Space Empires is a series of 4X turn-based strategy games by Malfador Machinations that allow the player to assume the role of the leader of a space-faring civilization.
In Space Empires, the player assumes the role of the single leader of a race of intelligent beings that has recently acquired the technology required to build large fully space-based ships for interplanetary and interstellar travel.
The components available to the player can vary greatly, from ship bridges, long-range scanners and shield generators to emergency supply components that, when used, will be destroyed but will allow a ship to continue moving for a longer time, and of course, weapons of various kinds, boarding parties, cloaking devices right up to Dyson sphere construction material and star-destroying devices.
The player can also conduct intelligence operations, from simple information gathering missions, to ship bombs, to inciting rebellion on a planet.
Interstellar travel in Space Empires is not faster-than-light drive based, but instead relies on anomalies called "warp points", essentially wormholes between two star systems.