3rd game, I got into my first big war. In this summary you'll see a bunch of newbie mistakes; but it is noteworthy, for all those of you who are thinking about buying GalCiv but haven't decided yet, how the game makes it possible to recover and make a difference despite early losses.

I kind of forgot what my whole game strategy (WGS) was (newbie mistake #1), but since I had chosen the Technologists as my party, I was pursuing as many tech improvements as possible. Earth was up to 120+240 research, for example. Things were going well; my military was rated in the high 80's, which obviously isn't the best, but certainly not the worst. I had eliminated the Yor and Drengin in two previous, brief conflicts. So it's only good guys; looks safe.

Funny how someone will always step up to the plate to make things difficult (in a game with well-written AI, anyway). I noticed the Torians moving some combat transports around, but that was nothing new. I had been doing the same taking over any new minor races that came up. Suddenly the Torians contacted me, demanding that I hand over a Starbase near their turf that is "obviously intended to disrupt our empire" or somesuch. Since I had, in fact, packed it with influence mods (everything short of Party Palace, I think), I obviously couldn't let them have it. So I called their bluff, thinking they'd just go away. After all, it's their first threat for at least 4 years. LOL

Newbie mistake #2.

I hadn't really noticed just how many capital ships they had built (#3). Turns out that they outnumbered me, cap ship-wise, about 10 to 1. Most of that 80-rated military of mine was in Defenders and Battleaxes, which I erroneously thought (#4) could stand up to cap ships. Four turns later, ALL my starbases were gone, and not only in the isolated arm of my empire near Torian space. All of them. Now they were moving en masse into my core worlds.

I immediately contacted them and put a peace treaty on the table. And some techs. And some more techs. And a few ships. And some more techs. I gave up before I ever found out what they would have accepted to stop attacking me.

I did a smart thing and took out most of their transports before my navy was literally annihilated a few turns later. Not even my core worlds had any defense left. I considered going back to my last save, but I was having WAY too much fun! The Torians had me completely outgunned. I could only be thankful that their allies hadn't joined the fray (they never did, thank GAWD). I decided on a guerilla warfare strategy; make scout drones to see what's going on in their space (I could crank them out every turn on the one planet that wasn't good enough to slap dreadnoughts together) and make corvettes to hit their trade routes. It's my only chance.

I never did get more than two corvettes out at a time. They had cap ships patrolling that would usually take them out. BUT I was able to start hurting their trade. In the meantime, about three combat transports of theirs managed to get through. Two invasions repelled (barely), one world taken. Eh, didn't like that planet much anyway. I was also able to get enough cap ships orbiting my systems that they stopped attacking.

After about six months of stalemate where I'm completely turtled but they're losing trade ships, I ask for peace again. They paid ME to stop, about 2bc a turn for 50 turns.

Now I've got at least one corvette sweeping every sector on the frontier. They've rebuilt their trade with me, but I've redirected all my trade to the Arceans, Altarians, and minor civs. Their edge seems not to have lasted, and I am about back where we started, though still with fewer SB's. All the resources I lost gots snapped up by the Altarians and Arceans. My only roadblock really is the debt, but I've found I can sell DN's to the Altarians for twice what I would pay to keep them up myself.

I just think it's so cool that the game supports being able to figure out a way to hit the Torians where it hurt even though they had me completely strangled at first glance. And now I know that defenders can't keep a ranger at bay. Looking at the numbers, it's obvious in retrospect, but hey!

Any more cool war stories out there?