So far the Galaxy on Fire games have been about flying around space, shooting anything that moves, but Fishlabs, the German developer behind the hugely succesful franchise, has decided to do something a little different for the next entry.

Step forward Galaxy on Fire - Alliances, a free to play massively multiplayer RTS that sees you taking control of one of three different species - the Terrans, Vossk and Nivelians - and using your tactical nous, diplomacy skills, and resource management knowledge to take over a hitherto unexplored part of the cosmos.

“Never before in the eight years of our existence have we worked on a title with a team as big as the Alliances team,“ said Michael Schade, CEO of Fishlabs Entertainment in a press release. “Free-2-Play is an incredibly exciting and promising market for mobile developers and we’re really eager to create a premium-quality F2P title, which includes all the features and characteristics that have made our previous titles so unique and successful. As you can imagine, this is not an easy task, but we’ve got a team of highly experienced and talented industry specialists assigned to the development of Alliances and the playable alpha version of the game does already look pretty amazing.”

If you've never dipped your toe in the heady waters of the Galaxy on Fire universe, there's never been a better chance, with Galaxy on Fire 2 and its spruced up companion Galaxy on Fire 2 HD currently available for nothing at all from the App Store.