🚀 Deckspace - Rules & Guide

Version

Beta: Deckspace is under active development. Rules may change and saves may be reset.

📖 Objective

Destroy your opponent's ship before they destroy yours! Use strategic movement, weapons, and power-ups to win.

The map: in a local game, or hosting one online, Start first asks for the map: Classic (the standard board) or one of the others, each drawn with its markers, or a Random map; in a series, also a new random map each game. The power-ups slider gives fewer or more markers than the map's own (Scarce to Plenty). Each game of a series starts with every rock back.

Who plays: in a local game, after the map, Start asks who takes each seat: you are Player 1, and every other seat can be a Human (passing the device round) or an AI: the Drone, the easiest, or the Hunter, the hardest. The AIs are one side and hunt the humans; each human plays for themselves. Online games are human against human.

New to the game? The start screen's tutorial plays a short game with you, explaining the turn, the cards, your ship's status and the Thrust and Missile cards.

🎮 Basic Controls

• Ship Movement: Use action buttons on the right panel
• Accelerate/Decelerate: Change your speed, from 0 up to your max (3, more with S markers). Decelerating at 0 turns your ship about: speed 1 the other way
• Action buttons: each appears once you play a card that allows it, and goes once that card is spent
• High Thrust: one action for three thrust moves. Its Forward moves your ship a hex at once and adds 1 to your speed (up to the max; at the max it still moves), so forward, turn, forward flies round a corner. Turning and decelerating move nothing. (W is Forward then.)
• Rotate Left/Right: Change facing direction (6 directions)
• Missile Control: Use W, A, D keys when controlling missiles
  • W: Move forward
  • A: Turn left (uses 1 movement)
  • D: Turn right (uses 1 movement)
  • Note: Nukes can only turn once per turn, regular missiles can turn unlimited times (while movement remains)
• Looking around: A board bigger than the screen follows your ship. Drag the board (or Shift + arrow keys) to look elsewhere; it follows your ship again when it moves
• Zoom: the + / − / Fit buttons over the board, the mouse wheel, + and - (0 to fit), or pinch on a touch screen. Up to twice the size; drag to look around while zoomed in

⚡ Turn Structure

• Each turn you play cards to enable actions
• Your ship moves automatically at its current speed at the end of your turn
• After movement, you can perform actions (shoot, rotate, accelerate, etc.)

