Tutorial. The same rules appear in the game under Rules.
On the cover, choose which side you command — the Free Holdings (the miners of Mars and the Asteroid Belt) or the Consortium (the Earth corporation that owned the works) — a scenario, and your opponent’s rank. The other side is played by the computer — or choose Two players to play hotseat: both commanders share the screen, each writes orders (and tactical plots) in turn behind a hand-over sheet, and neither sees the other’s. Press Begin the war. A war in progress is saved automatically and can be resumed from the cover.
The screen has three columns: information on the left (the selected fleet or planet, your resources, dispatches), the map in the middle, and your orders on the right.
Each turn is 14 days. Both sides write their orders at the same time, without seeing each other’s; then the turn runs in this order:
There are no hexes. Every planet moves along its real orbit each turn, so distances change: Earth and Mars are close at opposition and far apart at conjunction. A fleet moves at the speed of its slowest ship (0.20–0.45 AU a turn).
When you set a course, the transit rule finds the fewest whole turns in which your fleet can meet the destination where it will be on arrival, and aims the burn there. It shows the ruler ticked once per turn of travel, the target’s path along its orbit, a ghost of the target on the arrival turn, and the arrival turn, date and distance. Fleets in transit cannot be redirected.
Interception. A fleet at rest can intercept an enemy fleet in transit that it has detected, if it can reach a point on the enemy’s course before the enemy arrives. Hover the enemy counter while setting course (or use the Intercept list under Fleets) to see the intercept rule: the meeting turn and the burn. The two fleets fight in deep space, where there are no stations and nowhere to withdraw to; afterwards the pursuer has matched course and travels on with its quarry, arriving where it arrives — unless that is Earth space, which the Holdings may not enter.
Reaction mass. Every ship carries a limited burn, measured in AU; a fleet can burn only as far as its emptiest ship. The transit rule shows the burn against what the fleet carries, and turns red when it cannot make it. Ships refill completely at their own shipyards and at their own ice sites (Tharsis, Ceres, Pallas, Hygiea and the Jovian Skimmer), half their capacity a turn at other own sites — all of it for the side holding the Jovian Skimmer — and scavenge 0.2 AU a turn anywhere else. A fleet driven from a battle makes whatever burn it must.
Armed Holdings ships may not enter Earth space, which the Terran Assembly protects.
When both sides end movement at the same body, you choose how to fight each battle:
After a battle the stronger side holds the field; the other withdraws to its nearest station. Stations join battles at their planet with their own guns. At the four great asteroids — Vesta, Ceres, Pallas and Hygiea — the battle is fought among drifting rock: a rock between two ships blocks their fire, a ship that brushes one takes a point of damage, and a missile or fighter that meets one is lost.
Each site produces resource points (RP) for whoever holds it. Spend them on ships at a shipyard (Luna & Earth Orbit, Venus Orbital, Mars (Tharsis), Ceres Cooperative), on developing weapons, on agents and on propaganda. To take a site, order a fleet carrying boarding parties (Ore Haulers, Liners and Refinery Barges carry them) to assault it when no enemy fleet is present; the attack is its guns and boarding parties against the site’s defence, on a die. Agents can shake a garrison first.
While the Consortium holds Phobos Station, Mars is blockaded: Tharsis produces 3 RP less and the Holdings lose Will. Weapons develop as the war goes on: improvised missiles, short-range fighters, focused lasers and ablative armour.
Victory is decided by Will, not by conquest. Each side starts with a Will score; it falls when you lose ships and sites, when your production drops below where it started, under blockade, from enemy agents and propaganda; it rises when you capture sites, hold the field, and from good news. The Consortium’s shareholders also tire of the war over time.
If the enemy’s Will reaches 0 it capitulates and you win decisively. If the scenario runs its course, the Terran Assembly brokers a settlement: a Will lead of 20 or more is a decisive victory, 10 substantive, 3 marginal, anything less a stalemate. In The Phobos Crisis the settlement goes to whoever holds Phobos Station; the Will margin decides how complete the victory is.
The Terran Assembly is Earth’s government and plays no side. Its opinion runs from −10 (for the Holdings) to +10 (for the Consortium) and shifts with captures, news and lobbying. At +6 it lends the Consortium two Navy cutters; at +10 it proscribes the Holdings (Will −12). At −6 it embargoes the Consortium (production −25%); at −10 it recognises the Free Holdings.
You lose if your own Will reaches 0, or if the settlement favours the enemy. Losing Tharsis costs the Holdings 25 Will at a stroke; the Consortium cannot lose Earth, but a war that drains its production and its shareholders’ patience ends the same way.
The war is saved automatically in your browser after every turn, every battle round and every battle, under one key for this game only. Resume it from the cover. Menu pauses the game and offers Save now, New war and Return to cover; the end-of-war sheet offers Play again. If your browser refuses storage, the game still plays but is not kept between visits.
