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HELP!
Throughout this help page, you will see thumbnail images of the game to help understand the topic. You can click the image to get another window with a bigger image. You may want to leave this second image window open for reference.
The Basics:
If you've played Risk or Global Wars on a BBS you'll be familiar enough with it to jump right in. The basic goal is to try and conquer all the countries on the globe. You are given 3 armies on each of your countries to start from, and each turn you will receive at LEAST 3 more to deploy on a country of your choosing. After deploying the armies, you will be able to attack your neigbors. You are given more armies based on the number of countries you own, and a bonus if you own all the countries on a continent - the amount of the bonus is shown on the global map.
Mechanics:
First, you'll get a screen asking for your username and password.
To create a new account, click the Create New Account
link on the left. There you may enter a new username and password you'll be added. From then on, just enter the name and
password when you come back.
You will then be taken to the Message of the Day and have a choice of "With Chat" or
"No Chat" buttons. I would recommend trying the Chat option at least once. You can always turn it off if you find it
annoying.
The Chat option opens an HTML-based chat at the bottom of the screen which should not interfere with the
game screen above at all. Also, you can move the frame between the chat and the main game screen if you want to see
more of the Chat messages or less.
The next screen you'll get is a list of all games that are
waiting for more players
and games that you are already
playing. Here you have 3 choices. You can enter a running game to take your turn or see the status, you can join a game
that hasn't started yet,
or you can create a new game. (Note: Free players can only be in a max of 5 games.)
To join an existing game for the first time, find a game in the "Waiting for players" state, (the first games listed are waiting for players), and click the game's number. To re-join a game later, just click the game's number. If you want to start a new game, click the "New Game" checkbox at the bottom of the page. Then select the number of players for the new game and set any other options you want.
First, you'll get a screen asking for your username and password.
To create a new account, click the Create New Account
link on the left. There you may enter a new username and password you'll be added. From then on, just enter the name and
password when you come back.
You will then be taken to the Message of the Day and have a choice of "With Chat" or
"No Chat" buttons. I would recommend trying the Chat option at least once. You can always turn it off if you find it
annoying. 
The Chat option opens an HTML-based chat at the bottom of the screen which should not interfere with the
game screen above at all. Also, you can move the frame between the chat and the main game screen if you want to see
more of the Chat messages or less.
The next screen you'll get is a list of all games that are
waiting for more players
and games that you are already
playing. Here you have 3 choices. You can enter a running game to take your turn or see the status, you can join a game
that hasn't started yet, 
or you can create a new game. (Note: Free players can only be in a max of 5 games.)
To join an existing game for the first time, find a game in the "Waiting for players" state, (the first games listed are waiting for players), and click the game's number. To re-join a game later, just click the game's number. If you want to start a new game, click the "New Game" checkbox at the bottom of the page. Then select the number of players for the new game and set any other options you want.
