Playing every one for yourself instead? See Free-for-all.
Where do we start?#
Rule of thumb: you pick your team; the map picks your spot.
Starting spots are dealt at random when the game starts, so your side of the map, and your colour, change from game to game. Teammates always start together. Your colour runs down the edge of your orders panel, and on the first turn your provinces pulse.
The host can turn random starting spots off in the lobby's settings. Then every seat keeps its own spot, and the lobby shows where each seat starts.
How do teammates attack together?#
Rule of thumb: move into the same province in the same step, and you fight as one side.
Stacks from you and your teammates that enter a province in the same step add their strength together, and each one's support and strikes count too. Plan your attacks so they land together: a stack that arrives a step later fights its own, separate battle.
Who gets a province we take together?#
Rule of thumb: whoever has the most ground units left in it.
On a tie, the earlier seat gets it (a1 before a2). The province's income and builds then belong to that player.
How does a bot ally play?#
You choose when you start a game against bots:
- Follows your lead. It plans after you end your turn. It joins attacks you've started that it can reach, covers a front city you've emptied, and fights its own battles elsewhere. It never gives orders to your stacks. So lead with your army; don't wait for it.
- Plays its own game. It plans alone, at the start of the turn. You can see its orders as arrows while you give yours, and join its attacks.
Bot allies always play at the strongest level.
How good are the bot opponents?#
- Easy plays like a newcomer. Each bot plays alone, waits for very safe odds, often forgets its artillery and planes, and sometimes leaves a city empty.
- Normal plays like someone who has played a few games. Each bot plays alone and usually brings support.
- Hard plays the full strategy: the enemy bots plan as one team.
How does team chat work?#
In an online game your team has a chat that only your team can read. The Players tab lists everyone in the game.
When is a game won?#
Rule of thumb: a team wins when it holds every enemy city. Countryside doesn't count.
- A player left with no province and no stack is out, and the team plays on without them.
- A team concedes only when every player still in concedes in the same turn.