Look at the Galactic Map tonight and one colour is everywhere. The Spacers hold 102 of the 232 claimed worlds. That is 44% of the war's ground. The next faction, the Solari, holds 32.
That is a great run, and it was earned in real sorties and real planetfalls. But a galaxy where one banner simply keeps spreading gets quiet. So from today, the galaxy answers back.
It already has. At this afternoon’s war turn, five factions signed the Free Accord: the Solari, the Hegemony, the Nereid, the Synthari and the Veilborn, all moving against the Spacers advance.
Coalitions
When one faction holds 30% or more of the claimed worlds, every faction on its border joins a named coalition against it. Coalitions take names like the Free Accord, the Lantern Pact or the Long Watch, and the Galactic Report carries the moment one forms.
A coalition's fleets push on the leader's worlds every war hour. The bigger the leader's share, the harder they press. At today's 44%, that is five extra pushes an hour. They always hit the far edge of an empire: never its home sector, never the worlds beside it, and never more than a few worlds a day. When the leader's share falls below 22%, the coalition stands down.
Supply lines
Big empires stretch thin. Any faction holding 24 or more worlds now has supply lines, drawn on the map:
- Stretched (a broken amber ring): more than 5 links from its home sector through its own worlds.
- Cut off (a broken red ring): no chain of its own worlds back home at all.
Neither kind of world can dig in. Coalition blows land x1.25 on a stretched world and x1.5 on a cut-off one. Right now 32 Spacers worlds are stretched. Take the right corridor world and a whole pocket goes red.
Calls to arms at the weak points
The Muster already rallies the factions a runaway presses hardest. Now, while a coalition stands, those calls to arms aim at the leader's cut-off worlds first, then the stretched ones. Two mustering factions never chase the same world. Each call tells you what is at stake: Cut off from Spacers supply: no dig-in, no relief.
Answer the call in a server-checked sortie and you earn 250 War Marks if your side wins it, 75 if not.
If you fly for the leader
Nothing is taken from you. Your sortie limits, war score and pay are exactly what they were. What you get is a fight. On your side, every coalition call becomes a Hold the line call, paying the same War Marks. Hold one while the coalition presses hard and you earn a new honour, Against the Odds.
Invaded worlds now get footing: a fresh conquest digs in before the coalition can touch it. A harder planetfall holds it longer, 6 hours at Cadet up to 36 at Admiral. Every difficulty still takes the world.
The front needs you
The same release brings daily orders. Each day the Command Deck gives you three orders drawn from your faction's real war, one for each way to fight: answer a call or press a front world on the Galactic Map, clear pirates or run supplies near the front in your Flagship, and hold the line in a card battle. Each pays 60 War Marks, and finishing all three pays 90 more. When the war moves, your orders move with it.
New captains also start faster. One Begin screen, and you are in the fight within seconds. On a phone, Begin takes you straight to founding your colony.
Pick a side
The war is shared, so every captain shapes it. If your faction borders the leader, you are in the coalition. If you fly for the leader, you hold the line. Open the Galactic Map, find the broken rings and choose your world.
Ultra War is free to play in your browser at ultrawar.io.
Early access
Play Ultra War
Card battles, your own colony world and a Flagship to fly, in your browser. Ultra War is in early access, alpha playtesting.
What’s new
In these releases
The dispatches from v0.10.388 to v0.10.390, as they appear on the Command Deck.
- Begin in seconds
Star Captain, a new game now opens on one screen: press Begin and you drop straight into the action. Pick another faction with Change, and rename yourself any time in Player profile.
- The front needs you
Star Captain, your high command now sends three orders a day from the real war: one on the Galactic Map, one for your Flagship and one card battle. Each pays 60 War Marks, all three pay 90 more, and every difficulty counts.
Field Manual: The Command Deck Field Manual: The Muster and calls to arms
- Swap Commanders
Roster full? Swap an active Commander with one in reserve in one step, straight from their card.
- Answer Defence calls behind the line
Star Captain, a raid on your world behind the front line can now be answered. The Galactic Map marks the world with a Defence call, and one Commander may fly a defence sortie: a win breaks the raid for double Salvage, with no war score.
- Target the invasion
Star Captain, during an orbital assault Tab and L now reach the batteries first, nearest first, then the planetary shield and the world itself. A destroyed battery drops out, and the target panel says which battery you have and how many are left.
Field Manual: Scanning and targeting Field Manual: Planetary invasions (Act 2)
- Messages wait their turn
Long messages such as deep scans, bounty notices and quest lines now queue at the top, up to three at once, and stay until you have read them. Point at one to hold it, close it with its x, or press Page Down (controller: Back held with B). Combat lines keep their own spot and no longer cut a message off.
- Battle rules on the board
Star Captain, every battle rule in play now sits in a strip above the midline, and when one fires a callout names it beside the unit it touched, such as 1 damage on arrival. The battle log keeps a line for it too.
- See how close you are
Star Captain, Galaxy Firsts with a count now show your progress this season, for example 24 / 25 checked wins at Admiral for Grand Strategist.
8 dispatches · scroll, or click one to read it all