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.

In the Command Phase of the game, you will make the critical decisions to grow your civilization. Each player has a number of Command Tokens they can spend each turn to perform actions. Players begin the game with five Command Tokens and will have the opportunity to earn more through Advancement research and the establishment of Starbases. The more tokens you have, the more Commands you can issue on your turn. Every Command costs one Command Token to execute and the same Command may be given multiple times in a turn.

One Command can be issued to Move a single Starship or an entire Fleet. There are two types of Movement in the game, Impulse Speed and Warp Speed. Impulse Speed can move a Ship up to two Sectors or spaces, a very slow and cautious speed. At Warp Speed, Ships can cross vast distances, moving through an entire System for each Warp Token placed next to the Ship or Fleet. Every turn a Ship is at Warp and doesn’t stop, another Warp Token is placed next to it; certain technologies from the Advancement Deck can also be counted as Warp Tokens when determining the Ship’s final destination. Issuing another Command brings the Ship out Warp, ready to face the unknown.

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.