Basically it is a railroad game in space. Similar to Empire Builder crossed with Rail Baron. What makes the the game unique is the random set up of the map. In each game each of the "cultures" (beings who sell a particular and buy 4 or 5 other goods) is randomly set up on the map. In addition, various random items are strewn thoughout the map (tele gates, relics, bases, penalty ovals, etc.) Exploration is stimulated by the granting of IOUs for trading at that system to the discovering player.

The board has a point to point map between systems. But some areas have "navigation circles" which require you to follow a certain direction based on your choice of the dice you rolled. So if you pick a 3, you have to follow the arrows marked "3" for this entire move. This means occasionally you'll want to roll a 1.

Each turn you roll 2-4 dice (depending on the model of your ship) and move towards a planet. When you land, you buy one item and sell one item. Each planet has:

• Goods for sale
• Equipment (faster and larger ships, drives (which allowing skipping of certain spaces on the board), shields (which aid in defense and going through penalty ovals and weapons (these are in optional rules))
• factories (which produce high profit margin goods and provide a 50% commission to factory owner.)
• ports (which allow breaking the buy 1 /sell 1 rule and give a 10% commission to the owner.)

As good chits are sold, they are placed in cup and another chit which can represent demand for an item, a paying fare or return of a good to circulation. (this simply models production bottlenecks and spikes in demand quite well.)

The goal is to find a good circular so you can sell items at each stop and buy items for the next stop then purchase ports and factories and faster ships to take advantage of the route as quickly as possible.

The winner is the first to $2000 or $3000 (depending on the choice of the players) is cash and deeds to ports and factories wins. The game plays quite from 2-6 (6 players can drag a bit) Takes about 30-45 minutes per player (and generally the higher winning only adds minimally to the playing time.)

There are optional combat rules, that most most players choose not to use--they tend to lengthen the game and distract the players from the goal which is commerce.

Recommended.