Sins of a Solar Empire/Awesome


 * The Novalith Cannon, the TEC's superweapon and the strongest weapon in their arsenal. It is a railgun the size of a capital ship that fires huge nuclear warheads at enemy planets through phase space. The explosion devastates the target planet and all ships in orbit, and it can completely sterilize a planet in two shots.
 * The Vasari, on the other hand, have the Kostura Cannon, which functions similarly to the Novalith in the sense that it shoots gigantic missiles at enemy planets. However, instead of nukes, the Kostura shoots powerful EMP warheads that temporarily disable all enemy ships and structures.
 * Winning a map. Throughout the entire time you play on this map you're involved in what is undoubtedly a long, costly war against the other faction(s), and you finally bring it to an end.
 * This troper has the following stories:
 * Upon building a Kol, he decided to place it, along with a more experienced Akkan, a Sova, a repair platform and a few assorted cruisers and frigates, at an asteroid leading from a pirate base. For training. After fooling around with the rest of his ships for quite some time, he checked back on his little fleet. Needless to say, the three capital ships had taken quite a few levels in badass, which allowed the Troper to equip them with all sorts of abilities. After recalling a number of ships from around his empire, he sent the impromptu fleet at the pirate base, whose numbers were now in the triple digits. Despite the Tropers ineptitude, the fleet turned what should have been an instant failure into five minutes of arm-flexing Badassery, killing the pirates and colonizing their asteroid.
 * Inmediately afterwards, a larger Vasari fleet jumped in. Soon, everything went wrong: the Sova got blown up, the Akkan was barely limping on, most of my fleet was in ruins and the Kol had just lost its shields. Reinforcements were long coming, so, with little to loose, the Troper said "Screw it", and ordered the Kol and his remaining ships to charge the densest part of the Vasari formation with the "Finest Hour" ability on. The Vasari died. The Kol destroyed two other capital ships and was having a prolonged duel with a third -which seemed more hopeless by the minute- when reinforcements showed up, in the form of a Marza Dreadnought, around sixteen Kodiaks and many, many Jarvelis frigates, who proceded to pound the remaining Vasari into submission. It was a short campaign after that.
 * The other story tells of a Sova carrier, who was "forgotten" at a chokepoint leading into a pirate base and would shove away pirate raids (and, eventually, invasion forces) all by itself, with the troper occasionally checking back to spend the upgrade points.
 * The (upcoming) Rebellion expansion. Three Words: Titan. Class. Ships. Oh, yes!
 * The Trader Emergency Coalition, using nothing more than converted civilian craft and antiques can kick just as much ass as the Imperialst space aliens and the nation entirely composed on psychics. Think about it.