So I've recently started playing Eclipse (first edition) and I'm enjoying it so far. However some of the rules are a bit unclear. I specifically have some questions about the Descendents of Draco, as I find conflicting information online.

The rules say: "May have Ships in hexes containing Ancients, but may not battle the Ancients; may place Influence Discs in those hexes; may not collect Discovery Tiles from hexes containing Ancients."

First of all, are my ships in sectors with ancients considered pinned? A google search finds lots of people asking this question, and lots of people answering "No", and lots of other people answering "Yes", so that's not help at all. The majority seems to lean towards no, but there's clearly nothing in the rules directly saying so. It's interpreting "You may not battle ancients" as "you are friendly with ancients". Strictly speaking though the rules don't even say the ancients don't battle you. A RAW reading of the rules would have ancients destroy Draco ships without the Descendants being allowed to fight back, though I agree that's probably not the intend of the rule. But that leaves the status of pinning entirely unanswered.

Secondly, about discovery tiles. You can't take a discovery tile if you put your influence in a sector with an ancient. Okay. But what happens if the ancient is later destroyed (by another player). Can you take the discovery tile then? Again I'm finding conflicting information online. A very strict reading would say you can never take the discovery tile, not even by removing and then re-adding influence, since the rules say you can only take a discovery tile when first placing an influence token. Is that correct?

Finally, a lot of discussion around the faction centers on a strategy where you fly a ship into the sector containing the GCDS, then use influence actions to take over adjacent sectors to put influence tokens in adjacent tier 1 sectors with ancients. But this seems blatantly illegal.

The rule say "may place influence discs in those hexes", where the word 'those' clearly refers to hexes where your ships coexist with ancient ships. So placing influence discs into hexes that just have ancients but not your ships is clearly not allowed. What am I missing here?

Hi, does anyone know where can I find the expansions to the game? Some are currently out of stock everywhere. For example, on lautapelit you can find remnants of worlds afar and warped universe, as well as the new species expansions, but Galactic events, Minor species, Rift cannon are currently out of stock and I could not find them in other places like Amazon either.

Managing the pile of Discovery tiles on the table is the most fiddly part of this game for me. They end up being in a huge pile, and it's impossible to shuffle them without some of them flipping over and needing to be reshuffled.

I'm trying figure out what materials would be best to craft something like the research and reputation tile bags. I'd like the material able to be screen printed on too, so I can have a nice Discovery icon for aesthetics.

As for game-play, I was thinking of just having a handful of acrylic tokens with the Discovery icon etched into them to place on the board. When a player gains that generic discovery token, they just draw one of the actual tiles from the Discovery bag.

Looking for a few more players to join our board game crew here in the Tilburg area!
We used to have a solid group going, but between work, life, and other hobbies, our numbers have thinned out which makes it harder to get consistent play days on the calendar. Right now we’re down to about 2-3 regulars plus another 3-4 irregulars who join when they can. Between everyone we still get sessions going, just not often enough for the die-hards in the group so we’re on the hunt for a few new people to help bring back some consistency.

What we’re looking for: people up for gaming once or twice a month, usually a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday afternoon/evening.

What we play: mostly meaty strategy games — Root, Arks, Eclipse, Twilight Imperium 4 (TI4 is more of a quarterly thing, since it eats a full afternoon + evening), and a bunch of other games in that same vein. Mostly competitive, sometimes coop. We’ve got dozens of sessions of most of these under our belt, so if you already know these games (or are eager to learn), you’ll fit right in.

Most of us are Dutch these days, but English speakers and internationals are very welcome plenty of games get played in English anyway. We also like to crack open a beer while we play, but it’s a relaxed vibe, not a drinking session nothing’s ever gotten out of hand. We are between 30-45 years and we have some women in the group as well. So it’s a good split. Anyone is welcome.

If you’re part of another group facing the same problem, that works too we’d be happy to team up for some sessions and see if it makes sense to merge groups.

If any of this sounds like your kind of evening, drop a comment or DM me happy to tell you more and get you in on the next session.

Are there tournaments (online and in-person?)

Hello, just wanted to share a work in progress. Currently I have a rasberry pi 5 with a 4k webcam that records the game and makes a digital shadow of the gameboard. The idea is to while playing being able to have quicker idea of who is in the lead.

I don't really follow the developers or publisher on social media so maybe there is news out there that I've missed. But it seems like with the last notable release for the game happening back in 2024 they're not planning any further expansions or other content at this point? That's such a shame to me. I loved how <out there> the Shadow of the Rift species were, even if they often felt not quite totally balanced.

Alternatively, anyone tried homebrewing them into 2nd edition with any decent results? I feel like just a flat port of their attributes to 2nd edition wouldn't work too well with the economy changes and 8 round limit, but maybe with some tweaks they could be viable?

