Sword of the Stars II: Lords of Winter

Sword of the Stars II is a 4X strategy game, set in space around the years 2500. It is the second major installment of the Sword of the Stars series. The game is essentially a mix of strategic turn-based gameplay and real-time space ship battles in three dimensions, similar to the Total War series.

The game allows to play all the six different factions already present in the previous game, which all have their distinctive play style thanks to different propulsion modes and specific technology affinities. Unlike the previous Sword of the Stars game, each stars that compose the map can have zero or several planets which can have in turn zero or more moons. The game still propose different map shapes to pick from, but instead of allowing the player to choose how many stars there are in the map, stars distance, etc, maps in Sword of the Stars II have a fixed shape and a fixed number of stars. However, the type of star and the planets and moons that compose the different star systems of the map are entirely randomized. The technology tree has been reworked, but still keeps the random nature of its predecessor, which makes sure every game will be different.

Sword of the Stars II adds an emphasis on space stations, and offer many new options for customization. Ships have to organized in fleets which are led by admirals who all have distinct skill sets and traits. Fleets are no longer commended directly, and must be assigned "missions" instead, which are then automatically carried out by the fleet.

The game does not feature a single player campaign, but has a flexible sandbox mode and will get additional scenarios in the future (as of 2011/11/9). The game still has multiplayer modes that allows up to eight players to join a game. Games can be saved and restored, players can drop in or out of the game at any time. When a player leaves the game, they are replaced by an AI that can be configured by the player to use a specific play style.