💥 Weapons & Abilities

• The asteroid field: the area inside the field lines is a higher risk: a turn you end there has a 1 in 10 chance of a rock strike, 1 damage. You see it hit and the log tells you.
• The edge: every board is ringed by asteroid field, and a ship that flies off the board altogether is lost. If ending your turn would fly your ship off, End Turn asks you first.
• Asteroids: a rock is hit by whatever flies into it - a missile, a nuke or a ship - and explodes: 1 damage to every ship within 1 hex of it (armor first; a ship that flew in is hit too, and flies on), and every missile or nuke beside it is destroyed. A nuke bursts with its own blast instead. A moving field that carries a rock onto a missile or nuke sets it off the same way.
• Solid rock: the large dark rocks edged in gold block ships as well as missiles: your ship stops in front of one, and a wormhole never lands on one. Shoot it (missile, nuke or Mass Driver) and it blows up like any rock, and the hex is open for good.
• Launching: Launch (or F for a missile) shows arrows round your ship; click one to launch a missile or nuke into that hex, whichever way you face (Esc to cancel). Launched straight into a ship, missile or rock, it hits it there, as if it had flown in.
• Where it goes off: a missile or nuke that hits something goes off on what it hit: a nuke's blast is centred on that ship, missile or rock.
• Friendly fire: your own missiles and nukes can hurt you. A nuke's blast hits every ship in range, yours included, and your missile flying into your ship (or your ship into it) damages it. A rock blown up beside you damages you too. Only the Mass Driver spares its shooter.
• Flying into a missile: a ship that flies into a missile or nuke - anyone's, yours too - takes its hit (a nuke bursts with its blast), the missile is gone, and the ship flies on through that hex to the end of its move. Destroyed by the hit, it stops there.
• Missiles: Guided projectiles that can be controlled after launch
  • 6 movement per turn, 1 damage, unlimited turns
  • Each missile gets 1-6 random fuel reserve on launch
  • Must use at least 6 movement before ending missile control
  • Can optionally spend fuel reserve to boost movement for current turn
• Small Nuke: Area damage (2 damage, 1-hex radius = 7 hexes), manual detonation, 2 rotations per turn
• Medium Nuke: Area damage (2 damage, 2-hex radius = 19 hexes), manual detonation, 1 rotation per turn
• Large Nuke: Enhanced area damage (3 damage, 3-hex radius = 37 hexes), manual detonation, 1 rotation per turn
• No chain reactions: a missile or nuke destroyed by something else (another nuke's blast, a missile flying into it, the Mass Driver, an EMP) never goes off itself.
• Mass Driver: Click one of the arrows around your ship to fire in any of 6 directions. The beam is 3 lanes wide and runs toward the edge of the map; each lane stops at the first thing in it: a ship takes 3 damage, a missile or nuke is destroyed (your own included), and an asteroid explodes. The other lanes go on (G to aim, Esc to cancel)
• EMP: Every other ship within 1d4+4 hexes (5-8) loses its next turn and gets a permanent NULL card shuffled into its deck; every missile and nuke in range is destroyed, yours included. No damage.
• NULL card: Does nothing. Only an EMP deals them, and they stay in your deck.
• PDC Attack: Point Defense Cannons - 3-hex range, dice-based damage - requires pickup
  • vs undefended ship: roll 1d6, deal that damage
  • vs PDC-equipped ship: both roll 1d6, lower roll takes (higher − lower) damage
  • Once fitted, the PDC Attack button needs no card: after you have played your card, it fires once a turn, and is not one of your actions
  • It is never required: you may end your turn without firing
  • When an enemy comes within range at the start of your turn you are asked to fire or skip
  • In a Resistance run PDC is bought, and each roll spends a round; there a P marker gives rounds, and fits PDC for that battle only on a ship without it (see the run's section below). Everywhere else its rounds are unlimited
• Wormhole: Teleports you to a random free hex within 3 of the hex you click; a marker where you land applies

🎁 Power-Up Markers

Collect markers on the board to upgrade your ship. Markers are never used up: every time a ship moves onto one, it applies again (max health up to 6, max speed up to 5, armor up to 2).

• P (Orange): Point Defense Cannons - Mid-range tactical weapon
• C (Purple): Card Draw - Draw 3 from the shared pool and keep 1
• A (Green): Armor - Adds +2 armor protection
• S (Cyan): Speed Boost - Increases max speed by +1
• H (Pink): Health - Increases max health by +1 and heals 2
• Powered markers (ringed in gold, with a +): stronger versions some maps place. C+ draws 4 and keeps 2; A+ fills your armor and repairs 1 hull; H+ adds 1 max health and heals you to full; S+ adds 1 max speed and 1 speed at once.

📊 Ship Stats

• Health: 4 HP - Game ends when a ship reaches 0
• Armor: up to 2, starting at 0 - absorbs damage before health (from A markers)
• Speed: 0-3 (or higher with boosts)

🗺️ Campaign

• A run: 5 sectors in a row, your ship against each sector's enemies. Destroy them all to clear it; lose your ship and the run is over. Unlocks stay.
• Skills arrive as you go: a run starts knowing only Thrust and Missile. Each sector's enemies bring a new skill (explained the first time it is used), and beating them salvages a copy into your deck. From then on C markers and rewards can offer it too.
• Between sectors: choose one reward - a card (one of 3 cards), an upgrade (armor, speed or health), or removing a card (your deck never below 6 cards) - then your hull is repaired by 2. Damage otherwise carries on.
• Enemies: Drones close in and fire; Hunters keep their distance and lead their shots; the Warden, the last sector's boss, fires a Mass Driver and an EMP.
• Saving: the run is saved between sectors on this device, and Continue run picks it up. Reloading during a sector starts that sector again.
• Big sectors: a board bigger than the screen follows your ship; drag it or use Shift + arrow keys to look around, and markers at the edge point to ships off screen. Some asteroid fields drift a hex every round.
• Unlocks (kept on this device):

🛰 The Resistance run (in development)

