They glimmer in the dark of space, and then blaze with laser beams, a wash of explosions, and the fire of distant stars. The lighting on these ships is just incredible. But when my Ankylon joined the fight, the rebels' Ragnarov-led fleet met its match as well, and Rebellion showed-off its upgraded fireworks. Starbases, which used to give defenders an almost unbreakable advantage, meet their match in the Titans. The Ankylon rushed to the aid of my surviving fleet as it huddled around a beleaguered starbase in orbit around one of my main planets. So while the AI lumbered into a counterattack, I researched and built the Ankylon, which is the TEC Loyalists' defensive-oriented answer to the Ragnarov. With two high-level capital ships lost in action before my fleet could retreat, I realized the only thing that could stop that monster would be a Titan of my own. Clash of the Titansīack to my encounter with the Ragnarov. Grandeur and splendor are addictive in their own right. That learning-curve issue, however, is mitigated by Sins: Rebellion's ability to convince you to stick around long enough to figure everything out. Having a little more flavor can take some of the workload off tooltips and statistics, and require a bit less trial-and-error from the player. It's all well and good to talk about the Vasari's burning hatred for the TEC, and the Advent Rebels' conviction that they must purify their race, but that doesn't help me understand Rebellion's trade-offs, or what some of the new upgrades and abilities are actually supposed to do.

I love that Ironclad has resisted the temptation to include a single-player campaign, typically the worst thing about RTS games, but that also means it lacks a mode which explains the fiction behind each faction and their strengths and weaknesses. The rebels thrive on aggressive warfare, while the loyalists are natural turtlers. While both factions belong to the same race and share about 85% of the same technologies and units, that last 15% bends them toward very different strategies and play styles. It is the perfect weapon for the TEC Rebel faction, who have split with the TEC Loyalist faction due to the latter's belief that the TEC should pursue armed and fortified isolationism and the Rebels' conviction that the TEC will have peace after its enemies are dead. To go toe-to-toe with the Ragnarov, as I tried to do, is to court death.

Its elongated hull serves to mount a massive railgun capable of smashing apart capital ships with the deadly Snipe ability, or it can thin out a more numerous fleet with its Scattershot ability, which not only damages targets in a cone in front of the Ragnarov, but also lowers their armor. It is a giant spacefaring shotgun whose sole purpose is focused aggression. The Ragnarov is the purest expression of both the TEC Rebel faction's philosophy and the dichotomies that drive the new Rebellion stand-alone expansion.

Sins of a solar empire carrier