The foray into space, sometime near the year 2700A.D. Compete for the prestigious post of Ambassador to the Galactic Council. To attain this lofty position, players must leave Terra and the known planets to explore and colonize the galaxy, while working to establish trade with alien cultures, encounter aliens and defeat pirates. Glory and victory to the brave and astute explorer who luck smiles upon. The known worlds lie at one end of the game board where each of the 3 or 4 players begin from known solar systems, each with 3 planets producing raw materials needed for the travels into deep space. Each player begins with 2 Colonies and a Space Port (all components are made from plastic). The Space Port makes starships to transport your new colonies and trade posts to distant lands. Throughout the game all the colonies and spaceports enable the production of resources when the dice match the numbers of adjacent planets. Resources are traded for colony ships, trade ships, and fleet upgrades of freight rings, booster rockets, and cannon. Beware as you explore, some planets are covered in ice, and some conceal dangerous pirates. This game contains a myriad of components Each player has a 13 cm tall Mother-ship upon which your star ship fleet enhancements are placed. This mother-ship contains the traits for all of a players starships, as well as being the random generator of encounters and movement points. There are more than 200 other plastic components - colonies, trading posts, and space port rings for all four players, booster rockets (to speed your ships on their way), cannons (to defeat pirates), freight rings (to assist in placement of trading posts & colonizing ice planets, and glory rings (which give represent fame from acts of bravery). There are 4 Alien races and a assortment of Alien Friendship cards flavored to the individual races, 5 types of commodities cards, the wonderful Encounter cards deck, 4 player reference cards, 4 victory point markers, 4 alien tokens, 2 dice, 1 quick start rules sheet, a basic rules book, a detailed almanac, and last but not least those wonderful Spaceships. The mother ship features a random generator incorporated into the hull. This generator contains 4 colored balls, of which two are visible through a small dome on the bottom of the ship. The balls are red, yellow, blue, and black in color. The two visible balls will determine the speed of a players star ships and if an encounter card must be enacted.