Basic Introduction

This basic introduction is intended to provide some understanding of the overall concepts of Powerplay before a reader moves onto the more specific Powerplay mechanics pages.

Regarding Powers
Like any nation or enterprise each Power has a budget it must balance. This budget is its Command Capital Balance with Command Capital (CC) being the galactic currency Powers use. At 7:00 AM GMT every Thursday every Powers’ CC Balance is checked to see if it is in deficit and if so the Power is at risk of losing systems under its influence. This deficit can be caused not only by the actions of a Power itself but also by successful attacks on it by enemy Powers.

CC Income & Territory
A Powers CC income comes from the systems they Exploit in their territory (Domain). This is achieved by a Power creating Control Systems which each having a Sphere of influence with a radius of 15 ly. Inside this Sphere systems have the potential to be Exploited. However, Control Systems each have a CC Upkeep cost so placing a Control System in the wrong place will result in Exploiting too few systems to cover the cost of maintaining it.

Obtaining new Control Systems
A Power may potentially obtain new Control Systems by successfully completing a two stage process over two Cycles. In the first Cycle a Power Prepares a system by hauling Power Commodities then buys it if they can afford to using CC from their CC Balance. In the second Cycle the Power Expands into the sphere they have just bought. Enemy Powers can Oppose the Expansion directly by destroying Power Ships loyal to the Expanding Power in the system. However, if the Expansion is successful then the new Control Sphere is added during the Powerplay Tick.

Attack and Defence of Control Systems
At the end of every Cycle a Control System can be in one of four states; Unfortified, Fortified, Undermined, or Cancelled which can be thought of as; neither Attacked nor Defended, successfully Defended, successfully Attacked, or both successfully Attacked and Defence. The attack involves enemy commanders destroying Power Ships of the Power who owns the Control System in the system itself.

As illustrated by the Table, a Power’s CC Balance can be pushed into CC Deficit by having Control Systems that are Unfortified, Undermined or Cancelled as it increases the potential Upkeep costs of a Power.

Losing Control Systems
If at the end of a Cycle a Power’s CC Balance is in deficit then the Power starts the next Cycle in a state called Turmoil. In this state Control Systems are added to a list by most expensive Upkeep first with each system being lost one at a time during the Powerplay Tick until the Power’s CC deficit is cleared and Power profitable again. The Control Systems that have been lost have ‘Revolted’.