Game Tips for Eclipse

5

Apr 3rd, 2012| Tip

76 of 78 gamers found this helpful

“Don't hate on the Terrans!”

So, you’ve played your first game with the Terrans like the rulebook instructed, and now all those interesting alien races are calling to you! Go ahead, play them. Have fun… Terrans my not seem as “fun” to play, but don’t underestimate the advantages the they have. The ability to move 3 ships instead of just 2 makes them very maneuverable! And another huge advantage is their 2:1 trade ratio.

6

Magno {Power Gamer}

Feb 29th, 2012| Strategy

50 of 52 gamers found this helpful

“Planta Strategy: Spam explore”

The Planta race is pretty appealing and has a fun design characteristic.
They explore the best, can colonize faster than anyone else and receive VPs at the end of the game for every system they control.
The typical common strategy at the beginning of the game is everyone will explore 3-4 times in the first 2 rounds. As a Planta player, go extreme with this and don’t worry about colonizing.
The worm-hole generator is a bit too expensive of a tech to purchase for anybody up front, even if it is revealed on round one.
So, do nothing but explore for the 1st 3 rounds.

Explore #1: go into the inner ring and create a turtle condition with the access to the other players, unless you have a good read on a neighbor who you feel/know you can form an alliance with for the entire game.

Explore#2: You can either go to the 2nd ring or continue on the 1st ring if other players haven’t completed that yet. This is a fabulous way to dictate how the other players have access to each other and something you should promote. Otherwise, work on the 2nd ring and again create a turtle shell for yourself.

Explore#3+: Grab the III ring and build yourself a secure little empire tail.

Then you can either start beefing up your fleet at your home world and/or the gateway hexes leading into your empire. Be prepared to loose a system or two by games end, but hopefully you’ve built a large enough deep empire area that players cannot possibly stop you from having a decent amount of race-specific VPs.

There is another added benefit to this strategy but also a dangerous one. The III ring is wrought with alien vessels so you’re either going to pass on them or have to devote a portion of your armada to taking these on. The bonus is that you win the bonuses from them and you also get more pulls from the VP bag.

Spaceship blueprint techs are attractive, but for an empire as expansive as the planta, the two critical techs are going to be influence markers or the advanced “Cube” placements. Toward the end of the game, you will have limited influence tokens to react to the end game flury (since they are hopefully all out on the table) so you’ll have to have a large economy reserve or potential.

8

Kaleb {Avid Gamer}

Sep 11th, 2012| Tip

32 of 33 gamers found this helpful

“Never underestimate the power of Orbitals to keep your empire financed”

Let’s face it, the most important resource in Eclipse is your money. You can’t take actions or influence regions without it. Many a game would have been very different had players addressed this problem by building orbitals. I found getting nanorobots to build 3 orbitals (building resources of 15) in one action and immediately using your 3 colony ships salvaged a near economic disaster due to having bad luck of hexes without economic planets and the slow start that comes from it. This can often give you extra actions to take then and in future turns.

Of course the same can be done for research-lacking empires as well, just be sure your hexes are defended (starbase anyone?) or further away from being taken over by others.

6

Magno {Power Gamer}

Feb 27th, 2012| Strategy

48 of 50 gamers found this helpful

“When your neck of the galaxy is devoid of real estate.”

As can happen in tile placement games with the resources on those tiles, you may find yourself with a region of the galaxy that is light on decent locations to colonize, leaving you with a sputtering economy while your opponents are running away with spending and research.
It’s not as bad at it seems. Eclipse is not that sensitive to runaway exploitation, but you’ll have to tighten up your strategy.

If you do find yourself the owner of a sparse or tiny empire the main thing to consider in this situation:
Is your area of the galaxy well connected to your neighbors or are you relatively isolated? Are there more than 1 wormhole connections per neighbor?

If you are well connected by wormholes to both your neighbors (don’t worry if you’re allied with them or not), then its probably time to start developing your armada. You can’t expand, so you might as well either go after the center tile or set-up for an attack on your neighbors. You can play defensively with the technologies by researching technologies before your opponents do. This is rather difficult as a whole since their usually is plenty of ship techs.
You could try and build monoliths and orbitals and such, but in a tiny empire this isn’t going to net you a whole lot and you’ll become an attractive target in the end game. Especially since you are a well connected and easily reachable area.

If you are not well connected, then again, consider developing your armada with good techs, but the main thing is to deny your opponents access to the wormhole jumping technology.
A. It prevents them from attacking you
B. It allows you end game opportunities to pick-off some last VPs.
Remember, there are only two of these wormhole jumping techs. If you get one and your neighbor gets one, be ready to defend against him or even consider making a late game alliance, selling the 1 VP angle.

