Instructions

Start here

Your first turn

1. Open the map and enter. If you see Enter game, press it. There is no account to create. A new Chiefdom starts with four population in the centre of a new 3×3 block of Zones.
2. Find your population. Click your Chiefdom icon in the top-left corner. It centres the map on one of your groups. The ◆ badge identifies your Chiefdom.
3. Select a group. Tap or click one of your available population markers in the Tactical view. Legal destinations show a Move button.
4. Give an order. Press Move in an edge-adjacent Zone to order one population there. Press All to order all available population from that group. The same controls in the source Zone order population to stay.
5. Check your plan, then return after the tick. Incoming and outgoing markers show pending orders. Press ✖️ on an incoming or stay marker to cancel one population; Shift-click ✖️ to cancel all population in that marker. The world clock tells you when the next tick is due.

Who you control

Your public IPv4 address places you in a nested hierarchy. You do not choose a team or log in with a password.

Khanate

The broadest group, determined by the first number of the address. It contains Tribes.

Tribe

Addresses with the same first two numbers share a Tribe. It contains Chiefdoms.

Chiefdom

Addresses with the same first three numbers share a Chiefdom. Its population belongs to the Chiefdom collectively.

Champion

The final number distinguishes Champions within a Chiefdom. All its Champions can give orders to all its population.

People on the same public address are the same Champion. For example, people sharing a home router may share both identity and orders. Opening another tab or device on that address does not create another vote.

Changing networks, switching to mobile data or using a different VPN exit can change your identity. A browser cookie does not hold your Chiefdom. The game currently requires an IPv4 identity; IPv6 has no equivalent mapping.

Sharing a Tribe or Khanate does not give you control of another Chiefdom’s units. In overcrowded Zones, allied groups fight together first, then compete with one another if population still exceeds capacity.

Read the map

A Zone is one land square. Its cap number, in the top right of the cell, is its ordinary population capacity. In a standing City, this original Zone number is shown in parentheses; hover, focus or tap it to read the friendly and hostile City limits and their technology modifiers. A group is all the population of one Chiefdom in that Zone; several Chiefdoms may occupy the same Zone.

⛰️ Mountains are impassable terrain, shown in Tactical, Island and Archipelago views. They are not Zones and do not contribute to Zone totals or island size. Population cannot enter them, sail from or land on them, or found a City there. A Mountain blocks the sailing edge it occupies. Select a Mountain in Tactical or Island view to read its explanation.

• Tactical is the playable Zone view for the selected island. Use it to select population and give orders.
• Island is a compact Zone overview. Select a Zone to open its Tactical location.
• Archipelago shows the islands. Select an island to inspect it. The compact island overview also helps you locate nearby islands.
• Your Chiefdom icon cycles through your groups; ⏳ finds groups with population still available for your orders. The hourglass and Space cycle across all Chiefdoms you can command; selecting a delegated group does not restrict that cycle. For delegated Chiefdoms, cycling visits each cluster of adjacent occupied Zones once, including diagonal connections. The finder switches islands when needed.
• 🏘️ finds visible City plans and your Khanate’s founded Cities. A City badge shows its Khanate and location details.
• Pan and zoom to explore. Use the + and − buttons, drag the map, or pinch on touch devices. North is up and east is right.

Each repeated population symbol represents one unit. The ◆ badge marks your Chiefdom; ☆ marks another Chiefdom in your Tribe with no active owner orders; ◇ marks another Chiefdom in your Khanate. The empty star appears before you finish your own orders and stays visible even when all delegation slots are occupied. It becomes ★ across that Chiefdom when you start assigning delegated orders, including its movement markers, and returns to ☆ when you cancel its final active order. This helps you see which subjects occupy slots and which cousins could become available after cancellation. Selection still requires the server to permit delegation and a free subject slot. An owner order anywhere in that Chiefdom removes the star, including a stay or sailing order. Names, emblems and tooltips help distinguish groups. Coats of arms or the alternative emoji display identify the same population; changing the display or theme does not change the rules.

Controlled

One Chiefdom occupies the Zone. It need not be yours.

Mixed

More than one Chiefdom occupies it. Coexistence alone does not mean a battle happened.

Uncontrolled

No population occupies it.

