The game Star Trek: Armada features four main factions which also are the main protagonists of the four first single-player campaign groups. You can play as the Borg Collective (Borg), the United Federation of Planets (Federation), the Klingon Empire (Klingon) and the Romulan Star Empire (Romulans). Although the underlying concepts are closely related to each other, the four main factions have considerable differences in game play and properties.

All factions have two ships they can build right away in the tier one ship yard, a scout ship and a weak attack ship (destroyer). Depending on the selected tech tree, also two other ships may be available right away (cruisers). If limited by the tech tree the first research station might be necessary to unlock the second pair of ships. The two stronger ships consist of one only featuring phaser weapons, the other only featuring torpedoes. Torpedoes cause more damage when hitting but have a certain chance to miss smaller targets. Pulse weapons will also mostly hit but do less damage. Phasers never miss but may be reflected by Corbomite Reflector. An active Shield Remodulation will negate all those weapons.

The second tier of ships can be unlocked with an advanced ship yard. Here a caster ship can be build, along with the capital ship of that faction (battleship). The latter's special weapon is available for research right after completing the advanced ship yard, so not right away when you have built the first research station. The capital ships all have phasers and torpedoes, making them deal more damage and they also have more hit points. Their shield recharge rate is also higher.

The super weapons of all factions are a powerful advantage, but their buildings and built units are rather expensive, both in time and resources cost. They seem to be designed to be used specifically against players that are turtling.

Some aspects of the different factions come down to the numbers primarily, e.g. how fast they fire, once crew is reduced below a certain threshold or how fast they gather crew. But they are tied strictly to the faction, not the units or buildings. Here is a list of these aspects:

• Repair Strength: How fast does the crew repair a damaged ship? The more crew is missing, the slower will the repair rate be.
• Boarding Strength: How effective is beaming over to another ship? This is affected by both, the target's faction as well as the attacker's faction. So beaming over from Borg to Borg means crew reduction 1:1 on both sides. Beaming over from a Romulan ship to a Borg ship means, for each Borg killed, 2.33 Romulans will die as well.
• Retreat Strength: At or below this level of shields the AI will retreat a ship.
• Crew Retreat Ratio: At or below of this level of crew remaining on a ship, the AI will retreat that ship.
• Crew Accumulation Rate: How much crew does one starbase gather?
• Planet Crew Accumulation: How much crew does one starbase in orbit of a planet gather?
• Crew Yellow Status at: When crew drops below this value, the ship enters yellow crew state. (Not to be mistaken with yellow alert!)
• Crew Red Status at: When crew drops below this value, the ship enters red crew state. (Not to be mistaken with red alert.)
• Repair Rate at Yellow: Modifier how fast the ship will repair, once crew state Yellow is reached.
• Repair Rate at Red: Modifier how fast the ship will repair, once crew state Red is reached.
• Weapons Rate at Yellow: Modifier how fast the ship will fire, once crew state Yellow is reached.
• Weapons Rate at Red: Modifier how fast the ship will fire, once crew state Red is reached.

The Borg are a faction of cybernetically enhanced individuals bound together by the hive mind. It controls all their actions, making the single individual essentially become only a small part of a big entity. Driven by the assimilation of other species they consist of actually hundreds of species. That's why they have a rather strong offensive capability in form of their assimilation mechanics, which allows them to take over opposing ships and stations. Their special weapons are not too powerful aside from this. Borg crews represent the game's most effective boarding parties.

On the other hand the faction suffers from the crew drain the assimilation mechanics puts on the economy (the Holding Beam kind of beams boarding parties of 50 crew/sek. onto the ship, draining both vessels crew amount until either energy or crew runs out on the Cube or the target ship/station is claimed successfully). On the other hand do they have a strong regeneration capability for all their units and structures, even when very low on crew. Their main drawback is the fact, that many units take a lot more resources to build, incl. the amount of time required to build them. So they kind of come a bit later, but once they come, they pack quite a punch. But once a ship is low on crew, their effectiveness drops heavily (20% firing rate).

