COLONISER'S HANDBOOK

CONTENTS

Introduction

Humankind has finally worked out how to travel between the stars. Colonisation has become a real possibility, and mankind, being the sort of species it is, has engaged in sometimes violent competition over the resources of newly discovered worlds.

This game is about the colonisation of the third planet of the Dubhe system (known as New Edo). There are a number of human groups wishing to colonise the habitable and resource-rich third continent.

The continent is broken down into a series of areas - each with its own map. Player teams will control a single map to start with and explore additional zones in search of resources. Their maps will generally be on different tables. The relationship between these tables is shown on a master map of the continent.

Players will not be entirely free to act as they wish, however.

Their expensive colonising technology and the cost of the trip to New Edo have been funded by their parent company or government. These parent organisation will be expecting a return.

Successful teams will be those who are able to function well as a team, and plan, delegate and negotiate well.

Those of you with time and enthusiasm, and internet access can find out a lot more about the Universe in which this game is set at www.pastpers.co.uk/universe.

We hope you enjoy a grand day out on New Edo.

John Rutherford and Jim Wallman

October 2000

Team Structure

Each team has the following three key members:

If there are more than three players then one could usefully add these important roles:

Players might choose to rearrange duties, though there should always be one player who is Chief Executive or the equivalent.

Time, Distance And Location

The scales are deliberately vague – however, if you want to get a sense of the time scale this game represents, think in terms of each turn being around 100 days.

This means, using the Universal Time system, that there are about 4 turns per year.

All the colonies are on the same continent, because this is where orbital surveys have indicated the greatest likelihood of a high concentrations of Red Mercury and other suitable minerals.

Economy

There are a number of valuable things that can be found on the surface of new Edo, and the colonists have the technology to exploit these quickly and easily.

1. BIOMASS (Food and a raw material for other things). BIOMASS is collected most usually from the jungles by mobile Biomass collectors and processed in factories.
2. RED MERCURY (Essential for advanced technology). This has to be extracted from the ground from certain suitable sites.
3. MINERALS (The continent is rich in useful minerals). These can be extracted from suitable mineral-rich sites.

Share Prices - NEW EDO STOCK MARKET

Player teams represent a subsidiary (that is a wholly owned subdivision) of a much bigger ‘company’; this ‘parent’ is represented by the Umpires.

You should be careful to treat the parent company as a real entity that can both reward good performance and penalise poor performance.

Whilst the Board of the parent company usually realise that immediate profits might not be possible, failure to export after a reasonable period of time might result in the colony be closed down as unprofitable.

A regular series of shuttles will land near the colony, and the team can decide how much of their surplus they export.

The more they export, the more well disposed their financial backers will feel towards them and the more likely they are to provide additional support, such as professional military support, or improved technology.

Each turn, the Team Control calculates and gives a ‘move’ number to Game Control who keep track of the share levels. Factors that might influence share prices are:

1. Export Production levels – all material can be exported and levels might be higher if exports include unusual, valuable or unique items.
2. Quality of Management – good administrative procedures, regular reporting to the parent company, rapid and effective response to problems.
3. Diversification – the extent to which the company protects itself from catastrophe by avoiding putting all its eggs in one basket – e.g. by building extra cities, redundant systems.
4. Vision – the extent to which the company has a clear and well-explained idea of its own future plans, and is able to promote a common purpose and boost morale with teambuilding and use of symbols.

Of course, none of this is a precise process, and so there will also be some small random fluctuations caused by external factors in the interstellar markets. The overall share values of each company will be posted for all to see each turn.

Sequence Of Action

Each turn will take 20 minutes to process. It is essential that you think and plan ahead – and this will only be possible when teams delegate and divide their effort between themselves.

Typically we will conduct activities in this order:

1. Game Control Announces next turn. Share prices posted.
2. Player teams plot movement, and place moveable units on the map where they want them to go, in this order:

1. Place units on your home map.
2. Place units on the next adjacent map
3. Place units on the next furthest map - and so on until you’ve placed all your units. Once deployed there should be no further movement unless combat occurs. If there is likely to be a conflict, players may be asked to write down their deployments in advance.
4. Place units under construction this turn on the factory concerned.

1. If a combat or conflict arises, work it out now (EXCEPTION: Flyer overflights must be resolved immediately they occur)
2. Team works out production/gathering of resources (supervised by team control)
3. Work out new builds or construction.
4. Team allocates resources for export (if any) and passes them to team control.
5. Team Control gives ‘share move’ value to Game Control.
6. Team control reports the results of surveys to the players.
7. Routine Company shuttle lands with potential immigrants and to collect exports.

