War

War is how you take a city from another party. Your party declares war, there is a short preparation, then both sides send troops in turns. In the end the side with more strength left wins. The winner takes the city.

Who declares war

One person cannot start a war — this is a party matter. The declaration is made either by the party leader or by a member the leader has given the "can declare war" permission to.

Declaring is not free. The cost is paid from the party treasury, not from your own pocket. So a party with an empty treasury cannot go to war.

A few more rules:

• You cannot declare war on a city your own party owns.
• Only one war happens in a city at a time. If someone is already besieging it, you wait your turn.
• A party can have only one attacking war at a time. But being attacked counts separately; you can attack and defend at the same time.

You cannot attack every city: the supply line

Your troops have to actually get there. The game calls this the supply line.

• Tanks travel by land. So the target must be reachable overland from your party's border. You cannot send a tank to a city across the sea.
• Planes and ships look at distance. Every vehicle has a range it can cover; if the target is beyond that range, that vehicle cannot join.
• The higher a vehicle's tier, the further it reaches. Better vehicles mean longer arms.

The war screen shows you which of your vehicles can reach that target. If you try to send one that cannot, the game warns you.

The fog: preparation

Fighting does not begin the moment war is declared. First there is a preparation period.

During it both sides may send troops, but nobody can see what the other has sent. The enemy's strength stands on screen as a question mark. The bar that shows who is winning is not even drawn — because nobody knows yet.

When preparation ends, every attack that has piled up lands at the same moment. This is called the opening salvo. Both sides see what the other had been stacking up. Sometimes the war ends right there: one side collapses on the first blow.

Sending troops

Sending troops to a war is called a shipment. What you send are military vehicles: tanks, planes, ships.

What to know:

• The vehicles you send are gone permanently. They do not come back when the war ends.
• After each shipment you wait a while. Then you can send again.
• You can send several vehicles at once.
• To join a war at all you must hold a certain number of military vehicles. Someone with three or four tanks in their bag cannot enter a siege.

Your Politics stat matters a great deal here. As Politics rises two things improve at once: you wait less between shipments and you send more vehicles per shipment. If you genuinely want to contribute in war, raise Politics.

Who can join a war

A siege is not a private quarrel between two parties. It is open to everyone:

• If you are a member of the attacking party, you are automatically on the attacking side.
• If you are a member of the defending party, you are automatically on the defending side.
• If you have no party, or your party is on neither side, you choose a side. You send troops to whichever you like.

You cannot betray your own party. Whichever side you are a member of, that is where you fight.

Shield and HP

Both sides have two bars: Shield and HP.

Every vehicle you send does two jobs at once:

1. It raises your own side's shield.
2. It lands on the other side as an attack.

An attack eats the enemy's shield first. What is left over after the shield is gone cuts into their HP. So the shield is a buffer: you cannot reach the HP without breaking it.

This works both ways. The defending side does not merely endure, it also grinds the attacker down. A party attacking a well-defended city can run out of its own HP and be forced to withdraw.

Who wins

The rule in one sentence: the side with more shield and HP left in total wins.

The bar on screen already shows exactly that, which means "who looks ahead on the bar" and "who takes the city" can never disagree.

A war ends in one of three ways:

• If the defender's HP runs out, the attacker takes the city. Instantly.
• If the attacker's HP runs out, the defender has repelled them. The city stays.
• If time runs out, the side stronger in total wins.

There is one subtlety: in a tie the city stays with the defender. For the attacker to take a city, it must finish strictly ahead. Sieges are hard, and that is how it should be.

Defending your city

A city you own gives you an advantage by itself. The defending side's HP starts higher than the attacker's. That surplus comes from population: the homes of the players living in the city. The more homes and the better they are, the tougher the city.

So the most important sentence is this: the people who live in your city protect it. A city that attracts players, one where people want to settle, is far harder to take than an empty one. This is where keeping your tax reasonable and developing your city pays off.

There is also one construction that amplifies the population's contribution: City Parks. As its level rises, the same population gives the city more health. If you want to defend your city, do two things at once — draw people in, then grow the parks.

Tips

• Do not attack alone. A siege is party work. If your members do not send troops steadily to the same war, the declaration cost is wasted.
• Check your bag first. Without enough military vehicles you cannot enter a war at all. Stock up before the siege starts.
• Raise Politics. It is the stat that increases your contribution in war the most.
• Do not rush during preparation. The other side cannot see either. You do not have to empty everything you own into the first hour.
• Check range beforehand. Declaring war on a city you cannot reach wastes your party's treasury.
• If you are defending, keep your city crowded. Construction costs money, but population is free: run a city people want to live in.