We're back after four years with Forge of Titans, AI War 2's largest expansion ever. It's been a passion project for Badger and his weekly multiplayer games with his family; originally starting as a mod called Sidekicks and then Forge of Empires, and then growing into a full (one might even say overstuffed) expansion for the game.
This has everything from the Forge of Empires mod, which is still available, but also so much more. It's packed with new factions, new mechanics, and a new set of campaigns. The campaigns themselves are something that are meant to answer some long-held player wishes for content to be able to just focus on and win, saying "I've won the game!" versus playing in the main sandbox.
What's in Forge of Titans
Eleven Playable Factions
Apkallu are an ancient civilization that are a fun new way to play the game and have their own victory condition.
The Dyson faction (empire or sidekick) sees a coalition of familiar alien races racing to build megastructure while fending off enemy reapers.
Terran and Skarrith form a dual-faction team, with one tanking and the other being the damage-dealer.
And many more, including lots of "Sidekick" variants. Sidekicks are a smaller-form version of the normal Empire versions of factions. They're great in multiplayer, or you can control both in single-player mode (swap between your main empire and your sidekick faction with F4).
More Minor Factions!
The new Malware faction can be an ally or an enemy, but it's out to corrupt anything it can get its tendrils on.
Renegade Spire are anti-imperialists when it comes to the main spire factions, and they have both a strong offense and defense.
Dark Spire Svikari are another flavor of spire that in particular work well alongside you as an ally that grows with your empire.
30 AI Types
The Cthonic AI comes after you with Malware and daemons.
The Tiamat AI sends Apkallu storm-warriors, siege colossi, and elite destroyers.
The Cruel AI hunts your flagships, bringing plenty of long-range ships to make it very effective at that.
The Castellan AI makes each of its worlds into a fortress. Guard posts either ring the command station or gather into keeps.
The Hateful AI is a specialist in the scariest ships the AI has access to. Probably the new high water mark for difficulty in AI War 2.
The Jub Jub Bird AI, despite its name, is essentially the Jabberwock AI plus ships from across this expansion.
The other 14 include Flenserite, Ametor, Miskatonic, Shadowen, Lernaean, Bandersnatch, Chivalric, Deepstriker, Wraith, Wanderer, Tidal, Turret Master, and Huntrix.
New AI Features
Adaptive AI selectors let you face a general style of AI without knowing exactly who it will be.
The ten AI selectors are Turtle, Aggressor, Long-Range, Infiltrator, Denial, Possessed, Chimera, Virulent, Onslaught, and Abyss.
New difficulty options, including one that makes the Hunter Fleet incredibly aggressive.
Campaigns
We've wanted to add these to AI War 2 for a long time, and we've kind of had that with the quick start scenarios in the base game and the other expansions. But this dials it up to the next level.
These campaigns are a collection of hand-built scenarios to give you a sense of progress. The goal is to give you a way to "beat the game" rather than focusing on normal sandbox play. The idea is that you can beat these and feel proud of completing an arc.
These are all numbered in a suggested order, but you can play them in any order. Two campaigns ship with DLC4 only, and there are three others available as crossovers with the other DLCs:
Fracture Point sees the AI in civil war with itself. Spire mercenaries are involved, the Malware is spreading, and the finale brings the Apkallu in as well.
Heart of the Armada has you lead the Armada Empire through a Battle Royale, then culminates in a showdown with the Hateful AI.
New Ways to Build a Galaxy
Random Faction Combos are 15 themed groups of minor factions. The include types like "One For You, One For Me," "A Coalition Against You," and "Battle Royale."
Balanced Beacons is a new take on discoverable minor-faction beacons that closes off the old free-ally exploit. You don't have to use it if you prefer the exploit!
In a game with multiple AIs, you can now tie an AI-allied faction to just one of them. That means if you experience AI Civil War, each warring AI will bring its own allies.
There are 10 new map types, as well! Circuit Board, Figure-Eight, Graph Theory, Hub Backbone, Ziggurat, Terran Regions, Vagueness, Double, Solar Systems Lite, and Nebula.
And finally, another 197 achievements. This goes to show the scale of this expansion, as this which is more than the base game or any of the other three expansions.
Forge of Empires, Now Official
Forge of Empires (formerly the Sidekicks mod) has been Badger's free mini-DLC for years. Everything in it is now part of Forge of Titans, with official support and new official art. The mod still ships with the game for free, and if you'd rather keep playing it that way, you can. The existing version is frozen at roughly the spot it was at before it folded into this expansion, for legacy purposes.
Only in Forge of Titans
These are the bits that were never a part of Forge of Empires:
The Apkallu, including their Empire, Infused Empire, and Sidekick modes.
The Malware, including its Adversaries, Breaches, corruption, and Protocols.
The Renegade Spire and the Dark Spire Svikari.
The Cthonic, Tiamat, Cruel, and Castellan AI types.
All ten Adaptive selectors.
The five campaigns and their 25 scenarios.
Random Faction Combos.
Balanced Beacons.
Factions allied to a single AI, including in AI Civil War games.
The new Executioner ships and turrets for human empires.
Six of the new maps: Circuit Board, Figure-Eight, Graph Theory, Hub Backbone, Ziggurat, and Terran Region.
All 197 achievements.
Official art for the Forge of Empires content (the mod just reused art from other expansions).
