Quentin had brought Eclipse with him. Rejected last time, since learning an epic new game with five newbies was not feasible. But with three of us, perhaps it could be done.
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| My fleet. Into battle! |
We set it up, stacked up various piles of tiles and hexes and Joe brought down his dice arena (with the black felt, because we were in space) and we sat down for some space exploration. Quentin started by assuring us the game wasn't confrontational and, at first, it wasn't. Joe and I placed our hexes carefully, making sure no travel was possible between our sectors. Meanwhile, Quentin stayed on his side of the table, and found most of his side of the universe was already populated.
You see, most combat is against The Ancients. A peaceful race of beings who are unceremoniously kicked around by us humans in our battle for victory points. But they're no pushovers, and you need to build decent ships, which requires some income, which requires some uninhabited planets.
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| The basic ship. Made in Hull, apparently. |
You can upgrade you ships, replacing the basic Electron computer with the hilariously named Gluon computer, or give it some extra energy with a Tachyon source, or replace the Ion cannons with other more exciting and powerful machines of death. All of this requires income.
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| Joe's Dreadnoughts scowl menacingly |
And to make matters worse, there are three kinds of income. Money, Tech and Building. It sounds complicated and there are a lot of game pieces to keep track of, but everything is out in the open. All the information is there to be read, and once you're used to it, it makes a lot of sense.
I enjoyed it, especially after I defeated both Joe and Ancients in what shall now be called the First Great Space War. I liked it a bit less after Joe took that same hexagon in what shall now be called the Second Slightly-Less-Great Space War.
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| End of game. |
Quentin stayed out of our way. In fact, he cheered us on whenever we were considering battling against each other. It seems his experience with the game served him well, since he ran out the eventual winner, albeit by the slimmest of margins. I came last again, but I enjoyed the game a lot. I can see why it's so popular.
Quentin 39
Joe 38
Andrew 31
| Points | ||||||
| Anja | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 10 |
| Joe | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 10 |
| Hannah | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 11 |
| Adam | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 12 |
| Sam | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 13 |
| Steve | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 15 |
| Jon | 3 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 19 |
| Andrew | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 20 |
| Quentin | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 21 |
Gutted to have missed this! How long did it take?
ReplyDeleteYes I liked it too. It's hard to assess a game like that on a first play, but for such an epic it does a brilliant job of boiling down your options to a manageable level, very very clever.
ReplyDeleteI also think three was the perfect number for a learning game (maybe I think that of most big games - you don't have the zero-sum of two, or the added complexity of four). Quent did an excellent job of imparting the rules, and it took that first battle with Andrew, in which I was completely obliterated, to properly grasp the combat.
Not one I'd want to play often, possibly a little too on the complex side, but the perfect way to begin a (for me, semi) weekend of gaming. Have a great time at CottageCon, look forward to hearing all about it, especially Stanley's thoughts!
We started setting up and learning at 7.30, and began playing at 8.20. Finished at near enough midnight. It was a long-un, for sure.
ReplyDeleteFor such a long game, though, it seems fairly fast paced. There's always something going on.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite bit was that I kept thinking certain actions were 'free' because I wasn't having to use resources to pay for them using resources - my 'advisors' had to keep reminding me.
ReplyDeleteI felt like an intergalactic Jim Hacker!
Jealous. I really want to play this. It sounds right up my street.
ReplyDelete