by DrMercy
Hi allHuge fan of eclipse, so I'm really looking forward to this expansion.
I've haven't tried it out yet, so this post is based on my observations of the rulebook.
First of all I usually play 3 player games. So I warmly welcome the additions of ancient home worlds and hives together with unique cruisers and the dreadnought. This will definitely spice up our 3 player games.
The new Warp Portals will also open up the game more (we have a tendency to turtle until round 8 or so) and I'm glad for the new races as well (especially the Rho syndicate sounds like fun).
Finally, the 6 new regular hexes will also be a nice addition to increase the randomness of tiles (together with the 2 from Pulsar).
On the more disappointing side, I really hoped for more techs to research and rules for making the game more epic.
I'm aware that the game includes Rare technologies, but only 1 of these are available of each. My friends and I were talking about how cool it would be to equip ones ships with interceptor bays to give them new tactical opportunities. But now I see that only one race can have them and I don't understand why? It shouldn't be that complex for all races to figure out how to equip larger ships with these bays IMO. Generally it seems to me that all the new Rare techs could have been implemented as a fourth tech row instead. Was this proposed / tested? Together with some of the new Discoveries, that shouldn't be a problem as I see it. The fourth row could have been characterized as techs that mixed abilities (as the Moun Source and Ion Disrupter discoveries does).
Adding a fourth row also leads to the bit disappointing lack of a more epic scale game mode for the game. I really like that Eclipse can be played within 2 hours or so. And I know that with aggressive tactics you can have a lot of action very early in the game. But I also know that a lot of players love first to improve their empire and then go to war later. In my games (again mostly 3 player ones) all players first initiated player vs. player battles around turn 8 or so. That leaves 2 turns for player battles. It is a bit of a let down to finally have amassed your mighty fleets only to realize, that the game ends the next round.
It would have been a nice addition if for instance rules for 18 turns of play were included. I assume that one of the major problems with extending the game turn limit is that any research leads are undermined the longer you play the game because at one point the leading race in techs would have researched everything thus making science obsolete. This could IMO be avoided by two options. The first solution is, if the above mentioned fourth tech row would have been implemented. The second would have been to print an epic version of the new miniaturized game board on the back side (I suppose it's empty). On the epic version, tech research costs should have been steeper as higher as you go in tech levels. That way running out of research options in 18 turn games should be avoided.
Did you make any play tests on optional rules on extending the number of game rounds?
Oh well, just some thoughts about the game. Looking forward to this expansion. Keep up the good work.