Battle Mechanics¶

Combat in Galactic Conquest is predictive, not reactive. Battles are resolved algorithmically based on fleet composition and stance. Understanding the rules engine is the foundation of competitive play.

Attacking¶

Attacking costs 5 turns. The real turn cost of combat is ship construction — the attack itself is trivial.

Attack Range¶

Situation	Range
Punch up	Up to 2× your PR (3× if your PR ≥ 200M)
Punch down — target ranked 6th or lower	Down to your PR ÷ 1.3
Punch down — top-5-ranked target	Down to your PR ÷ 1.5
Fed war / Enslave	2× up, ÷1.5 down
Counter-attack	No range restriction

The punch-up ceiling widens to 3× for large empires (≥200M PR). Punch-down depends on the target's rank — top-5 targets can be hit down to ÷1.5, everyone else only to ÷1.3. Fed war and enslave attacks use a flat 2× up / ÷1.5 down, and counter-attacks have no range restriction.

Battle Outcomes¶

The attacker must kill at least 30% of the defender's ship PR to win any colonies (vs NPCs the win threshold is 10%; enslave requires 60%). Once won, the number of colonies taken scales with how much of the defender's PR you destroyed:

Defender Ship PR Killed (player vs player)	Colonies Taken
≥30% (win)	1
≥55%	2
≥75%	3

Against NPCs the tiers are lower: ≥10% → 1, ≥50% → 2, ≥60% → 3. A complete fleet wipe takes 3 colonies outright.

The winner is the side that loses the least PR. Exception: if all ships in the 10 active stacks are destroyed, the other side wins regardless of PR lost.

Counter Attacks¶

If attacked, you can counter-attack from any PR difference — no range restriction. Counters expire approximately 1 week after being received. Cannot be used to enslave.

Stacks¶

Ships are organized into stacks. Each ship type occupies one stack — duplicate ship types merge into a single stack automatically.

Maximum of 10 stacks enter battle. Additional stacks beyond 10 are ignored.
In round 1, stacks are ordered highest PR to lowest PR (top to bottom).
Each stack is paired with the opposing stack at the same position.

Battle Rounds¶

Battles last exactly 2 rounds.

Round 1¶

Each stack is paired with the opposing stack at the same position.
The stack with higher Range fires first. Ties go to the defender.
Kills are calculated (see Combat Formula below).
Surviving units of the receiving stack fire back (subject to ND/NR rules).
Unpaired stacks (when one side has more stacks) flank — firing at a random surviving enemy stack.

Between Rounds¶

Destroyed stacks are removed. Surviving stacks collapse upward to fill gaps and are re-paired by surviving stack number (not PR). Ships that were paired in round 1 may now be unpaired and able to flank in round 2.

Round 2¶

Same sequence as round 1 using the restacked order. Ships that couldn't flank in round 1 may now flank if their opposing stack was destroyed.

Combat Formula¶

Kills Calculation¶

Kills = (Firing Units × Weapon × Stance Modifier × Shield Modifier) ÷ Target Hull

Damage is dealt in whole ship kills only — no partial damage carries over.
Shield modifiers apply per weapon type independently (see Shields below).

Stance Modifiers¶

Stance	Attacker Efficiency	Defender Efficiency
Careful	-50%	-50%
Normal	-5%	0%
Aggressive	+75%	+99%

The attacker efficiency modifier applies to all attacker damage throughout the entire battle, including return fire.

Weapon & Shield Types¶

There are 4 weapon types and 4 corresponding shield types:

Energy
Kinetic
Missile
Chemical

Each ship has weapon values split across one or more types, and shield values (positive or negative) against each type.

Shield Interaction¶

Shield values are percentage modifiers on incoming damage of that type:

Positive shield reduces incoming damage. A 99% shield reduces damage by 99% — effectively nullifying that weapon type.
Negative shield increases incoming damage. A -99% shield doubles incoming damage.

Defense is asymmetrical — a hard counter (99% shield) is vastly more powerful than a hard vulnerability (-99% shield). A perfect counter can win from an impossibly low PR disadvantage if weapon types align.

Return Fire (RF) & No Defense (ND)¶

When a stack is fired upon, it may fire back before taking its normal turn. This return fire deals 50% of the ship's weapon value, after stance modifiers are applied.

Return fire is governed by two flags per ship:

Flag	Effect
No Retal (NR) = YES	This ship cannot be returned fire against
No Def (ND) = YES	This ship cannot return fire when attacked

Return fire rules apply identically to direct stack engagements and flanks.

Return Fire Sequence (per stack exchange)¶

Higher range fires (attacker penalty applied if attacker)
If target has NR=NO and attacker has ND=NO → target returns fire at 50% penalized weapon value
Surviving units take their normal combat turn
If fired upon, return fire triggers again under same conditions

Flanking¶

When one side has more stacks than the other, unpaired stacks flank — they fire at a random surviving enemy stack. Flanking follows all normal combat rules including return fire, ND, and NR.

Power Rating (PR)¶

PR determines stack order and attack range. It has no direct impact on combat outcome. A ship with 50 PR and a ship with 500 PR are equally effective if their hull/weapon ratios are proportional — the lower PR ship simply builds in larger quantities for the same turn cost.

PR is composed of infrastructure and ships. Population does not contribute to PR.

PR refreshes only on specific actions (logging in, attacking, building ships, etc.). Building infrastructure does not trigger a refresh, so PR can jump unexpectedly on the next refresh.

Damage Protection (DP)¶

DP is driven by a hidden damage counter that fills based on how much of your defending fleet's power you lose each engagement — and it accrues whether or not the attack succeeds (a fully repelled attack still advances it):

Fleet power lost in the engagement	Counter gain
≥40%	+3
≥20%	+2
≥10%	+1
<10%	+0

Once the counter reaches 3, you're under DP and further attacks are blocked. So a single engagement where you lose ≥40% of your fleet drops you straight into DP, but smaller losses bank progress too — two ≥20% defenses (or three ≥10%) reach DP without any single 40% hit. Losing colonies advances the same counter.

Maximum colonies lost in one DP period: 3. Each attack's colony count is reduced by however many you've already lost that period, and once 3 have been taken further attacks are blocked — so the total caps at 3 (a single full wipe can take all 3 at once)
DP is lifted when: the timer expires, the player builds offensive ships, or the player attacks
Scouts and Starbases do not break DP

Newbie Protection (NP)¶

Players below 5,000 PR cannot be attacked. Crossing 5,000 PR removes NP permanently for that session.

Attack Stances¶

Normal¶

Standard attack. -5% attacker efficiency, defender at 100%.

Careful¶

Both sides at -50% efficiency. Favors high hull ships that are hard to kill. Rarely wins more than 1-2 colonies. Avoid using with high range or high attack ships.

Aggressive¶

+75% attacker efficiency, +99% defender efficiency. Best used with high range ships to maximize first-strike damage before the defender can respond. High risk — certain ship matchups will destroy an aggressive attacker before they can deal meaningful damage.

PR formula¶

((Planet Infra * (5+(land/250000))) + (Planet Count * 1000)) + fleet power