Rank: Warmaster

Rank: Warmaster is a strategy game about building a corporate settlement on Mars, developing its technology and competing with other corporations across a hostile solar system. You can manage large-scale research and territorial expansion, direct fleets, or take first-person control of individual ships.

Story

Civil war erupts between the Central Earth Government and a collective council of corporate interests, compromising Earth's Defense Grid. The grid marks every ship as hostile, isolating Earth from the rest of the solar system.

You play as a corporate settler stranded on Mars in an underground shelter. Your starting resources are a Builder Bot, a handful of construction supplies and Ares, an instructional contingency AI. You must build a city and assemble a fleet of remote-controlled warships to secure territory and advance your technology. Other major corporations have also sent settlers to escape the devastation, and the solar system has limited room for them all.

Build your corporation

You choose your corporation's qualities before the campaign begins. Its bonuses and penalties remain in effect for the entire campaign. Research weapons and components to customize ships for your strategy, then build them manually or use the auto builder. Component placement is limited by each ship's available internal space.

Command your fleet

You can send fleets into engagements with enemy forces or take direct first-person control of any ship you command. If your current ship is destroyed, you can instantly switch to another ship under your control. Individual parts can be damaged and destroyed: penetrate a hull to damage critical systems, or disable ships carefully to salvage them and reverse engineer their technology.

Shape your campaign

AI helpers can take over aspects of management so you can focus on developing cities, commanding fleets or piloting ships. You can also play campaigns with or against friends. As your influence expands, an AI storyteller introduces events and situations, some random and others set in motion at the campaign's start. The campaign also brings you into conflict with the forgotten colonists of Alpha Centauri, who seek to reclaim their home system.