They could also refuel by matching speed with another ship (such as a tanker) and transferring fuel. Each game was played in a series of turns that alternated between each of the players. Each turn a player followed a sequence of five phases:   Ship counters displayed the vessel silhouette, an identifier number, the combat rating, fuel capacity, and the cargo capacity. The counters were printed in several colors to represent different sides in each conflict. Combat used a damage table that was based on the ratio of the attacker ship combat strength to that of the defender. The odds ranged from 1:2 to 4:1. A six-sided dice roll was used to determine the results of an attack, with one subtracted from the roll for each hex of range between the ships. Before the results are applied, the ship being attacked can optionally fire upon its attackers. The results of an attack are expressed in a number of turns the ship is disabled, or, for high odds and a favorable roll, the ship is destroyed. Higher dice rolls resulted in more damage. If the cumulative damage to 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. The game came with six scenarios:  The errate sheet also listed two more suggested scenarios:  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." GDW published a second edition of the game in 1981. The packaging was changed from the cardboard tube to a standard box. The paper map and acetate overlay were replaced by a plastic-coated map, but players still plotted their vectors using a supplied grease pencil.