Growing the Empire - GNN Blog #7

We've explored the wonders of the universe, navigated the delicate art of diplomacy, and witnessed epic space battles. Now it's time to delve into the final piece of the puzzle: transforming your humble civilization from a single planet into a galaxy-spanning empire.

Population

One of the key ways to expand your empire is by increasing its population. By performing a growth action, you can spend food to add 1 population to one of your systems. But how much food is required? That depends on the type of population you're growing. Populations are divided into three types:
Farmers (green dice): Produce food.
Workers (orange dice): Generate production.
Scientists (blue dice): Provide research points.
To create a new pop, you must pay 1 food for every existing population of that type in the system, plus 1. While it can be expensive, the additional income generated by a larger population often outweighs the costs.

Every planet has a limit on how many population units of each type it can support. Luckily, the galaxy is brimming with planets waiting to be colonized. As you expand your empire to new worlds, keep in mind that each newly colonized planet increases your empire’s unrest. Overextend too quickly, and unrest could become a significant problem.

Perhaps, instead of rushing to conquer new worlds, investing in terraforming might be wiser. By improving the systems you already control, you can boost their efficiency and sustainability without the burden of rising unrest.

Buildings

Expanding your empire isn’t just about population growth, you can also achieve it by constructing buildings. To do this, perform a construction action and spend production to create one of many buildings divided into two categories:
Orbital Buildings: Protect your system from aggressors.
Planetary Buildings: These provide additional resources, victory points, or other strategic benefits.
Each system has strict limits on the number of buildings it can support. Additionally, planetary buildings must first be unlocked through the technology tree. Once unlocked, these buildings can skyrocket your economy and provide an advantage over your neighbors.

Technologies

The final—and perhaps most critical—method of strengthening your empire is researching new technologies. To do this, you must perform a research action, which allows you to progress along the technology tree. This tree is divided into four branches:
1. Biology & Chemistry
2. Physics
3. Engineering
4. Government
Upgrading any branch grants access to milestones, which might unlock new planetary buildings, enable planet terraforming, increase your technology capacity, and more.

At the beginning of each round, players draft three technology cards. These cards serve a dual purpose: they can be used for immediate actions and, if the corresponding technology branch is upgraded to the required tier, retained as developed technologies. Developed technologies provide lasting benefits, from advanced ship weapons to enhancements for basic actions. With every new technology, your empire grows even stronger.

The Campaign Starts Soon!

We’re now just days away from the launch of our campaign! Visit our Gamefound page to learn more about the empires, the game’s content, and how you can be part of this exciting journey. Don’t forget to check back throughout the campaign—our amazing backers will unlock incredible stretch goals that will take the game to the next level.
Let the race to galactic domination begin!