Welcome to the first of these Hitchhiking series, where I will run over, dissect, break apart and hopefully give you some insights into the different Maps of Star Chamber.

Some time ago, someone started these guides on the old client, but never finished and since all is "lost" (e.g. in the old forums), why not start all over?

To open up these guides to new players, let's run over the Basics first in this Article.

The Map

The map is the focus of the game. The section of the galaxy where you and your opponent face off is represented by several systems linked together by dotted lines (jump lanes).

A system can be a planet, an asteroid field, a nebula, the Star Chamber, or any other destination of merit in the galaxy. Systems are always named. Planets are the most important (and on most maps, the most plentiful) systems in the galaxy. If a system name appears in gray, that system is uncontrolled. If it is in a player's color, it is controlled by that player. (Look at the player info boxes to see which color represents which player.)

You may see one or more colored dots orbiting a system. Each dot represents a modification that has been played on that system, and appears in the color of the player who controls that modification.

Any modifications played on the galaxy will appear as icons in a column along the right edge of the map. You may double-click any of these icons to make a magnified image of the card appear on the map area. Click anywhere in the map, or on the magnified card itself, to close this image. Any activated abilities you can use are displayed in a row along the bottom of the map.

Here is an Overview of Each System

Star Chamber

This system is the seat of political power in the Republic, and is the place voting sessions are held.

Home world

Each player begins the game with a home world under his control, corresponding to his primary race.

Minor planets

All other planetary systems you see on a map. (The Star Chamber and each player's home world are planets, but they are not minor planets.) A minor planet can be a barren planet, Industrial planet or an Artifact planet. See below for details.

Barren planet

A barren planet does not innately provide culture, production, or any other benefit to its controller. However, there are cards that can take advantage of barren planets.

Industrial Planet

Typically, only industrial planets have production. Each minor industrial planet has a base production value of 2.

Artifact Planet

Typically, only artifact planets have culture to generate destiny, as they contain ruins left behind by the Atok, the ancient race that built the interstellar gateways. Each artifact planet has a base culture value of 2.

Non-planetary systems

A map may have a variety of asteroids, nebulae, wormholes, and other destinations. Details on these can be found below.

Asteroids

At the end of each turn, each ship at an asteroid system is dealt 6 missile damage.

Nebulae

Damage dealt to any ship at a nebula passes through its shields.

Wormholes

At the end of each turn, each ship at a wormhole is teleported to another system. The destinations are unknown to players until the first time a wormhole teleports a ship, and depend on the type of the wormhole.
There are two types of wormholes: ancient and unstable. The destination of an ancient wormhole is determined randomly at the start of each game. It does not change throughout the course of the game. The destination of an unstable wormhole is determined randomly at the start of each game, and changes at the end of each voting session.

Nexus

A map will always have more than one nexus, if it has any. At the end of each conquer phase, each entity at a nexus is teleported to a different random nexus. If this results in any personae being at a nexus without a local friendly ship, those personae are destroyed.

Singularity

A new type of system, a singularity will have many different forms, but as of now, there exists only one; Proton Singularity. A singularity cannot be conquered. This system generates -2 destiny during the destiny phase. At the beginning of each turn, all ships at the Proton Singularity gain +1 to their existing weapons until the end of the turn

What You'll Find on the Maps

Each Star Chamber map consists of a Home world for each player and a fixed amount of systems. Some maps in Star Chamber even have some "random" factor, like random Jump lane lengths and random placement of systems. Note that the "form" of each map never changes, just the placement of systems and Jump lane lengths.

Next to the systems you see on a Map, there are also Jump lanes between them. Jump lanes connect systems to each other. A jump lane is a line of dashes and dots. Each dash represents a "length." (For example: A jump lane made up of two dashes separated by one dot is a two-length jump lane.) Fleets can only move between systems with connecting jump lanes. Jump lanes dashes are gray by default. If a player controls both systems at each end of a jump lane, that jump lane changes to his color. (Look at the Player Info boxes to see which color connects to which player.) The jump lane is not actually controlled by a player (nobody ever controls a jump lane); it's simply a graphic representation showing that the region of space is firmly under that player's control.

Now you have been freshened up on the different systems Star Chamber maps have, let's find out what to do with them on each one of them!

I will not tell you exactly how to play on each map, since that will be different for each player. Some like to play aggressively on a certain map, while some opt for cautious. But there are some ground rules that will apply to each map you come across, which I like to call: top 5 of things to look for on a map before looking at your hand:

1. How will this map affect one of the three win conditions? Are there a lot of Artifact planets? Meaning that a Cultural win can be easier on this map and cards with high tech costs will come in play sooner than planned or expected.
   How many turns does it take to get to my opponents home world, or visa versa? Meaning a military victory could be easier and sooner then planned and expected.
   A minor Industrial planet close to the Star Chamber, or if there are shorts jumps from your Home world to the Star Chamber could mean that a lot of votes could be easily transferred to the Star Chamber for voting.
2. How many turns do I need to get to the Star Chamber in time for voting? You need to calculate how many turns you need for moving your voters from your home world or minor Industrial to the Star Chamber. Too many players still make the mistake to start moving to the Star Chamber too late, meaning they miss the voting session. Make a mental note of this, start moving in time!
3. Which systems on this map could be important? Some maps will have certain systems that could be important for winning on that map. These could be used a choking point (preventing your opponent from getting to the Star Chamber), or provide you with a valuable board position from which a home world assault could be launched, or just provides pressure on a certain area of the map.
4. Which systems of the map are not so important? Some maps have certain systems that are of no real interest to a player, and are usually ignored by both players. This does not mean ignored completely! These systems are almost never visited by a players fleet, and most of the times just a single ship + citizen will be assigned to that section of the map, if any.
5. How can I make the layout of this map work together with my Deck strategy? The big question, where do I go to the first 2 - 4 turns? Do I go for that artifact planet, or go the long route to that Industrial, or try to meet my opponent head-on on that contested barren planet between our home worlds?

A Few Examples

You are playing an Omior Destiny rush deck, and as it turns out, the map you play on only has 2 Artifact planets. This will mean that you will now have to focus as well on another win options, be it Military or Political. Your deck may be a lot weaker on this map, but clever game play could compensate for that.

You are playing the Silica race, and this map has a lot of Nebulae systems. This means you can safely go into them and even face some battles. Use this as an advantage.

You are playing the Android race, so that contested barren planet might be a good target to get to turn one, since it will provide a good base for later on (e.g. home world assault)

There are a lot of other factors that will influence these questions, like the race you play, the race your opponent plays, your deck, opponent's strategy, etc. But since that would be impossible to guess anyway, I'll just keep to the basics. I will rate each map with what I would call: possibility factor, so you can get an indication which strategy and race are favorable on that map.