A scenario in Pocket Empires will have one or more sides. These represent opposing factions in the conflict. When you chose a scenario to play you will pick which side you play. The computer will play the remaining sides.
Most of the time a variety of options will be presented for each side. Because of geography and variance of fleets no two sides will be exactly equal. Some will be easier to play than others. This allows you to play the game multiple times. Each time you can choose a harder side to play and increase the challange for you.
Each side has a name. This is what it will be listed as when sides are compared. Each side also has a coat of arms.
In addition to being a pretty iconographic device for recognizing sides, the coat of arms also gives a unique color combination for a side. This color combination is used elsewhere to mark territory, ships, and so forth.
Resources represent accumulated processed goods. In a scenario where shipbuilding is enabled you can assemble these resources into new ships for your fleet. Each world produces resources at a particular rate. Rather than complexify things by setting up trade routes and building a merchant marine force, the transport and delivery of resources is abstracted. All resources produced are available for use throughout your pocket empire. So we only present the total resources available, and not how much is accumulated on each world.
The production figure for a side is the total amount of resources that are produced each turn. If unused, these will accumulate in the Resources value.
The maximum technology value for your pocket empire is the value at the highest tech world. This is important for ship construction. The higher tech a pocket empire has the longer range jump drives that can be build.
For easy comparison you can look at the cumulative fleet strength for a side. This is given in terms of the total attack factors, total defense factors and total cost of the ships in the fleet.
According to the formulas set in the scenario, each side will accrue Victory Points. These are used in the end of the game to determine the winner.