GMT Games | Space Empires 4X | Board Game | Ages 12+ | 1 to 4 Players | 180 Minutes Playing Time

Product Information

Players then eXpand their empire by forming colonies (long term, steady growth), harvesting resources (quick income), and building a merchant fleet (trade income).

Yellow’s first BattleCruiser turns its attention to Blue’s Cruisers (CA), selecting them for targeting. Usually, as in the case of Uprising : Curse of the Last Empire, I can jump straight into the full rules (We started with Nightmare mode for that game), but in the case of Space Empires , it is just so…. Or did you somehow manage to secure enough resources to build 3 Cruisers to go harass the neighboring planetoids? In the rules, it talks about the fact that the Colony ship is a one use item as when it lands on a planet, it is immediately broken down to be used in the development of the infrastructure needed to start the Colony. So when another player discovered a barren planet (which triggers the appearance of alien ships), there were no alien ship markers left.Each player has one Homeworld, representing their starting planet/solar system from which they explore the galaxy. Space Empires is a game in the finest tradition of 4X space games - eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate. Pax Britannica also had some very involved record keeping which made it a lot more complicated than Space Empires. There is of course something that is wonderfully tactile about seeing your massive fleets on the board and allowing your opponents to marvel in fear at the sheer number of Battle Cruisers that are headed directly towards them.

If a unit (ship) lands on an unexplored space it must explore that system and apply any effects immediately. So, it is tempting to try to leverage this first strike advantage and maybe knock the Blue Cruisers out of the battle.The numerical boost in attacking units would then trigger the award of a Fleet Size Bonus to Blue (for having twice as many combat units in the battle), making Yellow’s defense even more difficult. Only going to battle will reveal what units you have , and at any time a player may look at their own group markers to see what you placed there, as chances are you are going to forget from time to time. At the start of the game you may only build Scouts, Mining Ships, Colony Ships, Ship Yards, and Decoys. Asteroids: When Combat occurs in a System with Asteroids, all ships are considered Class E and their Attack Technology Level is considered to be zero.

Space Empires 4X from GMT Games is a fairly simple and clean game that focuses on the 4X genre in space. You have to plan indeed, but the situation on the ground will not always follow your large-scale evolution. Space Empires is a series of 4X turn-based strategy games by Malfador Machinations that allow the player to assume the role of the leader of a space-faring civilization. Combat Screening: At the start of a combat round, if a player has more combat capable ships than their opponent, that player may choose to screen (protect) ships from combat for the current round (up to the difference in ship count). Next, the remaining spaces - referred to as Deep Space - are randomly populated with face-down ‘’system markers’’ representing unexplored regions of space.

If your unit enters a space occupied by an enemy combat-capable unit you must stop moving and attack during the Combat Phase.