# Chapter 1. Playing The Game

When the game starts, you and all of your opponents each have control of one planet, with the remainder of the planets under control of their native, agrarian, non-aggressive inhabitants.

To begin your conquest of the galaxy, you will need to send out raiding parties to your neighboring planets. Each player in turn will be prompted to enter a set of fleet movements for the current turn. To enter a fleet movement, select the source planet by keyboard (the planets are "named" after single letters/numbers/glyphs) or by mouse (click once on the planet). Then, enter the number of ships to send.

Each grid on the map represents 0.5 light years, and the ships travel at "light speed". So, a fleet traveling to an adjacent sector will arrive at the end of the current turn. A fleet traveling to a sector 2 grids away will arrive in the next turn.

After entering all of your moves, click the "End Turn" button.

When a fleet arrives at a planet that you already own, the arriving fleet will be absorbed into the defense fleet stationed at the planet.

When a fleet arrives at a planet you don't own, a fight for control of the planet will begin. It is a fight to the death, and either the attacking fleet will be destroyed and the planet will hold. Or, the home defense fleet will be destroyed and the attacker will assume control of the planet

Hint Defense fleets have an advantage over attackers. It's safe to assume that you will need several more ships to take a planet than currently hold it.

# 1.1. Planet Status

The Planet Status indicator (the big black box on the left) is your source for intelligence on the state of the Galaxy. Your spies will report on the status of your rivals, but not on the native-controlled planets. The information present in the display is: name, owner, production rate, fleet strength and kill percentage. The production rate is the number of ships that planet will construct in one turn. The fleet strength is the number of ships currently in place at the planet. And, the kill percentage is a measure of the effectiveness of the ships produced at that planet. Attack fleets take the kill percentage of their planet of departure, and defense fleets use the kill percentage of the planet they are defending.

Hint If you capture a planet with a high kill percentage, you may want to funnel some of your attack fleets through this planet, as they will "pick up" the kill percentage of this planet.