Each ship in your fleet can only fire weapons once per turn. Do you drill down on shield technology, making your shields gradually more efficient? Add better hull armor to your ships?Īnd your ships have the same levels of customizability, though they draw from a separate pool of funds (energy).

There are only ten or so technologies, all available at the start, and each one has an immediate impact on your ship stats. In Starships, you still research new technologies-but there is no tech tree. You maneuver your ships around this hexagonal grid to try and get a bead on the enemy ships, exchange shots, and use the “terrain” (asteroids, planets) to your advantage to provide cover. Your fleet is transferred to a smaller, hexagonal grid representing local space. Here’s where the tactical layer comes into play.

Once you arrive at a planet you’ll be given the option to accept or decline a mission to help the locals-for instance, chasing off pirates. Your main tool in conquest is a single fleet of ships which you’ll pilot from planet to planet. You need to capture 51 percent of these planets in order to win the game. The strategic level is a galaxy map, full of planets-one of which is your faction’s homeworld. You’ve got two layers to pay attention to: strategic and tactical. In my preview a few weeks back I compared Starships to a board game, albeit one that’s too complex to feasibly be played with physical pieces. I can sit down, play through an entire Starships game (or two!), and still make it to bed at a reasonable hour. What Starships does is condense the turn-based Civilization feel down into a few hours, and I love it.

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