GAME OPTIONS:
 Unlimited Fortifications | At the end of your turn you move armies from any country you own to any other country you own as long as they border each other. With Unlimited Fortifications you can do this as many times as you want. Otherwise you can only do this once per turn. |
 Standard Turns | This option is selected by default. If all players in a game have completed their turns, the game rolls over to the next round immediately and all can take another turn. At midnight, a new round begins regardless. Any player who has not taken a turn from the previous round will have armies stored in a "bank" until he starts his next turn. |
 Daily Turns | This option forces all players to only 1 turn per day. In Standard games when all players have taken their turns another round begins. Daily turn games tend to be more fair to players who don't log in more than once per day. For that reason Daily games also are more heavily weighted in the Rankings. Winners win more points, losers lose more points. |
 Sequential Turns | This option more closely mimics an actual board game. Player 1 takes his turn, then Player 2, then Player 3 etc. The first player to start is randomly chosen. If a player does NOT take his turn within 24 hours, his turn is skipped and play proceeds to the next player, with the skipped player receiving armies in his bank to deploy on his next turn. Nothing happens to these games at midnight. Because of the possible 24 hour delay between turns if a player fails to play, these games may take VERY, VERY long to complete. |
 Unlocked | A recent addition is the concept of game locks. When a player enters a game, that game is locked to other players until he either quits out of the game or there is no activity for over 5 minutes. Basically this disallows concurrent access to a game. By setting the Unlock option, concurrent access to games is allowed. Some players like the locks, some like being able to play "live" at the same time as other players. This allows a choice between the two styles. |
 Premium | Premium games cannot be joined by Freebie players. (Costs $ in other words.) |
   Turn Delay | If chosen, players must wait 1, 6 or 12 hours after their turns before they can begin their next turn. This prevents some issues where players can play up to 3 turns in a row (if the time is right) without anyone else playing at all. Example: I am the last player to play my turns and the time is 11:55pm. I play my turn and the round advances, letting me play again. I finish my 2nd turn at 11:59. Then the midnight routine comes around and all players get new turns. I can now play ANOTHER turn. If this game had the Turn Delay option selected, I couldn't do that. Choices for this option are 1, 6 and 12 hours. This may change at if players request it. |
 AANR | Armies Awarded on New Round - Normally you are awarded your armies at the beginning of your turn. There has been some debate as to how fair that method is. This alternative awards armies based on the state of the game at the beginning of each round instead of each turn. Armies are stored in the players' bank until his turn begins. More logging information is available to AANR games to show why armies were awarded as they were, since the game state when you take your turn may be quite different than it was when the round began. |
 War Fog | This is a major game variation. In War Fog games, you can only see bordering countries to your own. You do not know who owns countries you do not border, and you don't know how many armies they have there. In games with Unlimited Fortifications especially, you can get a really nasty suprise REAL quick! |
  Teams(2 or 3) | This option changes the way Rankings points are allocated and when a game is considered over. Also you may deploy armies to a country owned by a teammate or make fortification moves into a country owned by a teammate. At the end of a game, when only 1 player or team is left standing the Rankings are given out to both the winning player AND his partner. Partners are ALWAYS players 1 and 2, players 3 and 4, and players 5 and 6. Teams(2) games MUST be either 4 or 6 players. Teams(3) games are very similar but have 3 players per team (1,2 and 3 against 4,5 and 6) and MUST be 6 player games. Points lost are based on the average of the winning team and losing team's rankings, not their individual rankings. As in normal games, points won are the sum of points lost but are divided equally among the winning team regardless of which players remain in the game. |
 Cutthroat | This option changes the way Ranking points are allocated ONLY. It doesn't change game play itself at all. If a player eliminates another player in a Cutthroat option game, he gets points towards his Ranking immediately regardless of if he goes on to win the game or not. Basically this makes Cutthroat games NOT a winner-take-all game in regards to the Ranking points. The name comes from the fact that winning the overall game becomes less important than killing other players. |
 Paranoia | This option changes the entire goal of the game. It is also mutually exclusive of the Cutthroat option. In Paranoia games, your objective is to eliminate your Target player. Every player is assigned another Target player. The first player to be eliminated it a Paranoia game ends the game. The winner is the player who had that player Targeted. It does not matter who actually eliminates the target. For this reason, it is often beneficial to protect non-targets when they are weakened. |
