For 1-4 players, ages 12+, playing time around 180 minutes. 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. ComponentsOne mounted map (55 x 73cm)16-page full-colour Rule Book16-page full-colour Play BookFour counter sheets (176 15x15mm counters per sheet)Four 2-sided Player Reference CardsOne Pad of 2-sided Player Aid Sheets2 black 10-sided dice2 orange 10-sided dice
