On Sunday 28th October four Eclipse fiends / friends gathered at the upstairs room of Canberra's The Games Capital (formerly Mind Games, but with the same friendly staff). Also present were four other friends who opted for another very popular game in our gaming group, The Scepter of Zavandor.
I had downloaded the Eclipse: Rise of the Ancients rulebook, but had not yet received the bits-and-pieces of the expansion. Therefore we plugged in just one piece of the RotA modules, the official "Power Grid" variant. That is, planning on when to pass and receive the Purple Pawn is made more scientific as next turn's Technology Tiles are visible from the very beginning of the current turn.
In clockwise order from start player we were the glorious Gregory (winner of the previous vanilla game of Eclipse), the young but vicious![]()
Sarah, her older sister Rebecca, and myself.
Therefore I had first choice of alien power. I decided not to be an alien, but instead be the Green Human (thus preventing anyone else from selecting the Planta).
[Boring descriptions deleted.]
As is my wont, I found myself fighting a two-front war against both my neighbours. This time both Gregory and Rebecca took the precaution of purchasing Plasma Missiles, upgrading their blueprints with them, then sending swarms of ships in my general and particular direction. The best I could do at game end was narrowly cling to third place by Neutron Bombing out-of-the-way enemy planets which lacked enemy fleets.
Meanwhile Sarah was peacefully building up her economy, then snatched first place from Gregory with a sneak attack on a valuable hex of his on turn nine. No doubt Gregory would have regained first place by a counter-attack on turn ten, but that strategy Gregory for some obscure reason eschewed.![]()
I had downloaded the Eclipse: Rise of the Ancients rulebook, but had not yet received the bits-and-pieces of the expansion. Therefore we plugged in just one piece of the RotA modules, the official "Power Grid" variant. That is, planning on when to pass and receive the Purple Pawn is made more scientific as next turn's Technology Tiles are visible from the very beginning of the current turn.
In clockwise order from start player we were the glorious Gregory (winner of the previous vanilla game of Eclipse), the young but vicious
Sarah, her older sister Rebecca, and myself.Therefore I had first choice of alien power. I decided not to be an alien, but instead be the Green Human (thus preventing anyone else from selecting the Planta).
[Boring descriptions deleted.]
As is my wont, I found myself fighting a two-front war against both my neighbours. This time both Gregory and Rebecca took the precaution of purchasing Plasma Missiles, upgrading their blueprints with them, then sending swarms of ships in my general and particular direction. The best I could do at game end was narrowly cling to third place by Neutron Bombing out-of-the-way enemy planets which lacked enemy fleets.
Meanwhile Sarah was peacefully building up her economy, then snatched first place from Gregory with a sneak attack on a valuable hex of his on turn nine. No doubt Gregory would have regained first place by a counter-attack on turn ten, but that strategy Gregory for some obscure reason eschewed.