What are you playing this weekend? (July 17)

Teaching a non-gamer friend King of Tokyo this weekend in the hopes of converting them. It seems to work pretty well as a gateway game for people new the the hobby. Will probably get in a solo game or two of Legendary: Marvel.

@Cyberman I think you answered your question with your statement. If you are looking for a wicked-long space opera board game – Twilight Imperium is THE wicked-long space opera game. Sure it is 7-9 hours on a good day and be sure to send all players a pdf of the rules beforehand, but…

You are making political decisions. You are conquering planets. You are sending walls of ships to threaten people who conquered the planet you wanted to conquer beforehand. You are researching towards insane tech. You are eradicating planets with insane tech because the people you threatened did not heed your desires of making themselves scarce.

And you can be a nifty guy with a lion face.

But not for everyone.

If you want to test the waters with a watered down space opera – a space musical theater – Exodus:Proxima Centauri. In about 4 hours it has enough borrowed elements of the Imperium to act as a freshman seminar to see if you want TI3 to be your major.

Eclipse -ehhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I’m a known Cube-o-phobe, but I don’t find it uninteresting. I probably find it interesting enough because it is a game of exploration and heavy heavy resource management in space and thanks to ship outfitting and a tech tree I don’t feel there’s too much cube pushing via a warp drive.

Cuuuuuubessss innnnn Spaaace

It lands in eXplore and eXpand in my book – but eXploit and eXterminate seem to be overshadowed by eXonomics when cube push comes to shove. I do like the resource juggling and playing the ‘cost’ game aspect affecting decision making – but come end game I always feel like I am up for the Pan Galactic Resource Manager of The Year Award and not some race of overlords cutting a swath through the galaxy.

And I’m definitely not a nifty guy with a lion face.

But it isn’t 2am and two pizza runs later for a game that started mid-afternoon either.

The thing about Twilight Imperium is yes – it is THE Space Opera (and a head over to FanFlight and a flip through the rule book will quickly confirm) but it is sooooo epic that it is an investment in a game that hits the table once or twice a year for most. Often that can be the decision maker.

Exodus:PC (Euro-designed but Ameritrashy TI homage) and Eclipse (Mars needs Euro-mechanics) are good contenders on either side of the spectrum for , if not THE Space Opera, more condensed Sing-A-Longs.

@Cyberman Wow, sorry, that’s was a huge mistake on my part, have no idea why I confused the two. Maybe a bit of subconscious squeezing out and wanting to play Twilight Struggle, idk. Regarding Twilight Imperium, I have not had the fortune to play…mostly because I don’t have the 8-10 hours in a given day to play the game…with others who have 8-10 hours.

It’s the time crunch that made my decision between Twilight and Eclipse. I feel the game is much more finite, to a certain extent even if I were to only play a couple of rounds (due to time) with no clear winner, I’m still kind of okay with it. And because if this fact, I’d have to say Twilight is a much better game in this respect, because frankly, it wants to draw you into the whole drama of the game. There’s a lot more backstory to TI, and because the races are so distinct you’re not just using their “abilities” but begin empathizing with their struggle to build after this galactic power gap occurs. So, I’d be pretty upset if a few hours in John just gets up and walks off the game. If this happened in Eclipse, John’s units are just static NPCs, no prob.

With Eclipse, I think it’s the gameplay mechanics that draw you in. Because it’s so “smooth” and any decision you make doesn’t seem to be a bad one, players have a tendency to like the game as a whole. From best I can tell, people don’t feel like they make really poor decisions in Eclipse, just some players make better ones. I hope that makes sense. Basically, with Eclipse you never feel like the game is working against you. It’s like this really friendly AI that’s giving you plenty of options, it’s just up to you to find the options that are best for your gameplay and scenario advantage.

There’s a bit of a midgame struggle with Eclipse, but I’ve never seen players get “snowballed”, just some strategic adjustment, but that’s nothing new to this kind of game.

@gregoryjaylee Thanks so much for this reply. Have to admit that I grabbed the Eclipse app as a lower-cost way to see if I liked the game.

Your endorsement has me thinking I need to give the boardgame a whirl and not base my thoughts on the app.

Should note that I was referring to Twilight Imperium by FFG (known for rich, story-based games) and not Twilight Struggle (the #1 rated game on BBG). Similar titles, very different games.

If anyone has thoughts comparing TI and Eclipse, please post. Maybe I’ll just end up getting both games 🙂

@Cyberman Yeah, I’ve been drafting a review of Eclipse, and one of the issues I have with the digital version is you really miss out on the beauty of the tableau, which basically does everything for you already. If you want to play a 4X, turn-based, digital, space opera, I’d say play Master of Orion 2; my opinion, Eclipse should be cardboard and plastic and remain so.

Unfortunately, I’ve never played Twilight Imperium, I would like to experience the #1 ranked game on BGG, but the opportunity has never presented itself. So, I could not make an informed comparison between the two games.

However, I will say that Eclipse is a pretty awesome game and definitely deserves its #8 ranking on BGG. It’s a space opera, 4x genre, but it’s not really heavy in theme, ie not a story driven event like Battlestar Galactica or Dead of Winter. But you’ll have “game drama” as you encroach on other players’ territories and begin establishing your empire in the known galaxy.

I wasn’t able to play Eclipse with my typical play group this weekend, so I just showed it to some who are new to our group (since I had brought it anyway with the thought of playing it). We only got through 3 rounds, but they’re hooked, they’re really excited to be able to play a full and big game of Eclipse.

Hope this helps. If you want to see a playthrough of Eclipse to understand the rules and mechanics I strongly suggest Michael Wibner’s video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ly6dbiz5Tc

You can also watch Rahdo Runs Through, but he gives more of a gameplay impression verses really flushing out what the whole game is about.

Went on vacation to see some friends and got out a lot of my favorites–Small World, Smash Up, Five Tribes, Pandemic: The Cure, Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards, Diamonds, had a great 5 day weekend.

@gregoryjaylee Have been thinking about buying a wicked-long space opera board game and am torn between Eclipse and Twilight Imperium. Have Eclipse as an app, but just ain’t the same as cardboard and wooden/plastic bits.

Have you tried TI? If so, how does it compare to Eclipse? What are your thoughts overall on Eclipse?

Castle Panic for the first time. Then a full evening of Myth.

Thanks Jay, will check it out.

Just got Survive:Escape from Atlantis and Tokaido, might open them up and play tonight. Though my group is excited to play an Eclipse big-game this weekend, so…both?