A board game that relies far too heavily on RNG.

You never feel in control of your fate because you either get everything you need, or nothing and just had no chance whatsoever at winning.

And woe befalls whoever decides to try multiplayer where you will inevitably face a team of 3 and just be a constant casualty to their infighting.

A game that after all these years still feels like a disappointment.

Sure you can fight across an entire solar system, or even a galaxy, but against the computer everything feels the same. Always fighting on tiny barren planetoids. And unless you really want to be dumb using the same strategy. (hey building artillery guns from orbit in straight lines towards enemy positions just works!)

Even as they were designing the spiritual successor to Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander, the team behind this game didn't seem to understand the factor that terrain plays in a strategy game. The procedural maps are all just open, there's no bottleneck or tactical advantage outside of building in the obvious place, which is also where you start. Then you just swarm the enemy.

Maybe it's different if you play against humans competitively.