Galactic Empires

1996 · strategy · MS-DOS · Ben Wooller

Galactic Empires is a DOS game of galactic conquest which can be played by up to 4 players. It involves managing a planet's resources while trying to build up armies to conquer more planets. Playing Each player is assigned a number and a colour: 1...Red 2...Blue 3...Yellow 4...Green The current planet's stats are displayed on the right-hand side of the screen. You can look at different planets by clicking on or near them. You can only see the details of planets you own, though. Stats Turn: If you click on TURN, it ends your turn. Player: Whose turn it is. Credits: Is how much wealth/resources the player has acquired. World Name: If you click on the planet icon, you start a convoy, described later on. Confidence: This is a measure of how popular your rule on the planet is, and the army's morale. You can increase it by clicking on the icon. Each click costs 10 credits, and the higher the confidence, the harder it is to increase. Confidence can play a major part in battles. If your confidence gets very low, riots on the planet ensues, soldiers desert the army etc, and Ship production drops. Battle Ships: This is the number of battle ships you have on-planet. They cost one credit per turn each to maintain. They can be used in defense of a planet, or in attacking another. If you click on the icon, you put 100 credits towards research of better jump-ranges for your ships. The more you spend, the greater chance of success. Barracks: This number is the maximum number of battle ships you can have on the planet. It is a measure of food and housing resources on the planet. An utterly barren planet would have a very small number here. If you click on the icon, you have spend credits in improving the resources, though it gets harder to increase, the more you spend. If the number of ships is larger than this number, expect to lose a lot of confidence. Mines: Basically, this is the mineral resources of the planet. This number increases your credits each turn. The icon does nothing. Ship Production: The first number is the current production, while the second is the maximum. If you click on the icon, you can spend credits to increase the current production, but the closer you get to the maximum the more you have to spend. Defenses: This is a measure of defense bases and satellites on the planet. The more you have, the less likely a force will take you by surprise. The maximum for any planet is 10 (having more than that is useless). Click on the icon to spend 100 credits on a new base and satellite. Convoys To initiate a convoy, click on the planet you wish to send it from, then click on the planet icon. A circle appears around the planet. This is the current jump-range for your ships. Sometimes, you can push this range, and jump to a planet just outside the circle. Click on the planet you wish to send battle ships to. If you want to cancel, click on the planet you are sending from. Next, a window appears. To increase the number of ships to send, click on the up arrow (using the right mouse button does it in steps of 10). The down arrow decreases the number sent, SEND sends the convoy,and CANCEL cancels the convoy. Each convoy has a confidence level which starts as equal to the planet's confidence. If you send a convoy to a planet you own, the troops on the planet are reinforced by the convoy, and the convoy's confidence affects the planet's. If you sent it to and enemy planet, a battle ensues at the end of the turn.