Movement

Because each turn represents a considerable period of time, we do not have unit movement in the conventional sense. Instead, each turn has a deployment phase, in which units are allocated to parts of the map (see above)

In the event of an emergency or the unlikely event of combat, units can be re-deployed in stages, according to their agility and the intensity of the combat or emergency.

In theory it might be possible for every unit on the planet to assemble for a single huge combat in one turn – though there might be very good reasons why players might not want to do this.

Terrain

There are a number of different types of terrain that will be shown on the map zones. Each type has different characteristics:

Type of Map Zone	Volume of Biomass	Chance of Minerals	Chance of Red Mercury	Operational Difficulty
Jungle	Abundance	Average	Low	Moderate (x2)
Savannah	Some	Average	Average	Easy
Marsh	Lots	Low	Low	Moderate (x2)
Lake / Ocean	Some	Low	Negligible	Hard (x3)
Escarpment	Little	Excellent	Average	Hard (x3)
Mountains	Little	Good	Good	Hard (x3)
Regolith / Desert	None	Good	Excellent	Moderate (x2)

‘Operational Difficulty’ means the effect that the terrain has on activities.

Easy Everything takes the normal amount of time

Moderate Double the time taken to do things in this terrain

Hard x3 time taken to do things

The effect of the ‘chance of’ results will be reported by Team Control depending on survey team activity.

Reconnaissance

Players may visit other maps on foot or in a ground or air vehicle. Players will be individually represented by a marker or flag - and when moving around the exact location of a player must be indicated.

This may result in some personal risk (local Team Umpires will inform you when this is likely).

You can also send flyers to check out other areas without a player in attendance.

Information you can gather is as follows:

• You can always stand and look at another teams colony layout if you are on the same map (unless forced to withdraw by their security teams).

• If you have a flyer and manage to overfly their base, you may look closely and do things like count numbers of counters etc.

Fake testing:

If you move a unit within the same map zone of them, or overfly, you may demand a test on up to 2 structures per turn to see if they are fake. Roll 1d6 – score 5 or 6 and the owner MUST say whether it is fake or real.

Attacking a structure will always reveal whether it is real or fake.

Surveying

Survey units can survey any zone, sometimes several times per turn. It depends on the operational difficulty of the zone – the number in the table below is the number of attempts at a survey you can do in a turn.

Operational Difficulty	Survey Team	ATV Survey Team	Flying Survey Team
Easy	3	4	4
Moderate	2	3	4
Hard	1	2	3

Players will say whether the survey attempt is looking for Red Mercury or Minerals for each attempt.

Results will be reported by the Team Control and will be one of the following results:

Definitely YES – you found a potential mining site of the type you are looking for at co-ordinates that will be given to you by the Team Control. Once you install an extraction unit, you will be told how much can be extracted. A definite YES does not rule out the possibility that more than one site of the type you are looking for might exist. You can keep looking until you get a definite NO to be sure.

MAYBE – there might be something here, but the survey team can’t be sure. You can try another attempt if you have one in the same turn - or on subsequent turns otherwise.

Definitely NO – There is positively no potential source of the type you are looking for in this zone. You might as well give up looking.

The Map

Each map represents a segment of the Main Continent. This will typically be divided into 16-25 zones, which are used to help administer the economic system.

Typical Startup Resources

Unless detailed otherwise in your team briefing, the initial landing will have the following buildings and resources:

• Command Centre
• Structure Manufacturing Centre
• Biomass Factory
• Power Plant
• 2 Habdomes (and the 10 colonists that go with them)
• 1 Construction vehicle
• 1 Security Team
• 1 DPSR Link
• 25 x Biomass, 15 x Red mercury and 30 x Minerals

OPTIONAL EXTRAS: Choose any Two of the following:

• Security Team
• Security Team
• Survey Team
• Survey Team
• 1 Power Plant
• 1 DPSR Link
• 1 Habdome
• 1 Bulk Carrier
• 1 length of security perimeter fence

Players can lay out their initial base how they please to start with. Bear in mind that the layout, once placed cannot be easily changed. Think carefully about this.

Structures and Buildings

The sequence of construction is:

First Turn : Build Prefabricated Structure at the Structure Manufacturing Centre (SMC). It can be stored there on subsequent turns if required. (EXCEPTION: DPSR Link and Security Perimeter which are not made at and SMC)

Second Turn : Load on to construction vehicle and move to site. If the site is on the same map, assembly can take place this turn.

