Since there is no decent steam guide about this game which contain info other than how to play and alt-tabbing making your game crash I decided to create a basic reference guide. I will copy info from the web (galciv wikia), official manual and add info from my own experience. I will post this guide while under construction so you can use some info even if it is half-baked and update it along the way. Feel free to correct or add info via comments or ask questions so I can post them under the faqs section.

Each race has different abilities and you can choose your own if you design a custom race. The abilities include:

Courage gives a bonus to the attack value of your ships when you’re fighting against an opponent who has a higher score than you. The degree of the advantage is based on how far ahead your opponent is.

Creativity will lead to your race randomly discovering technologies from time to time.

Defense improves your ship’s rating for all three types of defenses.

Diplomacy adds to your diplomatic advantage when dealing with other civilizations.

Economics adds a bonus to your tax revenue.

Espionage adds to the effectiveness of your espionage spending.

Hit Points adds to the hit points of all your ships.

Influence adds a bonus to the production of Influence Points on each of your colonies.

Loyalty reduces the amount of other civilizations influence applied to your colonies, thereby reducing the chance that they’ll rebel.

Luck is a mysterious under-the-hood advantage that can help you at various points throughout the game. It can improve the chances of a critical hit in combat or reduce the odds of getting a negative random event.

Military Production adds to the number of shields you produce on each colony, which are used to build ships.

Morale adds to the morale rating for each of your colonies, making it less likely that you’ll suffer the effects of low morale.

Planet Quality raises the base number of usable tiles available after you colonize a planet.

Population Growth adds to the population growth rate on all of your planets.

Range lets your ships stray farther from planets and Starbases.

Repair allows ships to repair themselves faster than normal.

Research increases the amount of research your colonies produce.

Sensors extends the range your ships can see by a given number of parsecs (tiles on the map).

Social Production adds to the number of “hammers” you produce on each colony, which are used to build projects.

Soldiering gives you a bonus in ground combat.

Speed adds to the number of parsecs your ships can move each turn.

Trade increases the amount of money you receive from trade routes with other planets.

Trade Routes increases the number of trade routes your civilization can maintain.

Weapons improves your ship’s attack rating for all three types of weapons.

• Can colonize Aquatic and Toxic worlds at the beginning of the game.
  
• Note: Very useful in the early to midgame, as it allows you to grab planets that others can't, though you still need to research the advanced versions of the techs to make full use of the planets. The two techs themselves also make good trade fodder early in the colony rush. The trait's usefulness drops drastically as the colony rush winds down and you run out of empty planets to colonize, which also makes the AIs value them less and less as trade goods.

• Can build a Spore ship, which turns defenseless colonies into toxic worlds owned by you. Can colonize Toxic worlds at the beginning of the game.
  
• Note: Using spore ships can put a huge strain on your economy as you take over planets with fully-intact infrastructures - and the associated production and maintenance costs - but almost zero population to provide taxes that offset those costs.

• If planet approval is at 100%, it gets 800% bonus to population growth rate instead of 200%.
  
• Note: Possibly one of the best racial super abilities around, especially in larger maps. Keeping the bulk of your developing planets' approval at 100%, you can expand exponentially and very quickly. If used correctly, your planets can grow by up to 1.5 billion a turn, securing a strong economy for taxes much quickly.

• Secures much better deals through negotiation. According to some tool-tips, also receives bonuses to influence. Can talk to other civs each 4th turn instead each 8th.

• Receives some free Super Dominator Corvette-class ships whenever the civ goes to war, with the number of ships being related to the civ's military score at the time. Can more easily extort money from other civs.
  
• Note: The ships are low-HP ships with a 3 mass-driver attack each. While extremely useful in early to mid-games, their lack of scalability relegates them to the role of harassment (taking out unguarded space stations) or to cannon-fodders at the later stages of the game. It is advised that the player should capitalize upon its initial advantage before they are outdated.
  
• Corvettes also take up maintenance fees, so a throng of them can strain the economy.

• Factories Cost divided by 4 and has greater ship range.
  
• Note: This gets new colonies on their feet quickly, but can put a huge strain on your economy due to this.

• Can colonize barren worlds by default and foreign vessels cannot travel more than 3 parsec in Super Isolationist's sphere of influence.
  
• Note: This ability is not the one you see in military base (which slows down the foreign vessel's speed by X amount from the total highest amount). This ability slows the foreign vessels' speed and bring them down to 3 parsec per turn no matter what engine or how many engines they have placed on their ship. combine it with a military starbase, you can effectly slow down the enemy/foreign vessel to only 1 persec per turn.

• Easily instigates wars between other races.

• When attacked, other races of a similar alignment will come to your aid, and you are rarely attacked by races of a similar alignment.
  
• Note: Unlike the AI, when the Altarians are attacked and your alignment is the same as theirs, you will be prompted to choose if you wish to intervene, thus it is solely a matter of choice. However, it is important to note that if you intervene, any pre-existing alliances with the warmongering faction (the aggressor) will be broken, earning you a diplomatic malus ("They do not trust us" x 2) for the rest of the game, which can severely hurt your diplomacy.

• Starts with a spy and the ability to build Counter espionage centers. Also can set the Espionage slider to a higher value than anyone else.

• Starts with all trade techs and receives additional income from trade.
  
• Note: Very useful in small to medium sized maps, or maybe even large maps, but this racial ability tends to weaken in larger maps due to the limited number of trade routes that can be installed. If used well and effectively, trade can yield you more than 1000 b.c.s a turn. However, be warned that your freighters can be destroyed in times of war.

• Receives a first strike ability in ship-to-ship combat. Only applies during the first round of combat.
  
• Note: This is a MASSIVE bonus in combat, especially against enemies who pump attack while neglecting defense on their ships. The down side of this ability is that it only work if you attack during YOUR turn, which means if you get attacked after you press "end turn" buttom, you will not receive that bonus, thus making this ability a bit broken.

Enter the colony management screen by double clicking a planet on the main map. Here you will see the planet's surface. A planet’s class determines the number of useable tiles available when it becomes a colony. Each tile can hold one project. Tiles with green borders are available for immediate building. Tiles with yellow borders require terraforming level 1 before they’re available for use. Extra orange and red tiles will pop up when you have researched the remaining terraform tech levels .

Every colony will have either a Civilization Capital project or an Initial Colony project using one of its tiles. Most projects are structures that generate Manufacturing Points (mp), Technology Points (tp), food, Influence Points (ip), approval, or income. Other projects have special functions.


Some tiles will have a bonus for certain types of structures, represented by small icons in the tile’s lower left corner. Building a planetary improvement on a special resource will see that improvement receive a bonus based on the type of resource it is. Note that the bonus increases the capacity of the improvement, not necessarily its output. For example, a manufacturing improvement built on Rare Elements (+300% industry) will also require +300% BCs to be spent. So you should NOT think of these bonuses as "buy one improvment, get 1 (or 3 or 7) free".


These bonuses apply ONLY to the project/improvement built on them, not to the whole colony. These bonuses DO NOT apply to fractional bonuses like those from most Super Projects (including 'capitals'), nor do they affect Trade Goods or Galactic Achievements.


Your industrial spending (=production capacity, go to the economy screen via the domestic policy tab) converts raw resources into either manufacturing points or technology points on your various planets. The production of those things costs 1bc each.

The Manufacturing Points produced on a planet are divided between Military Production, and Social Production based on your settings in the Economy tab of the Domestic Policy screen. Military Production is turned into shields which are used to build ships. Social Production is turned into hammers which are used to build projects.

These shields and hammers are the result of the mining of raw resources on your planet. When these raw resources are converted into Manufacturing Points, money is spent. It costs 1bc to turn 1 raw resource into 1 Manufacturing Point. This is not related to your taxes or your income or your population. It is based purely on how much industry is on a given planet and what percentage of its industrial capacity is being used.

Similar to Manufacturing Points, research points are generated on colonies. Colonies generate Technology Points through the construction of labs and other technology creation facilities. It
costs 1bc to convert research into Technology Points.

Military Production, Social Production, and Research are represented by icons of shields, hammers, and flasks, each representing 1bc worth of output. The total output in each category is indicated in the boxes at the top of the Colony Management screen.

Military Production, represented by shields, will be spent constructing ships if the planet has a Star Port. If the planet has no Star Port, or if the Star Port doesn’t have a ship queued for construction, the number above the shields will be in parenthesis. In this case, the shields are not drawing bc from your treasury. Each shield represents one manufacturing point being spent. Social Production, represented by hammers, is spent on projects. If you have no projects queued, the number above the hammers will be in parenthesis. In this case, the hammers are not drawing bc from your treasury. Each hammer also represents one manufacturing point.

Research works similar to Social and Military Production. The number of flasks that can be produced is limited by the colony’s Technology Points. Each flask represents one technology point. Technology points from all your colonies are spent on the currently selected technology until its full cost is paid. When enough flasks are accumulated, you’ve researched the technology.


Each available project indicates the time it will take to construct based on the amount of production you currently have allocated. You can double-click an available project to queue it for production in a selected tile, which will select the next available tile. This will allow you to quickly double-click through a sequence of projects to queue up projects. Alternatively, you can press the ‘Buy’ button to see a list of options for purchasing the project and making it immediately available. You can use the buttons at the top of the build queue to move or cancel projects.


Food is produced in megatons/week, which serves as a limit for your planet’s population. Each megaton (mt) can feed one billion people. Since a planet’s default production is 8 mt/wk, you’ll need to add farming projects to grow your population beyond 8 billion. Population growth occurs at a fixed rate of 200,000 per turn, or .20 M on the population display. If your approval rating reaches 100%, your population growth is doubled with the exception for the Torian confederation which gets a population growth bonus of 800%. Your population can decrease if your approval rating goes low enough. Your population will also decrease if you can’t provide 1 mt/wk of food for every billion citizens.

The amount of food produced doesn't affect population growth. As such, farms should be built only when there is insufficient food production for further growth (when the population equals the amount of food production).


Each planet has an influence value that will increase as its population grows. Influence Points (ip) can be multiplied by certain projects, such as Cultural Exchange Centers or racial bonusses. Click on a planet via the main map to see its ip and next to it in brackets its relative influence (this must be >4 to flip planets) if you have low intel on that civ. Influence is important for the following reasons:

• It determines how many votes you get in the United Planets.
  
• Tourism is based on the total population of the galaxy times your percentage influence of the galaxy.
  
• You can win planets from other civilizations without firing a shot (pirate flag).

Approval is the number that reflects how the planet feels about you as a ruler. The default is 100% but as a planet’s population increases, approval decreases. Your tax rate will also lower approval rating. Debt, as represented by a negative number in your treasury, will lower approval. Certain projects like Entertainment Networks will raise approval. This figure is particularly important as you upgrade your government.


Your planet’s income is determined by its population and the tax rate you’ve set on the Economy tab of the Domestic Policy screen. Projects like Trade Centers can raise your colony’s income by adding a modifier to taxes collected.

The following data is from the dread lords version of the game instead of latest Twilight of the Arnor version, but it will give you a feel for how they're set up. Exact levels are not known. At the Intelligent setting, the AI will function with a fully enabled AI. For everything below Intelligent, certain aspects of the AI will be turned off or toned down. For instance, at lower levels, the AI will earn less tax revenue. For everything above Intelligent, the AI will get bonuses that the human player doesn’t have, mainly in terms of a tax revenue bonus. You can also set your beginning relations with each race.

Alternatively, you can use the Difficulty setting at the bottom of the screen to select Cakewalk, Easy, Simple, Beginner, Normal, Challenging, Tough, Painful, Crippling, Masochistic, Obscene, or
Suicidal. These settings will override the individual settings for each opponent’s Intelligence. This is just a general lower limit setting for all the AI intelligence but named differently. You may assign to less dominant races a higher difficulty level than the rest to give them a better chance of survival.

