So, this situation has come up a few times for different reasons in multiple games so I thought I would ask. We have had situations where a player is trying to bump someone off of one of his planets that the four other players have a presence on, can those players help as allies and either defend or attack? I have always said that players could help defend (is this correct?) however I was never sure how attacking would work.

Thanks!

They cannot help either side.

Page 12, right column: "All other colonies on the planet are bystanders."

The bystanding players can be asked to ally as normal, and can send ships from the bystanding colonies (or anywhere else). But the ships on the bystanding colonies have no effect on the encounter, and they are generally immune to the encounter themselves (with the exception of Wild Cudgel). The bystanding players are not forced to ally on the side their ships are sitting.

Ok, cool. I know that the ships on the specific planet are not involved. I was just wondering if the players helped the attacking player would their ships involved get added to the ships that they had acting as bystanders. Does this make sense?

Thanks.

No; any ships on the planet are not involved, whether their owners are allies or not.