|
The galaxy has been a peaceful place for many years. After the ruthless Terran–Hegemony War (30.027–33.364), much effort has been employed by all major spacefaring species to prevent the terrifying events from repeating themselves. The Galactic Council was formed to enforce precious peace and it has taken many courageous efforts to prevent the escalation of malicious acts. Nevertheless, tension and discord are growing among the seven major species and in the Council itself. Old alliances are shattering and hasty diplomatic treaties are made in secrecy. A confrontation of the superpowers seems inevitable – only the outcome of the galactic conflict remains to be seen. Which faction will emerge victorious and lead the galaxy under its rule? The shadows of the great civilizations are about to eclipse the galaxy. Lead your people to victory! Eclipse is a board game about space. Specifically, it is a 4X game about eXploring, eXpanding, eXploiting and eXterminating across the greatest chunkof space that you can. It is also by far the lighter of the two popular 4X-in-space board games. (The other, Twilight Imperium, often has its playtime measured in days.) Eclipse, by contrast, is a lighter, easier-to-learn, more euro-y game. And I'm going to be doing a PbP of it! Newcomers and veterans alike are welcome to have a stab at it, and anyone who's not in is welcome to provide their own comments and insights (but please preface your post with if you do). I've uploaded a PDF of the rules to my MediaFire here, and you can also find a pretty good video walkthrough of how the game is played here. Any new players, I'd ask that you please give the rules a once-over and at least watch the first fifteen to twenty minutes of the video before you apply, just to make sure you've got a handle on everything. PBP games with this depth can very easily slow to a crawl and die, so I am going to be much more of a stickler than I usually am about consistent posting. If you can't guarantee regular posting (ideally at least once a day, if not more), I'd ask you to please not apply. For similar reasons, I'm going to be somewhat ruthless about replacing people who go idle, and will be keeping a healthy roster of back-ups for this purpose. Even if it's not your turn, just posting to shoot the poo poo, explain why you made a move, or shamelessly gloat at the guy whose ships you're blowing up, will do a lot to keep the thread active and alive. In short, . That's been a lot of but we're almost done. Here's a picture of an example game at the start of Round 5, to break up the monotony. Yes, the Orion Hegeony are winning, why do you ask? Setup Information
Notes on Playing
The Orion Hegemony's board in that game at that time. An early Shard Hull allowed them to exploit their advantage to great effect, and take down the GCDS during Round 3. Fun fact: They win this game with 35 points, pulling ahead from the Planta at the very end because of a last minute Monolith rush. Applications I'm getting tired of writing this, so I'm gonna make this part super-quick. All I need from an application is your SA username, your level of experience, what contact method you'd prefer (PMs, IMs, the IRC, whatever. Just not e-mail, please.) and your top three choices for what race you'd like to play. In a blatant display of buzzword, Gutter Owl has already been accepted as a pre-sign, so there are three player slots open. I won't be just taking the first few applicants, especially since I'll need a back-up player list, but I don't want to leave it open for too long and cause too much disappointment, either. Expect something within about 24-48 hours?
|
# ? Aug 27, 2014 15:22 |
|
|
# ? Apr 27, 2024 02:12 |
|
Races In the base game of Eclipse, there are twelve races (well, technically six alien species, and six different identical types of humans). Each has strengths and weaknesses, and some are much, much more forgiving on new players than others. They are as follows. Color: Red Racial Effects
The Eridani start very, very strong, with a lot of free combat technologies, anywhere between 2 and 8 free victory points, and a whopping 26 Economy. However, their substandard home system and, more importantly, having two fewer action disks, means that their advantage can quickly dwindle away if not capitalized on. Eridani strategy relies on leveraging your early advantages to cement a power base for yourself before you run your wallet dry. This is a delicate balance and it's fairly easy to overshoot in either direction, so the Eridani are not recommended for new players. Color: Blue Racial Effects
The Hydran are by far the most straight-forward race in the game to play, and arguably the best for new players, or even in general. Their hat is research, and they do it drat well. A lack of any Basic Production to start, however, means that they can end up not having a great deal of resources in the early game, and need to explore in order to get the room they need to really leverage their Advanced Labs, and research whatever they need to best profit from the situation they're in. As they're the simplest race for a new player to grasp, I'm restricting them to new players only. Color: Green Racial Effects
The Planta are one of the two explorer races, and the one that's easier for new players to get a handle on. They can quickly expand their territory, and have the starting technology to dissuade an opponent from rushing in before they're ready, but if their defenses do fail, it's trivial for an opponent to take vast swathes of their territory in relatively short order. The inflexibility of their ship designs also means that they can end up struggling to keep their ships adapting to whatever's needed in the late phases of the game. Planta strategy involves expanding when you can, and knowing when and where to turtle up when you can't. The Planta are straight-forward, but also have some risks involved, so new players are neither encouraged nor dissuaded from picking them. Color: Yellow Racial Effects
