The Sword and the Stars

About this board game

The Sword and the Stars is a strategic science-fiction game for 1–5 players, with a playing time of about 240 minutes, in which rival empires compete for influence across an immense interstellar map.

The game depicts roughly one-quarter of a spiral galaxy, represented by 42 star systems. Individual ships and fleets are insignificant at this scale: players fund and resolve entire interstellar campaigns using cards that represent massive investments of manpower and resources over four Earth years. Each player round advances the story by 20 years.

Players shape the rise, expansion, or consolidation of their empires through a broad range of actions. Conquests, raids, governing, planetary defenses, commerce, and diplomacy all contribute to the struggle, while abstracted technology and economics influence many aspects of play.

Stargates remove ordinary range constraints, allowing interstellar operations against any star system. Nowhere is safe from an enemy, and the game also includes a mechanism resembling a Galactic Security Council, giving players opportunities to scheme and cause trouble for their rivals.

• Ten scenarios, including the “Galactic Cycle” campaign game
• A short game covering about 200 years
• A grand campaign recommended to last at least 1,000 years
• 400 counters, 56 year cards, and a 17 × 22-inch map

More compact than Empires of the Middle Ages, The Sword and the Stars combines that game’s successful system with the graphic layout associated with Freedom in the Galaxy. Released in 1981, it brings the system into a science-fiction setting of expansive empires, sudden operations, and long-term galactic conflict.