Thankfully not. Most people I play with are thankful if they have different ways to play a game. Keeps it interesting. How Is Eclipse anyway? I wonder if it is something for my group. The thing is just glancing at the rules it seems rather complex. The people I play with like Power Grid and Agricola but to be hones the basic rules of these games are not all too complex. The complexity comes from all the choices you make.
Also have I missed your impressions of Tzolkin and Antike Duellum?
Eclipse looks intimidating but it's actually a fairly easy game to play. I don't think it's any harder than something like Agricola or Power Grid. The game does most of the heavy bookkeeping for you and you are left to focus on your actions.
Tzolkin is awesome. Deceptively simple game that takes a couple plays to get a good engine going. For your first game you will feel like you are barely holding on but after that strategies become more clear.
Antike Duellum is just what I wanted, a two player Antike. It plays just like the original with just a few tweaks to make it work for two. Antike itself is a rondel game so you are taking one action a turn. The point is to collect leaders which are given for doing certain things. Like, be the first to research a tech or build five cities.
I would recommend both games and I'm glad I picked them up.
Well aggressive play in Eclipse can often be key to victory I found. Those who try to be passive and generate points seem to always lose to those who are aggressive.
I don't see a problem with people wanting to be aggressive in either game, as both games fully support combat as a way one can achieve victory. TI especially has races geared towards war and especially objectives that promote a player to be so.
Frankly it helps keep game interesting as nothing I hate more than a game of Eclipse or TI where everyone plays peaceful and respects each others borders. Really boring games. Have had exact reaction to games where players are all opposed to any type of combat even when it's clearly a way to score victory. "oh I don't wan't to piss her off"... proceeds to lose because of that decision.
Aggression is one thing and I'm cool with that, treating a game designed as one thing as something else is another. The game rewards early combat but if enough combat is done early it becomes less and less enticing to to do combat. At that point you are looking to either defend your high point systems or build things (the monolith) to get you points.
The funny thing is, I was playing the aggressor in the first half of the game and he wasn't. I explored for the first turn then upgraded and attacked ancients as well as my neighbor. He spent most of the game exploring and had only a non-upgraded cruiser or two until the last couple rounds. If I wasn't clear across the board from him I could have easily taken most of his systems.
