There are extensive explanations (an online manual /help) for the game. This guide is more about
why - the concepts behind the game

This is primarily a political game - you don't min/max ship designs etc or carefully place facilities to maximise production bonuses etc.

Stats and Events drive the game ... which is why they are the next 2 chapters.

You act in the game by ordering people in your 'house' to conduct "assignments". Sometimes you will notice the NPC leaders also conducting assignments because for the most part they follow the same rules and suffer the same effects you do

You play over generations. The initial 'you' character normally dies (around age 60) and you continue as your heir. Victory often occurs (for me) in the 3rd or 4th generation, roughly the years 2560 to 2580 which is 60+ turns.

Understanding the Character / House / System difference is important for interpreting the UI and where commands will be. It still trips me up occasionally.

The smallest territory is a star system (often referred to as a colony). Planets and moons might be referred to occasionally (in event text) but they are not detailed. Facilities are randomly distributed among the systems at the start of the game and you decide what to repair and when.

Humanity is hanging on by its fingernails so you do NOT 'colonise', you conquer neighbours. Most 'exploration' is done by meeting the nobles who live there, which fills out the map slowly.

You can conquer your neighbours militarily but during most games you will see politics cause the collapse of even the biggest NPC empire over a couple of turns. The same will happen to you without planning and preparation.

Politics and government are controlled by a simple 3 level feudal heirachy.
>A single colony is ruled by a Baron.
>A group of colonies is ruled by a Duke (who also directly rules one of the colonies)
>Archons rule Dukes (and are the Duke of one of the areas)
it is possible for an Archon to rule only 2 systems because the other system is ruled by a "Duke"

Warning: a lot of your progress is reflected by the absence of negative events. Early in the game you will probably have a "crisis" in one of the 5 skills (eg poor medical situation because of a lack of technology skill.)
These type of events will simply stop triggering when you have high enough skills etc ... no congratulations or 'pat on the back' message ... your reward is simply that bad or annoying stuff stops happening.

Unfortunately this inspires a lot of negative feedback in reviews etc along the lines of "what you do doesn't matter" and also "limited number of events" because half are now blocked by your progress !

First are the 5 basic skills:- Admin, Military, Diplomacy, Security and Technology ... each character has them and your House has an effective rating based on your score, your advisors and the star system's Facilities

Every character also has personality traits eg "coward" or "brave" which you see when looking at their profile. These traits may affect the 5 basic skills.

Every character also has Status, Happiness and Opinions (of all known people)

Characters, Houses and Systems (Galaxy ones are hidden) also have Flags indicating specific effects eg a character is Married, the House has "Elite Police" (security skill bonus) or the System is in a "Nebula"

Not all Flags are visible because flags can also store "secrets" related info and track progress through events and expeditions or it might be there just tell you that your House has only 3 Laser Rifles left.

All of these can affect Events. An event might only trigger if there is a "Coward" and "Cruel" trait character at the Gathering or an event decision or outcome might only be available to a "Cruel" character.

All of these (skills, traits and flags) are also manipulated by events. The reward (outcome) for an Event might be +2 to that character's Security skill and a Happiness bonus because their boss praised them.

Note that when using Bloodlines DLC Status gains are effectively bonus points towards the next Bloodline Power gain

Events are almost everything that happens in the game ... your actions often trigger them

Expeditions are special, drawn out events that often have big bonuses. There is a timer bar bottom right to tell you when the next one will trigger. Expeditions are once-off for each play but may continue to have effects long after you think its "over"

It is important to note that your options and the results of events are both heavily influenced by various 'stats'. You may see the same event but with different options or not see the event at all for an entire game. Picking the same option often doesn't guarantee the same outcome because of a difference in stats etc

Events are also not linear (if travelling, 5% chance you lose $10 to robber) like some games. These variable outcomes (high military skill might get killed robber instead, coward might get lose status because of big wet stain) are often not noticed because of the same "a band of ruffians attack you" initial message.

There are 2 types of systems on the map. They are easy to tell apart by how obvious their name is:

• Colony systems have a colored star with large names and usually a few icons eg owner
  
• Minor systems have tiny stars and you need to zoom in to read their names

Although events may refer to planets or moons in their text, the system is actually the smallest geographic item. (The references to the moon of planet 3 or gas giant planet 4 etc are hardcoded text and the event just changes the system name to fit)

Each system has several facilities ... the surviving remnants of civilisation in that system
Every system has a "main settlement" which is the last item destroyed
The other facilities all give some benefit ... a skill bonus, income etc and these facilities are assigned randomly to each system at the start of the game*.

Facilities can be active or destroyed (just needing repair). At the start of the game each system will only have 1-2 facilities plus the "main settlement" active

Combat often damages at least one facility (which is why NPC ask for retreat)

Important: if all of the facilities are destroyed, that colony is ABANDONED and rebuilding it is expensive and tedious !

* during setup you can influence the total number of facilities and the exact facilities in your starting system

These are the main schmoozing opportunity in the game ... knowing people is important for most aspects of the game.

There are lots of potential events that can occur during a Gathering but players mostly remember the 'Duel' at the end of them, which is unfortunate.

A few events at Gatherings can have dramatic effects but mostly this is a time for cutting words not cutting throats.

Gatherings are triggered by the game for important weddings, wars ending and coronations. They can also be held just to celebrate people

Hosts of Gatherings usually earn Status but they can cost a lot of money if you invite everyone you know late in the game

Featured people (eg the drunk everyone laughs at) become 'known' and may get emotions (eg less happy because they embarrassed themselves)

They occur in every Gathering and someone from your invited party has to participate

Doing well gives you Status

Occasionally participants get injured and a few people per game will die

New players seem to find this confusing (and annoying) so here are a few hints

Powerful people (everyone you deal with) marry for political reasons.
Powerful people get "propositioned", especially when at "prime" age.
If you are not "fulfilled" in the romance department, you crush on people.

