Fog of War

Fog of War

Using the hex-grid to strictly highlight only previously explored territory, we can see that the star system Drengia has explored by our Probes, which then moved away from the area, covering it in the Fog of War.

The map in a game of Galactic Civilizations starts out unexplored except for the locations of each star system and a small area of hexes within the sensor range of your starting Core World and vessels. As your ships travel around the sector, their sensors will unveil map features and locations, but after they have left the area and the explored hexes are no longer covered by their sensors, the Fog of War covers the explored hexes once more.

The Fog of War serves to obscure visibility over previously explored hexes. Although stars, planets, Asteroids, Nebulae and certain other permanent map features such as Strategic Resources will always be visible, most objects that could potentially move away or be removed will become obscured once more: this includes ships, Starbases, Shipyards, Space Monsters and so on. (Note that an exception to this rule are Anomalies, which will still be marked on the map through the Fog of War, but may or may not actually be there still, depending on whether another Civilization got to them first.)

This means that in order to obtain a clear picture of what a hex actually contains in that moment, the player must roll back the Fog of War by bringing it back within sensor range of a friendly ship, planet, Starbase or any other method of providing sensor coverage.

Placing a ship next to Drengi will recover the area in a sensor field, and roll back the fog of war.

The Fog of War ensures that even after the map is explored, the player must still scout out enemy positions and patrol their own territory to prevent hostile fleets sneaking in unmolested to attack vulnerable infrastructure and shipping. For this job, fast ships with good sensor packages excel, and in the early game the Probe makes an excellent scout.