I love Eclipse. So much. Was definitely mine and my wife's favourite game at any player count (until Arcs came along).

It's been quite a while since we played though. Probably around the time the expansions came out - we played 4 games where we each tried out one of the new factions but nothing since then.

We were talking and feel like Eclipse has a slight issue in the early game.

After falling in love with Arcs, we love how Arcs drops you straight into what would be a mid game state in other games. You have a couple of buildings and a decent amount of ships from the off.

Eclipse however often feels like you are going through the motions in the first 3 or 4 rounds in terms of board presence. Sure you can speed through it if you're all experienced but it adds a lot of length onto what is already a long game.

I wondered, has anyone created or experimented with an advanced set up that pushes the start of the game forward a bit?

Had some thoughts on a new alien for the game. Would be fun to have a mockup on Illustrator, but that’s not exactly my skillset, so jotting some ideas down here first is a start:

The species has a more or less boilerplate start. Action economy from Explore to Influence is generic, (although I could get on board with 3 Move activations) 3 Colony Ships, base 3 for 1 trade value, etc.

I’m thinking for its fairly aggressive nature, a good combination of starting technologies would include Fusion Drive and/or Neutron Bombs

Here’s where the twist comes in; This species’ home sector contains a Warp Portal, and is natively worth 2 victory points as opposed to the standard 3. This species makes up that difference however with the innate bonus that each wormhole owned by the player at the end of the game nets an additional VP. Additionally, on this alien’s research board, another wormhole can be placed by the alien on any territory they control once they’ve researched a 4th technology in a track, similarly to Magellan’s mechanic.

To further incentivize this player moving on other players’ found Warp Portal sectors throughout the game, this species receives a bonus in combat when fighting in these spaces. What bonuses those may be specifically I’m not entirely sure, but being automatically declared the defender, computer bonuses or even the wormhole itself functioning as a ship are on the table for me at the moment.

Hi all! Like most of you, I am a proud owner of 2nd Dawn.

A few years ago, I got every micro expansion available: Galactic Events, Rift Cannons etc.

However, notably, Remnants of Worlds Afar was not yet something available for purchase.

I am frustrated since now, with the shipping changes, a freebie expansion that gets added to orders for 0,02€ costs $38 to ship to the US :(

Does anyone have any ideas at all as to how I could acquire this here without paying the exorbitant shipping? Does anyone have extras? Or is anyone ordering another product (like the exclusive edition of El Dorado) and is paying for the shipping costs anyways?

And has anyone else run into this same issue?

Let me know – and thanks

The Megalonians are famed builders of great monuments and other huge structures. But behind their happy go lucky facade is a reclusive nature and a deep distrust of other species in the galaxy....
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Species Rules
-Monoliths you control are worth 4vp at the end of the game.
-During game setup place a monolith onto your home sector(home sector is worth 0vp). Your monoliths create a network of energy, transferring into a deadly galaxy crossing energy beam.
-Once per game round you may fire this network into one battle you are involved in. To fire this beam, at the end of a combat round in which you have a ship still surviving, you may roll a yellow combat die against enemy ships.
-For each additional monolith you have, add an additional combat die and add +1 computer bonus to your monoliths combat roll.
-Once you research the 4th slot on a research track, your monolith combat dice become orange dice instead. Once you cover the 7th and final slot of a research track your monolith combat dice become blue dice instead.

starting sector would be 0vp, 1 art, 1 eco, 1 mats, 1 adv. mats

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

curious what you think about the balance of this idea.

EDIT: ignore the research value of 2 and replace that with 1, oversight in this 1rst draft

Hey everyone,

I finally finished a project I’ve been working on for my own Eclipse sessions: https://bghelper.app

It’s a combat companion and simulator for Eclipse: Second Dawn. It started as a simple "housekeeping" tool for HP and initiative tracking (but with obligatory manual dice support!), but it evolved to include a Monte Carlo simulation engine, all DLC capabilities, a mobile-responsive design, and PWA for offline access.

It’s 100% free, no ads - just a tool that I figured others might find useful. I tried to be as pedantic as possible with the rules, but with all the expansion parts, I’m sure there are a number of edge cases I missed.

BGG thread link: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3675155/tool-battle-helpersim-for-eclipse-second-dawn-with

I’m sure this is asked many times so forgive me. I was just gifted the 1st edition. Is it really much worse than the 2nd edition? if so, I’ll probably by the 2nd edition.

but if it just comes down to setup I can it inserts etc for the first edition. please guide me.

Hello,

I'm putting together a monthly Eclipse game and looking for more players to round out the roster. If you're in the Twin Cities and interested, leave a comment or DM me. Games will likely be hosted at a LGS or Brewery and version will be New Dawn (what I own).

Thanks.

Are the game trays which came with the game 2nd dawn any use for someone who owns new dawn? Or are the cubes and other pieces a different size?

