War

In order to gain the benefits of a full wartime footing, you must have either sent or received a Declaration of War or been involved in active hostilities for at least two full turns.¹¹ Wartime benefits and special abilities include:

• Planets may be placed on Wartime status. Such planets produce double everything they normally produce for up to five turns (including Research Points). Once this ends, they produce (round up) for twice the number of turns they produced double.
• All military vessels have a weapons status of one level higher than they normally would at the start of any scenario. Even at WS-I, they always have phaser capacitors charged by 50%. This is cumulative with Crew Quality bonuses or penalties.
• Static defense systems (minefields, web, etc.) operate at a higher readiness.
• Military vessels may burn one extra turn's worth of Supplies for up to two extra Strategic Movement Points each turn. These points may be used for double movement on individual movement intervals at the choice of the owner. The points may not both be used on the same interval, nor on any interval in which the vessel performs any Exploration. This option may be exercised at any point in the strategic turn, but any extra points not used by the end of the turn are lost.
• Command Ratings for military capital ships (CA and higher) are increased by 50%, and the first Scout in a fleet is free.
• Ships with CA firepower or more may devastate planets. It takes one Strategic Movement Point in the sector of the target planet to reduce it by one development level. Every 5 population points counts as a level for this purpose. If the planet has defenses, they must be taken out before devastation can begin.

Wartime penalties include:

• War ends all Treaties and Trade Agreements between combatants. No trade may be conducted between opponents until the war is over.
• Planetary development halts during wartime. No terraforming, colonization, colony growth, or conversion to Major Planets may take place.
• Pirate activity increases during wartime, as most military vessels have been taken off patrols and added to fleets.
• Static defense maintenance costs increase. This will be noted in their individual rules.

War ends on its own if there are no hostilities between the two sides for three full turns. It may also be ended by signing a Peace Treaty. Terms of the Treaty are up to the empires involved, and are usually made public to all empires in contact with those involved.