OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Thu Dec 15, 2011 10:31 am

baelthazar wrote:WILL WHEATON!!!!!!!!!!!! (shakes fist in the air)

He was supposed to attend the first PenguinCon to speak on behalf of a comic book foundation and never made it... And then he was supposed to make it to the second PenguinCon to speak on behalf of the same comic book foundation and never made it. So the BBT thing makes me laugh even harder. The arrows on the show always come so very close to the mark. Only I'm not Wheaton fan, so whatever. I did get to talk to Neil Gaiman for a while though and that was way cool.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Thu Dec 15, 2011 11:51 am

Just out of curiousity, did Wil Wheaton himself issue any kind of official release definitely stating he was going to be at this event? Or was it something that was just mentioned in the event's newsletter at some point?

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Thu Dec 15, 2011 12:08 pm

hepcat wrote:Just out of curiousity, did Wil Wheaton himself issue any kind of official release definitely stating he was going to be at this event? Or was it something that was just mentioned in the event's newsletter at some point?

They are guests whose presence is sponsored and for whom they organize events (space and people) around. He issued statements that he definitely wasn't going to be at the events right before them. It's not like I care. I didn't go to PencuinCon to meet Wil Wheaton and hear him speak on some sort of Comic Book Foundation or another, but I still found the BBT thing extra humorous because of it.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Thu Dec 15, 2011 6:16 pm

Considering his busy acting schedule and all....

I detested Wheaton as Wesley Crusher. Even though I was about the same age as he was supposed to be on the show (and supposedly the target demographic for his character, nerdy, techie, smart kid ignored by adults). He is far better in his post Crusher days. I'm still not sure what all the buzz is about him, though. His BBT appearances and his starring on The Guild have been pretty much the best things.

I leave you with this:

redrun · Post by **redrun** » Thu Dec 15, 2011 6:31 pm

baelthazar wrote: I detested Wheaton as Wesley Crusher. Even though I was about the same age as he was supposed to be on the show (and supposedly the target demographic for his character, nerdy, techie, smart kid ignored by adults). He is far better in his post Crusher days. I'm still not sure what all the buzz is about him, though. His BBT appearances and his starring on The Guild have been pretty much the best things.

Question - did you detest Wheaton as Wesley Crusher, or did you detest Wesley Crusher? Wesley was highly dislikable - the 16 year old kid that knew more about the ship and thought better on his feet than starfleet captains. Wesley was invented by Gene Roddenberry - full name: Eugene Wesley Roddenberry. So, IMO, Wesley was a MarySue character, and as such, always knew a better solution than the other characters. I wonder if any actor could have made Wesley Crusher likeable.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Thu Dec 15, 2011 6:36 pm

I think Wil's self effacing humor about his acting career and life in genre films has made him a somewhat endearing character. I also don't get the feeling that he's into all the nerd stuff just because he thinks it's what's expected of him. He seems genuinely sincere about his love of gaming, sci fi, etc..

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Fri Dec 16, 2011 1:08 am

redrun wrote:
baelthazar wrote: I detested Wheaton as Wesley Crusher. Even though I was about the same age as he was supposed to be on the show (and supposedly the target demographic for his character, nerdy, techie, smart kid ignored by adults). He is far better in his post Crusher days. I'm still not sure what all the buzz is about him, though. His BBT appearances and his starring on The Guild have been pretty much the best things.
Question - did you detest Wheaton as Wesley Crusher, or did you detest Wesley Crusher? Wesley was highly dislikable - the 16 year old kid that knew more about the ship and thought better on his feet than starfleet captains. Wesley was invented by Gene Roddenberry - full name: Eugene Wesley Roddenberry. So, IMO, Wesley was a MarySue character, and as such, always knew a better solution than the other characters. I wonder if any actor could have made Wesley Crusher likeable.

Rightly said. Given that I liked Wheaton in everything else he has done, it was probably just Wesley Crusher. I appreciate his prolific support of "nerd-dom." So really, I think he is pretty stand-up as a person. Watching TNG now and all the characters start off pretty flat, even Picard. So it could be that they never really morphed Crusher into something more likeable, as they did with most of the rest of the cast. And Yar was hot... just saying.

