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Pax Galaxia
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About the Game
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Pax Galaxia is a fast-paced strategy game of stellar conquest. Your task is to seize control of all the stars on the map. To do this, you must move your forces around, direct where newly produced ships will go, and decide where you will engage hostile ships. To achieve final victory, you must destroy all the enemy forces. Sounds simple? Pax certainly is easy to learn, but mastering the game is another matter entirely. And, if you get tired of playing against the computer, you can always play a human opponent.
A level editor has been included with the game to allow you to expand upon the game. So play the game, experiment with your own levels, and most importantly, have fun.
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Game Features
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- Pax Galaxia offers two modes of playing against a human opponent.
- Press the 'Play Online' button on the 'Main Menu' screen to play multiplayer games with players on your network or on the internet.
- Hosting means creating a new game that other players can join. The checkbox next to the 'Host' button controls whether you want to create a public or a private game.
- Pressing the 'Join' buttons is the way to getting connected to existing games. You have the choice to join a game by IP or to search for the existing public games.
- Pax Galaxia comes with a built-in level editor, allowing you to expand the game and thus extend your enjoyment of it.
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Game Tips
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Playing the game
Pax has a simple, intuitive interface. Most players will not have any difficulty getting around the game's menus and setting up their games. However, if you do, there is a help button in every menu. This button, represented by a question mark, will explain the purpose of the menu and the options available within it.
Once you begin the game, you will be presented with a stellar map. Each star represents a single planetary system. If two stars are connected with a white dotted line, it is possible for your ships to travel between them.
Under each star, there is a coloured number. The colour indicates the owner of the system, and the number indicates the number of ships that are currently there. Two numbers separated with the '/' character indicate that some of the ships are damaged (the number to the right of the slash).
By using the left mouse button, you can select any star on the map. This will give you information about the star, including its name, type, and the kind of bonus (if any) that this kind of star offers to its owners. To deselect it, left-click or right-click anywhere on the background. Alternatively, simply right-click another star to select it. Once you have selected a star, do not left-click another star unless you're trying to issue orders to your forces.
Selecting a star is also the first step to giving orders to any forces that currently occupy that system. You will learn more about this in the next section.
Moving your forces
Needless to say, you will not accomplish much without moving your forces out of their starting positions. In order to do so, you must first select the force you wish to move.
Select any star that is currently occupied by your forces. You can now order them to move into any system connected with this one. To do so, simply left-click the destination. If the destination is a valid one, your forces will begin to move. In either case, the destination star will now be selected - thus, if the destination star also belongs to your forces, you can issue further orders there.
It is also possible to give orders by left-clicking a star, and, with the left mouse button still pressed, dragging the mouse pointer across a path of stars you control. All the stars you touch while dragging the mouse will receive a movement order. You can use this method to attack enemy stars too.
If you are moving to a friendly system, your fleet will move gradually, with approximately one tenth of the fleet moving at a time (if the source star has between 1 and 9 ships, only one will move - if it has between 10 and 19 ships, two will move - and so on). On the other hand, if the system is held by hostile forces, you will have to defeat them before any of your troops actually enter the system. This will be discussed in the next section, dealing with combat.
Combat
Once you have selected a target and issued the order to attack, both forces involved in the battle will begin taking damage - gradually, the number of active ships will decrease. Some of them will be destroyed immediately, though most will be only damaged. This process of attrition will go on until the defenders are beaten, or until the attacking player cancels the attack order.
When the defenders have no more active ships left, their remaining damaged ships will have to retreat. During a retreat, some of the damaged ships will be destroyed. The survivors, of whom about half will actually be immediately repaired back to active status, will be dispersed into friendly neighbouring systems. If there are no friendly systems nearby, the entire defending force will be annihilated. At any rate, when the defenders are gone, half of the attacking force immediately moves into the captured system. The other half remains in the system from where they launched the attack; provided that this system has no other hostile neighbours, this force will automatically start moving into the newly captured system. If the attacking system still has other hostile neighbours, but you nonetheless want the forces there to continue moving into the captured system, you will have to issue another move order.
You should be careful when selecting a target to attack. Launching an attack prematurely, with forces insufficient to achieve victory, will only slow you down - you will lose ships and not gain anything in return. Be especially careful when attacking stars with a defence bonus, as they will put up much more resistance than usual. On the other hand, if you are attacking from a star with an attack bonus, you can face somewhat worse odds and still win. If it is at all possible, when trying to capture a star with a defence bonus, you should launch your attack from a star with an attack bonus, as the two will cancel each other out. However, most of the time this will not be an option. Beware also of stars with production and repair bonuses - while all stars slowly produce and repair ships, these particular types of stars are more effective at it, making them very useful in both defensive and offensive operations. When attacking such stars, even if you have superiority in numbers initially, you may find that these stars' capabilities counterbalance this superiority if the battle goes on for too long. At the same time, however, note that stars repair ships at a much slower pace while under attack. Thus, it is occasionally worthwhile to continue an attack with little chances of victory, simply to maintain pressure on a fleet that includes a large number of damaged vessels.
When attacking ordinary stars, you should have at least 1.5 to 1 superiority in active ships - ideally, 2 to 1. Attacking a star with a defence bonus, 4 to 1 superiority is preferable. In both cases, however, you can still win against slightly worse odds - but your forces will take much more of a beating in the process. Ultimately, the greater your numeric superiority, the better.
If you are facing a large force, try to surround it first, so that the entire force is destroyed when you defeat them - otherwise, they will be repaired after the retreat, and you will need to fight them again.
During a typical Pax game, you will almost certainly also face attacks from the enemy. Depending on the proportions of the forces involved, you may react to these attacks in different ways - but of course, more often than not, your defending force will be outnumbered, as the enemy would probably not launch an attack otherwise.
