Andromeda Foundation Official Battle Manual (1977)

This is a slightly altered version of the rulebook for Battle for Andromeda: Conflict for a Trillion Suns!. It was included as the series rulebook for Galaxy-Foundation Games' other strategic games (Deliverance From Beyond the Stars, The Xenon Empire's Star Wars: Crusade Against the War-Lords, and The Collodian Conspiracy: Science Against Chaos Unleashed), and also appears to have been sold separately. It may have come with some Combat Operations Plots when sold separately (these were used in all of GFG's strategic games).

The cover of the Battle Manual is done in the style of a military field manual. Under the obligatory number (OBM-76A-171) it states "For Fleet Commanders and Officers of Flag Rank." The manual is also marked CLASSIFIED DATA, noting "under official regulations, any attempt to reproduce, pass on, reveal, or place in possession of unauthorized personnel constitutes a violation of military law under the military code, espionage and sabotage acts and is punishable under the penalties regarding treason."

The Combat Operations Plot is a large chart designed to assist in setting the current configuration of your starship. There are 23 separate Operations Plots displayed, each specifying the various ship settings for the forthcoming turn.

The values specified in an Operations Plot include Offensive Power Level, Defensive Power Level, Shield Potential, Counter-Attack Factor, Defense Factor, Sensor Screen Penetration, and Rate of Warp (acceleration and deceleration). Each Operations Plot is given a descriptive name, ranging from the straightforward "Full Shields" and "Total Offensive Weapons Deployment", to more convoluted selections such as "Special High Speed Evasive Action Plan for 'A' Type Beta Battle Cruisers or 'CR' Type 'Gammas'."

From a Galaxy-Foundation Games catalog (reproduced verbatim):

The Fleet Commander's Battle Manual is a BOOK that contains ALL THE BASIC RULES in common which form the general BACKGROUND for BFA Strategic Play. This one book connects all the games, even those not printed. This was done to prevent the COSTLY duplication of rules that would normally be bound in an INSTRUCTION BOOK, that would make each Game-Book quite large and appear quite formidable to a beginning player. THE PRIMARY REASON, HOWEVER WAS TO AVOID THE COST OF DUPLICATION, WHICH WOULD BE A WASTE and be passed onto the Customer, and in a series of 64 games minimum, would be 64 duplications!

Each Individual Game has its own Tactical Manual that stresses rules applicable only to this game, Optional and Special restrictions, new rules that WILL APPLY TO OTHER GAMES, and the History, Scenarios, Goals, and ship designs, in abundance. But these are kept separate and enclosed in the game.

A player need only purchase one BATTLE MANUAL at a small cost, and therefore enabling him (or her) to purchase all other BFA games at $3.00 to $4.00 less in cost as a result of this NOT being passed off to the Consumer.

BUT EVERY PLAYER MUST HAVE A BATTLE MANUAL!