Fleet combat

When fleets fight

When two enemy fleets share a tile at the end of the movement phase, they fight. Combat is brief and decisive — most engagements last under ten rounds.

Ship classes

Six classes, each with a role:

• Scout Corvette — fast, fragile. Use for reconnaissance, not pitched battles.
• Patrol Frigate — backbone warship. Reliable damage, decent armour.
• Assault Destroyer — fast strike craft. Counters frigates and corvettes.
• Heavy Cruiser — armoured capital ship. Slow but punishing.
• Battleship Dreadnought — endgame capital ship. Slow, expensive, devastating.
• Fleet Carrier — logistics support. Buffs adjacent ships.

Counter relationships

The counter system is simple:

• Line ships (frigates, dreadnoughts) take extra damage from strike craft (destroyers).
• Strike craft take extra damage from line ships.
• Capital ships and support vessels have no specific counter — they’re balanced against everything.

A pure-frigate fleet beats a pure-corvette fleet but loses to a pure-destroyer fleet. Mix your composition.

How a battle resolves

Each round, both fleets fire simultaneously. Damage is applied at round end so casualties don’t shift mid-round. Combat ends when one side flees, surrenders, or runs out of ships.

You’ll see a combat summary after the engagement: which ships were lost, who won, and how the survivors look. The summary is also recorded in your turn log.

Defending colonies

Colonies have a built-in garrison — a small permanent defensive force. An attacking fleet must defeat the garrison before it can occupy the colony. You can reinforce garrisons by stationing fleets in the same tile.

What’s coming

Combat animations, formation choice, and an in-engagement combat log are planned. You’ll be able to set retreat thresholds, prioritise targets, and review battles step by step.