War Orders · Game Rules

1 The goal of the game

You command an anonymous empire ("Player A", "Player B"…). Your goal: conquer the world by capturing enemy cities and eliminating the other empires. The last empire standing, or the most powerful one, wins.

A game is played on a map of continents and seas divided into cells. Each turn, all players secretly schedule their orders; they are then resolved simultaneously, phase by phase. No waiting for one another: boldness and anticipation win the day.

2 The map

The world is a grid of cells. You move in 8 directions (the 4 sides + the 4 diagonals), and the edges of the map wrap around (the world is "toroidal": leave to the east and you come back from the west).

Terrain types

ForestCover (−20% for the attacker), concealment

MountainVision +1, impassable to aircraft

Desert+10% to the attacker, extra STA

SeaShips only

FogUnexplored area

There are also plains (open terrain), jungle (cover, restricted movement), rivers (costly to cross) and roads/rails (fast movement).

Fog of war. You only see what surrounds your units and cities. The rest of the map stays in the fog, and areas you have already explored keep their terrain but not enemy movements.

Cities and the capital

Cities produce your units and repair your troops. Capturing them expands your empire; losing yours weakens you. See the Cities & production section.

3 How a turn unfolds

Each turn has a scheduling phase (you give orders to all of your units and cities), then 5 movement/combat phases resolved in order, simultaneously for all players.

The movement phases

A unit does not move every phase: its speed determines in which phases it advances. A slow unit moves once (in the middle of the turn), a fast unit moves several times and earlier.

Cadence	Phases 1 2 3 4 5	Example
Slow (1 move)	· · X · ·	Infantry, Artillery
Normal (2 moves)	· X · X ·	Tank, Truck
Fast (3 moves)	X · X · X	Aircraft, ships, train

You may also spend stamina to move earlier or farther than your cadence (see Stamina).

Scheduling an order: the compass rose

In each phase where it moves, a unit follows the direction you scheduled on the compass rose (8 directions). You chain a trajectory this way, or you give an action order.

The possible orders

MoveAdvance one cell in a direction

AttackEnter an enemy cell

Defend / WaitDig in (−10% to the attacker)

TransportLoad / unload

ReconnaissanceExplore / map

ParadropDrop paratroopers (up to 6 cells)

Transport & loading

Some units carry others : Truck (3), Rail (10), Cargo plane (2), Naval transport (6), Submarine (1 Special Forces unit).

Board : on the same cell and the same phase, the passenger issues Prepare to board and the carrier issues Load.
En route : loaded units follow the carrier.
Unload : land carriers use Unload ; the naval transport unloads onto an adjacent shore with the directional Unload orders (north, east, south, west).
Refuel : Take 10 END draws 10 stamina from a truck, train, transport or cargo on the cell.

Paradrop

Paratroopers (PAR) jump up to 6 cells via Paradrop (cost 30 END). They arrive at the phase equal to the jump distance (a 3-cell jump → arrives in phase 3) and can capture a city.

Unit groups

To command several units at once, group them :

On a cell with at least 2 of your units, click Create a group and tick the units ; the group gets a letter.
In the Units tab, each group is a collapsible block. The 🎯 icon opens the group's orders : one order (move, destination…) applies to all its units.
The ✕ disbands the group.

It's an organisation convenience : units stay separate (not to be confused with the Combine order, which merges them into a new unit).

Destination (move to a cell)

Instead of programming a direction each phase, you can set a destination cell : the unit (or group) heads there on its own, turn after turn, until it arrives.

Select the unit (or group) → Orders tab → 📍 Destination → click a cell.
Optimized : takes the least stamina-costly path (avoids mountains, rivers, desert).
Direct : goes straight to the target without saving stamina.
Forced march : the unit also uses the phases before its movement phase to go further this turn, at an extra stamina cost.

The planned route is drawn on the map (solid for this turn, dashed beyond) up to the 🎯. A destination replaces the unit's manual per-phase orders.

4 The units

30 unit types split into ground, air, naval and special units. Each unit is tinted in its empire's colour.

How to read a card: ❤️ Hits hit points 🚶 Move speed 🎯 To hit base combat % 🏭 Cost build points ⛽ STA stamina

5 Movement & stamina

Stamina (STA) is the fuel of your units. Every action costs some:

Stamina costs

Standard move: 1 STA / cell
Combat: 5 STA (ground/naval), 2 STA (air) per phase
Early move: +5 STA
Move beyond the cadence: +10 STA per cell
Entering a river/mountain: +10 STA · desert (infantry): +3 STA/cell
Paradrop 30 · Bombing 5 · Redeployment 20

Exhaustion & resupply

STA at 0: a ground/naval unit has its accuracy divided by 4 and its speed drops to 1. An air unit is destroyed (out of fuel).

