[Phoenix-D]

"1. What exactly constitutes a sector in terms of resupplying ships? Do I have to actually stop at the planet or is just "moving through the sector" enough? (Of course, for the latter I need to know what geographically or spatially constitutes a "sector.")"

Just moving into it works. A sector is one of the squares on the 12x12 system map.

"2. How do you retreat once in battle? Doesn't seem to be any way to do that."

You don't. Last it out the entire 30 turns.

"3. How do you see how far your ship can move in combat? I tried turning on "show grid" but that didn't do anything."

Show grid just shows you the squares. Your ships movement gauge is IIRC on the right, off the main play area.

"4. How do you see the range of your weapons in combat? I want to be able to stay at the edge of range for my weapons or the enemy's weapons."

Right click the weapon icons for stats, then count squares. Also, turn on shot percentages- if you're in range, you ALWAYS have at least a 1% chance to hit.

"5. In combat what do those red pips by each weapon mean? What about the top-most bar of red pips?"

That's the reload time. When there are none left, the weapon can fire again. The topmost is a rough gauge of how much damage your ship has taken. More red = less damage. Same with the other bar, which is shields.

"6. I'm aware the manual for the full game is sparse but just how many pages is it?"

~100 IIRC.

"7. When you select a colony type when you form a colony, does it make any difference what you choose (i.e. mining vs. research v. imperial centre, etc.)? Malfador's FAQ, question 78, suggests it doesn't do anything but it's not very clear."

Description only UNLESS you turn on the AI Minsters, which use that description to tell em what to build on the colony.

"8. If you set a strategy for a ship at the "designs" stage, does it actually affect play in combat? Or only if you're using auto/strategic combat?"

Only in strategic.

"9. Is the multiple ship yards bug (#41, Malfador FAQ) fixed in the full game? (The bug is where having multiple yards on a planet doesn't allow you to build several ships at once.)"

Not a bug, and you're not *supposed* to be able to build more than one ship yard. That's the bug. One yard per planet or ship.

"10. In #90 on the Malfador FAQ, it says that combat is automatically ended after 30 turns? How can this be? Surely many battles must take much longer than 30 turns to complete!"

Yes, and no, it doesn't. Not unless you have to chase down stragglers or are in a massive fleet battle. The battles represent a fixed time period.

Phoenix-D