Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords

Thousands of years ago, when many civilizations were young, there were the Precursors. Powerful and advanced, the Precursors built a wonderful civilization. Unfortunately, their culture split into two factions. The Dread Lords wanted to enslave all life in the galaxy. The Arnor believed in science, peace and helping the younger civilizations explore space. Soon a civil war erupted across the galaxy and the Dread Lords were winning. When their victory was at hand over the last Arnorian homeworld, the Precursors vanished.


With the disappearance of the Precursors, ten younger civilizations were advancing but they could only travel from one Stargate to another. The youngest, Humanity, created a revolutionary technology called Hyperdrive that could allow ships to travel great distances across the galaxy. Now it is a race to explore, colonize and conquer the galaxy. The evil Drengin Empire plans to wipe out Humanity and others, but these races soon will learn that there are worse things in the universe than each other.


The game is played in what is known as a "sandbox" galaxy mode, where the objective is to achieve victory over AI opponents in one of four ways - military conquest, cultural domination, universal alliance or technological supremacy. The sandbox analogy represents the freeform style of playing, where the player is free to develop the game however he/she chooses. This "sandbox" may be customized in terms of galaxy size, planet habitability and similar features as well as difficulty of the opposition. The game also includes a story-driven campaign, featuring the titular "Dread Lords".


The game has 10 playable preset races, and also allows the user to create a completely custom race. Civilizations include those from Altarian Prophecy - the Terran Alliance, the Yor Collective, the Drengin Empire, the Altarian Republic, the Drath Legion, the Torian Confederation, the Dominion of the Korx, and the Arcean Empire - as well as two new civilizations: the Iconian Refuge and the Thalan Empire. Minor races (which do not factor into winning conditions, and have a weaker AI), such as the sentient rodent-like Snathi, can also appear in the game.

Each preset race has a distinct combination of AI, personality, and built-in advantages. The Korx, for instance, focus on money, and thus have an economic bonus. The Terrans are excellent diplomats, the Drengin have superb ships and soldiers, the Torians have fast population growth, and the Yor have very loyal populations.


A major focus of Galactic Civilizations II is the artificial intelligence of its opponents, due in part to the deliberate omission of multiplayer in favour of the single player experience. The game's maximum skill level ("intelligent") is two levels above "normal". Four higher levels of difficulty (in which the computer players receive bonuses to their production and economy) are available should these prove insufficient. Conversely, AIs implement less sophisticated strategies/counter-strategies as the difficulty level drops, and at the lowest levels of difficulty the AI is severely crippled due to economic handicaps.

The AI also makes use of technological developments to design ships of its own. At higher difficulty levels these ships are tailored to the opposition, so players sending fleets of laser-armed ships may find them repulsed by shielded defenders, while those preferring to employ mass drivers will find that they come up against heavily-armored opposition instead.

Stardock is still improving the AI's capability through a series of updates.