Most combat happens in the Aggressor/Opponent phase. During this phase, the following happens:

  1. Find an aggressor. This will use battle order values. We start with the ship with the lowest possible battle order value and work our way up. Each aggressor fights all its possible opponents; after that it can no longer be aggressor for this turn (but it still can be opponent).
    • A ship must have the Kill mission or a Primary Enemy to become an aggressor. It must have fuel.
    • A planet must have the ATT or NUK friendly code to become an aggressor.
  2. Find an opponent for this aggressor. This will again check all ships (and the planet, if any) in battle order.
    • The aggressor cannot fight units whom he has offered a combat level alliance. Likewise, two combatants will not fight when they have matching friendly codes.
    • If the aggressor has no Kill mission, the opponent must be of the race indicated by the aggressor's Primary Enemy.
    • Planets cannot attack Klingons and Rebels (PlanetsAttackKlingons, PlanetsAttackRebels), and they cannot attack Assault ships (i.e., the Super Star Destroyer; AllowImperialAssault).
    • Fuel-less ships can only be attacked by planets using the NUK friendly code. Fuel-less Bird Men ships with weapons cannot even be attacked by these planets.
    • A cloaked ship cannot attack planets.
    • You cannot attack cloaked ships, except when they have set their primary enemy to your race.
  3. Perform the battle between aggressor and opponent. Note that PHost will assign sides on the VCR randomly, so you can't tell from the battle alone who was the aggressor. This is unlike HOST where the aggressor will always be on the right side.
  4. If the aggressor survives, try to find another opponent (return to step 2).
  5. If the aggressor got killed or captured, or when all opponents have been exhausted, find another aggressor (return to step 1).