You lead the human race's endeavor to conquer the galaxy in Stardock's release of Galactic Civilizations. This turn based strategy game looks to break new ground in the 4X strategy by implementing unique features not seen before in the genre.

In the year 2128, humanity finally recieved an answer to the age old question: "Are we alone in the universe?" The answer they recieved was, quite empatically, no! An Arcean probe was picked up (barely) by sensors in Australia. The humans of the United Earth rejoiced to finally attain first contact, and set about quickly establishing a limited dialog. Actually, about all they really could have was a scientific transfer of concepts, as the Arcean language was mostly indecipherable to the humans. However this much they were able to learn, that for thousands of years, several interstellar civilizations had been sending sublight probes throughout the galaxy, but that the only means of superphotonic travel between systems was through hideously expensive (both to build and operate) star gates. The Arceans sent the humans a set of plans for a star gate, but instead of building a gate, the human scientists set about to improve the technology. They suceeded quite famously.

The people of 22nd century Earth were quite convinced that for any race to achieve space flight, surely they must have outgrown their violent past. Thus, in the late 2160s, as the scientists completed their new "hyper-drive" technology, they freely shared it with all alien species they knew of. The result was not what was expected. Communications with the other civilizations almost instantly ground to a halt. Later, it would be discovered that all star-gates had been destroyed (or perhaps reused to build the other races' first starships).

After a few months, the government of United Earth realized that the new hyper-drive would allow mass colonization of the galaxy and that humanity must not fall behind in this. Now, in 2178, the first survey vessel, the USS Hero, and the first colony ship, the IBS Discovery, have been completed, and the time for you to begin the conquest of the galaxy has arrived!

Current Version: 1.52b.013

With the game nearly over two years old, the latest stand-alone patch for the Altarian Prophecy expansion pack is available from the GalCiv website, and of course by download through Stardock Central.

For those who do not have the Altarian Prophecy expansion pack, the latest version of the original game is 1.22.101, and is available from the same locations.