Starbase Orion

This is a very enjoyable turn based "eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate" game with a vibrant player community that supports a wide variety of players from casual gamers to competitive league players.

The basic goal of the game is to eliminate all opponents in the galaxy. You should first explore the galaxy to find the best planets to occupy, then colonize them and build them up into industrial, research or farming colonies, while researching advanced technologies to make your empire more efficient and your fleet more powerful.

What I like:

* you can adjust your species attributes to take advantage of features of the game map or to suit your personal playing style.
* you can use "spies" to attack more powerful enemies without launching a ship against them, or to steal technologies from those who have better tech than you.
* theres a good mix of technologies that provide benefits for production, research, farming, combat, exploration, and spying.
* you can outfit your spaceships in any manner you choose (within the limits of your technology).
* its turn-based play system allows me time think and to play when I have time to play.
* no in-game purchases!
* no advertisements!

What could be better:

* the automatic player matching system pairs me up with idle players who never seem to take a turn. I end up playing a multi-player game all by myself! The solution is to announce that you want to play a game on the "Space Bar" chat room where there is usually a live person available to respond to your request.
* once I obtained enough experience with the game, I found the AI much too easy to defeat. Even against seven AI set at the "impossible" level, it is not much of a challenge to defeat them. The solution, of course, is to play with real people from the Space Bar who are always ready to give you a good game.

YouthfulHeart about Starbase Orion, v1.2.5