by MikeWhit
Don, Todd, and I got together for a 3-player Eclipse session mixing in components from Rise of the Ancients and other mini-expansions, including:* new races
* unique techs
* ancient home worlds
* ancient dreadnought in sector 001
* pulsar, supernova, and ancient hive systems
* 2nd player to pass chooses direction of play
For picking races we dealt out two star systems and each got to pick among the 4 races they represented. Todd picked Planta, Don picked Enlightened of Lyra, and I picked Mechanema. When going over our racial bonuses our heads started hurting when reading over the Enlightened of Lyra so Don dumped them for a Human faction.
The game started typically with each of us exploring the surrounding area. Planta did well with their racial bonus of drawing two systems per explore, while the Humans pulled quite a few low value systems and were hurting from the start. Mechanema pulled a lot of science-oriented planets and almost no production-based planets. Each of us had a couple ancient cruisers nearby.
Due to the ancient homeworlds, ancient dreadnought, and tile placement we all were basically turtling as we grabbed what we could before someone opened up a path into someone else's empire. Planta built two dreadnoughts loaded with two Conifold Fields each, giving them 7 hull points. They were slow but easily took out the ancients nearby. Mechanema acquired Flux Missile technology and loaded up their interceptors as missile-only boats, plus supplemented their cruisers with a flux missile battery, advanced hull, and +2 computers. The Humans built almost exclusively interceptors loaded with Ion Disruptors and computers.
The first major battle occurred when the Humans acquired the worm-hole generator technology. Their cruiser and 5 interceptors came swarming into the Mechanema empire who countered with 2 cruisers, 2 interceptors, and an emergency starbase loaded with Flux Missiles and an Ion Cannon. The Mechanema missile barrage took out several Human ships but their fleet's limited beam weapon load-out started to tell after several rounds of fighting. Their now empty interceptors fled and their cruisers were left derelict and burning. The Humans did not have any armor upgrades so they too took heavy losses - a single hit being enough to burn out a ship. The lone Mechanema starbase was trading shots with the surviving Human fleet and it eventually came down to just that base and one heavily damaged Human cruiser. Whoever got the next shot would win the battle. Several more rounds of battle ensued and eventually the Mechanema were victorious with a lucky shot taking out the Human cruiser.
The Human empire's offensive drained their coffers and they were forced to pull out of several low-value systems in order to pay the bills. Planta's two dreadnoughts then slowly cruised into the galactic center and engaged the ancient dreadnought there. One of their dreadnoughts took the brunt of the ancient fire and was destroyed but the other eventually knocked out the ancient, and colonists quickly followed up to claim the system. The lost dreadnought was promptly replaced and now all 3 empires were connected. Mechanema, having suffered greatly from the attempted Human invasion, spent all their resources in a crash program to replace their fleet - their abundance of scientific output supplementing their lack of production facilities.
Thus the stage was set for the last two great battles of the war. There was quite a bit of manuevering and delaying by all as each attempted to force their opponents to tip their hand. Mechanema upgraded their interceptors with better drives so each could travel through 3 systems per move. Their plan was to launch a spoiling attack at Planta's dreadnoughts in sector 001 and with their last moves flank that battle with their interceptors, fanning them out across the Planta hinterland to eradicate their civilian population. The Humans dumped their Ion Disruptors for Antimatter Cannons, upgraded their computers, and launched a second invasion of the Mechanema empire just as the Mechanema were attacking Planta in 001. While the battles evolved Mechanema realized a major strategic blunder - they could not find a wormhole in the system they planned to flank through! Their entire flanking move bogged down and they were forced to launch their missiles at the lone ancient defending the sector. Planta reacted to the Mechanema feint, building 4 starbases in 001, and upgrading their computers. Mechanema crash-built an emergency starbase alongside the existing one in an attempt to stop the Human invasion.
As the Humans approached, the bright streaks of missiles spidered out to the approaching cruisers as the Mechanema starbases opened up. The Human cruisers were blotted from space, and the bases then pounded the escorting interceptors with beam fire. The entire Human invasion was destroyed before they could get a shot off!
In the center, the Mechanema too launched their missiles before Planta's dreads could get within beam range. One dread was destroyed outright and the other damaged. However, accurate fire from the remaining dread and the four starbases supporting it was able to burn through the armor of all the attacking Mechanema ships, destroying all except those few that managed to escape.
The Human and Mechanema invasions foiled and their peoples exhausted, the three empires signed an armistice, ending the war with a much depleted Human empire, and with Planta and Mechanema as near equals though Planta with a strong strategic advantage.
Final Score:
* Planta: 34
* Mechanema: 33
* Humans: 10
Thoughts:
We all agreed the pre-positioned ancient home worlds blocked things up too much and we should not use that mix-in rule again. That might be due to our play style, but for next time, we will probably shuffle one or two into ring II to see how that works out.
The Pulsar hex came out and I liked it. It gave some flexibility during the end game where it effectively gives a free pass when you want to see what another player is going to do. Planta discarded the Supernova hex and the ancient hive so I think we will keep them in until we can try them out.
There was a bit of shock when the second Human-Mechanema battle resulted in the entire human invading force being destroyed without firing a shot. It seems when going up against a large number of missile batteries you better have some armor upgrades. Planta shrugged off the missiles largely due to their Conifold Fields.
The Humans had very poor system draws and probably should have built orbitals instead of invasion fleets. Mechanema could have used orbitals too, but their production capability was so low, even with their racial bonus, that they could not afford to.
I think we will mix in the development tiles next time. For this game it just seemed too much to take in, but it would have been nice to build the Warp Portal which would have linked to the two already in Planta's empire.
I liked the 2nd player passing being able to choose direction of play - we will keep it in.