The Rules
The game is (hopefully) fairly simple.
Resources
There are three basic resources, Wealth, Manpower, and Prestige.
Wealth is a measure of your economy, and it is used to buy military units, build factories, etc
Every player's first province creates 2 Wealth per turn, all others produce 1 per turn
Manpower] is the amount of people from your homeland that you have on hand to lead your armies and administer your colony. By default, each military unit requires 1 manpower, and it takes 1 manpower to administer 1 province. Manpower is gained through immigration from Earth. The amount of immigrants you can recieve is limited by your prestige.
Prestige is the fame and esteem of your colonial effort in the minds of the folks at home. Having more prestige encourages more immigration.
Everyone starts with 1 prestige. Less than 5 prestige gives a default of 2 manpower per turn. Every 5 prestige after that adds another immigrant per turn.
Prestige changes based on events in game.
Conquering a province gives +5 prestige, while losing one causes -5
Winnning a battle is +2 prestige, losing -2
Destroying an enemy unit in battle gives +1, losing a unit -1
Having the largest population, producing the most wealth, most provinces, and/or the most of any type of military unit is worth an additional +1
Combat is resolved via dice.
Armies function on the same essential rules as the classic board game Risk. One die is rolled for each army. Highest rolls are pitted against each other, loser is destroyed. Ties are broken in favor of the player against natives, between players ties go to the defender.
Armies can fortify in a province, costing 1 wealth. At least 1 army must be commited to defending that one specific province. Fortification gives the defender +1 to his rolls.
Having air superiority gives all your armies' rolls +1. If both sides have air fleets in the battle, they first fight each other until only one side remains, on the same basis as armies.
Navies can travel to any sea zone, so long as they are not blocked by a hostile navy. Having a navy in a sea zone allows you to move units into bordering provinces, but only if you are within two sea zones of freindly territory. Hostile navies that meet in battle fight in essentially the same manner as armies on land.
The only units that must be placed on the map are navies. Armies and Air Fleets can be used to attack any provinces bordering friendly territory. Any such units not used in attacks are considered part of the "defense pool" and will be used to defend against any and all attacks.
Great Wars: Great Wars are fought on Earth, and can involve a colony's mother country. Players can have an impact on the course of the war, but a limited one.
Special rules for Great Wars:
1. For the duration of the Great War, colonies whose home country are involved get HALF their usual allotment of manpower. This represents conscription, and the attendant wartime manpower shortages at home.
2. For the duration of the Great War, any conflict between the belligerents has DOUBLE THE PRESTIGE EFFECTS. You're not just squabbling over obscure territory now, you're a front in the worldwide war against tyrrany!
3. While the war is on, a colony of a warring power can request reinforcements from home. 5 prestige gets you up to 5 armies, determined by a single dice roll. You can do so once per turn, but every subsequent time you do so it costs 1 more prestige and you get -1 to your roll. The government at home doesn't want to be diverting troops all the time. You can run a prestige defecit. These troops are available the turn after the request is sent, as it takes time to organize an expedition.
4. Conversely, you can send armies to help at home if you wish. These armies are unavailable to fight on Mars. Every army you've sent gets you +2 prestige/turn, but they are unavailable until peace breaks out on Earth. Fleets and Air Forces are too bulky to send back. Beware, you will probably not recieve all your troops back once the war ends!
5. Colonies not affiliated with a warring power get double manpower growth due to refugees.
Bonuses:
Every player can select one of the following bonuses when creating his colony. This choice is permenant!
Native Sergeants: Can support 3 armies with 2 manpower
Native Clerks: Can support 3 provinces with 2 manpower
Yellow Journalism: Generates 1 bonus prestige for every two earned
Planet of Opportunity: Can import 3 manpower/turn (default is two)
Captains of Industry: For every 2 wealth produced, gets 1 bonus
Expanding your colony
There are two ways to expand your colony into unclaimed territory.
First, you can invade the province, and fight a force of native martians. This force will be determined by dice rolls each time an attack is made. In other words, just because there were 3 armies in a province last turn, and you killed two, it won't necessarily have only 1 army.
Second, you can try to annex a province diplomatically. Trying will cost you 5 prestige. At 5 prestige you have a 1/6 chance, at 10 you are gaurenteed success.
More than 1 diploannexation in a turn decreases your odds of success by 1, meaning to have a 100% chance your second attempt will cost 11, your third 12, etc.
You can diploannex any province that you could attack.
Remember that adding a new province gets you 5 prestige, so if you spend 5 prestige and get lucky, your new province is effectively free.
Exploration
Mars is full of interesting, possibly usefull things, as well as dangerous and harmfull things. You can send out explorers and archeologists to poke through ancient ruins in search of secrets and treasures.
Exploration costs 1 manpower/turn or 1 wealth/turn. A die is rolled to determine the outcome:
1-2: A Bad Thing
3-4: Nothing
5: A Good Thing
6: A Very Good Thing
When appropriate, a second die is rolled to determine which thing happens, based on a secret list. Very Good Things can be shared between players.
Collecting all the Very Good Things will unlock an Epic Thing
Factories
Factories cost 2 wealth to build, and require 1 manpower per turn. They produce 1 wealth per turn. The Captain of Industry and Native Clerks bonus applies to Factory production.
When provinces change hands, some factories may be destroyed or captured.