 Open Paranoia | This option is almost identical to Paranoia. The only difference is that all player's targets are
displayed to everyone. You know who's trying to kill you and your own target knows you are trying to kill them. The targets are displayed
at the top of the map. For example, a game may show: Targets: 634215 To interpret this, player 1 must kill player 6 to win. Player 2 must kill player 3 to win. Player 3 must kill player 4 to win. Player 4 must kill player 2. Player 5 must kill player 1. Player 6 must kill player 5. As in regular Paranoia, it does not matter who actually eliminates a player. The winner is the player who's target is eliminated first. |
   Bank Limit | Every time a round is over and someone didn't play, (usually at midnight), armies are depositied in their "bank" which will be available to be deployed when they play their next turn. This allows for people who can't play over the weekend etc. Some players use this as a tactic where they will save up lots of armies, then unleash them on unsuspecting opponents. Setting this option will limit the number of rounds that armies can be banked - to either 2 rounds or 5 rounds. The default is 5 rounds. |
 Airlift | The Airlift option changes the way fortifications work. Games with Airlift allow fortifications FROM any country you own TO any country you own, regardless of borders. Note that Standard fortification games still will only allow one single fortification move even with Airlift option - it just doesnt matter if the countries border each other or not. |
 Anonymous | Games with the Anonymous option do not reveal who the players are until after the game is over. |
 Revolution | Games with this option allow a Revolution to occur. Each turn there is a steadily increasing chance that a Revolution will occur which will take a random country from the player with the most countries currently on the board and GIVE that country to a different (random) player. The odds of a Revolution occurring start off at 5% and increase by 5% each time a player begins their turn. When a Revolution DOES occur, it is noted in the Log and Chatter and the odds of another Revolution happening are reduced to 5% again. |
 Cap. Bonus | Games with the Capital Bonus option add 1 army each turn if you own a designated CAPITAL country. These are usually indicated on the map graphic as to which countries are Capitals. As long as you hold a Capital country you will gain one additional army on that country at the beginning of your turn. NOTE: Some maps are not "Capital" enabled and therefore do not HAVE designated capital countries. On these maps the Capital option will have no effect. Notice that Capital enabled maps are marked with an * on the map choice drop-down list. |
 Scoreless | These games do not add or detract from your Monthly or Overall ranking poings. For fun only. |
 No Newbies | Games with this option do not allow players to join if their overall rank is exactly 1200, which generally indicates they have never won or lost a single game and therefore are Newbies. |
 Manual Allocation of Starting Armies | Normally, games start by randomly dividing all of the countries among the players and starting each country off with 3 armies on it. Using the MASA option, the countries are still allocated randomly but only 1 army is assigned to each country. A round of anonymous fortification is then started where each player logs in and allocates his remaining armies any way he chooses among his countries. During this allocation players cannot tell how many armies other players have allocated or which countries other players own so they are effectively allocating in the blind. Once all players have allocated their armies, the game begins normally. Because of the devastating effects of Deadbeat players (players who never complete their allocation phase) on these games, the MASA option is ONLY available currently to Premium players. |
 SameIP | By default players who originate from the same IP address CANNOT join the same game as other players with the same IP address. Games with the SAMEIP option allow this. Players with the same IP address are usually either A) Family members or roommates playing from the same PC or perhaps from different PCs behind the same router or B) Cheaters who are actually the same person (a Multi) using more than one account to play. Type A players have a pre-existing relationship and MAY tend to gang up on other players unfairly. Type B players are simply cheaters. Players who join games with the SAMEIP option are giving their approval to playing games with potential Multis. Also of note, Premium players are exempt from the SAMEIP rules - they can play together regardless of this option. |
    Cards Type1, 2, 3 & 4 | This option implements the concept of Bonus Cards. RISK players will already know the basics
of Bonus Cards, but I'll attempt to explain how Cards work here. The various Types all work nearly identically, the only difference being how
the amount of the bonus is figured. More on that after the basics explaination. A "Card" is designated with one of the 42 countries in the
