# Nova: Space Strategy Game

> Nova: Space Strategy Game (iPhone/iPad app by Kevin Gilpin.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/nova-space-strategy-game/id6780326157 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Kevin Gilpin](https://appshunter.io/developer/1804481222)
- Category: Games, Casual, Strategy
- Price: Free
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 16.4 · 52 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2026-07-01
- Data updated: 2026-08-27
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/nova-space-strategy-game/id6780326157/reviews.md

## What is Nova?

You command one star at the edge of a contested galaxy, with a few hundred ships in the garrison and a clock counting down. Everything else is neutral, or held by a rival who wants it as badly as you do. Hold the most living stars when the mission timer ends and you win. Knock every rival out first, and you win early.

Nova is a real-time space-strategy game of galactic conquest for two or more players. Every commander starts with exactly the same star, ships, and credits, so games are won by decisions, not dice.

A war of decisions.
You move under fog of war, seeing only what your own stars and scouts can reach, so a spy probe before an assault is often worth more than the ships it costs. The defender always holds the home-field edge, which means you have to outnumber a garrison by better than three to two just to fight to even odds. Capture stars, build factories, and your fleets and treasury compound together; spend on speed, range, or battle power and the advantage carries across your whole empire. Drop a nova bomb and a star is gone for good, which denies it to a rival but scores it for no one.

Diplomacy you can hold someone to.
Talk in-game on a global channel or in a private thread with a single commander. Then make it binding: a contract offers another player cash outright, or only if they send the fleet you ask for, to the star you name. The moment they accept, the cash moves and the fleet launches on their behalf, and it cannot be recalled. Alliances are only as good as the deals behind them, and here the deals actually stick.

Set the pace yourself.
A game's host decides how long it runs and how fast its clock turns. Spin up a one-hour sprint where production ticks every few seconds and the whole war is settled over a lunch break. Or stretch the same game over days or even weeks, a long campaign you think about between meetings and come back to when something shifts. Any player can propose a pause for sleep or work, and once a second player agrees, the whole game freezes, deadlines and all, until it resumes.

Let it run in the background.
You never have to keep the app open or refresh anything. Nova notifies your device when it actually matters: a star of yours under attack, a shield that just blocked a spy probe, a fleet that reached its target, a message from a rival, a pause proposal, the game kicking off. Leave a slow game running for days and you will not lose the thread.

Less micromanagement, more strategy.
Fleets route themselves through your territory, so you can strike far beyond a single jump without plotting every hop. Standing orders turn a safe rear star into a supply pump: keep a garrison, forward the surplus, and reinforcements march to the front on their own while you think about the next move.

Build your own galaxies in the map editor and play them with friends, or drop into a balanced Risk-style world for two to six commanders. Play from your iPhone, iPad or a browser against the same opponents; a game runs identically whether you join from iOS or the web.


## Version history (last 4 releases)

### 0.19.0 — 2026-08-24

Autopilot

- A commander who stops giving orders no longer leaves a dead spot in the galaxy: after three production cycles without an order, the autopilot makes a few basic moves for them each cycle — modest fleets at nearby stars, the odd spy probe, some spending — never a nova bomb.
- You are warned first. Two cycles without an order brings a push notification that the autopilot will step in soon; the takeover itself is announced to you and logged in the Diplomacy Global channel for everyone.
- Any order you give takes control straight back. Fleets the autopilot already launched keep flying.
- The new "Autopilot" panel is yours to set: "Switch off for me" if you never want it steering you in this game, or "Engage now" to hand your empire to it before you go away — a cautious bot beats an empire that sits still.
- You can see who is on autopilot: an "AUTO" tag next to their name in Standings, and every order it issued reads "Autopilot dispatched …" in that commander's Comms.
- When creating a game, "Absent commanders" lets the creator choose "Autopilot" (the default) or "Sit still" for the whole theatre.
- In Try NOVA, the practice opponent now plays — gently — so newcomers meet fleets, probes, and the autopilot notices before their first real game.

Help at your fingertips

- The lobby links to the online player manual, and every in-game panel carries a small "?" that opens the manual chapter covering it.
- Each order composer — send fleet, spy probe, nova bomb, auto-deploy, build gate — links to the exact manual section for that order.
- The manual has a new "Autopilot" chapter.

Fleets and Jump Gates

- When a star is out of reach, the composer now tells you exactly what it would take — "needs Range 14.3 (you have 10)" — and, if you can afford it, offers a one-tap "Buy Range" button for precisely the missing range.
- A jump gate can now be upgraded to any whole-number speed above its current one, not just the next step.

Lobby

- Creating a game: the settings are bounded to sensible ranges (2–8 commanders, 1 hour to 14 days, and so on), and the form says which value is out of range instead of silently refusing.
- On a generated galaxy, joining now takes the next open seat for you and names your home star after your commander; games built from a saved map still let you pick a home world.
- A game you created and that hasn't started yet can be deleted from its card.
- Finished Try NOVA practice games no longer clutter your Ended games list.

Account

- Your sign-in is renewed quietly while you play, so a long session no longer drops you to the sign-in screen mid-game; if you are ever signed out, the sign-in screen now says why.

Diplomacy

- The message sheet makes room for the keyboard while you type, and the keyboard goes away when you leave Diplomacy.

### 0.18.0 — 2026-07-12

- New to NOVA? A "Try NOVA" option now appears on your games list and the Join screen. It opens a short explainer and then drops you into a private practice game against a single, passive opponent — no other players, no waiting.
- "Try NOVA" has a built-in coach that walks you through the game one step at a time: read the star map, send a fleet, capture a star, build factories, send a diplomatic message, scout with a spy probe, defend a star, build a jump gate, launch a nova bomb, and set a standing order.
- Battles now follow one easy rule: the defender always has a slight home-field edge, no matter how big the two fleets are. There are no size brackets to remember, and the odds no longer swing around from round to round.
- A spy probe blocked by a probe shield no longer reports misleading "0 ships, 0 factories." It now shows those details as unknown while still telling you the star carries a probe shield.
- Attacking a star now reveals only the size of its defending fleet — not its factories, wealth, or shields. A single ship is no longer a cheap substitute for a real spy probe.
- Speed upgrades cost a little more, keeping a fast fleet a meaningful investment rather than a cheap runaway.
- The coach watches what you do and ticks each step off the moment you finish it, celebrates the win, then slides on to the next — no buttons to hunt for. You can page back through finished steps, jump ahead, minimize the coach, or reopen it any time.
- Diplomacy is now always one tap away: open any star and choose "Message {owner}", or use the Diplomacy shortcut, to jump straight into a conversation.

### 0.16.0 — 2026-07-08

- Setting up a new game is now a quick, guided three-step flow — name it, choose the map, set the
  pace — instead of one long form.
- Every game starts with a ready-made name you can keep, edit, or reroll with a tap, so your games
  are always easy to tell apart.
- New games are private by default: only people you invite can join. Flip to Public any time to
  let anyone find and join from the games list.
- When you create a private game, NOVA shows a Share screen with a scannable QR code, the
  join code, and a shareable link you can send in a text with one tap.
- The same QR, code, and link appear on the game's join screen for everyone already in it, so any
  commander can pass the invite along — not just the host.
- A final standings table ranks every commander by their living stars, with your own line
  highlighted; tied commanders share a rank. The standings are frozen the moment the game ends.

### 0.15.0 — 2026-07-01

No release notes.

## Related topics

[stellar commanders space rts](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/stellar-commanders-space-rts) · [space strategy game](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/space-strategy-game) · [space strategy games](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/space-strategy-games) · [gilpin](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/gilpin)

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-27.*