Distant Worlds – Shadows: Diversifying Our Portfolio, Preparing for War…

It’s been a while since we last visited Paul the Polite Pirate, and if you recall in our last entry, our pirate gang felt a bit threatened due to two rival gangs canceling protection agreements with us. Paul isn’t the most aggressive of pirate leaders, sure, but he’s nothing if not pragmatic, and takes us to some interesting places. So please join me, won’t you, for the continuing saga of Paul the Polite Pirate…

I could see the writing on the wall, anyone with a brain could. Both Nibu Security and Slukis Mercenaries canceled their peace agreements very closely to each other while Dread Security became more bold and brazen, and I could only see one conclusion to that: They all saw us as weak, and were preparing to strike. Not wanting to make it easy for them, I assembled some of our separate military assets into a second fleet with which to strike, either offensively or otherwise. I was not going to get caught with my pants down, that’s for sure.

One of our important colonies was Edreit, and we had held a tenuous control over the planet. Eventually the fighting over Edreit and its valuable resources got to a fevered pitch, as more ships warped in to taste the glory of battle. While glory can’t pay bills or buy new ships, it can keep morale high, so I of course trusted my captains to not only bring the fight to our enemies, but not waste resources being martyrs. The fighting intensified to a point, and at one point we lost control only to immediately try to reclaim it. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the ground resources on hand to take the planet back, and had to withdraw.

During this time, Dread Security was becoming more and more of a problem. Their ships were become more brazen in their attacks, as they not only went after our lone scout ships, but our ships protecting some of our valuable holdings, such Calipsa 5, which turned into a fierce fight between Dread Security ships and our own. We held onto the colony, thankfully, but just barely. I had reached out to Dread Security to try and find a peaceable settlement to these aggressions, but they laughed in my face, likely thinking my outreached hand was a sign of weakness.

It wasn’t, it was just the last chance the had to shake it before I used it to slap them back.

I’m a patient man, however, first and foremost. I kept Dread at bay while researching new technologies and pursuing new avenues of funding, and in that time we found an abandoned base and acquired a new colony, Ingiyie. All this time I made sure we slowly kept building our reserves, using those to quietly build new ships in the background, hoping Dread wouldn’t notice. Eventually, several months past without any major engagement from Dread, and my advisors then thought the time was right to finally strike back. I agreed with them, and thought their suggestion of a mining facility would be an excellent first target.

The raid on the Dread mining base was a complete success, and my forces — emboldened by this success — began to attack Dread more forcefully, but in my zeal to slap Dread around, I had foolishly forgotten about Nibu  Security, who callously stole one of our freighters, killing its crew. I, of course, blamed myself for the loss, but I shoved that guilt aside for the time being, vowing to deal with Nibu later. I had my own fleets to focus on, and found that we were losing military ships too quickly due to the blood lust of their captains, so I issued a standing order for our ships to be less aggressive and more cautious in the hopes of keeping my number of ships as solid as possible. Even though I hated the idea of putting our ships out of action for a while, I knew the suggested refit would give our commanders the break they needed to better follow my advice to be less aggressive.

While the bulk of the fleet was refitting, our exploration ships had found an amazing new weapon dubbed the World Annihilator. This magnificent looking weapon was only partially finished, and I wanted to send a party to finish construction before anyone else found it first. The weapon was surrounded by space slugs, but my ships finished them off without as much resistance as we anticipated, which was a pleasant relief.

With that, I began to feel a bit better. We were slowly replenishing our forces, and found an amazing new toy to play with. Then, tragedy struck…

Terak Roxilli, one of our finest captains, popular with the men and long-time friend to my father, was killed in action in a glorious battle near Dacshii. Many of my ships were either being refitted or refueled so there was nothing I could do about this, and my grief would need to be quelled for the time being. I wasn’t done, though, and I wasn’t out either. Dread Security was at the top of my list now, and I would forge my small empire into a point with which to stab them through their heart. It would take both time and patience, and I just hoped we had enough of each to make my plans come to fruition…

This particular time spent with the game, more than any other, showed me what a true juggling act playing a pirate in Distant Worlds: Shadows could be. Between managing raids, keeping spending in check to facilitate growth and keeping an ever-present eye on the risk versus reward of each scenario (whether it be a planetary raid or an attack on another pirate gang) was nothing short of thrilling. Even though I’ve never had the demeanor I feel to be an excellent pirate in space games, Distant Worlds: Shadows is fine with that, still allowing me to play in my own way. It’s nothing short of amazingly satisfying.

Stay tuned for my next installment, where I hope to slowly chip away at the foundation of Dread Security’s house and, eventually, have it come crumbling down around them. Thanks for reading, and please enjoy all of the screenshots taken for this entry below. Until next time! :)