Thread by @M_O_Z_G

Also, thanks to the Battlesector, I found out about their [Black Lab] earlier game, #Battlestar #Galactica: #Deadlock, and that's great. #Slitherine games have very poor marketing, I learn about many of their games by chance from the fandoms. Meanwhile, they are very interesting.

https://twitter.com/M_O_Z_G/status/1629550609694113796

Space strategies are always challenging for devs. It offers too much freedom, and everything can easily turn into chaos with bad design and control, as was the case with Sword of the Stars. However, this is the way to original mechanics also.

It seems impossible at first glance, but devs managed to make dynamic dog fights in space, and this is still turn-based tactics. In each turn, the player distributes a number of commands, determines the targets and can adjust the future course of all ships.

It sounds boring, but the number of events during the battle doesn't allow you to relax for a minute. Cylons hacks your systems, launch fighters, go from flanks. You need to withdraw ships sometimes to repair fire systems, while they are useless in direct combat.

#Battlestar #Galactica (2004) is famous for space battles, shown as reporter shooting. And of course, the devs tried to implement this feature. Each turn or the entire battle can be watched as cinematic replay.
There's also screenshot making system, the same as in #Battlesector.

Seems that the 3rd dimension is just decorative, but if you look at the armor of the ships, you can notice that they have the top/down armor. This takes tactics to a new level, when it's important how to lead the ship under fire. Also this avoids collisions with other ships.

Another distinctive feature is the structure of campaigns. Besides the main story, side-missions will appear, where you can collect resources and resolve various problems.

To solve all these tasks quickly, one fleet is not enough and over time you will be able to create new, when you will have enough Tilium and time. Commanders can be assigned to each fleet you have, and they also gain the experience to open new abilities.

Side-missions also improves the relationship of the affected colonies towards you, and as a result increases tax revenues of Tilium. It resembles UFO/X-COM. Thus, the further the player moves through the campaign, the more variable and unpredictable the gameplay becomes.

And of course I should notice the great soundtrack from Ash Gibson Greig, the same composer as in Battlesector. Surprising because BS music was inexpressive, while BSG:D sounds like a set of unreleased tracks for the series, there's the spirit of original.

With all the richness of the photo-mode, making a good screenshot is quite difficult due to the high contrast and abundance of bright stars on background. Something practical is obtained mainly in nebulas, where more than one light source presented and stars are dimmed.

I read comments on GOG, noteworthy that many didn't get the main idea of the campaign. Someone wrote that two fleets are needed so auto-combat will be available after jump to sector with Cylons, others complain that everything comes down to grind in the same type of skirmish.

In fact, the task is to anchor Daidalos near the colonie with relevant for the moment bonuses, fortify each colony with a fleet group with a commander and restrain the spread of Cylons from the Alpha sector.

When it's done, you will stably get up to 488 Tylium per turn. After that, the game will follow as intended — you will simply wait for the recharge of FTL engines, build ships, periodically destroying the emerging Cylon fleet groups without frequent expansive jumps around.

Strange that this eludes many players, despite the fact that from the very beginning Helena Agathon said that necessary to build 12 Jupiter-class ship, one per colony. And the main driver of the series was in constant expectation of FTL engines recharging, this is a fetish.🤭

In addition to the campaign, BSG:D offers rouge-lite mode Anabasis, built entirely around FTL jumps. The player must survive in random sectors while FTL recharged, then recall squadrons, stop the repairing, then jump out of the Cylons reinforcements to new of two random sectors.

Chapter 12 near Caprica, where you got Galactica, it's something special. This is 1st mission where the head is spinning from the scale. The battle takes place in low orbit, and the planet is really huge. And almost all object types, from smallest to largest, are presented there.