How to Play Eclipse: Second Dawn in 25 Minutes
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- čas přidán 4. 07. 2024
- Learn how to play Eclipse: Second Dawn for the Galaxy in just 25 minutes (there's a bit of silliness at the front and back)
0:00 - Intro
1:30 - Basics
2:14 - Set Up
4:48 - Actions basics
5:16 - Explore
7:41 - Research
9:32 - Upgrade
10:47 - Build
11:36 - Move
13:00 - Influence
14:08 - Passing/Reactions
14:55 - Diplomacy
16:52 - Combat
21:18 - Reputation
22:15 - After-Battle Stuff
23:10 - Upkeep
25:33 - Cleanup
25:49 - Endgame Scoring
26:22 - Outro
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Corrections:
You can only explore from a sector you control or have at least one ship.
I mention that you can remove upgrades, but to be clear, you only remove them during the upgrade action, and you can remove as many as you like before adding new ones.
When returning population cubes, you actually can fill the last space in a track. It's when the track is completely full that you need to place it somewhere else.
There's a Cleanup step I missed, which is to return population cubes from the graveyards to their respective production tracks.
At the end of the Cleanup section I say that if it's the 8th round "you don't need to do any of that other stuff." I'm specifically referring to the Cleanup phase admin. You do still need to do the Upkeep before it.
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#tutorial #boardgames #RTFM #rtfmshow - Hry
Thanks for watching! Did you notice something I got wrong or missed? Comment here and add a timestamp so I can fix it in the subtitles.
Minor, at 2:41 you should play Tech i correct cost box(marked)
@@LtRogers5 You're not wrong, but sometimes I like to be a little chaotic. It doesn't really affect the rules, so I left that in.
9:40 upgrade action allows for 2 upgrades, you make it sound like you only get 1 upgrade. You also didn't mention that during an upgrade action you can remove any number of upgrade parts from your ships. You do this again for build action... I don't remember you talking earlier in the video about each action having multiple activations so you did and it's just confusing at this point because that little bit of information I missed earlier.
I think it should have been included how exploration works. I didn't notice you say which systems you can explore from (systems with an influence disk or an un-pinned ship)
@@Draemn I'm sorry you missed it, but I have to respectfully disagree. At 5:05 I mention that the number beneath the action tells you how many activations it has. Then for upgrade and pretty much every other action I say that you get to do the action once per activation. I also say at 10:05 that parts can be removed or overwritten, though it could be clearer that this is something you only do during the upgrade action, so I'll make a note for that.
What we are missing on CZcams is a channel dedicated for the heavy or super heavy games. So far, you are the only one I can think of. And you are doing an amazing job at explaining the games. More heavy games please xD
Thanks! As for other heavy games channels, to be honest I don't watch them, but I'm pretty sure that Heavy Cardboard is all about that. Might be worth checking out.
I know it's not CZcams and it's primarily based around Twilight Imperium. but Space Cats Peace Turtles podcast is a good time. Also covers games like Root, Dune and the newly released Oath.
Heavy CardBoard
Heavy? Like A World at War? I’d love that!
Best intro ever. I paused the video at 0.20 just to press subscribe.
Much appreciated!
Dude you are the best board game teacher on CZcams. Rodney is great but your reviews have heart and it is clear you have a connection with the games you teach. Thanks a lot for your work! =)
Thank you so much!
I always liked the description of Eclipse being Diet TI.
It's not the giant Thanksgiving feast that you plan your day around, but sometimes you don't have time for that anyway.
And it’s still frickin’ fingerlickin’ delish!
Hmmm "Diet" implies that tasty things were cut out because someone was worried they weren't good for you. To me Eclipse feels like a completely different flavor rather than a low-fat dish.
It is true you could argue that Eclipse pales in comparison to the diplomatic and political interactions of TI and significantly limits the size of fleets simply by having much fewer ships than TI. But Twilight Imperium will only let you upgrade a ship once. In Eclipse you can upgrade one ship enough to destroy an entire enemy fleet. Also Eclipse has a very tight resource and action economy that often makes me feel like I'm playing an RTS more than a board game.
