First Play: Eclipse

I have been trying to get a hold of this game for a while now after reading a positive review of it on BoardGameGeek, however finally at TableTopNorth I was able to get a play of Ecilpse from Asmodee games. This article is intended to be an indication of my initial thoughts regarding this game and not a full blown review.

Eclipse is a 4X space opera style game with players taking their place as the leaders of galactic empires vying for solar systems full of resources to exploit and scientific discoveries to find. As well as the other players there are ancient aliens to fight guarding random treasures that can give your empire a boost.

Each player gets a race worksheet to record their current resources in the form of credits, science and production, the current allocation of population to resource production, the technologies researched, spaceship blueprints and the orders taken each turn.


The race worksheet handles resource
management elegantly

There is a lot to keep track of on the race sheet but the game is designed to take a lot of the complexity out of the record keeping and tedious bean counting is kept to a minimum. For example I like the way that you stack up your population cubes on your race sheet (the little white cubes on the picture above) and then when There'sallocate the blocks onto factories on the game boards this will uncover a number under where the cube was representing the level of your production in that resource. An elegant method of keeping track of things.



Exploration and Expansion is managed through the placing of hex tiles each representing a star system with differing resources available for you to Exploit. Travel between system is marshalled through wormholes which appear on some of the edges of the hex tiles. As you need matching wormholes to be able to transport ships between tiles by careful placement you can isolate your empire from aggressive opponents or open diplomatic channels to your friends.

Large hex tiles are drawn at random
to make up the galactic map

There is a scientific research system which allows you to modify the blueprints of your spacecraft making them tougher and more deadly. Other scientific discoveries allow you to improve the resource production rates of your empire or otherwise improve your civilisations.

You can of course choose to Exterminate your opponents through building the strongest or most numerous space fleets and bomb their planets to goo. The victor is the empire with the highest points awarded for the various aspects of the game from exploring and settling worlds to scientific excellence in a given field or through participating in galactic genocide. Their are many ways to win this game.

I was very impressed by this game for the way it simplifies what is normally a complex genre and was most impressed by the playing time which was very close to the thirty minutes per player estimate in the rulebook. Even in our very first play we were able to complete a game in under three hours. I intend to bring this game up to the Koffeeklub Sunday night meeting soon so expect a full AAR presently.

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First Play: Conquest of Nerath

I got a chance to play through of Conquest Of Nerath yesterday and jumped at the chance. I had heard a lot of good things about this game and seen it at the Koffeeklub a couple of times but never played. Given that the game looks like a fantasy version of Risk with wizards and dragons it had the old gamer inside of me jumping up and down for joy and I knew I needed to give this one a go.

The game was developed by Hasbo under their Wizards of the Coast imprint, who are most famous for their Magic the Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons lines. Dungeon and Dragons: Conquest Of Nerath is one of a number of new boardgames designed to support the D&D line and these games have been scoring well on boardgamegeek and have had critical success from games reviewers and critics. This divergance of the D&D line is a welcome development as previously WOTC have produced a seemingly never-ending stream of fluff hardbacks for the roleplaying game, which while no doubt necessary to keep the revenue coming in, had the effect of flooding the 3rd and 4th editions of the game with more content than the players could reasonably purchase and IMHO bringing about the premature end of those editions. Now it seems that WOTC are looking to smooth out the release cycle by releasing non-roleplaying products in support of the line which will keep the share-holders happy and the customers too.

The game is a joy out of the box with an excellent map and superb components. Little points like the starting units are clearly marked on the regions of the map board making setup time quick and easy. The map is designed to minimise the slow and steady build up of forces that many similar games demand and instead players are pushed into each others faces from the very first turn. See the central island on the map in the image below to see what I mean. Swords are drawn from the get go!

The central island is contested from turn 1!

The game is deceptively like Risk on initial set-up. There are locations on the board which represent dungeons that can be delved by certain games pieces specifically the Fighters and the Wizards. The rewards for defeating the monsters found in the dungeon lairs are many and varied and it is in many cases these treasures are what make the game special. In my game AndyC who was playing the Undead Legion gained a treasure early on that granted his heroes the ability to fly meaning that the majority of his armies could circumvent my defenses and strike at my undefended regions behind the lines.

In this way the game is deceptive and replayable. No two games will play the same way twice and TimS who kindly hosted the game reports that in the numerous plays of this game that all factions have won the game and there does not appear to be a overwhelming advantage for any one faction. The game was certainly fun if not as heavy as the boardgames I have been playing lately. This is not a criticism as Dungeon and Dragons: Conquest Of Nerath is a fabulous way to waste an afternoon and an excellent way to ease new players into the D&D world

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A First Look At Combat Commander: Pacific

Combat Commander: Pacific

I'm spoiling myself a little this month having bought my second new game, Combat Commander: Pacific, a GMT release.