These ships are produced in the Assembly Matrix.

• Detector: Scout vessel, large scanning radius, weak pulse cannon, Tachyon Detection Grid (uncloak).
• Interceptor: Only phasers, can teleport to an already uncovered location (Transwarp Drive).
• Sphere: Only phasers, can regenerate very fast, as long as weapon systems are still active.
• Assimilator: Only torpedos, crew drain from opponent ships (Auto-Assimilator).

These ships are produced in the Adv. Assembly Matrix.

• Diamond: slow, weak weapons but four casts:
  • Nanites (GUI scramble, AI can't use special weapons),
  • Shield Remodulation (temporary indestructible shields for target),
  • Ultritium Burst (heavy damage to up to four targets within range) and
  • Computer Override (take control of opponent ship for a short while).
• Cube: Phasers and torpedoes, Holding Beam (take over units and buildings permanently), requires particularly many crew (1000) and with 1200 dilithium costs a lot more than the strongest capital ships of the other factions but has the highest damage and shield reloading rate.

The super weapon of this faction is the Transwarp Gate, kind of a deployable Wormhole with a fixed end on the structures side and an arbitrary second end anywhere on free parts of the map. This allows Borg players to deploy and recall units very fast. There is a (probably) unwanted side effect of the TG: Once the player uses it on a part of the map, a small section of it is freed from building restrictions (yellow grid around structures), which allows to place buildings a lot closer than usually possible.

Another station, that is only available to the Borg but also only in the singleplayer campaign, is the Omega Containment Facility.

The Federation is a coalition of many species in many star systems. Their main goal is the stability of their member worlds, especially the military peace. They are known for their very competent engineers and scientists, which makes them strong on special weapons and very good at regenerating and strong at defending. They have the second worst boarding parties and their ships are medium expensive.

Their Sovereign class ship is particularly good against great numbers of simultaneously attacking opponents, as it can reflect most of the damage back on the attacker (at least for a while). This also makes them specifically good at attacking lines of defenses made mostly of Torpedo Defense stations. The Temporal Stasis Field can be used for both, offensive purposes, or defensive purposes. It may buy the extra time to fall back and defend one's own base or render opposing defenders helpless.

These ships are produced in the Shipyard.

• Venture: Scout ship with large scanning radius, Tachyon Detection Grid, weak pulse phasers.
• Defiant: Pulse phasers, Anti-Matter Mines.
• Steamrunner: Artillery ship, slow, low shields, no normal weapons, Warp Core Overload (immobilize up to four opponent ships) as special weapon.
• Akira: Only phasers, Chain Reaction Pulsar (hopping torpedo) as special weapon.

These ships are produced in the Advanced Shipyard.

• Nebula Class: Slow caster, weak weapons and shields, has four special weapons:
  • Gemini Effect: Duplicates the target ship for a short time.
  • Federation Repair Team: Instantly repairs the target ships systems and replenishes shields up to 50% of maximum.
  • Shield Disruptor: Lowers Shields of up to four targets within range for a short while.
  • Point Defence Laser: Shoots down any enemy torpedo, that would not miss its target, preventing the opponent from causing damage with torpedos.
• Sovereign: Has phasers and torpedoes, special ability is the infamous Corbomite Reflector (reflecting enemy torpedoes and phasers back at the attacker).

The Temporal Stasis Field is the Federations super weapon, freezing a small port of the targeted area for a short time. Only works on units and structures already present in the area when casting it. All units can enter a frozen region freely. Makes it possible to attack any ship or structure frozen without getting retaliation.

Klingons are a race of warriors, controlling many star systems. They are driven by conquest and honorable conduct. Therefore the Klingon Empire is particularly strong at offense and has rather cheap ships (this faction's capital ship, the Negh'Var, costs only 720 dilithium). This gives them a remarkable pace at which they can produce units. They are medium good at regenerating and have the second best boarding parties. Some ships are cloakable, making them invisible except for upgraded sensor stations and scout vessels. When push comes to shove, a Klingon will do anything to defeat an enemy, which makes them neglect repairs in favor of offense, making them fire even more often, when very low on crew.

