Space Empires 4X (4th Printing)

Space Empires is a game in the finest tradition of 4X space games - eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate. Each player builds up a space empire and uses it to conquer the other players. Exploration on the mounted map is simple for players (and dangerous for their ships), revealing different space terrain that affects movement and combat.

Space Empires was developed to keep a rich theme without overcomplicated rules. The game includes carriers and fighters, mines, cloaking, a very large technology tree, fifteen ship classes, merchant shipping, colonization, mining, terraforming, bases, shipyards, black holes, warp points, and non-player aliens. Yet the rules are short and intuitive:

Inevitably, the growing empires will expand into each other and begin fighting over the same resources. Players must balance spending on ships with expenditures for technology in order to stay ahead of their opponents as they seek to destroy key colonies or key space yards in order to tip the balance of the game in their favor.

Technology can play a key roll in this as more advanced ships are definitely more powerful in combat than ones with basic technology. More than that, technology can provide nasty surprises. Ship types are not revealed until they have been in combat and finding out that you are facing a carrier loaded with fighters can turn the tide of a battle. Cloaked units can get beyond your forward fleets and disrupt your merchant pipelines, mines can end up taking out your biggest ships before battle even begins, and tactical advancements can mean that your opponent ends up firing first.

Combat is chartless and intuitive. Depending on the situation and where the battle is fought (in a nebula, asteroids, or open space) ships get bonuses to their attack and defense ratings based on their different technology. These are compared and ships line up to shoot at each other. Combat rounds continue until one side is eliminated or retreats. The combat procedure is quick, but satisfying.

While it is good to have the biggest ships, having a larger number of small ships can net you an advantage because a side that outnumbers its enemy significantly gets bonuses in combat (their numerical edge allows them to be more likely to maneuver and get in position to fire at downed shields or weak spots on an enemy ship). Fleet composition is also important as each ship has its advantages. This is not a game where a player just automatically only builds his best class of ship and nothing else. Your fleets will actually feel like fleets!

The game plays very well as either a two, three, or four player game. Two player games often play very quickly (one or two hours) depending on the size of the galaxy used. Four player games can go longer (three to four hours) depending on the style of the players and whether or not team play is used. Aggressive players using team play can result in a game as short as a two player game.

AWARDS & HONORS

• 2011 Golden Geek Best Wargame Nominee
• 2011 Charles S. Roberts Best Science-Fiction or Fantasy Board Wargame Winner
• 2011 Charles S. Roberts Best Science-Fiction or Fantasy Board Wargame Nominee