Galactic Civilizations 2

Pathetic Earthlings! Hurling your bodies out into the void, without the slightest inkling of who or what is out here. If you had known anything about the true nature of the universe, anything at all, you would've hidden from it in terror.

- Ming the Merciless, Flash Gordon

Where have I been for the last three weeks? Why, right here of course, in front of the computer playing Galactic Civilizations 2. I love this game, it's the only game that I've actually paid money for in recent memory. I'm going to give it five Bee Gees straight up.

Ever wondered why John Howard sucks up to George W. Bush so much? Why North Korea starves its people to chase nuclear arms? Why Russia sells weapons to the shadiest of countries knowing full well that it pisses the rest of the world off? Well wonder no more as this game is a lesson in survival, politics, warfare, betrayal, survival and redundancy.

The storyline is pretty flaky. The year is 2225 and humans have developed the hyperdrive, a means of travelling between the stars. The humans share it with the other known galactic races in the name of friendship, though instead of friendship it sparks a galactic goldrush and shitfight.

You can play as one of twelve races, or create your own, each with their own strengths and quirks. The game is unashamedly single player, games can take months to finish and adding another human player would stretch that time out exponentially. The AI is devilishly good and more than makes up for not playing against other people. The AI schemes and counterschemes like a human would, a human that doesn't particularly like you. One of the best features of this game is a moral one; it contains no copy protection. You don't even have to put the disc in to play it.

If you don't play computer games then you've probably stopped reading already, and if you haven't then now is the time to leave because I'm going to explain where my fortnight has gone.

This is a match in the first expansion pack, Galactic Civilizations 2: Dark Avatar. I am playing as the Drath Legion, a race of all-rounders with a nicer ethical slant. Each race has a skill that they do better than all the others, for the Drath it is their ease in making the other races war with each other. I used this skill once or twice in this match. I have set the AI to Painful, this setting allows the AI to use all of its algorithms. The other five randomly determined races I'm up against are the Korath Clan, the Torian Confederation, the Thalan Empire, the Drengin Empire and the Krynn Consulate. The Korath and the Drengin are warmongers, the Krynn are adapters, the Thalans are industrialists and the Torians are heavy breeders. The galaxy size is set to medium.

2226

My homeworld, this is where I start. From here I need to send my people far and wide to build an empire. More realistically, I need to cherrypick the most livable planets close by to where I start from. To populate planets I need colony ships. The standard colony ship that I am given is pretty crap, so I design a new one.

Ship design is a major part of this game, and it's fun! You build ships as though they were made of Lego. The game has some pretty cool and famous ship pieces, so if you were so inclined you could make the USS Enterprise, an X-Wing or even the TARDIS. Some people with no lives have created the most extraordinary pieces of work.

Enter the Vivaldi class colony ship. I try and give the names of the ship classes that I create a common theme, for this game I've chosen classical composers. The Vivaldi is a bit faster than a standard colony ship and has a bit more range too. Kind of weird looking though.

I explore a little with my Vivaldis. Nearby Kwilas has a suitable planet which I take, but months of further exploring turns up very little. I may be stuck with only two decent planets to start with. I bump into scouts from other races, I can't understand what they're saying to me yet as I haven't researched the relevant technology. I push a Vivaldi east, if there is such a thing as east in space, where it come across a very nice planet, Kerchen I. It's at the very edge of my Vivaldi's range but I populate it two turns before a Drengin colony ship and a Thalan colony ship arrive in the area. A populated planet can't be repopulated by another race (yet).

There are quite a few nice planets within reach, but they all have inhospitable environments. Most planets are so crap that they can never be colonised, but there are some that are livable with the right technology. This technology is expensive to research, with the intent of saving some planets for mid-game colonisation. The easy planets are now all taken, I have three goods ones and a so-so one. I have to make a choice: build up the planets that I have, or research some environmental technologies so that I can grab those extra planets. Such extensive research will ruin my economy, but that's what I decide to do anyway. Those planets will be taken by someone, I will make sure that it's me.