5

Twonky {Avid Gamer}

Jan 10th, 2012| Rule

41 of 43 gamers found this helpful

“Alternate starting player rules.”

This is a variant on determining the starting player between turns.

Insted of having the first player who passed becoming the starting player and the play ordre following clockwise have the first player to pass become player 1, the second player to pass player 2, and so forth on the following round.

This will make it a bit more tactical if two players are engaged in a long term conflict, for example, even if another player has allready passed. All you need to do is take 2 – 6 pieces of paper and write 1 – 6 on them. The first player to pass takes the piece with 1 written on it, the second player to pass takes the one with 2 written on it and so forth.

8

Kaleb {Avid Gamer}

Oct 7th, 2012| Rule

26 of 27 gamers found this helpful

“Game start: Select starting sector hex (ie. seat for turn order) along with alien species”

Subtle but important rule change. At the beginning, roll 3+ die to determine starting player and 2nd, 3rd, etc. other order instead of making the order go counter-clockwise from the starting player. The highest roll chooses the first alien species and places their starting hex where they want to sit. The 2nd highest chooses a species and places their starting hex where they want to sit – the key here is that they do not have to be next to the starting player. This continues until all spots are taken. The last person to choose a species starts the game. If you use the alternative turn order mentioned on this site previously, then initial turn order is the reverse of the initial dice roll totals.

The first few to choose species may have an advantage, but they don’t know who their neighbors will be (alien species or real-world players). This way the later players can choose species/hexes that may be optimal for their now known neighbors.

10

Andy {Avid Gamer}

Mar 21st, 2012| Tip

53 of 57 gamers found this helpful

“Turn Order Passing - Keeping Track of the Order”

This Tip is building off of dylanreid‘s and Twonky‘s House Rules (below) concerning Turn Order Passing:

When following dylanreid and Twonky‘s House Rule, the turn order will very likely cease to be clockwise very early in the game. Tracking the new turn order may become difficult, and some forethought can help a lot. The main issue games that use non-clockwise turn order tend to run into is extra downtime as people don’t realize it is their turn, or forget when they go or who they follow. You have to be aware of more than just the person to your right to know when it’s your turn, and the person you follow will change multiple times through the course of play.

There are two easy ways of tracking turn order, each taking little upfront planning.

Turn Order Cards
These seem to be favored by many groups and are touched on in Twonky‘s House Rule. You can make up two sets of cards, numbered 1 through 6. The numbers (or cards) should be different colors to differentiate the current turn from the next turn. When someone passes, they take the lowest remaining number from the cards that will be used in the next turn. Once everyone has passed, the cards for the just completed round are set aside and will become the cards taken when someone passes in the next round.

Tracking Turn Order By Player Color
My preference for turn order tracking when using the Turn Order Passing Rule is to have grab two extra discs or cubes in the player colors (or anything from other games matching the player colors). For the initial turn order, place cubes from left to right, matching player order with the colored item.

When someone passes, place their second disc/cube on the leftmost open space under the current turn order tokens. In this way, the current turn order is kept, while the future turn order is easy to see. Once the current round it completed, pull the top set of tokens off and shift the other set upwards.

One could very quickly make a sheet for this tracking (numbers 1-6 across the top with two boxes below each number), but I find this isn’t necessary. Just keep the tokens somewhere near the board, off to the side.

I like this way of tracking turn order more because I tend to link my opponent’s to the color they are playing. At a glance, I can quickly see who is going when. Additionally, as people become more spread out, I can easily see whether the players that could attack my systems are going before or after me, just by viewing the hexes and turn order board.

Either way, if you’re planning to implement a Turn Order Passing rule in your games, take a minute before the game to determine how you will track this order, and put together items for tracking. You’ll save yourself a good deal of downtime if you have a visual aid to remind people when they are going to take their actions.

8

Kaleb {Avid Gamer}

Sep 11th, 2012| Strategy

31 of 33 gamers found this helpful

“Go broke on purpose to save a future action”

Often we spend a precious action marker to influence hexes with only 0 or 1 planet. That it takes another action to pull these back using the influence action can further add to your frustration.

For these situations, I recommend taking extra actions until you know you can’t afford to pay your economic resource bills during upkeep, but only go far enough such that when you pull back your influence markers from the near-useless hexes that you will then be “in the black”. Using this strategy properly can gain you 1 to 2 extra actions – the extra one you took to go broke and the one you saved from not having to use the “influence” action space.

Just be careful not to put a population cube from a white planet onto your economic track or at least plan in advance for this as this could result in you losing influence in a lot more hexes.

