Flashback Friday - Eclipse - Love It or Hate It? Do You Still Play It?

So, while Eclipse encourages combat, March basically requires you to? Is it a competition for resources?

Is combat punishing to the point of not wanting to risk it if you lose everything?

March seems like an interesting game to me and I have watched it for a while.

I think the difference mostly comes down to balance. In Eclipse, combat is a minor source of points. You win at Eclipse through better economic development. When I've played the game, fighting stops the moment you can't get any more VP chits from it.

In March of the Ants, combat is also a minor source of points. However, March of the Ants is won by holding hexes. Perhaps it's hexes that naturally give VPs, perhaps it's because the "Colony goals" you played require you too. Either way, if you are not holding certain hexes you either don't win or allow others to get a bunch of points.

Since the game is deterministic and tight on both points and actions, skirmishes are always worthwhile. You cannot snowball to victory and you never have enough resource to shrug off an attack.

Still, I don't think combat is punishing in March of the Ants unless you dump it all in one hex and try to win "big battles". Being deterministic works both ways: It makes it easier to attack, but also easier to run when attacked. In fact, the "March" action has a "one one ant" reaction attached, so players may flee if things get too loopsided.

That's interesting because my games of Eclipse have a ton of fighting at the end, whether each player's VP chits are full or not.

For one, you could always pull a better number. I've pulled enough late game 3s and 4s to make this a thing.

But more importantly, taking land from another player is the most significant way to influence results. The mad dash for territory gain is a huge delta if you target a player in the lead.

I'd say normal scores in Eclipse for a winner are 30-40. With 10-12ish points coming from Combat and 10-20 coming from territory. Combat and aggression is usually the deciding factor in the 30 or so games of it I've played.

I've only seen someone turtle and win maybe 2 or 3 times. I've seen people try it but we got used to exploring and forming connections with neighbors early in the game not long into our learning curve. When I have seen someone isolate themselves with closed connections I've seen someone still wreck them using wormhole generator.