Description

Game introduction:

Orion Cluster is a space wargame in which each player explores and colonises stellar systems and wages war on aliens with other players as opportunity and his skill allow. The board was designed with seven players in mind, but more or fewer can be accommodated easily. The spaceships used are severely limited in range and must frequently be serviced in order to remain operational. Consequently base location dominates considerations of strategy.

User summary:

Orion Cluster was designed for long-duration postal play (play-by-mail) and uses a referee to execute planned player turns; it derives several concepts from Diplomacy.

The game board is made up of a hex grid measuring 17 hexes across and 18 hexes down, references by a letter/number system. In play, the grid is toroidal (movement off one edge enters the opposite edge) Forty-two hexes are identified as containing numbered stellar systems.

Turns comprise one half year of operations and primarily are focused on moving units on the grid and spending economic points, which accumulate based on how many star systems are controlled. Units include Fleet, Coloniser, Fort, Transmitter, and Base types. Movement is considered simultaneous; turns which end with opposing units in the same hex are resolved by combat with results primarily determined by superior unit numbers (some randomization is used in certain situations).

Alliances between players may be formed and violated at each players' discretion. A player wins the game by controlling 60% of the entire economic value of the game at the end of any turn.