Starship - The Game of Tactical Space Contact

Starship is a fairly elaborate tactical game of combat between two starships.

At the beginning of the game each player chooses one of three possible missions depending on their role ("intruder" or "interceptor"). Each mission provides conditions for a strategic victory (e.g., capturing the other vessel, or making peaceful contact) and orders which if violated prevent the player from gaining a command victory (e.g., a player might not be allowed to fire first). Points are given for strategic, command, and tactical victories (the latter being based on ship damage), and these are compared to see who won, if anyone.

The map shows only the relative positions of the ships, with markers being placed on it to show the vertical distance above or below the plane. A small map can be used because at the start of each turn the map is effectively rotated to put the Z-axis at the center along the line between the ships.

Players write down and execute their movement and firing orders simultaneously. The main concern in battle is preventing one's systems from overheating, which can occur due to acceleration/deceleration as well as combat.