By the year 3260, humans have mastered interstellar travel and successfully colonized almost the entire Milky Way. Seven hundred years later, the star cluster Jiro became home to political conflicts and struggles for dominance. The player's task is to turn the weak nation of Sankuri into a powerful force, uniting other stars of the cluster under its leadership. Schwarzschild is a turn-based strategy game. The game deals mostly with large-scale space battles and preparations for them. There is little focus on political management within a single country, though there are various diplomatic options available. As the player acquires and deploys spaceships, they move and fight according to pre-defined commands. There are no separate battles where the player inputs active orders, instead, the player can opt to change the movement trajectory or tactics of a ship, watching the events unfold when the turn is over. The interface is entirely menu-driven and occupies a large portion of the screen, two other windows are dedicated to the map of the star cluster and visual depictions of ships and their battles.