If you prefer a lot of complications, you might want to pass this one up – or perhaps wait for the expansion set mentioned at the end." Barton thought the game was perhaps a bit too simple, saying, ""Overall, Space Empires is an interesting, enjoyable game if you like easy-to-play 'quickies' with a twist. In Issue 47 of The Space Gamer, William A. An expansion set was mentioned in the Space Empires rulebook, but was never published. One of their next products was 1981's Space Empires, a microgame designed by Neil Zimmerer, with cover art by Lois Griffin. Mayfair Games was founded in 1981 to publish the board game Empire Builder. The player who controls the most systems at the end of the game is the winner. Īlternatively, the players can set a limit of either time or number of turns. If they are not, the player who still has control of at least seven systems is the winner. If they are successful, the game continues. If, at the end of a turn, one player controls seven or more systems, the other players have one turn to reduce this number to six or less. If a ship travels into another ship's zone of control, it must stop and engage in combat. Movement and Combat: Each race, in alphabetical order, can move as many ships as desired.Building: Each player can build ships with production points.Production: The number of systems controlled by a player determines how many production points are available.Any alien races not chosen become neutral parties, and their ships are stacked on their home worlds. 108 die-cut counters, in twelve colors corresponding to the different races of aliens.Įach player randomly draws two of the races, and places their ships on their home worlds.paper hex grid map with twelve home systems identified by color.Space Empires, a microgame packaged in a ziplock bag, has the following components: For example, Race A can use a paralyzing ray to capture ships and add them to their own fleet. The advanced game gives each race one unique ability. The basic game includes rules for combat, movement, and production of ships. Twelve alien races, identified by a letter of the alphabet from A to L, vie for control of a star sector. Space Empires is a science fiction game of conquest for 2–6 players.