Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares

Last December, I played Master of Orion and liked it a lot. It certainly lived up to its legendary reputation. This month I’ve been playing the sequel, Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares. It took me a while to get into it but I eventually enjoyed it as much as its predecessor. Once again, I chose a medium sized galaxy and played as Humans. This time, however, I included four alien races instead of only three. The selection was random and my opponents were the Alkari, Darloks, Mrrshan, and the Trilarians. I was familiar with the cat-like Mrrshan, who are always itching for a fight. Thankfully, I didn’t encounter them until the early mid-game. My first encounter was with the Trilarians, a race of aquatic life forms. I quickly formed a trade treaty with them. The other race nearest to my home system was the enigmatic Darloks, a race of shape shifters. I engaged in trade with them as well. Unfortunately, they were heavily involved in espionage. It was a constant battle to try and keep them from stealing my technologies. The Alkari made contact with me a bit later on. They are an avian race descended from flying reptiles. Things got a bit complicated when the Alkari and the Trilarians went to war. Having trade pacts with both races, I decided to stay out of it.

As you might gather from the title, Master of Orion II has an additional element to it—the Antarans. They were a powerful race who engaged in a protracted war with the mighty Orions. The Orions eventually defeated the Antarans and imprisoned them in a pocket dimension. In MOO2, the Antarans return and begin to wreak havoc after many years in exile. I feared war with the other races but was able to maintain the peace. That was not the case with the Antarans. They appeared every so often to attack worlds in our galaxy. Every time, they left a planet in ruins forcing me to rebuild. Late in the game, I built a dimensional portal and took a fleet of 32 ships to attack the Antaran homeworld. The Humans were victorious in the Battle at Antares, which caused me to win the game.


The Antarans are not very friendly.