In my strategy game of the year, I conquer the galaxy in an absolutely ecologically sustainable way

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The new SF strategy game Galactic Civilizations IV: Supernova is the strategy game of 2023 on Steam for MeinMMO author Schuhmann. With 23 prefabricated alien races you can build huge space empires. He explains how he made a race of sentient trees the rulers of the galaxy.

What kind of game is this?

  • Galactic Civilizations 4: Supernova is fairly new on Steam. It was released on October 19th and currently has 76% positive reviews. For me it is already the strategy game of the year and pretty much exactly what I expected from the new Star Trek game. I’ve already spent 75 hours with the game on Steam, but was able to play a week before release.
  • It’s a classic 4x game: the player colonizes or conquers planets, trades with alien races, explores the galaxy, researches and goes where no human (or alien) has gone before. He can play peacefully, “convert” other races through his culture and bind them to himself, or he can conquer the opposing planets through war.
  • The game is so fascinating because it offers a huge selection of species that vary greatly in gameplay. In any case, you can customize Galactic Civilizations IV a lot, not only determining the shape and nature of the galaxy, but even designing your own species and ships.

    • Launch trailer for the strategy game Galactic Civilizations IV Supernova

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    The way you play Galactic Civilizations changes with each species

    For me that is the big special feature of the game: The game offers me the choice of 23 different races, many of which follow typical but also unusual SF ideas and have a strong influence on the way the game is played.

    The mimots can’t really do anything except multiply rapidly and look cute. The idea is that you appear so harmless that other aliens would rather cuddle you than eat you. The Mimots colonize all worlds within paw’s reach, build houses there, plant fields and multiply like space rabbits until they finally overwhelm the galaxy as a furry ball of wool avalanche

    The Mimot.

    The robot species “Yor” are the exact opposite. They don’t reproduce naturally; each new resident has to be laboriously built. This creates disadvantages in the early game if you only have one planet, but the race scales significantly over the course of the game.

    Because it is usually difficult to populate worlds beyond a certain value: But new robots are being built more and more quickly.

    For every victory with a new species you get an achievement. And yes, that’s a display bug that says I played at 3:58! No sensible person would still be gambling at that time.

    Another race is clearly based on the Predator from the action films: Here you are rewarded early on when you take over enemy planets and hunt and eat the local population.

    With the stone people Onyx, the ships do not heal themselves, but need a leader and the raw material Promethium, but the spaceships have twice as many life points and win every battle against fleets of similar size, especially at the beginning of a game.

    The ultimate greens

    How do the trees play? “Bartrak Grove” are the ultimate “Greens,” so to speak: a race of sentient trees that have somehow set off for the stars.

    The special highlight of the race: With an ability, they are the only species in the universe that can revive dead planets with a certain regularity, which are otherwise completely useless in the game.

    The planets thus become “Class 5” colonies that can be settled and which serve as raw material suppliers for the core worlds.

    This ability means that the Tree People can use their part of the universe much more sustainably and efficiently than the rest of the galaxy because they can build many more supporting colonies. This is a silent, slowly compounding advantage. With further bonuses in their preferred philosophy, collectivism, they make even greater use of populated space.

    The disadvantage of the breed is that it is particularly susceptible to environmental pollution, so you should build “atmosphere cleaners” on the colonies.

    The Bartak populate the galaxy much more densely than any other race and therefore have more resources.

    How do you play with the aliens? The Bartak Grove use a calm, planned style of play: you maintain good trade relations with the aliens, build a defensive fleet that primarily serves as a deterrent, and build strong trade, research and cultural centers on your planets.

    By colonizing dead planets, you gradually gain access to the coveted luxury resources and therefore also have an advantage when it comes to building wonders.

    The decisive bonus in philosophy.

    Now it’s time to keep an eye on initial stumbling blocks: for example, revolutionary herds in the immediate vicinity or particularly warlike ones like the Yor, and there’s not much standing in the way of an ecologically sustainable conquest of the galaxy.

    If you play your cards right as a living tree, you will gradually win the galaxy for yourself without major conflicts. Then you can really put down roots.

    More about the game:

    A new strategy game on Steam fulfills all your alien power fantasies

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