The game essentially consists of a grid of 16 planets which defines the galaxy. Each planet is assigned a number from 1 to 16 as shown in Figure 1.
This is a two player game. Each player starts with one home planet which is diagonally opposite to the other player’s home planet as shown by the red and blue planets in Figure 1. The remaining 14 planets in the grid are initially neutral.
Figure 1
The game consists of 2 types of attack ships. They are :
Battleship
Cruiser
The game also consists of 1 type of defense installment called "Missile Launcher" and 1 "Espionage Probe".
Each player starts with the following on his home planet:
5 Battleships
10 Cruisers
10 Missile Launchers
1 Espionage Probe
In addition to this, after every turn, the planet produces the ships again. The rates of production for each home planet are as follows:
2 Battleships per turn
4 Cruisers per turn
4 Missile Launchers per turn
Each of the neutral planets starts with defenses but they do not have any ships or ship production capabilities. However the defenses on them increase randomly. Every time a neutral planet is captured, it starts producing ships. The ship production and defense production rate of each conquered neutral planet is random.
The ship production rate of a planet increases, the longer a player holds that planet. The production rate increases for every 5 turns that the planet is under a player’s command. However the count is reset if that player loses the planet and recaptures it afterwards. The rate of production of Battleships, Cruisers and Missile Launchers all increases by 2 after every 5 consecutive turns that the player holds the planet for.
The properties of each ship of the game are listed in the next section.
Speed
The number of units a ship moves per turn and 1 unit is the distance to the adjacent grid point. Ships can move along the grid and also to a diagonally adjacent grid point. A diagonally adjacent grid point is also at a distance of 1 unit.
Missile Launch Equivalent
Number of Missile Launchers needed to destroy an attack ship.
Battleship: The battleship is the biggest and most powerful ship in the game.
Speed = 1 unit in 2 turns
Missile Launch equivalent = 4
Cruiser: The cruiser is a small but faster ship which is produced faster than a battleship.
Speed = 1 unit per turn
Missile Launch equivalent = 2
Missile Launcher: These are immobile defense installations on planets.
Speed = 0
Espionage probes: These are ultra-small superfast ships. They can move to any point of the grid in one turn. Each probe can be used only once in every turn. Please note that each player receives only one espionage probe initially. Each neutral planet has one espionage probe which is at the disposal of the owner of the planet. The player that conquers these planets can use these probes. The probes cannot attack any planet and they can neither be damaged nor destroyed. A probe sent to an opponent’s/neutral planet reveals the following information in the same turn:
The number of ships of each type present on the planet.
The number of missile launchers on the planet.
The current ship production rate of an enemy planet and the potential ship production rate of a neutral planet.
A player can use as many probes as he has in the same turn.
Fleet is defined as a group of ships sent together from one planet to a specified planet in the same turn.
Whenever a fleet is deployed from a planet it always moves with the speed of the slowest ship in the fleet. The fleet takes the shortest possible path along grids or along diagonally opposite planet. Example: A fleet of speed 1 unit per 2 turns if deployed from planet 1 will follow the path P1-P6-P11-P12 and hence will take 6 turns to reach planet 12. Once sent, player cannot change the path or stop the fleet in between. Fleet will not participate in battles going on at planet 1, 6 or 11. Note that the path length is same along P1-P2-P7-P12.
A fleet can be deployed to a player’s own planet to increase the number of ships on that planet.
A battle is decided by the Missile Launch equivalent. The side with the greater equivalent wins. In case both the planets have the same Missile Launch equivalent, the attacking planet wins with 1 Cruiser remaining at the newly occupied planet.
In a battle if both players attack the same neutral planet, then
Case 1: Neutral planet with even Missile Launchers will fight such that half of its defense will defend the attack of player 1 and the other half that of player 2. The winning troops will fight against each other.
Case 2: Neutral planet with odd Missile Launchers will divide its defense such that the attack fleet with greater Missile Launch equivalents has to fight against one more Missile Launcher then the other fleet.
In a battle, Missile Launchers are destroyed first and then Cruisers and finally Battleships. The surviving Battleships or Cruisers are repaired completely at the end of battle.
The battle result is decided as follows:
Consider a case when a fleet of 2 Battleships and 3 Cruisers attack a planet with 1 Battleship, 1 Cruiser and 3 Missile Launchers, then
Attacker
2 Battleships = 2 X 4 Missile Launch Equivalents
3 Cruisers = 3 X 2 Missile Launch Equivalents
Total attack = 8 + 6 = 14 Missile Launch Equivalents
Defender
1 Battleship = 1 X 4 Missile Launch Equivalents
1 Cruisers = 1 X 2 Missiles Launch Equivalents
Total defense = 4 + 2 + 3 = 9 Missile Launch Equivalents
Battle = 14 attack - 9 defense = 5 attack
Attacker wins by 5 Missile Launch Equivalents.
Since the Battleships are strongest, they survive. 1 Battleship is in a completely fine situation and the other is 25% fine. The damaged one gets repaired at the end of battle and hence the attacker will have 2 Battleships on the planet at the start of next turn.
In case there are no Battleships and only Cruisers in the fleet, then the Cruisers are repaired in the same fashion.
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