Back to the OT. I got to play Urban Sprawl yesterday. We were crunched for time, so we played the short version variant (still took about 2-3 hours for this first play). We all pretty well liked it, I think, although I kept wondering if we were playing correctly. It seems like the scores were really high and that it was really easy to shoot up about 10-15 points unexpectedly. Money was hard to come by, however, and you got some really high value lots after the 12 wealth dot came into play (we had one lot worth 25, so it was rough to build in that area). Again, I need to really review the rules, to make sure we did everything right (you pay out for every card you flip over, right?), but it was a pretty enjoyable game... if not a brain burner.

SpaceLord · Post by **SpaceLord** » Fri Dec 16, 2011 2:51 am

baelthazar wrote: I got to play Urban Sprawl yesterday. We were crunched for time, so we played the short version variant (still took about 2-3 hours for this first play). We all pretty well liked it, I think, although I kept wondering if we were playing correctly. It seems like the scores were really high and that it was really easy to shoot up about 10-15 points unexpectedly. Money was hard to come by, however, and you got some really high value lots after the 12 wealth dot came into play (we had one lot worth 25, so it was rough to build in that area). Again, I need to really review the rules, to make sure we did everything right (you pay out for every card you flip over, right?), but it was a pretty enjoyable game... if not a brain burner.

At the end of each player's turn, fill the contracts rows one at a time, and after checking for elections, pay out cash according to the chart on the player cards. Then, do the same with the Town/City/Metropolis deck, and pay out Prestige. To keep track of property values, use the included "high value block" tokens, one on the most expensive block, one on the 2nd most expensive, and one on the lowest.

As to score/cash, it's normal for players to be at well over 100 VPs by game's end. Money in hand doesn't get that high, and you don't want it to, since you'll get a tiny Prestige bump for holding cash at the end.

What you want to look for is the House cards in the Town Deck, and the Mansion/Celebrity cards in the Metropolis. He who places the yellow numbers early has a big edge. Remember, each yellow number, 1-12, occurs three times in the contract deck. If you can get an edge in the 10 or 11 space, you can get paid handsomely if those two come up.

On my end...I've got a game of Eclipse scheduled Saturday.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Fri Dec 16, 2011 12:11 pm

Grrrr..... My copy of Eclipse was scheduled for today, but FedEx bumped it to Monday. I won't get a game in until later though, so it won't matter.

I foresee Eclipse rocking our socks off. It has enough "MP solitaire" empire building to please my Turtle strategy peacenik friends and enough build guns and equip warships to please myself and my war loving dad. Everything looks smooth.

I'm looking forward to playing Urban Sprawl again too. It was quite a fun experience and got you thinking. Player turns could go a little long, especially with the Union Boss out, but it was a great game of resource management and area control. I can see the argument that events change the game dramatically, but they are no substitute for strategy and planning ahead to have the politicians you need at the game's end.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Fri Dec 16, 2011 3:16 pm

Gah! Just got an e-mail from Eagle Games that they have 200 copies of Richard Launius' new game, Dragon Rampage, that they had shipped over in advance of the main order from China. Only 200 copies! I really love Richard Launius games! Gah!

I crumbled. I bought it. I had no choice. I had no idea it was this close to release!

I am a weak, weak man.

Turtle · Post by **Turtle** » Fri Dec 16, 2011 9:16 pm

Yeah, I recently put a copy of Eclipse on my special orders list at my local store. My gaming group has all expressed a significant desire to play Twilight Imperium 3rd edition, a game I once purchased, and both love and hate. But I sold it due to lack of players, and after playing two full 6 hour games at conventions, found many aspects lacking (although a lot of them were fixed in Rune Wars).

Eclipse sounds like just the right level of Euro and American aspects. The Euro components and aspects help keep the game constrained a bit.

As for what I played, well my group is surprisingly in love with A Game of Thrones 2nd, which I recently bought. Many of them kind of wanted to play diplomacy, but only jokingly, but they were on board for AGoT when I bought it. I'd actually been looking for a copy of the original a while back, but thankfully they published the 2nd edition before I had to pay through the nose for 1st edition.

All the additions are mainly from the expansions, ones that make sense to put in the core game and really do balance out the game compared to the original.

SpaceLord · Post by **SpaceLord** » Sat Dec 17, 2011 12:48 am

Looks like I gots some punching to do!

Wow, the player sheets are huge! Time to learn me some rules!

