$10 Worth of Goodness (AAR)

[Scott Tortorice]

I finally got around to downloading Entrenchment. I've only just begun exploring it, but so far it looks like it was well worth the $10 investment. In addition to the new defensive units, they have also tweaked the graphics so everything looks spiffier.

I think it says a lot that Entrenchment is proving to hold my attention far firmer than either DoW II or ETW!

[Scott Tortorice]

Sins of a Solar Empire is one of those great games that succeeds not because it is loaded down in tons of nitty-gritty chrome, but because it does one thing elegantly well: it allows players to effortlessly jump into a game and bring all his sci-fi fleet action dreams to life. Case in point: I loaded up Entrenchment last night just to poke around for a few minutes...next thing I know, three hours had passed!

Here's a quick AAR:

I started playing a medium game (me plus 3 AIs) as the Advent, using the circular map Kronac's Cross. I was at the bottom of the circle, trapped between a hostile force on my left (the Trade Coalition) and one on my right (The Jisura Nomads). As the Trade Coalition was the more aggressive of the two, I began my war in that direction, quickly over-running two of their three systems. Unfortunately, while my soul fleet (consisting of two caps and assorted support vessels) was busy with them, the Nomads launched a strong effort on my right, penetrating all the way into my core system of Liguria! This forced me to disengage from fighting the Coalition and redeploy to my home system.

Now, while I was busy with the Nomads, a third empire, the Korsul Armada, finished off the Trade Coalition and launched an invasion of my system Danae. In short, I was caught between a hammer and an anvil. What to do?

Things didn't look good for our heroes! But then I saw the opportunity for a little diplomatic fancy footwork with the Korsul Armada. Over the course of the game, I had built up a 39% approval rating with them for various deeds and donated resources. Now, since I was fighting the Nomads, a mutual enemy, I had pushed their approval rating up to around 60%. If the people of Danae were to survive the onrushing warships of the Armada (led by two caps!), I could only do one thing: I offered a ceasefire.

I held my breath as I watched the Armada's, er...armada glide closer and closer to my undefended planet. Just about the moment they were entering bombardment range, the comm channel clicked open: Ceasefire agreed! The enemy fleet swung around and peacefully left my system! Whew!

This left me to deal without distraction with the Nomads. After a prolonged struggle, we defeated the invading fleet, mined the incoming phase lanes and, after accumulating sufficient resources, built our first space station:

Ain't she a beaut! That should keep those Nomads away for a bit (don't tell anyone, but she is largely just a frame at this point as I haven't had the resources to fully equip her. Shhh....).

The ceasefire with the Korsul Armada would eventually expand to other treaties to the point where they requested my help in their attacks on the Nomads. This is where things got strange....

The Armada got in a hot and heavy fight with the main forces of the Nomads at Charybdis and requested our help. So I took my main fleet (I finally built a second, lighter fleet centered around a Radiance Battleship and a Halcyon Carrier and kept it on patrol around Liguria) and rushed to Charybdis. Along the way, I asked the Armada for a formal peace treaty, figuring if we were going to risk ourselves for them, might as well make it official. The Armada replied that we were rushing things and that their people would not support such a treaty. Hmm....

We get there, and see that the Armada is taking on the main naval forces of the Nomads, leaving us a fat Nomad space station to attack. Attack!

That's our forces on the right of the station

And this is a shot where you can see my allies attacking the enemy fleet on the left, while we press our attack on the right:

Things were going great...until we get a message from the Armada that they didn't ask us to intrude into their backyard (yes they did! I swear!) and they are canceling all treaties! Screw this, we're out of here (those were the words of my admiral) and we left...and rushed to Danae once again, expecting another attack from that direction.

Sure enough, his armada arrives. But things are different this time: we have built a second space station there as well. When my fleet arrives, we shelter under the station's protection, daring him to fight us on ground of our choosing. Foolishly, he agrees. The battle is furious, with both sides bringing in more and more reinforcements.

Our side is on the left....

