TAKE THE CONTROLS
The empire runs on its own, but some fights are better played by hand. Three real-time mini-games sit on top of the empire game and use the same mechs, research and veterancy you built there. Every one of them is optional: anything you don't play resolves on its own.
Nothing in the Store makes you stronger in these fights. There are no paid buffs, boosts or special attacks.
YOUR WORLD IS THE MAP
Every planet and moon you hold has its own isometric battlefield, with your headquarters in the west and the attack coming in from the east. Open the layout editor and place your turrets and mechs on the defense pads, zone by zone, from the outer line back to the last stand.
Save your layout as a preset and switch between them as your defenses grow; Defense Doctrine research gives you room for more. When an attack lands while you're away, your layout fights it for you.
The map shows you where to put things. High ground lets a defense fire farther and keeps it hidden until it shoots, kill zones mark the tiles two or more defenses cover, and every defense shows how far it reaches.
OR FIGHT IT LIVE, BOTH SIDES
If the defender or an attacker is online when an attack lands, it becomes a live battle on the world's defense map, and both sides get two minutes to join. The defender commands the defense; attackers command their squads and can send the next wave early or pull out. Whoever doesn't join is played by the computer, and anyone can take their side back mid-battle.
The server runs the battle, so neither player's device decides who wins. Battles last up to 15 minutes. Attackers who would rather skip all that can tick "Roll against chance" before they launch, and the battle is decided by the numbers alone.
PLACE EVERY TURRET
Drag turrets and mechs onto the pads of each zone, read the high ground and kill zones, then save the layout as a preset.
HOLD THE LINE
An attack lands while you're online: the waves come in from the east and your squads meet them. The attacker can be playing live too.
TAKE THE SHIP, DECK BY DECK
Pirate ships drift into the deep-space edge of every star system with a player in it, a new one every six hours. Send a task force to board one, then fight your way through it in real time: armored section by section from the hull to the bridge, deck by deck, room by room.
You can't build anything on board. You fight with the mechs you brought and eight squad abilities: recon drones to spy ahead, sabotage, breaching charges, shield walls, fortify, suppress, rally and fire support. Mechs knocked out on a pirate ship aren't lost; they come home with the rest.
Every player boards their own copy of the ship. Beat it and it blows up, but you can board it again, for full pay each run, until it leaves the system. Boarding Tactics, Breaching Charges, Infiltration and Void Seals research make you better at it.
BREACH, CLEAR, MOVE ON
A boarding party works through a pirate deck room by room toward the next bulkhead.
SKIFF
One deck, a handful of rooms. A first boarding.
CORSAIR
Two armored sections of one or two decks each.
RAIDER
Three sections, two decks each.
MARAUDER
Four sections of two or three decks each.
DREADHULK
Four sections, three decks each, and the best haul in the system.
The ship you meet is sized to your empire, so a new player's first ship is a Skiff and the Dreadhulks come later.
WIN NEW WORLDS BY HAND
Colonies and moons are taken with a capture campaign of 6 to 8 missions, each one on a large scrolling isometric battlefield. Land a Field Command Post, send Salvage Rigs for salvage, build turrets and train your faction's mechs, then play the mission by its objective. Your survivors carry from one mission to the next.
Campaign missions and pirate boarding run on the same battle engine as the server, so the result you see on your screen is the result you get.
EVERY MISSION HAS ITS OWN GOAL
Build up, push out and finish the objective before the garrison grinds you down.
HOLD
Hold the landing zone against wave after wave. If the Command Post falls, the mission is lost.
ASSAULT
Destroy the enemy command center in the east. Its turrets keep coming back while it stands.
ESCORT
Dropships leave your Command Post one by one. Get enough of them to the east edge past the ambushes.
SABOTAGE
Destroy every guarded relay while raids hit your Command Post.
CAPTURE
Hold enough control points at once, for long enough, while the enemy fights to take them back.
SURVIVE, THEN STRIKE
Ride out the raids, then destroy the strike group when it lands.
WATCH IT AGAIN
Every battle report can be replayed on the map, wave by wave, so you can see exactly where an attack broke through or a defense held.
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