Chaosraven · Post by **Chaosraven** » Sat Dec 17, 2011 8:08 pm

LordMortis picked up Tobago and redrun, Remus, and I played a few games of that, then San Juan with the expansion cards. (plus a little Quarriors before rdrun arrived) My Quarriors promo cards showed up today! Yay! But the game itself hasn't. Boo.

Remus West · Post by **Remus West** » Mon Dec 19, 2011 12:46 am

Chaosraven wrote:LordMortis picked up Tobago and redrun, Remus, and I played a few games of that, then San Juan with the expansion cards. (plus a little Quarriors before rdrun arrived) My Quarriors promo cards showed up today! Yay! But the game itself hasn't. Boo.

I thought those were LM's promo cards.

SpaceLord · Post by **SpaceLord** » Mon Dec 19, 2011 4:19 am

This weekend, the "calm before the Christmas Storm," I played my new copy of Eclipse:New Dawn for the Galaxy twice.

The components are nice. However, one of my outer tiles was split along an edge.

Guess we'll just have to ignore that. Witness the pile of components. The below stack doesn't even include the player's pieces!

The first game was with three other players, and two of them are partial to wargames. Both games were played with the "intro" races, humans, which all have identical traits. We each explored our local hexes, and I was first to defeat the "Ancients", which are a non-PC race that populate the better hexes. I formed an alliance with two players, and was producing substantial Science and money each turn. it's interesting that in most games, people panic when they don't have enough money to pay for their actions, and thus try to get as many economic planets as possible. I've come to realize that since money's only use is to pay upkeep, cranking out the other two resources can be jsut as beneficial.

By turn 7, in a quest for VPs via Prestige and controlled hexes, the two players on the other side of the map went to war, while the player on my side and I continued to build or economies. I bought the Monolith tech, which allows you to build 3 VP Monoliths in your controlled hexes. I then built three at a huge cost. Unfortunately, the other player on my side of the map invaded my home system, taking control of the Monolith there, and won the game for it.

Here's a fuzzy pic of the board from my seat, mid-game:

Here's my player mat, around the same time:

The second game was three players(two new), and it lasted around 2.5 hours. Was a great time, although I lost that one too, 33 to 31 to a player who had managed to get all the good Rep tiles by fighting the Ancients more than myself.

So far, I love the tech tree, the economics, and the battles. I'd like a little more "things" to do instead of just settling hexes. More types of Ancients would be cool. Overall, it's great. I'm planning to play it two more times over the holidays!

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Mon Dec 19, 2011 11:34 am

hepcat forced me to buy eclipse this weekend and I spent 2 1/2 hours unboxing and reading the rules on Sunday. I still don't understand everything or know how to explain yet, but the components are impressive.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Mon Dec 19, 2011 11:39 am

I'm back from Ohio on the 26th. When we playin'?

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Mon Dec 19, 2011 11:41 am

Soon...

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Mon Dec 19, 2011 3:45 pm

I got a chance to play Dungeon Run with other players Saturday night. Other than horribly screwing up the way monster combat is initiated, I thought it went fairly smooth. It's got the right amount of exploration, loot gathering and interactivity (towards the end) to make it fun. I hope to play this week when I head back home for the holidays.

Also still lovin' the Star Trek Deck Building Game. I think I've played that and Quarriors more than anything else the last two months. Every time I finish a game of it, I realize that there's actually quite a bit more to the strategy than you initially see. You can win through combat (direct confrontation over ships/war events) or by exploration (completing mission cards).

Can't wait to try the team and coop modes of the game as I haven't touched those yet. Two full decks I haven't touched still remain because of this.

p.s. the third edition of Alien Frontiers with the promo cards and ship counters has shipped. Don't try to find it online at a reduced price though. Clever Mojo struck a deal with a distributor for exclusive rights and they sell only straight to retail or via their website at MSRP. I bought my copy Saturday night as it's one of those I've always wanted to add to my collection.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Mon Dec 19, 2011 4:46 pm

I narrowly missed a lightning deal for Quarriors this morning. I was extremely ticked off.

