Starbases are the most noticeable additions to SoaSE and a lot of care was obviously put into their implementation. When upgraded with improved weapons and defenses, a Starbase can easily tear apart a single high level Capital ship and can give as good as it gets against even a large attack fleet with more than one Capital ship..

Don’t think for a second that SoaSE has now become a turtler’s paradise. Starbases are bank busters in the extreme. The cost of researching the required tech to build a Starbase and its improvements, plus the cost of building the ship which actually builds the Starbase AND the cost of building the Starbase itself means that your not going to be building one on a whim.

Sure, you can build a powerful Starbase that could eat small fleets for breakfast, but you do so at the cost of building more ships and improvements. This makes Starbases (and mines) ideal for controlling strategic worlds and choke-points. A fact that the improved AI is keenly aware of, as the computers placement of defenses, more than once, left my fleet fleeing in disarray.

There are new ships of course, which do a very good job of countering the games more beefed up defenses. The TEC’s Ogrov Torpedo Cruiser for example is a must for any TEC commander with his eyes set on conquering a well defended neighbor.

There are however a few things could stand a bit more improvement. Diplomacy is still bland, since it is based around bribing other races with credits, metal or crystal to get what you want. A campaign, or even a few set piece story based maps would have been nice. The AI has been improved in Entrenchment, but it still builds more Capital ships than seems logical and focuses a bit too much on building light frigates vs. cruisers. Mind you, since SoaSE already has far above average quality AI, I’m just nit-picking. It seems likely that some of the above will be addressed in a future patch/expansion.

Developer Ironclad Games has successfully rounded what was already a great game with the Entrenchment expansion. It won’t wow you with tons of new cutscenes or bury you in untold numbers of new units, but what it does do is improve the gameplay immensely, both online and offline. The Capital ship rush is no longer such an issue online, but building a Starbase at a key location is. Watching pirates rush into a minefield is a joy and seeing a heavily upgraded Starbase tear apart a few Capital ships never gets old (or less spectacular looking). The addition of assault cruisers fleshes out your attack force nicely and the collection of new upgrades and improvements that the expansion offers really does open up the game to a host of new strategies.

Like I have said many times before, SoaSE is a title that rests firmly, and proudly, on its gameplay and Entrenchment simply improves upon that focus. This expansion is a must for Sins fans and rounds out the game in such a way that I think new players to the Solar Empire realm will be much more likely to enjoy what SoaSE has to offer. No question, two out of two Sarcastic Stars for Sins of a Solar Empire: Entrenchment.

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Take a look at this impressive trailer to see Entrenchment in all its glory.

Check out: SinsofaSolarEmpire, Stardock & Impulse

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