Players are powerful space lords who command entire planets and want to become the Emperor of Space.
Planets fall into several categories:
- Farming planets: produce enough food to feed themselves and 2 additional planets. If a planet is not supplied with food for the turn, it (reverts to subsistence farming and) does nothing that turn. Food can be bought an sold as normal, but cannot be stockpiled.
- Mining planets: produces 3 units of ore.
- Manufacturing planets: turn up to 3 ore into an equal number of machines
- Recruitment planets: produces 1 army per turn. Supports 3 armies. If you do not have sufficient support for your armies, they are destroyed without compensation at the end of the turn
- Shipyard planets: may spend 3 ore to produce 1 fleet/turn.
Contracts: Players are free to trade anything to anyone (from food and ore to planets and prestige.) by entering into a contract.
A contract is an agreement signed (quoted and their name added) by multiple parties, and is binding (meaning you can not refuse to do it.) so be careful about what contracts you enter into.
Colonization: This is a 2 step process. The controller of a fleet may send it away on a mission of exploration. One fleet will find one potential colony per turn (that only the fleet controllers know the path to) Each colony is of a particular kind (see planets) and costs 10 machines to settle. Fleets have a small chance of being lost during exploration.
League Trade: For the anti-social and the desperate, there's also a backup market, that sells food, ore (for 100 Million Florins) and machines (for 150.) Or buys them (for 5, 10 and 15 Million respectively.) League charter prohibits them from engaging in warfare, so they will not buy or sell ships or armies.
Starting conditions: Each player starts with 2 planets of their choice, no prestige and 100 Million Imperial Florins (M₣). You may join at any time.
Missions: The gameplay consists of players trying to fulfil missions, which are like contracts but with the game. Missions are announced at the beggining of a new turn and may expire if not taken. Missions come in three flavors:
- Imperial levies: Have fixed rewards, are first come first serve and usually give prestige and planets
Example:
Provide 4 armies and 2 fleets to obtain 5 prestige and 1 random planet - League Requests: Have variable rewards, go to the lowest bidder (on that turn) and usually give money
Example:
Provide 4 Food and 2 machines to obtain a sum of up to 250 M₣ or less. - Taxes: Have penalties instead of rewards, are mandatory for each player
Example:
Provide 10 M₣ per planet you own or lose 2 prestige
Debt and bankruptcy: if you are unable (or unwilling) to fulfil your contractual obligations (including, but not limited to taxes,) your demesne is terminated, and your property (except prestige) is sold off in an auction, which will be used to repay your debts. It is illegal to try and give away your property to other players when a bankruptcy is imminent and such actions will be reversed and the player banned from rejoining.
Winning Conditions: Whoever has the most prestige at the death of the previous Emperor is crowned the new Emperor (or Empress.) This is a random time limit, that has a mean time to happen of 24 turns and will be preceded by the "Emperor grows old" and "Emperor is ill" events in that order.
Map of Known Space