But I did get my copy of Eclipse in the mail. It looks GLORIOUS! There are a TON of pieces, as Spacelord showed. Luckily, I had an unused plano box to put all my tiles in and keep them organized. I can't wait to get a game in. I'm tempted to play a solo game (there is nothing hidden, so playing solitaire seems extremely doable) so that I know the rules in time for my pre- or post-Christmas game sessions.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Mon Dec 19, 2011 4:53 pm

I had a great time with Dungeon Run as well. I've asked Cat and Mouse to set aside a copy for me when they get their order in tomorrow, so I can pick it up and bring it downstate for the holidays so I can get a few games in.

And one of these days I'm actually going to finish a game of Star Trek DBG...

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Mon Dec 19, 2011 10:12 pm

Dungeon Run delivers everything I expected from Fantasy Flight's re-release of DungeonQuest.

What Plano box did you use to store Eclipse? I ended up using 2 boxes and will probably reorganize to be less dependant on the big community play mat. The player mats are huge.

Bruce · Post by **Bruce** » Mon Dec 19, 2011 11:26 pm

Does anyone still play the Star Trek TNG collectable card game?

The one with a row of planets and away missions tucked underneath.

I just found a big pile of cards.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Tue Dec 20, 2011 12:05 am

I have a bunch of those cards too. Someone gave them to me ages ago. I wasn't a gamer back then though so they just sat in my closet. Check out the deck building game I mentioned earlier if you're looking for a non ccg substitute that's fun.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Tue Dec 20, 2011 1:00 am

GF got me Pandemic for Christmas. Now to re-learn how to play so I can teach her.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Tue Dec 20, 2011 1:05 am

Zarathud wrote:Dungeon Run delivers everything I expected from Fantasy Flight's re-release of DungeonQuest.

What Plano box did you use to store Eclipse? I ended up using 2 boxes and will probably reorganize to be less dependant on the big community play mat. The player mats are huge.

It was a Plano size 2-3700. I did separate out the race/color tiles, the blocks, and the ships and used the baggies to hold them (I figure this is easiest for divvying out to players). I might switch out the tech tiles to a baggie, given the first thing you do before playing is to dump them into the cloth bag.

The player mats ARE huge. But I like that, because the blocks need to fit and not be easy to knock around or require tiny fingers to manipulate (or tweezers as some people do with Through the Ages). The production values for Eclipse seem rather high, the cardboard is high quality and the mats are nicely made. The art is a little utilitarian, but nothing too bad. I'm impressed at how streamlined the rules are and how easy it is to understand the symbols. I'm itching to play, but it just may happen that Eclipse surpasses Twilight Imperium (although I can already tell that Eclipse does not offer the same epic experience, so it may be wrong to compare the two). Like I said, I might run through a faux two-player game to get a feel on exactly how the game runs, but I see it as being a pretty good mix of Euro and Ameritrash that will please a lot of different gamers.

SpaceLord · Post by **SpaceLord** » Tue Dec 20, 2011 3:17 am

baelthazar wrote:
Zarathud wrote: The production values for Eclipse seem rather high, the cardboard is high quality and the mats are nicely made. The art is a little utilitarian, but nothing too bad. I'm impressed at how streamlined the rules are and how easy it is to understand the symbols. I'm itching to play, but it just may happen that Eclipse surpasses Twilight Imperium (although I can already tell that Eclipse does not offer the same epic experience, so it may be wrong to compare the two). Like I said, I might run through a faux two-player game to get a feel on exactly how the game runs, but I see it as being a pretty good mix of Euro and Ameritrash that will please a lot of different gamers.

It's definitely less political than TI3. I know that my player maps are warping. I'd rather had stiff cardboard mats. Gonna get together with my college buddies over Christmas and play. Can't wait!

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Tue Dec 20, 2011 11:33 am

How complicated is Eclipse? The theme interests me, but the video review discussion of everything going on (which in 10 minutes didn't even get to combat!) made my head hurt.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Tue Dec 20, 2011 1:07 pm

El Guapo wrote:How complicated is Eclipse? The theme interests me, but the video review discussion of everything going on (which in 10 minutes didn't even get to combat!) made my head hurt.

Hmm... that is hard to say. There is a definite Euro-style to how the game is played - you have a number of actions you can take but you only get to choose ONE before the turn proceeds to the next player, then it comes back to you and you can choose any action (even the one you just took) and so forth until you decide to pass. The round ends when all players pass.

The actions are pretty straightforward:

1. EXPlore - you draw a tile (from which stack depends upon where you want to explore) and decide to place it on the board or discard it. If you place it, you have the option to "occupy" it and colonize with your colony ships (colony ship can actually be used at any time during any of your actions, not just explore). There are some placement rules regarding wormholes, but that isn't complicated.