In my opinion both games have a lot of density and deep strategic possibilities but in completely different ways.
I think a lot of people call Eclipse a "lighter" version of TI simply because it generally takes less time to play, and I think that really undercuts the unique flavors of strategy each game has to offer.
@@Hennu_TRM that's totally fair! I only used the term "Diet" because most people would really understand the point I'm trying to make: that's it's similar, but in many ways easier to get into.
Similar to a family meal vs Thanksgiving meal.
24:21 In our group "tactical bankruptcy" would happen fairly often: after a round of rapid expansion, returning influence discs from unproductive sectors was anticipated to reduce costs to a manageable level.
Can you return discs beyond what is needed to be able to pay?
@@veri745 No, you'd have to use influence the next round if you want to carry on removing discs.
Great vid! After first playthrough, here are the rules my group missed after watching this video:
- During setup, resource icons on your player sheet show how many resources you start with. To determine your income, place cubes on the associated planets in your home system.
- You can perform each action more than once.
- You can only perform each 'Reaction' action once.
- Upkeep phase; gain credits from your gold planets. Then pay for your credits as shown on influence track. If you don't have enough, supplement the difference by Trading or Abandon sectors. Then gain your pink and brown resources equal to their tracks.
- The capacity of the upgrade tray doesn't limit how many you can have out. If there's too many upgrades of a type to fit in their row, simply put them in a different row.
Clarifications on a couple things you mentioned. You may have meant what I state below for both of them, but it could be ambiguous for new players:
-You are able to perform a reaction action more than once. (At least my rules explicitly say this.) Since they are all limited to only 1 use per activation, it will take you two turns and two influence discs to do this, but you can stack them up, same as your regular activations.
-As for the tech tray overflowing, this should only be possible for the Rare Tech. The others all have spaces designated depending on cost, and duplicates are stacked on top of each other. Each tech is designed so they exactly fill the tray when they are all out. (Except rares which CAN overflow.)
This is the best channel to learn complex rules quick, thank you!
Thanks!
Finally! Eclipse have been waiting on my shelf for you to release a how to play video :)
The wait is over!
I used this again at the weekend, very good, very clear, very concise.
Great work.
Thanks!
Regarding the Influence action, you can place an influence disc in a sector if it has no enemies and 1) you have a ship in that sector or 2) it is connected to a sector you already control or 3) it is connected to a sector *you have a ship in*. The video covered the first two, but the reason the third option matters is because you can move into an enemy sector and get your ship pinned, then influence to an adjacent empty sector for control, and then start building ships in that sector.
You're quite right. I had a note about that, though it was slightly inaccurate, so I've adjusted it to be correct now.
I may understand something wrong, but in the rulebook it is written that you can explore any system that is next to a sector you have control or "at least one unpinned ship*
Wouldn't that make your statement false ?
I may be wrong that's why I'm asking
You always seem to perfectly cover a video for a game I have and that's lacking on CZcams. Not sure what that suggests, but I'm glad it's the case! Thanks as always for a great video 🤠👍🏻
Thanks! And you can thank my awesome Patreon backers for their excellent taste!
This was the first video of your I've watched (other than rhados channel) and I have to say you did an excellent job. Very funny... informative and quick. Also the memes and intro were too notch. I just got the game yesterday and am so excited to try and play it.
Hey thanks! Glad you liked it!
Excellent tutorial, so excited to play this game!
You're really good at this. Thanks again.
Saving my game nights for years. You've earned another Patreon subscriber, sorry it's taken so long!
Hey better late than never! Thank you so much for supporting the channel!
I chose Eclipse over TI, because of two factors: two player gameplay (I play board games with my dad but he and my group would not mix well) and the fact there is exploration, which seems to be element heavily missing in TI4. Third would be elegant as hell inserts coming along with the box.
