Fleets & Combat¶
Fleets are your primary instrument of power—they capture systems, blockade enemies, escort characters, and fight. Understanding how they move and what happens when they collide is foundational to everything else.
Moving Fleets¶
To move a fleet, select it and order it to a destination system. The fleet enters hyperspace and a diamond icon begins tracking along a dashed route line, with an ETA label showing how many days remain.
Hyperdrive Rating¶
Every capital ship class has a hyperdrive rating. A fleet's travel speed is determined by the slowest ship in the formation—one old freighter drags the whole convoy. Faster is always better; keep your assault fleets lean and avoid mixing heavy slow ships with strike squadrons if speed matters.
| Hyperdrive Rating | Transit Time (relative) |
|---|---|
| 1 (slow) | Full duration |
| 2 | Half the time |
| 3+ | Faster still |
Travel time also scales with distance—systems on opposite sides of the galaxy take longer to reach than neighboring systems in the same sector.
The Han Solo Bonus¶
Characters assigned to a fleet can reduce transit time. Han Solo carries a hyperdrive modifier that shaves days off every hop. When multiple characters with the modifier are in the same fleet, only the best modifier applies. Han is the canonical beneficiary of this mechanic, but other skilled pilots can help too.
Advance Intel¶
At the halfway point of any transit, your faction automatically learns what is at the destination—even before the fleet arrives. You may discover a waiting enemy fleet and redirect your force accordingly. This is called advance intel, and it gives you roughly half the transit time to react.
Space Combat¶
When an enemy fleet enters a system where you have ships, combat triggers automatically. You do not direct individual ships—space combat in Rebellion is auto-resolved according to the composition and firepower of each side.
How It Resolves¶
Combat runs through a sequence of phases:
- Initialization—hull snapshots are taken for every ship in the engagement.
- Fleet evaluation—each side checks whether it has armed ships to fight with.
- Weapon fire—turbolasers, ion cannons, and laser cannons fire across the engagement.
- Shield absorption—shields soak a portion of incoming damage before it reaches the hull.
- Hull damage—remaining damage depletes hull points. Ships that hit zero are destroyed.
- Fighter engagement—carrier-launched squadrons engage enemy ships and fighters.
- Result—the side with surviving units wins; if both still have ships, the engagement is a draw.
What Your Ships Bring¶
Capital ships carry weapons across four firing arcs (fore, aft, port, starboard) in three types:
- Turbolasers—the primary damage dealer against capital ships
- Ion cannons—disable enemy systems, including shields and weapons
- Laser cannons—light armament, effective against fighters
Shields absorb a fraction of incoming fire before the hull takes damage. A ship with strong shields takes many more hits before going down than one without.
Fighters launched from carriers engage both enemy fighters and capital ships. A fleet heavy on carriers and squadrons can overwhelm an opponent who brought only big ships and no anti-fighter coverage.
Ground Combat & Bombardment¶
If you win the space battle and the system has enemy troops, ground combat follows. Your garrisoned troop regiments engage the defenders. Numbers and troop quality determine the outcome.
If you prefer not to fight on the ground, an orbiting fleet can bombard the planet instead—weakening or destroying ground defenses at the cost of damaging the system's infrastructure. The Empire is generally more willing to do this than the Alliance.
You cannot hold a system long-term without either garrisoning troops or maintaining a fleet in orbit. A system with no defenders can be seized the moment your fleet departs.
Blockades¶
A fleet in orbit that the defender cannot challenge constitutes a blockade. Blockaded systems cannot produce anything—their manufacturing queues freeze completely until the blockade is lifted. Cutting off an enemy's core production systems with a sustained blockade is one of the most powerful strategic plays in the game.
Next: Building Your War Machine—manufacturing queues, what you can build, and how to keep your fleet growing.