The Cycle

A cycle has five phases, resolved in this order. Within each phase, the order in which countries act is randomized independently. Nobody consistently goes first.

Phase 1 — Intel

Spies move along their paths, gathering vision as they go. Spy Planes fly from air bases to their targets, passing through interception along the way and revealing wide areas around their target. Enemy units and turrets within 1 hop of a passing Spy passively detect it; turrets in particular block infiltration and capture the Spy outright. A surviving Spy that ends on an enemy Land Base sector infiltrates it, copying that country's full vision, treasury, and active treaties to you for one cycle. See Intel & Fog of War.

All intel gathered here feeds the other phases — your Spies can spot an incoming army a phase before it attacks.

Phase 2 — Air Attacks

Jets, Missiles, Warheads, Helicopters, and Paratroopers launch. Each air unit flies from its source air base (or Carrier, or Frigate) to its target, taking interception damage along the way. Survivors strike their target. Jets and Helicopters that survive return to their base; Missiles, Warheads, and Paratroopers are consumed on use. See Air Forces.

Phase 3 — Sea Attacks

Warships sail toward their destinations, bombarding coastal targets within fire range. Transports carry land units across water. Submarines attack surface ships. Naval combat resolves. See Sea Forces.

Phase 4 — Movement

Land units march along their paths, spending their movement budget against each sector's terrain cost (flatland is cheap, forest and hills cost more, mountains cost the most). If a unit enters an enemy-occupied sector, combat resolves automatically — there's no separate "attack" order for land units. Winners capture the sector and (if movement remains) keep going. Losers stop and take casualties.

Construction trucks that are mid-build advance their bridges this phase, adding new segments to the map.

See Land Forces and Combat.

Phase 5 — Production

Bases produce new units. Construction trucks lay new bases. Refineries, Turrets, Supply Depots, Bunkers, and Surveillance Centers are built. Medics heal nearby friendly Infantry by +7 HP (cap 70); Mechanics do the same for all non-Infantry land units; bases heal stationary friendly units that didn't fight by +35 HP this phase. Sell orders execute here too — units, bases, and structures marked for sale are removed and their partial cost refunded to your treasury.

After Production, Surveillance Centers run their fuzzy-detection sweep, generating 7-sector blob zones around every enemy Spy and Submarine within 5 hops. The blobs are wiped and rebuilt every cycle so a stationary infiltrator can't be inferred over time.

Newly built units exist as of this phase but can't move until next cycle. They do defend if attacked, though.

Radiation phase

If the world has been nuked, a sixth Radiation step runs after Production. Radiation damages units, structures, and bases in irradiated sectors, then decays by about 20% for next cycle. See Nuclear Weapons.

Economy

After all phases run, economy resolves: each country's income and upkeep are calculated and treasury is updated. See Economy.

You can queue and change orders freely until the cycle locks — by default, 3 minutes before cycle time. After the lock, orders can no longer be added, edited, or cancelled. Then the cycle runs.

The lock exists to prevent last-second reaction plays. Since every player is equally blind to every other player's queued orders, all revisions are fair — you're never reacting to anyone else's queue.

A typical day:

1. After last cycle runs — Log in, watch the cycle report / replay, see what happened. Update your strategy.
2. Queue orders — Move armies, queue builds, send spies. You can do this in one session or across multiple short visits.
3. Revise as needed — Before the lock, you can freely cancel, change, or re-order queued actions.
4. Cycle locks — Orders are frozen.
5. Cycle runs — All five phases resolve in order, across every country in the world.
6. Report available — You can now log back in and review the cycle report.

You don't need to be logged in when the cycle runs. Queue your orders, walk away, and come back when you have time.

A movement order can be flagged as perpetual. After the cycle resolves, the order auto-re-queues for next cycle — useful for sustained offensive pushes or standing patrols. A perpetual order stops repeating when the unit dies, reaches its destination, or hits a blocking condition. You can also cancel it manually any time.

Perpetual doesn't apply to one-shot orders like builds or air attacks — those always run exactly once.

Before the world's scheduled start time, no cycles run. You can:

• Browse the full map with all modes and overlays.
• Claim a capital and create your country.
• Queue orders at your newly created base.

When the start time arrives, cycle 1 runs and the game begins.

Each world has its own cycle time (usually set around when the active player base is mostly offline or asleep, so logins don't trigger cycle runs). The world browser shows each world's next cycle time and the lock window.

• Watch the replay of the previous cycle to understand what happened (see Report & Replay).
• Check your dashboard — make sure you're not bleeding money.
• Refresh your intel — re-scout stale sectors and chase information gaps.
• Queue new orders — builds, moves, attacks. Don't max out your treasury in one cycle; leave reserves for surprise reactions.
• Negotiate — propose or renew treaties, coordinate with treaty partners.