Firaxis have just announced a new turn-based Sid Meier game set in the same universe as Civilization: Beyond Earth titled Sid Meier’s Starships. It will arrive later early this year on PC, iOS and Mac in early 2015

“When designing Starships, I was intrigued by the idea of exploring the next chapter in the story of Civilization: Beyond Earth. What happens after we colonize our new home and eventually build starships to take to the stars? What has become of our long-lost brothers and sisters from the planet Earth?” said Sid Meier, director of creative development at Firaxis Games. “My goal was to create an experience that focuses on starship design and combat within a universe filled with interstellar adventure, diplomacy, and exploration.”

According to the official PR nonsense contained with the press release your goal is to build a federation of your very own, expanding across the vastness of space and research new tech as you go. Of course combat will play a big role, to wit the game promises an armada of customisable ships. Furthermore each campaign will apparently feature dynamically generated tactical combat missions, or in plain speak more stuff to blow up.

Firaxis also revealed that there will be a degree of connectivity between Sid Meir’s Starships and Civilization: Beyond Earth if you own both, though exactly what that entails is anyone’s guess.

To my mind there’s a real shortage of strategy games that let me build humongous spaceships, so count me as being excited.