by mvl4d
I like RuneWars because it´s Epic, when I play fantasy games I´m drawn in the story that it´s told by the game itself as I play, I think of RuneWars as a great book.I like Eclipse because it´s Epic, when I play sci fi games I´m drawn into the tech and calculations, I think of eclipse as a great mathematic exercise.
As you can already tell I like both games.They both feel different, 4x is the only thing that they have in common.I love the empire building genre, and I would not like playing the same game with a different theme. Sometimes I´m in the mood for a space-themed game such as Eclipse with no text,lots of dice rolling,calculations and cold-war aspects(if players are paying attention to each other´s race sheet).Sometimes I NEED to play that fantasy themed game with much more depth.
I like Civilization because it´s Epic,when I play civ-like games I´m drawn into the history aspects of the game, I think of Sid Meier´s Civ(the board game) as a great History lesson.
If all three games would have the same mechanic you´d be reading the same book in different languages.
Back to Eclipse and Runewars and why people prefer Runewars.
1) It LOOKS better.
2) It PLAYS better.
3) It IS better
Why do some people prefer Eclipse
1)It IS lighter
2)It FEELS euro
3)It ISN´t
It IS an elegant design. I´ve ¨forced¨ people into boardgaming by teaching them eclipse as their first game.They prefered Civ in the end (even though they did not speak english at all).They´ve also said they would never say no to Eclipse either.
Maths come a lot easier to people than literature,Symbols are easier to understand than sentences.Anybody can calculate but not everyone can immerse themselves deep into a well crafted universe.
Both games are great.