We already told you about developer Stardock's upcoming expansion "Entrenchment" when it was announced last August. We told you about the delay that hit the expansion and pushed back its release window and then when it finally got dated (we were so proud!), only to get pushed back to February 25th (what a downer!).

Well today, we've got no bad news for you. The brand new trailer you see above and the less than brand new screenshots you see below in the gallery are all we've got for you on the Impulse digital download service-exclusive expansion coming in a few weeks. We apologize for the squished format of the video but we get what we get and we don't get upset.

We're "Vasari" to report that Sins of a Solar Empire's first "micro-expansion," Entrenchment, has fallen out of warp and suffered a delay until Feb. 25. Only available through Stardock's Impulse digital distribution service, the $10 add-on was recently given a Feb. 11 release date.

Stardock's Brad Wardell stated the extra time will be used to incorporate more feedback from the open beta. The expansion was originally expected to release sometime late last year. Hopefully production of the next micro-expansion, featuring diplomacy upgrades, will go a lot smoother than Entrenchment's development.

Sins of a Solar Empire's first "micro-expansion," Entrenchment, received an official release date today of February 11. The $10 add-on, which will add several powerful defensive structures to the grand 4X RTS, will only be available through Stardock's Impulse digital delivery service.

Entrenchment is the first of three mini expansions expected to enhance tactics this year. The next addition will add diplomacy features and the last is still under wraps. With this much tactical choice, we fear having to put a week aside to actually finish a basic mid-sized match.

[Via Big Download]

Stardock and Ironclad have put a capital (ship) amount of work into the free Sins of a Solar Empire v1.1 patch. The crisp Advent laundry list of fixes and upgrades is incredibly long, but many players will be happy with the simple fact that the buy/sell and pirate window is now on the main screen.

Stardock also reiterated that those who pre-order the recently delayed $10 Entrenchment expansion will be included in the upcoming beta, which will have its details "announced soon." Now, in all seriousness, could Sins pretty please get a campaign mode to flesh out the lore?

Piracy. It's an dark cloud that prompts many companies to employ draconian measures like DRM or electric shocks (coming soon to a game near you!). One notable exception is Michigan-headquartered Stardock, which refuses to include copy protection in its games, a policy that interestingly hasn't kept its most recent release, Sins of a Solar Empire, from putting up respectable numbers both online and at retail.

As Stardock CEO Brad Wardell explains it, piracy is an issue that "has to be kept in perspective," and in a recent Big Download interview he further played the common sense card, stating that "the people who actually buy games don't want to be inconvenienced or treated like a criminal." Wardell adds that while Sins "definitely" would have sold more had piracy not been an issue, "everyone who buys games knows they could easily have gone out and stolen it if they wanted to." It's a perspective often trumpeted by the gamer community, but it's even more refreshing to have it come from within the industry itself, and gives us one more reason to keep Sins of a Solar Empire sitting on our desktops.

Although we're sure plenty of Europeans have already pirated Sins of a Solar Empire -- and really, we can't blame you -- the game officially launches in the UK today. The surprise PC hit will cost £30 in the UK and, although the press release speaks about the "European retail box," we can't seem to currently find a release date or price for the rest of the continent.

Sins of a Solar Empire has no disc copy-protection, but supports those who purchased a copy with patches, which have greatly improved the game since launch. UK gamers who got the game through nefarious means, please feel free to support this excellent strategy game with a retail purchase. You want a Sins of a Solar Empire 2, don't you?

[Via Big Download]

Sins of a Solar Empire might just be the best game you've never played. Then again, maybe you have, considering how well the PC game has been selling since its early February debut. Still, if there's one thing that's been missing from the experience, its how to court those players still on the fence, with a demo for the 4X strategy hybrid being noticeably absent. Until now that is, as Iron Clad and publisher Stardock have finally pushed out a demo, which is currently available for download from Gamespot.

The news is great, really, but the question as to why the demo took so long to produce had to be asked. So we did. We broached to topic with Stardock president and CEO Brad Wardell, who told us that "when Sins of a Solar Empire was released, Stardock and developer Iron Clad felt that our first priority had to be to existing customers...once we released v1.03, we were able to spend the necessary time to put together a quality demo." Quality is a word people throw around too easily, so those of you who pick up the demo, drop us a line below and let us know if Wardell's comments are justified.

4X strategy games are usually doing good just to get noticed. The titles are by their very nature an acquired taste usually appreciated only by a select few, reason enough why we imagine that the devs at Ironclad Games are breaking out the good glasses this evening, patting themselves on the back for a job well done while finally uncorking that bottle of 1995 Chateau Margaux that's been gathering dust in the cellar.

The reason for the celebration? It turns out that the studio's debut 4X game, Sins of a Solar Empire, has sold more than 100,000 units since its release on February 4, making it the top selling PC game in North America for the week based on sales data compiled by Gamasutra. It's anyone's guess how long PC gamers' love affair with Ironclad's space epic will last, but for now at least it appears that in the kingdom of the keyboard and mouse number crunching and micromanagement are king.

[Via press release]