Web and Starship (1984)

Web and Starship is a strategic space game, in which Earth is caught between two races. The Gwynhyfarr, who roam the galaxy in faster-than-light starships, and the Pereen, who link their planets together in a trans-dimensional "web" which permits instantaneous movement from one system to another. Earth is weak and lies directly between its two opponents, but its society is vigorous and expanding. They can use technologies of both other races.

The game is unique as it is practically the only balanced three player wargame in existence. Other three player games usually quickly degenerate into two players ganging up on the third.

It is also one of the precious few interstellar wargames that use a reasonably accurate three-dimensional star map.

The Gwynhyfarr in their FTL ships have few ground troops but the advantage of rapid deployment to anywhere in their "empire". The Pereen must carefully plan their expansion up to 12 turns in advance because they use sub-light probes to set up their "web-hubs" on a planet. Once setup, they can instantaneously redeploy ground troops to a planet, but they can be put out of supply rather easily. Earth can use both techs, but they start out well behind both races in tech level. However, Earth can catch up pretty fast. Though Earth starts small, it get big quick.

Distance calculation is handled by a measuring stick between star clusters on a flat map, then compared to a + and - scale on the map (to represent distance above/below the galactic plane for a particular system) to calculate distance between systems. What's really, really cool about this game is that two systems can be virtually right next to each other on the map, but much further away from one another than two systems that are half a map away from one another.