2006 might not have been the best year for some PC genres, but for strategy gamers, it was awesome. 2006 saw the release of plenty of great city-builders, RTS games and turn-based strategy titles. Even so, there were a few titles that stood head-and-shoulders above the crowd -- titles like Galactic Civilization II: The Dread Lords. GalCiv II is a conquer-the-universe "4X" title that"s enchanted Palpatine-wannabes since it was released last February. It was with great anticipation then, that I downloaded the latest beta version of Dark Avatar, the expansion pack for GalCiv II. What, I wondered, could Brad Wardell and his Stardock team add to a game already overloaded with strategic depth?
A lot, as it turns out.
The game will ship with a new campaign that begins directly after the end of The Dread Lords. The Dread Lords have been defeated by the Drengin and a coalition of other races. Naturally, the Drengin being Drengin, they turn on their "allies" and proceed to beat them into the ground and enslave them. Then, on the verge of subjugating the entire universe, the Drengin find themselves fighting a civil war. The Korath clan of Drengin split from the main empire, determined to wipe all non-Drengin from the universe. The main empire, realizing ruling the universe is no fun if you have no one to lord over, must now face down the Korath in order to make the universe safe for oppression and slavery.