Eclipse has become, quickly, a favorite of my board game friends. For those who have never heard of this game, think Risk if Risk were played in outer space, there were more game play options, and various races. So, I guess, it's like Risk if Risk weren't very much like Risk at all!
I want to try a new structure for my reviews to make them easier to follow as well as full of more relevant information - I know everyone enjoys my rambling randomly, but let's entertain the idea of order! This concept of game review structure is what I like to call the 6 C's - copyright pending!
Components - The first question that comes to mind with any game, for me at least, is about the quality of the components. Are they card stock or cardboard? Are they plastic or resin? Are they prone to breakage/wear? Whatever the question may be, Eclipse has A LOT of components - and that's an understatement!
Wooden components: cubes and discs for each player color (6 colors in total), cubes for the Ancients to track their damage taken during combat, and the first player and round markers. These are your standard painted wooden pieces. I've seen no production fault in any of the pieces in my base game of Eclipse. The paint has not chipped off, each piece is devoid of chips/production flaws. 10/10
Plastic components: Space ships for each player color (8 Interceptors, 4 Cruisers, and 2 Dreadnaughts of each color) and dice of three different colors. The pieces are made from a standard plastic common to virtually every table top game I've ever played/owned. The pieces are free of production burrs for the most part (excessive plastic from cutting the pieces after the initial molding) but there are a few spots that need to be shaved down - primarily on the underbelly of each ship - if you are OCD about the smoothness of your bits. I'm not so picky so I give the ships a 9/10
Cardboard/paper components: This is where the majority of the components reside. Cardboard hexes, player boards, research holding board, starship tokens, exploration tokens, reputation tokens, diplomacy tokens, research tiles, and ship upgrade tiles (I may be missing a few items because there are A LOT)! The cardboard pieces are made of thick cardboard stock that are resistant to bending and/or denting. Each of those pieces will stand up to many many plays of this game and should never be a concern about wear/tear. However, I do take issue with the player boards and research holding board. Each of these boards are made of card stock, my guess is about 40# strength, so they are flimsy and can rip quite readily. After about 5 plays I started to notice little bends on the corners of each board which is upsetting because I know this game will be hitting the table frequently with my group. Overall, these components get a 7/10 due to the card stock bits being of such lower quality than the rest of the bits.
Convenience - Simply put, this game takes almost as long to setup/take down as it does to play. If you do not use Plano boxes, homemade tuck boxes, or plastic baggies this game is NOT for you. I, personally, use plastic baggies for all of my little bits and separate everything each player needs into convenient bags. "Here's everything the white player needs in his/her own bag, everything the green player needs, etc." To further the convenience of setup, sort all of the exploration tokens, reputation tokens, research tiles, and upgrade tiles into their own baggies or compartments in an Plano box. Shown above is a BGG member that really understands how important it is to sort these components for ease of setup/take down/play. Simply put, make setup and take down a team effort and it won't be that difficult of a task, but it will still be relatively time consuming! The excessive amounts of tidbits in this game make the game its beautiful landscape that it is, but it in convenience, it's a negative relationship. Giving this game a 6/10 on convenience.
Complexity - The play of this game is straight-forward...once you get past the daunting learning curve. It seems an ever-present theme with games of the space genre that the learning curve is quite steep. Because of the amount of chits/pieces in this game, many players new to the gaming scene will be immediately turned off and overwhelmed, I guarantee it (super-nerds, like myself, excluded from this of course). The complexity is NOT in the game play - the actions are very straightforward and the game play is simplistic. Through several plays, the complexity lies in the amount of actions you can take and what each action does. All things considered, from a veteran to medium-to-heavy games, I rate Eclipse as a 7.5/10 in complexity (higher numbers means easier to learn).
Companions - Short and sweet, I recommend this game for players who are familiar with games that offer multiple action options per turn (Arkham Horror, A Few Acres of Snow, and games of the like come to mind). This is not a light-hearted game for a non-gamer. This is a game that I would only recommend for those who would not shy away from sitting at a table for 2-3 hours (game play averages to about 20-30mins per player in the game).
Continuability - Being as this game has hit the table with my group 4 times in the past 2 months, I say that this is a HIGHLY re-playable game. Even if you play with the same players, same races, you will never have the same game twice. Available research will change, drawn explored hexes will differ, and dice rolls during combat will always be different. If your group wants a great central game to meetings, Eclipse can certainly fill that roll without hesitation!
I want to try a new structure for my reviews to make them easier to follow as well as full of more relevant information - I know everyone enjoys my rambling randomly, but let's entertain the idea of order! This concept of game review structure is what I like to call the 6 C's - copyright pending!
Components
Score: 8.7 out of 10
Components - The first question that comes to mind with any game, for me at least, is about the quality of the components. Are they card stock or cardboard? Are they plastic or resin? Are they prone to breakage/wear? Whatever the question may be, Eclipse has A LOT of components - and that's an understatement!