The economic system in GalCiv 2 is simple but powerful. You have your incomings and your outgoings, with some control over your incomings and direct control over your outgoings. You can spend money on social production (buildings), military production (ships) or research. Increasing your spending on one will be to the detriment of the other two. The three are so entwined that you can't focus on any one of them for too long. Research is needed to develop better buildings and ships, social production is needed to construct the buildings necessary to conduct research and military production is needed to keep the rest of the galaxy off your back so that you can build your empire with the other two. It's sometimes very chicken and egg. Taxpayers are your major source of income, and that's all that having a large population is good for. How productive any of the three kinds of output mentioned above are is divorced from the number of people you have to carry that work out. Some see this as a flaw, but meh.

With my output set to nothing but research and my economy burning through my starting cash, I was getting a fair idea of when the crunch would happen. "The crunch" usually brings about the end of the early game, when you can no longer run your economy at full production and you need to sober up. The crunch was looking likely in November of this year, well before I get those environmental techs. I increase my taxes to delay the crunch a little, enough time to get those techs.

I get the first tech, I can now colonise heavy gravity planets. I take the three heavy gravity planets that I can see. Soon after I get the barren planet environment tech and take three more planets. Around half of my planets are now on the other side of the galaxy to where my homeworld is, creating an Eastern empire. This will make defending them harder, but more planets are usually a good thing. The crunch hits, so I switch to researching economy technologies to help me out of my hole. I drop my spending down to 15% to break even. Man, that hurts. As far as crunches go, that's pretty dire.

At the end of each year the Universal Planets votes on an issue that will affect all players. The UP is essentially a rebadged United Nations, but votes are tallied by how much influence a race has. This vote was about limiting starbase modules. Limiting starbase modules is gay so I vote against it, and so do the Torians and the Thalans. Starbases are an important part of the game, I'll talk about them later when I start to build a few.

At the end of the year I have the worst economy and I am the least powerful major race in the galaxy. "Powerfulness", for lack of a better word, is basically a rating on how much the other races fear/respect you. It's a combination of your military (mine is non-existent) and your industrial base (mine is pretty pathetic). The more powerful you are, the greater your relations with the other races will be and the less likely they are to go to war against you. My weak standing is the price I've paid for my rapid expansion. I can't do much about that just yet, but as for my economy, I expect that to pick up as my new planets populate themselves with more taxpayers. I already have the second highest population, behind the Torians who breed like rabbits.

Here's how the galaxy looks at the end of the year. My territory is orange:

2227

The Torians have taken an empty planet inside my territory, Kwilas V. It was a pretty crappy planet so I had ignored it, I'm sure it will fall to me through influence eventually anyway. There are a number of ways to get planets. So far I have only colonised empty ones, but you can also invade them, or buy them, or surround them with so much of your influence that the inhabitants rebel and join your empire.

The foreign relations screen is showing me that the Drengin are "hostile" towards me. Hostile is the last step before war, and I am in no position to defend myself. My planets are safe, I'm pretty sure that they don't have the Planetary Invasion technology yet, but it's best to avoid wars that you aren't prepared for. I research the Universal Translator to let me negotiate with the Drengin. The Universal Translator is usually one of the first technologies to be researched, I had ignored it to pursue those extra planets.

The Drengin appreciate only two things, strength and bribery. I have no military so I try paying them off. The have 100 billion credits in their treasury, so I send them 300bc. That made no change to our relations, I've just thrown money away. My relations with the Korath, the other warfaring race, are now hostile as well. I need to build up my military, so I start to research weaponry techs. I can't wait for my economy to get stronger, I need defenders now.

The Torians threaten me. The peace-loving Torians! They demand money, I tell them to shove it. Right after that the Korath threaten me, they are more likely to have the means to follow their threats through so I pay up. Soon after Kwilas V falls to me through influence, which I now realise was probably the reason why the Torians were angry with me. The Torians had prepared for the loss of their planet, they had researched the toxic planet environmental tech and had taken two toxic planets in the centre of the galaxy.

I get a decent missile weaponry tech and begin to design my first armed ship. Enter the Strauss class defender. It's slow, weak and pricey for a defender, but it's also better armed than most other ships of similar class due to my choice of missiles. GalCiv2 has three streams of weapons that you can research: lasers, mass drivers (bullets, cannons, etc) and missiles. Missiles are the more expensive and largest of the three, but they also pack the most punch. You should choose your weapons depending on how you want to play the game. For example, taking the laser research stream is useful for early invasions as lasers are the most efficient weapon in the early game. I have no such plans, I want something that will make the other races think twice about invading my territory.

