Eclipse

[Poseidal]

Has anyone played the Space 4X board game Eclipse?

when I played it, it seemed to be pretty fun, and the ideas behind the resource system was really good but the game suffers a bit from variance: the tiles you draw around your home system, and perhaps some of the technology cards are a bit crazy (Plasma missiles).

Otherwise, it's good fun; more on the wacky side than Space Empires 4X, which is more Avalon hill style that still uses a written sheet record and probably falls more on the Wargame side of things.

[IncrediSteve]

Eclipse is a great game for sure. Though I prefer Twilight Imperium (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/12493/twilight-imperium-third-edition) [3rd Edition], as it has much greater player involvement and a better endgame, although it takes an entire day/evening to play, which can be hard to get lighter gamers to commit to.

A good game though when you need to scratch that 4x itch, but don't have time for an Eclipse game either, is Ascending Empires (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/37919/ascending-empires). Easily taught and lasts about an hour or so. Just enough depth to cover the 4 X's but no more complicated than monopoly or similar, with a pinch of skill-based play in the ship flicking.

[Poseidal]

Ah, I remember Ascending Empires though the flickyness isn't for everyone and the boards can cause problems with the pieces being stuck on them. Space Empires 4X is even longer than Eclipse, so I can't really recommend that for a fast game.

Maybe Eminent Domain? It's not a map based space colonisation game though, but is card based. Fast to play though.