by MarcM, 11 January 2026
Space Empires takes to the ground and adds more units and larger ships with the Close Encounters expansion. From deeper research to new units and new gameplay, Close Encounters adds lots of options to the 4X contest between empires in the depths of space.
click images to enlarge
Jim Krohn’s Close Encounters is the first expansion for his game Space Empires 4X. GMT recently released the third printing of Close Encounters, along with reprints of the base game and the other two expansions and were gracious enough to provide a copy of each for me to take a look at. If you’re new to Space Empires, you can get an idea of how this 4X (explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate) board game plays in Reintroducing Space Empires 4X and our two-part Space Empires 4X (Re)Learning AAR. If you’re familiar with the game and are looking for more options and replayability, let’s see what Close Encounters adds to the game and take a closer look at a rule addition that caught my eye.
What’s New?
The name of the expansion, Close Encounters, suggests what I think are the most interesting additions to the base game: ground troops and (albeit highly conceptualized) boarding parties. Space Empires in its base form is all about researching tech and building more, bigger and better ships to conquer enemy empires. Which is really cool, but if you conquer planet without ground troops, did you really conquer it? Now I can. Or at least try.
I’m a little surprised at how much Close Encounters adds to the game. The expansion includes:
- A rulebook that covers the new tech, units and gameplay
- A book full of new scenarios for one, two, three and four players, including some cooperative versions
- Three sheets of new ships, troop counters and game markers
- A Battle Board, a card that facilitates battles between fleets and keep track of the new experience levels
- A fleet card for each empire and associated markers track fleets while keeping stacks of counters off the gameboard
- Empire Advantage cards that let you start with a unique boost
- Alien Technology cards that give you a unique tech boost when you conquer an alien planet.
One cool thing about the rulebook…and actually Space Empires was the same way (at least the way I play it), the new rules are, I guess you could say, modular. While of course they interact with each other, it’s easy to choose the ones you want to add and the ones you want to save for later or ignore entirely. In fact, the designer says it right off the bat. For me it works really well, and it’s especially helpful when picking up a new game. Or an expansion for a game. Here’s a quick rundown of some of the key new rules:
- Ship Experience and Military Academies let ships gain potential combat bonuses (the new Battle Board is a great addition just to keep track of experience) and maintenance cost reductions.
- Flagships give each empire a maintenance-free hull-size-three combat ship.
- Boarding Ships can capture ships and Security Force tech can help repel boarders.
- Titans, massive ships deal double hits and can destroy a colony (and the planet it’s on).
- Reaction Movement can pull eligible adjacent units into a battle.
- Transport Ships can carry Ground Troops to enemy worlds where Militia rise up to meet them.
- Research Centers and Industrial Centers give you points to spend on stuff
- Unique Ships let you mix and match abilities to create custom designs
Space Boots on the Ground
Ground troops, as I mentioned earlier, are what I was most interested in. There are four varieties. In increasing value (and, of course, cost): Infantry, Heavy Infantry, Space Marines and Grav Armor units. I started a play-through of a scenario that provided a good opportunity to try them out.
Each planet on the board has a jump gate connecting it to nearby planets. That sounded kind of familiar to my science-fiction-fed brain and I could try out infantry without building Transports. Setup included several barren planets in deep space, giving each empire access to the other with a series of jumps. Here’s how some of the ground combat played out.
For this write-up, I’m condensing the turns I played through, skipping the slow bits, not reporting on the Economic Phases, ignoring the fleet battles and focusing on the ground fights. Just be aware all that stuff is going on in the background. I’m playing with the Terran (in blue) and Vasyrian (in yellow) Empires, and just to keep everything in context, I’m not using the new Battle Board.
We’ve played through several turns. The Terrans and Vasyrians are in the process of exploring their systems, exploiting mineral deposits, and expanding with new colonies.…and getting lost in a black hole or two.
Terra is starting to build a navy. Two Destroyers isn’t a lot, but it’s better than Scouts.
Starting an Invasion
The Vasyrians are focusing on ground troops. They invested in Ground tech early on and started purchasing Space Marine units. And right off the bat I got it wrong. You should be at Ground tech level two before you create Marine units. Oh well. Anyway, they’ve started building their ground power. Vasyr also invests in Terraforming tech, necessary to jump to the barren planets separating the empires. Next round they also add two more Marine units (oops again).
