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Space Battle

Plan four moves and your guns at the table while the raider plans hers, then watch both play out on the grid.

Step by stepThe rules in full

Step by step

  1. The battle board seen from behind your ship, the plan table at the foot shaped like her hull with four wells down the keel, move tiles in a tray to its left and the Ready button and hourglass to its right1Your ship's table2Move tiles3Ready
    1Your ship's table2Move tiles3Ready
    Step 1

    Plan four moves

    The table at the foot of the screen is your ship, bow up, with a well for each of the turn's four phases down her keel. Click a move tile to lay it in the lit well, or drag it to any well (W A D on the keyboard). Forward sails one square; left or right sails one forward and one to that side, and turns you. Press Ready (Space), or the glass runs out and whatever you planned sails. The raider plans at the same moment, and you don't see her moves.

  2. Numbered darts showing where your plan takes the ship, an orange lane where your broadside will land, and the raider with red squares where her guns bear1Your plan2Your broadside3Her guns
    1Your plan2Your broadside3Her guns
    Step 2

    Read the board

    As you plan, the board draws it: a numbered dart where each phase will leave you, an orange lane where each broadside you load will land, and red squares where her guns bear on you right now. Each phase plays out the same way: your move, then the stardust currents push you one square and the whirls swing you round, then the guns fire.

  3. Four cannonballs loaded in the gun-ports down your ship's left side, an orange lane on the board where they will fire1Loaded ports2Where they fire
    1Loaded ports2Where they fire
    Step 3

    Load your guns

    The ports down each side of the table are her guns; the ones on her left are her port guns. Click a gun-port to load a ball there (Q / E): it fires straight out of that side, three squares, in that phase. A port glows gold where she would be alongside, and red, with a gunsight, where she is in that broadside's lane, if she holds her course.

  4. Both ships trading broadsides, smoke and flame between them, the raider's damage bar running red and a violet whirl on the board1Broadsides2A whirl
    1Broadsides2A whirl
    Step 4

    Watch it play out

    With both plans in, the turn plays out phase by phase. Your gunners make the shot and your sailors make the moves (your crew sits on the right of the table). Damage you do buries her crew before any boarding starts, and the damage she does buries yours.

  5. THE BOX CLOSES IN over the board at turn 4, its orange walls drawn in round the ships, the purple hop tile in the tray1Hop
    1Hop
    Step 5

    Hop, and mind the box

    A hop (H) leaps her off the board for one phase: she keeps her square, and broadsides and grapples aimed at her that phase pass underneath, but in the air she can't fire or grapple. Her sailors make a hop only every other turn, so save it for the broadside you see coming. From turn 4 the box closes in, and the thin line shows where its wall will be next; its walls stop you and hurt.

  6. SHE GRAPPLED YOU: the end-of-battle card with both ships' bars, 8 turns, 16 shot fired, 8 hits on her and 3 on you1The tally
    1The tally
    Step 6

    Board, or be boarded

    Drop the grapple (G) on a gun-port to throw a hook from that side: if she is right alongside after your move, it bites and you board her. She can do the same, and here she got her hook in first. You never run out of grapples, but no guns fire in a phase you throw one. You may disengage after 10 turns, and every ball that hits you adds 2 more.

The rules, as the game tells them

Plan four moves, then press Ready — or the glass runs out and whatever you planned sails. The raider plans at the same moment, and you do not see her moves.

Each phase: your move, then the stardust currents push one square and the whirls swing you round, then the guns fire. Forward sails one square; left or right sails one forward and one to that side, and turns you.

HOP leaps her off the board for one phase: she keeps her square, and broadsides and grapples aimed at her that phase pass underneath — but in the air she cannot fire or grapple. Her sailors make a hop only every other turn, so save it for the broadside you see coming.

The table is your ship, bow up: a well for each phase down her keel, and a gun-port on each side of it — the ports on her left are her port guns. Click a move tile to lay it in the lit well (or drag it to any well). Click a gun-port to load a ball there; guns fire straight out of that side, three squares.

Drop the GRAPPLE on a gun-port to throw a hook from that side: if she is right alongside after your move, it bites and you board her. You never run out of grapples, but no guns fire in a phase you throw one. A port glows gold where she would be alongside, red (with a gunsight) where she is in that broadside's lane — if she holds her course.

Your gunners make the shot and your sailors make the moves (the crew on the right of the table); a move tile you do not use goes off after five turns, and the dot over a tile picks the kind they make next. Damage you do buries her crew before the boarding starts — and the damage she does buries yours.

The box closes in from turn 4; the thin line shows where its wall will be next. Its walls stop you and hurt. You may disengage after 10 turns — every ball that hits you adds 2 more.

Moves: W A D or the D-pad. Hop: H or the left shoulder. Clear: S. Guns: Q / E or the triggers. Grapple: G.

Next phase: Tab. Ready: Space.

Look around: drag, or the right stick. Zoom: the wheel.

Word for word from the game: in play the same text sits behind the ? on the board, so this page cannot drift from it.