I set my economy to half military production and half research and tell my three most productive planets to build Strausses. Six months into the year my economy can now operate at 50% of full production potential, that's a very nice gain of 35%. My Strausses are coming online so I have a peek at what my most likely threat, the Drengin, are producing. They have fighters with a missile rating of 4, compared to my Strausses with 2. Great, my Strausses have been obsoleted right off the production line. I begin to research defences against missiles, if I can't outgun them then at least I can make my ships survive longer.

I build quite a number of Strausses (with the improved defences) and suddenly I am a more powerful race than the Thalans. The two Thalan planets that I can see only have ships with no weaponry in orbit. They seem to have abandoned an early military. The Thalans have some plum planets and a pretty good economy... what are they playing at? I smell a trap.

Thalans aside, the Drengin are the more immediate threat. I improve my Strausses again with more defences. The defensive techs are starting to get expensive so I start focussing instead on government techs for the economic benefits they give. My economy is now at 66% of full production, high enough for me to spread money equally again between research, social production and military production.

My homeworld of Dratha is miserable, morale is at 48%. "Morale" in GalCiv2 is pretty much what you would expect: how happy the people are. The happier the people, the faster they populate. The sadder the people, the more likely they are to revolt and you could lose that planet to another race. Sadder planets are much more easily swayed by foreign influence. Homeworlds are often the first to be miserable, they can hold more people than a regular planet so they are susceptible to overpopulation early on. I build an entertainment network; people love circuses.

A galactic event! Every now and then the game throws up a galactic event that affects all players, and it continues until the game decides to end it. This event is that all races get greatly increased influence. The weaker half of my empire, the Eastern half, is now completely swallowed up in Thalan influence. If a planet is surrounded by foreign influence to the extent that foreign influence is four times stronger than your own influence, then that planet will eventually revolt and join the foreign empire. My planet of Nesro IV is now dangerously close to being lost to the Thalans, it is suffering three times as much Thalan influence as my own. Nesro IV has some excellent bonuses, I will not let it fall.

The Thalans have also colonised the radioactive world of Vizzard V. Vizzard IV is Torian, while Vizzard II is Drengin. The Vizzard system itself is within Thalan influence. Three races sharing the same system, there will be war out of this.

I get the Interstellar Republic technology. There are four kinds of government in GalCiv2: Imperial (dictatorship, what you start with), Republic, Democracy and Federation. The real difference is between Imperial and Republic, the other two are just more advanced forms of Republic. When you change your government to a Republic, your economy performs a lot better but you also have to go through an election every year. Elections take into account a number of factors, but the most important one is the morale of your people empire-wide. It's also harder to keep your people happy as a Republic as you have less direct control over your planets. A few turns later I have my first election, my party wins it easily. Elections are very easy to win, but the penalties for losing one are harsh.

It's finally happened, a planet fell to the Thalan's enhanced influence. Wardell II, formerly Korath, is now Thalan and it's right next to my Nesro IV, heightening the danger that it is in. Nesro IV is now at 3.3 times Thalan influence, I build a few embassies on it to increase my own influence.

Here's how the galaxy looks at the end of the year:

2228

The galaxy is still at peace, though the Vizzard system is ready to spark a war. As you can see above, my entire Eastern empire is swimming in Thalan influence, Nesro IV dangerously so.

Nesro IV will fall, I work out a plan to save it. I tell nearby Kerchen I to build constructors, and with them I will build an influence starbase in the area. Starbases are what you would expect, bases floating in space. There are four kinds of starbases that you can build: Resource starbases, influence starbases, military starbases and economic starbases. They each do their own thing, but it's the influence starbase that I am interested in. It creates a bubble of influence around itself which grows bigger with each constructor that you add to it. This bubble can be used to convert foreign planets, claim empty space or, as I intend to use it, to combat foreign influence. I start to research cultural technologies to improve the effectiveness of my plan.

