For a few years i think that my group played by book rules.Until last week.... Last week one new player that came to our group have secret objective "Expansionist" (Controlling 8 systems outside my home system). And after ending round 5,in status phase he claim that he control 8 systems (5 empty and 3 with planets). Ok he control 5 empty,but one thing that my friends and me saw...is that he control planets in every of those systems,but he does not control SPACE (don't have any ship orbiting in space). I mean....does CONTROLLING SYSTEM consider having all planets in that/one system AND having at least 1 ship in that system??? Or anything you need is just to have all planets,even if there is enemy ships present above those planets,in space???

Did we really played wrong all these years? Did we really didn't read rules correctly all these years?

FAQ page 8

Controlling a System
A player controls a system if he controls every planet in the system and has at least one (non-Fighter) ship in the system.

One thing my group has found helpful the last couple games is to open the PDFs for the rulebooks and FAQ, then you can easily search for anything.

So then if you have a ship in an empty system then you technically control the system and qualify for the objective (since there are no planets to control)?

Or does it mean you must control systems with planets to qualify? Or is empty space not technically a 'system'?

kobalt said:

You control an empty system as long as you have a non-fighter ship there. Controlling all zero planets still counts as controlling all planets. So the 5 empty systems he had are still legit for the objective as long as he has non-FT ships there. But he also needs at least one non-FT ship in the 3 systems with planets (in addition to controlling all the planets therein.)