1. Pick a starting cell. When the round begins you have a few seconds to click any neutral land cell — that becomes your capital.
2. Click neutral land next to your territory to expand into it. Click enemy land to attack it.
3. Earn money from the cells you own. Spend it on buildings.
4. Defend or annihilate. Build bunkers and shields, or unlock the nuclear chain and end the game on your own terms.

Right-click (or close button) cancels any open menu. Press Esc to back out of build modes.

Every cell on the grid is a piece of terrain. Terrain affects what you can build and how easily troops move through it.

• Grass / Plains — the default. Build anything here.
• Forest — buildable, but slows movement slightly.
• Desert — buildable. During a sandstorm event, clicks here often fail.
• Mountain — difficult terrain. Slow to cross, limited building.
• Sand (coast) — the only terrain where Harbors can be built (must touch water).
• Water & Rivers — impassable for troops unless bridged. Trade ships travel here.
• Crater — left behind by nukes. Unbuildable, very slow, recovers over many minutes. Can flood into water if it sits next to the sea.

Each cell also has a height value. Nuclear blasts physically lower the ground; deep enough craters next to water turn into permanent lakes.

Click a target cell to give an order. A small radial menu opens with your options:

• Attack — sends troops from your nearest border to take the cell. Works on neutral or enemy land.
• Buildings / Infrastructure — opens the build menu (only on your own territory).
• Missile / Nuclear — fire from your stockpile (requires the right buildings).

The Troop Deployment slider on the start screen sets how many of your troops are sent on each order. Higher = expand faster but leave borders thin. Lower = slow growth but rock-solid defense. You're trading speed for safety.

You have two resources: money (for building and missiles) and troops (for attacking and holding land).

• Every owned cell generates a small income. More land = more money.
• Factories boost income.
• Houses boost troop growth and the maximum troop cap.
• Harbors dispatch trade ships to foreign harbors for +$100 per arrival.

Every building has a cost and a build time. While constructing, the building shows a progress overlay and provides no bonus yet.

A building only works when it is connected by road to your capital. If a building is disconnected (e.g. cut off by an enemy), it goes inactive and stops contributing.

• Road — open the Infrastructure menu, click Road, then click your source building, then the target building. Costs ~$4 per cell.
• Bridge — same flow, but lets you cross water. Costs $16 per water cell. Both endpoints must be your own land.

Plan your road network early. A factory disconnected from your capital is just a $140 brick.

Economy

Defense

Missiles

Nuclear (build all four to enable nukes)

Bunkers defend a radius around themselves. Enemy attacks into that radius are weakened and the bunker takes 1 HP of damage per heavy assault. At 0 HP the bunker is destroyed. Click your own bunker to repair it ($60 per HP).

Missile Shields automatically intercept enemy missiles flying through their radius. They are 100% reliable against conventional missiles but only have a partial chance against nukes — and they have a cooldown after each intercept.

Fire Stations exist because the world has wildfires. Sandstorm and dry-season events can ignite forests near your border; without a fire station the blaze spreads through your land and damages buildings.

Conventional missiles are your medium-range strike weapon. They cost $350 each, plus one missile from your silo's stockpile, and have a 30-second cooldown after each launch.

1. Build a Missile Silo (and ideally a Missile Factory).
2. Wait for the silo to produce missiles into your stockpile (visible in the top HUD).
3. Click any enemy or neutral cell, choose Missile. The map enters target mode; click the impact spot.

A missile damages buildings, scorches the terrain briefly, and can be intercepted by enemy shields.

Nukes are the win-button — and the most expensive thing in the game. You need all four nuclear buildings active and connected to your capital:

1. Plutonium Plant slowly fills your material bar.
2. Nuclear Arsenal converts material into a finished warhead.
3. Nuclear Storage raises your max material capacity (build several).
4. Nuclear Silo stores the finished nukes and is required to launch.

When the HUD shows Nuke ready, click any cell on the map and choose Nuclear strike. The blast destroys everything in its radius, lowers the terrain (creating craters), and can flood cells next to water. Craters are unbuildable for many minutes.

Warning: Nukes ignore your own borders. You can absolutely glass yourself by misclicking.

The world isn't passive. Random events fire during a round and change the rules temporarily:

• Sandstorm — clicks on desert cells often fail. Avoid expanding through deserts during a storm.
• Wildfires — forests ignite and spread. Fire Stations contain them.
• Trade ships arriving — every 22 seconds each Harbor auto-dispatches a ship to a foreign harbor for +$100 on arrival.

Watch the event log on the side of the screen — it tells you exactly what's happening and when.

• Victory — be the last faction with any territory left.
• Defeat — lose all your cells. Bunkers and shields without territory don't save you.
• Cloud saves — if you're signed in, the round auto-saves every 60 seconds. You can also save manually. Free accounts get 1 slot, Pro accounts get 2.

• Economy first. Three Houses + two Factories before any military building. You can't fight if you can't pay.
• Connect everything. Build a road from your capital to every new building, immediately. A disconnected building is dead weight.
• Watch your borders, not your interior. Bunkers in the middle of your kingdom do nothing. Push them to the front.
• Don't over-deploy. 100% deployment looks fast but means a single counter-attack can cut your kingdom in half.
• Race for shields. If a bot looks like it's heading for nukes, you need at least one Missile Shield up before the warheads start flying.
• Nukes are a finisher, not an opener. The nuclear chain costs $4200+ and takes minutes to build. Use it to break a stalemate, not to start a war.