Lautapelit.fi Eclipse: 2nd Dawn for the Galaxy

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Because the streamlined nature of the gameplay really made it addicting for us. It flows with grace through each of the 8 game rounds. And although the pacing starts the experience with little to no confrontation, by the time the end of the game comes, there is the potential for a gloriously climatic battle.

An advanced guide to Eclipse for beginners | Eclipse: Second

Secondly, and linked, the upgrade system means that it wouldn’t take much for that enemy cruiser to become spiky enough to deal with being outnumbered by becoming effectively unkillable. It wouldn’t take much for even a fighter to start posing a serious threat to cruisers and even dreadnoughts. That means that you need to at least keep pace in the interstellar arms race if you want to do any conquering later in the game. Eclipse is a "4X" game where players will command a human or alien species that explores, expands, exploits, and exterminates their way to victory. Over 8 rounds, each player will select actions to achieve their goals, carefully managing resources, engaging in epic battles with one another and the Ancients that lie in wait. Only one will guide the galaxy toward the second dawn. Yes, the beginning of the game seemed very evocative of traditional Euros. But as a time when on, as we upgraded our ship blueprints with newly research technology as we ventured into space, I found that she was really getting into the experience. As was I. Influence - You can add an influence token to a system next to one of your own. You can also remove a token from one of your systems if you think you might have overreached yourself. When Eclipse: New Dawn For The Galaxy first came out in 2011, it was viewed by some as potential competition for the granddaddy of all space exploration games, Twilight Imperium. In the years since then, the comparison (if not the competition) has continued apace. That’s really not surprising of course, both games are about ruling space empires, exploration, research and combat. And both games are absolutely huge. With half a dozen different factions exploring dozens of different star systems and researching a simply enormous tech tree, Eclipse may not be quite the scale of TI but it’s no slouch in the scheme of 4X (Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate) gaming. A Second DawnWith all that said, and taking into account the price (not cheap, but with the length of play and quality and quantity of components), if you think you have the friends to play this with then buy it. It’s a great game and will absolutely justify the price. Even if you only get it off the shelf a couple of times a year, that’ll be well worth the epic science fiction event that takes place everytime you do. After a few years of waiting for shortages of the game that was between printings and having accrued enough savings, I can finally say that I own the 2nd edition of Eclipse now. There is a constant battle in resource management in this game, making it so you always need to be sure to have enough gold to maintain your population scattered across various planets. While you do generally need to spread your influence throughout the Galaxy to obtain the all-so-precious Victory Points needed to win the game, having a large galactic presence means you need to pay more to maintain your power. What this means in gameplay is that if you somehow manage to go broke, you are out of the game! Though it should be mentioned there are ways to eliminate your debt by relinquishing systems you control, it is nevertheless very easy to bite off more than you can chew (yes, it has happened to us on more than one occasion!). Eclipse's recent Second Dawn for the Galaxy makes some cosmetic improvements, but its gameplay remains largely untouched.

Eclipse: Second Dawn for The Galaxy – Board Game by Eclipse: Second Dawn for The Galaxy – Board Game by

Move – Exactly as you might think, you can move your ships a given number of systems (depending on their speed) to fortify your own space or invade others’. In my wife’s own words, I can tell if a game is good if she keeps on coming downstairs to the game from her at-home job to take turns all day long. Eclipse provided such an experience for her, despite her initial misgivings. Color me surprised. Twilight Imperium has a working but inelegant storage solution, a vast improvement over the options given by other Fantasy Flight titles like Arkham Horror. Even so, setup will still take you at least 45 minutes to an hour, as you pull out the customised cardboard chits for each of the base game's 17 factions and either set up the galaxy yourself or add another stage to the game - building the galaxy in a delightful cut-throat minigame, one that sets up the galaxy as a boon for you or a bane for your friends. Twilight Imperium wants you to be champing at the bit to play, which is very distinct from Eclipse’s approach. This brings us neatly to the combat. Unlike its heftier cousin, Eclipse: Second Dawn of the Galaxy isn’t actually that combat heavy. That’s down to a few reasons. Eclipse places you in control of a vast interstellar civilization. Explore new star systems, research technologies, and build spaceships with which to wage war. There are many potential paths to victory, so you need to plan your strategy according to the strengths and weaknesses of your species, while paying attention to the other civilizations' endeavors.This new edition features new components and thoughtfully revised content, incorporating material from former expansions to create the best possible updated version of the game. Rules:

Eclipse: Second Dawn for the Galaxy Review - A Plastic Classic Eclipse: Second Dawn for the Galaxy Review - A Plastic Classic

The aim of the Second Dawn of the Galaxy is simple, build up victory points by means of expanding your empire, researching technology and winning battles against NPC ships and player factions. After X rounds, the player with the most victory points is the winner. As a game, Eclipse can be quite overwhelming to look at, but it’s really a series of very simple actions and the truly complex aspect is the strategy required to win. The second edition of Eclipse (now subtitled “Second Dawn For The Galaxy“) carries on from where the original left off with a narrative taking place after the events of the first edition. To this end there is a new piece on the board alongside all the different factions in the shape of the GCDS (Galactic Centre Defence System), a Death Star like space station at the very centre of the map. This doesn’t have a significant effect on gameplay but does make travel through the centre of the Galaxy a lot more hazardous than previously! The Way To Empire This massive box of goodness is a new version of the much loved 4X game Eclipse. Starting off with a basic fleet of ships and a unique race of aliens (or the blander humans), you will forge your way across the galaxy, exploring new locations and upgrading your technology to create a unique faction. This all means that in the games I’ve played, combat tends to be a late game rush as various players finally decide that now is the time to throw around those fleets that they’ve been building up since turn one. Dawn? Or Sunset

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Twilight Imperium's latest fourth edition released in 2017, 20 years after the sci-fi epic first hit tables. Because for every action you take there’s a double cost of influence and money which means that every decision you make needs to be geared towards a very clear goal. Are you going for tech? Great! Better hope that no one invades! Are you building towards a military victory? Better get those ship upgrades right or you’ll be very embarrassed when your armada collapses in the face of the enemy defence fleet. Not to mention the fact that negotiation is a crucial facet of the gameplay in Twilight Imperium, with last year’s Prophecy of Kings expansion filling out the game in such a way that it’s almost a must-have for those who fall in love with this space classic. The expansion includes a beefy new exploration mechanic and new factions that turn an already intense experience into a multi-day carnival of the animals

Eclipse - 2nd Dawn for the Galaxy | Lautapelit.fi Eclipse - 2nd Dawn for the Galaxy | Lautapelit.fi

Again, this is a very streamlined game. It flows! But still takes about 2 hours for a two player game, more for more players. Still not as long as the other Big games out there. I do have some gripes about the Rulebook. I do find that the printing is rather small and cluttered, and would have preferred some more spacing out between different sections of the book. However, on the plus side, it has some very good examples of gameplay broken down between 4 fictitious players to give you a better sense of how Eclipse plays out. And I do wish that there was a separate handout available detailing researchable Techs for easy access rather than having to search for the Rulebook every time you need a reference.Build – Spend some of your build points to add to your fleet or build a space station to improve your infrastructure. Later in the game you can build a monolith (a la 2001: A Space Odyssey) which gives a boost to your victory points. For anyone familiar with first edition, the biggest change might be something that’s not actually related to the game play. In these big games, the set up and put away time can take another hour on top of play time. No longer. With each faction’s pieces in a separate box and each box carefully set up to fit together, it can take only a few minutes to start play and not much longer to put away.