Troops grow fastest with your bar near 42% and stop at the cap; land and cities raise the cap. Gold comes from land, cities and ports, and trade ships between ports pay both sides.

Attacking sends the share on the slider. Open land costs 3 troops a tile on plains, 4.6 on highlands, 7 in mountains; a nation's land also costs its troops per tile, more in hills, across rivers and ×2.4 near a fort. A front far from your capital and cities is slower and dearer (its supply % is in FRONTS), and a nation holds hardest at home. Two attacks meeting head on cancel out.

Across water a click sends a transport (three at sea at most), from your port, or from any coast losing a third. Encircle a pocket of land with no sea and it is annexed. The barrage (once every 3 minutes) burns troops but never takes land.

Seasons turn every 2½ minutes: winter slows a band of the map, a monsoon slows the sea. Click a nation to propose an alliance (five minutes); breaking one early makes you a traitor that everybody hunts. Bot nations have a temper: 🐢 turtle, ⚔ raider, ⚖ merchant, ⚓ admiral, and they gang up on whoever runs away with the map.

Recall an attack (✕) and three quarters come home. Right click or Esc leaves build mode.