Even before humans decided that capitalism was their religion, the Ishendi were different. Their colony had originally been founded by members of a philosophical sect dedicated to living a more principled life. Over time, the Ishendi came to be seen as more militaristic than some of the other members of the TEC. The Ishendi tended to have little patience with the subtleties of contracts when some of the more slippery members of Trader Space did not fulfill their end of bargains.

A thousand years ago, when the deviants were exiled, the Ishendi had mixed feelings on the matter. On the one hand, the disgusting and vile practices of the deviants were appalling to the Ishendi.  But on the other hand, was their world not theirs to live as they pleased? Many Ishendi could imagine a future where they too would be exiled because their culture had become too "deviant" from the mainstream of the Trader worlds. As time had passed, humans were drifting apart in more ways than one.

But 10 years ago, when the aliens arrived...these "Vasari", the Trader Emergency Coalition (TEC) was formed and suddenly the Ishendi were expected to take the lead.  But the Ishendi were far from the front and their isolationist policy made them slow to act but not slow to begin designing the kinds of ships that might be needed to deal with the Vasari.

Ironically, it was their ancient cousins that caused the Ishendi to truly join the TEC.  The deviants had created their own empire called the Advent. And their meaning was quite clear: Revenge.  To the Ishendi, the Vasari and the Advent make compelling opponents. This is their story

And so it begins

For this single player game, I'm choosing a medium random map. there's plenty of pre-canned maps but I like the surprise of a random map and plus I want to see how good the random map generation is.

Picking a map (I could also use the built in editor to make one)

Making it a FFA.

My starting resources (there are scenarios with accelerated stars but this is the basic start)

My first moves are to improve my research capability and get my free capital ship (you start out with 1 capital ship slot for free).

Meanwhile, on my planet, I build up my civics support so that my population can go higher (more tax revenue) and increase my logistics so I can build more things around the planet.

I also build up some scouts so that I can start seeing where there are good planets nearby.

My scouts often encounter hostiles as trader space is lousy with thugs who lay claim to shipping lanes. One positive outcome of this war will be the elimination of the scum from our space.

The first new colony we established was being obstructed by the Roider Union. The Roider Union was a fancy name for thugs in this part of Trader space.  Essentially, they existed to exact a toll on trade ships back before the conflict. Their time has passed though and now it's up to us to clean out their nests.

While my units are taking care of the riffraff, I needed to set my research policy.

The war expands

One of the things that no one would have ever thought 5 years ago would be that there would be diplomatic discussion between Vasari and human. But that is exactly what has happened since the Advent arrived. With a 3-way struggle, local cease fires, even alliances have occurred.  Even the Advent, whose stated goal is to avenge themselves on we humans, have occasionally made nice.

In diplomatic-speak, the language has greatly changed over the years. Now we call demands "missions". The diplomatic core have developed their own code-words for an ugly universe.

Exploring the star system is a lot easier than one might imagine.

Open War Begins

The Vasari are the first to begin a serious attack against my worlds. Their bombardment platforms are designed to sterilize the surface of humans.

I'm successful in repelling the attack and taking out his capital ship. Now is the time to strike with my early force.

The world Koroth is isolated and relatively safe. I use it as the center of my growing economy.

Eventually I make it to their home world

The Advent's all offense strategy left them open to a counter stroke. Their ships focused too much on short range attack and I countered it by bringing in a lot of carriers who could strike them from afar.

I then began bombing the home world.

Yea, the Narn felt the same way.

By this point, the star system had grown to two major powers. The Vasari and me had split things up between us.  Therefore, I was going have to build a bigger fleet.  But that would take time.  So first, I need to get the pirates to work for me. 

The Fleet logistics system in Sins is one of my favorite elements of the game. You can spend money to increase your fleet support as well as train capital ship crews. But in the case of fleet supply, the higher the level you are, the more of your resources go to maintaining that level (it's not based on the number of ships you have, it's based on the actual supply level).  It's a great system to prevent someone from just cranking out some mega fleet without worrying about consequence.

Next, I get in a bidding war with my Vasari enemy to get the pirates to attack.

The Vasari faction (Vaskorus Arkun) have already bribed the pirates ahead of me.

But I am ready for the pirates and grind them into the dust. The pirates will get their turn.

Meanwhile, with a simple mouse over of my money display, I can quickly see which planets are bringing in the bucks. Koroth remains my key planet.

The former Advent home world now is home to my new reality TV shows and other pop culture telecasts which...

Spread out into the star system like a poison.

The Climax

The Ishendi were slowly expanding with all in retreat of our growing might.  The Vasari do manage to make a hit and run attack on Koroth...

Oh, they'll pay.

The first Vasari faction and I meet for a final show down.

It is the end for them.  Now for the other Vasari faction.  My main task force meets theirs.

The End is near...

And so the Ishendi begin to roll up the remaining Vasari in the system.

And to finish them off, I finally get my hands on the ultimate weapon.

Which wipes out the last Vasari world.

Conclusions

The Ishendi prove that their militaristic culture is quite adept at handling the invading alien Vasari or the vengeful Advent. There was relatively little diplomacy in this particular case.  When there's more factions, no one power can dominate as I did in this case (only 4 players representing 3 different races).  Some of the TEC infighting in other systems has resulted in some shocking alliances between humans, aliens, and Advent.

I wonder how they'd do against the Drengin...