🚀 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.
• 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
• 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 leave the board by a gate (G). 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 -). Leaving a mission early costs strength; at 0 strength the run is lost.
• Ports repair ( supplies a hull point) and sell cards; 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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