Combat is somewhat abstracted, with the ships being lined up off map. All combat begins at long range. On subsequent combat rounds a die is rolled to see which player gets to determines combat range (long or short) with the smaller fleet gaining a bonus to their die roll. The defender places the ships down one at a time, and the attacker places a ship down to match. At the end, any left-over ships can be assigned to also fire on enemy vessels, or kept out of combat. The missile or beam factors of the firing ships are compared to the screen factors of the defenders, and a die roll determines if a ship has been destroyed. Several combat options are available, including firing all of a ship's missiles at once, or the so-called "suicide attack" where a ship maneuvers to point-blank range for a beam attack. Combat continues until one side is destroyed or until either player decides to disengage.