You have just become the leader of your world. It was a hard struggle; you persevered and you won. Now you have moved on to greater challenges. You have set your sights on conquering the universe. Your job is to obliterate all opposition on all the worlds of the galaxy and in all the galaxies of the universe. Then you will have united the cosmos under your enlightened leadership.

To do this you must explore the universe, build combat assets and you must manage your resources. You will need money and logistical assets to build and maintain your empire. The more planets you own, the more your population and economy will grow. Then your tax base will also grow.

There are five military asset types to buy, build or recruit. (1) Deep Space Assets (long range starships used to secure a volume of space); (2) Planet Strike assets (Space ships designed to bombard planets and eliminate space defense assets); (3) Planet Fall assets (Space Marines used to invade or defend a planet); (4) Territorial Defense assets (militia used to defend a planet), and (5) Space Defense Assets (planetary space guns and orbital defense platforms designed to kill attacking enemy ships in orbit).

There is one economic asset type: Logistical Assets (are used to build other assets and to maintain other assets).

CLASHES OF CIVILIZATIONS has 5 update turns every hour. The main update is the economic update. It is updated at the top of the hour and it is used to tell time in the game. During the economic update your empire's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will be recalculated and each planet's GDP will grow or shrink according to the laws of economics. Additionally you empire will collect taxes, pay currency denominated costs and deposit the remaining revenue (if any) into your treasury.

Continuous means that the game will continue for many months at a time or until there is a clear winner.

Multi-player means that the game will support thousands of players at the same time.

Exploration means that you will start off with very little knowledge of the galaxy. But as you explore and meet other players you will gain knowledge of the galaxy. This knowledge will help you determine what to do and how to do it. In particular, you will have to decide where to expand, what to exploit, who to ally with and who to exterminate.

Expand means that you will have to colonize planets. As you colonize planets you will become stronger but other will consider you a threat. So you will have to decide how much to expand and in what direction to expand. If you overreach you may find yourself vulnerable to attack but if you do not expand you may find yourself too weak to defend yourself against a larger enemy.

Exploit means that you must develop your colonies, your armed forces, your science and your diplomatic skills. By developing your colonies you develop economic strength which can then be use to develop your military strength. If you are successful in exploiting your allies you may forestall invasion and help yourself in exploiting the weaknesses of others. Or, if you do not make the right decisions, you may find that your economy cannot support your military and that you have too many enemies and too many battle fronts.

Exterminate means that there can only be one ruler of a planet and it ought to be you. Your civilization is the highest peak of culture, refinement and majesty. All others should sing your priases and should consider themselves lucky to be a part of your expanding empire. Those who disagree must be converted or exterminated. You must decide who will be the first to be exterminated.

Stratagy means that there are many different conceptual paths to victory. Your choices may or may not be appropriate for the circumstances of your empire. You will have to decide what to do and then enjoy or suffer the consequences.

CLASHES OF CIVILIZATIONS has 5 update turns every hour. The main update is the economic update. It is updated at the top of the hour and it is used to tell time in the game. During the economic update your empire will collect taxes and deposit them in your treasury.

The second update is the construction update. Construction orders are updated on the twelfth minute of every hour. This update updates all construction orders and ships finished goods to their proper destinations.

The third update is the battle update. All battles are updated on the twenty-fourth minute of every hour. This update determines the fates of your military assets in a battle.

The fourth update is the cultural update. Population and history are updated during the thirty-sixth minute of every hour.

The fifth and final update is the science update. Scientific research will be update on the forty-eighth minute of every hour. [note that this is a future development plan]

You can attack, explore, build, plan or change plans at any time, but the changes will only take full effect at the update times.

In this universe faster than light travel has not yet been invented. However, naturally occurring wormholes have been discovered near deep gravity wells -- that is near the sun. They have opened up the galaxy to interstellar exploration, commerce and war.

The mouths of naturally occurring wormholes orbit the sun at about the green zone. That is at about the distance that water can remain liquid. They also seem to be affected by gravity for they only cluster around a sun if there is a planet in the green zone too. This means that all wormholes lead from a green zone orbit in one star to a green zone in another star and both have a habitable planet. This is the reason that Faster-than-light research has not been pursued: the potential gains to exploration are diminutively minuscule compared to the wormhole method that has already been discovered.

Wormhole mouths seem to behave like Valance Shell Electron Theory: only a set number can exist at a specific distance from the sun. To date no more than six have ever been discovered in any green zone. There is some speculation that star formation is the result of new wormholes inside of suns and that there may be numerous wormholes far out on the edge of a solar system but no one has yet detected any such wormholes.

