Funny story >_>

I assume they didn't follow you back then?!?

Here's a story based on my first proper game last night (which is still in progress)...

I constructed two large fleets last night at my primary shipyards, only a couple of hops away from my homeworld. I attacked a neighbouring planet with both fleets, destroyed a number of structures and bombarded the planet from orbit with my capital ships. The enemy fleet showed up and my god, it was massive. I told both fleets to retreat back to the shipyards immediately, as I didn’t stand a chance.

During the excitement I failed to notice that my enemy had increased the bounty on my head. Pirates were on the way. A few minutes later, the enemy fleet showed up! They followed me back to teach me a lesson and even with the many turrets and hangers at my disposal, my two fleets were heavily outnumbered. I couldn’t risk leading the enemy back to my homeworld so I decided to fight it out, perhaps hoping for some divine intervention.

The enemy fleet started moving towards my base with alarming speed. Literally seconds before they were in range, guess who showed up?! The frakkin’ PIRATES! Despite the bounty on my head, the pirate fleet opened fire on my enemy. Although the pirate fleet was eventually destroyed, they managed to take out a sizable chunk of my enemy’s fleet as well. I committed all of my forces to attacking what remained of the enemy fleet and forced them to withdraw.

Epic stuff. The battles were frantic, beautiful and exciting to watch. The pirates saved me from certain destruction, deliberately or not. And for that, I find my perspective of them changed somewhat. My own ignorance forced them down upon me, a blessing in disguise it would seem!

This could be a good thread to start sharing our fun / funny experiences!

It is. It's absolutely epic.

hehe well let me tell you my story of my first easy 2 player game.

after doing some quick exploring, i find out that a pirate base, is the central system, and the only way to get to my opponent. Great, i figure they are a nice buffer, that he has to fight through if he wants to battle me before i'm ready.

So i build up, expandt to all the nearby planets. and when i'm all done, i send in my 20 ship fleet with 1 capital ship in it, to take out those pirates.

I jump in, see about 300+ pirates, that proceed to wipe out my fleet in less than 30 seconds.

note, this is an easy game. So i return, and rebuild my entire fleet (note still hadn't figured out how to get more than 1 capital ship at that time) and send it in again. More wiping.
Ok i found that it was time to make up a fleet, that actually stood a chance. So in i send 12 of the advent ships that do Area damage over time, 1 capital ship, and 8 support cruisers, that can Area of effect push back.
Following a 30+ minutes fight, where this little fleet, wiped the floor of the now 400+ pirate fleet. It looked absolutely hillarious, to see this massive swarm of pirates, approach my fleet, only to suddenly with great speed, be pushed away from my fleet.

after having won that battle, i proceeded to wipe out the enemy ai, without any ships lost. So on easy mode, the enemy ai is weak, the pirate ai is strong.

I don't have any funny experiences, but that's because I generally wait till i have 40+ frigates and 2 or more caps, and generally know how to wipe the floor with that fleet. Best thing that happened in one of my games was following the second pirate attack on a guy who had no idea who I was or that I was coming with the combined fleet of an ally and me in the early game. He was eviscerated, and even though he immediately tried to get his flagship out, it was hurting badly and had no chance. He had almost lost before he knew what happened.

I'm in the middle of my second game and completely forgot about that whole culture thing. Now my capital planet is down to 60% allegiance and dropping fast. (:(

I think it's time to start my third game.

Quick question: Is that in an MP game or against the AI? (I ask because I've yet to hear whether the computer uses culture.)

The AI does indeed use culture, but typically not until late in the game.

Yep... it was a game against the AI, and I can assure you, they do use culture.

Second game. I thought that wormholes were just like asteroid belts/storms in being empty, uncolonizable areas...Whoops...Lost two worlds to swarms of green before I managed to call back a reserve fleet and one of my front line fleets as well (first game was on a small map w/o wormholes).