game AND a color - either Green, Red or Blue. You receive a card at the beginning of every turn IF you conquered at least one country in the
previous turn. You continue to accumulate cards until you have a "set". A set of cards is 3 cards of the same color, OR 3 cards of each
different color (1 Green, 1 Red, 1 Blue). If you have a "set" of cards, you are given the option of turning them in for bonus armies. Since
you cannot hold 5 cards WITHOUT having a set, once you reach 5 cards you MUST turn a set in. You then select which cards to turn in and
submit it, whereupon the bonus armies are added to your bank and deployed. The countries depicted on the cards also play a role. When you
turn in a set, if you currently own any of the countries in the set, that country will automatically receive 2 extra armies on it. That's the basics of Bonus Cards. The Types define how much each set is worth. Type1 bonus amounts correspond to the standard RISK board game amounts. The first set is worth 3. The second set is worth 5. Third is worth 7. Put more simply, the progression is 3,5,7,9,12,15,20,25,30,35... It's a bit unusual in that the lower sets increase by 2, higher sets increase by five. Type2 games increase by 2 each time: 2,4,6,8,10,12,14... Type3 games determine the bonus based on the color of the set turned in. A set of 3 green cards is worth 4. Red is worth 6. Blue is worth 8. A mixed set is worth 10. Finally, Type4 awards a random bonus between 3 and 10. |
 Cards of Mass Destruction | As explained above, each card is assigned a certain country. With the CMD option on, any cards turned in will DESTROY ALL BUT ONE ARMY ON EACH OF THOSE THREE COUNTRIES! (This INCLUDES armies owned by the player turning in the cards). Therefore it is very important to be aware which countries you are turning in and perhaps reducing your army allocation if you will soon have to turn in a card with your own country on it. Also of note, since turning in a card for a country that you own earns you 2 bonus armies on that country, the CMD effect happens first (reducing your armies to 1) THEN the card bonus of 2 armies additional applies. Therefore even if you CMD one of your own countries, it should end up with 3 armies on it instead of only 1. Also of note - if CMD option is on and Card Type is set to NONE, CMD has no effect. |
 Cards of Mass Reproduction | This is a bit of a play on the Cards of Mass Destruction option. Rather than reduce each country represented by the cards turned in to 1, this option DOUBLES the number of armies on those countries. Therefore it's a GOOD thing to hold one of the countries turned in - in fact, usually the best strategy in CMR games is to load up ALL your armies on a country who's card you own before it has made a set so you can almost double your entire army count! Of course, you might want to skip turning in a set right away so that you can load up your armies knowing you will be able to turn in the set next round. |
 Cards of Mass Confusion | The last of the "Cards of Mass..." options, this one allows the person turning in the set to decide if he wants them to destroy all but 1 army on each country (like CMD) or to double the armies on them (like CMR). He can't, however, pick and choose which effect will occur on which country. |
 Bloodlust | The Bloodlust option changes the basic mechanics of the game - specifically who wins ties. In a normal game, ties go to the defender. In Bloodlust, ties go to the attacker. Therefore your odds of winning an attack increase dramatically and your odds of successfully defending an attack drop too. Typically the best strategy in a Bloodlust game is to be aggressive. |
 Equalizer | The Equalizer option changes the basic mechanics of the game too as it relates to ties. In a normal game, ties go to the defender. In an Equalizer game, no one wins ties - in essence the tying armies return to their countries to fight another time. Since the Defender normally wins ties, this type of game gives a bit of an advantage to attackers - though no where near as much as Bloodlust. |
 Fortress | The Fortress option, as the name implies, allows the Defender to roll three dice (if they have at least 3 armies on the defending country), giving them better odds of winning. Although it has no effect as to ties, it was intended to be somewhat a counter to the Bloodlust option by allowing the Defender to increase his odds of winning any particular attack. |
 Random Start | The Random (or Random Start) option re-arranges the order of the players when the game actually begins, so the player who created the game is not necessarily player 1 any longer. After the game starts, this option has no further effect. |
 Starting Armies | By default, every player starts the game with 3 armies on each of their owned countries. This option allows that number of starting armies to be changed from 1 to 9. |
 Heroes (on map:  ) |
