Hey, we have played the game twice now but are left with some questions.

1. A building cant get routed when attacked, but does it get taken over if it "dies" ? And if not can you take over an undefended planet with a city using an orbital strike ?

2. If a player initiates an orbital strike on say 2 units, is it still the defender who decides what gets routed and if someone dies ?

3. Can you retreat if there isent any ships in the system ? and if yes dosent this contradict the rules from normal movement

4. Can you attack ships from other ships ? I am guessing yes, but there isent really anything in the rules about it. I know i cant use ships as defence but as an attacker can i also attack the defenders ships i a system ?

5. If you draw another card that requiers you to move a warp storm, can you move the same storm more then once ?

Hope my english is okay, and you understand my questions

#1 well, no. If a bastion is destroyed it is destroyed, no one can claim it. Any enemy world cam be bombarded but you need boots on the ground to take it (you can use drop pods tho )

#2 orbital strike doesn't normally rout, some upgrades will allow you that, non the less the defender choses who takes up the damage first.

#3 you don't need ships, you need a viable friendly route to from where you attacked, or a near by friendly or unoccupied planet if defending. If you don't have where to go, you die.

#4 ship combat goes as troop combat, albeit in a void, so yes you can(and must)attack with ships

#5 only one warp storm move per player. Once moved it cant be moved no more ad the rest must move others

You should also look up an unofficial FAQ, it has a lot of rules clarifications
Hope this helped

One of the key rules that a lot of people miss is that troops can move from planet to planet without the use of ships. This is probobly due to the application of logic instead of reading of the rules, but as long as you can trace a path through planets or ships you can reach your destination planet.

I try to rationalize it with flavor text..!
I also teach new people that the "systems" are not really "touching" each other, take a three by two board and spread out every tile for a second, none of them are touching each other and each is like "light years apart" right.
Now understand that when your troops have to pass through a void, they need a big cruiser or transport ship to carry all their baggage. They've got munitions, repair servitors, a crew of maintenance workers, some pleasure ladies; they need a big ship.
To go from one world to another, well it's easy enough to jump on the old Greyhound or taxi as, they're going from world to world all day every you know. You can take your seat and they'll store your ammo and pleasure ladies in the next freight bus that rolls out right behind you.

I spoze sorta tough to imagine with my spreading of the systems out, to be able to move from one world to an adjacent world on an adjacent system but, that's all I got.
Another commonly missed rule is that if you encounter an uninhabited world on the way, you must stop your movement there while the team clears away the underbrush, kills some sabertooth monsters you know, gets "set up", before moving on.

Conquer the Stars people..!