There is also another factor that Eclipse which I didnt think about: all compinents are in English - and those are just names and simple reminders - meaning you dont need second copy of the game to play with English-speaking players (I am Polish). TI has a lot of text to read and understand and it means youd meed two copies for English and Polish players. In case of Eclipse, I can easily "crossplay" both Polish and English friends.
Exploration is part of the expansion for TI4 if that’s of interest to you. How well does eclipse play as a 2 player? TI really needs at least 4 players to really come alive.
Yeah, when I play TI with new players, I tell them to go watch your video first. It's really helpful. I get, where the association comes from.
@8:05 you're supposed to sort them by cost (the tray shows the cost on there), you monster!!!
EvilWitchLaughingWhileDescendingIntoFloorboards.gif
Now THIS is a affront to god and science.
Excellent video, as always!
Thanks!
Best start to a video, ever.
Such an amazing tutorial. Thank you thank you. Best I found.
Thank you so much! Glad I could help!
Hilarious intro :D. I own both, they scratch different itches. TI is more diplomatical big strategy. Eclipse is more of a tactical chess imho.
Agreed! I'm actually going to be putting up a video on this topic in a couple days.
Got three weeks till next board game night, so I have to watch this video some more times to learn 😅
I love the beginning of this video! The rest is good too :)
Haha, thanks!
Really well done video!
Eclipse and twilight imperium are the best games ever! Thanks for the simple videos
No problem, glad I could help!
I play this game maybe once a year and every time I come back to you.
Thanks for the repeated views :D
The intro had me in stitches
Awesome! Thank you!
Now that I know how to play, I just need to know how to find a copy. 😊
Oof, yeah it's a little tough these days. I think they've got another print run coming though, so fingers crossed.
Amazing tutorial 😍
Thanks!
Great work dude
Thanks!
7:35 In case you don't have captions on: You CAN completely fill a population track and cover up the black number. This means your income of that resource during the upkeep phase is zero. If you must return another cube to that track while it is already full (i.e. you returned wild cubes to science putting it to zero, but then lost a science planet from an attack) you must place the cube into another track.
Brilliant intro!
Love the music as well.
Thanks!
Same here! Which is the name of the tracks?
@@bernardorippe7024 To be honest, I don't remember the names of the individual songs, but all of them were by an artist named Bobby Richards, whose music is in the CZcams royalty-free audio library.
@@RTFM thanks you're awesome!
What a great intro!
Thanks!
I saw this at the store and got curious...might want to get it.
Thanks again for the vid
This is great, in the back of my mind I am hoping that some day you cover Exodus Proxima Centauri. Making this a trilogy of hexagonal tile based 4x space games.
If a shiny new edition that comes out, I'd be down. I let my Patreon backers choose my games though, so it usually swings towards the BGG hotness list.
Awesome tutorial as always mate! Game looks fantastic though I don't think I could justify having it and TI clogging up my shelf haha. Maybe I'll convince one of my dorky mates to get it.
Haha, they are very different games, but they are also both quite big, so that's totally fair.
Thanks for this great video! 19:17 Does the -1 of the cruiser's gauss shield also affect dice that hit the interceptor?
It does not. a ship's parts only apply to itself. What I was showing at that point was green's ships. I was just highlighting the shields as an example.
The economy is extremely hard to understand at first, and a lot of the time the best move you can make is skipping your turn, cause the costs grow way too fast. Also it tends to get really unfair if you don't get any money planets early on, while other players get everything, cause they just get to take extra turns. If you get like 0 of them while opponent gets like 3 of them the first turn, you basically lose.
I thought the move action enabled all your ships to move to their given movement speed. I was mainly getting drives for initiative purposes, but now I’ll really need them!
Sometimes you can get away with not upgrading your engines, but yeah, sometimes you really need that extra movement.
Thank you
Awesome video! Question, could you use Eclipse edition one hexes with Eclipse edition 2 in a game?
Unfortunately I've never actually played 1st edition Eclipse, so I'm not really sure. From what I've seen, the hexes look pretty similar, but they might be balanced differently.
