Moonbase Commander

Story

It is the future. Mankind has colonized the entire planet and nearly depleted its natural resources. As resource wars erupt, nations form an alliance to find an answer. A group of the world's brightest minds create the MoonBase probe.

Controlled remotely by a single pilot, the probe lands on the surface of any planet, replicates its Hub and expands across the planet in search of energy. These secondary units transmit energy back to the central Hub via flexible cords.

Still, the alliance is fragile, and its leaders recognize the amazing potential of the probe. Greed soon fractures the alliance, and four distinct factions arise - each with its own objectives. These factions now use the probe not only to seek out new energy resources, but also to wage war.

You are a pilot for one of these factions. Operating your Hub remotely, you control its campaign across each planet, searching out energy-rich pools and destroying everything that gets in the way.

Gameplay

The game itself is rather simple. Each player starts with a single Hub, which can launch any of a number of structures or weapons. Each player gets a certain number of points per turn, and different items cost different amounts of points.  For example, a dumb bomb costs a single point, while a seeking missile costs 3, while a new Hub costs 7. Each player takes a turn launching something until all points are spent; points are then reset to the per turn-allotment. If a player wants to, they may end their turn early, saving unspent points until the next turn.

Expansion and attacks are done through a launching system, from a hub or in the case of weapons, also from an Offense station. The player first aims the launch directionally, then holds the launch button down, releasing it at the power they want to launch the object at. When launching buildings, a link is made between the launching hub and the new building. This cannot fall in water, nor can it cross another link. Players have to balance the need for defense of a building with the ability to expand, as only 5 or 6 buildings can fit from any one hub.

When players come close enough, they may choose to launch weapons at each others' structures from Hubs, or the more specialized Offense structure (which can launch weapons approximately twice as far). There are a variety of weapons, each with their own effects. The simple bomb only fires straight towards the target, and must land a close or direct hit to damage. The cluster bomb splits into 3 segments, doing less damage than the bomb, but at the same time causing havoc with automated defenses which may only attack one target per turn. The missile is more expensive, but will lock on to the nearest target, negating the need to aim perfectly. It can sometimes outrun defense missiles as well. The surge bomb causes damage at the building it impacts, while also damaging buildings it is linked back to. The virus slowly causes damage at each point it moves to, also disabling the building in the process. The crawler hops towards targets, detonating in a large explosion when it finally collides with an enemy. Through a combination of these, the player must eliminate the enemy.

When a building is destroyed, all buildings launched from it are also destroyed, recursively; if the starting Hub is destroyed, the player's entire building network is destroyed and they lose. Players must be aware of this threat and avoid damage to structures maintaining a large number of child structures.