It's not unfair to say that the Descendents of Draco are almost playing a different game from everyone else. While the other players are trying to destroy and take over the hexes with Ancients in them, the Descendents instead buddy up with the ancient omnicidal aliens. In the early game, this means that they have a buffer between themselves and their enemies to make up for their weak start, but in the late game, the burden of protection is passed onto the player, as ships start flying around that can completely flatten the Ancients with a sneeze. They can also end up losing a significant number of boosts from Discovery Tiles, and so must rely on the victory points from surviving Ancients to make up for that. For this reason, they are not recommended for new players. Color: White Racial Effects
If the Eridani are the Economy race, and the Hydran are the Research race, the Mechanema are the Production race. Between their faster building and upgrading, and their cheaper production, the Mechanema can poo poo out a state-of-the-art army in an astonishingly short length of time. Their home system means they can't press this advantage as immediately as they'd like, however. Still, for being straight-forward and forgiving of early blunders, I'm restricting the Mechanema to new players only. Color: Black Racial Effects
The Orion Hegemony blows poo poo up in space, that's what they're good at in the beginning of the game, and they remain good at it the whole way through. Really, I could kind of stop the comment section there and everyone would get the idea, but for the sake of completeness: Aside from their absolutely amazing starting ship, the Orion have a terrible trade ratio and what is probably the worst Home System in the game. This means that not only can they steal good systems from Ancients, or even other players, they're almost compelled to in order to still thrive in the end game. Because a competent Orion Hegemony would scare everyone else into turtling forever while their good systems are slowly stripped away, and make for a very boring game, I am restricting the Orion to new players only. Color: All Racial Effects
While other races have a single, predictable strategy, Terrans are flexible, and can... Actually, I'm just going to level with you all. Terrans are kind of crap. In an all-human game, they work well for teaching the ropes and letting you do whatever you want to do, and that's fine. But in a game with races that have a built-in, incentivized strategy, humans have to play whatever hand they're dealt, and if they can't leverage it properly, it's very easy for them to fall behind as early as midgame, and it only snowballs from there. For this reason, Terrans are not recommended for new players.
|
# ? Aug 27, 2014 15:22 |
|
i wanna be the space monoillithid
|
# ? Aug 27, 2014 15:26 |
|
Never played before. Calling dibs on the Borg, followed by Planta, followed by hilarious comedy option Draco. Contact via PM preferred. gutterdaughter fucked around with this message at 16:04 on Aug 27, 2014 |
# ? Aug 27, 2014 15:38 |
|
actual interest post: i've got zero experience with this game. i can post pretty regularly, and i've got pms. my top three picks would be monollithids, moss monsters, and space ogres, in that order. it's probably obvious, but my sa username is Weedlord Bonerhitler III
|
# ? Aug 27, 2014 15:46 |
|
Eridani sound like p. cool folks. Failing that I guess Draco or Mechanima. Not expecting a rush of signups for Eridani though. I can be reached by PM or you can just yell at me on skype. I've played about twenty games. Probably a few more. Only 3 or so games of non-expansion Eclipse though! (I've never won with Eridani without the expansion.) Corbeau fucked around with this message at 16:01 on Aug 27, 2014 |
# ? Aug 27, 2014 15:51 |
|
Never played by post before, sounds intimidating but holy poo poo do I want to play some Eclipse right now. Got maybe a dozen games under my belt but at least half of them are with the expansion. I have PMs for contact purposes and as a BITTER BATTLEHARDENED VETERAN I'd like to play Planta, Descendants or Human.
|
# ? Aug 27, 2014 16:03 |
|
Ill be a backup E: might want to pm ettin bout your tag Fellis fucked around with this message at 18:32 on Aug 27, 2014 |
# ? Aug 27, 2014 18:09 |
|
Poison Mushroom posted:
I'm having a good chuckle at this. Last night I played a four-player game - me as Magellans, the game's owner (who has played once or twice more than me) as the Progress, and a complete newbie and a guy who had played once before as humans. The Progress came dead last on 19 points, having been brutally stomped on several occasions by one of the humans and never managing to score on the research tracks. (There was also a hilarious moment where the other human player, who had gone missile-happy, attacked me for control of 001 with all her fleet on the last turn only to watch me research Antimatter Cannon, Antimatter Splitter and Point Defence then upgrade my Dreadnaughts with Flux Shield. I love the expansion. ) By the way, you know that normally you don't choose your race until after the starting tech tiles are drawn, yes? This is especially important if someone takes the Eridani, who are heavily disadvantaged if certain techs are not available. If possible, I would suggest that you give each non-human player the option to flip to human after the starting draw.