Hey Shea! Big fan, excellent quick explanation of the rules. The only thing I could find that I think might be incorrect is at 7:38, I believe that you CAN fill the last spot on a population track. If you’re ever forced to put a cube back but there are no available spots, then you must choose another track. Also, may I ask what video editing software you use? My tutorial videos are comparably "low tech", and I love your ability to add text and circle things on the screen, that would allow me to speed up my explanations quite a bit. Thanks!
You know what, you're right. I must have misread that one. Thanks for the spot, and I've added a note. As for my editing software, I use Adobe Premiere, which lets you work in titles and simple graphics pretty easily. Technically, I use a version of Premiere from 2015 because I don't like their subscription system. I'm sure the latest version is great, but I like what I've got and don't feel the need to update just yet.
You missed out the graveyard population in the cleanup phase. During cleanup phase, you should move all the cube from the graveyard into the production track.
Ah, well spotted. I've added a note and a caption. Thanks!
seems like a cool game
A question of initiative. If I attack a Ancient(Initiative 3?) with my Cruiser(Initiative 4) and Interceptors(Initiative 4). Do all my ships gets to fire before the Ancient?
Yes they do. Everything acts in initiative order and ties have defender go before attacker.
hi. If plasma cannon rolls 2 orange dice. And if BOTH dice come up with the double starburst, can the damage from each dice be assigned to a different ship or do both 'hits' of 2 damage each have to be assigned to the same ship?
Yes. Each die needs to be fully assigned to a ship, but you can split up pairs of dice like that.
Also one question. When you attack population cubes are you allowed to split the die? Or is the population considered a single target regardless of the number of cubes? Your video seems to point at the latter.
You can split the damage you deal to multiple planets in the sector.
There is a stealth tech(Cloaking Device) that allow bypass enemy ship. Does it work on the GDC?
It does not. Cloaking Device makes it so that you need two ships to pin one, but since the GCDS can pin an unlimited number of ships, it's like diving infinity by two (still infinity).
There seems to be some weird audio clipping in this video. I'm not really sure how to explain it, sounds kind of like autotune but not in tune?
I like the idea of being "An affront to God and science." Sign me up Professor.
I really enjoy title based exploration games like this one and Twilight Imperium. Do you have any other such games you could recommend Shay?
Thanks for the video!
Regarding combat, when there are three factions and therefore two combats in a single sector, are damage cubes removed at the end of each combat, or only at the end of the whole combat phase?
It happens at the end of the whole combat phase.
Before this video we played that computers do not modify missiles and that, regardless of the colour of the dice, if you hit with a number you only score one hit (and not the amount printed on the blueprint). I have to thank the terribly dense rulebook for that, and thank you for the clarification!
The rulebook is certainly a bit rough. Glad I could help!
I played the sam, if it was a hut Via numbers no the burst symbol it only scores 1 hit. I'm happy I was wrong!
When you have diplomatic relations with another player, do your ships still become pinned if you try to travel through their sector or can you do so freely? I mean, after all, you’re supposed to be allies.
I'm afraid they are still pinned, and also your diplomatic relations end because you'll have units in the same space. Think of it more as a trade agreement than an alliance. Much shakier and prone to fall apart at the slightest provocation.
How do I get the playmat? :) (the rtfm one)
Hey this was uploaded on my 22 birthday ^^
Happy birthday!
Does the GDC stop ships från escaping once battle begin?
No. Pinning only effects ships during the action phase.
Does the 1 damage remain on the cruiser into the next round?
No, all damage is removed at the end of a battle.
Excellent walkthrough. At the end of the 8th round you DO have to sort out your economy using the same rules. Only the science and production metrics are irrelevant, You forgot to mention neutron bombs while talking about pop death. Also the animation in that part kind of makes it look like you are splitting the orange damage which you can’t do.
Thanks! At the end of the 8th round, I'm referring to the clean up steps, not the upkeep, but I'll add a note to make sure that's clear. I purposely avoided mentioning Neutron Bombs because people will encounter it when they're playing and it's not too hard to understand as soon as it comes up. And when attacking population, you can split damage. The picture example in the rulebook actually shows this happening.
