Thread: Dark Nebula Rules Summary Posted

kentreuber — 2008-01-23T00:03:12+00:00

I've just submitted a rules summary for Dark Nebula. I had just completed a summary of the GDW edition of Imperium. I thought I would follow it with the Avalanche Press Imperium, 3rd Millennium, but I got bogged down trying to decide which variant of space and planetary combat to include, or even whether the rules were good enough to bother summarizing.

Then, I thought, "Dark Nebula. That's it!" As always, feedback and corrections are welcome.

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Mrmago — 2006-09-02T12:51:56+00:00

Particular of Solomani Quadrant and fleet

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Mrmago — 2006-09-02T12:51:47+00:00

The core of the game

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TiNYTimIDFluffYBunnY — 2004-08-28T19:16:07+00:00

Close up board

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TiNYTimIDFluffYBunnY — 2004-08-28T19:16:00+00:00

Game in progress

Thread: User Review

TiNYTimIDFluffYBunnY — 2004-08-26T20:13:52+00:00

DARK NEBULA is a game of expanding star faring races meeting ,positioning and ultimatly fighting battles amongest the stars and on the ground with their troops for control of star systems for two players.

Sounds exciting and to be honest it is quite :-)

The two races involved are the solomani and the Aslanic , not their culuture are even mentioned in the rules.The Games comes in your standard boxcase 15 cm x 25 cm box with about 100 + counters depicting the two sides in red and blue .The extra gray counters are neutrals , which can be hired during the game as mercenaries if you are lucky.The counters depict starships , troops ,and plantery defence markers .The map for the game comes in 8 pieces and is geomorphic , the size is 15 cm x 25 cm , giving a lot of flexibility in this regard:it should be blue tacked to the table during the game to prevent any movement.

The game is won by either by one player controlling twice as many plantery surfaces than the other player , or if the dark nebula map section has the only jump routes between the two home worlds of each race the player must hold all the planet inthe dark nebula sector for 4 turns or if the opposing player controsl the other homeworld for more than 2 turns.

The maps show a varient of star systems with plantery squares contected by green hyper jump lines along which the starships travel until they encounter a alien starship at which they must stop and engage.

The whole game is based on a turn sequence

Solomani player turn

A.solomani maintenance and production phase
B.Sol first movement phase
C.Solomani first combat phase
1.space combat subphase
2.plantery surface/space subphase
3.surface combat subphase
D.ASlanic reaction movement phase
E.Aslanic reaction combat phase
1.space combat subphase
2.plantery surface/space subphase
3.surface combat subphase
F.Solomani Second movement phase
G.solomani second combat phase
1.space combat subphase
2.plantery surface/space subphase
3.surface combat subphase

***************END*******************

Aslanic player turn

A.Aslanic maintenance and production phase
B.Aslanic first movement phase
C.Aslanic first combat phase
1.space combat subphase
2.plantery surface/space subphase
3.surface combat subphase
D.Solomani reaction movement phase
E.Solomani reaction combat phase
1.space combat subphase
2.plantery surface/space subphase
3.surface combat subphase
F.Aslanic Second movement phase
G.Aslanic second combat phase
1.space combat subphase
2.plantery surface/space subphase
3.surface combat subphase

************end of game turn***************

That represents 2 years of movement and combat.
The starship travel mostly along the jump space routes but some ships have to travel slowly at one hex or ½ a parsec every game turn, or you can travel this way to outflank a hostile system but the opposing will see you coming along way off.

As the game sequence , indicates the game moves long nicley with star ships encountering each are removed from the board and allocated to each other ,each star ship having missle factors , beam weapon factors and shield factors .Some dice rolling and the ships are either destroyed or one side retreats at the start of the the next combat round .The retreating ships flee using hyperspace and sublight ships are left to their doom.

There is the plantery bombardment and defence sequence in which ship group all thier missle factors together and bombard the planet whilst being targeted by intergral or placed plantery defences, which also try to take out the transports which are landing the troops.

Then you send in the jump troops Hah Ha!!!
Jump troops get targeted also as they descend to the planet surface.
You have three types of troops Jump (elite space paratroopers) , regular troops and heavy armour troops which can not be landed in a close assault situation.

Combat is very much along the lines of remove from the board and pair off , doubling off if out numbered.The fight is to the bitter end with no retreats at all.

The economic side of the game is the basis for building more starships and troops and maintaining the same in the field using resource points earn't by having an initial budget and earning points for every connected star system , some star system are more vaulable than other and have build in plantery defences to boot .One of these primary systems is worth four of the secondary sytems in resource points.

Every ship has a maintence number which is used to determine how much maintence costs , there are more varied rules about maintence which i will no go into other than to say , this rules stops runaway empire builders from building huge navies.If starships are not maintained they become disrupted and dice rolls will determime if the star ships jumps or not , and its fighting strenght is weakened.

The dark nebula map is a unxplored sector which when slowly explored leads to scientific benfits such as new beam technlogy and such.An interesting touch that makes the dark nebula very valuable.

The neutral pieces on the board represent the neutrals whom if allies can by hired as mercenaries at a RU cost of course.

An interesting game with the economic side giving a nice touch , battles are quick and nasty , and soon your battleships and cruiser clash.A fun game with a clear rule book and some good charts to keep it moving quickly along.

A bit dated but still fun , my first board game sniff.
Which I had to play solo , but I still rate it as good.
Out of print as of 2004.

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TiNYTimIDFluffYBunnY — 2004-08-26T19:36:29+00:00

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tathui — 2004-05-12T02:09:47+00:00

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Robrob — 2003-07-14T13:39:53+00:00

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Eggo — 2002-08-11T15:59:51+00:00

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Eggo — 2002-08-11T15:59:31+00:00

Game: Dark Nebula

Thread: Dark Nebula Rules Summary Posted

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Thread: User Review

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