|
# ? Aug 27, 2014 18:34 |
|
Jedit posted:If possible, I would suggest that you give each non-human player the option to flip to human after the starting draw. Fellis posted:Ill be a backup
|
# ? Aug 27, 2014 18:40 |
Can't promise to post enough so I'm not going to join, but following and will kibbitz.
|
|
# ? Aug 27, 2014 18:41 |
|
Baller game looking forward to watching the game play out.
|
# ? Aug 28, 2014 04:13 |
|
Well, okay, that works out pretty okay. I guess, then, that the players are... Corbeau as the Eridani (Red)! Gutter Owl as the Mechanema (White)! Hra Mormo as the Planta (Green)! Tollymain as the Hydran Progress (Blue)! Back-Up Fellis inSTALLed Elyv Bobfly Anyone else who wishes to be back-up, feel free to say so at any time. Game start post (with option to switch to human) will be up soon! girl dick energy fucked around with this message at 02:43 on Sep 6, 2014 |
# ? Aug 28, 2014 16:43 |
|
I'll be away until this evening, so I volunteer to not go first.
|
# ? Aug 28, 2014 16:45 |
|
Turn order has been randomly determined as Hra Mormo -> Corbeau -> Tollymain -> Gutter Owl, and the board has been set up to reflect this! (Clockwise.) Hra Mormo is the first player! Round 1.1 Game Board Player Boards Supply Board Available Technologies Military Plasma Cannon (x2) - When using the Upgrade action, you may put the Plasma Cannon tile on your ships. Advanced Mining (x2) - You may place cubes on the advanced spaces of mining planets you control. Grid Gauss Shield - When using the Upgrade action, you may put the Gauss Shield tile on your ships. Tachyon Drive (x2) - When using the Upgrade action, you may put the Tachyon Drive tile on your ships. Antimatter Cannon - When using the Upgrade action, you may put the Antimatter Cannon tile on your ships. Quantum Grid - You gain two extra action disks. Nano Nanorobots (x2) - When taking the Build action, you may build one more ship or structure. Fusion Drive - When using the Upgrade action, you may put the Fusion Drive tile on your ships. Advanced Robotics (x2) - You gain an extra action disk. Advanced Labs - You may place cubes on the advanced spaces of research planets you control. Monolith - When taking the build action, you may build Monoliths in sectors you control. (One per sector, worth 3 VP at end of game.) Action Queue ==>Hra: Choose first action. ==>All Players: Choose to keep race or switch for human. girl dick energy fucked around with this message at 08:11 on Aug 29, 2014 |
# ? Aug 28, 2014 17:20 |
|
##Keep Mechanema
|
# ? Aug 28, 2014 17:32 |
|
I'll be a backup if you need more. I have Eclipse, but have only got it to the table one time, and that game was ended just before the final turn.
|
# ? Aug 28, 2014 17:35 |
|
I'll be a backup, though I've only played the game once and it was years ago.
|
# ? Aug 28, 2014 17:39 |
|
##keep provost vorahkaz in office
|
# ? Aug 28, 2014 20:15 |
|
I will also be a back up! I've played a handful of times. P.S. Fellis we should play on Vassal!
|
# ? Aug 28, 2014 20:26 |
|
## Keep Eridani. Nonetheless, not exactly the sort of tech draw I was hoping for.
|
# ? Aug 29, 2014 04:51 |
|
## Keep Planta ## Explore sector 3 northwest of home system
|
# ? Aug 29, 2014 05:10 |
|
Nu Phoenisis Sector Sector 310 1 Point Basic Research Planet Basic Mining Planet Action Queue ==>Hra: Choose keep or discard. If keep, choose ==>Hra: Choose second sector for Explore action.
|
# ? Aug 29, 2014 05:50 |
|
## Keep Nu Phoenisis Sector, rotate once counterclockwise to line up gate and place. Influence Nu Phoenisis Sector, colonise both planets. ## Explore sector 1 southeast of home system.