@@RTFM The things you learn. Thanks for the video!
If you move into uninfluenced sector with your ship can you influence it at the end of battle phase which actually never happened since no one was there. So completely empty sector, no ships, no tiles, just you moving into it.
Also in my few plays of Eclipse I found that buying tech that gives you influence discs is so strong that you should do everything that you can to do so. They are worth on average 2 money planets per turn (later in game even more) and there is no way to lose them. If you play the blue guys starting with 6 science if you see this on board, pass first and get it.
On average I get scores around 30-35. In two games where I was able for my first tech in turn 2 to get additional disk and later in game get tech for 2 more discs I got 50 and 48 points. Just smashed everyone and everything. In one of those games I took like 10 more actions then anyone else and in other I took 7-8 more like 25% more actions then any other player in game.
I'm close to making house rule that yellow tech with influence disk can't be drawn before turn 4.
Yes, after all battles are done players can place influence on any undefended system they occupy. And regarding your other comment, yeah those influence techs are real strong. In my experience they don't guaranteed victory, but they are absolutely worth getting if you can afford them.
@@RTFM thanks for reply. Great video man!
@@brkus2665 Thanks!
Are you going to cover the expansions if you get them?
To be honest, I don't even own the base game, so I don't imagine I'll be covering it any time soon. If my Patreon backers ask for it though, I might.
Hey boss, wanted to double check this rule. But in combat the attacker decides who gets hit?
Yes, whoever is firing the shot determines where it goes.
thx
yw
I'm I just blind. Where in the rulebook does it state that there are free upgrades? And does that mean I don't need to research "Hull" for example, and can just do an upgrade?
Ah, I found it. There is a symbol on the blueprints that requires reseach
Kinda obvious rules question: Can you take each action multiple times in one round? (example: explore twice before passing?
Sorry for the late response, but yes you can take the same action multiple times per round
@@RTFM Thanks!
Sorry it took me so long to respond, I wanted to do it earlier but I had blocked CZcams :)
@@josiahheintzman7654 Haha, no worries. Probably a good choice.
One thing I have not found an answer on is this.
Player 1 is in a sector with 2 ships. Player 2 enters the sector with 2 ships. The four ships are now pinned. Player 3 enters the sector with 2 ships. At this point, player 3 can move through the sector if he wishes.
However here's the question. If player 3 decides to stay and fight, can either player 1 or 2 when their turn comes again, decide now to move their two ships out of the sector since even if they leave, there will be 4 ships still pinned to one another? Or are the original 2 ships of player 1 and 2 remain pinned?
Ships don't only pin one other ship. When you have ships in a sector, each enemy ship, regardless of owner, pins one of yours. If three players each have two ships in a sector, all six ships are pinned.
At 21:08 you say our cruisers have been hit for one damage, but they have one hull. Shouldn’t they explode? Doesn’t 1 hull equal 1 hit? Or is it 1 hull means they need a 2nd hit to explode?
Yes, hull determines how many hits a ship can take without being destroyed. In other words, each ship has 1HP and each hull gives +1.
@@RTFM thanks. Just to summarize if a ship has 3 hull, it takes 4 hits to destroy it, yes?
@@stuartshannon8561 That's correct
Kudos from 444 Gematria!
0:44 You might say that Eclipse is the UTI...?
So, what is the energy function? The energy on the ships
Ship components that give energy (big lightning bolt in center) power other components that use energy (small lightning bolt in corner). So if you have components that use a total of five energy, you'll need a power source (or multiple sources) that produce at least five energy in order for it to be a legal blueprint.
Can lower initiative ships retaliate after higher ones have scored hits ?
Hey, sorry for the late reply. If a ship has been destroyed before it's turn in combat, it won't get to fight back.
@@RTFM no worries, thx for the answer. Here's an another pickle for you. How do you assign damage correctly? Is there a system or the players can assign damage as they see fit ?
@@mat3714 The player dealing the damage gets to choose where it goes, but each die can only be assigned to one ship, so if a die does more than one damage and you put it on a 1hp ship the excess is lost.
