The tentative calendar for the rest of 2026 is:
- By Other Means (Hamilton, 9 May).
- Decline and Fall of the Galactic Empire (Wellington, 30 May).
- Colossus of Atlantis (Wellington, late July).
- Colossus of Atlantis (Hamilton, 12-13 September).
- A game at Chaosium Con (21 November).
Decline and Fall of the Galactic Empire
This introductory megagame is being run at Wellycon 10am-1pm on Saturday 30 May 2026. There will be a maximum of 20 tickets. The focus of the game is on military moves on the map, diplomacy between factions, with a few rules for economics and loyalty. Overall this is a much simpler game than those I have run since 2020.
There will be five factions in the game, with up to four players in each team.
- The Ascendancy is devoted to burning the entire empire down. They have the most powerful combat units in the game, but they only gain strength through destruction. If things go well, the Ascendancy is an avalanche, but if stalled, they can come to shuddering halt. Probably the easiest faction to play.
- The Star Nomads are merchants and mercenaries, striving to establish a successor state to the empire. The nomads can offer mercenary units to other factions, and a good at taking over trade routes.
- The Void Corsairs are pirates and sellswords, striving to plunder the empire and profit from chaos. The corsairs can offer mercenary units to other factions, and can move through the voids between spiral arms.
- The Imperial Dynasties are two rival families fighting a bitter war to control the empire and accumulate wealth, while at the same time trying to preserve the infrastructure underpinning galactic civilisation. Probably the hardest factions to play. Between them, they control the strongest military force at the start of the game.
The player roles are:
- Leader: responsible for auction bids, signing treaties, and strategy.
- Admirals: responsible for military operations, and any other tasks the leader gives them.
- Spy: responsible for espionage, subversion, assassins, and sabotage.
The turn structure is:
- Auction Phase: Leaders have two minutes to make bids for missiles and bribes for loyalty.
- Action Phase: Teams take three minute turns at the map. The team leader has up to one minute to issue orders. The team then has the rest of time to execute those orders in a move-fight-move sequence. Only the team leader speaks in this phase, the team must otherwise not discuss their actions, and only speaks to resolve actions with Control. At the end of the turn, the team spy can remain at the table, the rest of the team must move away.
- Admin Phase: Control have two minutes to tidy up the map. Teams should be discussing strategy, finalising auction bids and calculating fleet builds and maintenance.
Combat is deterministic when it is a Fleet battle. The active player draws a card, if they meet the specified condition (eg highest fleet strength, greater loyalty, best admiral) they win, and the defeated side retreats. If they do not win, they can push their luck and draw a second card, but if they fail a second time, they have a fleet destroyed. Fleet battles can damage imperial infrastructure.
Combat is stochastic (luck-based) when it involved Raiders. These units are represented by four-sided dice, so you roll the dice and highest wins. If Raiders engage Fleets, the Fleet gets to roll a d6, d8, d10, or d12 depending on its quality. Raiders will rarely defeat Fleets.
Economy. Key star systems generate atomic power, and trade routes generate credits. Credits are spent in auctions. Raiders can steal credits from trade routes controlled by other factions. Raids can also damage imperial infrastructure. The Star Nomads and Void Corsairs double the number of Raiders they have on the map each turn, and can convert four Raiders in the same region into a faction Fleet.
Decline. The empire gets three crises each turn. Players can choose to resolve these crises by spending atomic power tokens (always scarce), or watch as the empire loses capabilities like jump gates or converts Fleets into remnant squadrons.
Special Actions. One per team each turn, resolved when not acting at the map.
Loyalty. Imperial fleets and NPC admirals have a loyalty rating. This can be swayed by bribes and special actions. It is possible for leaders and fleets to change sides in battles. Tracking loyalty will be done with a spreadsheet on a laptop. Spies can try and find out Fleet loyalty.
Setup. All five teams get to secretly allocate loyalty ratings of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 between their choice of the 20 Imperial Fleets and Admirals on the map at the start of the game (this mechanic is inspired by the Kremlin game). Only the two imperial dynasties start with Imperial Fleet control, but units can start defecting as soon as battles start. The Star Nomads and Void Corsairs only start with raider units on the map. As a special first turn rule, the Ascendancy moves last, placing its initial fleets anywhere on the map, and then moves first in the second turn.