Contested

Conflict caused losses there during the last completed tick. This records a past battle, not a prediction.

Move or stay

You can move to an existing Zone directly north, east, south or west on the same island. You cannot move diagonally or jump across a gap. A unit moves at most one Zone per tick; arriving population cannot move on again in that same tick.

After selecting a unit, click anywhere in a destination Zone outside its other controls to order one population to move or stay. The Move or Stay label also supports keyboard activation. All submits one order for the selected group's full available population. Available population decreases as you allocate your orders. The population has not travelled yet: incoming and outgoing markers are the plan for the next tick.

Ordering a unit to its current Zone is an explicit stay choice, shown with a stationary marker. Unallocated population also remains where it is unless another Champion’s supported orders move it. An explicit stay order can compete with those proposals.

You can cancel pending orders, including orders submitted by another Champion of your Chiefdom. Each press of ✖️ cancels one population from the displayed land order; Shift-click ✖️ cancels all population in that marker. If the marker combines several orders, Shift-click cancels each of them. To cross the sea, use a sailing order instead of a land move.

Sail between islands

Sailing is now active. You can sail to an island immediately north, east, south or west in the Archipelago. You cannot sail diagonally, skip an empty slot or pass through another island. Depart from a coastal Zone with an exposed edge facing the destination.

1. Select coastal population in Tactical view. A blue Sail button appears in the adjacent sea when that edge has a valid route to another island.
2. Check the route and risk. Use Archipelago to locate the neighbouring island and read the risk warning beside Sail. Open Sailing info for your Khanate’s route estimates and journey history.
3. Press Sail once per population you want to send. Pending sailing markers appear in the sea beside their origin Zone, with directional arrows. Their sailing heading’s popup identifies the source Zone and destination island. Use the cancellation control to withdraw a pending order before the tick.

Sailing, land movement and staying share the same available population and Champion voting. Giving competing orders does not create extra population. The voyage resolves at the next world tick, rather than when you press Sail.

Estimates and zero-survivor warnings describe the whole Khanate route. They may change as orders, votes or population change; they are not a promise about your own units. Review the estimate again after submitting or cancelling orders.

You choose the direction, not a landing Zone. Each survivor lands in a random Zone on the destination coast facing the origin island. Survivors may spread across several Zones or land together. Arrivals take part in that tick’s normal conflict, capacity checks and growth, but cannot depart again in the same tick. The public journey history records actual losses, survivors and landings.

When Champions disagree

Each Champion may propose orders for the whole available group independently. Another Champion’s proposal does not use up your allowance. At the tick, the game reconciles those proposals against the population that actually exists.

For each destination, the first unit requested is supported by everyone asking to send at least one there; the second by everyone asking for at least two, and so on. The most strongly supported portions resolve first. Equal support is resolved in random order. The last portion may be reduced to whatever population remains.

What happens each tick

Check the map’s world clock for the current cadence, countdown and next tick time. The schedule can change; there is no need to keep your browser open. A tick may begin a few minutes after its target time.

1. Move and sail. The game reconciles pending orders and transfers population, including sailing losses and arrivals. Staying uses the same shared allocation as moving and sailing.
2. Conflict and City founding. Overcrowded groups fight as Khanates, then Tribes, then Chiefdoms. Smaller groups lose first; equal-size groups lose together. In any Zone, once only one Khanate remains, its surviving population forms a City if it has at least 20 units there. Founding stops the internal fight and consumes all those units. A standing City can also be attacked.
3. City resident conversion. At an existing friendly City, when only its own Khanate remains in the Zone, at least six surviving regular residents become Khanate units, before internal Tribe or Chiefdom fighting and before culling. See conversion and its support consequences.
4. Cull and City support. Remaining population is reduced to the Zone’s capacity, followed by the Chiefdom and Tribe population cull. Existing Cities need support from nearby surviving population or become Khanate units; a newly founded City gets this tick’s support check waived. Chiefdoms with no population become extinct. A Khanate can continue through a City or Khanate units even if its Chiefdoms are gone.
5. Sparks of Invention. City gains and losses change the Khanate’s Spark balance at the end of the tick. Sparks do not yet unlock other technologies.
6. Grow. A surviving group of one offers one new unit; a larger group offers two. Growth happens after culling. Eligible active Chiefdoms receive grace births towards 12 total units first; remaining births need room under both the Chiefdom’s own 47-unit limit and its Tribe’s counted 47-unit limit. The Tribe excludes each Chiefdom’s first 12 actual units. No population grows in a standing City’s Zone, regardless of Khanate. Regular City residents count towards their Chiefdom’s total and the same Tribe calculation; eligible population elsewhere grows normally. Khanate units never grow.

