Exodus: Proxima Centauri

(I vote for dropping the needless "Let's Talk" from the subject lines on threads like these)

I really, really dig this game. It ain't TI3, it doesn't need to be, but does feel like an AT gamer came up with how to make Eclipse better suit their tastes.

I guess you could call it a space 4X, though there's really no exploration. It's certainly more of a DOAM game in space with a tech tree, a smattering of politics, and a bit of an economy in there as well. Oh, and there's these WMDs, one of which can blow up a planet. Yes, you read that correctly. They seem totally broken at first until you realize that the odds of hitting with one isn't all that great and you can easily lose one if someone comes in takes it from you (which isn't that hard since the only thing they can't target is ships). So your Death Star is then their Death Star.

There's a revised edition out these days that fixed some of the problems the first release had. It's still fiddly as hell, especially the movement, so I've made this aid that you laminate and use dry erase markers on. It replaces the bidding tokens as well. When we played the game "as is," we really liked it but the fiddle really held it back. Using the dry erase aid made a world of difference.

Regardless of issues, this is a super fun game that deserves more recognition. It's sort of become my favorite game in the "Space Empire Games That Aren't TI3" genre.

EDIT - FAT shrunk my image...you can get the full sized one over here on BGG.

Josh Look wrote: (I vote for dropping the needless "Let's Talk" from the subject lines on threads like these)

Ha! This probably should have happened months (years?) ago. Can't believe this is the first time someone pointed it out.

I like it but don't plan on playing it much in the future because I like Eclipse more (don't worry, I'm not going to debate these games).

To me it feels like a shorter Twilight Imperium.

What I like:

-Political system is great
-Ship blueprints are always awesome
-Tech tree is better than TI3
-WMDs
-WMDs
-WMDs

What I don't like:

-The hidden movement is a neat idea but too slow and clunky
-No ground battles on planets and you can both occupy which feels odd
-It's still pretty long
-No exploration

I think it's a decent game and certainly fun.

charlest wrote: -The hidden movement is a neat idea but too slow and clunky

This was my biggest issue with the game. Which is why I made the dry erase thing. It's a shame that in this post-FFG world, so many games feel the need to give you a token or mini when a pen and paper would have been just fine.

EDITIt's been brought to my attention that the movement rules have been completely revised in the upcoming expansion. Looks like people move thier ships around in reverse turn order.

charlest wrote: -No ground battles on planets and you can both occupy which feels odd

Yeah, that is weird. I suppose it ties into the ability to take over WMDs. Gamey, but sort of works. Thematically nonsensical though.

charlest wrote: -It's still pretty long

2-2.5 hours is about what we clock in at. Not too bad.

Josh Look wrote: 2-2.5 hours is about what we clock in at. Not too bad.

Yeah that's not bad at all. I've only played it twice but it took us around 3 hours each time. Which isn't horrible or anything but it did feel slow a couple of times.

That dry erase solution is pretty nifty. I would definitely use that if I owned the game.

Funny this came up now, as I've been eyeing the KickStarter for the expansion (and second? edition of the original): www.kickstarter.com/projects/nskn-ludibo...ace-empire?ref=users

I'm sitting firmly on the fence here, as this would be a struggle to get on the table and I'm trying mightily to stop backing so many games and wait for retail if it's worth a shit. How prone is this to AP (which keeps Eclipse firmly off the table)?

There's periods of the game in which everyone is figuring out what they want to do, but there's also good chunks of it that are simultaneous. Programming in the hidden movement might be what takes longest, but that's kind of mitigated by movement not always resulting in a fight. I don't know, I don't think it's that prone to AP.

I read up on the expansion, it sounds like alot of the stuff everyone was hoping to see is there, including ground combat and variable player factions. Though I liked the hidden movement, the new movement rules (which gets rid of the hidden movement all together) sound pretty cool. It factors in player order and ship speed. It reminded me a bit of Federation Commander, actually, since you pretty much get 4 phases with how many spaces a ship can move governing which phases they can move in. There's a hyperdrive which allows a ship to move anywhere on the board.

I've enjoyed my plays of this and the tech tree and WMDs are great (if entirely useless at helping you win). The political phase is good but I would've liked to see it expanded upon and the trade system is not interactive. I think my biggest issue is that the end game territory control rush feels silly and out of place.