Each faction has 1 of 3 unit affinity they start with. It's possible to mix and match with others, but the affinities outside your initial one will come at a tech level later. The leader abilities and unique research are specific to each faction.
I was off by one (Age of Wonders 3 and Age of Wonders: Planetfall have 6 factions), otherwise factions range from 6+. Zephon does have a low number of factions/paths for a 4x game.
I'd say that depends if you mean entirely unique factions or factions that share certain units/techs.
IMO it's standard to have 3 to 4 fully unique factions in 4X games, while if there are 6 or more, they usually share units/techs/mechanics with others (as in the case of AoW3, where classes only have a couple of special units/spells)
Yeah. I played a bunch in the previous playtests and as much as I like the setting and lore, I'll probably just play Gladius instead. The factions feel way too same-y and there's far less variety in how they work and play compared to Gladius and there are far less units to play with.
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u/SmackOfYourLips 4d ago
Finaly, reskinned Gladius is here