Wormhole mouths are very difficult to detect. It takes long detailed measurements over a long time to find one. Having had thousands of years to study your home solar system, the first six wormholes will be easily discovered but once you expand to other planets you will find it difficult to detect new wormholes. In fact it will seem to get more difficult, time consuming and expensive with each new discovery. In most cases it will be pure luck where and when you will find the next wormhole.

Your empire will look like a web of planets each with at most 6 wormhole links to other planets across the galaxy.

All useful material things can be classified as assets. In this game "assets" is the term used to denote military or logistical hardware. An asset point is a common measure of cost and effectiveness. For example, two empires with 500 assets points in their fleets will have identical fleets in terms of effectiveness and the cost of that effectiveness. One can imagine that in the "reality" of the game the ships in these fleets are very different in size, shape, number and/or any other manner except for effectiveness and the cost of that effectiveness.

You must decide how much of each asset to purchase, build or recruit. The actual "real" units (be they battleships, destroyers, fighters, minelayers etc.) are, in effect, determined by your generals.

Generally there are two broad categoires of assets: Logistic assets and Military assets.

Logistic assets are empire wide assets concerned with supplying existing assets and with building future assets. They are needed to maintain and to grow every facet of your empire. The more logistic assets the faster your empire can purchase, build or recruit military assets.

There are five (5) different types of military assets. They can be arranged into two groups: Empire Wide Assets and Planet Specific Assets.

Military empire wide assets are your deep space navy and your planet strike navy. Your deep space navy's job is two fold: (1) to secure large volumes of space between planets and wormholes and (2) to siege planets. Your planet strike navy is responcible for ensuring a safe transit route to the planet's surface for your troop assets and their transports. This necessitates the distruction of the planet's space defense systems; this is the task for which your planet strike navy is designed. The actual make up of your task forces will be up to your generals; you will decide on a level of effectiveness based on the common measure of asset points.

Military planet specific assets can be thought of in two subdivisions: Machine assets and human assets. Machine assets are the space defense guns and missile batteries used to defend the planet. Human assets are the military divisions made up of soldiers or militia units that reside on a planet. Only the military (AKA Planetary Fall) assets can invade another planet.

The source of economic strength is the number of planets you own. If you can reduce the number of your enemies' planets you will have dealt them the most long term and devastating blows.

War is centered around the control of planets. Taking control of a planet from your enemy is a highly complex task in which many things can go wrong. There is no denying the fact that the defender has the advantage.

The attacker must first secure the deep space between the wormholes and the planet so as to provide safe transit for logistical assets to re-supply the ships and the troops. If at any time the attacker cannot maintain control over this volume of space the whole campaign must be scraped.

Secondly, the attacker must set up a siege of the planet in order to prevent the resupply and/or the re-enforcement of the planet and/or the evacuation of wealth and other useful assets. Furthermore, the siege helps protect the vulnerable planet strike and planet fall assets from defensive hit and run raids. Therefore the attacker must maintain the siege in order to bombard and invade the planet. The siege will also prevent critical building components and supplies from reaching the planet therefore the owning player will not be able to build any new defenses. In addition to preventing critical construction supplies, shortages will develop in all other sectors of the economy. This causes the economy to shrink as business and consumers cannibalize and/or hoard needed supplies. A colony's economy under siege will shrink 5% per turn. The colonial government will continue to collect taxes exclusively for the welfare of the people in the colony and so none of these taxes will reach the empire's treasury.

Once the planet is under siege the invasion may not begin until the planet's space guns and missiles have been eliminated. The invading troop transports are not warships and need a safe route to the surface. If they attempt to enter a low planetary orbit they will be shot to pieces by the space defense assets of the planet. Therefore the attacker must eliminate the planet's space defenses with specially designed ships which can better take the uni-directional pounding and at the same time enter the atmosphere. Only once these ships have silenced the planet's space defenses can the invading troops land.

The invading troops are divided into a number of divisions according to the home planet from which they came. They will first attack the main defending army then the militia. Only by destroying both will the attacker conquer the planet. The surviving attacking troops will become an occupying and defense force for the planet.

Once the planet has been conquered any building project that were underconstruction before the siege was set up (and therefore paid for by the old owner) will be continued under the new administration.

An enemy must proceed through 4 stages in order to conquer one of your planets. At each of these stages they have several strategic options and you have several defensive options. The attacker has to keep winning each stage which it has won in the past every turn. So, if any time after stage one has been completed, the attacker loses all of his deep space assets (say in a surprise counter attack), the campaign is over. Similarly, if anytime after completing stage two, the sieging fleet is destroyed the campaign will also be over. If your space defense assets destroy the attacking planet strike assets the campaign will have to be aborted. Finally if the attacker's planetary fall forces are wiped out, the planet will have been saved from conquest.

