a ship required more than 5 turns to repair, the ship was destroyed. Torpedoes and mines also had their own combat damage tables that were used when the course of a mine or torpedo intersected a ship. There were also damage results for ramming attacks, as well as for moving too rapidly through asteroid hexes. Some scenarios use hidden counters, so that ships and planets could only identify enemy vessels that came within range. Planets could detect ship types up to five hexes away, while ships could scan a distance of three hexes. Scenarios The game came with six scenarios: Grand Tour — A multi-player race about the planets, to familiarize the players with the vector movement system. Escape — One player attempts to escape a tyrannical government by fleeing the Solar System, while the other tries to stop the escape. Lateral 7 — Pirates try to nab a wealthy liner while avoiding the navy. Interplanetary War — Earth colonies rebel from the rule of the mother planet. Alien Invasion — Terran forces try to stop an invading fleet of alien barbarians. Piracy — Pirates try to loot merchant transports while Space Patrol tries to neutralize their efforts. The errate sheet also listed two more suggested scenarios: Prospecting — Economic scenario of mining asteroids. Retribution — Follow up to the Escape scenario. Reception In the December 1974 issue of Airfix Magazine, Bruce Quarrie gave a positive review of the game and its mechanics, concluding, "Since it is our experience that the majority of wargamers enjoy science fiction and vice-versa, we can see this game catching on in quite a big way. Great fun!" Two reviews of the original game and its variant appeared in 1976 issues of The Space Gamer. In Issue 4, Scott Rusch gave the original version of Triplanetary a very positive review, saying, "It's quite a flexible game, and it's fun. It's even fairly accurate, which is something most tactical space games can't claim. I heartily recommend it." Several months later, in Issue 9, Kelly Moorman gave a strong recommendation to the Triplanetary Variant V/2, saying, ""I would recommend this variant to anyone interested in a very realistic space-economic-tactical game." In his 1977 book The Comprehensive Guide to Board Wargaming, Nicholas Palmer thought the game had "a relatively realistic scope [...] the system is not difficult, though it takes a little getting used to." He noted that