AIs on higher levels (masochistics and higher) get significantly more "points" to spend in race creation and are not bound to the same point-spending rules the human player is (e.g. they can have 80% bonus in military production); and bonuses to economy, production, research, influence, diplomacy, range, sensors range and miniaturization. These bonuses vary to some degree in each game. Please note it's hard to distinguish invisible bonuses from AI abilities until a player gets first spying level on the AI, so updated numbers (game version 1.5 and Dark Avatar 1.6) for Incredible, Obscene, and Suicidal are "educated guess".

Diplomacy is a key part of the game. Players — both human and AI — may trade technology, starbases, ships, planets and trade goods (unique improvements built by one race that provide a bonus to those obtaining them). Negotiation skill is an important factor which varies with inherent racial bonuses and research; Diplomatic ability can be increased by playing a race with diplomacy as a special ability, building improvements like Diplomatic Translators, or researching certain technologies.

1. Get the Alliance tech by research or trading
   
2. The other race needs to have the alliance tech. If they don't then give it to them
   
3. You need to have a ''Close'' relation with that race
   
4. Go to the trading screen and trade the alliance treaties

Note: If you have Disable Tech Brokering checked, make sure that you will research the alliance tech by yourself. Don't get it from other races otherwise you won't be able to give it away! Some races won't research alliance by themselves, thus if you have this option checked and got the alliance tech from someone else then you are unable to ally those races for the rest of the game.

If you conclude an alliance with race A and race B declares war to race A, you will need to declare war to race B to keep the alliance. There is a hardcoded limit before you can establish a close relationship, it's around ~104 turns. Note that sometimes a relation can jump upwards in 2 steps (from "warm" to "close" in an instant) and this is one way to get to an alliance sooner. But the chance that this happens is abysmal low. You can make multiple trade deals per turn with your ally instead of the usual one deal per 8 turns with non-allies.


These will help you getting better relations like ''Close''.
Relations go from war, hostile, wary, cool, neutral, warm, friendly, close, ally.
Do not underestimate the amount of diplomatic leverage you will get for having a strong military. Civs will pay tribute to you for not attacking them and pressuring civs to declare war on eachother is easier.

• Our diplomacy skill (+)
  The player has a greater diplomacy skill than the AI.
  
  
• Our Treaties Together(+/++)
  The player has traded/given his research or econ treaty to that race.
  
  
• Our historic friendship (+/++)
  The player hasn't had a war with that race for about two game years.
  
  
• Too busy to risk war with us (+)
  The AI is at war with another civilization or busy colonizing/building (?)
  
  
• Our Ethical alignment (+)
  The player is of, or is leaning towards the same ethical alignment as that race.
  
  
• Trading (+/++)
  The player has trade routes with the AI.
  
  
• Our Military Strength (+/++)
  The player has a higher military score than the AI.

• "We know what you're doing.." (-/--)
  The player has ships, specifically transports, too close to the AI's planets. May also be triggered by having Starbases too close to the AI and or player going for techological victory.
  
  
• Militaristic (-)
  
• Our alarming influence (-)
  
• Our close borders (-)
  
• Our Diplomacy Skill (-)
  The player has a lesser diplomacy skill than the AI.
  
  
• Our Ethical alignment (-)
  
• Our historic animosity (-)
  
• Our Military Strength (-/--)
  The player has a smaller military than the AI.
  
  
• Lingering racial grudge (-)
  i.e. Drengin/Torian relations.
  
  
• Our Tendency To Conquer Others(-/--)
  
• They don't trust us (-/--)
  The player attacked an ally or another player to whom he has given/traded his research or econ treaty.
  
  
• Warmongers (-/--)

The Trade screen displays a viewscreen picture of the race you’re speaking with. To the left are items you can bring to the table. To the right are items they can bring to the table. You can select anything from the lists to create a proposal in the screen at the bottom. The AI will assign a value to your offers and accept or reject your proposal based on the value of the trade, their standing with you, and your diplomatic ability.

You have to wait 8 turns after a successful deal has been made before you can speak to that race again, Terrans are an exception with 4 turns due to their super ability. There is no waiting period between deals if you are trading with allies. It can be possible to gain a significant technological advantage through careful trading with less sophisticated races. Make sure you ask additional money beside your tech trade even it is a small amount. Don't trade your most powerfull tech with your rival. Press the right mouse button on a technology to see its technological details.


Trade Goods are commodities that can only be created by one civilization, but which may be traded to other civilizations. Only the civilization in possession of the trade goods may give the benefit of the trade good to other civilizations. You will keep your bonus after trading it.
(See Planetary Improvements)


There is a hardcoded limit before you can swap treaties, it's around ~104 turns.
If you receive an economic treaty you will get extra income which is equal to 10% of the race's economy that gave you this treaty. Race X will receive extra income which is 10% of your economy when you give Race X an economic treaty. You will not lose money when you give your treaty away, the other race will basically get the bonus out of thin air and vice versa. The same goes for the research treaty which is 10% of your base research points.

So you basically want to receive an economic treaty from a civilization with the largest economy.
The same goes for receiving research treaties from civilizations with large research output.
You have only 1 economic and 1 research treaty at your disposal. It is gone forever when given away, the same goes for other civs. However, there is no limit in how much treaties you receive though. When a civilization doesn't have a treaty to trade it already has given it away to someone else.


Give these to help other civilizations when they are being attacked without going in to war by yourself. You may take over enemy territory and distribute planets along your allies if they are being crushed by your rival or give them transport ships to help them invade planets.

Useful tip: if Race X has influence starbases planted inside your empire and you don't want to trigger war with them but want to get rid of these bases and race Y is in war with race X, then give race Y your ships in the vicinity of those bases so race Y will take them out for you.


It stops them setting up trade routes to your planets. If a race has a huge amount of their income from trading with you, you can cripple their economy. This could be used to backstab an ally when they are in the middle of a war. The option is available in the lower left corner on the relations tab of the foreign policy screen.

Factors defining, contributing or boosting your economy will be summerized below. Note: Economics will only boost your tax revenue and does not affect your income from trade routes. Trade bonus will do exactly the opposite as Economics, thus having only effect on trade routes.

• Taxation which is determined by your population size and tax rate. This is the primary means for gaining credits.
  
  
• Add farms to your planets to increase your population and thus the number of credits you get from taxation.
  
  
• Add morale buildings to your planets to increase the tax rate without making your people unhappy.
  
  
• Researching and enacting more (financially) efficient government types.
  
  
• Researching and building economic enhancing buildings such as the Market Center.
  
  
• Trading with other civilizations using freighters.
  
  
• An economic starbase (with the appropriate modules added) will increase the credits generated by trade routes passing through its influence.
  
  
• Economic Treaties
  
  
• Tourism, which provides income based on your influence and total population of the galaxy. Influence starbases will raise tourism rates and thus your income from tourism.
  
  
• By building or improving a mining starbase on a influence resource, thus increasing tourism.
  
• By building or improving a mining starbase on an economic resource.
  
• By building or improving a mining starbase on a morale resource to increase the tax rate without making your people unhappy.
  
  
• Tribute from other civilizations, often a result of United Planets votes (or simply threatening them.)
  
  
• Some anomalies grant small amounts of credits or economic bonuses.
  
  
• Keep your treasury below 20,000 credits. When the treasury goes over 20,000 credits, your empire gets a 20% penalty to its economy.
  
  
• Trading technology, ships, starbases, or influence points for another race's credits.
  
• Decommissioning a ship will provide a small refund of its cost.
  
  
• Racial bonuses can provide global modifiers to your economy, usually by increasing one source of income (like total trade revenue).

You will get a penalty to your approval rating when your treasury falls within negative numbers (needs confirmation). If your treasury gets lower than -500 bc, then all production and research will halt.

Go to the Domestic Policy screen---->espionage tab for training spies and placing them into other civilizations. The amount of spies placed into an empire will determine your maximum intel level. It will take some time gathering intel so make use of espionage during the early phase of the game. In other words, it’s more effective to gradually spend money than to occasionally spend great sums. Check the Report tab under Foreign Policy for Intel.

• Income/influence ratings visible on planets
  
• Ship destinations
  
• General civilization statistics such as total population, average approval, etc.
  
• Occasional stolen technology

• Race bonuses (with all mining, anomaly, and technology bonuses)
  
• Low level technology list + current research project
  
• Occasional stolen technology

• Planetary improvements visible
  
• Sabotage available
  
• Mid level technology list
  
• Occasional stolen technology

• Starbase information
  
• Full technology list
  
• Occasional stolen technology

Note about tech stealing: at each level, the chance of the espionaging race stealing the tech from the being espionaged race is higher, though the exact figure is not known. tech stealing is possible throughout all levels of espionage and not restricted to a specific level. If you have reached advanced level then you may remove and place those spies into another civilization while keeping intel. Also make sure you remove spies before a race is annihilated.


You are able to place spies on planetary improvements when you have reached high intel level. Placing them in factories will slow down their production, in economic buildings will decrease their planetary income, in Farms will reduce their population etc.


Train your own agents to nullify enemy agents as they plant themselves in your planet or build counter espionage improvement to prevent the enemy agents from planting themselves in your planet. If you build a counter espionage center after spies are being planted then you are unable to remove them with the center alone, it's prevention.

Three moral choices will be presented to you when you land your colony ship on a planet. These choices will define the price to pay when selecting an ethical alignment after researching xeno ethics. For example:
Let's say we choose the good ones and as a result leaning towards good alignment (These choices will not align you but letting you lean towards it, Xeno Ethics let you align). After Researching Xeno Ethics the prices for alignments are as follows:
Good: 0 bc
Neutral: 2500 bc
Evil: 10000 bc
When you for example make neutral choices, neutral alignment will be free.


Once you have researched Xeno Ethics three alignments will be presented to you: Good, Neutral or Evil.

• Citizens are 10% more loyal and less likely to defect if their colonies are under an opponent's influence.
  
• The five most populous planets have no maintenance costs for their initial Colony
  
• Trade income with other good civilizations is increased by 25%
  
• Gain a Diplomatic Ability bonus when dealing with other good civilizations
  
• Unique technologies include Superior Defenses
  
• The ''Temple of Righteousness'' Galactic Achievement is only available to good civilizations (This Galactic Achievement diverts a percentage of all other good races' background trade revenue to your civilization, requires: Concepts of Righteousness tech)

• Citizens are more content and a 15% approval bonus applies
  
• Gain a 25% discount when you directly purchase planetary improvements and ships, or upgrade your existing ships
  
• Planets are instantly terraformed when the correct terraforming technologies are researched
  
• A bonus is applied to ground invasions against all non-neutral alignments
  
• Unique technologies include additional research and trade technologies
  
• The ''Temple of Neutrality'' Galactic Achievement is only available to neutral civilizations (This Galactic Achievement diverts a percentage of all other neutral races' background tourism revenue to your civilization, requires: Balanced Vision tech)

• Starbase upgrade fees are waived
  
• The Propaganda Center Galactic Achievement improves the empire's approval rating
  
• The Secret Police Center Galactic Achievement makes planets less likely to rebel
  
• Other civilization's trade routes pay 1bc per turn they spend in an evil civilization's sphere of influence
  
• Unique technologies include Superior Weapons
  
• The ''Temple of evil'' Galactic Achievement is only available to evil civilizations (This Galactic Achievement diverts a percentage of all other evil races' background trade revenue to your civilization, requires: Concepts of Malice tech)

A normal setting here will set the default victory conditions. Other scenarios may be selected, which may have some text that explains the different rules and victory conditions that apply. Some of the other settings may be disabled based on the selected scenario.