Select a stationary friendly fleet and choose Compare routes. Reachable destinations are listed first, fastest first, with arrival turn, reaction-mass burn and reserve before refuelling. Unavailable routes explain their restrictions. Order commits the destination and replaces the fleet’s existing orders; opening the comparison changes nothing.
During tactical combat, the movement preview shows the next position and velocity. Rock warnings check the entire three-dimensional path, and display-exit warnings flag ships that will break off if they survive. Brake (X) uses available thrust to reduce velocity; it preserves weapon orders but does not avoid obstacles automatically. Break-off courses are recalculated at execution and are labelled accordingly.
Plot Review appears for unplotted ships or hazardous explicit plots. Select a warned ship to revise its orders, auto-plot unplotted ships, or deliberately accept the plots. In hotseat, review shows only the current commander’s ships. Laser estimates assume the enemy target drifts; its actual thrust can change the result.
Review pending orders in the strategic footer brings together your stationary fleets’ movement, intercept and assault orders. Travel orders show arrival or meeting turn, burn and fuel reserve. Warnings explain orders that no longer validate in the current position. Enemy moves and combat may still affect execution. Edit selects the fleet; Cancel orders clears its pending orders immediately. Fleets already in transit cannot be redirected.
In tactical combat, Undo plotting (U) restores the most recent command edit, including thrust, targets, missile orders, fighter launch and break-off settings. Bulk auto-plot actions count as one edit. Up to 20 edits are retained for the current commander and round. Selection changes do not count. History clears when the round executes, the screen passes to the other commander, or a saved game is loaded. Undo cannot reverse combat or spending.
Develop shows how much each research button will actually spend. Its tooltip shows your balance afterward. If you cannot afford completion, the final button reads Invest available. Fully funded technology is marked with the turn when it becomes active; it is not available immediately.
Yards shows earliest completion dates and balances or funding shortfalls. Enemy ships in orbit block launches, but construction can still be ordered. Delayed builds show their next launch check. Ships at a lost yard will be lost when due unless the yard is recaptured first. Cancellation availability is unchanged, and its button shows the refund. Future movement and combat may change these conditions.
Compare laser targets in tactical Weapons lists enemy ships, stations and fighters. It ranks unobstructed in-range shots first, then estimated per-laser hit chance, with range and relative speed shown. Estimates use your current thrust plot and assume enemy drift; they do not use hidden enemy plots. Select a target or choose Use automatic targeting to let the crew choose at resolution. Both are undoable and leave missile and fighter orders intact. Cancel Break off before comparing a fixed plot.
Tick ships in the selected fleet’s information panel and choose Review split, or choose Review merge with a friendly fleet at the same location. The review compares ship counts, combat factor, speed, reaction-mass range and boarding parties. The slowest ship determines fleet speed, and the least-fuelled ship determines the available burn.
The remaining fleet keeps its orders after a split; the detached group starts without orders and becomes selected for your next command. Give it separate orders before resolving the turn: idle fleets at the same location may merge again. In a merge, the selected fleet keeps its orders while orders on the merged-in fleet are removed.
The review rechecks retained orders against the resulting formation. It warns if a route needs more reaction mass than the new formation has or an assault loses its boarding parties, and shows recalculated travel timing where available. Warnings do not change the rules or prevent an intentional reorganization. Choose the commit button to proceed, or Keep fleets unchanged to cancel. Previewing changes nothing.
Choose Review assault for an enemy site at your fleet’s current location or ordered destination. The briefing shows boarding parties, gun support, effective defence and the result for each possible attack die. The success percentage is conditional on the assault executing with the current forces and garrison.
Return-fire ranges show hits before allocation on capture and on repulse. Even a successful assault can lose ships. Detected enemy fleets in orbit are called out, and the assault will only execute if no enemy fleet remains after battles. Travel, combat losses and changes to the garrison may alter these estimates before an on-arrival assault.
Order assault commits through the existing rules; missing boarding parties or other restrictions disable commitment and show the reason. Back to command closes the briefing without changing orders. An existing assault button cancels that assault directly. Reviewing consumes no random numbers and reveals no hidden enemy orders.
Open Operations timeline from the strategic command footer to see fleet transits, valid planned travel orders, construction due dates and funded research activation together. Events are grouped by turn, calendar date and turns remaining. Use All, Fleets or Industry to filter without changing the game.
View fleet selects the fleet; construction opens Yards, and research opens Develop. Pending travel orders are marked as planned. Invalid orders are omitted from scheduled arrivals; use Review pending orders to inspect and fix them. Delayed ships show a launch recheck rather than a guaranteed arrival, and yard conditions can change.
Enemy events include only detected transits. Enemy orders, builds and research remain private. Dates describe current plans, not guaranteed outcomes: battles, captures, changed orders and other events can affect execution. Opening or filtering the timeline never advances the turn.