6

Magno {Power Gamer}

Feb 26th, 2012| Strategy

41 of 44 gamers found this helpful

“Battling Missle heavy ships”

Ships geared with missiles are a deceptively dangerous opponent.

Remember, they always fire first, no matter your initiative.
They hit hard, so your fast hard hitting interceptors will need lots of “fodder” or you will need to develop ships that take a ton of punishment.

Inevitably, you will come across a person who finds the +3 Computer alien tech and this makes the Missiles extremely attractive. If they place missiles on the same ship type with +3 computers and you have a need to battle them, please reassess that need.
Going after such a combo aggressively will likely be a battle of attrition in favor of the Missiles +3 computer.

There are decent ship combos to counter these ships, but this forces you down a path of heavy tech investment into those ships.
I recommend playing nice with that opponent if you’re on a different victory path and try and rely on space stations to defend from such ships. The space stations are the most easy to upgrade to take the damage from missiles.

10

Andy {Avid Gamer}

Mar 19th, 2012| Rule

51 of 55 gamers found this helpful

“Don't allow Colony Ships to deliver to hexes with enemy ship after combat”

A rule that struck our group as a little off is the ability to use a Colony Ship to place population cubes in a hex that is under attack. This seems especially problematic when doing so after combat.

During the Upkeep Phase, you are allowed to use any unflipped Colony Ships (as you would during one of your actions) to place a population cube on a hex you control. There is no exception for hexes that were attacked by an enemy who won the battle. Enemies that don’t have Neutron Bombs may not destroy all of the population cubes on a hex after combat. If they destroy some, but not all, the rules as written allow the player who owns the hex to refill the population after combat, if they have Colony Ships yet. This seems like gaming the system, and a rule should be in place to not allow it.

You’re also able to use Colony Ships during your turn to fill hexes with an enemy ship. You could also House Rule that this is not allowed, but we’re more accepting of this (you still have the chance to counter the attack, so thematically you could have the Colony Ships protected).

It appears the designers must have agreed with us as I’ve found the 2nd Edition rules no longer allow Colony Ships to deliver to hexes with an enemy ship during the Upkeep Round.

5

DNAmers {Avid Gamer}

Feb 14th, 2013| Strategy

29 of 31 gamers found this helpful

“Remember, you don't *have* to place unfavourable hexes ...”

When performing an Exploration action, you don’t have to place an unfavourable hex you draw.

Sure, this is inefficient play, but be it a resource-scare hex (although these can actually be a boon for later-game intentional bankruptcy to manipulated your economy), or a double alien threat too early in the game, it can be wiser play to soak up the lost action now instead of having to deal with an unfavourable neighbourhood for the rest of the game.

5

DNAmers {Avid Gamer}

Feb 14th, 2013| Strategy

44 of 48 gamers found this helpful

“Know your resource probabilities per sector hex!”

Discovery of useful, lucrative tiles on an Exploration action can literally be luck of the tile draw, but a player can maximise their chances of encountering hexes that can deliver the resources they need if they know how frequently each resource type is encountered in each Sector. This is especially so when playing the non-human races where starting resources are asymmetrical, and trade ratios between the different resources are harsh.

Generally speaking, frequencies of each resource type in the Inner, Middle and Outer regions are as follows:

Inner Region (I) Tiles: high Economy and Advanced Economy, very high Technology and Advanced Technology, very low Materials. Highest probability of encountering Alien ships, and highest density of Artifacts. Highest number of wormholes per hex (4.5), and an average of 2.75 population squares per hex.

Middle Region (II) Hexes: high Economy, high Materials. Lowest frequency of grey population squares, but highest probability of Discovery Tiles, especially if using Alien Homeworlds. Average of 2.0 population squares per hex, or 2.2 factoring in Alien Homeworlds.

Outer Region (III) Hexes: low Economy and Technology, high Materials. Highest probability of encountering grey population squares. High probability of Discovery Tiles, lowest probability of encountering Aliens. High probability of encountering special hexes, but the lowest number of population squares per hex (1.75 on average).

3

Jharii {Avid Gamer}

Jan 15th, 2012| Strategy

41 of 45 gamers found this helpful

“Starbases”

Do not underestimate the power of starbases. Their high initiative and initial low power requirements make them great early defenders. Upgrade them early and often and get them built in systems that are important and/or choke points.

3

Jharii {Avid Gamer}

Jan 15th, 2012| Strategy

41 of 45 gamers found this helpful

“Early Exploration”

So far in the games that I have played, there has always been one player that was reluctant to explore the inner ring (I). This has made it difficult for them to explore and connect to the central hex mid to late game because the players adjacent explore that tile instead, and will often try to cut off that hesitant player.

