Our group played our first two games and I had a couple of questions:

1. If your ships are freed from the warp with mobius tubes (or whatever) can you have 5 or more ships on a single colony? Knowing that you can only attack with 4. We played you could, and that if you were a defender you could defend with more than 4 if you had more on the defending planet.

2. Can you have more than one ally? We played a 4 player game and sometimes it was 3 on 1. That seemed to be in the spirit of the rules.

Thanks and everyone loved the game. We can't wait to play more.

You're right on both counts. Ships coming back from the warp have to go to a colony you control, which means that you can and will get more than 4 ships in a colony and can and will defend a planet with more than 4. If you notice in the rules, it only specifies the offensive main player and allies as having the restriction to 4 ships. Really, it wouldn't make much sense otherwise and agrees with the common sense feeling of the whole situation. And multiple allies are most certainly allowed. If you note in the sections on allies, it mentions that each player gets to invite any other players, plural, except for the opposing main player. This is on page 9, btw, and goes on to describe the sequence of events for allies choosing sides, noting specifically that, "each player accepts or declines invitations to ally." So in a 5 player game, you can 4 against 1, 3 against 2, etc. As it sounds like you've noticed, this is where the real fun comes in, especially when someone's going for the win.

Also, certain aliens LOVE having a fat stack of ships on one planet...Macron is a prime example. Virus is another.

In the time of Mayfair, I destroyed a stacked worm planet with the void flare once. I seem to remember that he still somehow won the game in a joint victory with someone or another.

But not my reason for posting. Someone is going to ask, or at least wonder, and so I suppose I'll put the question to bits, er, words:

"What happens if Mobius Tubes goes off when I have no colonies?"

(We play, and I believe it's accurate, that this is a terrible shame, and good timing on someone's part. Unless you're the one that popped it. Probably.)

It is quite a shame, but correct.