Crisis averted! Just as I start my plan to save Nesro IV, the increased influence galactic event ends. I have my Eastern empire back and, though Nesro IV is still within Thalan influence, it is not in danger of revolting. I cancel my plan.

The Krynn and the Korath have become the superpowers in this galaxy, and now they are at war. I'm not sure who started it, and I don't care as I won't be getting involved. Warring superpowers are usually a good thing, they don't tend to ask for help from others. A few months of this war sees me become the second most powerful race in the galaxy. I'd like to credit that to my back-breaking early expansion paying off, but it's really due to the two superpowers cutting each other down to size.

I do some technology trading with the other races. The AI puts a stupidly high value its technology, and there are some techs that they just won't trade at all. Diplomacy counts for something as well. The better diplomat you are, the better deal you get when you trade. Some people research weapons techs only and swap the lesser (though highly valued) ones for the other techs.

An update on the Vizzard system: the Torians have built a military starbase in it. The Drengin now have hostile relations with the other two races in the system. The Thalans still "own" the system with their influence. I don't know who will fire the first shot, but fired it shall be. I'd love to take the Vizzard system myself, it would join the two halves of my empire. That would be suicide of course, I'd be at war with three opponents at the same time, and neighbours at that.

Half of my empire is running at half strength. The way that the environmental techs work is that they come in pairs. The first one lets you colonise that particular type of planet, but the planet will run at 50% production. The second and more expensive tech removes that restriction. At this stage my economy can only research one of the two techs I need within a reasonable time. One is better than none so I pick one, the second heavy gravity environment tech.

The war between the Krynn and the Korath is showing some interesting results. The Krynn's military rating has dived while the Korath's has gone up. The Krynn's military is still more powerful than the Korath's, but I was expecting a Krynn whitewash.

Wooo, another galactic event, this time it's an economic boom. Yee haw! Now I can run my economy at 100% and still have cash to spare. This won't help me against my opponents, who also experience this boom, but it will speed up the development of my empire.

The Thalans have finally produced a military. It's nothing special, I could probably take it on. By now it's become obvious that the Thalans aren't out to conquer with their military like their neighbours the Krynn and the Korath, but to seduce planets with culture. Smaller worlds have been falling to the Thalans rather steadily, the latest being the Krynn world of Marshall IV. The Thalans are exploiting the Krynn and the Korath by stealing outlier worlds, knowing full well that both races are too busy with their war to make a stand. Military intervention may be the only way to stop the Thalans, specifically MY military intervention.

This economic boom has filled my coffers with more cash than I had planned for. GalCiv 2 does not take the Liberal/National Coalition view that consistent and high surpluses are a good thing, quite the opposite, it's usually a sign that something is wrong. What to do with it? Buy some techs? Fund a war? Lower taxes (hahaha)? I buy the next level of factories off someone and gear my economy to upgrade my manufacturing capacity. Infrastructure. Very Labor-like. I also set some money aside to research the next level of the barren environment tech to bring my empire fully online.

I get the tech, now all of my planets are useful. The Nesro IV that I worry about has become a very nice research planet thanks to the 700% research bonus on one of its tiles (at the end of the game I find out that Nesro IV was my most, err, researchy, planet). Researching that tech and upgrading my manufacturing capacity has cost me, my military has gone into a slow downward slide and I am now the fourth most powerful race. I guess the other races funnelled all that extra cash into their militaries.

It finally happened, Vizzard sparked a war. The Drengin declared war on the Torians. I predict a slow Drengin slaughter, though the Torians have more hardware in the area. The Thalans are lucky that it wasn't them. Speaking of war, the galaxy is leaving my underpowered military behind. Time to retire the Strauss.

And enter the Bach, my first capital class ship. Three times the firepower of a Strauss, though it takes twice as long to build. It can also take more of a pounding than a Strauss due to its size. There's also a speed improvement. Capital ships are a turning point for any military, you really notice the difference that they can make against a fleet of smaller ships. Unlike the Strauss, the Bach is intended for war. In more good news, I have the manufacturing capability to mass produce them.

Another UP vote, this one is for a tax on warring races. Most of the galaxy is at war, I would have expected the motion to sink like a stone. I vote against it, but the majority vote for 10% of their total economy. Whatever.