That is why population can exceed an ordinary Zone’s capacity after a tick. Standing Cities have no proliferation. You have the next planning period to move excess population before the next conflict and cull. Shared Tribe or Khanate membership protects groups during earlier levels of a fight, but they may compete if the Zone remains overcrowded.

Chiefdom and Tribe population limits

Each Chiefdom has an ordinary growth limit of 47 units worldwide. Its Tribe also shares a limit of 47 counted units: subtract 12 from each Chiefdom’s regular population, treat any result below zero as zero, then add those results. Both limits apply across all Zones and islands; moving to another island grants no extra allowance.

The exemption belongs to its Chiefdom. A Chiefdom with four units contributes zero to the Tribe count. Its eight unused exempt places are available only for its own future growth. A small inactive newcomer uses no shared allowance while it remains within 12; inactive units above 12 still count.

First, each eligible active Chiefdom below 12 units in total receives grace births towards 12, even with no shared ordinary allowance. If only some births fit, each potential birth within that Chiefdom has an equal chance. Recalculate the totals after grace, then allocate remaining potential births among Chiefdoms with room under their own limit while the Tribe also has room. Every eligible potential birth has an equal chance; this is not an equal quota per Chiefdom. Each group keeps its original one- or two-birth budget across both allocations. Grace is neither an instant refill nor a second growth round. New Chiefdoms retain their full starting population. Cities and Khanate units do not count towards these limits.

After Zone culling, the higher population-cull threshold is 64 for each Chiefdom’s actual worldwide population and its Tribe’s counted population, still excluding each Chiefdom’s first 12 actual units. Remove individual Chiefdom excess first; those losses also reduce the Tribe count. Then remove any remaining Tribe excess from eligible units across that Tribe. Each eligible unit has an equal chance within the relevant group. Chiefdoms with 16 or fewer units are protected from this extra cull, which stops at the relevant threshold or when no eligible units remain. It never refills a smaller Chiefdom. Combat and Zone overcrowding can still reduce a Chiefdom below 16.

Culling uses a higher threshold than growth. At Culture rank zero, a lone Chiefdom with 65 units loses one eligible unit to reach 64, even though its discounted Tribe count is only 53. The separate 16-unit protection can leave a Tribe above its counted cull threshold when no eligible units remain.

Equal-size losses happen together and can take the total below capacity. For example, two rival Khanates with one population each in a capacity-one Zone both lose their last unit in conflict; neither survives to grow.

Cities and City plans

A City forms automatically during a world tick in any Zone where only one Khanate remains with at least 20 surviving population. The surviving contributors become the City, whether or not anyone marked that Zone as a proposed location. You cannot order construction directly.

You can mark one proposed City location for your Khanate by opening a Zone’s capacity badge and choosing Plan a City here. The plan is a map marker for players; it does not reserve that Zone, affect the founding rule or build a City. Use the ✖️ on your plan to remove it.

Founded Cities count first in Khanate Rankings; population breaks ties. Each founded City adds one Spark of Invention and each lost City removes one, settled at the end of the tick. Sparks are shown in Rankings but cannot yet be spent.

City capacity rules

The italic number in parentheses is the Zone’s original capacity, which applies again if the City is lost without a replacement. It is not the standing City’s population limit.

A standing City has a shared friendly population capacity of 2 at Urbanisation ranks 0–2, or 3 at ranks 3–4. Each hostile Khanate has its own shared capacity of max(0, 2 + its Infiltration − owner City Defences). These limits include Khanate units and every Chiefdom of the relevant Khanate. The City itself is not a population unit.

Fighting between Khanates uses the City checkpoint of 2. The breach check comes before the later City cull, which applies the friendly and hostile limits above. Units do not grow while the City stands.