Similarly to the Borg, the Klingons have scavenger aspects. Stealing ships and stations by boarding them is part of the play (although not as strong as with the Borg), as well as hit and run attacks with their cloakable ships. The Klingons battle ship, the Negh'Var is particularly weak against Federation Sovereigns, as the Ion Cannon can simply be reflected back on the firing ship. So while those are up, do not use it against them. The Jach'Eng class is relatively expensive, but in the hands of an experienced player their directed fire can be devastating.

These ships are produced in the Shipyard.

• NuQ'Duj: Scout ship, large scanning range, can detect cloaked structures (Tachyon Detection Grid), weak pulse cannons.
• B'rel (Bird of Prey): Medium pulse cannons, Gravity Mines (slowing target vessel down), cloakable.
• Vor'cha: Only phasers, Polaron Torpedo (temporarily shuts down a random system of the target unit/station), cloakable.
• SuQ'jagh: Only torpedoes, Commando Team (sends out 50 crew to the target ship).

These ships are produced in the Imperial Shipyard.

• Fek'lhr: Slowly moving caster, weak weapons and shields, has four special weapons:
  • Death Chant: Boosts stats of surrounding ships for a short while.
  • Repulsion Wave: deactivates engines of the targeted ship and pushes it away.
  • Ion Storm: encompasses a part of the map with a damaging nebula like cloud. The cloud does not damage the targets system, only shields and crew are drained.
  • Energy Dissipator: Reduced energy of opponents ship.
• Negh'Var: Phasers and torpedoes, Ion Cannon (deals considerable damage).

The Klingons super weapon is the Jach'eng ship, built at the Shockwave Station. It is rather slow moving, has medium shields and no phasers or torpedoes of any kind. Its only weapon is the subspace Shockwave, which destroys everything within a certain angle and distance, including the ship itself. A specific advantage here is the possibility to aim this weapon. So a fleet can send out this ship only a bit ahead and once the special weapons effect fades, can move in quickly, much in contrast to the Romulan Phoenix. On the other hand, with 3500 dilithium it costs almost twice as much.

The Romulans are an aggressive faction driven by conquest. They have a tendency of destabilizing other governments and prefer ambushes over open attacks. So they rely more on their cloaks and powerful special weapons but are weak with regards to regeneration and boarding parties. Their special weapons are in general cheaper and faster researched. Their game play is more sneaky and scouting dependent. Use their cloaking and intelligence capabilities. E.g. the Shrike's Romulan Spy and the Talon class give a Romulan player an edge in terms of being prepared and knowing what the opponents are up to. And if push comes to shove, the Shadow class can be devastating to groups of attacking ships, when using the Holo-Emitter.

While a Romulan player is particularly vulnerable to the Borgs assimilation play, two well placed Psychonic Blast attacks can render a Cube relatively harmless, as it will automatically drop into the red crew state. The Phoenix class can deal a lot of damage, but the circular area of effect of their weapon requires any friendlies to back of rather early, making them more vulnerable during their approach and less effective than the Klingons Jach'Eng. The 2'000 Dilithium on the other hand are not that much for it.

These ships are produced in the Shipyard.

• Talon: Scout with large scanning radius and weak pulse cannons, can detect cloaked ships with Tachyon Detection Grid and is cloakable itself.
• Shrike: Medium pulse cannons, can use the Romulan Spy on a ship to permanently track that ships movements and vision. When cast on a station, reveals the entire vision of the targeted player for a short time. The ship is cloakble.
• Raptor: A cloakable artillery ship, can disable up to four opponent ships weapons with Myotronic Inhibitor but has no other weapons.
• Griffin: Only phasers, can jam opponent's unit's scanners within a short range for a short time (Sensor Jammer), cloakable.