Third Turn : Assemble structure on site.

Structures MUST be linked to nearby structures by data/power/services/road (DPSR) link to work.

Structures in direct contact may be assumed to be linked.

Structures must be assembled by a construction vehicle.

Advanced Structures listed below cannot be built until you receive the plans from your home corporation (or equivalent) – and they will only invest in this way if they feel your colony is profitable.

Don’t expect to access all the advanced structures in the course of the game.

Costs of constructing structures are expressed in terms of Biomass, Red mercury and Minerals (consumed when the structure is first made in prefabricated form at the SMC)

Other requirements are Power and Colonists - these are represented by counters, which must be placed on the structure. Insufficient power or colonists means that the structure isn't functioning.

Structure	Costs to build	Time to build	Power / Colonists Required	What it does
Basic Buildings You can select from this list from the inception of the colony
Automated Mining Unit	1B 2R 3M	1	1P 1C	Allows mining of minerals or Red Mercury at a rate of 3 per turn until the mine is exhausted. This must be linked to the processing centre by a DPSR link
Biomass Processing Plant	2B 1R 5M	1	2P 2C	Central collection and processing point for Raw Biomass into usable material. The collection vehicles are factored in, and it can collect biomass from anywhere within its map zone or zone that it can track a route to via a DPSR link Collection rates are: Abundant = 30, Lots = 20, Some/Little = 10. A zone can only supply biomass for a limited time before it is stripped. The amount of biomass in a given zone is marked on the map.
Command Centre	0B 1R 5M	1	1P 1C	Allows communication off world and on-world. Players will be able to use a radio on an open net. This is an essential element of each colony, since it represents your main headquarters. Don’t lose it.
Data/Power/ Services/Road (DPSR) Link (approx 20cm)	2B 0R 2M	Doesn't need to be made at an SMC	0P 0C	This links buildings together, and provides a conduit for materials of various sorts. Allows buildings etc to function properly.
Fake Structure	1B	1	0P 0C	Can be made to look like any standard structure.
Flyer Factory	1B 1R 10M	1	2P 2C	Allows the manufacture of all flying vehicle types.
Guard Missile Turret	1B 1R 2M	1	1P 0C	Provides fixed defences esp. against air units. Defends its own map zone.
Guard SCA Turret	0B 2R 1M	1	1P 0C	Provides fixed defences esp. against ground units. Defends its own map zone.
HabDome	1B 0R 2M	1	1P 10B per turn	Provides habitation for 5 Colonists.
Power Plant	0B 1R 2M	1	0P 0C	Provides 10 power to the colony.
Security perimeter (approx 20 cm)	0B 0R 2M	Doesn't need to be made at an SMC	0P 0C	May not be crossed by vehicles or foot.
Structure Manufacturing Centre (SMC)	1B 1R 10M	1	2P 2C	Allows the manufacture of prefabricated versions of main structures listed here. It is essential for making buildings. Prefabricated buildings made by an SMC can be stockpiled prior to assembly by a Construction Vehicle.
Training Centre	2B 2R 5M	1	1P 2C	Converts Colonists into security teams and survey teams
Vehicle Factory	1B 1R 8M	1	2P 2C	Allows the manufacture of all surface vehicle types.
Warehouse	2B 0R 3M	1	0P 1C	Can store, in reasonable security, up to 20 prefabricated buildings or the equivalent. (Otherwise structures awaiting assembly are open to the elements, sabotage or other risks).

 