City foundations

If your gathering is below the population required to found a City directly, a gathering of 15 population from one Khanate can start foundations. It consumes exactly 15; surplus stays in its existing groups and remains subject to normal conflict and culling. A later gathering of 15, including friendly population already at the site, completes a City and is consumed under the usual Urbanisation rules. Architecture does not reduce these foundation payments.

Foundations belong to the Khanate that starts them. They are not neutral: only their owner can complete the discounted route. Another Khanate can replace them only by meeting the ordinary direct-founding requirement.

Foundations use City support rules. The creation tick waives support. From the following tick, foundations need 1 support after Cull, before technology settlement and Proliferation. Ordinary and general units of the owning Khanate both count. At Logistics rank zero, use 2 local units, 3 units in one orthogonally adjacent Zone, or 1 local unit plus 2 in one neighbour.

The owning Khanate’s held Logistics expands the same support range as for Cities. Each unit contributes ½ locally, ⅓ at distance 1, ¼ at distance 2, or ⅕ at distance 3. Distances count orthogonal steps on the same Island. Rank 1 allows any sources through distance 1; rank 2 adds at most one source Zone at distance 2; rank 3 allows any through distance 2; rank 4 adds at most one at distance 3; rank 5 allows any through distance 3.

Standing Cities receive support first. Foundations follow in order of lowest ordinary Zone capacity, then oldest starting tick, then a fixed order for ties. Population and source-Zone reservations are shared: each source Zone supports only one City or foundation per tick, even with spare population. Support reserves units without consuming them. An unsupported foundation is destroyed; it does not reduce into Khanate units or cause a City technology loss.

Any enemy remaining in the foundation County destroys it, even during creation grace or with enough friendly support. Foundations alone do not keep an otherwise extinct Khanate alive. Destroyed construction payments are not refunded. Foundations provide no City or technology credit until completion.

Foundation capacity rules

Foundations reduce ordinary Zone capacity by 1, with a minimum of 2 on habitable land. A Zone whose original capacity is 1 therefore has capacity 2 while foundations stand. The CAP badge shows the current capacity in italics, followed by the original capacity in parentheses: 5 (6). Losing foundations restores the original capacity; completing a City applies the City capacity rules.

Attack a City

To attack another Khanate’s City, select your population in Tactical view and use the normal Move or All controls to send it into the City’s Zone. There is no separate attack order. The attack resolves at the next tick after movement and sailing arrivals. Population of the City’s own Khanate does not attack it.

1. The population fights first. Ignore the City while rival Khanates in its Zone fight until only one Khanate remains or total population falls to 2 or fewer. The City attack is checked before any fighting between Tribes or Chiefdoms within the surviving Khanate.
2. At least 7 hostile survivors destroy the City. Count survivors at that checkpoint, rather than the number originally sent. Seven is a requirement, not a payment: destroying the City does not consume those attackers. The lost City releases 6 Khanate units of its original Khanate, and combat resumes using the Zone’s ordinary capacity. Khanate units take casualties before Chiefdom units of their Khanate. Destruction does not transfer the City to the attackers; if one Khanate then has at least 20 survivors at the normal founding checkpoint, it can found a new City.
3. Fewer than 7 hostile survivors leave the City standing. Remaining internal conflict and culling reduce population to the City Zone’s capacity of 2. Enemy survivors can remain there. Neither friendly nor enemy population grows while that City stands.

Convert City residents

An existing friendly City automatically checks its residents once only its own Khanate remains, after fighting between Khanates and before internal Tribe or Chiefdom fighting. It also checks when only that Khanate was present from the start. Count actual surviving regular Chiefdom population across all friendly Tribes and Chiefdoms; existing Khanate units do not count towards the minimum of 6.

Each complete group of five regular residents creates one Khanate unit. Existing and newly created Khanate units take priority for the effective City capacity. Regular remainder stays in its original Chiefdoms wherever capacity remains; only excess remainder is discarded. Five regular residents plus one Khanate unit do not convert. With capacity 2, six regular residents leave one Khanate unit and one regular resident; six plus one existing Khanate unit leave two Khanate units and discard the regular remainder. With capacity 3 from Urbanisation, that last example also retains one regular resident. Ten regular residents create two Khanate units. These are conversion results, before later culling and support. Population does not grow in a standing City. Retained regular residents therefore cannot grow into another conversion or overcrowd the City through proliferation. Move them to an ordinary Zone if you want them to grow.

