by MarcM, 18 January 2026
Close Encounters adds lots of options to the 4X contest between empires in the depths of space. Last week, using planetary jump gates, I conquered enough alien worlds to jump straight into Terran space. As before, I’m condensing the turns I played through, skipping the slow bits, not reporting on the Economic Phases, ignoring the fleet battles and focusing on the ground fights
Next Stop Terra?
click images to enlarge
The Vasyrian ground units on Gath jump through the gate to Eden, preventing a Terran ship from colonizing the planet. From Eden, they also threaten the colony on Orion, deep in the Terran system.
The newest batch of Vasyrian Space Marines moves to Gath, just one jump away from the Terran colony on Andromeda.
The Terrans have two groups of Infantry. The Infantry on Andromeda stays in place to defend against the Marines on Gath. The units on Odyssey jump to Orion to answer the threat from the Vasyrian units on Eden.
Four Space Marine units exit the jump gate on Andromeda while Marines and Grav Armor units jump to Orion. The Terrans have four Infantry units guarding the colony. The odds on Orion are worse for Terra. Three Space Marine units and two units of Grav Armor face off against three Infantry units. On the bright side for the Terrans, each planet gets Militia units equal to the size of the colony (five in this case) and the Vasyrians can’t attack this turn.
The Terran Infantry and Militia engage the Vasyrian Space Marines on Andromeda. The Terrans need 4s or less to score hits. The Infantry fires first. They only get one hit, not enough to destroy one of the Marine units. The Militia gets no hits.
The Terrans on Orion do better, scoring two hits, enough to take out a Marine unit. The Militia on Orion gets one hit in, but it has no effect.
The Terran turn is next, so they get a second chance at the invaders if they survive the first round of combat. Since the Space Marines are attacking, they use their C-6 value and can fire first. They need 6s or less to score hits on the Militia and 5s or less for the Infantry. They get a 5 and a 4. Four hits mean two Terran Militia units and two Infantry units are destroyed.
The two remaining Terran Infantry units fire. They get one hit…not enough to destroy the Marines. However, the remaining Militia get a second hit and finish off the Marine unit.
On Orion, The Grav Armor units fire first, followed by the Marines. Again, they need 6s or less against the Militia. They get one hit, reducing the Militia to four units. Now it’s Terra’s turn. Since some of the Vasyrians are Grav Armor and the Terrans have none, the Marines can get the benefit of the Grav Armor, a defense factor of 2. The Terran Militia needs a 3 or less, and they get nothing. The regular Infantry gets no hits.
No, Not on to Terra
The Terrans advance their Ground tech to level 3 and purchase four units of Space Marines on Andromeda and four on Orion. At this point, the Vasyrians have likely overstepped, not considering the effectiveness of the Terran Militia or how quickly Terra would crank out ground units. Vasyr invests in five more Grav Armor units and they jump to Rukbat, but it’s unlikely these reinforcements will arrive in time.
The Vasyrian Marines on Andromeda attack the Terran Militia and succeed in finishing them off. But the Terran Marines fire next. They get two hits, destroying one of the enemy Marine units. The Infantry gets no hits. The invading Marines are holding, just barely.
Over on Orion, the Vasyrian troops only destroy one Militia unit. The Terrans counterattack and finish off the last Vasyrian Space Marines but do no damage to the Grav Armor units.
Help Is Coming…Too Late
Next turn, the Vasyrian Grav Armor units on Rukbat jump to Gath and prepare to support the invasion. The Vasyrian Marines on Andromeda attack. They get one hit, destroying an Infantry unit before it can fire. Now the Terran Marines counterattack. They score three hits, destroying one of the attacking units. The remaining Infantry gets no hits.
On Orion, the Terran Marines fire on the last two Grav Armor units, destroying one. The Grav Armor fires on the Militia and destroys one unit. The Infantry and Militia each land a hit, destroying the last of the Grav Armor.
On the next Vasyrian turn, the invading Marines take out all the last Terran Infantry Unit. During the Terran turn the Marines on Orion jump to Andromeda to join the fight. The Vasyrians attack first, but don’t get enough hits. Once the Terrans can fire next round, they finish off the invaders with their first two rolls.
With their invading forces wiped out, the Grav Armor units on Gath have no one to support and are now at risk from eight units of Marines, so they fall back to Rukbat. Vasyr will try again.
A Failed Invasion, a Successful Experience
I wasn’t using the best tactics and I started the invasion way too soon. Overwhelming force was called for and I didn’t have it. But I got a chance to see how ground combat works in Close Encounters and I was impressed. Okay, it’s pretty much like ship combat so you have to invest in the idea that those are troops not ships, but I didn’t find that hard. The inclusion of the Militia (they’re surprising effectiveness notwithstanding), the different classes of troops, and memories of every science fiction book I’ve read or movie I’ve watched that included power armor made it work for me.
Once you add Transports to your fleets, slug it out and orbit around an enemy planet while screening the Transports and then drop ground troops on the surface, you’ve got a pretty epic story going on. With a couple of tweaks to a combat system you’ve already learned in the base game, you’ve got an experience with more depth, more to do, more tech to research and another way to win. Or lose.
The downside was that it took a while to ramp up economies to be able to launch even a small invasion force (and in this scenario I didn’t even have the expense of buying Transports). But I expect that slow ramp up in a 4X game, and you can occupy yourself with exploration, exploitation, and expansion and try to be patient. I wasn’t patient. I rushed it, invaded too soon, and got walloped, but I got there and enjoyed the experience. I was fully invested.
Space Empires 4X Series
(Re)introduction ~ (Re)Learning AAR pt 1 & pt 2 ~ Ground Battles pt 1 & pt 2 ~ Replicators pt 1 & pt 2 ~ All Good Things pt 1 & pt 2 ~ Forum Thread
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