Structure	What it does
Advanced Structures	(Only when blueprints released from Corporate HQ - see 'tech development' below)
Advanced AMU	Double the extraction rate from a normal mine. Increased extraction efficiency means that it can continue to extract from a depleted mine at a rate of 1 per turn after it is depleted.
Advanced CommCen	Allows players to talk privately when they wish.
Advanced Power Station	Power output is 20
Biological Research Station	Conducts pure research into the local flora and fauna and native biosystems. Not much direct economic value to this though. In fact it’s a bit of a waste of time. I wouldn’t bother if I were you.
Commercial Zone	Open air trading area, shops etc. Improves Colonist Morale and increases values of exports. Can only be built if the colony has a ‘Biosystem Safety Certificate’
Deep Cover	Digging underground bunkers for a building. Makes the type of building invisible to recce. Also provides some cover against attack (+5 hit points). The existence of a building cannot be hidden. This must be built before the building it houses. Needs a construction vehicle to do it.
Education & Training Facility	Maintains and improves colonists’ skills. +1 to colonist morale
Farm	Feeds 5 colonists permanently. Can only be built if the colony has a ‘Biosystem Safety Certificate’
Hi-Density Hab-Dome	Provides habitation for 10 Colonists.
HSD construction facility	An orbital facility. Must have Industrial Unit, Tech Centre and Orbital Trading Station first. Does not require construction vehicle. Requires some colonists to manage. Has internal power and is supplied from planetside. With a shipyard and HSP allows construction of interstellar ships.
Hyperlynium Synthesis Plant	Must have Industrial Unit and Tech Centre first. Allows the construction of Hyperspace Field Generators (HSFG). It takes 1 turn to make enough Hyperlynium to make one HSFG
Industrial Unit	Allows construction to happen more rapidly – an SMC on the same map can make any structure in 1 turn. New structures may become available.
Medical Centre	Retains colonists’ health at a higher level. +1 to colonist morale
Military Training Centre	Must have Industrial unit and Tech Centre first. Allows production and training of military grade ground force troops and vehicles (not Pacifiers or Marines though).
Militia Armoury	Permits the arming of all colonists in the zone as a people’s militia in time of crisis. Obviously if the militia are called out, all other functions of the colony cease. The colony must also stop work for one turn initially, to organise basic training to allow colonists to be armed.
Orbital Shipyard	Does not require construction vehicle. Requires some colonists to manage. Has internal power and is supplied from planetside. Allows construction of orbital shuttles, small interplanetary ships and Starship Marines.
Orbital Trading Station	Must have spaceport first. Does not require construction vehicle. Requires some colonists to manage. Has internal power and is supplied from planetside. During construction all exports are reduced by 50%. Once constructed DOUBLE value of all exports.
Recreation Dome	Pleasures 40 colonists. +1 to colony morale
Residential Zone	Open air housing for 30 colonists. Improves colonist morale. Makes habdomes obsolete (so once you start on these colonists won’t live in habdomes any more). Can only be built if the colony has a ‘Biosystem Safety Certificate’
Security Station	Provides internal security and policing equivalent to 6 security teams (see ‘Colonist Morale & Recruiting’)
Shuttle Landing Field	Increases the efficiency of shuttle activity – allows exports and imports to be made more effectively. Add 30% to value of all exports.
Spaceport	Must be an upgraded Shuttle Landing Field. Massively increases exports efficiency. Add 60% to value of exports.
Technology Centre	Allows technologies to be accessed without reference to the home corporation. Instant access to plans for all available options for vehicles and structures.
Space Defence System	Can shoot down military flyers, shuttles, and attack low orbit shipping or orbital facilities.

Population growth occurs mainly by immigration. There is therefore as much population as there are habdomes to support it. Colonists arrive/leave on the Company Shuttle.

Damage to Structures

Basically, if the enemy has unrestricted opportunity to attack your base, in the 100 days of a game turn they can do extensive damage and destroy many buildings. In the combat section below, the table will show how many structures a unit can damage in a turn of trying. Units that fought against defending units in a turn cannot attack buildings in the same turn. A building damaged twice is deemed destroyed.

Deconstruction

Most structures can be dismantled and moved by a construction vehicle. Obviously it loses its function, and it takes 1 turn to deconstruct, and 1M and 1 turn to rebuild at the new site.

(EXCEPTIONS: DPSR link, shuttle landing fields, spaceport, pleasure dome, farm, deep cover).

Vehicle & Unit Statistics

 

Vehicle(s)	What it does
Advanced Units (need technology import from Sponsors)
Advanced Survey Team (flyer)	Can find mining sites that may have been missed by standard survey teams. In an unsurveyed area they have a higher chance of finding normal mines. New ‘Deep’ mines require a construction vehicle to spend 1d6 turns digging out before the Extraction Unit can be deployed.
Heavy Airtrans	Can transport 1 vehicle of any type (with its contents). Or 3 foot teams
Riot Squad	Can capture rather than kill. Very effective at keeping order in the colony. Not very effective in conventional combat.
Transformer	This is a method of converting a vehicle so that it appears to be a different type. For example, you might convert a Security GCV to look like a Bulk Carrier. The disguise is undetectable until they transform. Transformation takes time, so they cannot be used to shoot someone without warning or the opportunity to move away.

Demanufacture

Vehicles can be scrapped. This is an activity conducted at the Vehicle/Flyer factory and takes one turn.