You can specifically toggle Research, Alliance, and Influence victories off and on. If all of these are toggled off, the conquest victory is the only way to win. The Victory Status tab in the Civilization Manager details the requirements for each Victory Condition and specifies how close you are to meeting those requirements.

The last man standing wins. Kill off the other major races to win a Conquest victory. Note that you can achieve this victory without conquering any of the minor races, even if they happen to control more than one planet.

Form an alliance with all the surviving major races to win a Diplomatic victory. Note that you can also achieve this by forming an alliance and then killing anyone who isn’t part of your alliance. Make sure you balance your game right like picking 2 evil, 2 good and some neutral races instead of 1 evil an all good, otherwise all good civs gang up against one enemy and the game will be too easy. Don't pick The korath Clan as an opponent in your first game though, they are hard to deal with (see Miscellaneous: Spore Ships).

Win by extending your Influence to control a certain portion of thegalaxy. Note that extending your influence will also improve your tourism income. This can make it lucrative to pursue an Influence victory.

You’ll find Technological victory at the end of a long, expensive branch on the technology tree. If you manage to research this, you’ve won a Technological victory.

Controlling a certain number of Ascension crystals for a limited period of time will allow that particular race to ascend and win an Ascension Victory. The maximum number of crystals that are available at anytime (as checked by use of the Map Editor) is 5, though some maps might have fewer. Each crystal a race controls will generate one "Ascension Point" per turn, and victory is achieved once 1000 points have been amassed. Losing a crystal doesn't lose you any points, so one can simply build a new base on top of the crystal and continue trying to ascend.

If this is checked then civilizations will be able to surrender by giving you or another player their remaining empire. Losing empires could give their remaining empire to your worst enemy making the game much harder to deal with.


If unchecked, you can see the territory of other races as a coloured blob on the mini-map (if you turn on the Ownership filter) meaning you will know exactly where they have started in relation to you. If checked, you need to explore the map first in order to see territory on the mini-map.

These can be game breaking/altering events like the dread lords entering the galaxy. Turn this off for your first playthrough.

Always keep this checked. This is what makes races interesting.

As the name suggests, this disables the trading of technology through diplomacy. You can still obtain technology from other races via conquest or espionage.

If checked, you are able to steal tech via spies and military invasions.

This option is only relevant if tech trading is enabled.
If checked: You can only trade techs which you have researched yourself, the same is true for the A.I. Example: Race A gives tech X to race B. Race B is unable to trade tech X with other races. Race C will give you tech Y, you are unable to trade tech Y with other races.

Consider checking this option for difficulties higher than Tough because you might fall behind in technologies pretty fast otherwise. If you uncheck it at high difficulty a large portion of the galaxy has your tech in no time by chain trading.

Important: Go to the Diplomacy section of this guide and read the notification under Alliances.


Amount of colonizable planets relative to the total amount of planets.

Total amount of planets including colonizable and non colonizable planets.

Planets will only revolve around stars so this # will not only determine the amount stars but also indirect the total amount of planets. If you set the Number of Planets parameter at highest and the Number of Stars at the lowest setting you will still have a low total amount of planets.

The way Stars are spaced relative from another.

Anomalies scattered around space which can be picked up for money or extra bonus stats. It will give you a boost/acceleration during the early phase of the game.

Mine them and beam Manufacture points to your planet for speeding up your production.

The research rate of technologies. This factor determines your game length.

These are neutral independent races just like the civ games. Relevant for trading purposes.

You need to research tech first before they'll become colonizable. Extreme Planets: Toxic, barren, aquatic, radioactive, heavy gravity etc.

You still encounter random events when you turn off mega events and have this active, but these are not game breaking like mega events.

There seems to be a bug where your economics stat won't change when choosing a new government, however you do get the economic bonus. Just check your tax revenue before and after changing government.



There are 8 political parties that players can choose from. Each one has its own advantages and disadvantages. When your political party is in control of the galactic senate, you gain the advantage of it.

However, if your political party loses the election, then whatever political party gains control applies its strengths as your weaknesses. For example, if you play as the Pacificsts and lose the election to the Federalists, your civilization will take a -20% to its economy because the Federalist strength is 20% to economy.

It is important that you maintain control of the senate. By default, your government starts out as an Imperial form of government (everything run from the home planet) so there is no concern with popular opinion. But as you research other forms of government and upgrade to them, it becomes increasingly difficult. The Political Parties are:

The galaxy is composed of a number of sectors determined by the size you chose on the Galaxy Setup screen. Each sector is divided into a 15x15 grid of parsecs. A parsec may contain a sun, a planet, an anomaly, a resource, a Starbase and/or ships.

Stars may be orbited by up to five planets, each rated from class 0 to class 26 (or higher when you’ve researched certain technologies). The greater the rating, the more habitable the planet. The class also indicates the number of tiles that will be available if you colonize the planet. Planets also have special bonus that come as a result of having a moon or a ring. The moon gives 10% manufacturing bonus and the ring 10% research bonus.

Anomalies can be investigated by ships with a survey module, such as the survey ship that each civilization gets as its flagship when a game begins. Some anomalies will add permanent bonuses to your empires. Some might teleport your ship across the galaxy. Others will simply be useless debris. Resources are colored polygons that give your civilization a bonus if you build Starbases on them.

Colonies have a number of different symbols used to represent activity:

• A hammer icon indicates that there are empty tiles that can hold projects; a bright hammer indicates a project is being developed and a darkened hammer indicates that Social Production is idle for that colony.
  
• A Star Port icon indicates the presence of a Star Port; a blue icon indicates a ship is being built and a yellow icon indicates that Military Production is idle for that colony.
  
• A shield means that a ship is in orbit and the planet is therefore defended (ships must be defeated before troop transports can attempt an invasion).
  
• An unhappy face indicates an approval rating below 30%.
  
• A pirate flag indicates an opponent’s influence is strong enough to cause a planet to rebel.

A colored line on the map represents that civilization’s influence. Influence is not the same as the borders of one’s civilization. In Galactic Civilizations II, borders go only as far as ones planet. If alien planets fall under your influence, it means that your influence on that planet is greater than the native influence. If that influence reaches 4X the native influence (relative influence >4 within brackets, needs low intel level), it will likely revolt and join your civilization.

When a ship is selected, a light grey line on the map represents the currently selected ship’s range. Ships can extend their range through more advanced life support systems or by building star bases which will extend your range.

Using the +/- keys or the mouse-wheel the map itself can be zoomed out on. If you zoom back far enough, the 3D graphics will be replaced with 2D icons:

• Uninhabited planets are circles. The lower the class and therefore less inhabitable the planet, the more hollow the circle. Higher classes are more solid circles.
  
• Ships and Starbases are indicated by icons and rally points are indicated by arrows.
  
• Anomalies are indicated by atomic symbols.
  
• Resources are indicated by box icons.

The box in the lower left of the screen displays the technology you’re currently researching, along with the time it will take at your current research point production. Below that is the average approval rating for all of your population.

To the right of this display is a vertical bar with a colored segment for each civilization. This displays each civilization’s galactic power, which is an amalgam of their total influence, total military power, and total tax revenue.

Below that is your total population and the amount of money in your empire’s treasury. If your net income is positive, the treasury amount is displayed in green. If your net income is negative, the treasury amount is displayed in yellow.

If an empty parsec is selected, the bottom center display will show one of six graphs, tracking players’ comparative standings in population, military, economy, research, influence, or
industry.

The population graph compares the total population of all that civilization’s colonies. The military graph compares the value of all that civilization’s ships with an attack rating (the exact formula is attack rating + defense rating + hit points/10). The economy graph compares tax revenue. The research graph totals each civilization’s research points per turn. The influence graph ranks the total influence of all that civilization’s colonies. Finally, the industry graph totals up all the manufacturing points from each of that civilization’s colonies.

Below the central display are information display buttons.
They are, from left to right:

• View Ships/Planets
  
• Research
  
• Domestic Policy
  
• Foreign Policy
  
• the Civilization Manager
  
• the Ship Yard

To the right of the center display is a minimap. Green lines indicate sectors. A grey fog-of-war effect shows which parts of the galaxy you’ve seen with your sensors. The plus and minus buttons to the lower left allow you to zoom the minimap, whilethe triangle above the minimap lets you minimize the interface. Try out some filters at the right side of the mini-map. The Find button will cycle through all of your ships with movement left.

• Korath Spore Ships are able to kill entire populations and take over planets by touch. You are unable to defend planets with ground defense. They are extremely dangerous and need to be prioritized.
  
  
• There is an auto loop build option for your starport. Go to Options--->Game--->Game Options--->Build same ship until cancelled. This comes in handy when you have multiple planets producing ships, thus minimizing micromanagement.
  
  
• Auto-upgrade planetary improvements: Colony management screen--->Details--->Governor. There is no empire wide option so you need to adjust it manually for every planet.
  
  
• Auto-Terraform: Colony management screen--->Details--->Governor.
  
  
• Go to Main Map--->Civilization Manager--->Colonies for a good empire overview. You can build, use the focus button or select planetary improvements. Learn to use this screen. If you have too many planets it can become quite confusing, so what I do I name my planets like this:
  If Athena II is my specialized production planet I'll name it P Athena II (use spacebar between P and Athena). If Icos V is my specialized planet in economics I'll name it E Icos V.
  
  I'll do the same for other specialized planets like; R=Research, E=Economy, P=Production, G=Growth, GI=Growth+Influence, S=Super Project/Gal Achievements/trade goods, M=Mixture of buildings. So your colonies list will look like this:
  G (planet name 1 here)
  E (planet name 2 here)
  E (planet name 3 here)
  M (planet name 4 here)
  P (planet name 5 here)
  P (planet name 6 here)
  P (planet name 7 here)
  R (planet name 8 here)
  S (planet name 9 here)
  You'll get a better overview of colonies in this way especially when building ships, in my opinion. Go to your main map and select a planet (don't double click), then go to the panel at the bottom and double click the planet's name to change it.
  
  
• Another possible revolt (besides Influence) is when morale is very low, in which case the said planet may split off on its own or join the I-League.
  
  
• Ship Quality Bonus: The bonus increases ships weapons and defense by the given percent.

Each planet starts with either an Initial Colony or Civilization Capital. Other planetary improvements are projects (usually buildings) that can be built or bought on unused tiles on the surface of planets. The number of usable tiles is determined by the planet quality. Each tile can hold a single project. Some tiles may contain special resources that provide bonuses to projects built on them. There are five types of projects that can be built in a tile:

1. Improvements - Standard projects that can be built multiple times on each colony.
   
2. Unique Projects - Is a subset of 1, 3 and 4 or One per planet and is race specific.
   
3. Super Projects - Significant projects that can only be built once for each civilization.
   
4. Galactic Achievements - Monumental tasks that can only be built once in the entire galaxy.
   
5. Trade Goods - Commodities that can only be created once in the entire galaxy, but which may be traded.

• Improvements can be upgraded, changed to another type of improvement, or deconstructed. Super Projects, Galactic Achievements, Trade Goods, Initial Colony and Civilization Capital can't.
  
• It is possible to have more than one Super Project by acquiring planets from another civilisation that has built it or is in the process of building it.
  
• When taking over a planet from another race, normal improvements are lost if the new owner does not possess the appropriate technologies. All other improvements remain regardless. Invasion plans that result in lost improvements will generally only affect normal improvements as well.
  
• Some of the Improvements, Super Projects, and Galactic Achievements are restricted to civilizations with a certain alignment or a technology only available to one specific race.