However, when all is said and done, my side seemed to enjoy a considerable advantage as we made short work of THREE of his caps, suffering very little damage in return. I suspect this was only partly do to the aid of our space station (which was also just a shell with level 1 weaponry), and more to do with the advanced crew experience level of our fleet leader and the heavy amount of defense tech we researched over the course of the game.

For the Korsul Armada, it was a disaster with my forces destroying all three enemy caps and most supporting craft. Here's a view of two caps dying within seconds of each other:

Here's the post battle wreckage:

And that's where I called it a night. Now comes the hard part: taking advantage of this stinging loss. The Korsul Armada is the most powerful force left in the game, controlling about two thirds of the map, so he has tremendous resources on hand. We do not.

Updates as they warrant.

[Scott Tortorice]

Update:

Five and a half hours into the game....

Here's what happened. After that victorious battle at Danae, we decided it was time to pay the Armada a visit at their frontier world of Agamemnon. My flagship, Sinistra, would once again lead the way, this time followed into battle by Scythia, a Rapture class battlecruiser. In we go, on the heels of our scout....

Inside Agamemnon, we find two minefields and a space station, along with heavy fighter/bomber cover and one mid-sized fleet led by a single cap. To war!

We broke up the enemy fleet pretty quickly, taking down its cap, causing the others to run. We then turned our attention to the enemy space station. Unlike our glorious Advent stations , this one was easy to chew down. We broke through its shields and armor pretty quickly. Ever see a space station explode?

Victory!

Unfortunately, that is where the good times ended. Our erstwhile enemies returned with a bigger fleet - no caps this time, but tons of frigates and cruisers (I guess he was desperate and threw everything he had on hand at me!). Unfortunately, after fighting the first fleet and the space station, my cap shields were pretty low. Plus, all that enemy air cover had seriously damaged my frigates. The odds had dipped to 50-50, but we stuck it out, buying time for our planetary bombers to do some damage to the enemy colony.

Big mistake! For while I was preoccupied dealing with the returned fleet, the Armada had quickly built a space station on the far side of the planetary gravity well! Worse, Vasari space stations (I just discovered) can MOVE! Before I knew what happened, my damaged fleet was trapped between the Armada's armada, and the "fully operational" space station.

Retreat!

Things became very bad. My flagship Sinistra was on the verge of complete hull failure, but just barely limped out of the system in time. Alas, the Scythia was not so fortunate. Staying behind to buy time for Sinistra, it got trapped by a swarm of fighter-bombers and the closing space station.

The first hull ruptures on the Scythia can be seen here, moments before the vessel went nova

At 0132 hours, local, the reactor overloaded:

A moment of silence, please....

What was left of my once grand fleet limped into port at Danae. Here is Sinistra sporting more than a few fiery plumes as it enters orbit:

Sinistra with its protective CAP limping towards drydock:

Unfortunately, there would be no rest for the weary as the Armada would follow us into Danae! Again, my ragged fleet would flee, this time to the asteroid base of Hypatia, while my orbital defenses would do the best they could. Fortunately, I had just embarked on a Civil Defense program on Danae, so we had level 2 bomb shelters for the populace. They would need it!

I proceeded to rebuild my fleet, using every last dollar to scape together frigates and cruisers to replace my loses. Somehow, the people of Danae held on until we returned...and return we did!

Another massive battle for Danae, but unlike the first, this one was largely a Midway in space as naval aviation would carry the majority of the battle. I was somewhat surprised at how many squadrons he had brought with him (I estimate around 20). We were initially outclassed, but matched his by expanding our space stations fighter bay, along with building some more orbital hangars. Lastly, I purchased a lot of anti-air (for lack of a better term) defense vessels, which performed nicely. After a very long battle of attrition, the enemy broke a fled (they almost got my space station - heavy damage!).

Since then, we have settled into a proxy war, using pirates to wage war for us as we rebuild our fleets (pirates are now in such high demand, the opening bid is usually around 1200!). I am about ready to go after Agamemnon again, this time with the refit Sinistra, the Discordia (Halcyon carrier), and Polaria, a Progenitor-class Mothership.

With three caps (with a fourth soon to be under construction), it should be a good fight!

