Inside Star Trek: Ascendancy

Chart the course of the Galaxy’s great civilizations and empires with Gale Force Nine’s Star Trek: Ascendancy hobby boardgame, in stores this summer. Send single Starships on missions of exploration or command vast fleets to seize alien worlds. Engage your rivals on the edges of the galactic frontier or open diplomatic talks with potential allies. The choices you make will ultimately lead your civilization to prosperity or ruin.

A Command can be issued to go to battle stations and engage enemy vessels in combat. Combat in Star Trek: Ascendancy

is very simple. Both players involved roll a number of dice equal to the number of Starships involved in the battle. On each player’s Control Console, the Weapons System slider will point at the number a player needs to roll to hit and destroy a rival vessel. An opponent’s Shields can modify that number, making the “Hit Roll” more difficult. After a round of combat, any Ships that were destroyed are removed from the game board. If there are still Ships left to continue the fight another round combat ensues unless one of the participants choose to retreat.A Planetary Invasion works much the same as Space Combat, except the invading Ships roll off against the structures built on the planet. The results of an Invasion are bit different than a Space Combat. If the Attacker rolls more hits than the Defending Planet has structures, then the Attackers take the world intact; taking over the existing Resource Nodes for themselves. If the Attacker rolls Hits equal to or less than the number of Nodes on the planet, those structures are destroyed. Only the Attacker may retreat from a Planetary Invasion. Taking a planet intact is a huge boon for the invading player.A Planet may be convinced to join your civilization through diplomatic means by way of a Hegemony Roll. This roll represents the lengthy negotiations and treaties required to convince a world to join the larger galactic community. When a Hegemony roll is attempted, not only must a player issue a Command, but they must pay a Culture Token as well. Only the player making the Hegemony attempt makes a roll, with the target number being the sum of Planet’s Ascendancy (if it’s controlled by a rival player) or by its Warp-Capability plus the number of Structures on the world. If the player rolls more than the target number, they may spend another Culture Token to place a Control Node on the planet, taking control of it in the game.  If they fail the roll, negotiations breakdown and another attempt must be made later to bring the planet into the fold. While challenging, adding worlds to you civilization through Hegemony means they contribute to your growth immediately with spending additional resources.What will be your orders when you take command Star Trek: Ascendancy? For an in-depth look at the commands you can issue in the game visit www.startrek.gf9games.com. Also learn about the special limited set of 50th Anniversary Exploration Cards, inspired by The Original Series, in specially marked boxes of Star Trek: Ascendancy.