Wooden components: cubes and discs for each player color (6 colors in total), cubes for the Ancients to track their damage taken during combat, and the first player and round markers. These are your standard painted wooden pieces. I've seen no production fault in any of the pieces in my base game of Eclipse. The paint has not chipped off, each piece is devoid of chips/production flaws. 10/10
Plastic components: Space ships for each player color (8 Interceptors, 4 Cruisers, and 2 Dreadnaughts of each color) and dice of three different colors. The pieces are made from a standard plastic common to virtually every table top game I've ever played/owned. The pieces are free of production burrs for the most part (excessive plastic from cutting the pieces after the initial molding) but there are a few spots that need to be shaved down - primarily on the underbelly of each ship - if you are OCD about the smoothness of your bits. I'm not so picky so I give the ships a 9/10
Cardboard/paper components: This is where the majority of the components reside. Cardboard hexes, player boards, research holding board, starship tokens, exploration tokens, reputation tokens, diplomacy tokens, research tiles, and ship upgrade tiles (I may be missing a few items because there are A LOT)! The cardboard pieces are made of thick cardboard stock that are resistant to bending and/or denting. Each of those pieces will stand up to many many plays of this game and should never be a concern about wear/tear. However, I do take issue with the player boards and research holding board. Each of these boards are made of card stock, my guess is about 40# strength, so they are flimsy and can rip quite readily. After about 5 plays I started to notice little bends on the corners of each board which is upsetting because I know this game will be hitting the table frequently with my group. Overall, these components get a 7/10 due to the card stock bits being of such lower quality than the rest of the bits.
Convenience
Score: 6 out of 10
Convenience - Simply put, this game takes almost as long to setup/take down as it does to play. If you do not use Plano boxes, homemade tuck boxes, or plastic baggies this game is NOT for you. I, personally, use plastic baggies for all of my little bits and separate everything each player needs into convenient bags. "Here's everything the white player needs in his/her own bag, everything the green player needs, etc." To further the convenience of setup, sort all of the exploration tokens, reputation tokens, research tiles, and upgrade tiles into their own baggies or compartments in an Plano box. Shown above is a BGG member that really understands how important it is to sort these components for ease of setup/take down/play. Simply put, make setup and take down a team effort and it won't be that difficult of a task, but it will still be relatively time consuming! The excessive amounts of tidbits in this game make the game its beautiful landscape that it is, but it in convenience, it's a negative relationship. Giving this game a 6/10 on convenience.
Cohesion
Score: 9 out of 10
Cohesion - I am a sucker for space-themed games, IF AND ONLY IF the theme actually fits with the game. Of all my pet peeves with table top games a pasted-on theme is the worst offender! I can comfortably say that Eclipse does NOT offend my thematic cravings. The human races are all identical in skills/talents/ships/conversion rates/powers/etc. which makes sense - you're all the same species and not one sect has any advantage over the other. When players start utilizing the alien races, that's where the fun begins! Each alien race has a severe specialization such as: rapid expansion, military force, research expertise, building/construction prowess, and the list goes on. Falling into these roles, through the 9 rounds of the game I find myself becoming lost in the race I have picked. I forget I'm in my FLGS playing a game - I become the race. I am fighting for the survival of my race, or frantically attempting to protect myself from the more roid-jacked races while I attempt to just go on my scientific research kick. Whatever your race specializes in paired with your innate play style, pitted against your rivals...every game will be a different experience, really contributing to the fact that the races of this game are what make the theme of civilization survival/expansion work. This game could easily have been applied in a manner like Sid Meier's Civilization Board Game where the "races" are different countries throughout history - but where's the fun in that when you can be in outer-space blasting one another with anti-matter cannons?! 9/10
Complexity
Score: 7.5 out of 10
Complexity - The play of this game is straight-forward...once you get past the daunting learning curve. It seems an ever-present theme with games of the space genre that the learning curve is quite steep. Because of the amount of chits/pieces in this game, many players new to the gaming scene will be immediately turned off and overwhelmed, I guarantee it (super-nerds, like myself, excluded from this of course). The complexity is NOT in the game play - the actions are very straightforward and the game play is simplistic. Through several plays, the complexity lies in the amount of actions you can take and what each action does. All things considered, from a veteran to medium-to-heavy games, I rate Eclipse as a 7.5/10 in complexity (higher numbers means easier to learn).
Companions - Short and sweet, I recommend this game for players who are familiar with games that offer multiple action options per turn (Arkham Horror, A Few Acres of Snow, and games of the like come to mind). This is not a light-hearted game for a non-gamer. This is a game that I would only recommend for those who would not shy away from sitting at a table for 2-3 hours (game play averages to about 20-30mins per player in the game).
Continuability - Being as this game has hit the table with my group 4 times in the past 2 months, I say that this is a HIGHLY re-playable game. Even if you play with the same players, same races, you will never have the same game twice. Available research will change, drawn explored hexes will differ, and dice rolls during combat will always be different. If your group wants a great central game to meetings, Eclipse can certainly fill that roll without hesitation!
All in all, Eclipse is in my top 3 games of all time as well as ranked as #6 in the entirety of the BGG.com board game ranks at time of posting this review. In its entirety, Eclipse scores a 7.8/10. To place this in context, I find it VERY difficult to give a game a perfect score so an 8/10 means I LOOOOOOOOVE the game!
