Cyber Empire - Steel Empire

Cyber Empires is a mixture of strategy and combat action that was created by Silicon Knights Incorporated and was distributed by Strategic Simulations, Incorporated well known for their hands in many other great simulations and strategy games. Cyber Empires was marketed as Steel Empires in the European venue. It was released in the early nineties and has a great futuristic battle-tech theme. It received multiple awards, particularly for its stellar multi-player play. It also spawned a sequel: Fantasy Empires.
The premise of the game involves five empires, all trying to claim a single neutral planet as their own.

Each empire commands its own series of cybernetic warriors in this effort. Armies of cyborgs descend upon the planet and must battle it out to win control of this strategically located, and resource rich planet, Orion.
Cyber Empires is a turn-based strategy game that involves a great deal of tactics and strategic forethought. The user must use a small beginning amount of money to build a cyborg army worthy of conquering Orion and defending it from the other enemy factions. The user must build factories in order to manufacture cyborgs and battle-mech. By enhancing the factories through research and funding, the factories are able to build better mechanics, and are also able to produce them more quickly.
The game is divided into two basic parts, the strategy phase and the action phase. In the strategy phase, the user must make the decisions involving his economics, military operations, and so forth. In the action phase, the user actually fights. This only happens if two opposing forces are occupying the same area after the strategies are completed. In this phase, there is actual shooting and combat, but also fortifications, strategic retreats, and other tactical orders for the cyborgs.
There are several types of play from which to choose. The first is a full game, which involves both of the phases described above. The second mode of play is purely strategic, and the action portion of the game is automatically played out by the computer’s AI so the user can concentrate on tactics. The final type of play is battle practice, which is fairly self-explanatory. One type allows you to defend a site with up to nine different cyborgs as battle practice. The other practice play allows the user to practice using finances.
In short, this is a good game, and there are obviously good reasons that it was able to net awards. It is highly recommended for download.