Just picked up the second-edition printing of Eclipse. Love it - IMO, it hits the 4 X’s of the 4X genre better than the other alternatives out there.
The “Exploration” aspect is simple - basically draw tiles and either place or discard them. Movement only occurs across “wormhole” connections, so placement of tiles is extremely important long-term. Exploration also turns up “Goody Huts” and “Ancient Defenders” for even more fun.
The “Expand”/“Exploit” part is also excellent, with 3 different resources (money = actions, research, and materials = construction). Most sectors contain planets that give you resources, but you have to pay upkeep for each sector you control. This means that just expanding to everywhere is not always a good idea (expanding to a 1-planet sector is actually a net loss in terms of resources). Some nice subtlety in the economic system; it seems to the me that one’s sectors should - in large part - determine what long-term strategy to follow in the game (leading to good synergy with the exploration aspect).
The “Exterminate” part is where most board-game attempts at this tend to fall flat in my opinion; but I think it works extremely well here.
The game is won by the player with most victory points; control of Sectors (1-3 per sector), techs (up to 15 VP), building monoliths (very expensive construction that needs to be defended for 3 VP each) and “Reputation” are major sources. Generally, one can hold 4-5 reputation tokens (giving 1-4 VPs each) by the end of the game. which makes warfare one of the key means of gaining points. Simply being in a combat allows you to draw a reputation token, and you gain extra draws for each enemy you kill.
Combined with a strong limit on number of units one can build and fast movement, the effect is a game where aggressive play leading to conflict is often rewarded. You conquer (or raze) enemy sectors not just to reduce the opponents points, but also because combat in itself is worthwhile. Turtling is still possible; but it is not a dominant strategy.
Combat is simple, but fun. There are 4 types of units (3 ships and 1 Starbase = Powerful, Static Ship), and one outfits the hulls with new technology (weapons = dice rolled, computers = +to hit, shields = -1 to hit, engines = move/initiative, and hulls=hit points) purchased through research. In a sense (and one of the criticism against the game); research is essentially an arms race, but I think it works well for what this game wants to be. Twilight Imperium 3 is a “Civilization” game where combat can occur - Eclipse is much more a wargame set in space with some Civilization elements. A small teched up fleet can easily smash a larger starting fleet; combined with the VP advantages gained by being aggressive, this means that one can never allow an opponent to get too many actions ahead in the arms race.
The Diplomacy system is very simple, yet effective. Alliances give 1 VP, and allow both of you a “free resource” (essentially equivalent to an extra planet worth of production). However, the alliance tile takes up one of your “reputation slots”, so you’re essentially trading the alliances 1 VP for a potential 4 VP reputation tile. So alliances are fragile things - although the -2VP traitor tile (which is given to the last player who has broken an alliance) means there is a potential extra cost to treachery.
All in all - based on first impressions - a very good game. Definitely has the “Easy to Learn, Difficult to Master” vibe, and - perhaps most important - it is an extremely quick game. The box claims 30 mins/player, and it does not seem that far-fetched an idea with experienced players.
