McGravin

First of all, I played this game and loved it. For a 4X-style boardgame, it’s extremely straightforward and streamlined while still being a ton of fun. Not that I’d ever say Twilight Imperium was simple, but by comparison with Eclipse, TI seems positively byzantine. Eclipse still allows for a diversity of strategies, but the rules are intuitive and easy to grasp, and turns don’t feel like they take forever.

Players will have a little downtime in the course of a round, however (especially if they pass on their turn while other players have lots more they want to do), but it’s minimal. But when you are taking your turn, it goes quickly and actions are simple and clear.

The only thing that isn’t clear is pathing; it’s not always easy to tell from just a quick glance at the board where wormholes connect versus where there is only one half of a wormhole. A little bit better graphic design on the map hexes could have solved this. Perhaps some kind of distinct border on hex edges where there isn’t a wormhole?

The game seems to all but need a banker player to handle the supply of chits necessary for technology and upgrades. If only it weren’t un-fun, a non-player could sit at the table with you, categorizing and distributing chits and rolling combat for NPCs.

But those are all minor quibbles and only detract slightly from my enjoyment of the game. If those were the only issues, this game would still solidly be in my favorites. But there’s one reason I won’t be pulling this off my shelf to play on a regular basis: there isn’t a copy on my shelf. I was ready to purchase this game as soon as the demo was over at GenCon, but the $90 price tag made me reconsider. Seriously, $90 for this? I could see $60 easily, and an argument might be made for as much as $75, but $90 is just outrageous. I’ll admit the game does have a lot of chits and bits, but nowhere near as many as, say, Descent or Arkham Horror, both bit-heavy games from a bit-loving publisher, Fantasy Flight, and valued at $80 and $65 respectively. I’m even more dismayed to see Eclipse asking for so much when it uses ship figures recycled from the old Galactic Emperor game; Eminent Domain also uses the same figures, but I purchased that game for only $35.

All in all, an awesome game spoiled by the fact that their asking price and my valuation don’t meet.