GSB is the ultimate space strategy game from UK indie developer Positech Games. It's a strategy / management / simulation game that does away with all the base building and delays and gets straight to the meat and potatoes of science-fiction games : The big space battles fought by huge spaceships with tons of laser beams and things going 'zap!', 'ka-boom!' and 'ka-pow!'. In GSB you put your ships together from modular components, arrange them into fleets, give your ships orders of engagement and then hope they emerge victorious from battle (or at least blow to bits in aesthetically pleasing ways).

Gratuitous Space Battles aims to bring the over-the-top explodiness back into space strategy games. The game is for everyone who has watched big space armadas battle it out on TV and thought to themselves 'I could have done a much better job as admiral'. This is not a game of real-time arcade twitch reflexes. GSB is about what ships you design, and what you tell them to do. Your individual ship commanders have total autonomy during the chaotic battle that unfolds. This is not a tactical game, it is a strategic one. These gratuitous space battles are not won by plucky heroes with perfect teeth, but by the geeky starship builders who know exactly what ratio of plasma-cannons to engines each ship in the fleet will need.

First, you put together the spaceships you want to use in your fleet, building them from a variety of basic hulls and over a hundred different ship components, even in the basic game. (You are given some basic ships as examples).

Second, you select from your list of ships, a fleet composed of fighters, frigates and cruisers, position them in formations and issue each ship with orders telling it which targets it should attack, and at what range, with special orders such as escort, protect or concentrate fire.

Third, the battle is played out, with you able only to watch, not to control. You can pause the battle and play it faster or slower, and can view the effectiveness of each individual shot, both during the battle and afterwards, so you can fine tune your fleet design.

"Thoughts of the greatest Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes like "Sacrifice of Angels" passed through my mind the second I've tried one of these battles." - Games32.com