|
# ? Aug 29, 2014 06:47 |
|
Castor Sector Sector 101 2 Points Discovery Tile, Ancient Basic Economic Planet Basic/Advanced Mining Planet Action Queue ==>Hra: Choose keep or discard. If keep, choose tile orientation and whether or not to influence/use colony ships. ==>Corbeau: Choose action.
|
# ? Aug 29, 2014 06:51 |
|
## Keep Castor Sector, maintain current orientation and place.
|
# ? Aug 29, 2014 06:57 |
|
## Explore my 1.
|
# ? Aug 29, 2014 07:09 |
|
Hra Mormo posted:## Keep Castor Sector, maintain current orientation and place. Corbeau posted:## Explore my 1. Nu Cassiopeiae Sector Sector 108 2 Points Discovery Tile, Ancient Advanced Economic Planet Basic Research Planet Gray Planet Keep and orientation were confirmed by Skype while my internet was being a poo poo. (This will happen a lot.) Action Queue ==>Tolly: Choose action.
|
# ? Aug 29, 2014 07:24 |
|
Since both of our new players are coming up next, and I've got nothing better to do... Early Game Tips From A Just-Past-Novice Player
|
# ? Aug 29, 2014 07:41 |
|
One comment: exploring is important because it gives you options. It shows you what you'll need to deal with and what resources are potentially available. One cannot effectively plan without exploring first. In that vein, I believe there is no such thing as a bad tile draw - at least at the beginning. I have almost never returned an exploration to the box until mid-late game, and never in the base game. At the beginning of the game you're not yet committed to anything, so there's always some way to leverage each tile. Exploring in Eclipse is, in my mind, like drawing your opening hand in a card game.
|
# ? Aug 29, 2014 07:47 |
|
##Research Advanced Robotics
|
# ? Aug 29, 2014 08:06 |
|
pretend i did that to be contrary
|
# ? Aug 29, 2014 08:07 |
|
Tollymain posted:##Research Advanced Robotics Advanced Robotics Tollymain spends 6 - 1 = 5 Research points , and gains an extra action/influence disk. Action Queue ==>Gutter Owl: Choose action.
|
# ? Aug 29, 2014 08:09 |
|
Poison Mushroom posted:Since both of our new players are coming up next, and I've got nothing better to do... This is the only thing I would caveat - while it's very good advice for a new player, once you become more experienced you'll occasionally find that bankrupting yourself to intentionally lose uninhabited sectors can be useful. I would say you probably don't need to worry about that until you've played at least one game though.
|
# ? Aug 29, 2014 14:36 |
|
##Explore southeast (II)
|
# ? Aug 29, 2014 15:49 |
|
turn one advanced robo research is legit, it's one of the best techs early
|
# ? Aug 29, 2014 18:39 |
|
Especially when you start with enough research to take it without trading.
|
# ? Aug 29, 2014 18:42 |
|
Gutter Owl posted:##Explore southeast (II) Alpha Centauri Sector Sector 201 1 Point Basic Economic Planet Basic Mining Planet Action Queue ==>Gutter Owl: Choose keep or discard. If keep, choose tile orientation and whether or not to influence/use colony ships.
|
# ? Aug 29, 2014 19:43 |
|
## Keep. Orientation is moot, so leave as-is. Influence, colonize both.
|
# ? Aug 29, 2014 19:47 |
|
|
# ? Apr 27, 2024 02:12 |
|
Round 1.2 Game Board Player Boards Supply Board Available Technologies Military Plasma Cannon (x2) - When using the Upgrade action, you may put the Plasma Cannon tile on your ships. Advanced Mining (x2) - You may place cubes on the advanced spaces of mining planets you control. Grid Gauss Shield - When using the Upgrade action, you may put the Gauss Shield tile on your ships. Tachyon Drive (x2) - When using the Upgrade action, you may put the Tachyon Drive tile on your ships. Antimatter Cannon - When using the Upgrade action, you may put the Antimatter Cannon tile on your ships. Quantum Grid - You gain two extra action disks. Nano Nanorobots (x2) - When taking the Build action, you may build one more ship or structure. Fusion Drive - When using the Upgrade action, you may put the Fusion Drive tile on your ships. Advanced Robotics - You gain an extra action disk. Advanced Labs - You may place cubes on the advanced spaces of research planets you control. Monolith - When taking the build action, you may build Monoliths in sectors you control. (One per sector, worth 3 VP at end of game.) Action Queue ==>Hra: Choose action.
|
# ? Aug 29, 2014 20:16 |