The goal of Spaceward Ho! is to conquer the galaxy. You start out on a single, wonderful, heavily populated planet. You have just become capable of building your first interstellar space ships. So you build a couple of exploratory ships and send them to nearby stars. Some of the planets at these stars will be more habitable than others.
Once you find a planet that’s like your home planet, you build a Colony Ship and go colonize it. Once there, you make its temperature better by terraforming it, mining the metal from it, and using it as a base for further exploration and colonization. After a number of years the new planet’s population will grow so large that it make a profit, just like your home planet.
You’ll hop from planet to planet expanding your galactic empire. Somewhere along the line, you’ll run into opposition— bad guys (other Outland players) who are out to conquer the galaxy, too. In addition to exploring and colonizing, you’ll need to defend yourself against the more aggressive of these alien races. You can do this by building defensive satellites at your colonies. You can also defend yourself by building fleets of fighters and preemptively attacking the aliens. If fighting isn’t to your taste, you can befriend some of these aliens, creating allies instead of enemies.
In addition to building ships and terraforming and mining planets, you spend money on technology research. The first ships you build are capable of travelling to other stars, but they can’t go far, they’re slow, they can’t attack or defend themselves well, and they require a lot of metal to build. When you spend money on research, your ship technology levels will improve. To no one’s surprise, better ships will destroy obsolete ones in battle.
When you have conquered all enemy colonies, you win.
ULTRA-QUICK HO! INSTRUCTIONS
The Ho! Lobby is where you set up games and talk to other players. OutlandHo is where you conquer the galaxy. You can switch back and forth during the game. Bring up the Ho! Talk window to talk to other Ho! players at any time.
Learning Spaceward Ho! is fun. Play with the bar charts and pie charts to adjust spending. Click on the messages in the map to make them go away. Double-click on a colony to design and build ships. Drag from one star to another to move those ships. Ask others for advice. Experiment. Conquer the galaxy.
GLOSSARY
Ally: An alien with which you share refueling privileges and a non-aggression pact.
Enemy: Anybody that isn’t allied with you.
Gravity: Everything that can’t be changed about a star system. Any planet between 0.4 G and 2.5 G can be made profitable, if enough people are on it and it is fully terraformed. An ideal planet is 1.0 G. Each player has a different idea of what 1.0 G is.
Income: The money you took in last turn.
Marooned: What a ship is when it doesn’t have enough fuel to leave the planet it’s on.
Metal: The sum of all nonrenewable resources.
Mini: The amount of shrinking a ship has. High Mini ships use less Metal, but cost more Money.
Money: The sum of all replenishable resources. You get money every turn from profitable planets.
Planet: The same thing as a star. Represents the whole star system.
Radical Tech: High-risk, high gain research. Sometimes you get something really great, sometimes you get garbage.
Range: How far a ship can reach without refueling. A Range 8 ship can go out 4 and back 4, or can go out 5 and be stuck.
Satellite: A ship that can’t move. Its Range is zero. Satellites are much smaller than other ships.
Shield: Something that protects a ship. A Shield Tech 8 ship will prove almost invincible to a Weapon Tech 4 ship.
Ship Savings: Money you’ve accumulated to build ships with. You get interest on this money. If you’ve spent more than you’ve saved, you pay interest.
Speed: How fast a ship goes. A Speed 3 ship will take 2 turns to go to a star that is 5 units away.
Star: The same as a planet.
Temperature: Everything that can be changed about a star system. The ideal temperature is 72°. Each player has a different idea of what 72° is.
Terraforming: Improving the temperature of a star system. When a planet is fully terraformed, its temperature is 72°.
The Ho!: What experienced players call Spaceward Ho!. If you want to be really cool, say, you’re “playing the Ho!”
Weapon: Something a ship shoots. A Weapon Tech 8 ship will rip apart Shield Tech 4 ships.
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–Spaceward Ho!, by Peter Commons, is a trademark of Delta Tao Software, Inc.
–Outland is a trademark of Outland, Inc.
–The complete, original Spaceward Ho! is available through Outland. To order one, use the appropriate folder in the Crossroads or call 1-800-PLAY-OUT. There will be a $6 charge for postage and handling.
