I'm also new to this and have a couple of questions. The tutorial seems to dump you about round 5, and then there's no further help. Is this right, or did my game not work out as it should? Secondly, the manual says Does that mean if I play as either of those races against AI it'll be easier? Thanks, CJ
Candyjet: the tutorial ends indeed in the middle. It's up to you to finish up the game and hopefully win (or not). As for the early first games, my advise would be to play terrans vs terrans. Keep the more complicated races for later on, when you have a good grasp of the economy. The peaceful (easy) AI is good for this as it won't attack you. No need to try the other races against it. It's also valuable to read the provided manual, it's not very long and should take about 10-15 minutes. Neonbible: funny coincidence - I also just bought Eclipse and Agricola, but I started with Eclipse as the subject matter: space vs farming... Hmmm... I think I'll go with space!
After playing about 10 single player games, and beating the Hardcore AI last night (in a thrilling match!) a few notes for BDC, the developers: - Bug: Sometimes after exploring a new sector, I can't rotate the wormhole wheel. To bypass this bug, I zoom out and in the zoomed out view I can rotate it. I'm using an iPad Air with 64Gb, iOS 7.0.4. - I think it would be nice that after the 9th round, allow the player to decide if would like to continue the match until all opposing players are eliminated and one is left standing. Usually it's only a cleanup but it can be satisfying. In a multiplayer game this could come as a question that all must agree to it for this to be imposed. - I didn't play multiplayer yet so I can't comment on it here. But reading through the thread, work needs to be done with it. Overall, great game! I'm really enjoying this one and I'm not a board game aficionado nor am I a 4X fan (the last 4X I probably played was Spaceward Ho! when it launched 15 years ago?). But this game is just fun. The condensed gameplay keeps the hard decisions in and the occasional tedium of 4X games out. I also enjoy that there are so many different strategies and counters, it's all so well balanced. I love the fact I can finish a match in 45 minutes - having a wife, baby boy, etc really limits my free time. So highly recommended by me, and I also feel that with the fine tutorial + neat, well written manual, learning the mechanics shouldn't take more than 20-30 minutes and is well worth the time investment.
My top tip, as a struggling noob, is not to be disappointed if I lose. Again. Each game I'm simply trying to end up with more points than the previous time. It's much less disheartening this way.
True, also look at what the AI is doing and how he is managing his resources. Another tip: think aggressive. You must take on the Ancients as early as possible and aim for the galactic center early as well, perhaps round 5. Attacking the other players I think is usually the way to go from round 7. Winning peacefully I found is a lot harder. The easiest tip is that always take the upgraded 2 point hull tech as soon as you can, hopefully as your first move on round 1, upgrade your dragnauts and then go for the Ancients. When you get better cannons, go for the galactic center. The AI seems to love plasma missiles, if he takes this tech and upgrades his ships with them, I usually find that countering it with two -2 shields is effective. Materials are also important to acquire, if you can manufacture more ships, even if they are inferior, coupled with the cheap neutron bomb tech, which doesn't need to be equipped, they can be effective by going nuts on enemy sectors with no ships on them, assigning one ship per sector. Even if the AI manages to kill off a few of your ships, you will still blow up some of his colonies forcing him into a decline while you get even more resources. Worked for me vs the hardcore AI. These are just some tactics I picked up by playing the game a bit. I'm sure there's more!
Thanks GiHubb, I'll try those tactics. It's that sort of advice that is missing from the tutorial, which covers the rules well, but leaves you in the dark as to what to do within the rules. Much appreciated, CJ
Glad I can help An important early tip is not to influence sectors that only have 1 planet which isn't a money colony. That is, generally speaking, if you don't get money from a new sector, you reduce the turns you can take in a round and that's not good. Playing a bit more with the game in 2 player matches, I find that the Hardcore AI is not competent at picking up multiple attacks, as I explained in my previous post, where I throw ships into multiple sectors of his, usually at round 7 with the neutron bomb tech at hand. In my last game I won 47-24 and my opponent had only 1 sector left with a single cruiser, meaning I was short 1 round of eliminating him completely, so quite the rout. Perhaps in 3+ player matches this tactic is not as useful as other foes could combine to take you on. Let's see
I don't think they are allowed to do that, since it's a literal translation from the boardgame. I also had that in mind when i played my first game way back when it was released. The only way to counter that is to keep playing. Allways have in mind the victory points the game gives you (from tech, from planets, from battles, for constructing monoliths) and try to aim for all that by the game end.
More tips: it's worth watching what he AI is doing to learn, for example, when researching I feel the most important tech to obtain is the advanced hull (absorbs 2 points of damage), then neutron bomb (helps winning sectors automatically when going on the offensive and don't need to be equipped), the ion cannons that shoot a 2 point damage shot and the 6 energy so you can later equip 2 of these ion cannons on your dragnauts. You can watch how the AI is upgrading his ships with these, and the plasma missiles which it loves as well. Once you research the advanced hull taking on the ancients is simple. Once you've got the ion cannons the galactic center is also easy to move against. And the neutron bomb is critical if trying to come from behind and going on a wild offensive, assigning 1 or 2 ships per enemy sector.
Thanks yet again. I've almost managed to beat the AI on normal difficulty, but just can't resist attacking the enemy, when I know more subtle tactics would be better! Cheers, CJ
Don't concentrate on his fleet, do the opposite, attack as many sectors at once that don't have any ships in them. Make sure you have researched the neutron bomb tech beforehand for this tactic to work. I can beat the hardcore AI on a regular basis with this method on a 2-player duel. Even if he manages to divert some ships or build starbases, etc, you are likely to take over some of his sectors meaning he will immediately go into a decline. I usually do this on round 8.
I think it's a bug it has happened to me a few times ..a way round is to zoom in then zoom out and that should allow you to move the circle
In earlier posts people mentioned that 9 rounds wasn't quite enough .. Would it be possible for the devs to let the player pick how many rounds they want to play for example 9 12 or 15 rounds on the set up screen when you pick who to play against
The thing is, Eclipse is a licensed conversion of the boardgame, so the developer likely has limitations as to what he can get away with changing. Wasn't there an expansion for the boardgame? Will it come to iOS too?
I presume the board game didn't implode if you played 10 or 15 rounds rather than 9, so why not make the ipad game the same? I'd like to fight to the death.
I agree. Don't know if it's because of a license limitation, but would love to be able to extend a game indefinitely after round 9. I wish the devs could comment on this, if they still visit this thread.
Right, next question. A couple of times, I've attacked enemy ships in their sector, won the battle, then my ships have disappeared never to return. Somehow they have been destroyed. I was wondering if this could be because the enemy has neutron bomb and I didn't? Would it destroy my ships, despite losing the scrap? Can't see any other reason to keep losing my fleet. Thanks, CJ
The neutron bomb is only used vs planets, not ships. Note that sometimes your fleet appears on the right and sometimes on the left, depending if you're attacking or defending. Maybe you got these confused? Otherwise this is a bug, one that I have personally never encountered. Or maybe I'm missing something...
Thanks, GH. I'm improving now and almost always win on normal AI. Any idea what happens if you take Over opponents blocks containing a monolith? Do you get the extra points? Secondly, I've just finished a game. On round 9, I placed a few single ships on unoccupied enemy sectors. As I had the neutron bomb tech, I assumed that I would get these sectors, as they were undefended. At the end, I didn't see the usual 'neutron flash' and the sectors seemed to remain in enemy hands. Do you have to attack sectors occupied by enemy ships to take them? Thanks, CJ
