Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords (PC Games, 2006)

I have played a number of strategy games over the years--from "Spaceward Ho," Master of Orion and Sid Meier's games to the Empire Earth series--and Galactic Civilization II: Dread Lords now ranks up there among my favorites. You get to play one of the stock races or you can customize your race by choosing from a variety of racial bonuses that you can tailor to your play style. From there you begin with your homeworld and expand outwards, staking your claim in the universe. If you were a fan of the first two Master of Orion games you will really enjoy Galactic Civilization.

Graphics-wise there is nothing spectacular about this game. It is turn based and while you control the composition of your battle fleets, the computer always controls the actual fighting. However, you can control the design and look of your ships and can design individual ships. This gives you an enormous advantage if you play smart: for example if your opponents are relying heavily on rail gun weapon technology, you can counter by building ships designed to stop that sort of weaponry.

The game gets good support and has been updated regularly to address issues. The game has been tweaked a number of times to make it more enjoyable and there are plans to make it even more satisfying. The AI is quite good and apparently getting better with future updates. It can recognize an imminent attack (say when you mass a fleet on a border) and you'll sometimes get a diplomatic message warning you to back off. If you get too far ahead technologically, the other civilizations will refuse to trade any of their weapons techs with you. A civilization clearly about to be overwhelmed will surrender rather than fight to the bitter end; but usually they will surrender to one of your rivals, giving them a few extra planets and resources that will tend to balance things out.

Galactic Civilizations II is not for the "fast twitch" crowd; it is a slow paced, thoughtful game that plays out over days. I would give it 5 of 5 stars, however there are a few things I'm not satisfied with: for example, there is still a memory issue that causes lag in the latter stages of the games with larger universes, particularly when reloading a saved game. I'm sure this will be addressed eventually, but for now it is a remains a problem.