Here is how we leave the galaxy this year:

2229

The calendars of some cultures don't go as far as 2229. That's good, because GalCiv 2 isn't about living harmoniously with a rich galactic tapestry of people, it's about cold hard hegemony. The Drengin want the Vizzard system, and they won't stop there. The Krynn want to wipe the Korath off the face of existence, and there is no galactic policeman to stop them. The Thalans want to gobble up the galaxy one planet at a time, subverting friends and influencing people. And then there's me. I'm not the most popular, or the most feared, and frankly should one of the bigger empires prefer that I weren't around then I could be toast. This is the year when it all turns.

I'm told that if I ever go to prison, the first thing that I should do is knife someone. My Bachs are starting to roll off the production line, my knife is sharpening. I really can't go past the Torians. They're close, their territory is small and they're distracted with that ruckus in the Vizzard system. Sorry Torians, but dog eat dog and all that. I arrange my Strausses and Bachs into fleets and send them North.

As my ships head for the Torus system I prepare for following along with my troops. I research Planetary Invasion as well as the advanced version. Yes, it does what it sounds like. Ooooo Laaaa! Planets are invaded by dropping off millions upon millions of troops on the target planet. GalCiv2 treats every citizen as a soldier, which is obviously silly but it's something that the developers are hoping to change down the track. Enter the Rachmaninoff class troop transport. Its got no range and it's ugly, but it can hold 2000 troops and it's the fastest ship that I have. Because they're faster than my offensive fleets I have to be very careful with my timing; the transports have to be built, loaded and ready to invade after my fleets take care of the Torian defence but before they can regroup.

WAR! I attack the ships in orbit around Toria IV with two fleets of Strausses. I barely have enough of a military force to carry out an invasion, so I need to be smart with my deployments. My Strausses will blockade Toria IV while my Bachs will deal with the more heavily defended Toria prime, I'll mop up the starbases with whatever I have left when the planets are secured. I have prepared well, and the Torians have not. Both planets are left defenceless after two turns. Their defences are broken, let the slaughter begin!

Invading a planet is a numbers game. Both sides have a number of soldiers, and a soldiering skill that multiplies your chances of success. While amassing my fleet I researched a number of these soldiering skills, my troops outclassed the Torians by a lot. You get a number of options on how you want to invade. All of them cost money and have their benefits and drawbacks. For example, softening the planet up with Tidal Disruption will halve your enemy's soldiering skill, but it will also wipe out most of the buildings on the planet. I invade Toria and Toria IV with my Rachmaninoff fleets, and I win them both. The troops that you have left over from an invasion become the occupied planet's first colonists.

Another benefit of invasion is that sometimes you receive a stolen technology. I get two great ones out of taking the Torus system: a fertility tech and one of the toxic environment techs. I was going to end my brief campaign then and there, but that juicy environment tech opens up the toxic Torian world of Andersona IV for my taking. That will have to wait however, I've spotted two fleets of Torian ships that were diverted from Vizzard and they're headed for my Kwilas system, or more likely, my undefended research starbase in the middle of that system. I send a Bach fleet after them, they intercept one of the fleets but the other is too close already to get to in time. Kwilas II is my main shipyard, I tell it to buy a Bach. Buying ships is much more expensive than building them, but you get the ship the next week rather than waiting so long. The new Bach intercepts the second fleet. My Bach just barely survives, the second Torian fleet does not.

With that crisis averted, I send my fleets to the Andersona system. The Andersona system is strategically important as it is in the middle of the galaxy, though holding it will be hard. There are two inhabited planets, the Torians with Andersona IV and the Krynn with Andersona III. As seen with the Vizzard system earlier, shared systems cause strife. If I take Andersona IV I will have to do some major sucking up to the Krynn, as I certainly can't defeat them should we go to war over it. The system's importance has also drawn interest from the Drengin. They have a sizable fleet in the area that has already taken care of the Torian defence. No troop transports yet, so I better hurry along with mine before the Drengin snatch Andersona IV for themselves.

