Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion gets Outlaw Sectors DLC

Gorgeous space RTS/4X Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion has a new expansion, which has popped up rather suddenly on Steam and the Stardock store. The Outlaw Sectors DLC not only embiggens pirates, it adds militias to the game that "will grow, raid nearby systems, and repopulate over time". As with pirates, you'll be able to pay militias to do your bidding, using them "to help defend your worlds, or coordinate your attacks with their strikes for maximum impact". Why can't everyone just get along?

Outlaw Sectors will set you back $4.99/£3.99, and promises to add plenty of new options, along with 11 new maps. Here are the main bullet points, from the Steam page:

Smuggling Specialization: Choose this planetary development to grab a cut of everyone's trade income - but at a cost. The increased corruption from this black market activity will reduce that planet's tax income.
Rampant Militias: Autonomous planetary militias will grow, raid nearby systems, and repopulate over time. Use them to help defend your worlds, or coordinate your attacks with their strikes for maximum impact.
Pirate Turf: Vicious when in their home sector, pirates can now raid multiple players simultaneously, drastically changing the art of the bidding war. And, just to make sure they are fully motivated to do what they do best, all credits spent on bounties will receive an automatic bonus.

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.