THE SPECTRUM GAME DATABASE NEBULA PUBLISHER AUTHOR Julian Gollop YEAR 1984 DESCRIPTION Nebula is a simple intergalactic strategic wargame on a planet scale. Up to 5 players can play. INSTRUCTIONS The following are the instructions from "The Rebelstar Collection": INTRODUCTION Nebula is a game of strategic galactic conflict. Players take the role of emperors attempting to expand and control star systems. The inhabitants of the systems are forced to serve their emperor but imperial conquest has its risks. War with other empires is inevitable. Unrest, revolution and plague beset the struggling empires. WHICH GALAXY? When the game has loaded you must choose a galaxy. Nebula offers a choice of four galaxies in which to play. Press the number of the galaxy you want. The Cloud Nebula is the best galaxy for beginners. Two different maps of the same galaxy are printed out showing different information. THE LEFT HAND MAP shows the symbols of the six different races which inhabit the galaxy. Each character square containing a symbol represents one star system. Each emperor is represented by a different colour chosen at the start of the game. As each emperor gains control of a system the race symbol of that system will change to the emperors colour. A black race symbol denotes an independent system. THE RIGHT HAND MAP show the resource levels of the systems according to colour: COLOUR RESOURCE LEVEL Cyan 3 Green 2 Magenta 1 The map also shows the number of force points occupying each system shown by a number between 0 and 9. Force points represent military strength and technical resources. NUMBER OF PLAYERS Nebula can be played by one to five players. Press the number of players participating. The one player game is played against the computer. PLAYER NAMES AND COLOUR Each player types a name followed by <ENTER>. There is a maximum of eight letters for each player name. Each player then selects a colour between 2 and 6. VICTORY CONDITIONS Type a number within the specified range and press <ENTER>. The first player to obtain this number of victory points is the winner. The higher the number chosen the longer the game will last. CHOOSE SEAT PHASE Each player must choose the seat of their empire. The seat is shown by a flashing character on the left hand map. Your seat is the base of your government and cannot be affect by any random event or enemy attack. In order to select systems, the direction keys are used to move a cursor around the map. Select the seat of your empire by positioning the cursor over the desired system and press <S>. The display at the bottom of the screen shows information about the map. Below the name of the current player there are three important ratings: GOVT: This is the government rating of the empire. It is calculated by totalling the resource levels of each controlled system divided by the distance to the seat. TECH: This represents the space travel technology of the empire. The higher the tech level the further force points can travel without losing power. V.P.s: This is the number of victory points accumulated so far. It is the sum of the resource levels of all controlled systems. SAVING THE GAME Every game turn you will be asked whether you want to save the game. Press <Y> for yes or <N> for no. If you want to save the game you will need about five minutes of tape. The whole game is saved and the screen display is saved. Make sure you are ready to press a key after the main game has saved in order to save the screen. MILLENNIUMS Every game turn of Nebula lasts a millennium. The number of the current millennium is displayed briefly. FORCE POINT INCREASE PHASE In each system that is occupied with at least one force point, a number of force points equal to the resource level of the system is added to those already there. However, the maximum number of force points a system can sustain is 9. CHANGE SEAT PHASE Except on the first game turn, each player is asked whether they want to reposition their seat. Press <Y> for yes or <N> for no. When you reposition your seat your government level is recalculated. You may only reposition your seat on a system that you control which is not affected by plague or unrest. EXPENDITURE PHASE Each player is asked whether they want to spend force points to increase tech level. To do this position the cursor over one of your systems and press the number of force points you want to spend. The current cost of increasing your tech level by one is displayed (the cost increases as the tech level rises). You can spend force points from as many of your systems as you want, but you cannot spend all the force points from one system - you have to leave at least one. When you have finished press <K>. COMMAND PHASE During the command phase players take turns to command their force points to move and attempt to cure unrest. The number of turns each player gets is equal to their government ratings. However, there is a maximum of twenty commands to move force points per command phase. SELECT BASE: In order to select a system from which to move force points (known as the base system) position the cursor and press <S>. SELECT DESTINATION: Move the cursor to the destination and press the number of force points you want to move For every space that a number of force points travels, one force point is deducted. This is due to the cost of moving military forces over interstellar distances. For example, in order to move one force point to a destination one space away you must press 2 when the cursor is positioned at the destination. The higher your tech level the lower the cost of moving force points. When tech level reaches 80 then there is no cost for moving force points. ERROR REPORTS There are two possible error reports during the command phase: 1. 'NOT ENOUGH FORCE TO TRAVEL': The cost of moving is too high. You must have at least one force point arriving at the destination. When this error occurs you must select the base for moving again. 2. 'TOO MANY': You have selected more force points than are available in your base system. Press another number. You can evacuate any star system except you seat, but you lose control of the system if you do so. MISS A ROUND Note that the command phase is divided into rounds. Each player has one command per round, but once the round number exceeds a players government rating then the player has no further rounds. It is sometimes advantageous to miss a round (usually to let other players make their moves first). Press <K> if you want to do nothing in the current round. UNREST Unrest is shown by a bright background on the right map. You can attempt to get rid of it by positioning the cursor over the unrest and pressing <U>. The closer the unrest to your seat the better chance you have of curing it. Attempting to cure unrest uses up your command for the current round. END COMMANDS When you have finished all the commands you wish to do then press <0> (zero). THE RESOLUTION PHASE During the command phase, force points leave their bases but do not actually arrive until the resolution phase. When all players have finished issuing commands the resolution phase will show the arrival of all force points and any conflicts that occur in systems. Conflicts occur when force points are sent to an enemy occupied system. Either the defender will be wiped out and the system occupied by the attacking force, or the attacker will be wiped out. The success of an attack depends on the force points involved. For example, if 3 force points are attacking 1 force point then there is a 75% chance of success. There is a modifier for racial domination. RACIAL DOMINATION If you conquer all the systems of one particular race then your empire gains the benefits of racial domination. Your government and tech levels will rise by a number equal to a quarter of the number of systems occupied by the dominated race. If you attack from a dominated system you get a 10% bonus. If you are defending a dominated system then the attacker gets a 10% penalty. GALACTIC EVENTS Random events may occur after the resolution phase. Some may not have any effect (in which case you will have to wait a few seconds until the next millennium). UNREST This event happens the most frequently of all events. Unrest is a state of passive hostility to the emperor, but it can be 'cured' before a revolution occurs. REVOLUTION When there is a revolution any system in unrest may revolt. Systems which are a different race to your seat have a greater chance of rebelling. A system which rebels becomes independent and any force points in the system become hostile to all empires. CHEATS SEQUELS/PREQUELS There are no direct sequels or prequels to the game, but Julian Gollop went on to write more strategic wargames, namely Laser Squad and Rebelstar among others. INLAY CARD TEXT See the Instructions. SCORES RECEIVED URL ftp.dcc.uchile.cl/pub/OS/sinclair/snapshots/n/nebula.zip GENERAL FACTS NOTES It is best to play this game on the highest speed that you can, to save having to wait for the computer to make all the calculations.