Game Daze Tucson Mall Assistant Mgr. Recommendation, July 2011

Claudia -

Eclipse is quite possibly the simplest to learn; yet challengingly strategic abstract game I’ve played in a while.

The object of the game is simple be the first player to immobilize your opponents comet by blocking it with your satellites.

Gameplay is really easy to learn but the actual strategy of the game is very deep, takes seconds to learn but a lifetime to master. The rules are less than a page long and they come in a wide variety of languages. Players start out in a certain formation on the board and are allowed to move a certain amount of spaces depending on the piece they use and the strategy that they unfold. Each player receives one comet piece and five satellite pieces that are attached by a chain, satellite chains come in different lengths and affect how many spaces that particular piece can move. As soon as a player’s comet becomes surrounded and cannot move the game ends and the other player wins. This can all happen in fifteen to twenty minutes.

Aside from it being a fantastic strategy game, Eclipse serves as an imaginative abstract game that not only encourages foresight and anticipation but an active imagination as well since every piece of the game is represented by a round wooden marble. The board design is simple yet elegant at the same time most definitely a conversation starter fit for any environment.