Explore that inner ring early whether or not you occupy that hex so you have access later on. Place a starbase in your starting hex to provide defense, if needed.

10

Andy {Avid Gamer}

Mar 21st, 2012| Rule

58 of 64 gamers found this helpful

“Starting Sectors - Allow Players to Choose Orientation”

In games I’ve played of Eclipse, the players have preferred being able to choose the orientation of their starting sectors, instead of following the setup given on page 5 of the rules.

The way we handle this follows the setup rules as given: selecting a race, taking its starting hex, and choosing one of the starting spots based on total number of players. Right before the gameplay starts, player simultaneously select how they would like to orient their hexes. Since this orientation can change the balance of starting positions, if players take too long, or won’t decide on an orientation, the beginning orientation is used.

We typically have everything setup before this selection, including the initial Technology draw (though I have not noticed people making decisions based on this information). The thinking is, if you’re going to change the orientation, you likely have a plan in mind, and you may as well have as much information as possible.

This change should mainly be considered in games where everyone has played at least once. Though beginners have liked the idea of choosing their own starting hex orientation, they tend towards positions that limit possible interaction with neighbors. While this must be accepted as a possibility when using this rule, it can lead to less interesting games (or at least lower interaction games). I normally see the first game or two as learning experiences where I want all of the rules to come into play so you see them in action. Beginners avoiding conflict at all costs will not get as full of a combat experience, which may prolong their learning curve.

Once you know the game and are playing with experienced players, being able to select your starting hex orientation gives one more layer of customization to your starting race selection.

5

Chris Oldgeorge {Power Gamer}

Jan 17th, 2012| Tip

40 of 44 gamers found this helpful

“Fight early, don't fight often”

Fighting early with medium class ships will give you a far better chance to grab those precious 3 and 4 vp tokens from the combat rewards. People that wait until the end of the game to attack with their sleekest designs, often end up reaping only 1s.

So, try to pick fights early in the game, get the best vp draw possible (or a good approximation thereof) and then secure your dominion and focus on other important things (e.g. monoliths)

3

Bryan Fischer {Avid Gamer}

Mar 26th, 2012| Tip

70 of 78 gamers found this helpful

“One Tip: Explore A Lot.”

After having played this game quite a bit, my only primary tip for all first timers and thereafter is…

Explore A Lot

If you do not, you will regret it. Exploring will get your bonus chips, it will give you shields, it will get your resources. Do not fear too much about giving your opponents way into your sectors, they will find them anyway if they want to. Explore, explore, explore.

7

Greg {Avid Gamer}

Apr 5th, 2012| Tip

70 of 78 gamers found this helpful

“Subsequent Exploration Hex Orientation”

While it may be tempting to place your explored hexes in such a way as to cut off access from your neighbours, this will dramatically reduce your available options, and could result in your sector being completely cut off from the rest of the galaxy – thereby needing the wormhole tech to reach the other players. Allow access points at various hexes to keep your options open.

8

Kaleb {Avid Gamer}

Sep 11th, 2012| Rule

27 of 30 gamers found this helpful

“First person to pass preps the techs for next turn”

and is the game “banker” until the next turn.

Just a quick way to keep the game flowing and allow a slight planning advantage for the first person to pass. They draw from the bag the technologies for the next turn. Of course they can’t be placed, yet, but they get to see them. This person is also responsible for all game upkeep and banker duties until the next turn (rolling the dice for ancients, moving the turn marker, randomizing hexes if needed, etc).

If not this way, best to have one person assigned to do this for each game so you get the right number of turns and techs.

6

Magno {Power Gamer}

Feb 25th, 2012| Strategy

38 of 43 gamers found this helpful

“Wormhole backstabbing”

One interesting element of Eclipse that caught my eye after the first game and I’m sure others have recognized it; backstab an alliance through half a wormhole.

How this works. Explore all you can as quickly as you can, not being too particular about how you align the hexes with neighoring hexes. Make one link to your neighbors at the beginning, form the alliance quickly to benefit from the mutual resources. The remaining explorations, do not form straight links to your neighbors hexes.

The key is to always be on the look-out for the wormhole jumping tech and make that a priority to grab. Its part denial, part aggressive.

Make sure to coyly strengthen the hex of your that connects with your opponents. Then use your wormhole jumping tech to backstab your opponents next to you.

Sure, you may get the traitor penalty, but when you time it correctly (with judicious use of your resources in the last turn) you can induce a larger penalty on of lost systems’ VPs to your opponents.

The fun part of this strategy is if a second wormhole jumper tech pops up and one of your neighbors grabs it. They remain your friend. 😉

Eclipse - Tips & Strategies

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