14 DAY TRIAL // One of the biggest complaints about Civilization: Beyond Earth when it was launched in 2014 was that the game took one of the defining elements of the series, the Wonders, and made them barely useful, with most representing just a way for gamers to sink a lot of resources into structures with limited long-term value.
In the more recent Sid Meier's Starships, Firaxis seems to have gone the other way, as the planets each have a unique structure that can be invaluable during the middle and the late game, especially when the player is lucky enough to control the systems which have the truly cool ones.
At the moment, my favorite boost is that offered by the Wonder that allows me to actually use my fighters the moment they leave their carrier, which basically means that I get an entire extra turn to overwhelm the enemy with my numbers, making it harder for him to retaliate.
There's also a Shield Modulator, meaning that the defensive capabilities of my fleets are increased and I am free to spend less time on maneuvering and more on simply taking out the ships of my enemies.
It takes luck to control the planets with these Wonders and a lot of resources to actually build them, but they are good enough as to make some portions of the game almost trivial once they become available.
Fleets need to be upgraded
After a few campaign victories, I decided to limit myself when it comes to Wonders and I focused more on the production of energy in order to make my ships more powerful and try out different upgrade paths.
The big decision when it comes to fleet management is whether to first try and improve existing ships at least a few levels or if the money investment to get another vessel should be prioritized.
I opted for quality over quantity initially, creating one powerful but slow ship to deliver torpedoes and to launch fighters, while another one focused on shields to close with the enemy.
Sid Meier has created a series of interesting choices with the fleet system and almost all of them create interesting results as long as the player has a clear strategy in mind.
But overall, the investment in Wonders seems to bring more long-term advantages in Starships than a focus on energy.