On the way to Andersona IV I research Xeno Ethics. Xeno Ethics is one of the handful of techs that mark a milestone in the game. Universal Translator lets me trade items with other races, Planetary Invasion lets me conquer planets, and Xeno Ethics lets me choose my moral alignment. Races can be either good, neutral or evil, and Xeno Ethics lets you decide which you will be. Good races get defensive, cultural and morale bonuses, neutral races get research, trade and planetary bonuses, and evil races get offensive, production and starbase bonuses. This is a good time for some forethought. I weigh up the options and I go with evil. It's a violent galaxy out there, and when the Torians are completely disposed of I could be the least powerful race in the galaxy, and therefore a juicy target. It's good to be bad.

I beat the Drengin to Andersona IV and invade. The Drengin have been busy elsewhere, they have taken Vizzard IV from the Torians. The Torians have no planets left in the galaxy that I can see, yet they still exist as an opponent so I guess they have a planet hidden away somewhere. I negotiate a peace with what's left of the Torians and start tending to my new planets. I now "own" a quarter of the galaxy. Though I haven't seen much of their military, the Krynn have all but annihilated the Korath and they're now the most powerful race in the galaxy. I give a wad of money to the Krynn to keep them onside, it doesn't work. I didn't expect we'd make good neighbours, and I certainly didn't expect our relations to sour so quickly...

WAR! The Krynn declare war on me. Shit shit shit! They can stomp all over my military, and we share a huge and undefended border. I try and swap Andersona IV for a peace treaty, they don't want a bar of it. Fine, war it is. Andersona III is weakly defended and I have a spare Rachmaninoff in the area. I take Andersona III in a quick strike, the Krynn soldiers are a lot better than the Torians but still not as good as mine. I have no chance of holding either planet, instead I intend to use the Andersona system as a buffer while I build up my forces from my Western empire. I move what I have left in Andersona to just outside Cordellia, creating a more realistic defensive line. Time to build myself a Krynn killer.

I'm glad that I chose my moral alignment as evil, I now have access to some frightening weapons. Enter the Wagner class missile frigate. It comes loaded with four Psionic Missiles, one of the "evil" weapons with the same firepower as whole Bach. It's an expensive ship, but a great way to spend my surplus. They'll take a good while to build, so I buy some more time by convincing the Drengin and the Thalans to also go to war against the Krynn. This could backfire, the Krynn could stomp over the Thalans and take a lot of planets. It's easier not to care as much when they aren't my planets.

As expected, a few weeks later the Krynn arrive in Andersona with troop transports. Andersona III falls back to the Krynn, though their invasion of Andersona IV is unsuccessful. Not long after that I have my first fleet of three Wagners in the area. Not far from Andersona is a Krynn military resource starbase. Those things beef up a race's military past the original specifications of their ships, now I can see how they've been able to punish the Korath. It's heavily defended and I'm not sure that my Wagner fleet can take it out, but I'll try anyway. They attack, the base is destroyed and so is one of the Wagners, with another heavily damaged. Taking out that base weakened the Krynn military substantially.

Here's how the galaxy looks at the end of the year:

2230

It's the turn of the decade and the galaxy is on fire with war. The Krynn are the dominant threat in the galaxy, they have taken half of the Korath empire and now have their sights set on me. Drengin and Thalan ships are heading to Krynn space while I build my forces up from the safety of home. I don't trust my new warmates, this could backfire badly on me. Everyone is picking on what is left of the Torians, if they can be found. It's not all hate and violence though, my influence has been slowly growing to the point where the two halves of my empire now meet.

The Drengin clear away the Krynn ships in the Andersona system so I send in some Rachmaninoffs to retake Andersona III, escorted by an expanded fleet of Wagners. I had researched more logistics, which lets me build bigger fleets of ships. Fleets of ships are always preferable to single ships, they attack separately but defend as a whole. The downside is that the fleet only moves as fast as its slowest member, so it's best to make fleets of the same kinds of ships. Two large Krynn cruisers appear in the area. They're fearsome, bigger than my ships and with more firepower, but they have the wrong kind of defence against my ships. My ships are also faster and my fleets are bigger. I attack and win, losing a Wagner. I hang around in Andersona for a while, waiting for a few fleets of constructors to arrive. I build a military resource starbase where the Krynn had theirs. I now have the same boosted military potential that the Krynn used when conquering the Korath.

