Matrix Games

Expand your Empire, Conquer the Galaxy!

Armada 2526 is the heir to one of the first great space empire-building games and it is the product of veteran game designer and developer R.T. Smith, of “Total War” series fame.  You guide your race from its first interstellar journeys, until it becomes a mighty galactic empire.  Along the way, you'll explore the galaxy, conduct research, diplomacy and trade, found new colonies, maneuver mighty star fleets, and fight epic battles.  Create bustling colonies on foreign worlds to build powerful fleets, construct advanced buildings and research facilities that will help you master space and defend your civilization!  In a close race for victory, alliances forged through bartering and good will can help tip the balance of power in your favor as alien empires seek power and glory at your expense.  Powerful tutorial and advisor features help any would-be galactic commander get up to speed quickly, and with endless possible strategies Armada 2526 offers many different strategies to best your alien foes.

Unlike many games in this genre, Armada 2526 focuses on providing a game that can be finished in a reasonable time and emphasizes decisive strategy over micro-management.  Armada 2526 was also design from the ground up with the AI in mind and it can use all the features of the game that are available to the human player. The result is a much stronger opponent than in many other games and Armada 2526 can scale from small 2 player skirmishes to enormous galaxies with dozens of alien factions, up to the maximum your hardware can handle.

• Turn-Based Strategy Map Maneuver your fleets, manage your colonies, and grow your empire. Epic Space Battles - Battles can be epic and are presented with glowing energy beams, shimmering shields, and spectacular explosions. Diplomacy - Negotiate alliances and trade agreements or trade money, technology, colonies, ships and information. Technology - There are many different technology items to research. The game system encourages you to specialize in particular areas of tech, so as you expand and meet new players, you will find that they have radically different capabilities. Many of the technologies are disruptive, and force you to radically alter your strategy and tactics to utilize them, or to cope with the lack of. Powerful AI - The artificial intelligence routines have been created by an expert in the field, to provide AI players that are both worthy adversaries, and opponents that are fun to play against. The A.I. has been built into the game from the beginning of development and updated to take advantage of new game features as they are added. Supports Large Universes and Many Players - Armada 2526 has been designed to cope with a large number of A.I. players, and to handle a large enough area of space to accommodate them. This means you'll continually be finding new allies or trading partners, and always wondering if there's some powerful unknown enemy lurking just beyond the next star system. Streamlined Economic System - Armada 2526's system is designed to let you make the major decisions about the development of each colony, without having to micro-manage every little detail. This way you can manage a large empire, play the game in a reasonable amount of time, and concentrate on strategy. Strategy and Intelligence - Fleets maneuver against each other, seeking to force or avoid a decisive confrontation, or to pick off a weakly defended planet. Technology and infrastructure can give you an edge in the information war, but only a bold and cunning admiral can exploit it. Game-Play Driven Development - Although Armada 2526 has glorious sound and graphics that inspire and immerse the player, the main focus is providing a great game play experiences.

Review at Dome.fi
Armada is an impressive game but it definitely requires the Supernova expansion

First Impressions on SpaceSector.com
What I can tell you now is that Armada 2526 is successful on delivering the goods to be recognized as a respected member of the 4x space strategy games genre... If you are a fan of 4x space strategy games then you need to get your hands on Armada 2526. If you’re not a fan of this type of games I still strongly recommend you try Armada 2526.