World War II is one of my favourite periods in history to wargame and the Pacific is one theatre that I have yet to play in in any boardgame beyond Memoir '44.

I'd expected to get there with ASL, but didn't get past Starter Kit scenarios, which don't currently cover PTO. With Combat Commander: Pacific I hope to have struck a balance between rules accessibility (which full ASL for PTO doesn't have in my opinion) and an engaging PTO experience.

CC:P is a standalone product and the third volume in the series behind CC:Europe and CC:Mediterranean. It has been published with a refined and updated rule-set and on the whole received positive community reviews (gaming gang / bgg).

CC:P Big Box

The box is a big one when compared to my other GMT titles, probably to hold the three decks of cards included. The full contents list is as follows:

Six thick paper double-sided maps. (17" x 22")

352 large counters. (5/8")

280 small counters. (1/2")

220 cards - One U.S. fate deck, one Japanese fate deck and one Commonwealth fate deck.

CC:P Counters

A 32-page rule book.

A 32-page play book.

A display track.

3 double sided nationality cards.

2 player aid cards.

CC:P Box Contents

Commonwealth, Japanese and U.S. fate decks

Fate cards represent the heart and soul of CC:P as a card-driven wargame which uses no actual dice.

A Sample U.S. fate card

Actions/Orders can only be played via in-hand fate cards, whereas other required "events", "random hexes", "sighting marker movements" or "dice rolls" are covered by drawing a fate card from the required deck and taking the result directly from that card.

e.g. Here a dice roll request would be a 1:6 and the event would be Medic.

I'm looking forward to giving combat Commander: Pacific a run out, although for now it's probably behind FAB Sicily in terms of play order.

Battle Pack #4 - New Guinea

As with previous volumes in the Combat Commander series, CC:P has had an expansion released, Battle Pack #4 - New Guinea. I've ordered a copy from Boardgame Guru.

> Further scenarios for CC:P also appear in the latest C3i magazine.
> The GMT listing for CC:P, including living rules and the VASSAL module, can be found here.

> A full list of Combat Commander scenarios can be found here.


As always too many good games and not enough time to play them! Until next time good gaming!

Update 01/08/12

A quick update as the Battle Pack #4 - New Guinea arrived today. It includes six new maps and fourteen new scenarios themed on the contrasting coastal and highland fighting in New Guinea between January '42 and July'44.

New Guinea: Battle Pack #4

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A First Look At FAB - Sicily

FAB Sicily

Arrived this morning!

After much deliberation I finally took the plunge and bought the latest game in Rick Young's Fast Action Battle (FAB) series of games, FAB Sicily. Guess what? It arrived this morning! :)

FAB Sicily covers the Allied invasion of Sicily, known as Operation Husky, from July 1943. Let's take a quick look at what I got in the box...

Putting aside my new-game buzz for a few moments, FAB Sicily boasts a beautiful cover picture on it's reassuringly sturdy GMT box. You can pick up a desktop wallpaper version here on the geek.

Wallpaper - available on the geek

FAB Sicily Map

Inside and we are presented with a 22x34" thick cardboard map of Sicily. Nothing much wrong with the quality here, though I do prefer the mounted maps so this one will need to be played under some perspex to keep everything nice and flat. The finish and artwork on the map are extremely clear and well done, with good colouring throughout.

Also included are a 23 page rule book (with contents and index sections) and a 32 page play book. I'll go into more detail on the rules when I cover this fully for a first play test, but I'm loving the coloured pictures in the play book especially as this always makes the reading a much more pleasant experience.

Colourful graphics in the play book.

The player's notes for Axis and Allied players really whet your appetite to play. "...as Italian morale fades you will have no choice but to shorten your line and back up towards Messina..." and "...make use of your flanking invasions, they will interdict movement and cut retreat paths, forcing the Axis to deal with them rather than strengthen his front..."

Examples of play cover the various phases of the game and give a real feel for what action lies ahead. Beachhead Selection, Port Damage & Repair, Bridge Crossing, Airborne Assault, Flanking Invasions, Supply and Retreat name only a few of the examples included. 

Box Contents

Delving deeper the set includes 73 wooden blocks (with sticker sheet), 228 9/16" cardboard counters, 6 Player Aid Cards and 4 ten-sided dice.

Itching to try this one out soon and to see how the differing play styles (Axis controlled defensive retreat / Allied invasion) balance off against one another.

Keep an eye on the KoffeeKlub blog for the inevitable follow-up on our first plays of FAB Sicily.

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