You recover half their mineral value (rounded up) or 1M whichever is greater.

Colony Morale & Recruitment

The colony’s morale is significant because it affects the population.

In any turn that you are recruiting more colonists to fill new habdomes, roll 1d6 for the number of colonists that arrive that turn.

This is modified:

-1 for each colonist or security team lost at any time during the last turn.

-1 if the colony is ‘chaotic’. This means that there is insufficient law and order. If the colony has less than one security team (or the equivalent) per 20 colonists allocated to internal security only (i.e. not wandering about the place picking fights with other colonies), then the Saturday night bar fights get seriously out of hand.

-2 if the colony is deemed ‘demoralised’. The team control will warn you if this is likely to happen – but you can probably work out for yourselves what is likely to make the colony demoralised.

-1 if the colony is deemed to ‘disadvantaged’. The team control will explain if this has happened – usually if life in another colony on the planet is substantially better than in your colony)

Because immigrants arrive on ships, the die roll, once made, cannot be unmade. If the resultant score is negative, it means that this number of colonists leave.

If you recruit more colonists than you have space for, the unaccommodated ones leave immediately (you can’t save them up!)

Fighting

 (1) Military and certain specialised units cannot be built only imported.

(2) Riot Squad can KO and capture units on foot rather than kill.

DECOY UNITS

Each team is permitted to create 3 decoy units. These are marked on the back clearly as ‘DECOY’ and can be of any ‘mobile’ type.

However, once called out in a combat, the real nature of the decoy must be revealed and the decoy unit is removed from play that turn.

It can be returned to play again the next turn.

COMBAT SEQUENCE

If two (or more) colonies have forces in a given map zone, they may choose to ‘face off’. Each player can add to their forces until their opponent is ready to fight, or backs down.

The order in which forces can be added are:

1. Flyers on the same map
2. Agile units on the same map
3. Mobile units on the same map
4. Flyers on any other map
5. Agile units on the next adjacent map
6. Mobile units from next adjacent map
7. Lumbering units from the same map
8. Everything else that can move
9. Any units manufactured this turn

SPECIAL RULE: Transformers can join the action by transforming on the phase they would otherwise join in, and actually joining in on the next phase.

It goes like this:

Player 1"You leave"

Player 2 "No, you leave"

Player 1 "No"

Control "This is a face off – player 1, will you up the ante?"

Player 1 "Yes" – moves all three of his security teams on the same map.

Control "Player 2 – back down or up the ante?"

Player 2 "Up the ante" – moves two security teams in.

Control "Player 1, up the ante?"

Player 1 "No, I’ll fight"

Combat is then resolved. In this example, Player 2 is forced out of the zone.

COMBAT RESOLUTION

Total the combat power and defensive power for each side.

Air combat power can be used if there are any air units on the opposing side.

Ground combat power can be used if there are any ground units on the opposing side.

If the defensive power is exceeded then that force must withdraw into the next zone.

If the defensive power is exceeded by a factor of 2 or more, that force must withdraw to the next map.

It is possible for both sides to be forced to withdraw.

Losses

Roll 1d6 for each unit in the fight

Winner score 1 for it to be destroyed

Loser score 1 or 2 for it to be destroyed

+1 to die roll if regular military unit

If a destroyed unit has a ‘C’ value then lose a colonist as well.

Tech Development

There are no new technologies created during the game (or at least very few).

However the better technologies are expensive to import to the colony and the corporate sponsors want to know that their investment will be worthwhile before allowing you to deploy the higher tech stuff.

Some technologies (such as the farm) cannot be deployed straight away because of the investment needed in analysing the local biological conditions.

This is simulated here by an analysis of the exports each team makes to its patrons. Depending on how successful at exporting you are perceived to be, you will be awarded technology credits. These can be traded between teams.

You can use technology credits to access the following technologies:

 

Technology	Tech Credit Value
Advanced AMU	9
Advanced CommCen	4
Advanced power plant	1
Barracks	100
Biological Research Station	7
Commercial Zone	20
Deep Cover	30
Farm	20
Heavy Airtrans	2
Hi-density habdome	8
HSD Factory	150
Hyperlynium Plant	150
Industrial Unit	60
Medical Centre	11
Militia Armoury	5
Orbital Shipyard	120
Orbital Trading Station	50
Recreation dome	15
Residential Zone	20
Riot Squad	10
Security Station	6
Shuttle Landing Field	2
Space Defence System	150
Spaceport	17
Technology Centre	75
Training Facility	12
Transformers	20