Eridani Empire is easily viewed as handicapped or hard race to play as it has two discs taken away. i doubted it as i enjoy winning the game epically while i see people right here on bgg saying eridani is handicapped, i tried it out a few times, managed to win a few games with quite a solid start in my honest opinion - i am just not good at making decisions late game and somehow throw away games easily.
Here are some of my thoughts.
Before-game: do not pick the race early. Dun worry, no one will pick your race early as they are still 'somewhat handicapped' and hard to play with. They situationally do really well. Pick them if
1. the last pick or
2. the second last when hydran is picked (and see below)
3. pick it when you are just between humans/mechanema/orion meaning that you just have to fight.
Pay attention if advanced robotics is available (or 2 are available when there is a hydran as they are somewhat likely to take it early). Eridani would a nice pick as you are likely to get it turn 2. Thanks and due to the draft system, you are likely to make first passes if you go first because you picked last or almost.
In the marco-sense: with 3 techs, eridani is definitely a rush race. Encounter aliens early for bonus. You should always align hexes towards some other SimCity players if available so in case the draws go bad that it isn't really useful, you can still use it as a step stone to claim his hexes.
I would aim for 4 mineral productions in turn 1 although unlikely, it doesn’t really hurt to trade it with 3 money. Explore sector 3 as there are 8 hexes i could use it for minerals. 2 hexes with discovery tiles ONLY but you still won’t dismiss it. If aliens hex is drawn, still accept it as you can always come back next turn. This would leave you 14 out of 18 'useful' hexes.
For actions below -13, you are effectively trading money for minerals with 3:1 or rates below, effectively equally better off/worse off with what you are allowed in this race.
One science early is also handy where you can exactly get a disc with no trades at turn 2 if it is available.
Alternatively, sector 2 is also considerable with 3 mineral hexes and 2 purely discovery tiles. 3 aliens are also here which when you draw it you could leave it alone. But after all, the goal is to have 8 minerals by turn 2 with least trade. Hence discovering sector 2 really depends on how the deck is drawn by others.
For sector 1, it is quite undesirable as it only has two 2 out of 8 mineral placable planets. While the ancients are also good, they are abundant (1/2 chance) and hence not so urgent.
While attacking with gauss shield equipped interceptor and cruiser turn 1 is do-able, i do not like the idea as it is quite unlikely to sustain mineral production as i am likely to lose the interceptor and burn down money.
Now for turn 2. Discover sector 1 depending on how much alien left in the deck. In my opinion, eridani do not really need science early and advanced mineral is just not in fit with advanced mining due to starting hex, i tend to discard 102 and 107 accepting all others. In case the odds are bad in multiplayer settings, go for sector 2. Do not worry about double ancients. Build a dreadnought with gauss shield and plasma cannon and you have a mighty 80% win rate. If you still feel unsafe, send the interceptor as kamikaze and you have a 90% win rate as long as you think that is just not useful anymore.
That’s all i really want to say as it really varies after turn 2. Keep on discovering sector 2 and 1 and destroy everything in your way. You do not really need friends mid game. If you manage to make an ally early, feel free to become a traitor early so that someone can pick that away from you. Eridani only has 4 spaces for reputations, dun waste it for ambassadors. Be confident with your early dreadnought and harass aggressively. Hey, this is a dead empire, you have nothing to lose! But likely i would aim for GCD whenever possible. Harass your (SimCity) neighbors when you just can’t go for the center.
feel free to add points or challenge, if eclipse manage to make it #5, i dun think that the developers would 'carelessly' put a highly unplayable race in it..
BTW, do not forget about the drive! Yes, it sucks early. But in the late game it might be useful if you decide to do the pinning strategy You have the little energy bonus to do it.
just sharing a nice photo we playing eclipse, since may 2012
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