Do not defend every system you own. If you are facing an overwhelming force, it may be better to retreat for a system or two. This will force the enemy to spread out his forces. It may also allow you to make a stand at a more defendable position, such as a star with a defence bonus and it may save your forces from becoming encircled.
The alternative is to reinforce the system. If you can bring in enough additional forces, the enemy may break off his attack. If you do not have sufficient forces nearby to reinforce the system, you can set up production lines to ensure that newly produced ships automatically move towards it. This will be discussed in the next section.
Production lines
The key to victory in any Pax game is to maintain a steady flow of ships, shifting your fleets around as needed, and reinforcing them as much as possible.
All stars produce new ships at a steady rate (although some stars have a production bonus, allowing them to generate ships faster). It is important to ensure that these ships immediately go into action - if, at a critical moment, your main fleet finds itself fighting another fleet of equal size, the victory, not only in that battle but in the whole game, will depend on how quickly either side can replace its losses.
When you issue a move order, you are not exactly ordering those particular ships to move - rather, the order will apply to every ship that passes through that star until the orders change. Thus, you can create chains, with each newly produced ship immediately receiving orders to move onto the next star, and the next, until it reaches the front line. Ideally, every star should be included in a chain.
This can become more complicated if you are fighting on two or more fronts (which will almost always be the case); when that is the case, you must divide production appropriately, so that each front gets sufficient reinforcements. Keep in mind, however, that there will never be sufficient reinforcements - not until you have gained the upper hand, in which case they will no longer be critical anyway. Choose your battles carefully; when fighting on multiple fronts, it is advisable to limit yourself to defence on some of them.
Star types and bonuses
There are several different types of stars. All but one of these star types has a bonus associated with them.
Red Stars - Defence bonus. These stars make your (or the enemy's) defence almost twice as effective. This bonus is cancelled out if the attack comes from a green star.
Green Stars - Attack bonus. These stars are similar in effect to red stars, except that their bonus works in the opposite direction, aiding only the ships that initiate their attack from such a star. This bonus is cancelled out if the attack target is a red star.
Blue Stars - Movement bonus. Any fleet leaving such a star will move a lot faster, with twice as many ships moving per each map update.
Yellow Stars - Production bonus. These stars produce new ships at roughly double the rate of other stars.
Violet stars - Repair bonus. Ordinarily, these stars repair ships at double the rate of other stars. During combat, their bonus becomes even more significant. They are able to repair ships while under attack at the same rate as other stars do during peace (ordinary stars, while under attack, can only repair ships at one fifth of their ordinary peacetime rate).
White Stars - Multiple positions. White stars are one of the most unusual star types. These stars, and any ships present there, appear to exist in multiple places at once. In practice, this means that when your ships move into a white star system at one end of the map, they can move out of the system at the other end (wherever the white star's other location is). Keep in mind that this may cause the illusion of having more ships than you actually have, as the ships occupying a white star will be marked in two (or more) places on the map.
Cheat codes
Several cheat codes are available in the Single Player mode of Pax Galaxia (note that none of them work in multiplayer games). If you use cheat codes the high-scores for that game are not saved.
Ctrl + 1 : Adds 100 ships on one of your worlds
Ctrl + S : Allows you to swap sides with another empire of your choice
Ctrl + K : Destroys one playing side of your choice
Ctrl + J : Joins some empires of your choice under one rule (yours if you are one of them)
Pax Galaxia Official Strategy Guide
Try to keep an eye over the entire galaxy. Winning a great battle is worth nothing if your lines are broken on the other side of the map.
Whenever you give a star the order to move, ask yourself what would happen if all the ships move from it. If there's an enemy next to your star, he may capture it and possibly many more of your stars, so you need to keep in mind you need to check often on this star. Of course, it's better not to let many such teapots on the fire lest the entire galaxy start whistling in alarm.
Don't let large forces do nothing. Send them to attack, reinforce borders, but always keep the war machine rolling.
When you can give orders to more stars, always choose the star with the largest force first.
Try to attack the strongest enemy if you can. Don't get caught up in prolonged battles with smaller players - this will only benefit the position of the strongest player.
Add movement orders even between stars without any ships. This way, all new built ships will go straight into battle.
Always try to encircle an enemy army instead of forcing it to retreat. Likewise, if some of your forces are encircled, try to break through the siege to save them.
If you want to force an enemy to retreat, it's better not to attack unless you can mentain at least a 2 to 1 superiority. When attacking red or violet stars, make that a 4-1 superiority. More may be needed if the enemy is sending many reinforcements to that star.
Red and green stars negate each other's bonuses: if you must attack a red star, try to attack it from a green star.
Violet stars make for great defending positions, if you have a large enough army based there - your damaged ships restore very fast, even under attack.
Violet stars are also very good attacking paltforms. Because of their high repair rate, they keep their attacking force operational for a longer time.
Tactical retreats can be turned into an encircling counter-attack. Usually you let an enemy star conquer one of your stars - then you attack and conquer that enemy star. Most of the forces that were on the attacking star are now trapped on the star you sacrificed, waiting to be destroyed.
Always try to break the enemy teritories in more sectors. Each of these smaller sectors can then be shrinked and forced to surrender a lot easier.
The AI will not attack a star unless it enjoys a certain superiority. When you don't want to be attacked you can use this to your advantage.
To move ships fast across the galaxy, it's better to use multiple routes.
Focus all your might in a single direction.
You can instigate fights between your AI opponents to weaken them. The AI players will always attack a star if they have a certain superiority to it - if you decrease the forces on a star (either by attacking it yourself or by letting it attack and conquer one of your stars) it's neigbours may attack it. (thanks to Carl K. Cramer for this one)
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Related Keywords
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pax galaxia, pax galaxia game, pax galaxia free download
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