Colonising A Free Planet
From Astro Wars
You can colonise unowned planets with a Colony Ship if your Culture level is higher than your total number of planets. Firstly, you will need to build a Colony Ship by spending production points on any one of your planets. After that, you can launch it via the Fleet Screen towards the selected target.
If on arrival your Culture level is not yet validated (see Notes), then you will see a message like this in your News Screen:
| 11:47:22 - Nov 21 | The people are not willing to colonize Rana 5 and follow your leadership. You need to increase your culture first. |
Generally, it is wise to send an escort with the Colony Ship, to ensure its safety. If the planet is under siege by another player at the time of arrival (marked red in the Star System Detail Screen), you will need an escorting war fleet strong enough to defeat the sieging ships in battle, or your ships will be destroyed.
Notes
- Unowned planets are labelled 'Free Planet' on the Star System Detail Screen. When colonised for the first time, they have no buildings and start with a population level of 1
- Colony Ships can only be used once, so on each successful colonisation you will lose one Colony Ship to take over the planet. Any other Colony Ships sent with it will be converted into Production Points
- To validate your culture level and colonize the planet, you must log in after your culture level has increased, but before your ship arrives. If you fail to do so, you will need to re-launch the ship to arrive again later. To avoid this, use the Arrival Time Calculator to help schedule your arrival for a little later than your increase in culture, so you have sufficient time to log in.
- To conquer a planet that is already owned by another player, or is marked as 'unknown', you will need transports instead of colony ships. If you try to use transports to colonise a free planet, the planet will remain uncolonised, and the ships will remain there.
- You can send a fleet with transports to a free planet without colonising, to use it as a jump point for a sneak attack against an occupied planet. However if you include any colony ships in the fleet, they will colonise the free planet and disband as soon as you land.