Select a friendly fleet and open Readiness & resupply. The summary counts damaged ships, ships below full fuel and depleted missile or fighter stocks. Each ship shows current resources and capacity. For stationary fleets, an after-upkeep row shows what one local upkeep would restore if the fleet remains there and ownership stays unchanged.
Friendly shipyards fully restore hull, missiles, fighters and fuel. Other friendly sites repair one hull point per ship; ice sites fully refuel, while ordinary sites provide partial refuelling with the existing Jovian bonus where applicable. Elsewhere, ships receive only trickle fuel. Ships in transit receive no service until arrival.
The destination list includes reachable friendly service locations, fastest first, with their current facilities, arrival turn, burn and reserve. Order route replaces the selected fleet’s current orders using the normal movement rules. Combat or changed ownership can affect service at arrival. No redirection is offered for fleets already in transit, and previewing never changes orders.
Use Search dispatch archive beside strategic dispatches to find retained reports by ship, site, event or phrase. Text matching ignores case and treats punctuation literally. Enter an exact turn, or leave the turn blank for all turns. Choose All visible, Public reports or Your private reports. Press Search or Enter to apply, and Reset filters to start over.
Results appear newest first and include their turn and visibility. Only public messages and your own private dispatches are searchable; the opposing commander’s private reports are excluded from both results and counts. The game retains up to 220 total log entries, so older reports may already have rolled out. Searching does not change the game or advance time.
End-turn dispatch summaries now track new entries across rolling-log truncation and consider every retained new report before selecting important events. This fixes missed reports in longer wars without changing the save format or retention policy.
In Fleets, search your roster by ship name, class, location, ordered destination or assault site. Press Search or Enter; matching ignores case and treats the text literally. Search combines with the selected filter. Button counts describe your entire force, while the matching count describes the filtered results.
Needs service finds fleets with any missing hull, fuel, missiles or fighters. Boarding parties finds fleets carrying assault troops, including those in transit. These filters do not imply that a fleet can currently move or assault; select it to review orders and readiness.
Sort by location, strongest first, fastest first or lowest fuel first. Each row shows representative ship names, speed, fuel and boarding strength. Reset roster restores all friendly fleets with location sorting. Searches and sorting do not affect orders or the game state, and search text clears on new games, reload and hotseat orders handover.
Choose Review tactical orders beside the round controls to inspect all active ships under your command together. Each row shows hull, thrust plot or automatic break-off, laser target, missile orders and fighter-launch intent. The board never executes a round.
Filter Unplotted, Movement warnings or Weapon checks to find ships needing attention. Warnings cover predicted rock crossings or exits, inactive targets, projected laser range and obstruction. Valid laser estimates assume the enemy drifts; actual enemy thrust can change the result. Break-off courses are recalculated by the existing rules.
Edit ship closes the board and selects that ship. Viewing, filtering and selecting make no command changes and add no undo entries. Only your active ships have review rows and editing controls. Use the usual plotting and weapon buttons to revise orders, then return to the board if desired.
In Intel, choose a contact under Compare interceptor options to see all friendly fleets at rest that might respond. Feasible intercepts appear first, with earliest meetings first and stronger fleets breaking timing ties. Rejected candidates remain visible with their rule reason.
Compare meeting turn, reaction-mass burn and reserve, and combat factor against the detected target. Fleets with existing orders are included; the review explicitly lists the orders an interception would replace. Combat factor is not a victory prediction. The original ready-intercept suggestions remain available.
Order intercept rechecks the contact and hunter before issuing the order. Interception replaces the hunter’s instructions and commits it to meeting and following the target’s course under the existing rules. Undetected, friendly or already matched contacts cannot be selected. Opening or cancelling the comparison changes nothing.
In Develop, choose Compare ship effects to see what a technology changes for your ship classes. The comparison switches only the selected technology off and on, keeping your other active technologies unchanged. It identifies changed stats, newly unlocked classes and classes that still need another prerequisite.
Technology does not retrofit ships already in service. Ships commissioned after activation use the technologies active at commissioning, including ships previously ordered. Costs and build durations are unchanged. Active technology can still be compared to understand its contribution.
The funding control shows the exact RP spend and balance. If you cannot afford completion it invests the available amount; completed funding activates at the start of the next turn, not immediately. Funding uses the existing research rules. Viewing the comparison does not change resources, ships or orders and does not reveal enemy research.
Choose Income breakdown beside Resources to see how your current income is calculated. The report starts with base production from owned sites, subtracts local losses and embargo effects, then shows any difficulty and current event adjustments. Its final figure matches the game’s current income calculation, including rounding and clamping.
Site rows show current output against base output, with sabotage or blockade reasons. The greatest local losses appear first. Inspect site returns to that body without changing orders. Global modifiers apply after the site subtotal, so they are shown separately.
Income at current conditions is not a guarantee for the next turn: captures, sabotage, political effects and events may change before collection. The future treasury example assumes one payment under unchanged conditions and no additional spending. Previewing the report does not change resources or advance the game.