Eclipse: Second Dawn for the Galaxy

The game was already great, but I never bought it due to the pain of putting it away and setting it up. Those headaches are mostly gone now with this second edition that includes the Game Trayz for 99% of the components, and bags for the rest. Grail game for me, and glad I finally own it after a nice sale thanks to MM.

This game is fantastic and lives up to its reputation.

So much fun to balance your economy with spreading across the universe while upgrading your fleet to take on your neighbors. One of my friends said that the combat in this game was the most fun combat they've experienced in a board game!

Eclipse: Second Dawn is a fantastic, asymmetrical 4X game based in outer space. With the exception of a few rule changes, it’s virtually the same game as the original from a mechanical standpoint. But the changes make a huge difference, especially at lower player counts. The best thing about this new version, and the reason it’s worth the money, is the fantastic upgraded components. The new player trays from GameTrayz that also serve as the resource management tracking boards from the first game. No more accidental bumps causing chaos with your resource tracking. The new version has unique ships for each race, basically the ship pack one expansion from the original version. The heart of the game is space exploration, area control, and head to head dice-rolling battles. Where the game shines for me is the space exploration and customization of the various ship types. Resource collection and management has a solid euro-feel without being boring or overwhelming for players that don’t typically play euros. This is a top-3 game for me and I recommend it to everyone who likes space exploration/fighting games.

Easily one of the best board games I have ever played. One of the few games that actually works for 2 players you don't always need to have 4-6 players it just works.

It's an amazing board game... My top 1. I love the implementation of 4x in this game, and the minis are so cool.

Eclipse may not be a short game, but it's a breath of fresh air to me. Having played some similar titles like Twilight Imperium and Forbidden Stars (as examples) I wasn't entirely sure what else Eclipse could bring to the experience. It brings plenty. The detailed design you can do for your ships is an entirely new element to me, the scoring is fun. The entire experience is excellent! I would highly recommend this to fans of 4X games.

I admit that I haven't played many 4X space combat games. They've always seemed intimidating in terms of learning curve and play time. But I picked up Eclipse: Second Dawn on a whim based on high BGG ratings and have no regrets. Yes, the rule book is lengthy, but once you play through a couple of rounds, it all makes sense and it becomes an exciting blend of Euro elements like resource building and developing technology for ship upgrades combined with occasional exciting dice-chucking combat sequences. I like that a lot of the combat is not direct PvP combat (at least in our 2-player game), but fighting ancient alien tech to acquire resources and populate new sectors. The choices around ship upgrades are one of the most interesting and fun elements. Do you load out your small fighters with one-shot missiles hoping to obliterate enemies quickly or save upgrades for larger ships with shields and targeting computers that can give you a better chance to win a longer battle? Turns progress fairly quickly and there's always a bit of a race to see who passes first and claims the extra money that can give them additional turns in the next round. The component quality is top-notch, with individual game trayz for each player, wonderful models for the various ships and alien tech, and clear icons on everything. My only wish is that the base game included a board or the neoprene mat to make it clearer where sector tiles should be placed. I've only played it with 2 players, but would be very interested to see how the player interaction ramps up with a larger group. Overall, a great experience and I'm looking forward to playing it again!

If you want an epic 4x space experience but want it to be streamlined and fun this is your game! The best space 4x around!

Game came with proper package and it reached me weel before the estimated shipping date so I was able to table the game the same weekend. It was a epic experience and I cannot wait to play with full 4 players and now my group understands the rule well