"This is one of the most frustrating sectors of space I have ever been assigned to," thought the Commander as he reviewed the latest, grim battle statistics. "They dump me out here in this remote sector of space and limit the resources at my disposal. How can they expect me to harvest the resources of this planet and maintain my fleet while repelling the military attacks of six different races?" Just as he finished his thought, ominous sounds of gunfire and explosions could be heard over the communications system. "Commander! We're being attacked!" a hysterical voice shrieked from the other end of the comm system. "It's the Hressa! They're advancing on BioDome 3, and . . . My God, what is that? Some new kind of weapon?" Stunned for a moment, the Commander shook himself from his dazed state and grabbed the microphone. "What is it? What . . ." His question was cut short by the muffled sound of a huge explosion, as the ground trembled beneath his feet. He glanced out of BioDome 1's Command Center toward the west, in the direction of BioDome 3, and he could see a cloud of fire and smoke rising over the horizon. Only static could be heard through the comm system, and the Commander somehow knew that his BioDome would be the next one targeted . . .

As the player of Strategic Simulations' Star General, you are responsible for mastering a variety of tasks. You can be battling as few as one and as many as six other races, all vying for control of the same region of space. As commander of the forces for the race you represent, you must develop both the offensive and defensive capabilities of your ground forces and your fleet of ships. The game is ultimately won by controlling the largest number of planets in this one sector of space, or by achieving whatever conditions for victory had been set at the beginning of the game.

In choosing a Race to play, the budding Commander is determining the overall strengths and weaknesses inherent to the forces under his command. The Fleet is a multi-racial force made up of beings belonging to The Alliance Of Worlds, the empire originally begun by humans from the planet Earth. There are few weaknesses in a Fleet force, but there are also few strengths. This makes The Fleet the race to which all others are compared (read: average). The Fleet Commander will also often have two or more types of ships in each ship class from which he can choose the type he wishes to build, making The Fleet a versatile race with a multitude of strategic options. The Cephians are a small, greedy race, but their superior technology compensates for their diminutive stature. They possess ray technology greater than that of The Fleet, but the missile weapons of The Cephians are inferior as a result. This makes them a stealthy race, preferring to attack from a distance rather than fight at close range. The Xritra are an insectoid race who grow their ships using genetic engineering techniques. Xritra ground units are not as expensive as Fleet ground units, and The Xritra can grow an air unit which is capable of launching chemical and biological weapons. The Hressa are an aggressive, honorable, feline race. They have developed superior missile defenses at the expense of ray defenses, and their quick, feline reflexes give them a decisive advantage over their enemies. The Schleinel Hegemony are the only other human race in the game, who prefer to destroy transport ships above any other. They also enjoy sending raiding parties deep into enemy territory to attack their opponents from behind enemy lines. The rodent-like Khalians are the most aggressive race of the seven, attacking most anything without regard to their own defenses. They will attack weaker ships and infantry units first, and they enjoy targeting their enemy's resource-producing structures on the ground. Finally, the reptilian Dragonians are a defensive-minded race, one that does not like taking unnecessary chances. The attack of any Dragonian territory solicits their immediate response, even if the world attacked is one that they have acquired along the way.

Once the player decides upon a Race he wishes to play, it is then time to determine the type of conflict in which he wants to engage. The solo player can either fight a Battle or a War. A Battle consists of the pitting of one race against another, with a pre-defined set of victory conditions for each race taking part in the Battle. There are twenty-three different Battles which can be fought, and the player can select to play the race on either side of the fight. The overall difficulty of the play experience is determined by the specific battle that is chosen, and the readme.txt file contains difficulty ratings for each Battle scenario included with the product. A War takes place on a map of a specific size, and the solo player can select from one to six opponent races against which he can compete. There are a considerable number of factors which can be customized by the player which will significantly affect gameplay. The size of the map, the density of planets on the map, diplomacy, victory requirements and levels of technology are just a few of the items which can be specified when starting a new game.

As the game begins, the player must be able to master two different types of Combat Turns. A Ground Turn is composed of building, movement and combat on the surface of a planet for both the offensive and defensive combatant's Land Units that are present on a planet's surface. Examples of Land Units are armored vehicles, artillery and infantry. A Space Turn consists of the building, movement and combat of each player's Space Units, in addition to one or more Ground Turns. Examples of Space Units are Battleships, Cruisers and Destroyers.

In order to have enough units of both types, Production Units must be built in order to generate Resource Points, which in turn can be used to purchase, upgrade and repair other resource and combat units. Production Units which provide Resource Points must be placed in a hex adjacent to a city on the Ground Map, and there can be no more than two Production Units attached to any one city on the map. Since the maximum number of cities a planet can support are already in place at the start of a game, the player must be certain that he builds only the Production Units that he needs, because he can not build additional cities. The Production Units which produce Resource Points are the BioDome, Mine, Factory and Plant. As soon as one of each of these types of units have been built on the surface of a planet, the player is allowed to build three other types of Production Units which do not generate Resource Points. One is the Military Complex, which allows the player to build Land Units on the surface of his planet. Another is the Space Dock, placed adjacent to the planet on the Space Map, which the player can use to build Space Units around his planet. The last is the Tech Center, which increases the available level of technology which can be used when purchasing new Space or Land Units. The higher the technology level of a particular unit, the greater its attack and/or defensive capabilities are going to be. There can be a maximum of one Tech Center placed on each planet the player controls, and Tech Centers can only be placed once every four turns.

In addition to solo play, Star General also supports multiplayer games via IPX network connection, TCP internet connection, or by modem. Two players can compete in multiplayer Battle mode, and up to seven players can compete in a War. A chat function is available in multiplayer mode, with options to send messages to all players or to target your message to the player of a specific race.