Sins of a Solar Empire add-on delayed

Stardock and IronClad Games have delayed the first micro-expansion for brilliant PC space-strategy game Sins of a Solar Empire.

The add-on, Entrenchment, had been due to pop up next Tuesday 18th November for just under USD 10 (GBP 6.50). But both parties agreed that running a public beta test for pre-order customers would be the best way forward for the game.

"This will allow us to finely hone Entrenchment ahead of its final public debut, the date of which has not yet been set (it will largely depend on beta feedback)," said "Yarlen" (Stardock bigwig) on the game's forums.

"While we know this will disappoint some in the Sins community, we feel this will help make Entrenchment a far stronger product overall."

Entrenchment, as the name suggests, introduces improvements to the defensive side of the game, in an effort to stop attackers bypassing choke points so easily.

On the TEC side, turrets will have longer range and armour debuffs, hangars will have anti-aircraft guns built-in, and there will be new weapons like space mines to avoid.

Oh, and there are starbases; gigantic floating fortresses that can be built anywhere, upgraded in various ways, create spaceships and flourish beefy arsenals that can target multiple enemies at once. They'll take a while to destroy, too - the trade-off being incredibly slow and expensive construction.

To counter defences, TEC will be given an Ogrov torpedo cruiser; a floating missile silo capable of enormous damage but with weak defenses.

Plus there will be planetary bonuses to uncover, more ancient artefacts to find, and a host of graphical improvements and other unit tweaks.

Sins of a Solar Empire was a sleeper-hit of 2008. Head over to our review to find out why.