Hints & Tips

HINTS & TIPS

As has been suggested above, it is very easy to start the game with a poor strategy, and then spend the next few turns trying to make good your mistakes. However, there are certain ideas that might not seem obvious to all, but will help you get underway well enough, and continue to do so with each passing turn. Listed below are a few of the pitfalls and aids that it might be worth considering:-

Mapping the Universe - most people take one look at the 3D map style of a space game and shrink away from any thought of trying to represent their position pictorially. If the player concerned has a brain the size of Belgium, then maybe they can easily hold this model in their head each time they sit down to fill in a turn, however, us mere mortals sometimes struggle with that one. During the playtest some of us have found a relatively easy way to draw things out on paper, involving a pad of paper, a pencil and ruler; nothing more.

It's best to start small in a Universe so vast, so we'd suggest only thinking about mapping a 103 area of space around your homeworld to start with - you can move on to larger areas when you're experienced enough. The simplest way to represent the 3D shape is to think of it as "layers" of 2D grids. If you draw out a 10 x 10 matrix on the top page of your pad (or better still, fill in the Mapping sheet provided) and label the Axis as "X" and "Y", this represents the first "layer" of space. Duplicating this on subsequent pages will give you a number of "layers", each one representing in increasing distance along the "Z" axis, so it's probably worth labelling each page with this number too. So, if you start the game in sector [5,5,5], you would have the top page of your pad as the Z=1 axis, the second page as Z=2, and so on, right through to Z=99 on page 99. Your star would be shown on the 5th column, 5th row of the 5th page in the pad. And, by drawing up the map like this, you can get an idea of how far everything is away from you. Each move up or down a page will be the same distance as a move in a 2D direction.

You can then look at the Star Map your first turn provides you with, and mark on your map everything within a three sector distance of your homeworld. If nothing is mentioned as being in a sector on this map, then mark it as empty - there is nothing worthy of note there. This will help you avoid the common mistake of using your initial turns to re-map this already "known" area of space.

As a rule of thumb, a quick way of working out the distance between two points is to look at the largest difference between the two sets of [X,Y,Z] co-ordinates. If Point A is at [2,2,2] and Point B is at [1,4,6], then the distance between the two points is 4 Jumps (i.e. {2-1}, {4-2} or {6-2} as a comparison of each co-ordinate.

Exploring the Universe - Once you have worked out how to represent the Universe on paper, the question of what to fill it with becomes important. Exploring the Universe is very important, and anyone who is not issuing a few Star Survey, Star Search or Planet Survey orders each turn either knows everything, or is to arrogant to care!

Surveying Planets is important, particularly if your race is to benefit in anyway from some of the mysterious relics, ancient civilisations or fortunate discoveries that lie waiting to be found on otherwise lifeless worlds. The benefits that can be gained from these finds is exceptionally widespread, and failing to look for them means that someone else might find them first!

It is good to have some sort of method to your searching too - it's not much use sending your scouts out on a random search in the hope of finding something, if you "overlook" a sector that just happens to be crammed full of perfect planets around a marvellous star! Try to think through your search patterns, and this way you'll ensure you don't miss anything vital (such as the homeworld of an alien race that is massing its fleets to attack an unwary enemy!).

Colonising Worlds - Though it's tempting to colonise every nice little world you find, you'll soon realise that a great dilution of your resources is not such a brilliant idea. Each world that holds your people will need defending, and this means that you'll have to have ships, troops, planetary defences, fighters and countless other things scattered around the Universe to ensure their safety. Once you've colonised your first world, you'll see how difficult this can become.

Be Aware! - If you have a sector you need to keep an eye on for some reason (planet finds, colonisable planets, aliens?) then all you need to do is keep a ship within the system. This way you'll get reports of anyone else that enters the same system, along with the number and type of ships in the fleet. Though you are limited to fifty fleets in total, it is always worth leaving a few scouts in strategic locations just to keep informed of what's happening.

Filing your information - Though it may seem cumbersome, it is well worthwhile having a good system for recording when and where you did things on past turns. For example, if you find yourself a lovely, secret ship design on an ancient alien world, you may not yet be able build it, or have a real idea of what sort of design to fit it too. So you file your turn away, and when you DO finally come to a point when the ship is useful too you, you can't remember when or where you found it. Without some file referencing recorded somewhere, you are likely to be scouring dozens of past turns in the hope of unearthing the information.

Trading - The trading part of the game is simplicity itself to work, but you must not overlook the fact that you can run up a good number of Credits by simply setting up a cargo run between your own worlds, or those of a neighbouring race. Try to bear in mind that a run taking just a turn but yielding a low income is sometimes less benefit than a longer run with more profit at each end. However, the shorter, less profitable run can be completed each turn, and thus uses less orders on your Movement sheet - sometimes the need to do other things will override your thirst for profit!

Try things out - It only makes sense to try things out in the game, and see what happens. If you are really unsure of how something might work, then don't be afraid to ask the GM; he might tell you, he might not. Experimentation and Trial-and-error is the best ways of learning. Don't be afraid to make a few mistakes, lose a couple of scout ships or have the odd colonist die off - without trying things you'll never really find the best ways of doing anything.