Gratuitous Space Battles: Galactic Conquest
Hurrah! Cliffski's announced that the Galactic Conquest expansion for Gratuitous Space Battles is now available for purchase, although the expansion isn't actually out yet and technically the £5 you're dropping is a pre-order that gets you access to the beta, which may have a bug or three.
Galactic Conquest is a big ol' update, adding a brand new campaign mode where you battle for planets and gradually build up fleets using captured shipyards and academies. As Jim pointed out, a campaign mode surely makes all those space battles much less gratuitous. Less Gratuitous: Space Battles, that's what Cliffski should have called it. Full, lengthy features list and video after the jump.
New Features
# Mid-battle fleet-wide 'retreat' option
# Post-battle repairs
# You can scrap ships to reclaim the crew and a part of the construction cost
# Shipyards, in 3 different sizes
# Factories produce cash, academies produce crew
# Repair yards fix your ships after battle
# Enemy ships can be captured once victory is declared
# Loyalty and threat levels modelled for each of your worlds
# Attack and move fleets between systems only through established hyperspace wormholes
# Three difficulty settings, to suit all levels of player
# New campaign-specific manual to instruct would-be galactic conquerors
# New campaign music
# 'Massively singleplayer' feature pits you against fleets designed by other players
# Lots of new background graphics and planets to fight over
# Spatial anomalies force you to fight some battles in adverse conditions, or with limited ship choices