Eclipse: Second Dawn for The Galaxy – Board Game by Lautapelit 2-6 Players – Board Games for Family – 60-200 Minutes of Gameplay – Games for Game Night – Teens and Adults Ages 14+ - English Version

In the 4X area of the board game world, this is a for sure Top #3 that punches with dominance as it vies for #1 in my list. While Twilight Imperium has way more depth to it, TI (any edition) is a spectacle of a game that takes us 8-12 hours to play. So my game group only gets to play it once a year. With Eclipse: Second Dawn for the Galaxy, you get a 4X game in less than half the minimum time to play TI. So it's added way more into our game rotation and we play it several times throughout the year. My last 4-player game took 3 hours to play, and that was with a person who never played the game prior. Each player color has an associated Terran faction or an alien faction you play as. All the Terran factions have the same abilities. Each alien faction is asymmetric. Throw in some dice rolling for combat, tech trees, exploration, and ship minis that aren't bad (definitely look better painted up), it's an enjoyable experience every time it hits the table. The faction expansions are somewhat pricey, but I don't think they're necessary unless you're playing this all the time. The other expansion content adds a bit here and there, and we picked up all of those directly from the publisher (except for the metal tokens) after our first play of the game. Because we enjoyed the base game so much.

I've had my copy of Second Dawn for a couple of weeks now, and I love it! I've also owned New Dawn (the first edition of the game) for many years, and I have the Rise of the Ancients, Ship Pack One, and Shadow of the Rift expansions for New Dawn. What I love about Second Dawn is that it takes some of the best features of New Dawn and its three expansions, incorporates those features, adds some rebalancing of the species and technologies, adjusts the rules to get rid of some of the (very few) annoying things about New Dawn, updates the graphic art, and adds storage trays for all of the many playing pieces — all to create what I consider to be an ideal version of the game. The price I paid on Amazon ($399.99) was hefty, but I didn't want to wait for the publisher to get another print run to the US. Plus this game is in the top 100 games on Board Game Geek (so is New Dawn) and continues to work its way toward the top 20. If you want to wait for the publisher or if you can manage to find the game at a game store somewhere, you can probably save more than 50%. But again, I couldn't wait! I wasn't sure whether my wife would be up for a complex game like this one, but after one play she started to get the hang of it, and now it's a favorite game for us to play. She is very familiar with the game of Scythe, and I explained the six action options of Second Dawn as being a feature just like the four action options (actually, 4x2) available in Scythe. I also explained how the population cubes are, in a way, similar to the upgrade cubes in Scythe. There are many differences between the two games, of course, but if someone can handle Scythe, that person can handle this game too. The game plays well with two players, which will be the majority of games I play with it (though I will be having a couple of friends over in mid-July for a four-player game). I have a table that is about 4x4 square, which will fit four players just fine. I don't think I could easily fit five or six players on my table, though. I also ordered a "grippy" play mat (3x3 square) from a third-party source (apparently not available on Amazon, at least as of late June 2021 when I wrote this review). Looking forward to receiving that play mat! Overall, I would say this is a fabulous game (I rated 10 out of 10 on Board Game Geek) that isn't cheap but worth saving your money for, or buying now if you can afford it. This game will get many, many plays at my house.

First off the most organized game ever made! Full Stop! second the play is not hard. For a game like this it flows so so well. Yes it is expensive but worth every penny. only gets 4 stars on giftable because there is a chance your grandma may not like it...she wrong but she may not like it anyway.

If you like Twilight Imperium but don't have 6 to 8 hours to play it then this is for you. Eclipse manages to give you the feel of a massive Sci fi epic and streamlines it down into a 2 to 3 hour game. Plus how each civ has its own tray with a lid is a game changer. Set up is as easy as asking what color they want and then handing them their tray that has everything they need inside. Awesome game!

The game and it's components themselves are great. Beautiful miniatures and the rules are clear and concise. The shipping is another story however. The Board Game was double boxed, which means it was in a cardboard box, which was in another carboard box. There was no filler or cushion between these two. That meant that an damage to the outside box was apparent on the inside box and the board game box itself. Mine had such damage, as one corner of the board game box was smashed and slightly torn. I do not think it that big of a problem, but if you're looking for a pristine box, you might have some issues.

This is one of my favorite games. The packaging and components are very high quality. The game plays as a relatively short 4X space strategy game (limited # of turns, 2-4hrs). It's not terribly complicated, and the 7 different civilizations are pretty well balanced (all/any of the 6 players can play as Humans or 1 of 6 alien races). I love the mechanic of redesigning your ships with new technologies. Different ways to win with a victory point system vs. pure conquest.

Love this game. I've tried TI4 a couple of times which I like as well but it's just soooo long. We can typically managed to get a 3-4 person of this game done in about 3 hours vs every time we've tried TI4 it turns into an 8+ hour affair. Love the exploring, the ship blueprint plans and how you can try completely different ship parts and strategies. Highly recommend getting a 4+ player game going to be able to work with allies as it definitely adds new element to the game.

We have nerdy game night once a month, this is becoming a regular rotation. The gameplay is simple but complex at the same time and the mechanics of the game handicap the leader and boost the trailer to keep the game close (and it does this without you consciously being aware). It’s a fantastic game, would recommend to anyone who likes fairly complex games. But still plays in a single sitting (maybe 40mins/player)