The HEROES option is the latest option available. Currently in Beta testing, this is the first in a series of planned options that provide a local effect rather than a game-wide effect. As such, this description will be longer than normal as many other options will soon appear that function similarly - but with different local effects. In a HEROES game, each player - DURING HIS FORTIFICATION PHASE - may exchange 4 of his armies on one country for a HERO. (This assumes the player has at least 5 armies on a single country - 4 for the cost of the Hero, and 1 at minimum to hold the country) The HERO does not fight directly. Instead, she addes the BLOODLUST effect to attacks originating from the country she is in (ties go to the attacker). In addition, when defending against another player's attacks on the country the HERO occupies, the HERO provides the FORTRESS effect on that country (defender rolls a maximum of 3 dice instead of only 2). Visually, the HERO appears on the map as a animated sword logo floating over the top of the army numbers. No player may have more than one HERO at a time. Also, if a player attacks and takes a country that a defending HERO occupied, that HERO dies and is removed from the game. However, the player who lost the hero can buy another DURING HIS FORTIFY PHASE if he wishes (and has at least 5 armies on a single country). Theres NO requirement that a player own a hero at all. It is entirely optional. If a HERO's armies successfully attack another country, the HERO can be moved into that country along with her fellow armies - if the player chooses to do so. NOTE: If the "Move All Armies on Conquest" option is checked, the HERO will automatically be moved along with her armies when she conquers another country. Also, a HERO can be fortified along with her armies if the player chooses to move her. (This is done via a checkbox that asks the player if he wants to move his HERO as well as a number of armies at fortification-time.) The HERO can be fortified to any country that her armies can be fortified to. Airlift and Unlimited Fortifications apply to the HERO as well as the armies. Finally, in HERO games, when a player owns a HERO, he can make a Fortification move that moves 0 armies. This is to allow a Hero to be fortified to another country without moving any armies at all. In non-Hero games, the option of moving 0 armies is never given - but in Hero games, it is allowed... if the player owns a Hero. As I mentioned, the HERO option is the first in what is planned to be a series of options that specifically target a particular country - I call them "Character" options as I envision many of them as a unique character that changes the normal battles in the game. Although these are not yet implemented, in the Forums we are considering these (among other) future Character-type options: FLAG - Boosts the morale of armies associated with it, the effect of which is the armies NEVER roll a 1! WINGS - The armies can attack ANY country on the board, and can fortify TO any owned country on the board. CAPTAIN - Armies roll a 7-sided dice instead of a 6-sided dice! (can roll a 7) ...and many more. |
If you want the new game to have Unlimited Fortifications, use the Daily Turns option, run Unlocked, force a Turn Delay, be limited
to Advanced players, use the AANR option, play the War Fog Variant, use the Cutthroat or Paranoia options, etc., click the appropriate checkbox.
Then click the Submit button. Your game will be created and waiting for more players. All games waiting for new players are listed at the
top of the games list screen with a state of "Waiting for players" and their options displayed.
CHATTER FEATURE:
When you first join a game, you may see messages from other players. This is the Chatter feature. After any
Chatter, there is a short one-line form if you want to post your own message. This is completely optional. Think of it as
an in-game message board. Below that is the game screen and forms. You can always bring the Chatter messages and the entry
form back up by clicking the Chatter link at the bottom of each in-game screen.
When you first join a game, you may see messages from other players. This is the Chatter feature. After any
Chatter, there is a short one-line form if you want to post your own message. This is completely optional. Think of it as
an in-game message board. Below that is the game screen and forms. You can always bring the Chatter messages and the entry
form back up by clicking the Chatter link at the bottom of each in-game screen.
PRIVATE MESSAGES FEATURE:
When you first log in, you will see any messages sent to you from other players. You can selectively delete them. There is
a limit of 20 messages per player. Each message is also limited to 1000 characters. You can bring these messages back up
at any time by clicking the Read Msgs link at the bottom of each page.
You can send messages using the Send Msg link as well.
Also of note, there is a new messages notice. At login, all messages are displayed and hence considered to be read. However,
you may receive new messages AFTER you have logged in. If so, the Read Msgs link will change to "Read Msgs(1)" indicating
you have 1 new message since you logged in. You can reply to a message quickly by clicking on the name of the sender. Also
of note, you can select multiple receipients for a message from the Send To list by holding the CTRL key down.
When you first log in, you will see any messages sent to you from other players. You can selectively delete them. There is
a limit of 20 messages per player. Each message is also limited to 1000 characters. You can bring these messages back up
at any time by clicking the Read Msgs link at the bottom of each page.