Stage One: Secure the Deep Space Between the Wormhole and the Planet

The attacking player must first eliminate all of your deep space assets that are stationed at the disputed planet. To do this, the attacking player must use one (or many) deep space fleets to engage and defeat your deep space assets. You may first deter an attack by stationing fleets at the planet with a mission of "Deterrence." The enemy can see them with an espionage mission report. These fleets will defend your deep space. If you so choose, you can assign some fleets to a mission of "Counter Attack." These fleets will not be seen in an espionage mission report and can provide a nasty surprise to the invaders. Due to the need for logistical support of all aspects of the campaign, if, at any time, you successful destroy the attacker's deep space assets in your solar system the whole offensive campaign will be terminated immediately.

Stage Two: Lay Siege to the Planet

Once the attacker has cleared the space around the planet he is free to lay siege. This is a necessary step to proceed to stages 3 and 4. Laying siege means that his deep space assets will take up a relatively predictable orbit just outside of the planetary defense guns' range but close enough to engage any ships that attempt to land on or leave the planet.

A siege has two detrimental effects on your empire. First you cannot collect any of the benefits of the colony such as taxes. Second the colony itself cannot trade with the rest of your empire and will start to run short on supplies. this is reflected in the gradual loss of capital stock and the gradual obsolescence of assets stationed on the planet. In other words, just as a starving body will consume itself, your colony will consume its capital stock to survive and it will cannibalize its military equipment to find spare parts.

Your attacker has another motivation to lay siege. The attacker's deep space assets provide the very vulnerable planet fall and planet strike assets with protection from your "hit and run" attacks. Due to their design and function, planet fall and planet strike assets are always at a great disadvantage when fighting deep space assets.

You have several tactics to break the siege or to run through the siege. Using a deep space fleet or fleets from a friendly planet on the other side of a wormhole, you can engage in three tactics: (1) hit and run raids; (2) blockade run and/or (3) a full counter attack.

Hit and run raids: Your fleet is divided into smaller units and they make several attacks on the sieging ships. Your fleet has a huge relative advantage with this type of attack. Your losses will be very low compared to a comparable enemy. But because it is a limited scope attack the over all damage will also be low. This is a good tactic to use if your colony is strong because a small force can wear down a much larger force over a long time.

Full counter attack: This essentially brings the battle back to stage one with you as the attacker. You are trying to secure the deep space between the planet and the wormhole. Your fleets will engage the enemy's deep space assets. If all of the attacking player's deep space fleet(s) is/are destroyed, the campaign is over.

Stage Three: Planet Strike Operations

Your last line of defense to keep invaders from landing on your planet is your space guns. They normally are used to ensure the obedience to the planets colonial government of all traffic as it enters and leaves the planet. They are an extension of the sovereignty of the government over the planet's atmosphere and its low and medium orbits. The attacker will attempt to end this sovereignty by eliminating them. Your advantage is that they are built tough. With deep power sources and an atmospheric shield. Their weakness is that they are stationary and easily detected.

Your attacker will use specially designed planet strike ships that have strong armor and have concentrated their shielding in one direction. They are extremely specialized, expensive (and therefore in relatively short supply) and clumsy so they do not fight well outside of a gravity well. If your space guns are losing assets faster than the attackers planet strike assets you will eventually lose therefore it becomes imperative to get deep space assets from the rest of the empire to counter attack. By eliminating the siege or regaining control of deep space these ships will stop attacking and depart quickly.

Stage Four: Planet Fall Operations

All other things being equal, the attackers will likely need a three to one numerical advantage to prevail against you. Your troops know the territory, they have trained in the territory and have chosen the best defensive locations. Your soldiers will not need as much logistical support nor will they need to move from their defensive possitions since the attackers will have to come to you. All in all you have the advantage. However, if you find yourself losing assets at a faster rate than the enemy, your only salvation will come from a successful deep space conter attack directed at the enemy's deep space assets or sieging assets.

Costs are denominated in two catagories: Money costs and Logistical point cost.

The summary screen is the first screen you see after logging in. The Summary screen will (1) alert you to any new diplomatic mail; (2) give you a list of news items and (3) present a list of statistics concerning your empire.

The explore screen is where you begin your explorations. First you will need to search for a wormhole then, once you find one, it will lead to a new planet somewhere across the galaxy. Your people will quickly secure the worm hole's two entrances and then, if you are in range, you may colonize the planet on the other side.