Automatic resupply (end of turn): STA fully restored in a friendly city/village or on a friendly aircraft carrier. During the turn, the "Take" order recovers 10 STA from a truck/convoy present on the cell.

6 Combat

Combat triggers when a unit enters a cell occupied by the enemy. Once engaged, a unit is pinned: it no longer moves until the end of the turn (with exceptions, such as bombers).

Resolution sequence

Ranged fire: units that can (Artillery, Battleship, Anti-Aircraft) fire on adjacent cells.
Main combat, in 3 successive groups (a group's damage is applied before the next one):
- Group 1: Artillery (ART, AAG, BAT)
- Group 2: Specialized (Fighter, Submarine, Cruiser, Mechanized, Cavalry…)
- Group 3: Standard (all the others)

Within a single group, shots are simultaneous: a destroyed unit still fires back.

Accuracy modifiers (cumulative)

Situation	Effect on the attacker
Target in mountain / forest / jungle	−20 %
Target in a river	−10 %
Target in a desert	+10 %
Target in a city	−10 %
Target on the "Defend" order	−10 %

Attacker's experience	Bonus
Green (recruit)	−10 %
Trained	0 %
Veteran	+5 %
Crack	+10 %
Elite	+20 %

The chance to hit never drops below 5 %: even the best defence leaves an opening.

Experience and ranks

Every hit has a 50 % chance of earning 1 experience point. The thresholds: Trained (1 pt) → Veteran (3) → Crack (5) → Elite (7). Combined units (Mechanized, Cavalry) progress three times more slowly.

7 Cities & production

A city's power is measured in build points (build steps). The bigger a city, the more it produces and the more programs it unlocks.

Size	Points	Unlocks
Village	0–3	Basic production
Town	4–5	—
City	6–8	Special programs
Metropolis	9–10	Everything

Building units

You allocate the city's points into a production queue. Building a unit must be consecutive: interrupting it cancels the progress.
Naval units can only be built in a port city (adjacent to water).

Special programs

A program consumes all of the city's points for the turn:

Upgrade: +1 production point to the city (max 10).
Combat training: for 7 turns, units come out Trained (75 %) or Veteran (25 %).
Civil defence: prepares hidden militia that activate if the city is attacked.
Technological research: generates research points (see Advanced systems).

Capturing a city

Eliminate all the defenders of the cell.
Have at least one infantry unit (INF, SPF, PAR or Mechanized) on the cell at the end of a phase.
Control is transferred immediately; the captured city restarts at 4 production points.

8 Terrain, vision & weather

Vision & concealment

On a mountain or with a reconnaissance aircraft, you see 1 cell farther.
A unit ending its turn in a forest (75 %) or in a jungle (90 %) may stay invisible in enemy reports.
The submarine is stealthy: only visible in combat or near an ASW/Destroyer.

Movement restrictions

Ground: cannot enter the sea.
Naval: stays on water (except rivers).
Air: does not fly over mountains. On the ground in one of your cities or on one of your airfields, it burns nothing; anywhere else it burns 10 endurance per turn and crashes once dry. Fighters, ASW and reconnaissance aircraft may also land on a carrier.

Weather & seasons. The climate cycles (spring, summer, autumn, winter) and changes the game: frozen rivers in winter, concealment, resupply. Storms may form at sea, grow and damage the units caught in them, except those in shelter (city, fort, airfield, carrier).

9 Advanced systems

Diplomacy

Players are anonymous. A messaging system lets you send short messages (30 words max) to negotiate alliances and betrayals. Forbidden: sharing exact coordinates.

Technological research

Research points are invested in a tech tree: new units, combat bonuses, logistics improvements. The path is yours to choose.

Good to know. Some advanced mechanics (weather, tech tree, messaging) roll out gradually in War Orders; the rules above describe the full intended game.

10 On-screen markers

Hit points

Stamina

Rank / XP

Stealthy

Destroyed

Resources

Objective

Reports

Turn / Phase

In short: explore, produce in your cities, manoeuvre by anticipating the 5 phases, strike where the enemy is weak, capture their cities with your infantry, and become the master of the world. 🌍