So I've played a nice and interesting game . On a large map, against the Krynn Consulate, Yor, Altarian Resistance and the Drath (all set on challenging). I've played with my own custom race, based on the Thalan (Super Hive!).

I decided to go the war path, so I choose the war party for it's bonuses. I got a nice claim on some "normal" planets. Then I rushed to toxic and heavy gravity planets, which got me 5 more planets. But then I ran out of space . So I decided to attack the Krynn. For some reason the Krynn had colonized planets all over the map. With my stronger economy and my war bonuses I crushed them at a steady pace, so in the end they just surrendered to me. My empire had doubled in size, industry, research and influence were of the scale. I also got my hands on half a dozen of resources, given to me by the nice Krynn . I then had 3 influence resources, so I decided to just upgrade those. With my vast population number and empire size that should be enough to grant me an influence victory.

In the mean while the Altarians and the Yor have been at it for some while, peace treaties and war declarations all over the place. The Drath have been quiet for a while now.

So I hit 72%, 73%, 74%, 75% (almost!) and then the magic 76%. Ten turns to go, here I go!

Bam! All of a sunden the map is dotted with Pirates. Not a few, not even a lot, just an awful entire horde of them. They had fleets with a logistics number of about 40-50. I only had 15. Their fleets where 5 times as strong as mine, ranging from 100 to 250 laser and 25 to 60 shields.

FUBAR!

Instead of just throwing in the towel I decided to see if I could beat that horde of Pirates. I started to research a bigger hull first, traded some engines and shield techs and started to convert my economy to war. Lucky for me I had about 3 ships at each planet. Those pesky Pirates started hitting my planets one at a time. In about 10 turns my entire defense was gone. But they also decided to hit my unprotected starbases.

That hurt. That hurt a lot... My entire economy was in shambles. I just hoped I could get my battleship class Holy Rider out. Packed with Plasma III weapons and some shields it had a whopping 15/4 strength.

Still fubar, since I could only put 2 in 1 fleet . Oops! Lucky for me, the other races were being attacked as well, and the Pirates didn't invade (now, that would've been nasty).

In the end I had enough time to research the psionic laser (whaddayacallit?) and barriers III. I could put 4 of them in 1 fleet, so I could atleast kill the smaller Pirate fleets. I also set the rally point in a distant region, so the Pirates couldn't see them on their sensors (don't know if that worked, but I did it anyway, just to be sure). A toe hold became a foot hold became cleared region after cleared region. Victory for me!


During the Pirates war, the Yor surrendered to the Altarians. I guess they got tired of being blown out of the sky each time they launched a ship .

Now the fun part, rebuilding my economy. First task was to build some (better!) defenses on my planets. No reason to give the AI's easy pickings . Then to build some economy starbases and some new trade lines. Since almost all resources were free again, I had to race for them as well. I even gained 2 when compared to the situation before the Pirates.

Bam! Recession! Byebye economy. Lucky for me I had enough reserves to last it out . After that I started to rebuild, to gain that influence victory.

But then the Altarians did something awfully stupid that led to their downfall. They declared war. I have no idea why, I had more planets, a bigger industry, more researchers, more money, more bigger and better ships. But still they decided to go to war. O well, more planets for me! I launched my fleets, invaded a few planets and grew stronger.

Bam! Plague! Seven turns to the cure, five after a bit of economy tweaking. I kept invading them, they still hadn't build defenses. Weird stuff with the Altarians... Got the cure, gave it to the Drath. But then they decided to help the Altarians to get right of the evil in the galaxy. I'm not sure why, but they attacked me instead! Like I don't care about my people, they only have to work for 18 hours a day .

The rest is history, the Altarians surrendered to the Drath, and the to me. Both in the same turn. Like lemmings of a cliff.

This surely was the most interesting GalCiv2 game I ever played, lots of fun!

Some things I'm going to do differently next game:
- protect your starbases
- get some bigger, better ships/fleets sooner, just in case
- don't rely on trade too much, a pain if you loose it then