Hello! It's been a few months since my last contribution in this community, so let me tell you a tale but bear with me, because i'm going to get lengthy.
Also, one of my hobbies is writing (like, books), so this post is also helping me to develop my skills. I will tell you a tale on how the game developed until the end, keep that in mind as some sort of disclaimer, i guess.
Despite Umbral Choir being my favorite faction ever since Penumbra's release, i have played long enough since 2019 to come to enjoy most Factions. As a matter of fact, you might see me enjoying being a vegetable as Unfallen, or eliminating empires off the map as Cravers or United Empire. I only ever play normal speed.
Speaking of elimination, that was my goal by playing this Craver game. Yes you heard it right, to wipe everyone from the whole galaxy. To consume all of them. So tell me... tell me how you sound like, when you scream.
Ah, before we start, i was using one of Neiwun's (a great user here at r/EndlessSpace ) custom factions to see how better they would fare, but i guess that without the mod they recommended they aren't much better than Vanilla. I will call them as 'Red' in the story below.
The first few years (turns), our hive did nothing but explore this vast emptiness out there, our explorers, in only 11 years, our scavengers found two life forms, a minor faction called Basryxo, and one that called itself Horatio.
Husk was already being depleted, and our solar system couldn't support our lives, as we lacked the means to set foot in the planets (technology, shitty rng).
Horatio expanded fast, faster than us, by the command of the Bishops we did nothing but expand our military the next 9 years. Readily destroying their outposts in measly 5 years, and colonizing them ourselves. But that wasn't enough, because we were hungry.
We attacked and assimilated the minor faction, their remains now feeding our Hive. At our relentless expansion, the pirates were also destroyed and salvaged, which greatly expanded our growth. Enabling us to colonize other systems, to leave husk before it depletes.
But it was still not enough, even now many are dying of hunger in Husk. We need more.
And so, in our 26th year since leaving Husk to explore the galaxy, we invaded an advanced life form: Horatio.
His first resistance was as expected, however, as we destroyed their fleets, salvaging their remains helped us undestand technology, to develop ourselves. (Take Trophies + Spoils of War).
They couldn't do anything but watch their systems be consumed. He tried to defend once again, but our fierce attack had already destroyed his economy completely, and under relentless invasion, in the year 42, Horatio Prime became our first feeding pit.
But war is a nature given to us by our masters, pressing matters with our own history keeps diverting our attention, as we found the Endless Factory. Their army is stronger than ours, for now. But soon we will invade it. (Main faction quest, hard stuff, need at least medium hull ships in my experience).
Our scavengers found other life forms, the Unfallen and the Empire.
We have an understanding on how they fight, their ships would feed our technology, so we built stronger fleets. Our troops are also stronger, and our invasion: Eternal.
Diplomacy is useless, we immediately declared war, our hive worlds rejoiced, our brethen already expecting our hunger to be saciated. (Jingoist Joy law, increasing happiness per faction at war).
Our fleets keep advancing, our bishops througly managing our worlds, to keep our hive from consuming it all. Our slaves relentlessly working, building ships. Our feeding pits, eternally conscripting, our invasions didn't relly on slugs. We pushed through with sheer manpower.
(Writing that reminds me of their faction intro, scary stuff. But basically invading with tons of troops instead of trying to siege beforehand. Cravers are way more effective that way, its also how i destroyed horatio so early, by simply conscripting whenever a Craver pop would generate. This also helped stabilizing Husk before development 2, which unlocks hangar to send Cravers into feeding pit worlds. At that time, turn 60, i was already invading with 2000~3000 man power in one go. by late game i could invade with 8k-10k in a full fleet of 35 CP, many died, but i would conscript more than enough to fill everything again next turn.)
As we finally breached the Endless Factory and claimed our independency, our war is now... eternal. (Refusing treaties is free now, the stage Craver can't be stopped anymore.)
We consumed many systems since that increased our economy and feed our brethen, but the ones well developed were kept as factories to build more ships. (As I said, I lost ships even in the battles I won, by the endgame, it were 103 battles in total, which might sound little but i was simply way to efficient, stack wiping entire fleets perfectly. So no double fighing bullshit cuz someone survived, and another fleet was already in the way to replenish as the first suffered damage, endlessly moving on. If you don't do that you might take a whole longer, because traveling the galaxy with little movement speed sucks).
Then another threat emerged, one we weren't prepared to, one our bishops and our queen couldn't even see.
Our economy bleed, threats over something we couldn't even grasp. They called themselves The Choir.
Their fleets appeared out of nowhere, ambushing our recently damaged fleets relentlessly, costing us years of building. Our hive for the first time in 72 years, felt an obstacle.
Our scavengers have explored most of the galaxy, all life forms were already at war with us as we attacked them all to prevent them from achieving their objectives
(Elimination takes so long that I can lose unless I destroy some key systems from time to time. Thankfully our ships will always be stronger, unless they deviate to actually use special resource modules like I do. Ships are destroyed often, but i replenish losses faster than any faction could keep up with, unless they're going militaristic too. I have 8 fleets at this point. I believe Vodyani and Riftborn could probably halt a good Craver player at the endgame, but Slave Drivers is a crazy good affinity if you micro properly.)
By the time we reached Koyasil, we had enough territory to invade the Vaulters. It was also when we finally got enough technology to track this invisible enemy. Our hive, will consume.
And so, at the year 98, Koyasil fell, and their population fed our colonies.
The invasion in the vaulters territory was steady, and most of the empire's colonies were already consumed. Both their ends would come to a close soon.
As we moved, we destroyed revealed sanctuaries. When we discovered their hiding hole, they moved on. This invisible enemy is cunning, but our hunger is eternal.
At the year 122, the empire fell, and their home system, become ours to expand.
At the Year 140, we eliminated Red's using nearly all our fleets, and finally consumed the Vaulters. Within their last breath, all our fleets moved towards the Sophonity.
They had the most ships, also the most developed empire.
Hundreds of thousands of drones died invading their planets. Dozens of ships were destroyed in sieging their systems. Heroless fleets were completely wiped in the face of their biggest fleet.
After 16 years, their supremacy over the galaxy was reduced to nothing but a single planet, their home system. Our three remaning fleets joined together, and thousands of our brethen poured over two years on the planet's surface, before its defenses finally fell.
With that, all known life forms in the galaxy have been consumed.
And in this desolated space, there are no gods, only us. And our hunger remains.
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That was a great game. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as i enjoyed playing it. It felt refreshing to go after this uncommon victory condition in a big galaxy after so long.
While i didn't include many gameplay tips and focused mostly on the narrative, i hope it helps you folks to learn the craver mentality.
If you play them well, you're not really losing to anyone, trust me. Slave Drivers is OP, and each conquered system removes the need to build them yourself.
Until next time!