You can send messages using the Send Msg link as well.
Also of note, there is a new messages notice. At login, all messages are displayed and hence considered to be read. However,
you may receive new messages AFTER you have logged in. If so, the Read Msgs link will change to "Read Msgs(1)" indicating
you have 1 new message since you logged in. You can reply to a message quickly by clicking on the name of the sender. Also
of note, you can select multiple receipients for a message from the Send To list by holding the CTRL key down.
The game screen starts as a global map of the world with the players listed in the top right corner. Each player name is in
a particular color. Also the countries show how many armies are on each country, and the color of that number indicates who
owns that country currently. The names of each country, however, are NOT shown on the global map. Internet Explorer users can
hold the cursor over the number of armies to determine the country name. 
Other players should choose one of the 6 continent maps.
The links for these maps are seen right underneath the player names. Clicking on the continent name will take you to a more
detailed map of that continent and it's bordering countries. Here you will find the names of the countries. You can switch
back to the global map by clicking the GLOBAL VIEW link anytime.If you join an existing game and the game has not yet started, you'll be added to the game but that's about it
until enough people have joined. Your screen will NOT be updated. Your only choice is to Quit the game and keep
checking the games list until the game has enough players. Each player has an associated icon on the game line. Your
icon will have a black square around it. If your icon is green, you can take a turn in that game. Red indicates you must
wait for the next round before playing again. Black indicates you have been eliminated from this game.
When enough people have joined, the game will start and no new players can join.
At that point, joining players will get a screen telling them how many armies they can deploy based on the number of
countries and continents they own. You can then chose from a dropdown list which country to deploy some of these on and how
many to deploy on that country. You can't change your mind once you've deployed a country - it's a one-shot deal.
When you are finished deploying your armies, you'll move to the Attack phase of your turn.
ATTACKING:
In the Attack phase, you choose which country to attack from and which country to attack. Attacking is entirely optional, and you can attack as many times as you want, however you must attack from a country that you have at least 2 armies on, and the country you attack must be on the border of the attacking country. (You can't attack China from Brazil!). Some countries (Brazil and West Africa for instance) border each other over water. These are indicated by a white line connecting them on the maps. If you choose, you can click the "Massive Attack" button when attacking. When using the Massive Attack, the game will continue attacking until either the defending armies are defeated OR the number of attacking armies is reduced to the Reserve amount selected (1 by default). Because of the way attacks are made, it is possible that the number of armies remaining will be 1 LESS than the chosen Reserve amount. Be aware of this possibility! Also, just above the buttons there is a checkbox labeled "Move all Armies after Conquest". If you check this box and then successfully attack and conquer a country, the game will automatically move all possible armies into the defeated country. This can significantly speed up your turns as you won't have to tell the game how many armies to move into the new country. It also is "sticky". Once you turn the option on, it will stay turned on by default until you stop attacking.
NEW! If you eliminate another player, you will be given 5 bonus armies to deploy anywhere if not playing with a CARDS option. In CARDS option games you receive any cards the defeated player had as a bonus for eliminating another player.
Some other things to be aware of when attacking - the results of an attack are based on simulated dice rolls, and the number of dice rolled by the defender and attacker are based on the number of armies on the defending and attacking countries. The highest dice rolled by attacker and defender are compared, and the highest number is the winner, with the defender winning any ties. If a second dice is rolled by the attacker and defender, it is also compared on the same basis. The defender can never roll more than 2 dice, so in any one attack only 2 armies can ever be lost. If the defender only has 1 army, he only rolls 1 dice. The attacker can roll up to 3 dice if he has 4 or more armies on the country attacking. If he only has 3 armies, he can only roll 2 dice - and if he only has 2 armies, he only rolls 1 dice. Reasoning being that at least one army has to stay behind to hold the attacking country. It's not as complex as this sounds, and it's all handled by the game anyway but it's good to know how and why it works. The dice rolls are displayed so you will know why you won or lost armies.