Speaking of the Korath, they give up and surrender to the Torians. Sometimes when a race is thoroughly beaten in a hostile galaxy, that race will choose another race to surrender to. Exit the Korath, and the Torians are back from the brink. They got four planets out of that. Meanwhile the Thalans have been pressing on into Krynn space, kicking arse and getting their arse kicked. The Drengin are holding back, letting the Thalans take the casualties.

My manufacturing planets have been steadily pumping out Wagners that I have been sending to the front line. The next Krynn system that I have my eye on is Sander, two planets near the Krynn/Thalan border. I send two fleets of Wagners and clear out the standard Krynn defence. I invade and take them both, though I needed two attempts to take Sander I. The Sander planets took more troops to conquer than Andersona did, I guess the Krynn are upgrading their soldiering skills. What's left of the first Thalan wave is also in the area, I watch them press on to the Krynn homeworld of Kryseth only to get slaughtered.

I hold the Andersona and Sander systems, four planets between them. I'm happy with that, I've punished the Krynn and given my empire a nice central annex. I try to negotiate a peace treaty with the Krynn, they don't want to hear it. The Krynn still have a better military than I, but they are up against three opponents and I am taking their planets rather regularly. Just because the AI isn't acting how I would have acted doesn't make it any less of an opponent. In fact I prefer it that way, it keeps me on my toes.

Holding the Sander system puts me well and truly in Krynn space. I need intelligence before I press any further, otherwise one wrong step and my fleets could be picked off. Enter the Chopin class sensor ship. It's like it sounds, a ship packed full of sensors that lets me see a whole lot further than a regular ship can. Sensor ships come in two varieties, scouts and explorers. Scouts are very fast with no range while explorers are pretty fast with excellent range. The Chopin is a scout. Notice how I've been getting the right kind of ships at exactly the right time that they are needed? GalCiv 2 doesn't just give you ships (well it does, but they suck), you build your own ships with the technologies that have gotten you to the point in the game where you are at. It's a great, organic system.

The Drengin and I have never been on friendly terms, and now they're making me nervous. A number of their cruisers are hanging around my Andersona system, and its been safe from the Krynn for a while now. I don't trust them. Unfortunately there is no diplomatic option for "get your toys out of my bathtub". I can't do anything about it, and it's hardly worth starting a war over.

Exit the Torians, they've surrendered to the Drengin. Crap. This makes the Drengin even more of an eventual threat.

My fleets in the Sander system are now fully repaired and I have an abundance of Rachmaninoffs in the area, the Krynn planet of Martzia is looking very tempting. I attack the ships in orbit with my frigates, then invade the planet with my troop transports. Martzia is mine, and now I have a problem. From Martzia I can strike at the Krynn homeworld of Kryseth, or the main Krynn shipyards in the Vesta system. Vesta is the nicer target, taking it will win me two very good quality planets (Vesta V is the best quality planet in the galaxy) and the removal of a good chunk of the Krynn's military capability. But it's also very well defended, and taking it would probably leave me overstretched. Kryseth is less attractive, but it will be easier to hold. I head for Kryseth, I want to cut the heart out of the Krynn empire. I take Kryseth and Kryseth II, and suddenly the Krynn lose almost all of their influence. Enemy space becomes my space. That's misleading, but it feels good.

I take some time to secure Kryseth and look longingly at Vesta. I have one ready fleet of Wagners, another in repair and maybe a third coming in from scattered shipyards. I send the ready fleet to Vesta V. It's well defended by some frighteningly massive ships, but they're in orbit so I can pick them off one at a time. It will be close, but I decide to attack. My fleet gets spanked, I lose all five Wagners and they don't lose any. Vesta V must have an orbital defensive installation, which allows ships in orbit to defend as a fleet. Jesus, that was a massive blow. It's a couple of months before I have another fleet ready to attempt the Vesta system again. When the time comes I assemble another Wagner fleet, I have nothing better, and attack Vesta V again. This time I am successful, though I still lose half of the fleet. I invade both planets, the Vesta system is mine. Vesta V is almost completely factories, it's no wonder the Krynn were able to pump out so many ships.