Q: If you capture a super project built by another race, do you get double the benefit?
A: Yes. Moreover, it appears that if it is in the captured planet's queue it can built even if it has not yet been started.

Q: For example, I have build a Hyperion Logisitcs System, the Drengin build one also, and now I capture the Drengin planet where they built it. Do I now get +12 to logistics or +6? I would think it should be +6, but has someone verified this?
A: Yes, you get both bonuses. In this way it is possible to get VERY high logistics.

Q: For example, if you capture another race's manufacturing capital, you do get the benefit of having two manufacturing capitals. I think everyone would agree that is the appropriate behavior. I'm just wondering if it applies for the others?
A: Yes, you get the benefits of both buildings, if you capture an additional one.




These bonuses apply to all planets (empire wide) unless otherwise specified.

Format: Improvement Type, Bonus Type, (P) = Planetary Bonus, (E) = Empire Wide bonus, M = Maintainance Cost in bc/week. Note: Since these Super Projects are Unique they are technically Galactic Achievements.


Basic Farm
Standard, Food Prod.: +25%(P), M: 1 bc

Entertainment Network
Standard, Morale: +15% (P), M: 2 bc

Innovation Complex
Super Project, Creativity: +25% (E), Influence: +25% (P), M: None

Market Center
Standard, Economic: +10% (P), M: 1 bc

Research Lab
Standard, Research: 4 tp, M: 2 bc

Traditional Factory
Standard, Industry: 4 mp, M: 2 bc


Drengin share Market Center with the Terrans. The Korath share the same list as the Drengin except they have a black market instead of a Market Center.

Arena
Standard, Morale: +12% (P), M:1 bc

Basic Slave Pit
Standard, Industry: 3 mp, Influence: -1%(P), M: 1 bc

Black Market (Korath Only)
Standard, Economic: +10% (P), M: None

Slave Farm
Standard, Food Prod.: +25% (P), M: 1 bc

Slaveling Imagination Lab
Standard, Research: 3 tp, Mt: 1 bc


Sharing with the Terrans: Everything except Entertaining Network and innovation Complex.

Social Matrix
Super Project, Social Production: +25% (E), Economic: +25% (P), M: None

Traditional Temple
Same as Entertainment Network except the M: is 1 bc


Basic Stalk
Standard, Food Prod.: +15% (P), Morale: +15% (P), M: 1 bc

Basic Collective
Standard, Industry: 5 mp, M: 1 bc

Maintenance Grid
Super Project, Morale: +20% (E), Pop. Growth: +25% (E), M: None

Research Matrix
One per Planet, Research: 10 tp, M: 3 bc


Sharing with Terrans: Everything except Innovation Complex.

Stellar Forge
Super Project, Economic: +25% (P), Ship Quality: +25% (P, see Miscellaneous), Ship HP: +25% (P), Note: the latter two bonuses are only applied to ships build on that planet, M: None


Sharing with Terrans: Market Center.

Aquatic Transport Station
Super Project, Economic: +25% (P), Range: +25% (E), M: None

Central Mine
One per Planet, Industry: 10 mp, M: 3 bc

Harvester
One per Planet, Food Prod.: +50% (P), Pop. Growth: +5% (P), M: 2 bc

School
Standard, Research: 3 tp, M: 2 bc

Temple of Memories
One per Planet, Influence: 15% (P), Morale: +15% (P), M: None


Sharing with Terrans: Everything except Innovation Complex.
With early access to the Economic Capital, Galactic Bazaar, Resturant of Eternity, the Korx expansion phase presents some interesting options.

Festival of Capitalism
Super Project, Morale: +25% (E), Economic bonus: +25% (P), M: None


Sharing with Terrans: Everything except Innovation Complex and Entertainment Network.
The Drath is the only race that lacks unique improvements at the start of their voyage.

Minor Hatchling Mount: Same as Entertaining Network except M is 1 bc (cheaper).


Having only three Super Projects to build, the early expansion phase of the Thalan is tricky, since each improvement can only be built once. Luckily these improvements are quite powerful and have no maintenance costs. The trade good Gravity Accelerators is also available from the start.

Economic Direction Unit
Super Project, Economic: +25% (P), M: None

Hyperion Matrix
Super Project, Food prod.: +50% (P), Industry: 16 mp, Research: 16 tp, M: None

Temporal Entertainment Matrix
Super Project, Morale: +50% (P), M: None


Basic Replicator
Standard, Industry: 3 mp, M: 1 bc

Dream Conclave
Standard, Morale: +25% (P), M: 2 bc

Precursor Archive
One per Planet, Economic: +10% (P), Influence: +10% (P), Research: 10 tp, M: 2 bc

Robotic Farm
Standard, Food Prod.: +40% (P), M: 2 bc


Sharing with Terrans: Everything except Entertainment Network and Innovation Complex.
The Counter Espionage Center is available from the start.

Consulate
One per Planet, Economic: +20% (P), Influence: +20% (P), M: 2 bc

Planetary invasion is the military method of capturing a planet. To invade a colony you need to build a transport, which is a ship with the transport modules component. Each transport module holds 1000 legions. Advanced troop modules hold twice as many.

Before you can invade, you must first destroy any ships in orbit around the planet. Then simply move your transport onto the planet to begin the invasion.

During the invasion, an advantage factor for each side is calculated. This is based on a number of factors such as the quality of the soldiers, their courage, what defenses have been built, the technological levels of each civilization, and so forth. These advantages are translated into points.

The invading force gets a 5 point advantage due to air superiority. The invading force can choose their preferred invasion tactic, which also affects the advantage factor. After all the choices are made, the potential advantage factors are displayed and will continue to fluctuate throughout their potential range until the invasion begins. After fighting begins, the advantage factors are locked down and both sides take casualties until there are no troops remaining for one of the forces. The remaining force has control of the planet.

• Positive bonuses are applied to the attacker's advantage factor, negatives to the defender's advantage factor.
  
• Information Warfare converts unhappy population. Converted Troops: 0.2-0.4% planetary population for each percentage of unhappiness on that planet. Use it when facing a planet with large population and low (below ~65%) approval. If you have significant advantage in soldiering, you may end with more pop than you've brought troops.
  
• If they don't succeed, they don't cause ANY damage to the invaded planet. So when you have more troop transports and face a planet with large population, you can combine them: with initial troop tansport(s) you use the most destructive method (usually Mass drivers) to significantly increase your soldiering bonus and remove large chunk of defending population. Then you proceed with less destructive tactic, to reduce the chance of destroying buildings or decreasing planet's PQ.
  
• you can decrease population on a planet by planting spies on all farms. In the next turn the planet's population will be reduced to 8B (if you're invading a colony). Caveat: those spies may be neutralized, but pop will still be reduced.
  
• you can decrease approval on a planet by planting spies on all morale buildings. Then you need to select another planet, and select back the one with spies. Approval on it will be severely reduced, so you can use Information Warfare with greater chance of success. You can re-use those spies on another planet in the same turn (need confirmation on this).

Having an adequate number of troops ready beforehand can greatly shorten the length of a war and reduce losses by attrition.
A whole planet can be dedicated to produce troops: add morale buildings to reach 100% approval for a growth bonus, then add a ratio of fertility clinics and factories so that you can produce a transport in the same number of turns it takes to regrow the population used. If you end up with extra transports, you can always dump them on economy worlds to reach a high population quickly, or to help jump start new or captured colonies.

Alignment: Neutral
Short name: Terran
Leader: Jenna Casey
Political Party: Mercantile
Homeworld: Earth (Terra Prime) - Class 10 (13 when fully terraformed), has a moon (+10% manufacturing bonus)
Adjacent Habitable Planet: Mars - Class 4 (10 when fully terraformed)
Home Star: Sol
Starting Tech:

• Hyper Fusion Reactors
  
• Hyper Drive
  
• Industrial Revolution
  
• traditional Research
  
• Basic Space Construction
  
• Capitalism
  
• Innovative History

Super Ability: Super Diplomat
Racial Bonuses:

• Economics: +10%
  
• Speed: +10%
  
• Social Production: -10%
  
• Military Production: -10%
  
• Influence: +10%
  
• Trade: +25%
  
• Diplomacy: +30%
  
• Trade Routes: +1
  
• Logistics: +12

Alignment: Evil
Short name: Korx
Leader: Kralax of Korx
Political Party: Mercantile
Homeworld: Korx (or Korlath) - Class 10 (13 when fully terraformed)
Adjacent Habitable Planet: Mercenary - Class 8 (11 when fully terraformed)
Home Star: Oxor
Starting Tech:

• Hyper Fusion Reactors
  
• Hyper Drive
  
• Stellar Cartography
  
• Industrial Revolution
  
• traditional Research
  
• Basic Space Construction
  
• Capitalism
  
• A History of Mercantilism

Super Ability: Super Trader
Racial Bonuses:

• Economics: +15%
  
• Trade: +50%
  
• Diplomacy: +10%
  
• Trade Routes: +3
  
• Loyalty: -20%
  
• Logistics: +12

Alignment: Good
Short name: Drath
Leader: Embryes Draken
Political Party: Populists
Homeworld: Dratha - Class 10 (13 when fully terraformed)
Adjacent Habitable Planet: Drathis IV - Class 4 (13 or 16 when fully terraformed)
Home Star: Drathis
Starting Tech:

• Hyper Fusion Reactors
  
• Hyper Drive
  
• Stellar Cartography
  
• Industrial Revolution
  
• traditional Research
  
• Basic Space Construction
  
• Capitalism
  
• Way of the Drath

Super Ability: Super Manipulator
Racial Bonuses:

• Population Growth: -20%
  
• Diplomacy: +30%
  
• Espionage: +25%
  
• Soldiering: +50%
  
• Trade Routes: +1
  
• Logistics: +16

Alignment: Neutral
Short name: Thalan
Leader: Hithesius
Political Party: Technologists
Homeworld: Thala - Class 15 (18 when fully terraformed)
Adjacent Habitable Planet: None
Home Star: Thalis
Starting Tech:

• Hyper Fusion Reactors
  
• Hyper Drive
  
• New Propulsion Techniques
  
• Interstellar Construction
  
• Stellar Cartography
  
• Gravity Channeling
  
• Xeno Engineering
  
• Xeno Biology
  
• Xeno Medicine
  
• Temporal Mechanics
  
• Hyperion Matrix

Super Ability: Super Hive
Racial Bonuses:

• Population Growth: -50%
  
• Social Production: +33%
  
• Military Production: +33%
  
• Diplomacy: -30%
  
• Loyalty: +40%
  
• Logistics: +12

Alignment: Good
Short name: Iconian
Leader: Emperor Iso the Wise
Political Party: Federalists
Homeworld: New Iconia - Class 14 (17 when fully terraformed)
Adjacent Habitable Planet: Iconis V - Class 3 (between 9 and 18 when fully terraformed)
Home Star: Iconis
Starting Tech:

• Hyper Fusion Reactors
  
• Hyper Drive
  
• Stellar Cartography
  
• Advanced Robotics
  
• Precursor Legacy

Super Ability: Super Adapter
Racial Bonuses:

• Morale: +10%
  
• Research: +20%
  
• Soldiering: -5%
  
• Logistics: +16

Alignment: Evil
Short name: Korath
Leader: Krindar i'Agohl
Political Party: War Party
Homeworld: Kora - Class 10 (13 when fully terraformed)
Adjacent Habitable Planet: Kynda (or Kora II) - Class 4 (13 or 16 when fully terraformed)
Home Star: Ra'nagoh
Starting Tech:

