System Tile

There are several types of System Tiles. During setup system tiles are dealt out face-down and placed with stratecic advantage or disadvantage in mind. Tiles are usually catagorized by a type: Homesystem, Hazard, Empty, or System. Any type can have up to 3 planets. They are loosely organized in rings around a center tile to for the playing board (often referenced as "the map"), that is the focal point for the game.

Homesystem: the starting tiles for all players, these will usually be evenly spaced on the outskirts of the map. Homesystems have a yellow border as well as the name and hearldry of it's native Race. All Homesystem tiles have at least 1 planet, and starting units from the Race Sheet are placed here after the board is completed but before play begins.

Hazard: either impassable or best avoided, these red-bordered tiles cannot be placed side-by-side during board setup. Some, such as the Nebula, can offer benefits during combat.

Empty: just like they sound... nothing in this system, with the exception of the "A" and "B" wormhole tiles. No border.

System: these make up the majority of the tiles, no border. These tiles are more varied than the rainbow... 1 to 3 planets, trade stations, wormholes, refresh abilities, tech discounts and hazards. These can even contain multiple features.

Individual planets have up to 4 attributes: Production (Green number) notes the resources available to contribute twards fleet builds, Influence (Red number) notes the votes that are avaialable, Tech discounts that can make obtaining a new Technology Card easier and refresh abilities that can provide additional TG or plastic peices.