Sins of a Solar Empire II is the sequel to the critically acclaimed space strategy game that seamlessly blends real-time battle tactics with the depth of 4X. As both emperor and battle commander you must lead one of six playable factions to victory against the threat of extinction! Real-time Tactics meets 4X Depth There are no turns. There is no battle mode. There is no strategic mode. It's all one mode and it's all in real-time.Instantly zoom in to control tactical engagements where every missile, turret, and ship is fully simulated and an important part of the battle. Instantly zoom back out to manage your empire where every asteroid, moon, and planet orbits its parent in a slowly evolving strategic landscape. Unparalleled Gameplay Experiences Sins of a Solar Empire II delivers sprawling empires, huge fleets, and completely new and exciting gameplay moments that can only be found in Sins II. The Surprise: Build a secondary fleet on a rogue asteroid and launch a devastating surprise attack when its orbit brings it behind the enemy's back line. The Body Block: Stall an enemy's home planet bombardment by using your massive titan to body block swarms of missiles attempting to knock out your starbase and its critical planetary shield. The Screen: Advance a screen of point defense flak frigates to protect your fragile long-range cruisers by intercepting incoming bombers and missiles. The Swarm: Maneuver your faster moving ships to pick apart unescorted larger ships. Their powerful but slow-moving turrets simply can't track your agile strike force. The Influencer: Influence a hostile expansionist Minor Faction to secure your border while reserving enough Influence to win an auction for a powerful item to install on your best capital ship. The Backstab: Protect yourself from a backstab by establishing a time locked alliance. But pay attention to the time - your “ally” may move his fleet to your doorstep just as the lock expires! Features A Dynamic Galaxy: Planets orbit their stars in real-time causing the galaxy's structure to slowly change, creating new battle fronts and new opportunities. Players can view the state of the galaxy up to an hour in the future to prepare their strategies.3 Unique Races: It's War Year 35 and the emergent TEC, alien Vasari, and deviant Advent have been forced to adapt and evolve to survive. TEC: The inhabitants of this region of the galaxy, the TEC are humans who have joined together as the Trader Emergency Coalition to combat the alien Vasari empire. They rely heavily on trade to support their industrial base and augment resource income. Vasari: Ten thousand years ago, the Vasari Empire once ruled over hundreds of planets and dozens of sentient species. Now on the run from an unknown enemy they use their mastery of phase space to conquer and acquire resources to continue their exodus. Advent: A civilization of humans who were forcibly outcast by the Traders over a thousand years ago, the deviant Advent have returned with technologically amplified psionics and the power of the Unity - a devastating expression of their collective will. Each race features unique starting conditions, gameplay mechanics, units, abilities, items, and technologies. Their game changing new Empire Systems add a whole new level of strategic capabilities: TEC Trade: The new TEC trade system enables them to dynamically adapt their economy by adjusting the allocation of traded resources on demand. Vasari Phase Resonance: Strategically placed structures collect Phase Resonance allowing the Vasari to customize their global phase mastery effects. Advent Unity: Enables the Advent to harness the collective will of their population, unlocking the full potential of the Unity's global abilities. 6 Playable Factions: The parent races are further differentiated by unique sub-factions each with their own unique features and play styles that reflect their motivations and goals. For example, the TEC: Primacy is a xenophobic 'human first' empire focused on aggression and the Vasari: Exodus is willing to destroy planets to fuel their mobile empire. Combat Simulation: A detailed combat simulation adds incredible depth to tactical gameplay. Turrets with their own pitch and tracking speeds make firing solutions important in battles. Fully simulated missiles can be blocked by ships or destroyed by point defense. New mechanics around shields, armor and hull points give greater depth to units and tactical decisions.Empire Management: All planets and ships can now be easily analyzed, customized, and upgraded in one place without the tedium of finding and clicking through all units in your empire. The Intelligent Construction system will queue up the entire chain of prerequisites to fulfill any item, research, or unit build request.Fleet Management: The new fleet system includes the ability to request specific reinforcements on the fly. Requested units are automatically queued from the optimal factory and rallied to the fleet. Combined with Intelligent Construction this allows you to focus on the important tactical decisions and big picture strategy.Unit Customization: Planet surfaces can now be customized with special items that vary by race and planet type. Capital ships, titans and starbases can also be customized with race specific items to fill gaps in the fleet's composition or target specific strategies.Minor Factions: Numerous minor factions now inhabit the galaxy offering trade, auctions for rare items, and with enough influence, access to their most powerful abilities. Will you befriend them or annihilate them to keep your enemies from turning them against you?Diplomacy: New features include a new offer / counteroffer system, the ability to give or demand planets, and the game changing time locked cease-fires that prevent your 'ally' from backstabbing you until it expires - but keep on eye on the time!Multicore 64-bit Engine: The Sins II engine can utilize all available cores and RAM to maximize performance, now and into the future. Dynamic lighting, physically based rendering, higher resolution textures and more create a beautiful tapestry.10-Player Multiplayer Support: A cloud based online system supports both 'join codes' and lobbies to make it easier than ever to play with others. Games can now be rejoined in progress if a player drops or has to leave; humans can even take over for AI players if a friend joins late.In-game Mod Support: Mod support has been integrated into the game, making it easy to discover, install, and share mods. Custom maps are automatically shared for multiplayer games, preventing the hassle of everyone downloading ahead of time.Easy to Learn; Hard to Master: With an elegant and intuitive user interface Sins II is easy to pick up and play. However, mastering your chosen faction will take true skill.