Dominion of the Stars (2018)

Dominion of the Stars is a solitaire game in which you take the role of a world empire expanding its sovereignty into space. This calls for sending starships from your home planet to explore deep space. Along the way you will make various discoveries while trying to colonize as many planets as possible. Colonization of a planet is achieved after its discovery, conquest, and development have taken place. In addition, you must retain control of your planets by protecting them from the game-controlled enemy race.

Planet Discovery
Dominion of the Stars takes place in a fictitious galaxy where many formidable findings await. Among your findings will be planets requiring commitment and investment if you hope to colonize them. Assessing a planet’s profile requires the determination of the following key data:

• The value of the planet’s natural resources.

• The presence of intelligent lifeforms.

• The difficulty of development/colonization.

Quadrant Accessibility
At the onset, the only major discovery is a WarpGate located within your home quadrant. A WarpGate provides instantaneous travel to other quadrants. As more WarpGates are discovered, more quadrants become accessible. The game provides a total of 7 quadrants that can be explored based on access.

Starship Movement
Normal space travel is performed using hex-to-hex movement. In addition to moving from hex to hex, a player may move from level to level (within a hex). Hex level is represented by counter placement; how a counter is orientated or whether it is inverted.

Starship Types
The player oversees the following types of starships on behalf of the empire:

• Exploration starships –used to discover habitable planets in deep space (among other discoveries).

• Military starships --used to secure fleets during exploration, and to conquer/defend planets.

• Development starships -- used on one-way missions, these starships are necessary for colonizing planets.

Winning/Losing
There are different degrees of win and loss as outlined by the Achievement Scale. Through the process of discovering and controlling planets, it is possible to win the game. If you are unable to discover and control the necessary number of planets by the end of 26 turns, the game is lost.

Dominion of the Stars is available as a free Print & Play game (uploaded to BGG) or as a Print-on-Demand (see official link). In the Print & Play version, counters replace all the non-cardboard pieces (except for the rolling dice).

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