Counter-Beacon

A Jark armada is coming for Tassi. Beacons deny a corridor to wormhole travel, so the fleet cannot jump past you — it has to come the long way, under sail, which takes it three times as long. Hold twelve turns and it breaks off. The beacons also stop your own traffic, and that trade is what pays for them.

You cannot deny the enemy a shortcut without denying it to yourself. The beacons that stop a fleet jumping past your defenses stop your own trade too, so every layer of defense is paid for in the commerce it strangles.

0treasury 0income / turn 0beacon upkeep 1turn —enemy —until they arrive

Click a corridor to raise a beacon on it. Beacons cost 4 to raise and 2 a turn to hold — and a beaconed corridor takes the fleet three times as long to cross.

Where the rules come from

“None of them to Brokk’s knowledge had any ability to observe activity that was occurring within a wormhole.”
“These counter beacons disrupted the energy that existed in the subspace in a way that defeated a ship’s ability to conduct wormhole travel.”
“It would have to cross the solar system conventionally rather than jumping past the Jarkian defenses.”
“The technology was a trade-off. For Tassi to employ the beacons meant that they would have to forfeit the profits that they gained from…”

All from Fractal Space.