@@RTFM thx a lot !
Is this game still fun for 2 players or you really need 4 peiple around the table to enjoy it?
I would definitely prefer it at three players or more, but it's decent at two. There's just a lot less negotiation and table talk, as it's much more directly confrontational.
Six of us watched your video on this before our first play the other day and we still managed to miss a few finer details, all of us. To be honest, the rulebook fails to provide unambiguous examples in the most critical of situations, and uses language that implies certain rules. Or I'm just blind. Fortunately, we ironed out most of it by now but I just wanted to confirm one thing with you, if you don't mind: computers. Their combined value is added to EACH die as you mentioned here, correct? By each die I mean if a ship has two plasma cannons, let's say, and fires in total 4 orange dice, and has +1 computer, that +1 would be applied to all four dice (as needed)? Or just one of them?
The rulebook says "die rolls" not dice rolls, and I could have sworn I read somewhere on BGG "then apply the computer bonus to one of the dice rolled" and I got completely confused... Plus then the rulebook goes on to show us an example and they had Johanna fire two ion cannons with a computer installed and she rolled a 4 and a 2. WHY 2?! If they wanted to demonstrate that computers add their bonus to all dice they should've made Johanna roll two 4's and then we'd know :)
Apologies again for overthinking :)
Hey, no worries. These kinds of issues are why I'm here. And I agree that the rulebook is not the best at clarifying these things. Anyway, you have it right. Computers apply to each die roll from the corresponding ship type. So an interceptor with a +1 computer rolling two 5's will actually have two 6's.
@@RTFM Much appreciated! I can't wait to play another game of Eclipse, now that we have it all clarified, it's going to be a much better experience (although truth be told the first playthrough was amazing, all six of us did our bestestest to bring order to the galaxy. It took us 8 hours ("Get Eclipse, it's shorter than TI4" :P) but we had so much fun...
@@CrazyBunnyGuy To be fair, that is shorter than just about every game of TI I've ever played.
after playing three times, i was hoping this video shows that it is physically possible to play the game with only 25 minutes per player, as the box suggests.
I’m playing 1st edition on my birthday. It looks like the rules are pretty similar. I almost want to send your reach to my friends, but I’m afraid they’ll show up and say “what is this crap? Where’s all the nice stuff?” 😂😂
Ooh, yeah it does look a little different. From what I've heard, they play almost exactly the same (I know there are a couple minor differences, but couldn't tell you what they are), so you might be able to get away with it, but there's no mistaking the different art and materials.
I want to get this game but it's not doable unless you pay the scalpers a arm and a leg
21:05 - So cruisers here have 1 hull. One takes 1 hit. Doesn't that kill the cruiser?
Hull points are the armor you need to get through before destroying a ship. A ship can have no hull, meaning they basically have 1 hp, but if a ship has one hull you can think of them as having 2hp.
@@RTFM Ah. Got it. Hull was a bad name then because when I think "No more Hull", I think "Exposed to open space". :)
11:49 disgusting interceptor. He clearly has neutron bombs and cloaking device and is trying to stall you out.
Ha, great opening.
very unlikely to ever happen I'm guessing but, 2nd tie breaker if resources are tied also
The rulebook doesn't list a 2nd tiebreaker, so...shared victory, I guess?
Dude looks like Trey from Broad City
thank you for the help. im gonna get destroyed lol
Haha, good luck!
🥴 jokes on you i never played any 4X games before anf i plan in either getting eclipse or TI4 🤣
Really sad you didn't fix the "whistle" in your mic from the TI4 video. It hurts my ears trying to listen to you with that high pitch noise with everything you say.
That "whistle" doesn't come from my mic, it comes from my throat. Believe me, if I could fix it, I would.
@@RTFMlate to the party but you can use a de-esser to remove the sibilance and it gets more pleasant and less harsh =) or just wait until the audience gets old enough to not hear high frequencies lol
@@pixpew I've tried de-essers and haven't had any luck with them, unfortunately. Working on the second part though XD
332 like
Too fast man