¶ Fleets
A fleet is a named group of ships that share a command queue and move together as one unit on the map. Fleets are the main tool for moving more than one ship at a time — a fleet of fifty ships is given orders once, and every ship in it follows them.
You manage fleets under Command → Fleets.
¶ Creating a fleet
Fleets are created explicitly — they don't form automatically when ships happen to be at the same place.
- Open Command → Fleets.
- Click Create Fleet and give it a name.
- Attach ships to it from the Ships list (or set a planet's production queue to deliver new ships straight into the fleet on completion).
A fleet can be empty for a while — it'll just sit at (0,0) until ships are attached.
¶ How fleets behave
| Aspect | Behaviour |
|---|---|
| Commands | A command given to a fleet is propagated to every active ship in it. Each ship executes its own copy of the action. There is no separate "fleet AI" — the fleet is a container. |
 Speed |
A fleet moves at the slowest active ship's max speed. Mixing a Rocket Engine scout with FTL cruisers will hold the whole fleet to the scout's pace. |
| Position | The fleet has its own (x, y) on the map and is drawn as a single icon — you won't see every ship individually as long as they're at the fleet's location. |
| Membership | A ship can be in at most one fleet at a time. Attaching a ship to a new fleet detaches it from any previous one. |
| Size | There is no fixed cap on ships per fleet — you can pile in as many as you like. |
¶ Catching up
You can attach a ship that is not at the fleet's location — it doesn't have to teleport. The system marks it as catching up and gives it a move action to the fleet's position. Two important rules while a ship is catching up:
- Its speed is not counted when computing the fleet's max speed, so reinforcements don't slow the main body down while en route.
- It keeps its catch‑up action even if you give the fleet new orders — it'll join the fleet's current orders only after it has arrived.
¶ Splitting, merging, disbanding
- Detach ships — pick ships in the fleet and detach them. Detached ships return to being independent, keeping their own action queue. The shortcut
Ldetaches selected ships from their current fleet (see Ship Commands). - Merge fleets — there's no single "merge" button. Detach the ships from fleet A and attach them to fleet B; the catching‑up rules above handle the distance.
- Disband — removes the fleet entirely (the ships themselves survive; they become unattached). Use Disband Fleet in the fleet's detail view. Empty fleets do not auto‑delete — disband them when you're done with the name.
¶ Fleets vs Ship Groups
Both let you organise multiple ships, but they're not the same thing:
| Fleet | Ship Group | |
|---|---|---|
| Shares commands | ✅ Yes — give the fleet an order, every ship follows | ❌ No — purely a label |
| Single icon on the map | ✅ | ❌ |
| Speed limited by slowest ship | ✅ | ❌ |
| Useful for | Actually flying ships together | Filtering / organising the Ships list |
Pick a fleet when you want a unit that acts together; pick a ship group when you just need a label for finding ships later.
¶ Related
- Ships — the individual vessels that make up a fleet.
- Ship Designs — how the design's stats determine fleet behaviour (especially speed).
- Ship/Fleet Commands — every command you can issue to a fleet.
- Battles — how combat resolves between ships (and fleets).