Eclipse: Second Dawn for the Galaxy

6P

Every time when I played this (currently only 5 or 6 players) I have enjoyed. 8 rounds limit doesn't make game too long and 5-6 hours gameplay is okay for my group. Components seems good, but this is also very expensive product. I recommend to use its own neoprene mat (especially for 5 player games, it helps a lot). I haven't tried yet 2-4 player game and I think 2 player game might be too peaceful for my style, not sure yet.

Perfect rule set. Can I rate it 11?

not a fan of RNG in general

It's obvious upon playing Eclipse that this was created as a 'wargame' palatable for Euro-aficionados, especially at lower player counts. Even in our game of 4, the game rewarded incremental and targeted engine-building (pun intended) of your factions' ships and territory, and entering into conflict for territory often wasn't worth the risk-reward tradeoff.

But by the end of the game, I was left wondering why I'd play Eclipse again with all its bells and whistles instead of say, Race for the Galaxy, if Race hits most of the same Euro-y spots in a much smaller package. I found Eclipse lacking in the interesting player interaction aspects that would have made it a better game, little scope for shared interests to thrive. Either you build your engine in relative isolation, or you go to conflict, with little in between.

The luck elements of the game also stuck in my craw for such a large and sprawling game - the battle die rolls of course, but the hex tiles that are revealed by players during the course of the game have wildly varying exploration rewards, and several elements of the game have you draw random reward tiles out of a bag, and these rewards are not balanced at all, often leading to big point swings in the end.

I can't definitively say I won't play Eclipse again, since it hits a lot of familiar Euro sweet spots if your production engine and tech tree comes to fruition, but it could have been so much more.

2 player head to head is only how I've played this and what a game. We can go all out combative or pve and not fight each other all game. The exploring and technology advances are incredible and feels like several games in one.

Easily the best thing we've played in year and has it not been for Gloomhaven would be our favorite game of all time.

12/2019