The war in one paragraph#
Companies spend their money on armies and fight real-time tactics battles against each other for stakes: money, buildings and a boost to their income. Battles are separate matches, 1v1 or 2v2, on one of the 12 battlefields of a made-up tropical island in the South Pacific. Units lost in battle are gone for good, so every fight costs something.
Your army#
Open Army (A) to buy units with company money. There are 5 kinds:
| Unit | Price | Upkeep | Health | Armour | Road km/h | Range | Damage | Pierce | Reload | Sight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Infantry squad | $20,000 | $150 | 100 | 0 | 16 | 250 m | 12 | 4 | 1.5 s | 400 m |
 Recon car | $45,000 | $300 | 160 | 6 | 86 | 300 m | 10 | 8 | 0.8 s | 750 m |
 Armoured carrier | $90,000 | $600 | 350 | 20 | 68 | 400 m | 22 | 16 | 1.2 s | 450 m |
 Battle tank | $250,000 | $1,500 | 700 | 60 | 54 | 650 m | 150 | 80 | 5 s | 500 m |
 Artillery battery | $180,000 | $1,000 | 200 | 5 | 47 | 400–3,500 m | 120 | 25 | 10 s | 300 m |
- Each costs its upkeep every game day, at home or away.
- A unit sells back for 50% of its price.
- You can bring up to $2M of units to any one battle.
See Army units for their speeds and who beats what.
The lobby#
Open War (W). The lobby lists the battles being set up and fought.
- Set one up: pick a battlefield, 2 players (1v1) or 4 (2v2) where the field has room, the stake (from nothing up to $10M) and the prize: one kind of business (letting, offices, shops or factories).
- Join one: choose the force you bring (up to $2M) and, if you like, wager one of your buildings. Joining puts in the stake.
- The battle starts when every seat is taken. Until then you can leave; after, there is no leaving.
What the winners get:
- they share the pot (every player's stake);
- they take the losers' wagered buildings;
- and for 3 game days they earn ×1.5 on the prize kind of business.
What everyone loses: units destroyed in the battle are gone for good; defence goods placed are used up.
Deployment#
A battle opens with 3 minutes of deployment (less if every side presses Ready sooner). Each side sees only its own ground.
- Your units start at your base and can be moved anywhere in your unit zone: the first 20% of the way from your base toward the nearest enemy base.
- Defences go in the defence zone, the band beyond it, up to 42% of the way.
- The middle belongs to no one.
- Del takes back a defence of yours while deployment lasts.
Once the fighting starts you can still build, but only within 60 m of one of your own units, and never take one back.
Defences#
Defences are bought before the battle, in the sense that they are made of defence goods you already hold: sandbags, barbed wire, tank traps, dragon's teeth and kits for bunkers, watchtowers and gun pits. You make them in your factories or buy them on the market, and keep them in a 
Steel yard, a 
Container yard or a 
Freight yard. Placing one in a battle uses its goods up, whatever becomes of it. Foxholes are free.
| Defence | Made of | Health | Cover | Vehicles | Infantry | Sight | Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Sandbag wall |  1 × Sandbags | 300 | 50% damage, 6 m | — | — | — | 4×1 m |
 Sandbag ring | 3 × Sandbags | 450 | 40% damage, 5 m | — | — | — | 4×4 m |
 Foxholes | free | 200 | 60% damage, 5 m | — | — | — | 7×4 m |
 Bunker |  1 × Bunker kit | 2,500 | 20% damage, 6 m | blocked | — | — | 10×6 m |
 Tank traps |  1 × Tank traps | 800 | — | blocked | 70% speed | — | 7×5 m |
 Dragon's teeth |  1 × Dragon's teeth | 1,500 | — | blocked | 80% speed | — | 7×3 m |
 Barbed wire |  1 × Barbed wire | 150 | — | crush it | 25% speed | — | 5×1 m |
 Watchtower |  1 × Watchtower kit | 400 | 80% damage, 6 m | — | — | +350 m | 5×5 m |
 Gun pit |  1 × Gun pit kit | 600 | 45% damage, 5 m | — | — | — | 6×6 m |
- Cover: your infantry near a defence of yours take less damage (the best cover in reach counts, not the sum).
- Obstacles: tank traps, dragon's teeth and bunkers close their ground to vehicles.
- Wire slows infantry; a vehicle driving onto it crushes it.
- Watchtowers let your infantry by them see further.
- Artillery blasts damage defences; a destroyed one gives its ground back.
See Defences for every defence.
The fight#
- Orders: select with a click or a drag (Shift adds, a double-click takes every unit of that kind on screen); right-click to move or attack; A then click to attack-move; S stop, H hold; Ctrl+1–9 to set a group and 1–9 to recall it.
- Objectives: each battlefield has several. Hold one (stand within 70 m) and it scores a point a second for your side. One unit alone takes 20 s to capture it; more take it faster, up to twice as fast.
- Winning: first to 600 points, or the higher score after 20 minutes.
- Seeing: there is fog of war. Units see as far as their sight, if the line is clear: buildings block, and a unit in woods is seen only within 100 m. Firing gives a unit away for a few seconds.
- Ground: roads are fastest, then open ground, rough ground, and woods; water and buildings stop everything.
- Hitting: a round that does not pierce a target's armour does less damage, down to a tenth. Moving, shooting at something moving, and cover all make a hit less likely.
The island#
The war is fought on a fictional island about 3,000 by 2,100 km in the open tropical South Pacific, at 13°S 112°W, far from any real land. It is built from made-up map data by the same pipeline as the real world: towns and a city, farmland, a river valley, uplands, lakes, a port and a cliff coast.
Battles are fought in two fixed colours, orange and blue, whoever is playing, so two companies never look alike and a 2v2 reads as two sides.
See Battlefields for each field's bases and objectives.
Coming next#
More war is planned: buildings on the battlefield that collapse under tank and artillery fire, and more ways to prepare before a battle.