Interesting, would be nice if more people posted their experiences.

it really would be nice if everyone put in game examples. I mean look how popular the dev examples are.

Heh, in my game(on tough, huge map) the drengin are dominating in the middle of the map. they destroyed the torians as if they were nothing, and then the torians surrendered to me(i had been their ally, i teamed up with all factions surrounding the drengin) I'm a diplomatic powerhouse. I wish i had more influence(for whatever reason, I'm third and I own at least 8 fully (and i mean fully) upgraded influence starbases plus a few more scattered in korx territory(I'm working on converting them, they have 8 systems with a total of 13 planets in the "south-east" of the map, completely cut off from other races. The Yor were in the worst position ever, 3 systems, 6 planets, and completely isolated, they also surrendered to me(I have the galactic achievement that gives you +50% chance of faction giving in to you when they surrender, cant remember its name)

As of now, (I play the Drath, btw) my main territory is in the north east of map, about 20 planets, plus 5 of the 6 yor planets(the Arceans(my allies) conquered Iconia which made Yor surrender...) which are in isolated in the west of the map, i also own the ex-torian planets, in the south, boxing in the thalans and terrans (whom never really expanded, they're quite pathetic really)

anyway, now my allies are all dead except the arceans(3rd) and the terrans(dead last i everything but popularity)

I'll report on the results of that one

They were a young race abused by the drengin; that's why. I hate the torians!!

I've just started a new game, and I had far more trouble with the Torians than I did in my OP. I started a gigantic map, on challenging, with abundant planets.

For starters, I decided to play as the Drengin for a change (from my experience, the Drengin and Torians ALWAYS start a war with each other pretty quickly). I had taken control of the bottom area of the map, and had many planets under my control.

Anyway, as soon as the colony rush was over, the Torians first act was to start a war with me. At first I thought little of it as they were pretty much on the other side of the map, so I continued to slowly build my defenses, waiting for them to send in a few fleets. I focused on my economy more at this point, trying to expand my population and profits in order to build up my invasion forces at a later date.

During this time, The Korx (who occupied borders next to me) suddenly decided they had had enough of my Hyena-esque face (being a Drengin and all), and sent in their troops. Remarkably, I went to the Diplomacy screen only to realise that the Torians and the Korx were on great terms (I can only assume this was because Korx were doing most of their trade with them, as Torians are good, and Korx are considered evil).

A long, drawn out war with the Korx proved costly at such an early stage. I hadn't had much chance to build up my navy to the standards I usually enjoy, and we seemed to be matching each other punch for punch. I took over a few of their planets, only for them to take a couple back, and this went on.

The previously quiet Torians suddenly appeared in my territory with a full scale invasion fleet, way beyond my capacity to defend. They had better logistics skills, had built ships with much more firepower, and beam defenses (I'd been using beam weapons to combat the Korx, as they seemed to be putting point defence on their ships). In my haste, I patched things up with Korx and signed over at least three vital technologies in the process, in order to focus on the Torians. Needless to say, it was too little, too late and I was wiped out.

The Thalans, who I'd always considered to be a pretty useless race who never usually get off the ground, did come to my aid near the end, and declared war on the Torians. They proved much more effective, and started mopping up their ships with lashings of gravy and a side of mash, but all was eventually lost. If I'd have just made an alliance with the Thalans earlier, I may have stood a chance, as the Torians had to travel through Thalan territory to get to me.

That does seem like the case as you would expect the higher AI levels to obliterate the Torians in terms of strategy, but what kind of bonuses did the Torians have on their planets? Did they immediately gather up a lot of resources? I suppose these could have been factors into why they became so powerful.

You could possibly excuse the Dregin defeat as they were busy fighting with you. Still, I think the Arceans should have been able to hold them off.

Heres my attempt at one - hope this works, i've never tried this before, please dont hit me with sticks or bombard me from orbit with phasors or anything.

22 Aug 2229




The Story so far…

It has been... a few years since the humans gifted the other races of the galaxy with the hyperdrive technology, in that time empires have grown and started to spread their influence across the stars.

7 empires have emerged The Alterian Republic and Drengin Empire have been at war for almost 2 years now, at first the Alterians had the upper hand, but within the last few months the Drengin led several particularly strong offensives against their southern most border, this has led to the collapse of the Alterian fleets around the Unukalhai system, how the Alterian Republic will respond to this sudden danger few can guess, there are whispers that the Dratha are talking to the Drengin about a combined strike to finish the Alterians off and split the spoils of war, as the Dratha have no real love for the Alterians.

