Diplomats will all receive a summary of their faction's relative power to the other factions, which is an indication of what your goals may be. They also receive the power to activate the voice commslink with members of any faction. In this way they control the ability of everyone to communicate secretly. They are able to issue treaties with other factions and trade deals.

The Ruler of the faction is also part of the diplomatic corps and is able to determine the Social Policies of the faction. They may choose to switch between structures as a police state, a planned economy or future, stranger forms of society as they wish.

The final power of the Ruler is that they have the power to change the assignments of the rest of the faction. While they cannot remove someone from power entirely, they can change their seniority or even alter their role entirely. Changing the Ruler of a faction is not impossible but it will require both mechanical and roleplaying justification to cause a successful coup.

The Military has access to information about each of the military units on the map as well as a picture of the terrain around them. While it is possible for civilian units to scout, it is not advised, and the military also have sole access to the map of areas they have uncovered.

Units can move freely across open terrain, marked by green or grey squares. Reddish brown marks the xenofungus, which has the danger of potentially summoning mind worms as well as massively slowing movement. Roads are useful to both your units and enemies, but can only be built by Scientists.

In general attacking units have the advantage unless the defender is in a base or is helped by xenofungus. Damaged surviving units can heal anywhere by staying still but will heal much more rapidly in a friendly base.

Finally, the military have sole access to the design workshop to create new types of units, even civilian units. Each new design costs additional resources to make, a prototyping cost, but the new capabilities can give huge advantages to your forces - as long as your science and industry can keep up.

The lead scientist will get the choice, when available, of which technology to research next. It is not possible to give a good guide to this, though there is a complete list here which contains a diagram. I would encourage players to discuss competing options with the members of their faction who will desire the results of the technologies.

Scientists will also control the movement of civilian units after they are created by Governors. These fall into three main categories: Terraformers, Probe Teams and Colony Pods. They move in the same way military units do but do not possess defences or weapons.

Terraformers improve tiles around bases, enabling them to produce more or different resources, sometimes causing ecological damage. With progress, they gain more options, including creating roads between bases. They are essential for base economy.

Probe Teams infiltrate enemy bases and can even steal technology. They can also be stationed in a base to defend against enemy probe teams. Attacking with probe teams can have serious diplomatic consequences.

Colony pods create new bases which claim territory. They are vulnerable to attack and benefit from a military escort. You will need to discuss good sites with military scouts as well as preparing the ground using terraformers.

Governors control the production of each of the bases - each building has different benefits, each unit has different functions, and there is always the option to merely stockpile energy (the currency of the game). However, the research of scientists and the workshops of the military decide what you get to choose from and you do not control most of the units you produce. The only one you do control is the supply train, something which lets you use several bases to contribute to the output of one.

This is most useful when working on "secret projects" - unique, massive investments which result in a unique benefit for your faction. These may be a race between factions to complete, as only the first to do so sees the benefit. New technology unlocks these, so progress is in your interests.

Finally there is your management of your workers. As the population of your base grows, you can assign them to work tiles around the base - these can be improved by scientists and their terraformers. A larger population demands luxuries though and you may have to divert from the output of the base to satisfy their psychological demands. With progress you may unlock new types of workers which will give advantages, though they will not then work tiles. The ultimate sanction for rebellious drones is to nerve staple them. This option does come with a warning that it is universally considered an atrocity.