That would be so tempting if you were on the North Island… 
Although it is a perfect excuse to visit the South Island more often… 
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The trays are actually a reason I’d buy it, packing so much into a cleverly minimised space is awesome. But that is Too Much Money for any boardgame that isn’t substantially better than Gloomhaven (ie: number one for months). If people are screaming about how good Eclipse 2nd is in another six months then… maybe.
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I admit I was drooling a little and checking all my local game dispensaries for copies of Eclipse after watching the video. I have been on the lookout for a space exploration thing because my partner would love to have one (we already have Leaving Earth but we do not have one with hex fields and fantasy planets) but as we are still in the middle of our Gloomhaven campaign…
I don’t know how to feel about the plastic. I have a game that features trayz™ like that (Dwellings of Eldervale) and while it makes setup a breeze it adds tons of volume to the game box and it hasn’t made me play the game more often. Also plastic. Before I received both Obsession (featuring beautiful cardboard boxes for internal organization) and Dwellings this year I had not realized how much more pleasing a game without that much plastic is to me.
Eclipse is on my short “list of games I won’t buy anytime soon–probably” joining such luminaries as Food Chain Magnate and Siderreal Confluence in the category “games that wouldn’t get to the table anyway”
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I’d love to play Eclipse but wouldn’t want to buy it. Have a similar issue with TI4 - a few of my friends play it semi-regularly, but I’m not sure I can withstand so many hours in the company of certain players. If it was with good friends I can see it being great, but a few rotten apples and all that. Especially in a conflict game!
I’d say Eclipse has been around long enough that it’s longevity can’t be denied. The question, “Eclipse or TI?”, has persisted for quite some time now. This second edition was all but a necessity to maintain relevancy against TI4.
That said, I can’t see the rush. It’ll be around for a long ol’ while. Hasn’t even had the expansions yet!
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Length of play time (and therefore the possibility of ever getting it to the table, or my friends having fun) is the one thing that would swing the choice for me between TI4 and Eclipse, I think. If Eclipse is shorter, that’s a major plus for me.
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Going by BGG stats, seems shorter than TI. How true is that, I don’t know.
I think they complement each other in a way. From what I can gather, Eclipse has better exploration/expansion/tech and a more wholistic combat system, while TI4 seems to have better trade and diplomacy/VP systems. If money wasn’t object, I think they could both share space on my shelf for their differences. But I am afraid I will have to aim for smaller games first.
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So what you’re saying is that I should order both immediately 
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Eclipse 1 is easily within 2 to 3 hours. 4 with newbies.
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I played TI4 and found it dull. So dull I’d not play again. I’d just rather play Cthulhu Wars and I prefer sci-fi to Lovecraft mythos as a general rule.
Also oddly I think for epic sweeps, aggression, diplomacy, shared board, development of technology over many hours I’d just much rather play an 18xx.
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We should be playing more Cthulhu Wars on 2021 
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Is this a predition of what next year holds for our planet? After 2020, nothing seems impossible.
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I’m rather surprised that Quinns didn’t say anything about 2nd Eclipse’s aesthetics. Despite the lovely-looking box, it is one of the ugliest games I’ve seen when laid out on a table. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of ugly games out there, but they’re mostly just bland. 2nd Eclipse laid out on a table actively offends my eyes. The most attractive component was the playmat which doesn’t come with the game. I’m sure it’s great, but yeesh!
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Absolutely true, I’ve only ever had a single play of Eclipse 1. At a board game convention with 2 people I barely knew who patiently explained the rules to me from scratch, while all 3 of us were enjoying (quite a few) beers… but the whole thing still was wrapped up in about 4hrs. Had an amazing time.
I late pledged the KS for Eclipse 2 on the strength of that experience.. and now it’s sitting on a shelf looking at me, wishing it could get played! 
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I’m excited reading this. I traded for Eclipse about 3 weeks ago and haven’t had the chance to play it yet. Will start pestering the family
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You’ve really gotta try pretty hard to stand out as a gaudy mess when talking about a crowded genre that is itself crowded with gaudy messes! I think the player boards are the main culprit, but in my opinion it’s actually the cardboard (the printing thereon) causing the eyesore. I can’t understand why they made the player colour such a prominent element of the design, when accent colours would do the same job and help the components blend into a more cohesive tabletop. This is especially egregious since I actually think Eclipse has some of the more refined art and design assets among the big 4X space games.
As for the plastic itself, I’m not sure. I think a well considered insert and overall player experience is incredibly important for a game of this scope, and plastic is almost certainly the only practical/affordable option for the publishers if they want to include a solution in the box. If nothing else, one can at least argue it’s a permanent solution and would even add longevity to the cardboard components (the production of which is itself a blight).
I’ll be happy to start seeing boardgame companies utilizing the same kind of pulp-based vac-trays I’ve seen in Google, Apple, Dyson, etc. products. Not only paper, but remarkably more robust.
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But, alas, exceedingly heavy compared to plastics in products that are already lower-margin-and-higher-density.
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Just thinking wishfully. 
I think there’s real merit to rethinking cardboard as the primary material for boardgames altogether, but that’s a big, big derailment waiting to happen.
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The thing that irks me about Game Trayz is that vacuum-formed plastic always seems fragile to me. (The very nice plastic insert in my Ogre Designer’s Edition cracked in several places in shipping.) I mean, it’s probably fine, but…
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Some GameTrayZ™ are extremely thick plastic and quite durable.
Others are vacuum-formed excrement. I certainly hope GamezzzzzTrayZZZZZZZ™ protects their brand image a little better than they have in the past.
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So much venom in those Z’s. Viper approved.
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