Planet Buster Bombs (PBB's)

Any time you have at least 26 ships on a fleet, you may build a Planet Buster Bomb. Just as its name implies, this is a fearsome weapon that, when deployed, completely obliterates all signs of life on a world and leaves it a smoldering dustheap. Population, population limit, mines, metal, industry, I-Ships, and P-Ships are all reduced to 0. (Any artifacts on the world are unaffected; also, orbiting fleets are not affected.)

Although any character type can build and drop a PBB, it is generally the Positronixes in a game who are most likely to build PBB's. This is because Positronixes gain 200 points for dropping a PBB (plus two points per human population killed), while most other players stand to lose 50 points for dropping a PBB (minus an additional point for each human population killed). However, a Missionary on Judgment will also be seen to drop the occasional PBB--a post-Judgment Missionary will incur no penalty for PBB'ing their enemy, and will stand to gain points from the heathen population killed.

It costs 25 ships to build a PBB, and you must leave at least one ship behind on the fleet. You may want to have more than one additional ship, though, since if an opponent fires at your PBB-bearing fleet and destroys all the ships on it, even on the round you are trying to drop the PBB, the PBB will not drop, and your fleet (and its PBB) will be lost. When a fleet carrying a PBB changes hands, the PBB disappears; you cannot capture a PBB from another player.

Everyone who sees your fleet will know that it is carrying a PBB. You can build a PBB and move the fleet in the same turn, but you cannot build the PBB and drop it in the same turn.

Dropping a PBB is considered a fire order. You cannot move the fleet and drop a PBB in the same turn, and you cannot fire the fleet at another target in the same turn. Dropping a PBB is considered an attack on the owner of the world, and will trigger conditional attack orders.