This is a map for 10 player individual or 5v5.  It's not suitable for solo play (though I'll have a solo variant soon). It's best played with pirates enabled (there is one pirate base).

It's all about a colonization mission gone tragically wrong within the spine of the "Gecko Constellation" (see pic).

You begin with an asteroid homeworld and a secondary dead asteroid base. Your base is reinforced with a heavy cruiser and siege frigate and your homeworld contains a colony and scout craft--along with those from the other nine empires. Along with this mashup is an invading militia force and an imminent pirate threat.

As the militia assault begins--including bombardment of your homeworld--you must decide whether to try to take advantage of the chaos and grab another empire's world or to quickly escape with as many forces as possible before your own world is destroyed by enemy siege forces. 

While no structures are in orbit, each of your worlds contain the galaxy travel artifact which will allow you to escape to one of the ten nearby star systems.  If you act fast, you can salvage a fleet of up to ten scouts, ten colony frigates, a heavy cruiser and a siege frigate...but only if you act fast.

Wait too long and your world may be eliminated...and along with it the only means of interstellar travel you have.

You must quickly decide whether to defend, invade or escape and colonize elsewhere.  You'll need your meager fleet to face unknown defenders of worlds in other systems and careless errors will end your expedition before it even begins. The empire which best consolidates its forces will be the most advantaged.  Some of the outer systems are slightly advantaged by being located off the pirate lanes while others are connected to them.

Your beginning  homeworld won't last last long--it will be besieged from the start by a potential mix of players, pirates and militia.

You'll also need to quickly find the means to acquire worlds that allow you to research--else you will be confined to a narrow stretch of space in very short time.  In the Gecko constellation there are only two sorts of commanders--the quick and the dead.

The map can be played by less than ten players though it's optimized for ten and not suitable for solo play.  10x 1v1 is the most fun (in my opinion).

Feedback appreciated.  Map may be found here: Mad Gecko map