Attack! Move! Hide! – These are some of the orders you can give out in StariumXCV, an online strategy game where players lead an interstellar Empire. Players perform most actions through commanding their forces, each with a specialized role to play. We refer to the entities that take orders from the player as “command” entities.

The command structure is made up of 4 types of game pieces: Leaders, Agents, Armies, and Fleets.

Leaders

Leaders are figures of importance within an Empire. These are generals, philosophers, politicians, and scientists; the figures that make it into the history books. In StariumXCV, Leaders impact the game through their skills, and gain rewards through Missions.

Leaders provide broad buffs to the features around them. The exact bonuses they provide are based on the leader’s skills. A Leader’s Ground Combat skill will boost the strength of an Army they’re leading, and a Building skill will increase building speed for the area they’re at. Leader skill buffs are pretty powerful, but usually affect a small area. Which skills players choose to invest in and where they choose to apply those bonuses is one of the key strategic actions players can make.

There are 9 different skills a Leader can have. Going over each one would be a little dry, but if you want to dig into each one you can read more about Leader Skills on our wiki.

Missions are narrative-driven, dynamic stories that you guide your Leader through. Missions usually start with some inciting incident that your Leader is involved in, and you choose how the Leader handles the situation. Finishing a Mission grants rewards, which can include an increase to the Leader’s skills. Missions are the primary way Leaders improve, and are a nice source of other goodies.

Agents

Agents are special operatives. They are the minor characters pulling the strings in the background. Agents can be secret spies, saboteurs, assassins, propagandists, and other specialized roles. Agents are a way to affect other Empires outside of combat: subtly influencing another Empire’s production capabilities, quelling dissent among your own populations, or keeping tabs on your potential enemies.

There are multiple types of agents, each with their own specialized abilities. Spies, for example, are able to hide their presence from other Empires. They can clear the Fog-of-War within enemy territory while being hidden from detection.

Agents have a lot of variety. There are roughly 18 types of Agents, and some types have multiple ranks that the Agent levels through. If you want to see more about the total scope of Agents, check out Agents on our wiki.

Armies

Armies are the boots on the ground enacting the will of their Empire. They scout new territory, attack adversaries, and defend land. Armies are pretty large forces, with one Unit in the game representing about 10,000 individuals.

Armies can be optimized for a purpose through the Units that are put into it. Different Units are better at different things, and stats can be upgraded through Research. Empires build certain Units and Research certain stat upgrades to fulfill their general game strategy.

Exploring new worlds is crucial to Empire growth. Armies are able to Claim areas, which expands the territory under an Empire’s control. Colonist Units can then Settle the Area to instantiate a new work force. Areas can also be taken from other Empires.

Combat will probably be its own article someday. Armies are able to attack any Army or Area owned by an Empire they are at war with. Once an attack is launched, the battle happens instantly from the player’s perspective. Players don’t actively contribute to a battle, instead the challenge is in how the armies were built, and who is better at exploiting the others’ weaknesses. Good reconnaissance can make the difference between victory and defeat.

There are endless ways to build a good Army. How you choose to do it is based on the strategy you want to employ, and the opponent you’re trying to defeat. Different Units excel at different roles in combat, and it’s up to you to figure out how to make them work together. You can learn more about Armies on our wiki.

Fleets

Space: the final frontier. Fleets are collections of spacecraft that occupy the vacuum of space. Fleets are key to cultivating additional worlds and turning a world-wide Empire into a galaxy-wide Empire.

Some stars in the galaxy have a “gravitational anomaly” that a ship’s “jump drive” can target and jump to. These are the stars that can be traveled to. Other stars exist in the galaxy, but without the anomaly that enables jump drives, they are so far away that they are inaccessible. Gravitational anomalies vary in strength, with stronger anomalies being more difficult to scan and travel to. These anomalies make it so the stars are the entry-points into a system. Fleets have to first jump to the star, and then travel to a world in orbit.

Fleets travel to new worlds, and new systems, exploring the space and transporting Armies to new locations. Armies can then be deployed from Fleets and do all the cool stuff that Armies do. Deploying an Army to a world requires the Fleet to Control Orbit around the world. If another Fleet already controls orbit, they’ll have to be defeated in battle to take control from them.

Space Combat works similarly to Ground Combat. Once the attack is launched, the battle happens instantly. Preparing a good Fleet is key to winning battles.

Like Armies, Fleets have near-unlimited customization to fit your strategy. There are multiple different ship types, each with its own specializations and equipment options. If you want to dive deeper into all the different Ship types, they’re all on our wiki.

The Forces of StariumXCV

Whether you want to use Agents to pull strings, Leaders to out-build your opponents, Armies to stomp your enemies, or Fleets to explore the cosmos, there are many ways to play StariumXCV. Which of these forces do you want to command most? Let us know in our Discord server.