This game is one hell of a thing. It's rare that I look at the screen and say to myself "this is the fight that kills me, maybe not right away, but there's no coming back from this", and yet in this game it happens fairly often, and every time it feels *right*, it feels earned. I got greedy, or I got desperate, and I overextended and it's time to pay for it.

Let me paint you a picture: I've run up against two strike groups already. My cruiser-killer is low on munitions and badly damaged, and the entire fleet is desperately short on fuel. I've been firing off strategic missiles and launching fighter groups to try to give myself some breathing room, enough space to refuel and repair, but I'm out. No bombs left for the planes, and I've only got four strategic missiles left. Thing is, they're all nukes, but I'm out of options. I think I know where the enemy strike group is, so I press the button, and I kill thousands. I was wrong, the strike group wasn't there, I wiped out a city for nothing. Not long after, ELINT lights up, I have something coming in fast, I already know what it is, the only thing that moves that fast is a missile, and I know it's going to be a nuke. Most of my fleet is gone, or too badly damaged to do anything. And finally, a strike group lurches into view. It engages, I hear that music, that damn music. And I look at the screen and say "this is the fight that kills me"

This game is one hell of a thing. It's rare that I look at the screen and say to myself "this is the fight that kills me, maybe not right away, but there's no coming back from this", and yet in this game it happens fairly often, and every time it feels *right*, it feels earned. I got greedy, or I got desperate, and I overextended and it's time to pay for it. Let me paint you a picture: I've run up against two strike groups already. My cruiser-killer is low on munitions and badly damaged, and the entire fleet is desperately short on fuel. I've been firing off strategic missiles and launching fighter groups to try to give myself some breathing room, enough space to refuel and repair, but I'm out. No bombs left for the planes, and I've only got four strategic missiles left. Thing is, they're all nukes, but I'm out of options. I think I know where the enemy strike group is, so I press the button, and I kill thousands. I was wrong, the strike group wasn't there, I wiped out a city for nothing. Not long after, ELINT lights up, I have something coming in fast, I already know what it is, the only thing that moves that fast is a missile, and I know it's going to be a nuke. Most of my fleet is gone, or too badly damaged to do anything. And finally, a strike group lurches into view. It engages, I hear that music, that damn music. And I look at the screen and say "this is the fight that kills me"