2. RESearch - You can buy one research tile from the research board and put it on your player board. The cost depends on how many other research tiles you have in one of the three lines, but this is easy to see. Research breaks down into two main types - research that gives you access to more ship parts and research that improves you economy. Nothing at all like Twilight Imperium and the heavy tech tree with all sorts of doodads and such.

3. INFluence - You can move your influence disks (what you use to claim or occupy map tiles). Influence disks and action disks are the same thing and both come from a track that adds a maintenance cost at the end of the round. So, the more actions you take or sectors you control, the more you have to pay in money at the end of the round. Influence action lets you return those, if you want to abandon a sector or move them to other sectors without accruing future costs. I believe you get to move two disks.

4. MOVe - Simple. You get to make three move actions. That means you can move one ship multiple times or multiple ships one time - just three moves of any sort. Ships move depending on their drive capabilities. So you look at the ship type, count the number of "hexes" pictured on the ship drives used in that type, and move that many spaces. I.E. my Intercepter has a drive with 3 hexes pictured on it, I can use one move action to move that ship three hexes. There are simple rules for blocking ships (as in you can't move all your ships through enemy ships), but nothing overly complicated.

5. UPGrade - This is probably the most complicated as far as STRATEGY but not as far as rules. Here you can take two ship component tiles (you must unlocked them via research) and place them into your ship designs on your boards. Putting components in ships automatically improves all current and future ships of that type. You do not have to put both tiles in the same ship design. The only main restrictions are that all ships must have a drive and power source and new components must not exceed in power use more than the current ship's power source (very easy to see, components have a number and energy symbol to tell how much they use and power sources have a big energy symbol to tell how much they give). The complicated aspect of this is in "optimizing" your ship designs to overcome your opponents. Do you add missiles, which take now power, fire at the beginning of combat, but don't fire after that? Do you up your ship's hull to have absorb more "hits" but leave your weapons weaker? Would you rather have cheap interceptors with heavy hulls to basically make meat shields or a giant dreadnaught bristling full of guns and armor but almost 3 times the cost? I see this part of the game as being the real "game," decisions here will be crucial to success in battle. Battle doesn't seem to be the heavy focus of the game (in fact you are pretty limited by a short supply of ships, which are, BTW, the same ships used in Eminent Domain) but at key points you will need it to wrest control of a system from another player and gain needed victory points. Interestingly enough, you actually gain victory points from LOSING a battle as well as winning one, so it is hard to knock someone out in the same way you see with TI.

6. BUIld - You can build 2 things for a printed cost in materials. Easy.

Now, the economy is another aspect that makes the game a tad more complicated. Each cube you place removes a cube from your player mat's track. Under the cubes on the mat are numbers that show you how much of a resource you will generate at the end of the round. The more cubes you "colonize" on planets the farther down the track you go. Planets are your main place to put cubes, but you can also get techs that allow building ring shaped orbitals to put cubes on and there are a few other ways to move cubes around. So your complicated choices will also be where to place your cubes and how to balance your budget to make sure you have enough income to cover your maintenance fee at the end of the turn. It sounds complicated when I type it, but it is apparent when it is in front of you. However, the system is self policing, so you can get yourself into a bind by over expanding without having enough income to support it.

Combat is pretty easy. Ships components have initiative numbers. The higher the number makes that ship class shoot first. You roll dice depending upon weapons - i.e. the ion cannon has one yellow die shown, so you roll one yellow die per number of ships of that type you have. You always hit on a 6 and always miss on a 1, otherwise you add your ships' computer score to the roll, subtract your opponents shield score, and if the number is > 6, you hit. Then you assign each die that hit to a ship - dealing damage depending upon the die color (yellow = 1, orange = 2, red = 4). Most ships take one hit to kill, but each hull component absorbs one damage (so if you had two hull components in a ship it takes 3 hits to kill).

That is pretty much the game. You play for nine rounds, VPs come from a variety of locations - sectors, constructed monoliths, reputation tiles from combat and such, etc.

