by chuckyd1859
We just played our first two games of RotA, and one of our guys played the Exiles. He used them extremely well. To begin, he had good luck drawing many sector three systems with two planets (one always being material). He closed off all borders until I, Lyra, found the jump drive and built three shrines for the wormhole generator and posed a threat. Still, that damn cloaking device was a nuisance and he nearly won the game until I formed an alliance with Mechanema...we promptly smoked him and the other competition to win the game. However, until round seven, the Exiles had so much material they had built orbitals in five (or six hexes) in addition to three monoliths. Even though his fleet wasn't great in numbers, it was decent in technology and seemed threatening enough until engaged. Still, though, that cloaking device was a terrible, lingering threat.As some others said, when playing the Exiles, you've got to use that cloaking device to your advantage and be comfortable with losing/exchanging systems. Initially, I though orbitals were two expensive (6 materials each) but now think they are nicely balanced. Orbitals are, after all, permanent and, for the ones controlled at the end of the game, one victory point in addition to providing money/science and some (albeit measly) defense.
After reading this particular thread, I was not at all interested in playing the Exiles, but I'm thrilled someone in my group played them well in our first expansion game. I consider the Exiles (and all the additional races) to be an excellent addition to Eclipse. I will certainly not hesitate to play the Exiles in the future.