GALAXY

Tutorial — version 3.2.1. A turn-based game of star empires on a plate ruled in hexes.

1. How to begin

The opening sheet asks for five things: the sky, the number of empires, the skill of the rival commanders, the horizon, and a plate number. Leave the plate number blank for a sky nobody has seen before, or type one in to play the same sky again.

Start on SECTOR with three empires and OFFICER commanders. You open on a garden world with 12M people, 12 of plant and 4 ships, and you can see almost nothing.

2. Controls

Click a star to read the world; its card follows the pointer and its pane opens on the right. Click your own world, then another star, and the order line is written for you — press ENTER to send the ships. Shift does the other job for a single click, and m swaps the mode for good.

Drag to pan, scroll to zoom, double-click to centre. f fits the whole plate, c centres on what is selected, h on your home world. e ends the turn, n begins a new survey, and the keys 1 to 6 open the six panes.

Anything you can do with the pointer you can also type: SEND, RECALL, SET, REFIT, SPLIT, CENTRE, END, HELP. Both go through the same door into the rules, so neither can do something the other cannot.

3. Turn order

Orders are written now and carried when the turn ends. Nothing moves while you are giving orders. When you press END TURN, the turn resolves in this order, for every empire at once:

  1. Worlds produce. Output is spent on the five heads, hulls are laid down, re-engining is done, research is banked and upkeep is charged.
  2. Squadrons with orders depart. From this moment they cannot be recalled.
  3. Squadrons under way arrive.
  4. Where two or more empires have ships in the same orbit, they fight.
  5. Landings, colonies and bombardments resolve.
  6. Scanners sweep and your reports are updated.
  7. The ledger is scored and the printout for the turn is written.

4. Movement

The plate is ruled in hexes and every distance is a count of hexes. A course is the run of hexes it crosses, and it is drawn on the chart before you commit to it so you can count the cost yourself.

At drive mark 0 a squadron makes 2.2 hexes a turn, rising to 6.4 at mark 10. Because no two stars are within 2 hexes of each other, a neighbouring star is one turn away from the start.

A hull keeps the drive it was built around for its whole life, so a group sails at the speed of its slowest ship. Old hulls can be re-engined at a world with at least 15 of plant.

5. Combat and scoring

Two empires with ships in the same orbit fight, over at most 6 rounds. Each side fires its whole strength and 28% of it lands each round. A side beaten down below 30% of the strongest force present breaks off and runs for home — those hulls are not lost. A garrison standing over its own world may never break off.

To take a world you need ships in orbit past a threshold set by its people and its batteries. A world that falls keeps 68% of its people. You can instead bombard it, which kills people and plant and takes nothing.

The ledger counts worlds, people, plant, ships and research marks. It is printed every turn in the STANDINGS pane — but a rival’s ledger is his own, and you see only what your survey reached.

6. Winning

Three ways to win: take every rival world; or hold 42% of all the stars and lead the ledger by 1.3 times the next empire, both at once, for 4 turns running; or simply stand highest on the ledger when the horizon arrives.

7. Losing

You are out of the game when you hold no worlds at all. Losing your last world ends your survey even if you still have ships under way — there is nowhere for them to go and nothing left to build with.

You have not lost simply by being behind. The commonest way to lose is quieter than a conquest: an empire that builds more hulls than its output can carry pays upkeep on all of them, stops growing, and is passed on the ledger by a rival who settled instead. Watch the OUTPUT / UPKEEP / NET line on the printout.

8. Saving and restarting

Your survey is saved automatically after every turn, in your browser’s own storage. Come back to the page and the opening sheet offers RESUME, which puts you back on the turn you left. There is one save; beginning a new survey writes over it, and the sheet tells you which turn you would lose before you do.

NEW SURVEY, or the n key, brings the opening sheet back so you can choose another sky. Esc backs out of it without starting anything.

If your browser refuses storage — private browsing will do it — the game says so plainly on the opening sheet and plays perfectly well without saving.

Surveys saved by version 1.0.0 were plotted on an unruled plate and cannot be read by this version. They are refused with a plain message rather than half-read, and you will need to begin a new survey.

9. Operational Warfare

Open MILITARY to review strategic fronts, fleet readiness, reserves, reinforcements, and operational objectives. Front reports show enemy strength as an estimate range whose width reflects CURRENT, RECENT, OLD, or UNKNOWN intelligence.

Fleet doctrine now matters in combat. Defensive Line absorbs more damage at lower firepower; Breakthrough attacks harder at greater risk; Missile Strike emphasizes the opening round; Carrier Screen protects support-heavy formations; and Withdrawal Priority disengages earlier.

The PLANNING overlay shows committed fleet routes, in-transit routes, automated standing-order status, and operational objective targets. It never moves the map camera.

Version 2.2 strategic controls

Use the OVERLAY selector to inspect political control, fleet strength, colonies, exploration age, or movement reach. NEXT ACTION (or Space) cycles through owned systems that have ships or productive colonies. When setting a course, the selected route is drawn directly across the hexes before you press Enter.

Diplomacy & Warfare

Open DIPLOMACY to review each rival and change relations. Hostile orders against a foreign empire require WAR. At your own systems, set fleet stance to Aggressive, Defensive, or Avoid Combat. Avoid Combat fleets attempt to disengage before the first volley. Damaged fleets repair at friendly colonies, with Military colonies repairing faster. Intelligence labels age from CURRENT to RECENT, OLD, and UNKNOWN. Click a notification to center the relevant system or open the battle report.

Living Galaxy - v2.7

Developed planets now produce strategic Food, Minerals, Energy, Science and Trade. Open EMPIRE to see stockpiles and the command queue. Use NEXT ACTION to cycle through fleets awaiting orders, colony construction, developable worlds, research and important notices.

Open RESEARCH to select a technology focus and create ship designs from your best unlocked components. Those designs appear under an owned world's build controls. Biology research permits terraforming. Orbital installations can advance from Outpost to Starbase, Fortress and Citadel. Use SUPPLY, TRADE, THREAT and TERRITORY overlays to read the strategic map.

v2.8 Crisis & Civilization

Open CIVILIZATION to choose an empire policy and review stability, shortages, occupied worlds, trade risk and active crises. Use STABILITY and TRADE RISK overlays to find trouble quickly. NEXT ACTION now places urgent shortages, crises and unrest ahead of routine orders.

Galactic Society (v2.9)

Open CIVILIZATION to review your leader, government, faction approval, colony identities and unresolved crisis decisions. Open DIPLOMACY to choose an intelligence focus, run intelligence operations and vote in Galactic Council sessions. NOTICES provides category filters for military, world, economy, research, diplomatic and crisis events. END TURN now warns when high-priority matters remain.

Galactic Age - v3.0

The campaign now progresses through Survey, Expansion, Rivalry, Galactic Age and Ascendancy. Open GALACTIC to select a victory path and inspect progress.

Use FLEETS to assign standing orders such as Explore, Patrol, Defend, Intercept, Repair, Blockade or Reserve. Use ECONOMY to set an empire priority and begin late-game megaprojects.

The TERRAIN and STRATEGIC SUPPLY overlays reveal travel hazards and supply reach. The COMMAND sidebar combines contextual star, world, fleet, territory, threat and trade information and offers Galaxy, Sector and System zoom presets.