"There will be a time for peace in the galaxy, where life-forms can skip through the fields and read poetry, unworried by the threat of war, but this is not that time. There will be a time for song, time for cakes, time for long afternoon strolls, but this is not that time. There will be time for love, time for joy, time for writing that novel you know you have in you somewhere, but this is still not that time.

This is a time for war. Huge war, galaxy-spanning war, where the cries for mercy from the citizens of captured worlds will reverberate around the bridge of your flagship. A time for honor, for glory, for huge profits for people in the defense industry. This is a time for galactic conquest."

Galactic conquest is the campaign meta-game add-on for Gratuitous Space Battles. The campaign 'wraps-around' the battles, so they are no longer isolated clashes, but merely engagements in an ongoing galaxy-conquering campaign. When you decide to move one of your space fleets to an enemy-controlled planet, a normal GSB battle takes place, and the winner takes control of that system. This radically changes the tactics of the game. No longer can you design ships specifically to fight a single enemy fleet, but you are forced to think ahead, to design multi-role ships and fleets that can take on all comers.

Galactic conquest requires that you have the base game (Gratuitous Space Battles) already. You can have as many or as few race expansion packs installed as you like, the campaign will pick enemy races based on which races are already installed. You will also NEED an internet connection as you play the campaign, because of the games tight integration with the online server that selects enemies for you to fight.

There are more screenshots and information here, And there is a youtube trailer video here.

Pre-Order...

Galactic conquest is not 100% finished yet, but you can get access to the beta and start playing NOW, if you pre-order the expansion. You effectively just buy it early, and start playing now, before we are declaring it bug free and final. You can get the campaign mode by clicking here:

(https://secure.bmtmicro.com/servlets/Orders.ShoppingCart?CID=2899&PRODUCTID=28990023)

In other news you can now get the Mac version of GSB from steam, and also get the Nomads expansion from steam too.