This is a printable version of the instructions: First, I must mention a few things. This program is freeware. There is no warranty of any kind. Use it at your own risk. If you distribute it, please distribute it in its original form with no modifications or hacks and for no fee. There are a few items taken from the Star Trek universe so I must say that Star Trek and related marks are trademarks of Paramount Pictures. Paramount Pictures, as well as Gene Roddenberry, deserve all the credit for those items. If you have questions or comments about this game, my E-mail address is MichaelRead@bigfoot.com. The game is played on a hex grid. There are several places were you will see grid coordinates. First will be the row number followed by the column number separated by a comma. The top row of hexes is row one. Each row is counted sequentially downward until you reach the bottom row of 14. The first hex on the left in each row is column one. Columns are also counted sequentially to the right up to column 11. In the Player Setup dialog you can change your name, ship name, ship type, view your current statistics and distribute bonus points awarded for gaining higher ranks. Bonus points are explained below. Shield points indicate shield strength. Engine points indicate the maximum number of hexes your ship can move in one turn. Phaser and Torpedo points indicate the maximum damage you can do with your weapons. When viewing the grid, if you select one of your opponents ships you will see a box showing their shield strength and last recorded speed. Your shield strength and speed are shown at the top of the screen. If you select your ship a dialog will ask you for your actions this turn. Your defensive maneuver is moving your ship to another location where hopefully your opponent will not target you. You will be asked to select the hex of your destination. You can accelerate 1 or 2 points, decelerate 1 or 2 points or stay at a constant speed. The distance of your destination from your present location determines your final speed. Next select your attack posture. You can choose to fire phasers, torpedoes, not fire at all or self destruct. If you choose to fire phasers or torpedoes you will be asked to select the hex you want to target. Proper targeting is determined by the type of weapon fired and the location where you believe your opponent will move. No matter which weapon you fire, you must allow a bit of time for your computer to lock onto the target hex and for your weapons to charge before they are fired. This happens while your ship is moving to its destination hex. When you are done your turn actions will be beamed to your opponent. Phasers will reach the target almost instantly, however the target location may be stationary but your ship may not be. This makes your phasers fire in a sweeping motion. Your present speed and position in relation to the target hex determine the size of the field of your phaser fire. This may sound great but keep in mind that a sustained hit on your opponent will do a lot more damage then a quick pass over. Torpedoes either hit or miss. If they hit, they will always do the maximum damage and they pack a larger charge than phasers. The down side is that torpedoes move slower so they are more difficult to target. All ships have special devices. Klingon ships have a cloaking device that makes them invisible to their opponents. Any turn that a Klingon ship does not fire, the cloaking device is activated. It will become visible again the next turn that it fires a weapon. The disadvantage it that if a ship is hit while it's cloaked then it will take double damage. Borg ships have transwarp drive and regenerative shields. Any turn that a Borg ship does not fire, it can either instantly move to any hex location outside its normal range of movement or regenerate 5 shield points. The disadvantage is that after the transwarp movement the ship will be stopped in space and must accelerate to start moving again. Federation ships have ablative shielding. Any turn that a Federation ship does not fire, it will only take half damage if hit during that turn. Dominion ships have regenerative shields. Any turn that a Dominion ship does not fire, it will regenerate 5 shield points until it reaches its maximum. Tholean ships have hyper acceleration. Any turn that a Tholean ship does not fire, it can double its acceleration rate. There is also a Team Play option when starting a new game. A Team Play game is indicated by a "T" in the status bar at the top of the screen. During Team Play all ships from the same race are considered to be on the same team. This opens up some interesting game possibilities. Be careful, if you hit a ship that's on your own team then you will loose damage points instead of gaining them. Also all team ships will share winning experience points. For example, there are 500 points awarded for winning a game. If there are two ships on the team then they each get 250 points. And remember, your ship must not be destroyed for you to get winning experience points. Experience points are awarded for each game you play. You get points for doing damage to your opponents, winning a game and winning against an opponent of higher rank. The experience points needed for each rank are: 0 - Cadet 1,500 - Ensign 5,000 - Lieutenant JG 12,000 - Lieutenant 25,000 - Commander 50,000 - Captain 100,000 - Commodore 200,000 - Rear Admiral 350,000 - Vice Admiral 550,000 - Admiral 800,000 - Fleet Admiral For each level of rank you are awarded 5 bonus points. These bonus points can be used to upgrade your ship. Each bonus point gives you one of the following: 10 shield points, 360 max 5 phaser points, 100 max 5 torpedo points, 120 max 1 engine point, 10 max Your ship can accept up to 65 bonus points in upgrades, however you will only collect 50 bonus points in your pursuit to reach the rank of Fleet Admiral. This slack allows for a bit more strategy and design in the game. You can also spice up the game with one or two sentry guns. A sentry gun will stay in one place and randomly fire torpedoes around the playing area. You may not want to add sentry guns until you reach the higher ranks.