Sins of a Solar Empire

Sins of a Solar Empire has been developed by Stardock and Ironclad Games.
Since its release, two micro-expansions have been released, Entrenchment and Diplomacy.
Entrenchment’s main focus was defence and introduces new ships, the ability of deploying mine fields and the option of building powerful starbases in the gravity belts of planets.
There’s not much to tell about the Diplomacy as it speaks for itself. It grants you the ability of making pacts with other factions.
The third micro-expansion hasn’t been announced yet, but will be the last one.

Sins of a Solar Empire is a mix between space-based RTS and a genre called 4X. 4X means that the player controls an empire and has to, and I quote, to explore, expand, exploit and exterminate. This game follows the rules of the 4X-genre for a big portion. At the beginning of a new game, your first tasks are building ships, scouting new planets and colonizing them, starting your economy and start research.

There are 3 factions you can play:
- the TEC, the Trader Emergency Coalition. Founded after the invasion of the Vasari and the Advent and is a cooperation between independent empires.
- The Vasari. It’s the only alien race in SoaSE. The Vasari were once a great civilization and expanded its empire by assimilating other civilizations. Because of hysteria on a galactic scale in the Vasari empire, a small colony fled the empire, eventually ended up in human territory. And in this territory they fight against the TEC and the Advent over resources.
- The Advent. Originally a religious sect, they were driven out before the rise of the TEC. This faction uses psychic powers to manipulate populations and to destroy their enemies.

The first downside of the game comes to light shortly after starting the game. That’s because the game doesn’t feature a campaign mode, which is a shame. The 3 factions have a long history together and a campaign could’ve made good use of that.

Your main resources are metal, crystal and credits. Metal and crystals can be harvested by placing mines on top of asteroids containing metal or crystal. Additional metal and crystal can be obtained by building refineries. Credits are created by planets and by trade stations. But these are the normal ways of obtaining the game’s resources, the other one is by selling or buying metal or crystal at the black market.

When you colonize a planet, the planet is unable to create credits due to the fact that they are under developed and suffers from operating costs. So instead of making credits it consumes its. For the planet to create credits, you first have to invest metal, crystal and credits into upgrading its infrastructure. Next to upgrading a planet’s infrastructure, you can also invest in increasing a planets hitpoints by building emergency facilities. Two other upgrades grants you the option of building more civilian and tactical structures in the planet’s orbit. And finally you can invest in exploring the planet for natural resources, relics etc.

Combat in Sins of a Solar Empire is slow. And by slow I mean it takes a while before a battle is over. That’s not only due to the fact that ships (not talking about the structures) have shields and armor that constantly recharges, but also because reinforcements can be brought in at all times. The galaxy never stops in Sins. Almost every frigate and cruiser has a special power to be used in combat. This can be to increase the damage output for a moment or to support other ships in battle.
Capital ships are the heavy guns in Sins. They can possess more than one ability. They are the only ships that can earn experience points and level up. Experience points are earned by destroying enemy ships in combat. Every faction has 5 ships to choose from ranging from all out combat ships to support ships.

The AI in Sins is pretty smart and get smarter in the expansions that followed. It can really be a pain, but it has an addiction. It seems that it can’t get enough of building countless frigates, while neglecting capitals and cruisers. But you won’t hear me complaining, this only gives impressive fleet battles and extends the amount of time you put into a single match.

I had a lot of fun playing this game and will continue in doing so. Though it lacks a campaign mode, it still is a solid RTS/4X game that will keep you busy for hours.
And for those planning to buy this game, Stardock has released Sins of a Solar Empire Trinity. It contains the original game and the two expansions, Entrenchment and Diplomacy.