[KingNothing12]

Quick Question, does it take a powerful rig to power Sins of a Solar Empire? Do you think a laptop could at least run it on low settings?

[Scott Tortorice]

Quick Question, does it take a powerful rig to power Sins of a Solar Empire? Do you think a laptop could at least run it on low settings?

Sins has pretty modest requirements:

Q. What are the hardware requirements?
A. The Iron Engine takes advantage of the latest machines and scales to support older hardware as well.
Minimum Requirements:

• Windows XP SP2 / Windows Vista
• 1.8 GHz Single-Core Processor
• 512 MB RAM (1 GB for Windows Vista)
• 128 MB DirectX 9 3D Video Card (Radeon 9600 / GeForce FX 6600 and above)
• DirectX 9.0c Compatible Sound Card
• DVD-ROM Drive
• 3 GB Hard Drive Space
• Keyboard and Mouse
• DirectX 9.0c

Recommended Requirements:

• 2.2 GHz Dual- or Quad-Core Processor
• 1 GB RAM (2 GB for Windows Vista)
• 256 MB DirectX 9 3D Video Card (Radeon X1600 / GeForce 7600 and above)

Stardock was adamant that the game be made to cater to a wider range of PCs. The prez of Stardock once said:

When Ironclad and Stardock were working on Sins, we made a conscious decision that the game would not require potential gamers to upgrade their systems. That meant we couldn't have things like moving turrets or whatever but it means that the size of the market was much larger. No matter how good your game is, if people can't play it, you will always be limited. The number of people willing to upgrade PCs for games is not that large. If you want to sell lots of copies of your PC game, make sure it runs on a lot of machines.

I would download the demo and see how it runs on your laptop. From hanging around the Sins forums, it seems that the game is being run on a wide variety of systems.

[jayedub7423]

I have this game installed, I just need to play it!!

[Scott Tortorice]

Time for another update:

Seven and a half hours into the campaign....

When I last left off, I had a new taskforce preparing to invade Armageddon. Well, it was a mighty taskforce indeed, one I thought was well prepared for the job at hand.

Taskforce Sinistra forms up for a jump into Armageddon

We hit an extensive minefield going in (I sent some scouts ahead to clear them, but they couldn't get any work done before being eliminated), but pressed our attack against the rebuilt Armada space station and it's accompanying fleet, destroying both. Victory! I then ordered in our Purge vessels to begin wiping out the enemy population below.

This is where things went wrong again because the Armada warped in with another massive wave of cruisers and frigates which kept my fleet busy while they built another space station. And again, we found ourselves trapped between a hammer and an anvil. Unfortunately, I was too stubborn this time and refused to call off the invasion. We fought it out until tragedy struck:

My empire's flagship, Sinistra, lost its shields and started to suffer hull damage at an alarming rate. It was then I ordered a full retreat, but it was too late. The Armada focused everything they had on my flagship and hounded it like a pack of wolves, ultimately destroying it!

Sinistra surrounded by enemy cruisers as it tries to flee


This time, the famed luck of Sinistra ran out

I was devastated. Sinistra was the very first capital ship I ever built, surviving many battles and achieving a crew with level 10 experience. Its loss was a great blow to the morale of the Advent people.

Line of succession dictated that Discordia, my Halcyon Carrier, would now be my empire's flagship. It rallied the remainder of the fleet and led a hasty retreat back to Danae...in defeat yet again.

The flag is transferred to Discordia

Now I was stumped. I couldn't just keep bashing my head against the same wall over and over again. What to do?

I had noticed that since hostilities raged around Agamemnon, the right flank of my empire had fallen quiet. I thought it was a reasonable assumption that all those reinforcements that he was sending my way were probably being stripped from other fronts. With that hope in mind, I sent a lone scout into Charybdis. Before being destroyed, it reported a sole starbase....

Charge!

Taking my fleet that was quietly guarding my asteroid base a Garuda, led by my Radiance-class battleship Pyranea, we launched an invasion of the enemy's neighboring system. My guess proved correct as it took some time for the enemy to bring in reinforcements and when they arrived, they arrived piecemeal. There would be no repeat of Agamemnon this day!

