Galactic Conquest is a multi-player game, and is best played with a Gamemaster; that is, a non-player who oversees the moves of the players, and adjudicates situations arising between players. Hence, the minimum number of participants in this game is three but there is no limit to the number of players that may be in the game.

Galactic Conquest is unusual because it has no board or pieces. The Gamemaster creates the galaxy before play starts. The galaxy is divided up into a series of "sextants" that are each represented by a sheet of graph paper. A 20 by 20 grid of sectors makes up a sextant. Each square on the sheets of graph paper represent a sector.

The players use a pad of paper and a pencil to keep track of their starships' capabilities and locations.

Galactic Conquest comes with a double sided cardstock reference sheet..