Friday 27th

I unexpectedly have an evening free this Friday. Anyone want to play some games?

Tom,

There is a plan to play at Karl's I think...

Yup. Was trying to get a game of Eclipse going again but might not happen so I'm open to alternatives. My place is free from 7 onwards.

I can get to you for 8pm!

I could be there for 7. Happy to play anything (within reason).

I'll get there about 7. Are we doing Eclipse?

I wouldn't mind playing eclipse, if there's room?

If Dave's coming, with his copy of Eclipse, then we're sorted. If not then we'll need something for 5. Will update tomorrow.

Dave's in, so it's Eclipse at 8!

Cool!

Just read the rules of Eclipse. It looks epic!

BeardyTom wrote:Just read the rules of Eclipse. It looks epic!

TI3 wannabe!

Aneurin wrote:

BeardyTom wrote:Just read the rules of Eclipse. It looks epic!

TI3 wannabe!

That's a game I want to play someday. Eclipse will do for now.

We are playing on the 19th - 1 space left!

Been playing Eclipse on iOS, just to get up to speed. Really like it...

Just have one question. If player A moves ships in to a hex occupied with player B ships; neither player can move ships out of that hex, until next turn (after combat is resolved etc), is that correct?

Jamie played quite a game, there! Two dreadnoughts on the second turn, galactic centre on the third, and after that he had a resource advantage none of us could match. I felt he was on shaky ground for most of the game but now I think he played everything right. Dave's game was weird but he make the decisions that took best advantage of his situation. One choke point loaded with all of his space stations and as many missiles as they could carry where he would have been rolling more dice for his first attack then there were dice of any type in the box. Then he just chilled out and researched everything to get the tech bonuses. He didn't get into a single fight with another player because nobody was going near him. I think I played pretty strongly overall. It may have been at the expense of Aneurin's game, though we were pretty cut off by Dave and Jamie from everybody else so we mostly just squabbled over the cold, dark reaches of space nobody cares about. My dice rolling was horrendous, though, I think I rolled more ones and twos than everybody else combined. I thought Tom looked the strongest for awhile... maybe yellow just stood out on the board more. Karl also looked like he had a good thing going, but I don't know how much he lost in the last turn.

Final scores were:

1. Jamie: 31 w/ more resources
2. Dave: 31
3. Sam: 28
4. Karl: 25
5. Tom: 24
6. Aneurin: 18

I really like this game. I really like the flexible spaceship building, feeling an ownership over your ships, making tactical upgrades for different situations, and having different ship designs to your neighbours. I really like intuitive board design, the understandable economy which has all the depth it needs to yet is resolved in a lightning quick upkeep phase. I like rolling different lots of dice, and different colours for different weapons. I don't think there's anything I particularly didn't like.

That last turn was crazy!! Tom trying to invade Karl, but getting a bit pinned on my Interceptor. My dastardly sneak attack on Karl via worm-hole. Tom storming in to my space at the last minute and capturing I think 2 of my hexes. Just felt like it was all to play for, right up to the wire!

Would love to play again sometime, could be a good game for the club, maybe with 3 or 4 players though, so it doesn't run on too long (past "Avalon o'clock"). I think once we all get a bit more used to it, it probably would go a lot faster anyways.

I really enjoyed that. After it was all over I was thinking through all the things I would do differently next time, like work the research angle more effectively, take on the ancients earlier, get some monoliths. I would love to play again some time and I think it would be quicker when more people know what they are doing.

I think my score was 24 by the way, putting me below Karl.

Great game folks, thanks for coming and to Dave for bringing it. Yes, Tom finished on 24 with me just above, surprisingly! I thought Tom was the favourite when he made his advance on Jamie but Jamie played a great game and was a deserved winner. An early aggressive strategy can often be a player's downfall, in my fairly limited experience, as everyone turns on them and that players can struggle to fight on so many fronts. Jamie made some excellent early moves, cutting me off, controlling the centre and then quickly reinforcing his ships and strongholds to deter people from attacking him. The use of wormhole technology and charging in on my monoliths was also well judged and poorly played on my behalf! I should have taken more of the same approach as Dave did, hold off on building monoliths and concentrate on scoring points through research, seeing how the last turn plays out and then building those point scoring monoliths towards the end of the game.

All round, I thoroughly enjoyed it and thought it was an excellent game; not sure Aneurin will feel the same!

Definitely up for playing again soon, perhaps on a Tuesday but certainly with an earlier start!

karl_b wrote:The use of wormhole technology and charging in on my monoliths was also well judged and poorly played on my behalf!

I still feel dastardly about quietly researching worm-hole technology, and not alerting anyone to that fact, until it was too late. I remember thinking when I developed it, 'better not ask Karl where the little cardboard token for worm-hole is'. Really bad!

karl_b wrote:Definitely up for playing again soon, perhaps on a Tuesday but certainly with an earlier start!

Definitely count me in Karl. Really enjoyed this game, can't wait to play again.

Jamie wrote:

karl_b wrote:The use of wormhole technology and charging in on my monoliths was also well judged and poorly played on my behalf!

I still feel dastardly about quietly researching worm-hole technology, and not alerting anyone to that fact, until it was too late. I remember thinking when I developed it, 'better not ask Karl where the little cardboard token for worm-hole is'. Really bad!

Nah, it's all part of the game! Me taking deep, vocal, offence at your move was in the knowledge that I'd screwed up, you'd played a blinder and was an attempt to get you to attack Tom instead!

I can't quite decide if I really really like Eclipse or just like it... I do like it... But how much? Definitely not as epic as TI - feels a little more game'ie (by that I mean evening game, involving cubes etc, rather than an entire day of ameritrash) than my favourite space opera... But my brain is screaming at me that space games should be epic... I should feel totally invested... Emersed in the theme... Eclipse just felt like a game... Maybe all playing as aliens would with different ships and abilities would fix that and add more strategy, than what ultimately felt like 'get the most resources, build the biggest ships and towards the end take hexes of people'. Diplomacy also seemed limited to 'don't attack me please'. Perhaps this is the compromise to make a shorter evening style space game...

Yes I lost eclipse (badly) which does cloud my judgement... But it did feel that the 'random' Galaxy setup could really go against a player... Especially where VPs are mostly linked to best best resource providing planets - rather than some hidden or different goals which a player can build a strategy towards even if his hexes are rubbish.

I'd be really interested to see what eclipse players think of TI3...

I think you have a point about the randomness of the galaxy hexes, where if you get lucky early on, it could give you a distinct advantage. I get feeling, you have to be quite adaptive to play well, adjusting your approach depending on what turns up, rather than rigidly sticking to a fixed plan from the get-go.

I wonder what would happen if you had more rounds; say 12 or 15, rather than 9? It just feels like you've done the research, built and upgraded your ships ... and then it all ends! There didn't seem to be all that much player VS player conflict going on; certainly nothing like the level of territory exchange you get with Risk. I'd have liked a little more to'ing and fro'ing, and strategical positioning of fleets and such like; maybe you'd get that with more rounds?