My first impression post.

I played my first game of the new CE last night and was soundly thrashed by my six year old (who's played dozens and dozens of games of the Mayfair Edition and holds his own pretty well!). His eyes about popped out of his head when I showed him the box I just bought.

I swear, if it is possible for a man to love a box full of cardboard and plastic then I am, indeed, in love. The game is gorgeous!

Before I gush too much, my (very) minor nits:

- Four ships fit on a planet well, but often there is more than 4 when you play. Wish planets were a tad bigger. They sure are pretty, tho!

- The card stock seemed a bit thin. Cards bent easily. I recall in my Eon set that some players started to learn and recognize certain bend marks in cards!

There were a lot of alien power names that I did not recognize. I've not had time to read them all. How much are new and how much are renamed old powers?

I love how careful the wording is and all the enhancements to general playability and argument-squashing. Very well done!

I think the alien base ships are going to be love-em or hate-em. I love-em personally.

I like the tech cards. They seem sort of like moons that are a little harder to earn (and a little less silly).

I also like the special/wild destiny cards. I wish I had a few more wilds throw in.

And I don't miss the bend-in-the-middle layout of alien powers at all. This is much better!

Now, I have not always been a fan of FFG rulebooks. Some of the boardgames I have gotten in the past had rules that I did not think were explained well or laid out logically. But you guys did a fine job with this one. Very, very nice.

All said and done, you have done this game justice and treated it as it's always deserved. The best version of this game, yet, easily.

abfalter said:

As for renamed powers, the only two that come to mind are Assassin -> Shadow and Violin -> Hacker.

They stack?

Sigh. I have maybe eight, perhaps nine neurons firing, total, today.

@abfalter : Where are you located?

Melbourne, FL

I think the first key to getting so much awesome in one box is starting with a game that, generally speaking, is pretty awesome to start with. Then, thinking about what made the game more awesome... the variety of aliens was one factor, and deciding to offer 50 from the get-go is a great move. Then it was a matter of Kevin navigating through the waters of what the old fans loved the most, where the common ground was between different "camps" of fans, and nailing what will appeal to new players. It was quite a bit of juggling, but I'm very happy with how he managed it. I love seeing my favorite game back on the market with treatment I can rally behind.

Thanks for the mini-review. I am a big fan of the original and am glad to hear that they did such a great job on the new one. This one will be a must buy in the new year I think!

Can't wait to try this out, the old editions were pretty good already!

Unboxing photos, for any interested parties:

http://picasaweb.google.com/DukeRit/Unboxing#slideshow/5279002147795409922

Argh, sorry -- forgot that these forums require the URL tags. Cut-and-paste, I guess ...

Actually, you CAN edit posts here...it's just that the button is the text "Edit" in the white bar above the post, and you can only edit before someone else makes a reply.