The orbital bombardment of Charybdis

After a short plastering of the surface of Charybdis, a new Advent colony was founded! Best of all, we now had access to a new phase lane into the hub of this star system, allowing us new avenues of attack.

The enemy did try to force us off the planet, but he just couldn't mount a cohesive attack.

Broadsides from Pyranea defeat an enemy counter-attack

And that is where the war stands. The Armada seems to have given up on reclaiming Charybdis and has only launched sporadic raids on Danae. Perhaps we have turned a corner in the war? Right now, the proxy pirate raids are still continuing (opening bids are up to 3000 credits!). Also, we have embarked on a propaganda campaign to weaken the enemy planets that neighbor ours. We'll see if we can spark any revolutions.

Right before I signed off last night, I started to pick through some of the stats from the game and found this to be a very interesting graph:

It depicts available credit (I'm pink; my enemy is yellow). As you can see, his cash reserves dwarf mine...but notice the two major credit crunches? No, this has nothing to do with Geitner but everything to do with the cost of war. It seems my attacks are sucking his treasury dry!

A bit of interesting intel....

[Scott Tortorice]

Breaking News Alert

Sources have confirmed that the citizens of Charybdis have just voted to change the name of their planet to Sinistra, in honor of the legendary battleship that liberated a great many colonies from Armada tyranny before being lost in battle at Agamemnon.

"I think its long overdo," remarked Gail Mesna, resident #323131 of the South Continent Re-education Center. "It is only fitting that the bravery of the Advent sailors be recognized for their efforts to bring enlightened civilization to all corners of the galaxy...."

[Yes, I am having too much fun with this game...but then I always do!]

[Scott Tortorice]

Update:

Sins: Entrenchment 1.02 is now available. Alas, I guess that will conclude the battle for Kronac's Cross. I hoped you enjoyed this (inadvertent) AAR!



PS: Stay tuned for the inevitable sequel!

[Scott Tortorice]

15 hours into the campaign....


This is a Scryer News Blast

Agamemnon liberated from Armada control

Advent High Command has confirmed that Agamemnon has been liberated by naval forces early yesterday. Long contested by both the Armada and the Advent people, Agamemnon, a Terran-class world surrounded by metal-rich asteroids, has often served as a staging point for Armada invasions into Advent controlled space.

The attack was lead by the Halcyon-class carrier Maloraphea, supported by the Progenator-class mothership Tyrand and Rapture-class battlecruiser Virulea. Leading a formidable strike group containing a variety of support vessels, Taskforce Maloraphea quickly overwhelmed Armada resistance and set about the subjugation of Agamemnon via orbital bombardment. The planet capitulated in a matter of hours.


The subjugation of Agamemnon

This victory has greatly buoyed the morale of the Advent people after a series of devastating defeats last year that resulted in the loss of three systems, numerous naval assets, and even a direct attack upon the Advent homeworld of Luguria.

"The Advent admiralty is clearly thrilled with the success of this most recent operation," remarked naval analyst Glon Harva. "Not only does this mark the end of a long, bitter contest over Agamemnon's large gravity well, but it also brings the Advent people much closer to being able to launch a direct assault upon the Armada homeworld of Abilunon." Only one intervening enemy island remains, the asteroid base of Waltari - a clump of metal-rich rocks that Psi scout drones have reported to be lightly defended. "The zim-ball is definitely in the Advent 's court," concluded Harva.

Not all recent news was good, however. Shortly after the success at Agamemnon, Advent psykers reported losing contact with the frontier world of Ikeda. Scouts later confirmed that the world, and its accompanying starbase, was lost to an Armada raid that involved two capital ships. "It was a strong thrust and forced defending Taskforce Virulea to retire to Sinistra to refit and rearm," commented Harva.

But even this grim news didn't put a damper on the festive atmosphere found in the Admiralty. In the words of one unnamed commander, "The Armada can have all the Ikedas they want; we will be content with a single Abilunon."


Swarms of Advent bomber drones make quick work of Armada installations in orbit around Agamemnon