Not specifically related to this version, but... well, I started a game with Heroic and Crafty Spire, because I wanted a bunch of chaotic things flying around. I got exactly what I asked for. Man is it scary to see 5 spirecraft shield bearers of various marks protecting with 5-6 ion blasters of various marks, along with 5-6 implosion artillery as icing on the cake. Even scarier is seeing them running around as (apparently) part of the new special forces at the 30 minute mark on diff 8/8, which means they will quite reliably follow me around.
I'm scuttling that game for other reasons (thought you only needed 1 planet between spire cities when apparently it's 2?) but I didn't come up with a single way to handle that, I just ran away. Well... thinking about it now, I guess I could make a beachhead with a mobile builder and just drop full caps of turrets. That might do it.
Or nukes, but that's a pretty bad solution when the problem would likely just keep recurring...
And then every so often a spire ram comes in and snipes my champion. Joke's on the ram, i think.