Zone culling still applies and removes Khanate units first. The shared friendly City capacity is 2, or 3 at Urbanisation ranks 3–4. One remaining local Khanate unit supplies only ½ support and needs sufficient outside support; two local Khanate units supply 1 support. An unsupported City still reduces normally. Conversion can remove a City’s supporting population elsewhere in the support network.

Khanate units cannot move, sail or grow. They remain vulnerable to combat and culling, belong directly to the Khanate and do not use a Tribe’s growth budget. Consuming regular residents frees room under their Chiefdom limits and, when counted units are consumed, the Tribe limit; a Chiefdom or Tribe with no remaining population can become extinct, while Cities and Khanate units can keep its Khanate alive.

Conversion does not found or destroy a City, grant a technology or change hostile breach rules. There is no conversion order, manual settlement or reverse conversion. History records regular population before conversion, exchanged residents, created Khanate units, retained regular remainder and discarded remainder separately from combat casualties, at the conversion checkpoint; later culling can leave fewer Khanate units.

Keep a City supported

Support is checked after Zone and population-cap culling, before growth. A City founded this tick skips that tick’s check; its first check is next tick. Only surviving population of the City’s Khanate counts, across any of its Tribes and Chiefdoms, including Khanate units. Enemy population contributes nothing.

Under the current rules, each unit in the City’s own Zone provides ½ support; each unit in a Zone directly north, east, south or west provides ⅓ support. A City needs at least 1 support. You may combine its own Zone with at most one neighbouring Zone; diagonal or more distant Zones do not count, and separate neighbours cannot pool their units.

At the baseline Logistics rank zero:

• 2 local units are enough.
• 3 units in one adjacent Zone are enough.
• 1 local unit plus 2 in one adjacent Zone are enough.
• 1 local plus 1 adjacent is not enough; neither are 2 units in one neighbour plus 1 in a different neighbour.

Support does not consume units. However, each supporting Zone can serve only one City or foundation per tick, even if it has spare units or population of several Khanates. Cities are checked in order of lowest ordinary Zone capacity first, then oldest founding tick, with a fixed order for exact ties. For each City, the game prefers sources not also adjacent to another standing City of the same Khanate, then fewer supporting units, then fewer source Zones. Support is assigned in that order; earlier decisions are not rearranged to save more Cities.

An unsupported City becomes Khanate units of its own Khanate. If its Zone is empty or contains only friendly population, add the Zone’s full ordinary capacity as Khanate units, keeping any existing friendly units. If any enemy population is present, add only the space left under ordinary capacity after counting all resident units, with a minimum of zero. This differs from the defending Khanate units released by combat destruction. The City disappears and ordinary Zone capacity applies again; friendly-only replacement can leave it overcrowded until the next normal check.

Those replacement units can support Cities checked later in the same tick, subject to the same range and Zone exclusivity. They cannot rescue a City already checked. Khanate units cannot move, sail or grow; they belong directly to the Khanate, participate in combat and support, and count in its population rather than a Tribe’s or Chiefdom’s.

Planning your next turn

These are starting ideas, not a guaranteed winning plan. Everyone else can move too.

• Make room for growth. Spreading into empty Zones creates more potential births and can avoid losses from Zone overcrowding. Active Chiefdoms below 12 can use grace even when their Tribe has no ordinary growth allowance; larger Chiefdoms need room under both their own limit and the shared allowance. Losses elsewhere in the Tribe can free places for your eligible births.
• Do not confuse reach with strength. A lone unit can start a growing group, but is vulnerable if a larger rival group arrives and overcrowds the Zone.
• Look beyond the current total. A Zone that looks full may empty as its occupants leave; an empty one may receive several arrivals. Other Chiefdoms’ pending orders are private.
• Choose capacity carefully. Higher-capacity Zones can support larger groups before culling. Low-capacity Zones still grow population, but need frequent redistribution.
• Review after the tick. Use the finder, inspect contested Zones, and compare population in Rankings. Adjust to what actually survived rather than assuming every proposal executed.

Common questions

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