Anyone else got one of these?
No, but I have MiST (and Minimig, MiSTer, FleaFPGA and more) where I use the rx/tx pins for connectivity.
I am basically trying to get access to the exposed UART rx/tx pins to use with my SLIP modified ESP2866 board.
You don't say much about what the problem actually is or what you have tried.
Which TCP stack are you using? How have you set up the connection?
Have you tried communicating with the ESP2866 directly using a terminal emulator?