• Hyper Fusion Reactors
  
• Hyper Drive
  
• Stellar Cartography
  
• A Ruthless History
  
• Traditional Slavery
  
• Specialized Research
  
• Black Market Dealing

Super Ability: Super Annihilator
Racial Bonuses:

• Weapons: +25%
  
• Morale: +25%
  
• Military Production: +25%
  
• Diplomacy: -30%
  
• Hit Points: +10%
  
• Soldiering: +30%
  
• Logistics: +14

Alignment: Neutral
Short name: Krynn
Leader: Ynrhed Eidden
Political Party: Universalists
Homeworld: Kryseth - Class 10 (13 when fully terraformed)
Adjacent Habitable Planet: Ghella - Class 4 (13 or 16 when fully terraformed)
Home Star: Alora
Starting Tech:

• Hyper Fusion Reactors
  
• Hyper Drive
  
• Stellar Cartography
  
• Industrial Revolution
  
• traditional Research
  
• Basic Space Construction
  
• Capitalism
  
• The Path

Super Ability: Super Spy
Racial Bonuses:

• Morale: +50%
  
• Research: -15%
  
• Influence: +10%
  
• Diplomacy: +25%
  
• Espionage: +50%
  
• Logistics: +12

Alignment: Evil
Short name: Drengin
Leader: Lord Kona
Political Party: War Party
Homeworld: Class 10 (13 when fully terraformed), has a moon (+10% manufacturing bonus)
Adjacent Habitable Planet: Kona - Class 4 (13 or 16 when fully terraformed)
Home Star: Drengia
Starting Tech:

• Hyper Fusion Reactors
  
• Hyper Drive
  
• Stellar Cartography
  
• Capitalism
  
• A Ruthless History
  
• Traditional Slavery
  
• Specialized Research

Super Ability: Super Dominator
Racial Bonuses:

• Weapons: +20%
  
• Speed: +10%
  
• Military Production: +10%
  
• Diplomacy: -30%
  
• Hit Points: +10%
  
• Soldiering: +20%
  
• Loyalty: +20%
  
• Logistics: +14

Alignment: Good
Short name: Alterian
Leader: Eleys Mue
Political Party: Pacifists
Homeworld: Altaria - Class 12 (15 when fully terraformed), has a moon (+10% manufacturing bonus)
Adjacent Habitable Planet: Wisp - Class 3 (between 9 and 18 when fully terraformed)
Home Star: Altaris
Starting Tech:

• Hyper Fusion Reactors
  
• Hyper Drive
  
• Stellar Cartography
  
• Industrial Revolution
  
• traditional Research
  
• Basic Space Construction
  
• Capitalism
  
• A History of Benevolence

Super Ability: Super Organizer
Racial Bonuses:

• Weapons: -20%
  
• Speed: +10%
  
• Research: +25%
  
• Luck: +10%
  
• Logistics: +10

Alignment: Neutral
Short name: Arcean
Leader: Lord Vega
Political Party: War Party
Homeworld: Arcea - Class 10 (13 when fully terraformed), has a moon (+10% manufacturing bonus)
Adjacent Habitable Planet: Hammer - Class 5 (8 or 11 when fully terraformed)
Home Star: Athol
Starting Tech:

• Hyper Fusion Reactors
  
• Hyper Drive
  
• Stellar Cartography
  
• Industrial Revolution
  
• traditional Research
  
• Basic Space Construction
  
• Capitalism
  
• A Glorious History

Super Ability: Super Warrior
Racial Bonuses:

• Economics: +10%
  
• Speed: -10%
  
• Morale: +10%
  
• Military Production: +20%
  
• Hit Points: +30%
  
• Soldiering: +20%
  
• Courage: +25%
  
• Loyalty: +20%
  
• Logistics: +20

Alignment: Good
Short name: Torian
Leader: Tlas Kzientha
Political Party: Populists
Homeworld: Toria - Class 10 (13 when fully terraformed), has a ring (+10% research bonus)
Adjacent Habitable Planet: Torus IV - Class 6 (9 when fully terraformed)
Home Star: Torus
Starting Tech:

• Hyper Fusion Reactors
  
• Hyper Drive
  
• Stellar Cartography
  
• Basic Space Construction
  
• Capitalism
  
• A History of Perserverence
  
• Inherited Technology

Super Ability: Super Breeder
Racial Bonuses:

• Morale: +10%
  
• Population Growth: +10%
  
• Loyalty: +30%
  
• Logistics: +16

Alignment: Evil
Short name: Yor
Leader: N-1
Political Party: Industrialists
Homeworld: Iconia - Class 10 (fully terraformed: 13), ring (+10% research bonus)
Adjacent Habitable Planet: XTR-17 - Class 4 (fully terraformed: 13 or 16)
Home Star: Icos
Starting Tech:

• Hyper Fusion Reactors
  
• Hyper Drive
  
• Stellar Cartography
  
• Cybernetic History
  
• Anti Virus Software
  
• Firewalls

Super Ability: Super Isolationists
RBonuses:

• Economics: +10%
  
• Social Production: +20%
  
• Military Production: +20%
  
• Diplomacy: -30%
  
• Soldiering: +30%
  
• Loyalty: +100%
  
• Logistics: +12
  
• Miniturization +10%

Minor races are races that generally stay on their homeworld and build up influence. In addition to any minor races present from the start, new minor races can emerge during a game, either formed by revolting colonies (such as the I-League and the Fundamentalists) or by inhabiting previously uninhabitable systems. They work much like the "main" races in most ways, except that they cannot colonize or conquer planets.

However, under rare circumstances, they are able to colonize planets that does not belong to anybody. Beyond this, minor races are in no way limited to a single planet, and they may trade with other races to acquire additional worlds and planets may revolt to join a minor race. A player may form alliances with minor races, though there is rarely any real benefit in doing so as minor races are generally too weak to offer much assistance in the event of a war.

Minor races make good trading partners for militant players who would rather leave one planet alone inside their empire than establish trade routes with neighbors that will be lost during an eventual invasion. In general, leaving a minor race to trade with provides more income than the planet would have if conquered, assuming properly established trade routes.

In the early stages of a game, trading technologies with minor races can be very helpful, as it allows the player to sell or trade the same technology to each minor race, then offer any thus acquired new technologies to each of the other minor races, and so on. This same strategy can of course be used with the main races as well, though doing so with the minor races is often preferable as they pose no threat and are much less likely to use any new weapon technologies against you.

From a real-world perspective, think of Minor Races as the galactic equivalent of Switzerland in that they:

1. Focus on influence (it won't affect your planets)
2. Avoid conflict
3. Try emphasising production in homelands as much as possible
4. Have a defensive army

Note: Minor Races are not affected by your influence and will start out with a class 15 homeworld. Some minor races include (?= a minor race possibly generated by a random event with unknown alignment) :

• The Akilians - Neutral
  
• The Andians - Neutral
  
• The Arvanitians - ?
  
• The Carinoids - Neutral
  
• The Dark Yor - Evil
  
• The Debians - ?
  
• The Fundamentalists:
  The Fundamentalists are a coalition of multiple good-aligned planets that have revolted, typically against an evil empire, but chosen not to join any of the other civilizations. This coalition is treated as a minor race similar to the I-League. Additional planets may revolt to join the Fundamentalists once it has been formed. The Fundamentalists are never present at the start of a game, but instead have a chance of appearing when worlds revolt.
  
• The Furan - ?
  
• The I-League:
  The I-League or League of Independent Systems is a coalition of multiple planets that have revolted, but chosen not to join any of the other civilizations. Additional planets may revolt to join the I-League once it has been formed. The I-League is never present at the start of a game, but instead has a chance of appearing when worlds revolt.
  
• The Jagged Knife
  The Jagged Knife are a coalition of multiple evil-aligned planets that have revolted, typically against a good empire, but chosen not to join any of the other civilizations. Additional planets may revolt to join The Jagged Knife once it has been formed. The Jagged Knife are never present at the start of a game, but instead have a chance of appearing when worlds revolt.
  
• The Jarkians - ?
  
• The Jessuins - Neutral
  
• The LentzLandians - Neutral
  
• The Paridians - ?
  
• The Paulos - Neutral
  
• The Sanderons - ?
  
• The Sanderians - ?
  
• The Snathi - Evil
  
• The Scottlingas - Neutral
  
• The Vegans - ?
  
• The Venge - ?
  
• The Windischians - ?

The Terran Alliance is the human civilization. The humans created hyper-drive based on the old stargate designs, given to them by the Arceans. In one of the biggest blunders in galactic history, those same human scientists that developed the miraculous technology spread hyper-drive [and other requisite technologies] to the other civilizations. This event has led to the general consensus of humanity being reckless and unthinking about their actions, but the humans have since created a reputation as methodical warriors and excellent diplomats.

After meeting the Arceans and Altarians, the Terrans gave their new technology to their new galactic neighbors. As a result they became friendly with the Terrans. These friendships were used during the war with the Dominion of Korx. However, the Arceans did not do any actual fighting with the Korx , sending only supplies to their ally. The Terrans then discovered that several of the Arceans leaked the plans for Hyperdrive to the Drath Legion, who then sold the technology to the Dominion of Korx. Lord Vega, ruler of the Arceans, was infuriated by these events and ended communications for any civilization except for Terrans and Altarians.

The Terran Alliance is funded mostly by the Earthly states, such as the United States, the European Federation (Formerly the European Union), Oceania, Japan, China, India, Russia, and other nations on the continents of Asia, Africa, North America, and South America which all still exist as sovereign states within the Terran Alliance. The Terran Alliance has three capital cities: Washington D.C., U.S.A., Moscow, Russia, and London, U.K. These cities help control the elections of presidents.

Voting in the Terran Alliance is a fairly simple process. Each planet has two senators which cast votes for a presidential candidate. These senators must only vote for the candidate that the people of their planet voted for. Violations result in harsh punishment. The only exception to the "two senator rule" is Earth, which has four, being the most populous planet. Once all votes are tallied, the winner is declared, and the new president enters office at midnight on December 31. No one has complained of this election method ever since the Terran Alliance was founded.


The Yor Collective is a civilization ruled by machines, a general hatred towards organic beings programmed into them by the Dread Lords. Their home world, Iconia, was the former home world of those that now inhabit the Iconian Refuge. They are extremely good at long-term thought and have been known to make alliances with organic races, but any such alliance is only of convenience.

The Yor are not truly evil; they simply lack any conscience at all. They are an artificial species created millions of years ago by the Iconians. For most of their existence, the Yor were without sentience. The Iconians, heirs to the Precursors and at the time the most powerful civilization in the galaxy, knew well enough not to create anything that could one day turn on them and become a threat.

But time has a way of changing priorities. Eventually, the ancient Precursor civilization split into two warring factions for control of the galaxy. One side became known as the Arnor and the other side Dread Lords. To help wreak havoc on the Arnor, the Dread Lords made the Yor truly sentient. The immediate effect was for the Yor to turn on the life forms that they shared their home planet with: the Iconians.

The Iconians were servants of the Precursors but as the Iconians advanced, they started having second thoughts about having sentient beings in thrall to them. It is with some irony, then, that the living machines created to preserve the dignity of the Iconians would directly lead to the near-total extermination of the Iconian species.

The Yor absolutely detest organic life. It is their long-term mission to exterminate all organic life where they find it. There is, however, one other irony -- the Precursors designed the Yor such that they would use as their main energy source the same thing as the Iconians. The Yor "eat" in a sense; they have farming of a sort.

As long as they believed they were the only sentient life in the universe, the Yor would probably have been content to stay on their world, but in time they became aware that there were other civilizations in the universe and that the Precursors— both the Arnor and the Dread Lords—were long gone. Using techniques we do not understand, the Yor were able to reproduce Hyperdrive technology and have been a major problem for humanity for the past fifty years. Only the Drengin rival the Yor in terms of being a threat to the continued existence of the human race.

