Overview

All actions queue for the daily cycle. There are no live moves. When you log in, you queue orders — build units, march armies, launch air strikes, plant spies. Other players are queueing their own orders, blind to yours. At the scheduled cycle time, all orders across the whole world resolve together. The game eliminates the "whoever logs in last wins" problem of most real-time games.

Worlds are unique. Each world is generated from scratch — irregular, natural-looking provinces instead of a boring square grid. Real coastlines, mountain ranges, forested highlands, valleys, and chokepoints shape every campaign. See The Map.

Every province matters. Sectors are province-scale — a mountain pass, a coastal plain, a river valley. A standard world has about 10,000–20,000 of them. Each one is worth naming, fighting over, and defending.

Combined arms combat. Three branches — land, sea, air — interact in every campaign. Ground armies take and hold territory. Warships bombard coastlines. Aircraft strike behind enemy lines. Deep strategy comes from reading your situation and choosing the right tool. See Combat, Land, Sea, Air.

Information is a weapon. You can't see the whole map. Fog of war hides what you haven't scouted, and even scouted intel goes stale after a cycle or two. Scout with Spies and Spy Planes, deny the enemy's recon with turrets and counter-intel sweeps. See Intel & Fog of War.

Economy is a constraint, not a background detail. Empires pay for every base, every unit, every refinery. Bigger empires hit diminishing returns. Armies far from friendly bases cost more to maintain. Run out of money and your forces start deserting. See Economy.

A world runs one cycle per day at a scheduled time. Each cycle has five phases that resolve in order:

1. Intel — Spies move, Spy Planes fly reconnaissance, counter-intel sweeps run.
2. Air Attacks — Jets and missiles strike their targets.
3. Sea Attacks — Warships bombard coasts, transports move, submarines hunt.
4. Movement — Land units march, fight, and capture territory.
5. Production — Bases build new units; construction trucks lay new bases and bridges.

During each phase, countries act in a separately randomized order, so nobody consistently goes first.

Between cycles, you have hours to queue, revise, and cancel orders. When the cycle "lock" is reached (typically an hour before cycle time), orders can no longer be changed. Then the cycle runs, and you watch a replay the next time you log in. See The Cycle and Cycle Report & Replay.

Worlds end when a player meets the world's victory condition. There are three modes:

• Advantage — Control 75% of occupied land.
• Domination — Control 100% of occupied land.
• Hourglass — Hold the most territory when the world's end time arrives.

See Victory for details and world lifecycle.

• Every world has a scheduled start time. Before it starts, all players can browse the full map, evaluate terrain, and choose their capital. Everyone begins on equal footing.
• Capitals are placed algorithmically for equivalent strategic value — different strengths (defensibility, resources, mobility), equal overall quality.
• Country processing order is randomized independently in each of the five cycle phases. No one consistently acts first.