Recent reviews by BumbaCLot

I've played for 712 hours. That's a lot of hours.

I played ALB years ago before taking a couple year break from gaming as this was released. I just came back 3-4 months ago, and the game has a pretty defined meta currently refined by top players across the world since it's release.

As far as multiplayer goes, you can play 10v10s on a few maps and feel safe that whatever you do isn't going to matter very much, unless it is a 'tactical' match. These large games attract people who typically will specialize in tank rushes / plane rushes / helo rushes, or the most cancerous of all, the artillery support deck.
This is mostly played as a destruction game mode where points killed achieve victory.

Tactical matches have very low points given to each team, which allows you to 'role play' a small force in the game, where you can practice micromanaging a tank and mortar combination, a single bomber to use sparingly, or a group of infantry etc.. Some even can play as a 'medic' delivering supplies to injured / out of gas / out of ammo units.

Now for conquest game mode:

You need to divide the map up in a way to where you can control more zones than your opponent, so your opener is key and aggression and and speed or patient combined arms usage will allow you to push into a fortified zone.

You can play 1v1s ranked and over time earn ELO and may play against some of the top players in the game who still remain. I would recommend starting out playing in non-ranked lobbies you create yourself until you feel comfortable with the game. There is no one to put the blame on but yourself, and learning the 7 maps in the rotation are vital to success.

Once you have the basics down, make some friends or join lobbies for 2-4 vs 2-4 others. You can use smaller maps but it is suggested to play as they are labeled. Double-pushing one side while one of your teammates defends typically gives you an advantage.

There is a little schism and elitist attitude towards what type of player plays each game mode, but as the developer has made ranked conquest with 1000 starting points, 40 minute, medium income games on 7 mostly balanced maps, it really does become the game mode requiring the greatest skill, and once you learn how to play conquest and attack, going back and playing destruction seems like child's play to a good player.

I feel sad that I missed the heyday of this game, but it seems to be in a revival this month due to some popular youtubers.

I only get 5-10 games in a week, and through trial and error and practice am learning via the 'bootcamp' mentors, razzman and others YT videos, and hopefully will feel comfortable enough with the game to play anyone anytime and it will feel like second nature again, assuming Eugen doesn't have to shut down the servers as a result of a lawsuit they are facing and go bankrupt.

A note on DLC: Israel and The Reds Double pack are slightly OP/P2W, having unique jets that do stuff others don't, stealthy tanks that are high powered, ATGM squads that fire fast and hit hard, and Infrared AA units that are not susceptible to SEAD bombers.

My 2 cents: buy the game while it is on sale, and all of the DLC. Worst case scenario you will fall in love with it and become another salty grizzled vet, best case scenario you will shut off warchat lobby and stay out of 10v10s and git gud :)

If you like chokepoints in space, disregard the rest of this review. If they sound incredibly stupid, read on.
411 hours in, and giving my Don't Recommend review.
I have always played as a wormhole player, hyperlanes in space and chokepoints / turtling never appealed to me, and being trapped by them ruined the immersion to me the times I did attempt to play as them. That said, I never disabled the AI from using their own FTL methods, something Paradox has done with the 2.0 update.
Putting in 400+ hours in 2 months or less isn't a healthy thing to do in the first place, and I should be thankful they took away what I enjoyed about the game enough to make me quit it.
I have friends who do enjoy the chokepoints in space, and they have yet to play on 1000 star empires or beat the end-game. Stellaris is such a slow game, and Paradox has made the game even slower by the sublight changes and removal of warp/wormhole.
I spent the past 2 weeks in anticipation and watching Horath Drak and ASpec's Youtube streams pre-release, and I should have probably watched the live-streams to see the clustermuck of the new combat system. 10 year truces and now I read on Reddit that you can lose warscore when you lose some ships and are winning the war due to bad ticks makes this sound awful. So for those statisticians out there comparing hours played vs bad reviews, count me in the 'playing 1.9' camp if my hours ever go back up. I'll be on paradoxplaza and staying away from the Reddit chokepoint hivemind / Wiz sycophants. Talk about brigading...