The Mulgore fleet enters the Piper system.
The 3 ships are scattered to the southern side of the system. The ships are the Mul-Knife, Mul-Hammer, and Mul-Scout. The first report shows no ships, it is either an empty system, or one with a small guard fleet protecting the Gulrath colony on the 4th planet. Right clicking on an empty hex in the system shows the system summary with astrogation details at the bottom - it says there are 2 races in the system.
The Mul-Hammer is the largest vessel and it fires a large beholder to the north (hold down f key and left click at the target hex). The drone design window opens and you can allocate drone racks to give 3 pts per drone rack. The points can then be spent on beholder radius (3*level up to 9,+1 thereafter), and burn (number of turns of movement) and movement per turn (lvl*3 for beholders). The player gives it maximum radius of effect, low movement and high burn. The Mul-Hammer also fires a low radius beholder at the 4th planet - this is to see if there is a protective mine field. If so the beholder will be destroyed, if not then it will deploy and the Mul-Hammer can start attacking the planet with colonization drones - it is only a population 3 colony and so can easily be destroyed with neutron bomblets from colonization drones. The Mul-Hammer was designed as a large ark vessel, able to take lots of damage and seed a colony. It is the best equipped to break a colony.
The other two ships move silently towards the Mul-Hammer (select the ship by clicking on it on the map, or in the list to the right, left click on the map to move it). The Mul-Hammer is not being silent, it is firing non stealthy drones and so will be visible to enemy ships next turn. The only stealthy drones are scramblers and mines, which do not give away the firers position.
Other Mulgore ships on the galactic plane are also moving towards the system. The Mulgore want to remove the colony, and so need reinforcements ready should the initial fleet need to retreat.
The Mulgore send in their orders and wait for the turn to process.
They download the turn report and click on the Mul-Hammer in the right hand list to make the game display the system. The player then presses 'alt-z' to zoom the map and look at the turn. They then press the space bar to review last turn, and they see their own ships doing as commanded. They also see a Gulrath ship, the Gul-Rat exposed. It has fired a repair drone, presumably at a damaged sister ship nearby. Because it fired it has given itself away, last turn it was not aware of the Mulgore fleet, just as they were not aware of it.
Pressing space again shows the current turn, and allows you to enter orders. The current turn still shows the Gul-Rat, and it's repair drone that was fired. If the Gul-Rat does nothing 'noisy' then it will be hidden again next turn, unless it can be illuminated by a beholder. Beholders will show all ships and deployed mines within their field. Even beholders will not show enemy stealthy drones in motion.
The turn also shows the 2 beholders fired by the Mul-Hammer moving off towards their targets, neither has hit a mine yet. This turn there are more choices, to attack with all ships and give their locations away, or keep them hidden? The Mul-Hammer fires at the Gul-Rat (click on the Mul-Hammer, then hold the f key down and click on the Gul-Rat). The Mul-Knife moves at full speed towards the Gul-Rat, but doesn't fire any drones. The Mul-Scout fires a multi-warhead attack drone at the Gul-Rat. The plan is to get close with the Mul-Knife and fire EMP drones, allowing the rest of the fleet to kill it dead while it is disabled.
The turn orders are then sent in.
The player again reviews last turn - the enemy Gul-Rat has shot away - probably spindizzy movement. It is now fairly distant to the North. The Mul-Hammer beholders continue on their path, as do the attack drones, but their burn and power will run out before getting near the now distant Gul-Rat, making them useless. What is interesting is that the Gul-Rat's repair drone has activated, close by, repairing a Gulrathi ship's systems. The Mul-Hammer fires several more medium size beholders, the Mul-Knife, the EMP ship fires off its EMP now, at the location where the repair drone activated. The Mul-Scout fires off a mine to the same location, and also moves to the target. Hopefully there is a damaged ship which can now be killed or driven off.
The turn orders are sent in.
Next turn sees 3 Mul-Hammer beholders enlighten large regions of the solar system. Close at hand a severely damaged Gulrath ship lies, the Gul-Fire. This ship has seen recent combat, and is struggling to move away, without the support of the Gul-Rat it is doomed. So far it has set up a pathetic mine field. It is this mine field that the Mul-Knife's EMP drone walked into, 2 Gulrath mines attack it, destroying it's armour and causing the EMP to harmlessly implode. The Mul-Scout's mine makes it through though, the defending mines having been used up on the EMP drone. The mine has reached its destination, 1 hex from the Gul-Fire and will detonate next turn - needing a turn of no motion to go active.
Meanwhile the EMP backlash from firing the EMP drone has crippled the Mul-Knife for a while, and it wallows unable to do anything. The Mul-Hammer's beholder sent to test for mines on the route to the 4th planet has almost arrived, so the Mul-Hammer fires a colonization drone, as does the Mul-Scout (which can't really afford the lost habitat, but getting rid of the colony is the aim). The Mul-Hammer has enough racks to fire a multiple warhead attack drone at the damaged Gul-Fire and does so.
On the galactic plane another Mulgore ship has arrived, and is placed upon the system - hoping to jump in next turn.
The orders are sent in.
Things have changed dramatically this turn. The Gul-Fire jumped out of the system, obviously doomed if it stayed, the commander saved his ship, and the Mul-Knife(the current flag ship) picked up the DarkLight increase from the departing ship. The Mul-Hammer's attack drone now has no target and so implodes. The remaining few of the Gul-Fire's mines have also been destroyed - the wake from the departing owner of mines destroys them when the ship departs a system.
The 2 colonization drones are climbing the GravWell to the 4th planet
The new Mulgore ship managed to enter the system, this ship, the Mul-Hog is a large war ship, bristling with drone racks and spindizzies, it is designed to get close and slaughter the enemy.
A look at the entire map (alt-z) shows something unexpected, 3 attack drones vectoring in on the Mul-Hammer, and their firers exposed. The Gul-Rat has fired, but so have two ships from another race - the Limpati. The 2 Limpati ships shown (because they fired non stealthy drones they are visible) are huge, both bigger than the Mul-Hammer. They are positioned to the west, beyond a line of planets, so their drones will probably burn out before arrival. Just in case the recovered Mul-Knife fires off 2 mines in their path - neither sufficient to kill the incoming drones, but if reinforced next turn and maybe the turn after then the mine field should stop the drones from impacting.
The Mul-Hammer fires off another colonization drone at the 4th planet, the first 2 are almost there now. It is easy to imagine the panic on the small industrial colony, aliens stranded on a hostile world who can only await their doom. The Mul-Scout starts moving North to chase the Gul-Rat, it also fires a low power but long running attack drone at the Gul-Rat, it might hit and do some damage.
The orders are sent in.
And so it continues. EMP drones can be fired to disable targets in a certain area, mines can be deployed in a mine field to act as a trap for moving ships, or as a shield against incoming attack drones. Possibly other ships will arrive, or maybe the Limpati will sit on the other side of the GravWell, only arriving to engage the Mulgore fleet when it has been blooded by the Gul-Rat. It could be that the Gul-Rat receives reinforcements and the battle swings away from the Mulgore. Only time will tell.