Impossibly strong, infinitely patient and meticulous beyond compare, the Yor have no pity, no mercy, no second thoughts. Because they think in the long term, they will happily make alliances, trade and diplomatic relations with the filthy organic civilizations, but one should never mistake a relationship with the Yor as resembling a friendship of any kind. All alliances with the Yor are ones of convenience.


The Drengin Empire is an evil, warlike civilization. They are very strong on offensive abilities such as soldiering and weapons as stated below. When a human player comes into contact with this race, they must be vigilant or the Drengin will have your homeworld in ruins. They cannot be trusted as they are arrogant and brutal in their wars.

The Drengin are not what you would call a friendly race. They would gladly have you over for dinner, but rather as the meal than a guest. Some people say that any being capable of interstellar travel has to be reasonable at some level. They say that hostility and violence from such a race must be the result of a misunderstanding; that if we could just empathize with one another, we would get along splendidly and soon be having a cup of tea together. These people have never met a Drengin. There can be no doubt that a Drengin would indeed do whatever it takes to cause carnage and mayhem, as long as it didn't cause any inconvenience to itself.

It is unfortunate that the Drengin are quite capable warriors. It's also unfortunate that their maliciousness does not interfere with their well-developed sense of cleverness. They are cold and calculating in their cruelty. They have advanced technologies in areas that are, frankly, unspeakable.

But what is really amazing is that the Drengin haven't already conquered and enslaved the entire galaxy. They had "invented" death furnaces to incinerate slaves for energy while human beings were still trying to take out the Neanderthals in Western Europe. They were uniting their world through brutal global warfare while humans were still walking past fields of wild wheat, staring blankly, and moving the tribe to the next herd in its hunter/gatherer ways.

The only thing that kept the Drengin from the humans' doorstep is that they did not have intergalactic travel. That is, they couldn't actually get to Earth in a reasonable amount of time. Good thing for the humans then, that in the year 2170 they provided the galaxy—including the Drengin—with its newest invention, hyperdrive. So now instead of merely trading obscene communications with this vile, evil species, humans could visit them in person (and vice versa). Of course, at the time, we still thought that the Drengin, like any advanced civilization, had moved beyond violence and war.

The delegation of peace activists was sent to Drengi to negotiate a treaty. The humans haven't heard back from them but assume they were delicious. And so now, humans must hastily assemble all the world's manufacturing, economic and technological resources in order to mount a defense against the inevitable Drengin onslaught.

The Altarian Republic is a kind, albeit rather self-righteous civilization whose denizens look remarkably like humans. In fact, genetic tests have proven that they are the same species. (see also Altarian Prophecy.) The Altarians were the first race discovered by the Arcean Empire (The Yor were the second). They were the second race discovered by the Terran Alliance.
The Altarians are extremely religious, the gods they worship each represent a branch of good. Their worship has also led them to want to subdue any evil they encounter. Their levels of worship have also reduced crime on their worlds. Altarians also use face paint around the eyes or tattoos to show their levels in society and in religion. This tradition is also used to show rank in military.

The Altarians also have popular laws that set the standard of living and society extremely high. Many Altarians work short-houred jobs with decent pay, and children only attend school four days a week, though since they met the humans it increased to five. These customs allows people of the Altarian Republic to get to know one other, and for children to see and understand the world that they will soon face.

By the time the Terran Alliance had created Hyperdrive and set out into the galaxy, the Altarians had a 15-system republic, with 30 occupied worlds. These were all part of the Altarian senate. In 2178, the Terrans and Altarians met for the first time on Altaria. The Altarians already had a faster-than-light drive system at this time, but it was extremely inefficient. By the time the Altarians acquired Hyperdrive, they were building large fleets of colony ships to expand their civilization. With the new technology, the Altarians rapidly expanded. Some Altarians grew worried at the fate of the Terrans as they began to expand their civilization.

They thought that the Altarians would take all the worlds around the Terrans, trapping them in their existing star systems. To do this, they helped the Terrans find high-quality planets (the Terrans did not know where many planets were), and convince colony ship pilots to go to different planets, ones the Terrans didn't have their sights on. When the Terrans asked why they were doing this, these Altarians said that they were doing this because the Terrans and Altarians were brothers. They should have a chance to become as powerful as the Altarians. Because of this, the Terrans gained more star systems, but they caught the eye of other civilizations that were expanding.

After the Terrans recklessly gave Hyperdrive to the other civilizations, a war broke out. The Dominion of Korx began to invade Altarian worlds. For a time, the Korx held several Altarian worlds. Then the tide turned when the Terrans joined the war against the Korx. The Korx were joined by their allies, the Torian Confederation. But these two civilizations did not know the Terran Alliance or their history of war. As a result the Terrans unleashed a powerful military force on the Korx and Torians, crushing them. However, the Terrans and Altarians granted mercy to the Torians, saving them. The Torians never forgot this and became friendlier as a result.

Things were different for the Korx. The Terrans had crushed the forces of their civilization and invaded their worlds. They soon found out from the leader of the Korx that they were given Hyperdrive by the Drath Legion, in exchange for waging war with the Altarians. After the Terrans and Altarians learned this, they went after the Drath. There the Terrans learned about the rivalries between the Altarians and Drath.

After these events, the Altarians now know that the Terrans, being diplomats, can summon up a powerful army to crush anyone who attacks them. Ultimately, this knowledge (as well as the Altarian Republic's friendship with the Terrans) led them to fighting the Drengin Empire.
After the Dread Lords case, the Altarian Republic was destroyed by the Drengin. And an Altarian Resistance was formed, led by Eleys Mue.


The Drath Legion is a civilization that was nearly wiped out by Altarians during the battle for their homeworld. It is interesting to note that as the original inhabitants they consider themselves the true Altarians. The Drath are the personification of a passive-aggressive civilization. If you anger them, you'll never know it until one day, your vehicle explodes when you open the door. When it comes to subterfuge no one can touch the Drath. There are those who say that the galaxy has long since been conquered by the Drath, we just don't know it yet; if the Drengin Empire and the Arceans are at war, there's a decent chance it's because the Drath manipulated events to make it that way.

The Drath live in the shadows, pulling the strings on the weak and powerful alike in designs that are subtle beyond imagination. Their subtlety in mind combined with seemingly infinite patience makes them a force to be reckoned with. To have the Drath as an enemy doesn't mean war with the Drath; it means war with some other race with the Drath having no direct connection to the conflict.

In one of the few instances where Drath handiwork has been proven, the Drath paid the mercenary Korx to wreak havoc on the Altarian Republic. The Drath were caught by the meddling humans in the act of moving the pieces from afar. Some argue that the Drath were sloppy in that particular instance because it was an issue of passion; you see, the Drath's home world was once Altaria, which long ago was home to two sentient species; over time, the Altarians became dominant and the Drath were forced into hiding.

An individual Drath is strong, intelligent and ruthless, but the Drath simply lacked the numbers and had to give way to the growing biomass of the Altarians. Through centuries of living in the shadows, the Drath honed their skills of espionage, destabilization and manipulation. Then one day, the Drath somehow—in a way that remains a mystery—managed to escape Altaria and go to the planet now called Drath (here we should point out the obvious: before coming to live on Drath, these beings considered themselves the true natives of Altaria, Altarians).

As the civilizations expand into the galaxy, the Drath have made the most of their skills. They pull the levers and strings. They push the buttons. Meanwhile, the rest of the galaxy dances a dance that is often not of their own device.


The Torian Confederation is a civilization that was once enslaved by the Drengin Empire. As a result, they are usually distrustful of foreigners.
The Torians were a wonderful, kind, gentle people. They were a people full of wonder and trust. Were. Needless to say, such instincts led them to being brutally enslaved by the Drengin Empire. The Drengin Empire had found Toria through an unmanned probe 100,000 years ago. They then constructed a stargate and had another probe tow it there. The process took 70,000 years. The Drengin have many faults but impatience isn't one of them. Once the stargate arrived and was activated, the peace-loving Torians were quickly conquered and enslaved.

As a species, the Torians are nothing if not resilient. They learned in the school of pain and grief how to strike back at their conquerors. Eventually, the Torians were able to drive the Drengin from their world. The stargates that connected the galaxy were expensive to run and the Drengin concluded that it was too costly to maintain control of Toria. Bear in mind, this was a gradual process as the Drengin held the Torians in thrall for over 30,000 years.

One might argue that the Torians were incredibly lucky to have gotten the Drengin Empire off their world when they did. A few hundred years later the galactic powers were equipped with Hyperdrive which made the stargates obsolete. The Torians would never have been able to liberate themselves against a hyperdrive-equipped Drengin Empire.

If it seems like we're talking about the Drengin Empire a lot it's because the Torians talk about the Drengin Empire a lot. Toria, once a beautiful world, is still largely in ruins. The Torians have an immense bitterness against the Drengin Empire and are constantly skirmishing against them. The Drengin don't have such passions, their evil is of the cold and calculating kind. If it is in their best interest to crush the Torians, they will. If not, they'll let them be. The Torians, by contrast, tend to go out of their way to antagonize the Drengin.

The Torians are largely an aquatic race. Toria is mostly covered in water and they prefer worlds that have more water on them than not. Their ships tend to carry a great deal of water on board which has had its share of benefits -- they always have water to trade with other space faring civilizations who are far from home. The Torians, as a result, tend to be able to travel further from their home planets than other galactic civilizations.

As we said, the Torians were a kind gentle people. Their experiences with the Drengin have colored their point of view of alien civilizations. They are not above fairly ruthless military tactics when needed, especially if the Drengin are involved or if one is working with the Drengin in some way.


The Arcean Empire is an ancient, honorable warrior civilization and long time enemy of the Drengin Empire. It was the Arceans who gave the humans the plans to make their first stargate.
The Arceans aren't evil, but they are not completely good either: while they care about honor, they also take pride that they are the physically toughest race in the galaxy, standing 12 feet tall. Because of their stature, the Arceans want to conquer and control the galaxy. Naturally this puts them at odds with some of the other militaristic civilizations such as the Drengin Empire, whom they despise (though pretty much everyone at least fears the Drengin).

It was through the Arceans that humans managed to get faster-than-light travel in the form of stargates. In the year 2117, an Arcean probe came to Earth, drawing celebration from all of humanity.

The Arcean probe provided plans on how to build a "stargate," which would allow ships to travel great distances. The world celebrated this too. The major catch was that stargates can only send ships between any two of them. That is, the humans' stargate would allow them to travel to Arcea and allow Arceans to travel the opposite direction. The other problem was the size and expense of constructing one. They were huge and even then, a ship traveling to Arcea would take over 10 years to get there via the stargate. But that's still a lot better than hundreds of thousands of years.

But the real kicker to the stargate is that it couldn't be turned off. The plans for the humans' stargate included an ON switch but not an OFF switch. In fact, the plans made it virtually impossible (and in fact somewhat fatal to our solar system) to turn it off. In what has to be the greatest attempted scam in history, the Arceans were providing humans the means to open themselves up for interplanetary invasion. This is the part where we mention that the Arceans are an advanced, militaristic race that had years to build a fleet of warships that one presumes could only be used to travel through stargates.

Few victims of invasion have spent so lavishly and worked so hard in order to pave the way for their own conquest, but humans were up to the challenge. Unfortunately for the Arceans (and luckily for us) the key thing that the Arceans (as well as other galactic civilizations) were missing in their various technologies was energy. While constructing the stargate, the humans noticed that it still relied on fission-based energy. Humans by the 22nd century had long since figured out fusion and with that technology, energy consumption became less of an issue. The basic theory behind the stargate was the warping of space which requires immense amounts of energy, which humans had. This technology was adapted to create a new type of ship propulsion called hyperdrive.

