I was pretty excited to play Entrenchment.  I was even more excited when I saw the price was $10!!  Thanks IC! I'm a casual player, I never play online.  I can only find couple hours to play per week.

My first play of Entrenchment was a huge failure.  I thought that a starbase can protect a planet, since there's only (1) starbase allowed per grav well.  So I plopped in a basic starbase at the edge of a grav well and happily waited for something to warp in and get slaughtered.  Well, since I didnt upgrade the darn thing, or have any other defenses, a few enemy seige's warped in out of range of my starbase, went around to the otherside of the planet, and began to pound my planet like I owed them money or something. (LOL)  I was not impressed, I was like, that thing cost me like 5000 credits or something, and it cant even protect a planet??  I was like, okay, so what?, is this thing just like a big freakin huge turret or something then!?

So, the next time I had a chance to play, I put a little more thought into it, and read a few posts here on the forums.  I did a medium 4 player FFA with (1) hard AI, and me playing TEC.  This time, after my scouts gave me the lay of the land, I looked for choke points and spent every penny I had into getting these 2 planets at the chokes points that lead to my homeworld.  My scouts showed me that there was HC's to the left and only frigates guarding planets to the right.  I split my fleet, sending a Kol to take the left flank and frigates to the right.  Since I had a Kol on the left, instead of blowing credits on a starbase, I reseached turrets upgrades instead and put in 4 turrets around the planet with overlapping coverage, then dropped in a repair bay covering 3 of those 4 turrets.  When the enemy AI dropped in to say hello, I pulled my fleet back into the range of the turrets and repair bay, which allowed me to survive the first wave of a Captial plus 20 frigates they usually send.  This worked for the left flank.  For the right, since I only had frigates over there, I rushed a starbase frigate over to the right (3 jump lanes away) and positioned it within the range of the repair bay, and I survived that first wave as well.

Later in the game I reached a stalemate on the right flank between my planet and the enemy AI planet right next to mine.  We both had upgraded starbases with Caps and Frigates.  If I attack him, I would be minus a starbase.  So I thought, how can I lure him in?  I mean, he kept sending a scout every minute to see what I was up too.  So, I looked at my diplomacy and I was at 60%.  So I signed a cease fire, and they accepted!  I assume they accepted because they wanted to go around the backside of the top enemy AI, and attack them from the rear.  So, as SOON as I saw them warping in, I went to war!!  I had 3 Caps, phase jump inhibitors, turrets, and a fully upgraded starbase waiting for them.  It was a slaughter house!  Oh man, it was like watching the fully operational Death Star slaughter the resistance fleet in Star Wars, minus the exhaust port weakness thingie...(haha)

Now I had 2 more planets to go and my left flank ai was toast.  Well, there was one planet next to the single star in the system, towards the middle of the map that was the entry point for the top most enemy ai.  Well, as a habit, I starting puting my standard 4 turrent coverage with a repair bay covering 3 of them, around every planet I conquer as my main fleet moves deeper into enemy territory.  I also dropped a frigate factory at this planet for reinforcements. 

This next exchange is what sold me on Entrenchment.  My left flank fleet is 4 jumps away from this middle planet, my right flank fleet is 7 jumps away.  Then, BAM, the top enemy ai jumps into this planet with (2) lvl 4 caps, and 10 frigates and 2 carriers.  I was like, I'm toast!  My fully upgraded turrents have 3500hp's with a repair bay backup.  That buys me enough time to pump out a starbase frigate and waypoint it around the opposite side of the planet, to position itself at the jump lane they came in on.  Which, will get them if they try to retreat, and soften up or kill anything else they are sending in on the way.  Now that the starbase is on its way, I pump out HC's and make them stay within repair bay range.  I also send in a colony frigate in case I lose the planet.  Well, of course they come after my colony frigate, so I make'em chase it (all within the range of the repair bay) while I build my starbase.  I gotta do whatever I have to do, to build and upgrade that darn starbase.  The colony frigate chasing buys me enough time to build the starbase and pick off almost all of the support frigates.  Then, one of the Caps tries to move out of the short range attack of the turrets and HC's, and slips into the range of the Starbase, and WHAM, it's toast, space debree everywhere.  That turned the tide and I didnt lose that planet.

So far, I'm very, very, very happy with this expansion.  I've only played it for 3 hours.  But, it was more entertaining than the $34 bucks I spent taking the family to the movies this weekend.  We had fun, but the movie sucked asteroid balls.

Latter this weak I'll tackle that top enemy ai.  Because of the way the map generated he owns everything north of the lone middle star.  So, things will probably get very ugly when I head up north.  Plus, I think that the top enemy ai is the one I set to hard. 

By the way, I have a request to help us comp stompers.  Please add the enemy type and difficulty to the diplomacy screen.  I cant tell which race I'm up against and what difficulty I set them too.  Am I supposed to remember what race each picture set belongs to or something?  Besides, you know, I really wouldnt want to blow off a diplomacy request from a unfair vasari ai that may be sitting right next to me on the map.