A month later I take Epsilon V, right on the edge of the galaxy, and that's where I stop. The two remaining Krynn systems share planets with the Thalans, Taking them would be more trouble than it's worth. I ask for peace from the Krynn, this time they beg me for it, and give me some techs to secure the treaty. A year and a half after declaring war on me, the Krynn are now all but gone. That feels good. I gear my economy to build up my new empire and continue researching. A few weeks later, what is left of the Krynn surrender to the Drengin. Exit the Krynn.

It's the end of the year and the UP votes again. I control two thirds of the galactic influence so whatever I say goes. The vote is to arm troop transports or not. It doesn't really matter much, but I veto it anyway. I feel like China.

Here's how MY galaxy looks at the end of the year. Note how much of it is MINE:

2231

My growing empire is humming along nicely, quietly building and researching while the galaxy is at peace for the first time in years. I research Aereon Missile Defence, the best of the missile defence line. This will be useful for the next class of ship that I have in mind to restore my military.

My military is now the weakest in the galaxy. My relations with the Drengin are diving and I'm sure the Thalans will soon follow. I need to rebuild my military fast, or... a diversion will do. I bribe the Thalans to go to war against the Drengin. This is a pretty even match, and my Chopins are well positioned so that I can watch the fireworks. I don't care who wins, I just hope that the war lasts long enough for my new military to come online.

Oh no! The economic boom that started 2228 in has finally ended. That boom sustained my society through two wars and now there is a massive hole in my economy. I cut my spending down to 50% to stay in the black. Ouch, maybe I wasn't the economic genius that I thought I was. My new planets will populate quickly so I can expect a lot more in tax dollars soon.

While I'm building up my empire, I may as well build up my influence. I build a political capital on Kerchen I, this takes a fair bite out of Drengin space. One way to win a game is to get 75% of the galactic influence and hold it for ten weeks, and avoid war. I decide to take this path. At the moment I have 66% of the influence, I build up starbases over influence resources that I took from the Krynn. Building these up will take time, but it will be worth it if they win me the game.

The Thalans and the Drengin are tearing each other to pieces. The war is having its intended effect, all three remaining races now have a roughly equal military. The ships that they have are huge, I'm glad that I'm not fighting them.

I get the Massive Scale Building tech that allows me to build massive ships. Oh boy, enter the Mozart class battleship. This thing is massive. Twice the firepower of a Wagner, very fast and fully kitted out with the very best defences. It's also pricey, its hull alone costs more than a full Bach. Only my three best shipyards can build it in any sensible amount of time. It's designed to stomp over Drengin fleets (on its own!), but it will do great against the Thalans too.

Pretty ships aside, I'm steadily building my influence starbases up. I now have 72% of galactic influence, 3% more and I win. The Thalan homeworld of Thala is now within my influence. Oh, this is sweet, especially when it was the Thalans threatening me with influence early in the game. Now I've maxed out those starbases, I'll have to get the other 3% from either converting the planets of other races or researching more influence techs. I choose to research.

The first of my Mozarts rolls off the production line. What a beast. Here it is next to a couple of Strausses and a starbase for scale, not that anything in this game is to scale anyway. That first Mozart shot my military into first place. The two more that came after it gave me an untouchable lead. Unfortunately I doubt I'll get the chance to use them.

The Drengin seem to have gotten the upper hand over the Thalans. Their militaries are still of similar size, but Drengin ships seem to be roaming free in Thalan space. The Drengin also now own all three planets in the Vizzard system, even though it's well within my own influence. I have glut of constructors so I send them over to Vizzard and build a fully kitted out cultural starbase. With any luck all three will fall to me. Poor Vizzard, it's been the power hotspot all through the game. Vizzard doesn't flip to me, but the extra influence expands my territory even further into Drengin space. I now have the 75% of galactic influence I need to win. Now all I need to do is hold on to that figure for ten weeks, and not get attacked.

And I win. If one race is culturally dominant over all of the others, then they are considered irreplaceable and essential to the running of the galaxy.

That was one game of Galactic Civilizations 2. It took six game years and two Nick weeks to finish, and then another week to write about it. There's a lot that I skipped over, such as economic trade, alliances and espionage. I can't recommend this game enough, though if you haven't read down this far then the game is probably not for you anyway.

Great, now I have my free time back. Regular programming will recommence shortly.