Vasyr has added three units of Grav Armor and three units of Space Marines to their ground forces. Time to start conquering alien worlds and creating a launching point to invade the Terran Empire.
In a typical game, you have to destroy the alien fleet orbiting a barren world before you can bring in Transports and land troops. If you’re invading another empire’s colony, you can land the Transports after the second round of orbital combat. In this scenario with planetary gates, you can just jump right to the planet. There aren’t alien ground troops exactly, but they get five Militia units to fight off invaders. Vasyr has a small ground force now, with three Grav Armor units and three Space Marine units. That should be enough?
For the Emperor
The Vasyrians jump to a gate on the planet of Tempe at edge of their Empire. Once colonies are established you can raise troops there, up to the size of the colony. So, Tempe, a Level 1 colony, can produce one ground unit during the next Economic Phase.
Next turn the Vasyrians jump to Rukbat, a barren planet in deep space between the Empires. They’re concealed now, but that’s the six Space Marines and three Grav Armor units. They’ll have to face five alien Militia units during the combat phase. Here’s a scenario rule that I should’ve given more thought to. Ground units that jump through a planetary gate to a new planet can’t fight in the first round. (This is similar to arriving by Transport in a regular scenario, unless you have Drop Ships). They’ll absorb five shots from the Militia, but they can’t fire back.
Small Arms Fire
Once the Vasyrians emerge on Rukbat, they start taking fire. Ground combat is like stripped down ship-to-ship action with combat classes, attack factors, and defense factors. Whichever units have the best combat class attack first, with ties going to the defender (the player who’s hex you entered). The difference between an attack factor and defense factor is the to-hit value. Rolling that number or less is a hit. There are no modifiers for firepower or defense tech. When hits equal the “hull size” of the ground unit, it’s destroyed.
For each Grav Armor unit you have beyond those of your opponent, you can give another combat-capable ground unit an extra point of attack and defense. Space Marines have a unique feature as well. If they’re the attacker, they have a higher combat class, (they can fire earlier) and they have a higher attack factor.
The Battle for Rukbat
The Vasyrians outnumber the aliens by four units, but they can’t attack this round. The alien Militia needs a roll of 5 or lower to get hits, and for every two hits the Terrans will lose a unit. The aliens attack the higher-power Grav Armor units first and score an impressive three hits, that’s enough to destroy one of the units in the first round of combat. I didn’t see that coming.
In the next turn the Marines attack first. They need 6s or lower to score hits. Now that they can actually fight, the Vasyrians have the advantage and score hits on five of six rolls, enough to wipe out the defenders and take the planet. On their next turn, the ground troops can jump to Gath, one jump away from the Terran empire.
The Battle for Gath
The troops use the planetary gate on Rukbat to jump to Gath, where they face another band of alien Militia. The Militia scores four hits, enough to eliminate two of the Marine units. I seriously didn’t expect Militia to be this much of a challenge.
On the next turn the Vasyrians have recovered from the jump and the Marines attack. They just need 6s or better for a hit. The three units score two hits on the Militia, destroying two units. The Grav Armor fires next. Two chances to get a 6 or better, and nothing. The Aliens attack the Marines. Thanks to the presence of the Grav Armor, two of the Marine units have a defense of two. The Militia gets no hits. Back on Tempe, the Vasyrians create three new Space Marine units.
With invaders at the gate, the Terrans start developing Ground tech and build six Infantry units. As a benefit of having three full-size colonies, both empires also get a free ground unit during the Economic Phase – a Space Marine unit for Vasyr (thanks to their Ground tech level), and a regular Infantry unit for the Terrans.
The four new Marine units jump toward Rukbat to support the invasion of the Terran Empire. The Vasyrian Marines and Grav Armor units get three hits to finish off the alien Militia on Gath to pave the way for the reinforcements.
Vasyr now controls Gath, one jump away from Terran space.
Next Stop Terra?
Space Empires 4X Series
(Re)introduction ~ (Re)Learning AAR pt 1 & pt 2 ~ Ground Battles pt 1 & pt 2 ~ Replicators pt 1 & pt 2 ~ All Good Things pt 1 & pt 2 ~ Forum Thread
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