Scroll smoothly from a single fighter out to a god's-eye view of a cluster of stars gives an unmatched sense of scale.

I wasn't sure if there were Xenomorphs there, but now I'm sure there aren't.

Optional victory conditions are handy for cutting epic-length wars short in dramatic fashion.

Running away? I guess that's what the Vasari are best at.

Titans don't actually become unstoppable juggernauts until they've won quite a few battles.

Time for some hot Titan-on-Titan action.

Pirates are much fiercer in Rebellion, and not to be trifled with early in a game.

Hey guys? Please don't try to crawl down the enemy Titan's throat.

Everything I love about the original Sins of a Solar Empire -- plus all the extra content from the Diplomacy and Entrenchment expansions -- is present and accounted for in Rebellion. Considering it's one of my favorite real-time strategy games of the past decade, that's a great place to start -- and it expands on it with powerful new warships and abilities that a lot of new and interesting late-game strategic options for interplanetary conquest. When the TEC Rebels start summoning Pirate fleets to their aid and the Vasari Loyalists start eating entire planets for resources, Rebellion feels like its own excellent game.If you're new to Sins, what makes it great is its combination of slow-paced but epic-scale action with tons and tons of things to do. Building an interplanetary empire, commanding fleets to attack and defend territory, fortifying and sieging worlds, and even conducting diplomacy in real time is a demanding act of spinning plates, but it gives plenty of time to think and manage it without breaking a sweat.Rebellion expands that in an interesting direction: instead of adding a new faction to the trio of TEC, Vasari, and Advent, it creates Loyalist and Rebel sub-faction variants of each, and adds a handful of powerful new ships and some game-changing new technologies. (It reminds me of the Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath expansion.) It also looks nicer, thanks to graphical upgrades such as high-resolution textures and shadows. But those are really only perceptible when the camera is zoomed in close for sightseeing -- particularly on the elaborately designed and enormous new Titan-class battleships. That makes turning off the UI and watching two fleets engage that much prettier -- and who doesn't love huge space battles? Of course, I wouldn't trade the amazing zoom for graphics twice as good, because the ability to scroll smoothly from a single fighter out to a god's-eye view of a cluster of stars gives an unmatched sense of scale and an easy, intuitive way to navigate around the map.While the option exists to play on a huge, multi-star-system map, I find Sins plays best on a randomized medium or large single-system map where players start far enough apart that they can colonize a few worlds before butting heads, but close enough together that they don't have to wonder if they're alone in the Universe. Even then, unless you're playing on a small map a game can easily last for 10 engrossing hours or more, so new optional victory conditions (set up when you start a game) are handy for cutting those epic-length wars short in dramatic fashion.With some or all of these victory conditions enabled there's a new tension: I felt I had to watch my back and spend more on defense, lest a quick strike at my homeworld by an offense-oriented faction like the TEC Rebels might knock me out of the game, or that the empire that'd been turtling all game (something the TEC Loyalists excel at) spending his money on research might win a scientific victory before I could cripple his research stations. The Last Flagship Standing victory is also intriguing: each player starts with a special capital ship that, if destroyed, knocks them out of the game. But thanks to heavy defenses and abilities designed to get it out of trouble quickly (like temporary invulnerability, engine boost, and cancel debuffs), it's so difficult to kill that if you're at a point where you're in real danger of losing it, you've probably already lost the war to the fleet that's smashed through whatever defenses you hid your flagship behind.That fleet is probably led by an enemy Titan. The way these Super Star Destroyer-sized warships are balanced has worked very well in my games: they're imposing from the moment they're launched from their special foundry structures (at great cost) and each has unique and staggeringly powerful abilities ranging from a sniper shot that'll kill most frigates, to buffs that supercharge its supporting fleet, but they're vulnerable -- they don't actually become unstoppable juggernauts until they've won quite a few battles. Pro tip: don't let your enemy level up his Titan faster than you do, or itcut through your fleet like the Borg at Wolf 359.The AI feels like it's taken a step back with Rebellion, though. It's unlikely to present much of a challenge for experienced Sins players unless you team them up against you, but it'll definitely challenge new players with some substantial attacks if it's set to aggressive. (Given developers Ironclad and Stardock strong history of patching, I'm confident that'll improve later.)Friendly AI has some issues, too -- I've run into a few strange ship behaviors, like half of my fleet clumping up and closing to point-blank range with an enemy Titan, which is almost always a completely terrible idea. The other new ship class, the small and maneuverable corvettes, also have some strange, unnatural-looking movement patterns, but I'm willing to put up with that in exchange for their usefulness for cheap anti-fighter support, taking out enemy scouts, and crippling capital ship systems. They do tend to get swatted like flies if not micromanaged, though.On that note, many of the new abilities on the three new capital ships and the Titans seem focused on rewarding finesse and micromanagement. The TEC factions' new capital ship, for example, can send boarding parties to permanently commandeer an enemy ship, but only if used after the ship's been heavily damaged. It's not something you'll want to trust to auto-cast.Rebellion doesn't stop there -- nearly every system in Sins has been modified in some way, most notably the Diplomacy research tree. It's now far more useful, thanks to faction-specific researchable bonuses that unlock for both you and an ally. And the pirates, which conduct raids at fixed intervals against the player with the biggest player-set bounty on his head? They're much fiercer in Rebellion, and not to be trifled with early in a game.I do feel that $40 is a little steep for a stand-alone expansion after developer Ironclad's Vancouver, British Columbia neighbor Relic has spent years training me to expect a $30 price for its content-rich Company of Heroes and Dawn of War 2 expansions. But on the other hand, Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion is an outstanding and unique real-time strategy game that offers a welcome, slower alternative to StarCraft 2's intense pacing. As a life-long fan of sci-fi space battles, I simply can't help but strongly recommend it.: The 4X space strategy competition of summer 2012 is now officially underway! Next up will be Endless Space, which will be followed by Legends of Pegasus. Do you plan on branching out to these other space strategy games, or will you stick with Rebellion?