Planets will appear in a chart with the planet name you have chosen. The planet's status will also be indicated. Blue text indicates one of your planets. Green text status indicates a free and empty planet. If the free planet is next to one of your colonized planets you may colonize it. If it is too far away you will not be able to colonize it. Red text indicates the presence of a foreign forces and a foreign controlled planet.

If you choose to colonize a free planet simply click on the hyperlink. If you want to search for a new wormhole click on the button at the bottom of the screen. When you find a new planet you will be offered the opportunity to name the planet. If you choose not to name the planet, its name will default to the boring Ministry of Colonization's project number.

This screen allows you to look more closely at the statistics of any planets you own. Simply click on the hyper-link and a report will appear showing your planet's current assets, assets under construction, number of known neighbors, population and capital stock.

This screen allows you to look more closely at the statistics of any foreign planets that you have discovered. Simply click on the hyper-link and a report will appear showing the foreign planet's number of national fleets in orbit, current assets, assets under construction, number of known neighbors, population and capital stock.

The Build Assets screen allows you to build your empire wide assets and your planet specific assets.

The first pieces of information inform you of your current fixed expenses. That is the cost of maintaining your current levels of assets. If you do not pay this money every turn you will start to lose assets as some will be cannibalized to keep other asset in working order.

The next piece of information is a table of your empire wide assets. These include: (1) logistical assets which are used to build, maintain and move other assets; (2) deep space assets which are starships used to attack, defend or secure volumes of deep space outside of gravity wells; (3) finally, planet strike assets which are space ships used in gravity wells to suppress planet defense assets and bombard planets as a prelude to invasion. The table also shows the cost of new purchases. You can contract to build more of these assets in the table.

The next table provides information about planet specific assets. These include: (1) space defense assets which are large space guns and missile batteries used to dissuade invasion and bombardment; (2) territorial defense assets which are militia made up of patriotic locals who wish to help defend their planet from invasion; (3) planet fall assets which are the regular army and marine units that can be used both to attack or defend a planet. The table also shows the cost of new purchases. You can contract to build more of these assets on a specific planet in the table.

If you have chosen to build, recruit or buy anything a progress table will be displayed. This table will provide an inventory of (1) what is being built and where; (2) production per turn; (3) turns needed to complete the order; (4) a percentage of logistical assets dedicated to each order; (5) the actual number of logistical points dedicated to each order; (6) the minimum cost in logistical points to build one unit; and (7) the option to cancel a build order.

In this screen you can view and adjust your fleets and their composition. Specifically you will be given a list of your fleets; their name, their type; their current mission; the planet, if any, to which they are assigned; and their total number of assets. Additionally you can create a new fleet.

This is where you plan for your invasion and conquering of a foreign controlled planet. You will first be asked to pick the victim planet. Click on the hyper-text labeled "attack this planet".

To conquer a planet you need to overcome four obstacles. These are the four stages of the invasion.

Stage One: Secure the Inter-Planetary Space Around the Planet Using Deep Space Assets
Stage Two: Lay Siege to the Planet by Securing the Planet's Siege Orbits Using Deep Space Assets
Stage Three: Begin Planet Strike Operations to eliminate the Planet's Space Defense Assets Using Planet Strike Assets
Stage Four: Begin Planet Fall Operations With your Invading Ground Units

You must plan to succeed in all four stages in order to successfully conquer a planet.

This page allows you to re-consider your attack force as it attacks a foreign planet. You may withdraw it and abort the campaign if you believe that would be best for your empire.

This screen allows you to send diplomatic messages to other players and to read message recieved.

This page provides a list of all news stories since the beginning of your new empire.

This screen gives you a chart of all the wars that you have fought (both defensively and offensively) organized by turn and planet. The chart tells you what stage the fight was at during the turn. You can click the hyper-link to see a detailed battle report of the fighting.

Here you can view a graph of the changes to your empire's major characteristics over time. The empire characteristics that are tracked are: Score, Treasury, Tax Rate, Total Population, Deep Space Assets, Planet Strike Assets, Logistical Assets, Total Space Defences Assets, Total Land Defence Assets, Total Planet Fall Assets

This opens a new window and displays a two dimentional map of your empire, wormhole paths and all known virgin and enemy planets.

The rankings screen is where you can compare your empire with the other players. Your score is a measure of all of your treasury's banked resources and resource value of your armed forces.

This opens a new window and displays this document.

For those who prefer to use the keyboard more than the mouse there are hot keys (AKA access keys) to help navigate the main menu. They are as follows:

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