But it's really an RTS. You draw lanes from your starting planet to neutral or enemy planets. Ships emerge from your planet, fly down the lanes you drew, and eventually conquer the other planets, from which you can launch more ships. If your planet and an enemy planet draw lanes to each other, the fight is won by the planet sending the most ships.
It has a wacky sense of humor with its animated planets and personality touches in the lore. Your starting faction is the crystal-based, yoga-loving Cryspuristans. You can eventually unlock other factions like the fish-obsessed Devout Miowists.
There are other "lane-based" or "node-based" games like Galcon, Mushroom Wars, Auralux, Eufloria, and End Matter, but this is the first one I've tried. It's quick and simple. The battles range from laughably easy to really tough. Although each faction has its own campaign and special abilities, I don't enjoy the game enough to try them all. It's a pretty basic and repetitive game.
So I'm shelving To The Stars and playing another, much better space strategy game called Slipways. It also involves drawing lanes between planets. But it's turn-based instead of real time, and the lanes are for trade, not war. I look forward to posting about it when I complete the campaign.