• You fly supplies for the Resistance against MERIDIAN. Between battles the system view is home: travel between planets, take missions from the comms, and spend supplies at ports.
• Time: a system gives . A trip takes as the planets move; a mission takes . When the days run out, MERIDIAN's Warden comes - or strike it early from the home base.
• Cargo: a Supply run loads pods. Fly over the drop (D), then fly into a gate (G): the moment you enter it you are out, the rest of your move not flown. A wormhole never lands you on a gate. Each point of hull lost before the drop costs a pod; armour costs none. Each pod delivered pays supplies and strength.
• MERIDIAN moves every , threatening a planet: defend it before its deadline or it falls (strength -), and then offers only a Strike to retake it. Long-range Comms, researched at the home base, hears each threat a move early: it falls later. A deadline after the system's last day never comes: that planet holds until the boss. Saving a planet adds strength. Leaving a mission early - entering a gate before it is done - costs strength (you are asked first); at 0 strength the run is lost. Once the boss is due, no more missions are flown.
• MERIDIAN's numbers: its fleet is the ships its battles bring; every enemies you destroy take it down 1. Its works build the fleet at each move (1 ship from works , 2 from ). Its network sets how soon a threat falls: from , sooner the bigger it is.
• Strike: at a planet MERIDIAN holds (never the Anvil), while its works stand. Destroy its station: it cannot move, but it launches Missiles. Won, it adds strength and takes the works down 1.
• Hunt: at a Resistance planet, while MERIDIAN's network stands. Destroy its runner before it reaches its gate (the one farthest from where it starts). Won, it adds strength and takes the network down 1. If the runner gets away the Hunt is failed, but it costs no strength: only leaving early does.
• Retake: a fallen planet offers only a Strike to retake it. It never lapses, and if you leave it early it is offered again. Won, the planet is the Resistance's again, its port open, and it adds strength more.
• The boss: the news warns before the days run out. Then MERIDIAN comes: no more missions, though at a port you may make a last port call first. The Warden waits at the Anvil with escorts counted from MERIDIAN's fleet: while the fleet is under , from it, from ; every ship there, the Warden too, has a hull point more from a fleet of - so the ships you destroy and the works you hit show at the boss. Once the Resistance's strength is or more it brings an escort fewer, but never fewer than . The Anvil has no gates: destroy every MERIDIAN ship there to win; lose your ship and the run is over.
• Strike early: from the home base you may strike the Anvil before the days run out (you are asked first). No more missions are flown after it; won, the days you spared count in the run's record.
• The end: the Warden's fleet destroyed, the system is cleared - , your gains ticked in, then the run's counts and strength. Lost, it is . Either way any unlock earned is shown too, and the run's slot is emptied.
• Markers: In a run, markers last for that battle only; the card a marker gives joins your deck.
• Armour and hull in a run: armour comes only from markers: each raises it for the run, and an A+ to the most (). Armour shot off stays off until a port repairs it ( supplies a point), up to what the markers earned; an event that damages your ship takes the armour first, as a hit in battle does. After every battle you come through, the hull mends by itself, never above its most; Field Repair mends more.
• PDC in a run: the home base fits a PDC mount ( supplies), and it is yours for the run. Every roll spends a round: your attack, and your roll back when you are fired on. With none left you cannot fire, and fired on you roll nothing. Any port sells for supplies, and a P marker gives (without the mount, PDC for that battle only). You carry at most , from battle to battle.
• Salvaged parts: your first Strike won and your first Hunt won in a run each salvage a part: pick 1 of , yours for the run - . A part already at its most is not offered; with too few left, scrap fills the pick ( supplies). The pick waits, saved, until you make it.
• Unlocks carry from run to run on this device, and every new run starts with those earned: .
• Ports repair ( supplies a hull point) and sell cards and PDC rounds; the home base also researches and upgrades.

💡 Tips

• Each card you play is one action: the buttons show what it lets you do
• All missiles must be moved before ending your turn
• Strategic positioning is key - use speed and rotation wisely!
• Collect power-ups early for tactical advantage

💡 Ideas and bugs

Deckspace is in beta, and you can help shape it. Got an idea, or found a bug? Tell us on GitHub, where everything is public.

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