The Iron Fortress is played as an early game expansionist, in order to gain room to grow and more resources. And late game serve to halt the spread of aggressive empires by bolstering their "prey". This should stop the forward momentum of expansion and conquest victories, and allow the Iron Fortress and it's allies to win a diplomatic, scientific or economic victory.

Faction Affinity - For each empire with at least a peaceful standing, the Iron Fortress gains a bonus to maximum trade routes.

Faction-Specific Traits:

• Refusal to attack others: The Iron Fortress will defend itself, but will not declare war on another species.
• Evolving Carapace: Bonus to ship defenses based on number of owned strategic resources.
• Expand the Walls: Allies of the Iron Fortress gain a small benefit based off of Evolving Carapace, as the Iron Fortress follows in their creators' footsteps and shows others how to protect themselves from predators. (This bonus is lost during offensive wars.)

Biography

Born weak and defenseless the collective and hive minded beings know as the Iron Fortress were almost hunted to extinction by their natural predators until, a group of Endless scientists meddled in the natural progression of life. The Endless manipulated the Iron Fortress and changed their biology, allowing the absorption of metallic elements to harden their shells. Soon after the Endless scientist left their newest creations to fend for themselves. With the new shells any predators were unable to hunt them, as long as they were on the defensive. As such, when the Iron Fortress became the planets dominant species they fought no wars, never willing to prey on anything as they had been.