I would say the mechanics are low complexity. But, like most Euros, the strategy is high complexity. Like Agricola or Le Havre, you are going to have a lot you CAN do and no hand-holding to tell you what might be the best course of action. I put the game on par with the new FFG version of Civilization, and there are some marked similarities between the games (although I think Eclipse will prove to be the superior game).

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Tue Dec 20, 2011 1:41 pm

Continuing to be behind the gaming curve, Tommy came over last night and we finally broke out the LotR LCG. Great fun was had by all. I was worried in the beginning when we kept pulling Locations, and had a hard time making any progress on the quests, but we hit a tipping point after about 6 turns into the game where it all started to gel and we breezed through the first scenario pretty handily. I'm going to be bringing this one downstate with me as well, I hope to get in a few games with Joe while I'm down there.

Have any of you tried 3 player with the LotR LCG? Anything to worry about other than not having a threat tracker to keep track of threat for a player?

SpaceLord · Post by **SpaceLord** » Tue Dec 20, 2011 2:45 pm

Great write-up, baelthazar.

Essentially, Eclipse boils down to: Take 1 action, moving your disks from your reserve to your Action area. Next player. This continues until everyone passes.

The three rows of cubes above the Influence track are, from top to bottom, Money, Science, and Production. After everyone passes, the round ends, and the turn moves to Upkeep. You pay the difference between your Influence and your exposed Money track. In the above screenshot, the blue player would keep his Money marker on the same spot, because his exposed money section is at 10, and his upkeep is also 10. He would then move his Science track higher by 6, and Production by 8.

At any point, you can trade two of any one resource for one of another.

As for ships, here's a pic of four different dreadnought schematics:

The upper left ship has three weapons that both consume 4 power(the lightning bolt), and their computer adds +3 to hit/Initative. The black symbol is their shield, which gives their opponents -2 to hit them. Its total power consumption is 18. There are two power sources that give 18 as well, so they can use everything. So this ship hits an unshielded ship on a 3+, does 4 damage with each hit, and rolls three dice. That's pretty much the best ship you can have. It can move 3 hexes, and has an initiative of 9(count up the white triangles, and add the Computer bonus)

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Tue Dec 20, 2011 7:17 pm

Wow... the top left and bottom right Dreads are glass cannons. Did you try that build out in game, because I wonder how that would play out?

I'm keen to create heavy hulled interceptors that basically fight a war of attrition against my enemies. If I'm able to drop a plasma cannon and a upgraded drive in the build, that would be awesome. If you are lucky and get that 3-hull ancient ship piece, you can have interceptors that are ridiculous!

SpaceLord · Post by **SpaceLord** » Tue Dec 20, 2011 8:04 pm

That's an image I grabbed off BGG. You're right in the glass cannon analogy, though. Buildling ships in the game is great though.

MythicalMino · Post by **MythicalMino** » Wed Dec 21, 2011 6:37 pm

Isgrimnur wrote:GF got me Pandemic for Christmas. Now to re-learn how to play so I can teach her.

Such a great game. I have that and the expansion. My oldest son (10 years old, aspires to be a "baby doctor" since he could talk) really likes it.

Ticket to Ride has been a HUGE hit at my house. Even my wife will play that one without complaining. Got the 1910 expansion (which really makes the game even better). Also picked up the Alvin & Dexter expansion, but haven't played that one yet.

Chris

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Wed Dec 21, 2011 8:08 pm

My wife and I play Ticket to Ride on the iPhone with one another. So much fun and no need to fiddle with the pieces.

So, does your son want to be a Baby Doctor like Doogie Howser or a pediatrician...

I haven't gotten to play Eclipse yet, but I can't stop thinking about it! You sort of sit and consider all of the tech combinations and how you can build out your ships. For such a compact rule base, the pre and post game thinking is fairly high! I think I can get my wife to play, if I sell it as a Euro. She loves Eminent Domain and I would say that it is well within her complexity level.

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Wed Dec 21, 2011 9:13 pm

Make sure to tell your wife that Eclipse uses the same ships as Eminent Domain. That will surely help.

Reading the Eclipse rules was easier than I thought, but the interplay is going to be very interesting. I can see a few things that will limit initial expansion and potential combos but the Euro situational dynamics are going to drive strategic decisions.

But some things don't make sense until you review the rules summary. I kept getting confused about how tech tiles are placed on the board until I realized that in the last stage a few new tech tiles get put into play so you DO get a wide variety but it's not known initially at setup.

