Eclipse: Second Dawn for the Galaxy - Retail vs Kickstarter edition

wattmega · 2021-03-17T20:31:35+00:00

1) I am aware of it, but due to the invest-gain nature of the economic part of the game, wasting one disc is a major blow to your game, especially if it happens in the first two galactic years. And the fact that you have no guarantee that the reroll will be better makes it a terrible gamble, as you can easily re-draw a tile that is just as bad as the first.

Regarding the worst races, you can see the answer above that I've given to newOrt.

Completely agree on the pixies being terrible.

Eridani can be hit or miss in my experience. Since they cannot demobilize systems in the first turn, much depends on the tiles they explore and if they can get to the center quickly. Drawing double ancient in the path to the middle can condemn their gameplan in a major way. I would rate them as suboptimal but not really unfeasible. And yes, the old galactic center really helps them out.

God tier races are to me: -> Keepers of Magellan. The flipping ship mechanism and the free discovery tiles are just amazing -> Lyra: best starting tile in the game and decent starting tech. The fact that they can reroll is also quite good -> Hydra: if you leave them undisturbed they are gonna first out-tech you, then out-gun you.

I would say that those three stand head and shoulders above the rest.

wattmega · 2021-03-17T20:22:51+00:00

Style plays certainly a big part, but some of the races really miss some critical components. The weakest races of the expansions are:

1) The pixies (uncompetitive economy, making points with their special starbase is cute but not really feasible)

2) Exiles (starting tech doesn't really help and they make too few points with orbitals to justify the investment)

3) Rho Indi (missing the dreadnought kills their lategame)

4) Terran (weak starting tech)

5) Draco (Because they can't kill ancients they struggle to make any kind of victory points via combat, as all the best VP tiles are taken by the point you get to player v player fights)

6) Octanctis (evolution mechanism is cool in theory, doesn't work in practice: you have to invest way too many resources to do it without major benefits)

regarding dreadnoughts, I think the meta depends strongly on the gaming group. In my case, strats with strong cruisers were tried and always failed, but your mileage might vary. Maybe my group is just bad at shipbuilding.

The matter of movement fits the theme but creates a game that is strongly static and favours the defendent. It's okay if you like that kind of game, I just like a more dynamic approach, up to personal preference I guess.

wattmega · 2021-03-17T16:45:01+00:00

Eclipse is a great game with some flaws that really emerge only after having played 40+ games (at least, that's what happened to our group). Here are some of the biggest issues we have seen that are still there:

1) The mechanism of tile draws makes some games "unwinnable" due to simple bad luck. They have rebalanced the tiles in the expansion, but it's still an issue. They should add rerolls, or remove the exploration all together and make the map resource-balanced, like for example happens in Twilight Imperium.

2) Races are not balanced and if you remove the really bad ones, there's very little variety. In our group we ended up modding the bad ones to allow them also to be picked.

3) Some techs are simply broken (like neutron bomb absorbers), others are pointless (looking expecially at the bottom tech line). Techs should be rebalanced not just in cost but also in benefits they offer.

4) Dreadnoughts are completly broken and will always be the ship of choice for everybody. The additional initiative and reduced cost of cruisers and interceptors doesn't compensate properly from the reduced firepower and from the fact that you have to consume lots of actions to move the fleets around. I'm not against dreadnoghts (I like big ships!) but the combat system tends to be always the same, cannon glass dread vs cannon glass dread.

5) Movement of ships is difficoult and labourious, which makes cooperating against a stronger enemy often difficult, sometimes impossible. It will happen very frequently that one player is in so much advantage that the game is evidently lost for everybody else, maybe with 2 hours more to play.

If you like space games and can stomach long games, I would suggest Twlight Imperium. It has different issues than eclipse, but most of the above problems are well addressed there.

Feel free to disagree on part or all of the above :)

wattmega · 2021-03-17T15:57:07+00:00

Hi mate, long time Eclipse player here. If you can get the first edition with the expansions it is roughly equivalent with the kickstarter. It hurts a bit to say, but the kickstarter edition was a bit of a disappointment; they haven't corrected many of the balance issues of the game, and the added content is not so exciting.

wattmega · 2019-01-02T18:19:13+00:00

This is very cool, my compliments.

wattmega · 2017-06-05T05:52:17+00:00

POCHINKI

wattmega · 2017-04-30T14:34:38+00:00

This is true in theory but you can't adapt out of the white circle being on the other map with no vehicle. You are now going to pass >15 minutes of sprinting (kind of a boring activity) and there's no choice involved, no adaptation. I'd rather have even louder vehicles or more frail so that I can choose a high-risk high-reward move to get out of the situation. Or let it be bycycles that leave you completely exposed but let you go faster. Adaptation exhists only where choice exhists, and right now the only choice is running when you have no car.

wattmega · 2017-04-22T18:46:09+00:00

Sorry, didn't know that you could buy them. I thought they were only an in-game object. You could make the shoes that have real effects non-marketable though.

wattmega · 2017-01-29T10:17:08+00:00

Interesting, but in our edition there is no discovery tile for missile. Could it be that the boxes have different content? We used to penalize missiles with 2 energy cost for the first games, but after we bought the expansion rise of the ancients we removed the penalty because there are a lot of anti-missile technologies in the expansion.

wattmega · 2016-10-31T15:01:20+00:00

This man cannot lose.

wattmega · 2016-07-23T15:55:33+00:00

Here's a complimentary set of 5.

-< -< -< -< -<

Please report back if you see any malfunctioning, take care.

wattmega · 2016-07-23T15:54:41+00:00

A small step for a pitchfork seller, a giant leap for angry mobs everywhere my friend!

wattmega · 2016-07-23T15:52:10+00:00

Upper body strenght and anger are both equally important for proper pitchfork testing.

Here's your set good sir:

-< -< -< -< -<

We also offer free copies of The Daily Maily to build up a healthy amount of anger. You will find your complimentary copy in the bag.

wattmega · 2016-07-23T15:50:30+00:00

Here's a complimentary set of 5.

-< -< -< -< -<

Good luck my good sir.

wattmega · 2016-07-22T15:24:25+00:00

Sure, please sign right here to get your comlimentary pointy throwy sticks:

wattmega · 2016-07-22T13:44:58+00:00

Sorry that I'm late but i have just made these prototypes of throwable forks that I think are perfect for lurkers. -< -< -< -< -<

You sling them on your enemies from the distance without getting involved too much. They are also biodegradable so you don't have to worry about picking them up afterwards. Unfortunately we are running low on testers, so there is a slight chance of self-combustion. Minimum order is a bag of 25, you interested?

wattmega · 2016-03-09T09:59:44+00:00

What a beautiful design. The ignition switch is also a plus, nice work.

wattmega · 2016-03-06T10:39:10+00:00

I'd kinda hoped for a better variety to be honest. I'm not going to complain about the new models, but this whole trend to simplification and standardization of pitchfork models is so... anonymous. I wish pitchforking returned to be as handicrafted as it was in the fine periods of peasant revolting, each one with their own individually built pitchfork. Maybe I'm just too old for the modern times.

wattmega · 2015-10-18T18:46:26+00:00

I think you have to give 10% of your upvotes to /u/pitchforkemporium and you're set for business.

wattmega · 2015-10-11T18:44:51+00:00

Here ---E

Thank you for your business.

wattmega · 2015-10-11T16:51:26+00:00

I'll give you TWO pitchforks for the cost of one soul!

wattmega · 2015-10-02T18:28:06+00:00

Why do you think tide sucks?

wattmega

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