These ships are produced in the Advanced Shipyard.

• Shadow: Slow caster with weak weapons and shields. Has four special weapons:
  • Phase Cloak: Cloaks the ship in a special way, no boarding beam ins are possible, map obstacles can be moved through. The cloaked ship can be made visible with the Tachyon Detection Grid, but as long as the energy of the ship is not drained fully, the ship cannot be affected by almost all weapons.
  • Psychonic Blast: Drains 50% of the current crew of the target ship.
  • Energy Shield Converter: Reloads the targets shields, incl. stations and ships.
  • Holo-Emitter: Makes all opponent ships with a short range act like enemy targets for their own faction for a short while. If these ships are in red alert mod (default), they will most likely begin attacking each other.
• D'Deridex Class (Warbird): Has phasers and torpedoes, special ability is draining an opponents shields and replenishing the own shields with it (Shield Inversion Beam), cloakable.

The super weapon of the Romulans is the Phoenix, build in the Phoenix Facility. It is a slow moving ship with weak shields and no ordinary weapons of any kind. The main weapon, the Rift Creator is the only means of causing damage. All units and stations within a medium range will suffer massive damage, usually destroying them. This makes it necessary to keep quite some distance between the Phoenix and an accompanying fleet, when using it. The Phoenix is the cheaper one of the two mass destruction units of the game. It only costs 2'000 dilithium.

There are also other factions that you cannot play as in multi-player but that are part of the single-player campaign:

The Cardassians are a species whose culture is controlled by its military. As such they were also Part of the Dominion for a while and also involved in the Dominion War. In Star Trek: Armada they have two ships, the Galor Class and the Damar Class. They don't actually have own stations. Instead the Dominion Shipyard and Klingon defense stations are used for them. They are part of the mission Call to Power.

The Breen are an ominous race, which has made a name for themselves mostly as powerful adversaries in the Dominion War. In Star Trek: Armada they only appear in one multi-player mission, Assimilation, and also with only one ship, the Breen War Ship.

The Dominion is similar to the Federation a coalition of different species, based in the gamma quadrant. The main difference to the Federation is, that the Dominion is governed by the Founders, which rule in force. Essentially the Dominion conquers cultures. Their main military force are the Jem'Hadar, which the Federation encountered many times during the Dominion War. The Jem'Hadar have two ships in Star Trek: Armada, the Jem'Hadar Destroyer and the Jem'Hadar Battleship. There are also two stations available, the Dominion Shipyard and the Dominion Cloning Facility. Their ships and installations are part of the following missions:

• Premonitions
• Vendetta
• Resurrection
• Assimilation

The Ferengi are a commerce and profit driven race, that values profits above everything else. In the same fashion they live. They lie, cheat, steal and bargain as much as needed to still their never ending greed. In Star Trek: Armada in particular they have a special role for the multi-player. If a ship loses its propulsion systems or all of its crew, the Ferengi will tow that ship off from the map shortly.

Their only ship is the Ferengi Marauder. It is part of the following campaign missions:

• Vendetta
• Call to Power
• Assimilation

In the mission Call to Power they have their own base, but as there are no dedicated Ferengi stations available in Star Trek: Armada, other factions' stations are used (e.g. Pulse Cannons for defense).

The Son'a are an aggressive sub-faction of the Ba'ku. They left Ba'ku many years ago as they disagreed with their culture of refusing to use advanced technology in every day life (although they know very much about it). They are part of Star Trek: Armada in form of only two ships, the Son'a Destroyer and the Son'a Battleship. They are present in the following missions:

• Paradise Revisited
• Vendetta

This species is a space-dwelling organism, which only consists of two forms, the Entity and the Mother Entity. As such they attack everything that comes close to them and is not of Species 9341. When attacking, they do not do any conventional damage, but reduce the crew complement of a ship or station. They are part of only one single-player mission, Extermination.

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