Blue stars can feature stellar nurseries or areas undergoing accretion, which impedes movement through those hexes.

In addition, all ships may move only two spaces, but it is possible to purchase movement upgrades that improve the rate of travel speed.

The distance that ships of any type may travel may not exceed more than eight hexes away from a populated planet that is owned by the same player; this limitation can be rescinded by research.

Since Missile Bases are inexpensive compared to the equivalent starship, they may provide an economical way to defend a player's planets.

[2] When Avalon Hill turned it down, Thompson formed his own company in 1974, Metagaming Concepts, in order to market the game packaged in a ziplock bag.

In a 1976 poll conducted by Simulations Publications Inc. to determine the most popular board wargames in North America, Stellar Conquest placed 93 out of 202 games.

[8] Watson commented that "In summation, with some very minor changes in terms of play, the new edition of SC brings back a true classic in the field of sf boardgames.

"[8] John Lambshead in White Dwarf #22 (December 1980 – January 1981) gave it a 9, and said "This is undoubtably the best game of its kind that I have ever played".

[citation needed] There is also the 1994 shareware game Stellar Conquest III: Hostile Takeover which became open source Freeware in 2006.