The conquest of outer space is the theme in Master of the Galaxy, a new empire-building game from Ares Games and Russian publisher Igrology, scheduled to release in March.

Master of the Galaxy is unabashedly created in the “4X” style, using as its tagline “Explore, expand, exploit, exterminate!”  Like other games of this genre, players begin with a small interstellar empire bent on conquering the entire galaxy.  Three victory conditions allow players to pursue different strategies, either by eliminating rivals, expanding quickly, or dominating through diplomacy, economics, or science.

Created by Russian designers Timofey Bokarev and Konstantin Seleznev, the game combines mechanics more typically found in Euro-style games, including a “bag-building” system where players add colored cubes representing various resources to their personal bag, then draw cubes each turn to see what resources they can use.  Card drafting, resource management, area control, and tech-tree development are also key elements of the game.

Master of the Galaxy will include 4 cloth bags, 200 resource cubes, 36 space bases, 72 cards, and 9 black hole tokens.  It was designed for 2 to 4 players, ages 12 and up, and plays in about 30 minutes per player.  Final MSRP has not been announced.

Ares is funding the production of Master of the Galaxy through a Kickstarter campaign that passed its $20,000 goal in its second day.  As of this writing, the campaign has attracted $22,090 from 542 backers (an average of $40.76 per backer).  The campaign offers a retailer-only “Space Civilization” backer package, which comes with six copies of the exclusive Kickstarter Deluxe Edition, which includes the Faster Than Light expansion and additional components that will not be included in the production version of the game.  Backer fulfillment is scheduled for next March, with release into the trade to follow.

Igrology is the latest company that Ares has partnered with to produce English-language versions of non-English games.  The company also recently made a deal with Galakta to distribute This War of Mine: The Board Game (see "Ares to Distribute Galakta Games").