Space Empires Replay

When I finish a game and put it back in the box, I usually don't have an urge to get it out again right away. With Space Empires, however, I kept thinking "Let's try it again...", so I gave the Doomsday Machine scenario (Easy, Small) another go. This time I didn't lose scouts quite as quickly (one each in turns 3, 4 and 5). Better yet, the location of newly discovered planets was more in my favor, so I got seven colonies up to full producton by turn seven. For technology, by the end of Turn 6 I had Size 3, Attack 2, Defense 1, Move 3, and Shipyards 3.  Turn 7 saw the first battle, barely 45 minutes after I started the game. Four cruisers come off the ways and go out to meet the first Machine at a colony adjacent to the Homeworld; two came back. On Turn 10, six cruisers attacked the enemy and defeated it without loss. Three more were in transit from the shipwards to the fleet, but didn't reach the battle space in time to participate. On turn 12, three squadrons of four cruisers converged on the last Machine, and defeated it while losing a third of their number. The improved Attack technology proved its worth. 

I still have to remember that Maintenance goes by hull size, not number of ships. Oops. Fortunately I waited till late in the game to build ships, so it wouldn't have made much difference.

Here's the key point about this game: it took about fifteen minutes to set up, an hour to play, and a bit more than five minutes to sort the pieces, bag them, and get everything back in the box. That's a big factor in "Let's play it again."