So I decided to play more Stellaris.
In Stellaris, there are these stellar empires called Fallen Empires. Fallen Empires are millennia-old empires that have had their days of glory, but now they're content to just hold on to a few systems and planets and sit there idly. They start out with one large, very powerful fleet, and their technological level starts out on par with an end-game player empire. In other words, if you pick a fight with a Fallen Empire at any point during a game, generally speaking they will kick your ass easily, so if you see a Fallen Empire the wisest move is to just leave them alone and not do anything to piss them off.
When certain conditions are fulfilled, however, a Fallen Empire may "awaken". Maybe one of the younger empires has gotten too uppity. Maybe there's a major crisis in the galaxy that necessitates their intervention. Whatever the reason, an Awakened Empire will start to produce ships and attempt to claim territory, just like any other empire. And despite only holding a few planets, their planets are frequently filled with unique technologically-advanced structures that give them outright unfair production capabilities. Coupled with their aforementioned advanced tech levels, an Awakened Empire is capable of churning out large amounts of powerful ships on very short notice. This means an Awakened Empire can be a tremendous threat to players.
Additionally, there can be a relatively rare occurrence where two Fallen Empires both awaken, and declare war on each other. This is referred to in-game as a War in Heaven, because it's basically two god-like empires duking it out. When a War in Heaven breaks out, the younger empires are each given a choice to side with one of the Awakened Empires, though choosing to side with neither is also an option (though not necessarily a good option, because as mentioned it is generally better to have Awakened Empires as friends than as enemies). So, basically, when a War in Heaven breaks out, it often means the galaxy is about to descend into a massive total war involving multiple combatants on each side, and with the unaffiliated empires quietly huddled in a corner, hoping everything will blow over.
So, with that background info out of the way, in my latest playthrough of Stellaris a War in Heaven broke out. I was playing as a Determined Exterminator robot race, which means my empire is literally an entire race of murderbots whose main creed is "kill all organics". This means I can't engage in any diplomacy or trade with organic empires, but it does offer a much more straightforward playstyle: if you see it and it's breathing, kill it. When the War in Heaven started, both of the Awakened Empires were organic, so naturally I refused to join either side. I also didn't want to deal with all this fighting on my doorstep, so I did some quick math to compare my fleet with the fleet of the closer Awakened Empire. I realized that they hadn't had a chance to produce massive fleets yet and thus I probably actually stood a good chance of beating them, so I decided I'm gonna destroy one of the Awakened Empires and thus end the War in Heaven before it even gets going.
My war against the Awakened Empire was grueling, because I also needed to deal with the other empires that had sided with them, and it took longer than I thought, but in the end I managed to destroy the Awakened Empire. Cost me several decades and most of my fleet, which was costly to replace, but ultimately I got it done. But to my surprise, the War in Heaven did not stop. The other Awakened Empire and its allies were still going around attacking people and trying to conquer them. So I figured, well, I've beaten one Awakened Empire already, let's go beat the other one.
So I declared war on the other Awakened Empire, and then promptly got my ass kicked so hard my buttocks felt sore in real life. For you see, I'd made one crucial miscalculation. Beating the first Awakened Empire took several decades, which was more than enough time for the second Awakened Empire to build up its fleets. Furthermore, since the first Awakened Empire's fleets were busy defending their planets against my attacks, this meant they weren't fighting the second Awakened Empire's fleet, and thus the second Awakened Empire's fleet was in pretty much perfect shape. My fleet, capable of beating the first Awakened Empire, was therefore woefully, hilariously outmatched against the second one. What's more, since I'm a Determined Exterminator, which as mentioned does not negotiate with organics, I couldn't negotiate a surrender. I could basically only watch as the Awakened Empire marched its fleets across my borders, pretty much unopposed, and take over my systems at will.
So that's where I closed the game down again, having learned another valuable lesson in Stellaris. That lesson being, basically, don't poke the bear if you don't want your arm gnawed off.
