I was trying to get CE in on my last CSI order, but its sold out everywhere. I hear the next print is “on the boat” though so I’ll probably pick it up next month. I think the group will love this one.
I have a space game that I designed that fits well in that 30-60 minute play time. Its more of a 2X though (Explore and Exterminate) with no empire building. Imagine if Weird Worlds were a board game with a lot of Wiz-War influence thrown in. Its no 4X though. The group loves it, but we’ve played it about 10,000 times over the last few years. Some day I WILL publish this. I just need to motivate my artist friend to finish up the art.
When I first had the idea of a shorter 4X than Eclipse, I checked out Ascending Empires. The reviews sound not so great and the flick mechanic turned me off to the whole thing. If I want to play a dexterity game I’d buy Catacombs. I’ll research it though to see if there are any mechanics I could borrow if I decide to build a light 4X boardgame.
I have RftG. There isn’t enough player interaction for my tastes. The space theme feels pasted on especially after having been introduced to role selection through San Juan.
Looking for a coop game for me and the wife. I’d prefer something heavily thematic (more big box American than Euro). Maybe something with a fantasy theme?
Coop games I already own: Arkham Horror (this is kind of fiddly to set up for only 2 people), and Knizia’s Lord of the Rings.
Sounds like you need the Lord of the Rings card game.
Defenders of the Realm is Pandemic, but with the diseases replaced by armies of orcs.
For something lighter, Forbidden Island, which is Pandemic with flooding.
Or, you know, you could just get Pandemic and pretend you’re ridding Middle Earth of the bird flu.
Being a fan of the genre, I really think you should take a look at Ascending Empires as a viable, thematic 4X space game. Really, the carom mechanic is a small part of the game- it really has a fairly elegant euro-style action point mecanic as its base, encompassing some exploration, empire building and tech trees, with only movement and combat using the dexterity bits. The only thing I don’t like about it is the size/materials. I play shuffleboard in bars, and I’d love a full-sized AE/Catacombs table.
Thanks.
I’ll give it a go. GOT
I did play 3 games of Ora & Labora this week. I’m not sure what was more fun, playing the game or watching my friends over analyze each move to see how they could win. I could smell the brain cells burning.
Fortune and Glory, Conquest of Planet Earth and a Touch of Evil all have coop (They’re Flying Frog games, so the mechanics are rather simple). Mage Knight is a much more involved experience that also has a few coop scenarios.
The only dexterity game I’ve ever played was Crossbows & Catapults with my nephew. So lets say I were interested in trying one, I wonder if I should start with AE or Catacombs… I don’t really have a genre preference between the two. If am going to try a dex game I may as well get the best flickin game I can. :P
JoshL
5029
I’ve played both. Personally, I think Magic Realm is a much more robust system. There are lot more options, a lot more variables to manipulate, a much wider array of outcomes. Unfortunately it is 100% unteachable and basically unplayable face-to-face. Realmspeak is awesome, and I’ve played a zillion solo games and a few multi-player ones. But this is not a game that is ever, ever going to make it to the table.
Mage Knight is fun, and it’s playable. The major knocks against it are that the rules aren’t great at covering all situations, and it is long and has significant downtime (although those last two are also true about MR). My major complaints are that I’d like to be able to personalize my deck more over the course of the game, and have a wider array of adventure options (other than just fighting a group of very similar monsters over and over again). I do think that it is quite likely my complaints will be addressed by expansions, though.
I actually answewed this question a while back on BGG. Short version: catacombs is the better flicking game- nearly every system and sub-system relies on the flicking. Ascending Empires is probably the better game- like I said above, the core system is faily streamlined and elegant, but the flicking is just one part of it.
I’ve been on the prowl for good coop games. On the lighter side, I’ve played Forbidden Island, Pandemic, Space Alert, and Flash Point. They were all solid and enjoyable games I’d be happy to play again. I want to try Space Alert again, but the other games felt of light for my tastes. I didn’t feel compelled to play them again-and-again. I don’t how they play with only 2 players.
It’s a card game and not a big box board game, but I really enjoy playing the LotR LCG.
Mage Knight is a fantastic game I want to play over-and-over-again, but it’s certainly not everyone’s cup of tea. I have no idea how well it plays co-op.
I have not played but want to try Sentinels of the Multiverse, Castle Panic,and Ghost Stories (which I just purchased for iPad), and Yggadrasil.
I was looking for another game to add to my CSI order to get free shipping. I think I’ll try out AE. The first review I read wasn’t great, but once I read a few more it looks like that one bad review was the exception.
I still want to make a space 4X similar to Eclipse. I’m pretty sure I can do space 4X in about 15 min per player. It certainly wouldn’t be as deep as Eclipse, but it would have the advantage of being able to try a lot of different strategies in a single evening with repeated plays.
A lot of my original ideas for such a game are very similar to Ascending Empires (mainly the role selection) but with a more traditional ship movement and combat. I could base the ship movement and combat on something like Cyclades. The tricky part is coming up with enough technologies to make the watered down board elements deep enough for repeated plays. Who knows if it will ever see the light of day, but I enjoy prototyping new games.
I do like the unique powers, I just feel the actual game itself is weak.
Ghost Story does a good job of this, though you need the White Moon expansion to make it work.
Thanks for the suggestions. Lots to look at here. I’ll jump over to Boardgamegeek and start my research.
I’ll also add my support for LotR LCG and Mage Knight, though MK is easily as “fiddly” as Arkham.
Defenders is fun too, but kinda simplistic and the theme isn’t really connected to the gameplay.
I don’t find Mage Knight fiddly at all. It has a lot of pieces and takes a little while to set up and break down, but that’s not what fiddly means. Fiddly means you spend a lot of time messing with board pieces and counters instead of actually playing the game. Mage Knight has very little of that outside of flipping the day/night board, shuffling your deck and placing new pieces on the board when you explore and those things don’t even happen most turns. I love Arkham but it has way more of that kind of thing. Moving monsters around, tracking tokens on rumors, all of the stuff that can happen during upkeep, etc.
Not that it means much, but it’s kind of impressive that Eclipse shot right up to number 8 on BGG in about a month. We played our second 6 player game this weekend. I tried to limit the access other players had to me early on but did too good of a job and ended up completely walled off, so I tried to turtle up and improve my score with monoliths. Ended up in third place. One of the guys loaded up his ships with plasma missiles and was really tough to beat in combat but still finished fourth. I was actually glad to see that turtling and lots of missiles weren’t as overpowered as they seemed at first. Can’t wait for the next game, I have a ton of things I want to try out now.
Xemu
5038
In both plays of Eclipse it’s been dominated by whoever gets the double hull upgrade and fills up their dreadnoughts with it. Those things are basically unkillable until the endgame and you can make them really early since the tech for double hulls is cheap and requires no power.
Other than that (and maybe a little too much variance based on drawing an alien / non alien tile early on) I really like Eclipse.
If I wanted to order a copy of Eclipse and feel confident that I would get it when the reprint arrives, what would be the best way to do that? One of the big online game places (which one?), an order at a local game store, something else?
Chris, the game store near where I work still has copies in stock. It may be sold out online, but I’d do some calling around and I bet you can find a copy. If not, either of those options are fine. You’ll probably get a better price online from someplace like coolstuffinc, and if you order it with something else you should be able to meet the 100 dollar minimum for free shipping (although they won’t ship it until everything is in stock).