I have a feeling the Detroit crew are going to play Eclipse non-stop at the next Octocon.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Thu Dec 22, 2011 12:40 am

IIRC, the number of new tech tiles per turn is dependent upon number of players. But remember, you will also likely see at least one or two tech purchased a turn. So it is feasible for a tech to show up at the beginning and then not show up for a long time (or ever) after. Discovery tiles can provide a quick influx of research, so it is feasible to see a high cost tech purchased in round 1.

I was thinking about shields and computers today. The designers have made shields and computers a bit of a "prisoner's dilemma" problem. See, you ALWAYS hit on the roll of a 6 and if you don't equip computers on a ship then you can ONLY hit on the roll of a 6. Shields subtract from a die roll but have no effect on the natural roll of a 6. So, if you have no ships with computers, then you have no reason to fear your opponents high end shields. If you have equipped computers, however, shields suddenly subtract from your roll (although not from your natural 6 hits). So until your opponent begins extensive computer use, shields are relatively worthless. On the other hand, computers are ALWAYS useful, providing bonuses to hit and expanding your hit range from 1 in 6 all the way to 50 percent. If your opponent is heavily shielded, you might as well blitz that shielded craft with interceptors with no computers - cheap and plentiful - and hope for a natural 6.

There is a LOT to think about with ship design!

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Thu Dec 22, 2011 3:11 am

baelthazar wrote:There is a LOT to think about with ship design!

Which is why I created this thread.

RMC · Post by **RMC** » Thu Dec 22, 2011 9:28 am

So the gaming day went over well.
We played one big game of BSG(6 players), with both expansions. We had one person that played a Cylon leader.
We were doing well, until one of the pilots came out as a cylon. Then after the sleeper phase, our other pilot came out as a cylon.
I was playing the woman captain for Pegasus, forgot her name. And our president decided to airlock me instead of losing 3 cards. <sigh> So I took Adama, and kept the Admiral title.

We ended up getting swamped by the cylons, and they blew us up. I blew up three cylon basestars with nukes, but even with that, we just could not catch a break after the sleeper phase.

Then we played a 2, 4 player games of Rune Wars with the expansion. I really really really like this game. The first game I played the elves, and lost pretty quickly. I got screwed on the starting location, and just could not get enough resources, and move out of my starting area soon enough. The orcs ended up winning with a lucky break in that he captured a city with a dragon rune on it, and then had a hero draw a reward that was a dragon rune in the same turn.

The second game I played the undead, and the new additional pieces for them rock. I ended up with almost 8 food in the first two turns. I was spread very thin, but got a few good draws. The hidden city made an appearance, but ended up just being in the middle of the battle front and no one really had any advantage from the tile or city. I ended up winning by putting down the orcs and holding the humans off, and getting a few lucky finds by my heros. The one magic item I got allowed me to take all the neutrals off one space. The space I used had 2 giants and a dragon(who was routed there). I already had my undead dragons, and one other neutral dragon. So with my undead 'horde' and 8 food, I was unstoppable on the war front.

Then I played a 2 player game of Battleship galaxies. I ended up winning, more through luck than any skill. We played the basic starting scenario, I played the aliens, and was not impressed with the preconstructed deck at all. But my battleship had the ability to ignore damage if you rolled a 7 or 8 while shields were up, and I could not roll below a 7 for about 10 hits. My friend was so pissed. I also had all the 'You can put your fighter back on the board cards after they have been blown up' I had three of those cards, and he would blow 2 of them up, and I would put them right back on the board.

So I did use them to do things, I most likely would not have and that helped out a bit. I also found the 'hidden' thing that gave me 2 or 3 extra power every round. This was all the way to one side of the board and all the action was on the other side. So once I needed my ship to move off of it, I didn't need the extra energy any longer.

All in all, a great gaming day. I had 8 or so friends cycle through the day, so the games were all fun and different. My wife ended up not baking, the girls just hung out upstairs and drank foo foo drinks.

The day started at noon and ended around 2 am, a long day of gaming and fun..Can not do it often at all, but finding a Saturday to devote to it was so nice! I just have to get the wife to sign off on a day like that again.

Chaosraven · Post by **Chaosraven** » Mon Dec 26, 2011 1:30 am

Cosmic Encounter all Christmas Eve, and edh Magic all evening Christmas Day.