5. Galactic Union

Your very own galactic hugbox

The Galactic Union federation type is your standard Star Trek-type federation.  It's focus on unity, cohesiveness, and diplomacy makes it useful for uniting large numbers of nations with widely varying governing ethics and ideals under a single banner. If you want a playthrough where you unite the galaxy in peace and harmony and lead your galaxy in standing firm against those who oppose the progress and unity you bring, this is your federation. Failed votes, lack of envoys to conduct diplomacy, and lack of diplomatic weight to properly represent your ideals in the Galactic Community are no longer problems with this Federation. You will find that keeping the Federation united and increasing its sphere of influence across the stars will be easier than ever.

Galactic Union is best for:

Friendly or unity-focused runs where the goal is to team up to take down stronger foes

Sticky political/diplomatic situations where uniting various nations with opposing or differing ideals is required for success

Immediate and unified response against galactic threats

Creating an exo-national political order that will expand fluidly and rapidly

Galactic Union details: https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Federation

4. Martial Alliance

Unity through strength

The Martial Alliance is no doubt what some players think every Federation in Stellaris should be: a means by which to increase one’s raw military might. The Martial Alliance hones in on making your ships build faster and come out of dry-dock stronger than they would otherwise. It also reaches the maximum capacity for the Federation fleet faster than other federation types, and will increase the strength and maneuverability of your fleets while making wars of expansion cheaper to wage. Of course, it is the only other federation besides the Galactic Union that offers significant bonuses to your fleets when fighting Galactic threats.

Martial Alliance is best for:

Conquest-focused runs that don’t exclude the possibility of alliances 

Preparing for tough military challenges (such as an early Crisis) that you can’t face alone and can’t rely on tech/economy to beat

Ensuring your national security when you and your allies are small and surrounded by enemies

Making you a formidable military power with minimal effort

Martial Alliance details: https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Federation

3. Hegemony

Project your power across the galaxy

The Hegemony is for those who don’t have the patience to bother with the pretense of “equality” right from the start. This Federation starts out with the strongest nation as its permanent leader (until they are unseated or dethroned) and members are not allowed to leave without a war of secession. Member states gain very few benefits, with most of the privileges and power being funneled to the leader. What few benefits the member states do gain are quite helpful generally, just not really that great compared to other Federations. For obvious reasons, you will want to be(come) and stay the leader of this federation, so make sure you don’t join one unless you are confident you surpass the current leader in every measure, and make sure you don’t make one with a nation that is anywhere near your level of power.

Hegemony is great for: 

Asserting your dominance over lesser nations

Getting much more out of dominating other nations than the current vassalization system offers

Extending your empire’s sphere of influence without having to manage all of the associated territory

Increasing your own nation’s power through purely political means at the expense of other nations

Hegemony details: https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Federation

2. Research Cooperative

The more mad scientists in the same lab the better, right?

The Research Cooperative is for those tech-rushers who just can’t tolerate not flying through the tech trees like the Crisis is going to show up in 50 years. As the name suggests, this federation type boosts its member state’s research capabilities in ways both easy and difficult to measure. For starters, Research agreements between all member states are automatic and free, saving you precious influence to use in enacting edicts to increase your research capabilities even further. You also gain flat bonuses to research, and buffs to the situational bonuses offered by research agreements (those things you are now getting for free) which makes them even stronger. Once you get your federation fully maxed out you’ll gain more jaw dropping bonuses like additional Megastructure build capacity and almost 50% research speed bonus during any ongoing Crisis.

Research Cooperatives are excellent for:

Compulsive tech rushers who want to reach Megastructures by 2235

Scaling up your economy in the late-game with Megastructures

Evening out tech progression so that your block of nations progress technologically at somewhat the same rate, with the leader dragging the others along

Literally researching your way out of a Crisis, if necessary

Research Cooperative details: https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Federation

1. Trade League

Trade and commerce are the cornerstones of all successful unions

The Trade League is where a federation stops being a feature, and starts being a playstyle. The “Trade League” trade policy this federation type makes available to all member states is a combination of the “Consumer Benefits” and the “Marketplace of Ideas” trade policies and boy is it powerful. Under the policy, you not only gain Consumer Goods per unit of Trade Value but unity as well. This means as your Trade Value continues to increase not only will your consumer goods go sky-high but so will the rate at which your empire progresses culturally. Combine this with a Megachurch empire that has its eye on Becoming the Crisis and the galaxy won’t know what hit it! It is both possible and advisable to construct an entire strategy for your run based solely on forming this federation type to either use the trade policy to accomplish certain economic objectives or to make up for your empire’s shortcomings and thus allow its strengths to really shine. Some may say that the galaxy revolves around ideas and politics, but in fact it turns on credits. Put yourself in control of the galaxy’s money supply, and you don’t have to care who makes its laws.

Trade Leagues are perfect for:

Wealth-focused empires looking to use pure economy to overcome obstacles

Unity-rushing or tech-rushing empires

Compensating for your empire’s weaknesses

Just about everyone and anyone really, you can never really have too many Consumer Goods and too much “free” unity

Trade League details: https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Federation

That’s the breakdown of which federations are best to choose and in which situations. While some may sit atop the rest in a general sense, every federation type has its own niche in which it is the ideal choice, so choose wisely!

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