Military tactics, trade, diplomacy, industrial strength, and more are all viable paths to ultimate victory, but a different game can dramatically emphasize different potential options. For instance, the supreme economic power can have a smaller military force because ones potential foes may think twice about losing their largest trading partner. Other potential enemies may think twice before attacking someone who has secured treaties of alliance with other powers with a strong military base. GalCiv also gets a big push from gamers who enjoy seeing strategy games that take into account realistic elements of military history and empire building. For those who study politics and warfare at the macro scale, features such as lend-lease, advanced diplomacy, destabilization, espionage, and manufacturing might are just as important to a civilization's success as the tactical application of military force.
Ultimate victory comes in different forms as well.
Players can unite the galaxy under a single galactic federation, conquer the universe to become supreme overlord, or research technology to move humanity beyond its mortal coils into a new level of existence. To this day, GalCiv has quite a large following of players who have been eagerly awaiting a totally new, Windows version. Stardock has waited until it had put together the resources to do the game right. All rights reserved.