Thoughts on Eclipse

So, I know Brett plays a lot of Eclipse and I had a couple of questions...

1. What do you think of Plasma Missiles? Are they an issue when you guys play or not?
   
2. What about the Hydrans? Whenever we've had them they just mop the floor with everyone...
   
3. Do you guys think Ambassadors are kind of weak? Sure, they provide a population cube to be placed on them, which is nice in early games, but I feel the diplomatic options are kinda limited

We have, so far, instituted a couple of house rules and wanted to get input on them:

On the plasma missiles, we have so far instituted a "Fire First, Resolve Last" rule for PMs... so they fire before anything else in the round, but their damage is applied at the end of the first round of combat... basically we're thinking of them as guided missiles that take more time to get to the target than the "direct beam" cannons. This means that if you load up a missile boat with no other defenses your opponents might still be able to destroy the boat before the missiles connect, forcing PM boats to tote shields or hull to improve survivability (and thus reducing the number of PMs on the craft).

For Ambassadors, we've also implemented a rule that allows allies to travel through each other's "occupied airspace"... basically if Player A and B are allies and Player B wants to move through a system that has Player A's fighters Player B makes a Move action and asks to move through the system. Player A can then choose to allow or disallow the move. If the move is Disallowed then Player B's movement of that unit immediately stops (i.e. they can't move the unit). If it's allowed, then Player B can move the unit as they wish.

This allows for a few things... most of all, the double cross. Player B could ask to move through a sector Player A has blockaded with a few fighters, stating they wish to move in on a common foe. Player A allows it, but instead of moving into the sector they said, Player B diverts and dives deep into the heart of Player A's unprotected flank, thus getting the Traitor card and causing Player A to scramble...

We feel it adds a new diplomatic element to the game as you have to weigh the risks of giving an "ally" a free pass of movement that may end up screwing yourself over in the long run.

We've seen Plasma Missiles come up a couple times along with the resulting Missile Boats/Forts. I like your house rule for them, it makes the overloaded PM platforms less of an "I win" button against even odds and more of a mutually assured destruction "deterrent", plus its damned thematic. What ships do you hit & destroy during combat while those missiles are streaking in during the first round?! I like that!

We haven't had enough games with aliens (we always seem to go back to humans when grabbing new players which happens a lot lol) to see the Hydrans really dominate yet. I think I've only seen them played twice so far.

I think ambassadors are alright. Just having 1-2 ambassadors is equivalent to a whole new system hex even with the bonus VPs, not too shabby. I think ambassadors have a greater impact in larger games when you can have 3-5 ambassadors at any one time = 2 system hexes worth of goodies!

Which reminds me, have you seen the expansion coming out later this year? [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Looks awesome! I still haven't played anything larger than 4 players yet, let alone 9 players! That reminds me, we need to get together and play a full 6 player game of eclipse! Have you gotten a large game in yet?