Combat

Ship-to-ship

Any enemy ships in the same system can choose to enter combat.

Detailed

Round based:

Players secretly choose actions (see below) for each of their ships to take.
Players roll 1d(stat value) for all of their ship stats.
The actions are revealed and resolved simultaneously.

Actions

"Gift" defence to another ship for this round (cannot also attack). The ship gifting the defence has 0 defence this round.
Attack another ship. Damage = Your Attack - Their Defence.
Charge weapons (cannot be done in two rounds consecutively). Weapons are charged and next round get a 1.5x output boost. Defence remains standard (1d(ship defence)).
Negotiate a ceasefire/surrender.
Retreat. Scouts can retreat on any turn. Frigates have to prepare for a turn (take no action) and can then retreat on the next turn. Warships prepare for 2 turns before retreating on the 3rd. Retreating ships take damage on their preparation turns and on the turn they retreat. Ships that have retreated remain in the system they are in and may be reengaged if they remain there next turn.

Simple

Total all attack and defence stats for the fleets. These now effectively act as a single ship vs ship battle with mega-stats.

Orbital Bombardment

Ships can only attack colonies in otherwise undefended systems - there must be no enemy ships with offensive capability (any attack >= 1) in the system. Colonies may not partake in battles in which ship to ship combat is occuring. One round of orbital bombardment occurs per turn - ships roll attack and defence against the colony and the colony rolls defence and attack (if it has any), and can target a single ship per round to attack, as in ship-to-ship combat.

Colonies under bombardment cannot have components added (eg. defence platforms), but do give their usual credits/ore output including any global buffs from trade research etc.

Colony Stats

Colonies have a base health of 100. Colonies can also be outfitted with up to 5 defence platforms and 5 orbital flack, if researched. Each one of these cost 750K Credits and 100 Ore.