Terra Invicta: How to Adapt Excel for a War over the Solar System

In Terra Invicta, Earth has come under threat of invasion by an extraterrestrial civilization. The player must choose an Earth faction to their liking and prepare the planet for the coming events. The enemy is strong, so you will need to use all methods to survive and achieve your goals. But until that moment, you will have to spend a long time figuring out the mechanics and learning from mistakes.

Not as difficult as it might seem

At first launch, it seems that the game interface is overly complicated. The entire Solar System opens up to your gaze, where, among planets and asteroids, our home Earth is located. You have yet to immerse yourself in the political situation of the countries we know. The situation is not helped by the fact that the tutorial only covers the basics, which is why you will have to delve into its nuances through trial and error.

Fortunately, it's not as hard as it looks. Most of the time you need to perform repetitive actions, monitor the situation, and react to events. When the scale of events inevitably increases, the principle remains the same—there's just more work to do!

Knowing the mechanics won't make life easier! When developing the economy, you will have to take into account a huge number of small details. This keeps every playthrough, which lasts dozens of hours, in a state of tension. And even one serious mistake can lead to disaster at a moment when it's too late to react. This is exactly what happened to me, even though I simplified life by boosting resources—well-thought-out campaign settings and mods allow you to finely simplify or complicate your life.

But the difficulty of mastering the technology tree matches its appearance. In it, you need to choose from hundreds of projects to develop in the direction necessary for your faction. By default, there is a random distribution of projects for research, which can give you something useless in the current situation. During the playthrough, the game decided that I wanted to conquer the entire Earth and persistently offered related projects.

A global-scale spy thriller

The trigger for the events was a message from the aliens announcing their imminent arrival. The reaction to the threat was the formation of factions that have different views on solving the problem:

For my second playthrough, I chose the Academy, which is considered the most difficult faction. Its list of tasks includes studying the characteristics of the aliens, as well as finding a way to influence their opinion of humans. Over time, more and more people become radicalized, which is why the idea of equality will receive less support—hence the high difficulty.

Although you cannot play as them, the aliens are also a full-fledged faction. In the beginning, their ships break up when trying to enter Earth's atmosphere. Over time, they begin to abduct people, build bases, and terraform the planet for their needs. By the time humans begin to explore the Solar System, it will be swarming with alien ships. And if factions start attacking the "guests," retribution will not be long in coming.

All factions are capable of hiring councilors who perform:

Councilors are capable of buying organizations that provide various bonuses and can teach new abilities. Seizing control points of influential countries provides access to organizations such as the FBI or CIA.

The traits of councilors make the shadow confrontation more interesting. They give bonuses when performing tasks or provide access to certain organizations. Bad traits only cause harm, but they can be removed in the leveling window.

Councilors of all factions receive assignments simultaneously. After that, all that remains is to wait for the results and the start of the next turn. Dozens of hours of gameplay can be spent on "rolling the dice" until you achieve success with a major gamble. Or you can reduce your ambitions but achieve a result with a greater guarantee.

The space race will be brutal

After the councilors seize the relevant control points, the player becomes the de facto owner of the country and can decide its future fate. Countries have characteristics such as: GDP per capita, mood, and disposition towards factions, which affects the chance of seizing control in them. You can try to grab as many countries as possible, but this will affect the flow of "influence." Without it, you won't be able to fully perform operations, hire councilors, and acquire some organizations.

Controlled countries must be used in your interests:

You can use countries to declare war or form alliances. When I was taking over America, the Servants managed to unite European countries into an impressive federation. At a certain point, all factions decided to turn against me, which led to a flood of messages about instability in controlled countries and the loss of control points—enemy councilors did their best.

The resources and scientific discoveries obtained are needed for the exploration of the Solar System. Orbital platforms are built to increase research speed and create a fleet. Bases on planets and asteroids have similar properties, but their main goal is resource extraction.

In the early stages, the "boost" resource is important, which loses significance as space is settled. Rivalry between factions remains in force, as someone else's mining capacity can still be appropriated. Councilors are also capable of conducting their activities in space.

Spaceships must be equipped with the latest technology: powerful engines; guidance and cooling systems; armor that affects movement speed; and armed with large-caliber guns, missiles, lasers, or plasma. Ships are divided into classes designed for direct confrontation or landing troops. But it's worth remembering that the aliens are significantly ahead of humanity in development—it will take a long time before you can fully resist them and achieve your final goal.

To get an idea of how a particular ship works, it is convenient to use the "Skirmish" mode. In it, you can add standard ships and see them in action. Or upload your own creations to test them in safe conditions.

Verdict

It's easy to understand the reason for Terra Invicta's popularity. First and foremost, it's an excellent detective story where you constantly plot against rivals and fearfully expect a stab in the back. It's interesting to get involved in world politics, leading countries to prosperity or destruction. Towards the end, you will be able to explore the beautifully rendered space, where you can take a good look at planets and asteroids.

The opposing factions are excellently executed, each possessing unique ideologies, but the aliens turned out best of all! They are mysterious, dangerous, and terrifyingly intelligent. From the very beginning, the game makes it clear that these creatures could exterminate life on Earth but do not do so for their own reasons. Only scientific discoveries will allow a deeper understanding of their philosophy.

Space battles are high quality. Ships differ in classes and room for modification. You can create your own unique fleet that will lead the faction to victory or be instantly destroyed—the aliens don't like to joke. I loved the Skirmish mode, which allows you to simply enjoy the colorful spectacle.

However, because of the tutorial, you will have to spend dozens, if not hundreds, of hours to familiarize yourself with all the nuances. After that, understanding will come: which countries to conquer, what policy to conduct, which councilors to hire and how to level them up, when to start building a fleet and how to arm it. A mistake in any of these points can be fatal and lead to defeat in a long game.

Don't forget about the numerous mods. They bring both cosmetic changes and change the game balance. Mods change the capabilities of factions, the availability and abundance of resources, and the characteristics of councilors. At some point, I installed a mod that changes councilor portraits to anime characters—to make them easier to distinguish. It helped!