The Terran Alliance has been totally surrounded by the Arcean Empire, its joked that the Terrans are simply a backward sub-species of Arcean, although the Terran Alliance desperately attempts to keep its planets within its cultural sphere of influence, the Arcean Empire seems more concerned with defending its vast boarders from any enemy, and at the moment, that enemy appears to be the Yor who maintain a distinct lead in regards to the galaxies technological advancements.

Finally, the Thalans, the Thalan Empire is an enigma, they have little contact with other races but maintain a health technological lead over all but the Yor, they maintain trade links with every other empire, but rarely communicate, they maintain almost no warships so far, but being such an industrious race they have a vast lead in manufacturing, its belived that they would be able to create a warfleet capable of taking on even the Drengin within a few months.

Despite small wars occurring and the usual skirmishes between the Alterian and Drengin occasionally the galaxy has been a peaceful place, that peace is however, about to be broken.

15th Sep 2229



The Drengins new offencive caught a large segment of the Alterian fleets off guard.

The Alterian Republics forces were pushed back even more, despite a brave attempt by the Republic 7th fleet to retake Unnkalhai II it remained in Drengin hands, and even worse the entire 7th was destroyed by the first Imperial Drengin Fleet in retribution, the Dratha standing by took no part in the battle, either to help the Drengin or the Alterians.

By this date we see the Drengin have penetrated deep into the Alterian Republics systems, despite wide spread resistance continuing on planets occupied by the Drengin there is little the Alterians can do, in one particular case the Drengin bombarded a city from orbit after a protest about the number of civilian causalities during the invasion, over 3 million people are wiped out, the oganizer of the protest said the turn out had been poor at best anyway.

For two years the Alterian Republic and Drengin Empire had been at war, now it seems, that war is about to come to a conclusion.

1st Nov 2229



The Drengin advance continues, the Cobra system is the Empires next target, all three Alterian habited worlds are subdued within 2 weeks. The Alterian fleet continues to fall back to Altar unable to stop the Drengin push, despite widespread calls to assist the Alterians from a large part of the population of the rest of the galaxy (except the Drengin and Yor populations strangely enough) the other races only watch.

22nd Nov



The Alterian 2nd and 3rd fleets are destroyed around Altar and the Drengin invade the Alterian homeworld, the assault is brutal and almost totally destroys Altars environment, the world is reduced to a class 7 planet.

The Alterians finally surrender to the Drengin unable to put up any kind of fight, the only few remaning ships belonging to the Alterian fleet are used as target practice by the victories Drengin Imperial Fleet, the Alterian crew are not removed first.

At the same time the Dratha finally beat back and destroy the Sinathi,whos world resided within Terran space, this could possibly cause major problems for the already shrinking Terran Alliance, and relations between the Drath and Terrans cool.

22nd Dec

The Drengin Empire declares war on the Drath Legion. Agents within the Thalan Empire notice the production of warships begins, the Thalans as suspected are capable of createing large warships incredibly quickly.

8th Fed 2230




The Thalan Empire has seen the writing on the wall and its written in blood, by evil monkeys, with a much larger military than the Thalans have…or something, the Drengin have begun their advance into Drath space and the Drath will not hold on for long, after the Drath its more than likely the Drengin will target the Thalan Empires territory.

New technology has been developed with countering the Empires advance in mind, enter the Warror class Thalan Battleship, the first off the production line TIF Thalmanari (“Final Line” in the terran tongue) boasting Proton Torps and heavy shielding to protect it from the Drengin energy lances.

15th Mar 2230




The Drath are under heavy assault as the Drengin fleets that were far to the north, reach the Drath boarder. However the Arceans seeing that if the Drath fall the Drengin will be the most powerful Empire in the galaxy, come to the Drath Legions aid and declare war on the Drengin. The Thalans remain neutral and continue to build their forces, but lend several newly constructed fleets to the Drath to help with the defence.

Well, thats it for now, its a bit long but its not even half the game, i'll see how this goes down with people before i take up anymore space tho

I totally agree with the last reply, excellent post. I hope more people will be posting game examples with screenies of course!

That was a brilliant gameplay example. Although it wasn't clear which race you were I'm guessing you were the Thalan.. Looking forward to seeing more of this, loving the screenshots.