Ferion - A Free Online Game

Ferion is a free online strategy game that distinguishes itself from other games by its incredible depth, and the many facets of game play that require a truly strategic approach to become a successful player and achieve high ranking in the game.

More than many other browser based strategy games, Ferion gives you the freedom to run your empire how you want.
You can terraform and colonise planets, build huge armadas of spaceships, research new technology, explore the universe, make friends and enemies.

It is this last item where Ferion truely stands out, most other strategy games are purely about "going solo" to defeat everyone else.

In Ferion, however, Politics is thrown into the mix.
Quite often you can find yourself boxed in by other players as they expand their empires.
Splitting your empire is often the worse thing to do as you can lose focus on what's happening, so instead you need friends.

Ferion lets you communicate with players you have already met in order to make alliances and other treaties. Beware, alliances are not always permanent and a larger allied player may turn on you suddenly if it suits them.

If you have not done so, you will need to create a free account to be able to play Ferion.

Creating the account is free, you only need a valid e-mail address to be able to receive your activation link.

On the main Ferion page (http://www.Ferion.com) you will see a link to the signup page.
Follow this link and fill out the necessary information to create your account.

Note that your login name is permanent, while your empire name can be changed later on.
You will still retain other names as "AKA", but will not be seen directly in-game unless someone visits your portal profile.

Make sure that you provide a valid email address as you will receive an email which is required to activate the account.

You should shortly receive an email from Ferion. It will contain an activation link, which you need to either click on or cut and paste into your browser address bar (being careful to get the full address and no extra text).

You should receive a message confirming that your account has been activated. Click 'continue' and you will be returned to the main login screen.

Use the login and password you selected (if you have forgotten them already they are in the e-mail Ferion sent you) to log in to the portal.

In order to provide an environment in which you can learn the basic interface of the game without being quickly overwhelmed by experienced neighbours, provided.

When you sign up for an account (see previous section if you have not done this yet) you are not entitled to join a regular arena until you have completed the newbie arena.

This is both to protect you from getting out of your depth too quickly and to avoid too many inactive empires in the real arenas.

You should get a page offering you a choice to signup to the newbie arena or to skip it. I recommend that you do not skip the newbie arena.

Sometimes the newbie arena is too full so you will have to join a live novice arena instead.
If this happens don't worry, other players are often more than happy to help out with advice and hints. The Ferion forums are a good place to go if you need some help.

Having signed up, you can now log in to the newbie arena using the login link that you should now see at the top right.

This is the same process that you will eventually use to signup for and login to regular arenas.

When you click login a new browser window will open with the main Ferion interface. You may choose to bookmark this screen so that you can go straight to this page in future, but if so make sure you check the portal (and preferably the forums as well) regularly for any news or game updates.

This screen may seem a little daunting at first, but do not worry, you will only need a few of these buttons to start with and I will talk you through them all during this guide.

The First Few Ticks
The aim in Ferion is simple: take control of as many planets as possible by any means possible.

Planets are essential to an empire's survival, and if you do not have enough of them, you cannot support your fleets or keep up with research.

At the beginning of an arena each player starts with a single planet.
All of the starting planets are identical to provide an equal starting position.

However, since there are still a lot of free planets, you should move swiftly to settle (take control of) as many planets as possible.

After 200 Or So Ticks
(1 tick = 1 hour in most regular arenas)
The arena will start to be full, meaning that the majority of planets are owned by one of the players.

At this point (if not before) the emphasis shifts from peaceful settling of planets to attacking and capturing planets from other players.

Ferion is first and foremost war game.
While there are certainly political and social elements to the game which you will need to keep track of, you cannot expect to survive forever without going to war with someone, so you should be prepared for this from the beginning.

Note that while settling is the main focus in the early stages there is still some scope for early warfare so be wary of players you meet and keep an eye out for opportunities to take cheap planets from opponents.

Ferion is a great Free Online Game with huge scope and plenty of fans.

It's not a quick game and with 1 tick usually being an hour some games can last for a month or more!
However, this speed general allows for a fun game and some great strategy.

Don't worry if you get beaten by other players to begin with, keep coming back and soon you'll start getting wins that will have your portal ranking shooting up!

In-Depth Strategy Game
Ferion is not a game for those wanting a quick "twitch" game, or for those wanting an easy no-brainer game.
Ferion has masses of strategic depth and good Ferion players take the time to learn all the tactics to help them gain the upper hand.
This leads to some intense strategic and tactical gaming, not to mention more than a little politics so the Intermediate, Free For All, and especially Veteran arenas can get very intense.

Free To Play
The game is free to play in all arenas up to a certain point, after you reach the fusion point in the tech tree you will need to pay for a key to unlock the arena.
Quite often though, you can use this to your advantage, as if you haven't started well or feel you're in a bad position then you can just quit the arena and start in a new one.
More experienced players, however, often enjoy the challange of turning around a bad start so this is by no means necessary.

Every so often the admins will also create completely free to play arenas for the players, so if you're completely broke, then just wait for one of these to appear. They aren't that regular though and often only one per month so you will be better off spending the money for a key.

1 key is only 5 Euros, which is approximaly 9 USD, you can also get a significant discount by purchasing in bulk, or even buying a yearly subscription which lets you key in any arena until it runs out.

Overall, I think Ferion is a great free online strategy game and I would definitely recommend it to any strategy game fan.