Hyperdrive is like having a stargate on a ship. The individual ship could travel anywhere in the galaxy in far less time than through a stargate. As a result, construction on the stargate stopped, thus depriving the Arceans of the pleasure of conquering the most gullible race in the galaxy.
The Arceans, now equipped with hyperdrive, have a far greater variety of potential invasion targets. As for the humans, the naiveté of 22nd-century humanity has given way to the cool and cunning 23rd-century humans, who have taken their place amongst the Galactic Civilizations.


The Dominion of Korx is an enterprising civilization that would do anything for a quick buck. It gained hyper-drive by fighting a proxy war against the Altarians for the Drath.
The Korx are the ultimate capitalists. All matters of life are valued purely on economic terms; they are the galactic bankers, the interstellar financiers, the ones who always seem to come out of any deal on top. When it comes to matters of money, the Korx are ruthless and would sell their own mothers into slavery if they thought they could make a profit; in fact, in Korx society, selling one's mother into slavery is considered a sort of "rite of passage" for Korx children. It's a way, so to speak, of passing the baton to the next generation.

To be poor in Korx society is to be nothing. Concepts such as charity, social justice, and redistribution of wealth are totally alien to the Korx. Those who fail to achieve their own financial success are considered unworthy to live and often are disposed of with little concern.

Despite the Korx' lack of military prowess they are amongst the most powerful civilizations in the galaxy. They generally don't fight wars; their vast trading networks with other races tend to ensure that no one wants to jeopardize the galactic economy by going after the Korx. When there's a war to be fought, you can always count on the Korx to help finance it; they are simply too old and too rich to get involved in wars if they can avoid it.

The Korx are the galactic mercenaries. They will sell anything, even themselves. To achieve interstellar travel they earned it the really old fashioned way; they bought it. They bought it from the Drath, paid for with the lives of millions of their poor, sent to their deaths in a futile war with the Altarians. The Drath offered the technology for interstellar travel to the Korx in exchange for the Korx disrupting the Altarian military enough to allow the Drath to conquer the Altarian home world. Unfortunately, the Korx aren't really a warrior race so the Altarians, with help from the humans, thwarted this plan. But like in so many other deals, despite disaster, the Korx ended up on top: they still ended up with the hyperdrive technology they needed to expand their economic empire into the galaxy.


The Iconian Refuge is the oldest of the younger races in the galaxy. Iconians evolved during the reign of the Precursors and served them for a long while. Later, the Yor were created to serve as a mechanical replacement for the servant Iconians. When the great civil war between the Arnor and Dread Lords finally came, the Dread Lords granted the Yor sentience and filled them with a cold hatred for organic life.

The Yor nearly wiped out the Iconian race, but a small group escaped to a distant planet where they took refuge. After a great period of time tucked away from the rest of the galaxy, the humans discovered them and gifted to them the hyper-drive technology. They finally had what they needed to create a vast empire and, perhaps more importantly, take back their home planet from the vile Yor Collective.

As the Iconians are the oldest of the younger races, understanding the Iconians requires knowing a bit about the history of the galactic civilizations. In the beginning, as far as we can tell, there was the Precursor civilization. For a long while we had no name for them but they called themselves the Arnor.

The Arnor came across the primitive Iconians and educated them, nurtured them, and guided them to full sentience. During this time, the Iconians were servants of the Arnor. It is important to understand the vast difference between the Precursors and the Iconians in terms of evolutionary status. The Arnor were as far advanced from the Iconians as we are from mammals such as horses or other "beasts of burden."

But as the Iconians advanced, an increasing number of the Arnor objected to the servitude of the Iconians. Of course, like many moral debates, there was a practical side: the Arnor had grown quite dependent on the service of the Iconians. But the Arnor came to a solution: they would replace their Iconian servants with artificial beings. And so came into existence the Yor, whose story is told elsewhere. In time, the great Precursor empire split in two and warred upon one another. The group of Arnorians who lost the war—for reasons that are unknown to us—were labelled as the Dread Lords. Before they and nearly all the other Arnor disappeared, a final act of malevolence was performed: the Yor were made truly sentient beings.

In the bloodbath that followed on Iconia, the Yor were victorious in the most total sense, as every Iconian was killed. Or more to the point, nearly every Iconian was killed. A handful escaped on sleeper pods and drifted for hundreds of thousands of years until the sleeper pods made it to a new world. On this new world the story of the Iconians would have come to an end if it were not for a human scout ship that arrived. The humans, ever the master diplomats (though as some say of the humans, there is an iron fist inside their velvet glove), provided the Iconians with Hyperdrive. In the past several years, the Iconians have worked to expand into the galaxy and one day reclaim their home world from the vile Yor.


The Thalan Empire is a mysterious civilization believed to be from another dimension or the future. The Thalan are a civilization we know very little about. We don't know how they got hyper drive. We don't know where they came from. Their home world isn't their home world based on what we've seen. It's a colony. Where their real home world is remains a mystery to us.
They appear to be an insectoid race, but if there is a hive mind of some kind we can't tell.

Our contacts with the Thalan have been few and far between thus far, but individuals seem to be independent and unique. That is, they're not drones. However, at the same time, they seem to have little in terms of communication equipment. They don't speak out of a mouth. Communication is purely through computer devices. They make no sounds, no gestures. Their meaning simply shows up on a universal translator. How they communicate with each other also remains a mystery to us.

We do know a few things, however. First, we know that they are much more sophisticated than they appear. Our intelligence analysis indicates that wherever the Thalan come from, it is vastly more advanced than they are here. Everything on their capital world here appears to have been constructed recently. It is as if 10 years ago 10,000 of them simply "appeared" on Thala and began constructing everything they had from scratch. With only their knowledge to work with, they've cobbled together an impressive capital world and now seem poised to expand into the galaxy.

The question is, what do these guys want? Why are they here? Speculation abounds. One of our agents who spent a lot of time with the Thalan suggests they are time travelers or, at the very least, inter-dimensional beings. He has speculated that the Thalan have actually come here to stop some horrific event from occurring; an event that is sometime in our future. It is as if something terrible is about to happen that requires the direct intervention of this truly alien race. Speculation aside, we do know that the Thalan are not as different from the other species as they appear. They engage in politics, war and trade just like everyone else. They are immensely productive and reproduce at a very high rate, far higher than the norm. We have not really been able to see them at war yet, so we can only speculate at their effectiveness but we suspect they will be quite lethal in battle. For some reason, despite our efforts to befriend them, the Thalan don't like us. We really can't tell why. It is as if they think we are the cause of whatever great peril is to come which of course is absurd.

Whatever their long-term agenda is, in the near-term, they rank up amongst the 10 major civilizations in our galaxy.But recent discoveries have discerned more of why the Thalan are here in this time period. Apparently Thalans come from a separate universe that is more chronologically advanced then ours. It is in this parallel/future universe that the Thalans discovered that our universe's humanity will instigate an event of such cataclysmic destruction that it will not only destroy our universe, but begin a chain reaction that will destroy all of existence.

This shocking discovery gave the Thalans no choice but to travel to our universe, discern the source of the destruction, and stop humanity from destroying the omniverse.


The Drengin Empire has always represented evil in the Galactic Civilizations II universe, but now a clan within the Drengin, the Korath, has begun to break away and impose its own will on the galaxy. While the Drengin are content to merely enslave everyone that they can conquer, the Korath are happy with nothing less than complete extermination.
The Korath are featured in the "Dark Avatar" expansion.

According the Dark Avatar campaign, the Korath were once elite Drengin warriors. They were a major force in defeating the Terran Alliance and its allies. This gained them the respect of the Drengin Emperor Lord Kona. After the war, with the Drengin Empire reigning supreme, the Korath began to start internal conflicts, calling for the total destruction of all non-Drengin speicies. The other Drengin clans were shocked and struck down this request, the reason being the need for slavelings.

Angry, the leader of the Korath, Kindar A' Aghohl began looking for ways to destroy the non-Drengin speicies, beginning with simple prison massacres, and leading up to destruction of cities. Lord Kona became frustrated with Kindar and Korath Clan. He ordered the Korath clan to stop its activities, or be destroyed. Kindar decided to stop, but only to look for more resources for his genocidal plans.

Then, the evil Dread Lords, having decided to not retake the galaxy by brute force, but instead take it through manipulation, found the Korath, and appeared simpathetic to their situation. The Dread Lords then said that they would help them achieve their goals, and would also make them near-equals in the new Dread Lord Empire. The Korath agreed to help.

The Dread Lords then altered the genetic structure of the Korath to make them look different from regular Drengin. The Dread Lords also constructed a fleet of warships for the Korath Clan to use. When this was completed, the Korath officially seceded from the Drengin Empire.

Lord Kona tried to stop this by sending a small fleet to attack the Korath, but they were completely outmatched. After this victory, the Korath traveled to a new planet, named it Kora, and began expanding from there. They then began work on their infamous "Spore" technology.

A Terran Agent discovered information about this and sold it to the Drengin Empire. Lord Kona's most trusted commander, the Drengin Dark Avatar (whom the expansion is named after) met this agent, and made the exchange: Leave the Terrans and Altarian alone, as well as a large sum of credits, in exchange for the info. The Dark Avatar accepted the info, but refused to believe the involvement of the Dread Lords. The Dark Avatar then launched an all-out assault on the Korath.
Their name, goals and history may be a reference to the Kor-Ah race from the game Star Control 2.


These guys are trying to bring order to the galaxy in the name of religion. Like the Drath Legion or the Iconian Refuge, the Krynn Consulate make use of their racial advantages in espionage and diplomacy to get ahead in the game. Staunch Federalists, they usually have the cash to take advantage of whatever interspecies opportunities happen to come up. Better still, the Krynn begin the game with an espionage agent and the counter-espionage technology.

The Krynn Consulate specialize in influence. Their influence starbases require less modules to hit the maximum than that of other races. With their diplomatic bonuses, they can afford to place several influence starbases in foreign territory without angering their neighbors. As a result, an influence victory is a natural for anyone playing as the Krynn Consulate.

These are glowing colored looking orbs on the star map. Mining them will increase your bonus stats (see mining starbase).

Although ships in Galactic Civilizations II have several roles, they mainly serve as your civilization’s military might. You can build ships at any colony with a Star Port. You can design your own ships in the Ship Yard.


All ships have certain attributes as follows:

Attack (Beam, Missile, Mass Driver): These ratings are determined by the weapons equipped on the ship.

Defense (Shield, Point Defense, Armor): These ratings, which counter beam, missile, and mass driver weapons respectively, are determined by the defenses equipped on the ship.

Hit Points: A ship’s hit points are mainly a factor of its hull size, but can be affected by racial abilities or projects.

Speed: The type and number of engines determines how many parsecs (tiles on the map) a ship can move each turn.

Sensor Range: Ships can see out a certain number of parsecs based on what sensors they have.

Range: A ship’s life support components determine how far it can stray from a friendly colony or Starbase. This is measured in sectors. There are 15 parsecs in a sector. At first, your ships will have a limited range but eventually they’ll be able to travel multiple sectors from friendly territory.

Experience: When ships survive a battle, they gain experience based on the relative strength of their opponent when compared to them.

Level: When enough experience has been reached, the ship goes up a level. Each level increases the # of hitpoints a given ship can have.

Maintainence: Ships cost a certain amount per turn. Maintainence is 2.5% of the original cost of a ship. It adds up; pay attention and decommission if needed.