The obvious way to minimise being propositioned and crushing on potential partners every few turns is ... (get married then) seduce your spouse ! Trying to have kids also seems to help

A key component of feudal society.
They are semi-official alliances* because acting against relatives including the in-laws is bad (see feudal crimes), so is failing to help them.
Marriages move people between houses (you get warned how people will move for each potential partner) and frequently give the couple rights to have a child.
Only married people are allowed to have children.
A bad marriage can destroy both people's happiness which can affect the rest of the 'house'.

This can be a fun a mini game on its own which people tend to ignore (I mostly do).
There are differences (events) when seducing your crush vs seducing your spouse.

*Clarification: There are no 'official' alliances ... this is as close as it gets

This is one of the most complained about sections of the game ... because of bad explanation text

If you break a law of "feudalism" (eg rebelling) then political stability demands 'justice'. Obviously your leader (or peer leader) should punish you but they might pass on the duty to someone "more suitable".

If the responsibility of punishing a specific crime is passed around enough, the crime becomes irrelevant or distant in time and space. However, the person technically still needs to be punished for unsettling the feudal order.

This is where the bad explanation text comes in ... after 3 or 4 passing on of responsibility, there is a good chance no one cares anymore about the defunct Empire of Whatever that collapsed 20 turns ago or that the ruler's son is now the baron of a system in your empire and married your mother.

Feudal lords in general DO still care that you rebelled but never got punished. They have to, otherwise their vassals will think its OK.

Unfortunately the game text retains inherited links to the original situation so your 17 year old 'father in law' may be trying to punish you for rebelling against his father ... rather than "rebelling against Empire of Whatever" or simply "rebellion in year X"

Sometimes your vassals do dumb stuff, setting your plans back several turns. Often its 2 neighbouring barons feuding (raiding), destroying their fleets and economies in the process.

What can you do ? Assassinating or deposing them might work but is likely to create problems down the road. Even worse is when either vassal is family, because the penalties for Feudal Crimes are worse against family.

However there is often an underlying cause ... is one raiding because of a food shortage ? Do they actively hate eachother ?

Longer term, by helping to build up your vassals economies, they will become immune to the events like food shortage.

One underhanded solution (that doesn't create the penalties more direct nastiness would) is to give the one least useful to you independence. Then when they fight next, help conquer the independent one. Hopefully the conqueror executes or deposes the one you made independent ... and the new ruler of that system is more sensible.

The other side of vassal management is your own capabilities:-

• Letting the size of your House get bigger than your House Size Limit shows you are irresponsible.
  
• You also have a Vassal Limit based primarily on your admin and tech skill. Exceeding this means you upset people by being late / disorganised etc but can be boosted by appointing an aide (the 'manage vassals' assignment)
  
• Being happy and doing good stuff (status) makes your vassals like you

So you can quickly conquer all your neighbours militarily (exceeding the vassal limit) but if everyone in your House are dropping babies every year (exceeding the house size limit) in between drunken brawls (losing status) and backstabbing gossip sessions (negative happiness) ... those neighbours will be constantly rebelling until it all falls apart again

Remember the NPC mostly follow the same rules you do ! You can go a long way to defeating some enemies by making them exceed their vassal limit, house size limit, ruining their status (eg revealing secrets) or maybe seduce a spouse or kill a family member to drop their happiness.

Bloodlines DLC greatly expands child related events and adds inheritance and "bloodline" powers to the game (plus a few expeditions) and family design at setup

In the base game your oldest child inherits from you and you continue playing as them. With Bloodlines you can change the rules around who will be the heir.

These are a new set of abilities added to the game. You earn Bloodline points each turn and buy upgrades (through 5 stages) in any of the 10 bloodlines. A few trigger new actions but most trigger bonuses to stats.

Extra bloodline points are earned through actions and gaining status

Combat is another commonly criticised part of the game, because you have very limited control (and mercenaries). Personally I think you still get too much control (in the combat rounds).

You build up the fleet (in attack or defence) by calling up vassals and calling in favors which is a political matter and rightly under your control ... and by hiring mercenaries

the battle itself consists of 3 combat rounds where you choose a tactic ... even if you sent an admiral and thus are not there ! The tactics available for you to choose from (out of a very limited selection) are determined by the admiral's knowledge.

Each round both sides take and inflict damage based on fleet size adjusted by a random number and tactic. The random number and tactics may both work against a side making for upset victories.

the strongest surviving fleet wins control of the system
the system will be damaged (losing facilities)
the loses are reflected by reductions in contributing system's fleet strengths

These are the other part of the complaints about combat. A typical system has 8-15 fleet strength it might contribute (if the vassal agrees) with strong capitals getting fleet strengths into the high 20s. The weakest mercenary hire is 12 (usually 15) ships with each of the other 3 tiers being double the one below it in size and cost (the top tier is often 120 ships).

Mercenaries are a necessary mechanism because of the design limitation that a system's fleet can only travel 4 jumps. Unfortunately the amount of money accumulated mid-late game means mercenaries often swamp regular fleets.

There are 2 official ways to win - rule half the systems or terraforming (a very long complicated expedition)

You can definitely expand by conquest but that builds a 'house of cards' because the focus is on politics

Your empire can crumble if you haven't planned ahead because there are penalties for having too many vassals and also for having too many house members.

Both these limits are skill based and can suddenly drop when someone dies. Remember the 5 basic skills are also affected by emotions so everyone crying over your death reduces their skills (admin and technology being important here) , making the vassal and house member penalties even worse temporarily.