In the Attack phase, you choose which country to attack from and which country to attack. Attacking is entirely optional, and you can attack as many times as you want, however you must attack from a country that you have at least 2 armies on, and the country you attack must be on the border of the attacking country. (You can't attack China from Brazil!). Some countries (Brazil and West Africa for instance) border each other over water. These are indicated by a white line connecting them on the maps. If you choose, you can click the "Massive Attack" button when attacking. When using the Massive Attack, the game will continue attacking until either the defending armies are defeated OR the number of attacking armies is reduced to the Reserve amount selected (1 by default). Because of the way attacks are made, it is possible that the number of armies remaining will be 1 LESS than the chosen Reserve amount. Be aware of this possibility! Also, just above the buttons there is a checkbox labeled "Move all Armies after Conquest". If you check this box and then successfully attack and conquer a country, the game will automatically move all possible armies into the defeated country. This can significantly speed up your turns as you won't have to tell the game how many armies to move into the new country. It also is "sticky". Once you turn the option on, it will stay turned on by default until you stop attacking.
NEW! If you eliminate another player, you will be given 5 bonus armies to deploy anywhere if not playing with a CARDS option. In CARDS option games you receive any cards the defeated player had as a bonus for eliminating another player.
Some other things to be aware of when attacking - the results of an attack are based on simulated dice rolls, and the number of dice rolled by the defender and attacker are based on the number of armies on the defending and attacking countries. The highest dice rolled by attacker and defender are compared, and the highest number is the winner, with the defender winning any ties. If a second dice is rolled by the attacker and defender, it is also compared on the same basis. The defender can never roll more than 2 dice, so in any one attack only 2 armies can ever be lost. If the defender only has 1 army, he only rolls 1 dice. The attacker can roll up to 3 dice if he has 4 or more armies on the country attacking. If he only has 3 armies, he can only roll 2 dice - and if he only has 2 armies, he only rolls 1 dice. Reasoning being that at least one army has to stay behind to hold the attacking country. It's not as complex as this sounds, and it's all handled by the game anyway but it's good to know how and why it works. The dice rolls are displayed so you will know why you won or lost armies.
FORTIFYING PHASE:
Attacking continues until you decide to quit attacking and hit the Continue button. You can choose not to attack anything and just hit the Continue button to skip the Attack phase completely if you want. Then you enter the Fortify phase of your turn. In Standard games, you move armies from one country you control to one other, bordering country. If the Unlimited Fortifications option is set for a game, you can take as many fortification moves as you want. You must leave at least 1 army behind and the game will not allow you to move more than that. You can also skip fortifying altogether and hit the Continue button if you choose.
WAITING FOR THE NEXT ROUND:
At this point, your turn is over and you must wait for the other players to finish their turns before the next round begins. The game will display which players have not yet finished their turns. If any player does not take a turn, the next round will begin at midnight regardless. Games with the Daily option never give more than one round per day.
FORFEITING:
Some players asked for a method to forfeit a game. This allows them to quit a game permanently without playing. It is the preferred method to use if you know you can't continue playing since it allows the other players to take their turns without waiting for you to complete yours. (New rounds will begin at midnight regardless.) To forfeit, just click your own name on the TOP line of the map. (Not on the player list to the left, but on the very top.) You will then be given a confirmation screen to confirm you want to forfeit. Also, if you create a game accidentally, (or you don't like the options you've chosen) you can delete it by forfeiting BEFORE the game has started. Only the game's creator can delete games like this.
Attacking continues until you decide to quit attacking and hit the Continue button. You can choose not to attack anything and just hit the Continue button to skip the Attack phase completely if you want. Then you enter the Fortify phase of your turn. In Standard games, you move armies from one country you control to one other, bordering country. If the Unlimited Fortifications option is set for a game, you can take as many fortification moves as you want. You must leave at least 1 army behind and the game will not allow you to move more than that. You can also skip fortifying altogether and hit the Continue button if you choose.