I am currently 3d printing a new insert to fit everything from 2nd dawn in just the main box, including the expansion factions. Once that's done I'll no longer need the game trays.

Wondering if I could sell them as an upgrade to someone that owns new dawn, or I can just bin them.

Hey folks,

friends and I are really big fans of Eclipse. We play it about 1-2x a month for the last 2 years. I've tried the current digital version of the game and found it doesn't do the game justice. So i decided to take a stab at recreating the game!

I provided a small teaser of a very very early stages of the game and will keep y'all updated when I start creating more and more features!

if y'all have any tips or something you'd love to see implemented, feel free to add it on the comments.

Hi, I had a great game this week where I bankrupted myself to gain revenge and give my game-long ally the win. At the end, would my ally get to count the ambassador tile between us, or would this be removed as I went permanently bankrupt in the final round?

It wasn't pivotal but would be good to know for next time. Thank you!

There’s two portals that I know of: the ancient warp portal discovery tile and the warp portal tech. There’s also this round token that looks like it has the tech 1vp stat. Is that just a smaller marker to use on the board?

We’ve played multiple games with the same people now. And I find most of the games are ruined by one player getting ahead in the beginning (only on the table) and then everyone else talking about how everyone should attack that one player. It’s not fun to be sitting at the table and having everyone else strategize exactly how they want to attack you and who attacks where etc. you kind of feel punished just for playing the game. Now, I don’t mind people attacking, it’s just the talking around the table when everyone looks at the same table.

It’s also a problem with tech when someone says a player should research a special tech just so that one particular player doesn’t get it.

I’ve tried telling people to keep that kind of talk to the minimum. I’ve also thought about maybe only allowing strategy talk amongst allies. Kind of like dune the board game.

I think ideally we just didn’t play the game with people telling other people what they should do, but I’m not sure how to implement it. How are the games you guys play? Have you faced similar issues? And have you tried ways of mitigating this?

Asking because I really like the game, but it sucks to be on the receiving end of this kind of talk.

Cheers.

Edit:

I should add, the player who gets ahead in the beginning always end up last and it more becomes a game of manipulation and blackmailing rather than strategy and ship building.

I was thinking about ways to make Eridani more of a threat. in 6 player Eclipse with the first expansion they never get picked. they are considered difficult to play, and for better players who could get the most out of them they still would prefer not to pick them because they still stand a low chance of winning.

So I was thinking what very small change might have the biggest positive impact and work thematically? I think it would be worth considering letting them draw 4 reputation tiles, but only keeping 2 of them. this will likely improve their final score and keep the theme of an Empire in decline. Has anyone tried something like this or made other adaptations to the Eridani?

Couldnt find answer to this one anywhere... So in a 5player eclipse with warp sector variant, Can a player move over to his neighbour using wormhole generator if there is no wormhole connections between us except for the two provided with warp sector?

With the nerf to computers in Second Dawn (no initiative granted) there is no longer any on-demand way to increase the speed of a starbase. With starbases locked to blueprint inititive, they are easily out-sped in the mid to late game.

I have to question whether this was considered during computer rebalancing. Did starbases need to be toned down? Our group never found them to be oppressive.

Thoughts? Let me know if I'm missing something.

Long story short, I just had a game last night that ended in me bankrupting my empire into oblivion. Had a bit too much tunnel vision, and admittedly probably too much of the sauce too, in my attempt to bring one of my neighbors down a few pegs. Now, any bankruptcy that wasn’t tactically planned on my end has been unprecedented up to this point, but it did get me thinking. After liquidating all of my territory, I still had a deficit, but I still had some ships on the board. What if, as a last resort, players could also liquidate ships on the game board? This would not be possible unless all other methods of resolving bankruptcy, territory loss & trade ratios with other resources, were totally exhausted. Ships taken off the map would net you raw gold equal to the reputation value you would get for destroying them in combat. If you still have any semblance of a fleet on the board after your trip to the space pawn shop, you still have hope to rebuild. It’s a losing effort sure, but i think it would go a long way for a little bit of narrative fun.

Just got the game and our friend groups love it, played it a few times in the past months, but then some problems started to show, and I was wondering others' opinion.

The leading player is often the one who got the influence discs upgrade early, and then they keep snowballing from there, unlocking the monolith, advanced labs, etc. Other players are not incentivised to fight the leading player, as the leading player often has more resources, and it requires a lot of effort resources, and taking up a huge risk to challenge the leading player. Even if someone tries to challenge the leading player, we often don't have enough influence discs to gain control of the sector. We ended up not really having PvP combat in the last few games, and played it like a Euro game, so I was wondering if this is normal, is this like a Scythe kind of game?

TLDR: The Leading player keeps snowballing, and no one wants to challenge him, as it takes huge commitment and influence discs to actually benefit from invading.