in the meta (human players).
No problem. One of my friends @JapanNewbie is up for Eclipse. Any prospective player should know that this game [async multiplayer] could take some considerable time to play - measured in weeks and months! Now the wait for my new router to arrive ... hopefully in time for the weekend.
Riotgirl, your posts are very helpful and informative. Thanks for taking the time to put these thoughts down as we can benefit from them, too.
Oddly enough, I read this article after I played my first game and after my post. Good to know that I'm on the right track. Ish. Learning about the concepts of the 'virtual' fleet and threat really add to my understanding of the game. The most important aspect of the article (and formulated in my mind when I first started reading the rules) is understanding tempo. I know this concept through playing Chess during my youth - Chess and Go are such wonderful games - yet sadly, struggle in execution. This is what the article really drills in: like Chess, there is no hidden information and everyone should be aware of the threats. In my first game, I explored early and chose my wormhole entries based upon turtling due missing out on the Technology race. Where I failed to execute properly was in keeping poor systems, hindering my Empire in the mid-end game (you pay influence for each hex you control and for each action). The winner in my game was the Orion Hegemony who took the Galatic Centre on either R4 or R5. Looking forward to playing async multiplayer and lots of plotting ..
Only just got this and already stuck without even getting anywhere. Get this nooby dope going please. It says straight away drag your first planet group so the wormholes aline using the dotted circle. Without being rude where exactly do you put your finger? Tried dragging the dotted line and the whole screen just moves. Tried holding down on the dotted line nothing happens. So I quit and then went to resume and resume is greyed out so went to start again and this time it asked me to create a character (presumably for multiplayer online which I hate). So only thing was to delete it and reinstall it. Still stuck at the start with that wormhole line up business. Pity devs don't start allowing physical printing of the in app manuals. Can't be that hard but nobody seems to do that.
You might not be able to rotate it. Take a screen shot and post it, I'll be able to help you from there. As for a manual, because the game is so incredibly close to the physical game, the offline manual is just as useful, plus it's better laid out AND you'll realize just how magical it is to have the game set up for you. Anyway, link: Eclipse Manual
Anyone up for a game? This get popular votes over at PT but the number of online players is just the opposite...
The game is beyond amazing, but the multiplayer system, especially when in comparison to PlayDek, basically ruins the experience. Personally, I don't play more because of the slide to end turn mechanic. BDC stated they were hopefully going to change this, but because of my health issues it becomes incredibly painful. I even have to double tap on locations in Waterdeep, as dragging causes my issues to flare up. I just realized I don't think I started any Waterdeep games with you. I fixed that Now to be clear, besides the poor multiplayer, non persistent chat, no ability to see opponent moves when returning from multiplayer and, well, that's kind of a lot. But the simple fact that they put such a complex board game, one that often took longer to set up and take down than it took to play, easily makes it a 10/5. That said, Waterdeep is far more fun to play in my opinion.
Couldn't agree on this more. BGC seems to have no intention to fix the MP experience which is a big shame. As for LoW, I think it is the best new boardgame out in 2013, and probably the best introduction to the "worker placement" game genre. Some how, it is missing from most "best of" awards around. I have 18 concurrent games right now but it is just far from my current holding at Ascension, I feel like taking up more. My GCID is : griffin611. See you around.
The vote caused a lot of consternation over on PT because the voting system was open i.e. anyone could vote. BDC got the vote out a little too overtly compared to others (who equally were trying to get the vote out), and accusations of gaming the vote were thrown around. Eclipse fully deserves recognition as an excellent adaptation, however the async multiplayer experience is hampered for the reasons mentioned above, but also for the game automatically timing out if a player does not take their turn within a certain time-period (it might be 3 days?). I have played 2 multiplayer async games. Both timed out: the first was because a friend was on a business trip; the second, none of us are any of the wiser as to why. VeganTNT did PM me to inform me that he thought that his turn was bugged. I have not fired up Eclipse and will not until BDC release an update that resolves the multiplayer issues. If you wish to play either against the AI or pass 'n' play, then I would have no hesitation in recommending Eclipse. Async multiplayer does have a number of annoying issues that snowball when added together.
Seriously, N.Hex has very good async multiplayer system so I do not understand why such problem exists and why BDC still has not fixed this one! This is similar problem with Suburbia which I hope one day the multiplayer gets fixed also.
Any tips for people starting out with Eclipse? I seem to be running out of money all the time... The AI seems to use bankruptcy often, not sure if this is a common tactic...
Ok after a few games and after playing (and beating) the tutorial a couple of times, and also reading about the game in articles recommended on this thread, the mechanics clicked and I have to say, it is an excellent game! I also love the fact you can finish a complete game against the AI in about 45 minutes. Highly recommended. I didn't try the multiplayer yet, but don't reckon I will play it soon until the issue of not seeing your opponents' moves will be sorted + I think playing against strangers would take forever. Still, I enjoy the single player experience, and it alone is worth, for me, the price of admission and spending the time to learn the game.
I'm new to the whole boardgame thing and recently purchased Agricola which I'm currently having fun with (although still suck at it). I also like the fact that these games can be completed within 45mins. No need to for lots of time investment. Quick game here and there, keep playing until you master it! Eclipse certainly sounds interesting and likely something I'll pick up at some point.
