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: The basic rules are 8 pages long and increase to 11 pages in length when the advanced rules are included.
Components
One mounted map (55 x 73cm)
16-page full-color Rule Book
16-page full-color Play Book
Four counter sheets (176 15x15mm counters per sheet)
Four 2-sided Player Reference Cards
One Pad of 2-sided Player Aid Sheets
2 black 10-sided dice
2 orange 10-sided dice
Counter manifest
136 Numeral Markers (72x1/2, 40x3/4, 24x5/6) [rule 2.4]
6 Damage Markers [rule 2.6]
1 Battle Marker [rule 5.1.2]
1 Turn Marker [rule 3.0]
40 Alien Ship Markers (10xB6-2, 20xC5-2, 10xD4-1)[rule]
Group Units [rule 2.3]
8 Bases (2 of each colour: blue, green, red, yellow)
16 BB-Battleships (4 of each colour)
16 BC-Battlecruisers (4 of each colour)
16 CA-Cruisers (4 of each colour)
16 CV-Carriers (4 of each colour)
16 DD-Destroyers (4 of each colour)
8 DN-Dreadnaughts (2 of each colour)
32 F-Fighter-Squadrons (8 of each colour)
16 R-Raiders (4 of each colour)
20 SC-Scouts (5 of each colour)
12 SW-Mine-Sweepers (3 of each colour)
16 SY-Ship Yards (4 of each colour)
8 Decoy Markers (2 of each colour)
Non-Group Units [rule 2.5]
60 Colony Ships (15 of each colour: blue, green, red, yellow)
8 Miners (2 of each colour)
80 MS Pipeline Ships (20 of each colour)
Home, Homeworlds and Colonies
4 Homeworld counters, 20 value(front)and 15 value(back) (1 of each colour) [rule 2.7]
4 Home counters, 10 value(front) and 5 value(back) (1 of each colour)
29 grey Colony Markers, 1 value(front) and 3 value(back)
Mines [rule 13.0]
20 Mines (5 of each colour:, blue, green, red, yellow)
Deep Space System Markers [rule 2.1] (white border)
10 Nebula Markers
3 Supernova Markers
14 Mineral-10 Markers
5 Lost in Space Markers
3 Doomsday Machine Markers
26 Danger! Markers
10 Black Hole Markers
3 Warp Point-1 Markers
3 Warp Point-2 Markers
3 Space Wreck Markers
10 Asteroids Markers
12 Barren planet Markers: Abydos, Ada, Aries, Arrakis, Babbage, Centauri, Cobol, Cygni, Deneb, Gath, Romulus, Rukbat
Home System Markers [rule 2.1]
4 Home Planet Markers (1 for each color: Altair, Chulak, Terra, Vasyr)
8 Nebula Markers (2 of each system: blue-, yellow, red- & green-border)
8 Asteroids Markers (2 of each system: blue-, yellow, red- & green-border)
44 Mineral 5 Markers (11 of each system: blue-, yellow, red- & green-border)
4 Black Hole Marker (1 of each system: blue-, yellow, red- & green-border)
8 Planet Markers Blue system: Andromeda, Bethel, Eden, Odyssey, Orion, Prometheus, Rigel, Vulcan
1 Barren Planet Marker Blue system: Polaris
8 Planet Markers Yellow system: Arcturus, Aslak, Benden, Haldir, Tempe, Valhalla, Vega, Xi
1 Barren Planet Marker Yellow system: Draconis
8 Planet Markers Green system: Bajor, Castor, Dakara, Eccles, Kronos, Pleiades, Pollux, Sirius
1 Barren Planet Marker Green system: Hoth
8 Planet Markers Red system: Anthares, Athos, Cerberus, Essen, Fionn, Omicron, Sheldon, Vortigern
1 Barren Planet Marker Red system: Anyon