Special Abilities: Certain modules will give your ships special abilities, like being able to construct Starbases, colonize planets, conduct trade routes, or survey anomalies.


You can issue your ships specific commands:

• Sentry: Orders a ship to remain idle until another ship, friendly or enemy, comes near.
  
• Guard: Commands the ship to sit idle until an enemy ship comes near.
  
• Auto Survey: The ship will automatically attempt to survey any anomalies you’ve revealed (requires a survey module).
  
• Auto Explore: Tasks the ship to go out and explore new sectors, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly... (our legal department made us stop there).
  
• Rally Point: Directs a ship to a particular rally point you’vecreated.
  
• Auto Attack: Orders a ship to automatically attack any enemies that come within sensor range.

Fleets are constructed by pressing the Create Fleet buttonwhen you have multiple ships in a given parsec. The limit on the number of ships in a fleet is your logistics rating. You can increase your logistics by researching technologies. Each ship uses logistics points based on its size:

• Tiny ships: 2 points
  
• Small ships: 3 points
  
• Medium ships: 4 points
  
• Large ships: 5 points
  
• Huge ships: 6 points

Fleets are particularly potent in combat since they use the combined attack ratings of their component ships.


Eventually ships get outdated. At that point you can upgrade ships individually or entire classes of ships at once. You can only upgrade ships to ship classes that have the same hull size. No turning fighters into battleships. There is a cost associated with upgrading ships:

The cost to upgrade a ship is determined by:

• The difference in cost between the existing ship class and the new one.
  
• How different the new one is (in terms of weaponry and modules).
  
• Whether the focus on offenses and defenses has changed.

There is also a time to upgrade. The further from friendly territory, the longer it will take in weeks (turns) to upgrade. A ship close to home can be upgraded in a single week. A ship on the other side of the galaxy might take 6 or 8 weeks to upgrade. This is important because ships only have 1 hitpoint while they are being upgraded (an upgrade icon shows above the ship). So don’t go
upgrading ships in the middle of enemy territory.

When you have decided to upgrade your ship, you can pay for the upgrade through the usual four contractors who provide you with the option of paying all now or paying some now with a lot more over time.


There are three types of paired offense-defense mechanisms:

• Beam Weapons and Shields
  
• Missiles and Point Defense
  
• Mass Drivers and Armor

Defenses work best against the offensive weapon they are matched against. A defense mechanism used against a mismatched attack is diminished to the square root of the defense value (with a minimum of 1). For example, nine units of shield defenses would only provide the same protection as three units of armor when used to defend against mass drivers.


Players can add a wide variety of non-functional components - jewelry - such as wings, pylons, wheel structures, and lights for artistic purposes. These take up no space and do not cost extra. There are several sets of jewelry, one of which is assigned to each race, though the player is not restricted to choosing from these.


Core ships are default ship designs that come with Galactic Civilizations II. A player unlocks core ships by discovering the technologies required to build them; this information can be seen in the technology window. Core ships designs may not be modified by the player, but individual ships can be upgraded like normal.


Note: many core designs use hull types that do not match the ship's hit points. Designs that have more hit points than their hulls are marked with a single asterisk; designs that have fewer hit points than their hulls are trailed by two asterisks. These notes only apply to Human-style hulls and may not be applicable to other styles.

You can build starbases from constructors. Build a constructor, place it somewhere and select construct. Once you have established a base you need to build another contructor and place it exactly onto the just established base in order to add modules. Placing them in your opponent's area of influence is not an act of war, but placing too many will damage your diplomatic relation.

Note: The effect of starbases will stack however starbases are limited to 4/sector, with no other restrictions on spacing. Mining starbases do not count toward this limit. The more starbases you already have, the more it costs to build a new one. The build cost is reduced with better logistics ability. The first four starbases are free. Ships will be able to travel further by placing a starbase outside your empire's area of influence. There are four types of them:


This Starbase will create an attack or a defensive field around the base. Your ship will receive an attack or defense bonus when placed within its radius.


Modules are able to boost social production, research and trade. Place it so that planets fall within the base its radius for production and research bonus. Once you have established trade routes (see trade section) place an economic base onto a trade route so it will cut the area of effect circle exactly at the center for maximum efficiency (if the route is a straight line). You will receive a trade bonus once the freighter enters the area of effect and you will lose the bonus once it leaves. Placing a base near the end point of the route will maximize your trade revenue, the downside however is that defending that base will be more difficult.
Trade bonus per added module: 25% (1st module= 2nd constructor)+25% (2nd module)+50% (3rd module = 100 % (4 constructors for max bonus).


Use these to counter the increasing area of influence of your neighbour or use them to extend your own. Make sure you will cover as many planets as possible. Covering your own planets will boost their influence while covering your opponent's will decrease their planetary influence. The maximum summed up bonus is 285% provided all modules are installed after you have researched the entire influence branch (2nd row from top).


Mining starbases are used to extract a Resource bonus (see resource section) affecting your entire civilization. Place a constructor onto a resource to create one, it will give you a 5% bonus. Placing additional modules will give a 5% incremental bonus up to 25% when maxed out. They are very valuable when maxed out because these are empire wide bonusses. If you won't mine them at least put 1 mining base onto a resource which lies within your empire, this will block enemies from taking it. You will need researching the contruction tech branch (orange) in order to place additional modules, 5% for every tech (from Xeno Industrial Theory up till Industrial Sector). The Korx have unique mining tech which let them extract even more from resources, up to 50% if I'm not mistaken.

I will describe branches beginning from top and descending down to bottom. Sometimes I will skip some short tech branches in between rows. I will state at least two techs from the same row so that you are able to pintpoint the row much easier. Every bullet point is equal to one row. Don't bother researching multiple weapon types, just research one weapon type and don't research any armor type at all (purple).

• Interstellar Republic, Star Democracy etc.
  This row will unlock new governments which will give you an economic boost
  
• Xeno business, Cultural domination
  Influence related tech for gaining/spreading influence
  
• Diplomacy, Majesty
  These will increase your diplomatic leverage, thus better deals en relationships
  
• Xeno Ethics, Good and Evil
  This will unlock your ethics path + the accompanied bonuses

• Hyper Drive, Ion Drive
  Increases your travel distance per turn (=speed)

• Xeno Engineering, Interstellar construction
  Logistics=More ships per fleet, Plating & Hulls=hit points, Construction & buildings=new hull sizes, Life support=Ship range, Miniaturization=Decreases size of ship modules, Sensors=sight.

• Xeno Research and Research Centers
  These will increase your science output per building

• Planetary Improvements, Xeno Industrial Theory
  This will improve social production, thus speeding up the building proces.
  
• Xeno Economics, Xeno Trade Center
  Increases planetary income

• Xeno Entertainment, Extreme Entertainment
  Improves planetary approval (=morale) rating

• Xeno Farm Construction, Xeno Farm construction II
  Build these farms to increase your planetary population limit
  
• Xeno Biology, Xeno Medicine
  Speeding up empire wide population growth.
  
• Terraforming & Colonization
  Terraforming will unlock extra tiles thus increasing your PQ (=class). Colonize extreme planets

• Laser, Particle Beams: Increase beam damage and decrease beam weapon size
  
• Stinger, Harpoon: Increase missile damage and decrease missile weapon size
  
• Rail Guns, Singularity Driver
  Increase mass driver damage and decrease mass driver weapon size
  
• Planetary Invasion, Planetary Bombardment: Unlocks Invasion Tactics
  
• Starbase Militarization, Terror Stars: Upgrade Military starbase, Blow up star system

• Deflectors, Shields: Increase beam defense and decrease shield module size
  
• Chaff, ECM: Increase missile defense and decrease point defense module size
  
• Armor Theory, Titanium Armor
  Increase mass driver defense and decrease armor module size

• Planetary Defense: Ground Combat Bonus

How to establish a trade route:

• Research the first trade tech
  
• Select a planet with a starport or build one, then construct a freighter. The planet on which you build is also your starting point of the route. So be careful where you build it.
  
• Launch your freighter and send it to a planet of another civilization. Once it has reached the planet a trade route wil be established recognizable by a faint colored line.

If you go to your planet where you have built your freighter in the next turn, you will see a mini freighter flying along the trail line. The value of the trade route is proportional to the length of the route, as well as the population of both the destination and home planet of the trade ship. When the tiny trade ship returns to its starting planet is the value of trade route reset to its starting value, and tiny trade ship starts another round.

Trade ships are able to be attacked, so they should either be protected or only allowed to operate in safe areas of space. Civilizations can only have a limited number of trade routes, a number that can be affected by technology, racial bonuses, and United Planets votes. The trade tab of the Domestic Policy screen lists your civilization's current trade routes with the left number your current trade route income at this moment and the right number the maximum amount when it has reached its destination.This is also where the maximum number of trade routes for your civilization can be found. This screen can be used to discontinue trade routes if necessary.

Trading profits can be increased by building economic starbases covering as much routes as possible (see economic starbase). You can have more than one trade route with the same planet. Setting up trade routes isn't only useful for trade income but also to strengthen diplomatic relations. Civilizations making use of your trade routes are more reserved about declaring war with you.

The United Planets is a galactic body that meets every December to hold a vote on various proposals. These proposals are randomly determined, but with a high enough espionage value, you can see what the proposals will be before a vote is called. The number of votes each civilization receives is determined by the pool of influence it has built up over time. Each civilization’s total votes are displayed before the proposal is decided. Afterwards, you can see how each civilization voted on the proposal.

The United Planets tab on the Foreign Policy screens lists any proposals currently in effect. You can click on icons along the bottom of the display to select other civilizations and display the
distribution of voting power. You can leave the United Planets by clicking the button in the upper right of the screen, but it will mean you can no longer maintain trade routes, which are a potentially lucrative source of income. Once you leave the United Planets, there is no turning back.

The United Planets can, however, be used to your advantage. By building up your technologies and then trading them with other races for their influence points, you can easily take control of the senate by having the majority of the votes, thereby ensuring that the motions are always passed in your favour.

I will show the exact steps on how to kick start your empire. Some options/abilities are turned off or on just for the sake of this tutorial. Your first game (this tutorial) should be on a medium map for experimentation purposes, but what you want eventually is playing on a large map with more races and higher difficulty (preferably tough difficulty).

Select New Game
Map Size: Medium
Custom map: None
Scenario: Normal
Victory conditions: Only check Alliance
Surrender: Off
Blind Exploration: Off
Mega Events: Off
Super Abilities: On
Disable Tech Trading: Off
Tech Stealing: On
Disable Tech Brokering: Off
Habitable Planets: Common
# of Planets: Common
# of Stars: Abundant
Star Density: Scattered
Anomalies: Common
# of Asteroids: Common
Tech Rate: Normal
Minor Races: 3
# of Extreme Planets: Rare
Likelyhood of Random Events: Occasional
Click Next

Select the Terran Alliance--->Next
Abilities:
Creativity: +25%
Range: 10 sct
Social Production: +10%
Military Production: +10%
Morale: +15%
Economics: +15%

Select the politics tab: Federalists
Click Next

# of Opponents: 4
Difficulty: Beginner
Opponents: Drengin Empire, Altarian Resistance, Thalan Empire, Torian confederation.
Don't fiddle around with their individual settings.
Click Next


1. Click once on Xeno Communications---> Select Done in your lower right corner.
2. You will see your Colony management screen. Select done for now.
3. You will now see your main map. Go to the right of your mini map and turn on the ownership filter. It's a small symbol. Once it's on you will see where other races starting out on the mini map.
4. Select your flagship--->Select automate in the panel at the bottom.
5. Select your space miner--->upgrade--->select Colony ship--->upgrade.
6.