Victory
S
1500
Sixteen nations on one sheet of paper
Hold the winning share of the land for 30 seconds, or be the last nation standing. The share starts at half (less in bigger fields) and falls through the endgame. Lose your capital and you're out.
First pick one of three perks, a head start for the whole match: the sea charted, the iron and gold found, free boats, a forced alliance and more. Then one of three ambition cards, a secret goal that pays gold or people when you complete it. Your capital is placed for you: nobody knows the map yet, so there's no better spot to pick. You have 30 seconds; press C to hide the cards.
Play with friends on the menu: one of you creates a room and shares its four-letter code, the others join with it. The AI fills the empty nations. Leave mid-match and the AI takes over your nation.
The map starts blank, sea and land alike: everything hatched is uncharted, including where the other nations are. You see your land and a little past it, what your boats and ships pass, and your allies' land. What you've seen stays charted, but borders out of sight are drawn in pencil as you last saw them. Send a scout (S) to chart the way overland, but it may be caught in someone's land. Send an explorer ship (E) from a port to chart the coasts. Build an Observatory to watch a region live. See a capital and you know that nation's exact strength.
Every spot suits a way of playing. Forest ♣ is ambush ground: your attacks out of it cost 20% less. Hills n carry fortresses and Observatories half as far again. Marsh ≈ holds many people but is hard going. Rivers are slow to cross except at a ford =. Iron ⚒ makes forts and warships cheaper; gold ¤ pays every second. The map key (K) lists them; hover anywhere you've charted to read the ground.
People are everything: they grow to fill what your land holds, and they're who you send. Click land on your border to expand: your whole border pushes outward, fast through desert, slow over mountains. The slider sets how many go. Take settlements for prizes: villages (people and a town), ruins (gold).
Click a neighbour's land to attack. Defence is thickest near a capital and thin at the edges: aim at the pale parts of the red shading. Taking towns, fortresses and ports plunders gold. Shift-click to sail to another shore. A capital falls when most of the land around it is taken.
Right-click a nation to propose an alliance: a 3-minute trade pact that pays more the longer it lasts. Renew it near the end (Y) or let it lapse in peace. Break one early and you're an oathbreaker for a minute: everyone sees your people, and your land is cheaper to take.
Gold buys pairs, trade or war: a town or fortress, a port or warship, and rail to join your buildings to your capital. Click your own land for the ring of builds, or use the dock at the bottom.
You always see roughly how strong a nation is against you. Intel buys the exact picture: an Observatory watches a region live, a Spy Network shows gold, ambitions, pact timers and whom each nation means to attack, and in the endgame a Satellite shows everything.
From minute 8 the endgame begins: the winning share falls, defences wear thin, and alliances crack. When someone holds the share, the whole map turns on them. Taking their land slows their clock.
H all controls · K map key · D paper or slate · M sound · scroll to zoom, drag to pan.