Nobody responded during my Entrenchment thread earlier that they wanted to play.  This is probably because Entrenchment had only been out for 3 days and everyone was more interested in Empire: Total War.  I thought I would give it another shot today.  Entrenchment is the expansion pack to Sins of the Solar Empire and only costs 9.95.  If anyone has the expansion, my Ironclad name is Senlis.  Post if you want to play.

I've downloaded it, but I've been too busy to play it...how is it?

I own it and palyed the single player some. I suck at it as I havent sat down to figure everything out but its a fun but LONG game.

I don't have entrenchment :P And I suck at the game.

This is the thread I wrote about the expansion, Entrenchment: http://www.vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=62161

It is very long, but I will summarize.  The space stations are the main attraction to the expansion.  The are only moderately expensive, less than a capitol ship.  They are very usefull and can be upgraded to serve different purposes, but are very well balance in combat.  Not too easy to destroy, but not too hard.

As for the game as a whole, it is very good.  My favorite strategy game to date.  The goal of the game is to take over the solar system that serves as a map.  The game is somewhat complex, but is very streamlined so it does not bog down you time.  I view the game as very balanced.  Managing your planets is important, but does not take up much of your time.  Same thing with research and resource management. 

Your military most likely will end up being split into 2 - 3 fleets and are usually led by capitol ships [CS].  The CS are very powerful and gain level-ups during combat.  However, they will be torn apart if left alone, so once again...balanced.

In summary, the game is very well designed.  It doesn't have any of the interface issues that bugs me about Total War games (that being said, I do like the Totar War games).  If you own the original and end up liking it, you should go ahead and get the expansion since it is only 10$.

It is a long game.  Then again, I am used to referring to Civilization matches as long, so SOSE is not really that long

One more post. The people who have already posted mentioned that they aren't very good at the game. I am not either. In fact, I have held off at playing the game any more until I can find some people to play with/against, so don't let that stop you in wanting to play online.

I've played the game ALOT...as it's great for me on the long flights I have to take...but I had not played Entrenchment as yet...One of the problems I usually find for me is always needing to have a fleet a jump or 2 away from my planets to avoid attacks on my critical planets.  The previous defensive structures were okay at helping my fleets, but totally couldn't hold their own against a relatively unbalanced enemy of attack ships...so I'm REALLY hopeful that Starbases and minefields can change this.  BTW, Sins is the BEST 4X game since MOO2, imho.

Starbases are very powerful when the combat aspects of it is upgraded, but will still fall against a dedicated enemy attack. Most of the defenses in Sins are manly against small attacks or to delay the enemy until your defensive fleet can arrive. That is the way I understand it anyway.

That's good...I'm not looking for defensive forces to win the day, just forces to hold off the enemy until my fleet can arrive!