by Hannibal Rex
Bijan has got the ball running, so I'll try my hand at my own brief review.As you should already know by the time you're reading this, Rise of the Ancients is the first expansion for Eclipse. It offers serveral modular elements that can be added or left out as you see fit. Some of them work better than others, but altogether, they add a lot of interesting new options and strategies. I'll go over them point by point, just as my predecessor.
Rare Technologies (
)Rare Technologies are unique, and get drawn in addition to the ordinary number of regular technologies. This means there will be more research options. As you can choose on which track to put them, it becomes easier to get the full research discount for higher technologies, as well as filling your research tracks completely. Maybe even a little too easily. You have to be wary that you don't lock yourself out of a regular technology you need by doing this however, as the number of technologies you can research on each track remains the same.
Several of them address (perceived or real) issues with the base game; Interceptor Bays let you move interceptors for free along with a mother ship. A few of them are designed as counters or alternatives to the very (some say over-) effective Plasma Missiles of the base game.
Developments (
)Developments allow you to spend resources other than science with your research action. Three of them effectively allow you to trade at much better exchange rates than usual, even for humans (or the Rho Syndicate), and are a no-brainer. You can quickly get a high-tier technology early, for example, by exchanging materials and money for science. Especially the Eridani with their large starting treasury should have a close look if they can leverage an early development into a lasting advantage. The others all provide victory points in some form, most of them also additional effects. They provide some interesting strategic options, especially since they're bought at the expense of your military strength (materials) or your ability to react to surprises (money).
Ancients Homeworlds (
)When playing with less than 6 players, you can now replace the missing starting locations with Ancient Homeworlds, valuable sectors that are protected by one of eight unique Ancient cruisers. There is also the variant option of shuffling these homeworlds into the sector II draw pile, which makes exploring the middle sectors a risky proposition at the start of the game. The Ancient cruisers offer interesting challenges for experienced players, but newcomers will have some difficulty in determining what kind of force is best to reliably defeat each different type.
Galactic Center Takeover (
)This simple change replaces the Galactic Center with an Ancient Dreadnought (two different configurations available), which is a tough nut to crack. Certain races (*cough* Orions *cough*) will no longer have such an easy time claiming the center early on.
Ancient Hives (
)The two Ancient Hives are shuffled into both the sector II and III hexes, so they avoid the problem of the Secret Homeworld variant. There are three normal Ancient ships on each, which may spread out to neighboring sectors, and they have wormholes on all six sides, which ensures they open up the galaxy a bit. As with the other new Ancient components, they liven up things a lot. They force players who run into them to build up their fleet maybe a little earlier than they wanted to, unless the player discards the Hive when drawn.
Warp Portals (
)There are three such sectors, as well as one of the Developments, and one of the new Discoveries. They open up the universe significantly, and serve to counteract shut-ins. Die-hard turtles, however, can still chose to discard these hexes when drawn, so they are not really a counter to that particular strategy.
New Discoveries (
)These increase the variety of the draws, as expected. You can now find pre-built orbitals that include and additional artefact (x2), a moderate increase in all resources (x2), the aforementioned Warp Portal, and four new ship parts with interesting capabilities, all of which will have an influence on your initiative; the Jump Drive lets your ships move to any adjacent sector, but it provides no initiative at all; wheras all the other parts can boost it beyond the usual Computer/Drive/Ship Type limitations, besides their other bonuses. It remains to be seen how much of an advantage that effectively amounts to.
Official Variants (
)I have already mentioned the Secret Homeworld variant; there are three other ones that have received official sanction, neither of which actually requires Rise of the Ancients to use:
Predictable Technologies mean that the next turn's new available technologies are already drawn and presented at the start of the current turn. This removes the luck factor in determining if it is worth to pass early for the sake of getting the first dibs on research. Players who wants less randomness will welcome this, and presumably, are already using this variant in some form.
Small Galaxy is an alternate setup for three player games that forces players into conflict earlier.
Direction of Play has a convenient token provided, but could also be used without it; in this variant, the second player to pass decides if the play order next turn is clockwise or counter-clockwise. This can be quite important, especially for research, and means there's still a reason to pass early after the first player, unless you're sitting directly opposite him in a 4 or 6 player game.
As they're all entirely optional, your group can decide for themselves whether these variants can be considered enough of an improvement to warrant the slightly higher complexity.
Supplementary Components (
)Not much to say here; a Supply Board that takes less table space, and some more of the most used basic ship components. Certainly practical to have, and a general indicator how Lautapelit listens to player response. They could have easily left these out with little complaint, but there will certainly be a number of players grateful to have them.
Alliances (
)Alliances are a double-edged sword; on one hand they mean 4+ players Eclipse is no longer a strictly free for all game with only one winner; those who prefer to turn it into a team game can now do so. It also addresses the common issue of such games that one or more players come to realize half-way through that they no longer have a chance of victory, and have no more motivation to stay in the game, except maybe as suicidal kingmakers who still have the ability, if not to win, to make a certain other player lose. However, there is nothing to keep the two leading players to ally with each other, and thereby secure an all but guaranteed victory. To what extent such problems present themselves depends on your group, but as they stand, I do not find the Alliance rules themselves entirely satisfactory in addressing these issues.
7 - 9 Player Game (
)I have not played Eclipse with that many players, but as usually can be expected, both the playing time and downtime increase the more players you have. But if your circle of dedicated Eclipse players is large enough, then by all means, this option provides for some epic games. The Simultaneous Play variant is intended primarily for such large games, and it requires the players to be both experienced, and willing to put up with some snags that may present themselves.
New Alien Species (
)I will not go over each new species in too much detail. The Exiles appear as maybe too much of a one trick pony, and I have a little concern that the others with their grab-bag of new abilities may overshadow some of the more plain base game factions such as the humans.
How well they integrate with the base game species remains to be seen, but as always, more options make the game more interesting.
Component Quality(
)I can only join Bijan's praise.The overall quality is excellent. While there are some printing errors, Lautapelit has taken swift measures to address them, and anyone buying the first edition of the game will receive replacement parts, as well as a bonus rare technology. (That should also become available in some other form, eventually.) You are certain to receive great customer service along with your game.
Conclusion
While the focus of this expansions title is on the Ancients, it essentially consists of many small modules that add more variety to the game without making any sweeping changes. It does not change the game into something else; if you have any deeper concerns with the base game, RotA will not, in all likelyhood, turn you into an ardent fan by any means. There may be some minor balance concerns, but all in all, this is a very well-rounded package that will definitely prolong the shelf-life of Eclipse for a while, if you were at all in any danger of growing bored with it yet.