WAITING FOR THE NEXT ROUND:
At this point, your turn is over and you must wait for the other players to finish their turns before the next round begins. The game will display which players have not yet finished their turns. If any player does not take a turn, the next round will begin at midnight regardless. Games with the Daily option never give more than one round per day.
FORFEITING:
Some players asked for a method to forfeit a game. This allows them to quit a game permanently without playing. It is the preferred method to use if you know you can't continue playing since it allows the other players to take their turns without waiting for you to complete yours. (New rounds will begin at midnight regardless.) To forfeit, just click your own name on the TOP line of the map. (Not on the player list to the left, but on the very top.) You will then be given a confirmation screen to confirm you want to forfeit. Also, if you create a game accidentally, (or you don't like the options you've chosen) you can delete it by forfeiting BEFORE the game has started. Only the game's creator can delete games like this.
STRATEGY
This is my own opinion of some strategy tips, don't hesitate to drop me more hints if you want to give them away!
First, remember that attacking with less than 4 armies decreases your odds tremendously. I NEVER attack with less than 4 armies unless the prize is REALLY worth the risk.
Second, the continent bonus is valuable but some continents are almost impossible to hold. Australia is my favorite. It has only 1 way in, so if you defend Borneo or even Siam heavily you can hold Australia till the end of the game. South America has only 2 ways in so it's a good alternative if you can't get Australia early. Asia and Europe are for losers unless the player has one helluvalot of armies to defend with.
Third, use the Fortify move wisely, esp. in Standard games. If one of your countries is surrounded by other friendly countries, lighten it's armies in favor of countries where attack is immenent. If they break through, you're toast but they are less likely to break through a heavily defended country. Remember, in Standard games you get only ONE Fortify move!
NEW! Some players use "deadbeat" players as a defense. If you are playing in a game and you notice that another player does not take his turns, you can use that player's countries as an added defense against other active players!
Another strategy I've seen successfully used is the massive attack. Here, a player will attack all the countries he can. This leaves large numbers of countries with only 1 army and essentially defenseless, but if no one bothers to take those countries they still count toward the bonus. It's risky but it can work. Advisable only if you cannot reasonably try to take a continent. Another strategy (perfected by adamaustin!) is Politics. Don't hesitate to use the Chatter function to create alliances, make threats and point out how incredibly dangerous another player is. This strategy is the single BEST strategy to win games. TALK! Two losing players who band together can defeat the best tactical player any day! There is a STRATEGY Forum available with more suggestions. Drop in and read up on how the best players think!
LIMITATIONS:
The number of armies on any one country can never exceed 255!!! I cannot stress this enough. If you are coming close to exceeding that maximum amount, don't do it. If you attempt to place army # 256 on a country, you will end up with 0 armies on that country! I don't recall ever playing a game with that many armies on any one country but it's possible. The reason is laziness on my part. There are 42 countries in each game and I didn't want to make 42 different fields in each table to hold the number of armies, though that would have been the proper way. Instead I created string field of 84 characters, each pair of characters representing the hexidecimal value for that country. If I HAVE to, I can fix it with one 126 character string with each 3 characters just being a number between 000 and 999 for a max of 999 armies on each country (which is also the limit on how many characters can be displayed on the countries).
OBLIGATIONS:
Although I am VERY proud of this game, I must give proper kudos to those without whom I could never have got it this far. First, to Wyndo who let me host it at Prowler-Pro a few years back, and has given me ENORMOUS amounts of help and suggestions. thanks! If you click the "LOGOUT" button, you'll be taken to his games page. (He runs quite a few games of his own design).
Also thanks to Leperflesh who has stuck with it since it was first hosted at my own site and has stayed with it through it's many frustrating times. A BIG thanks to the F.I.R.E. RISK players who supplied the Ranking technique as well as the War Fog and Paranoia Variants and continue to provide great imaginative ideas for improvements, modifications and new game variants. I also would like to thank some of the regulars, many of whom put their own creativity on display in designing new maps and coming up with some of the options that you now can try out! Prussian in particular has designed quite a few gorgeous maps and deserves a special thanks. I won't name ALL the map makers, they usually put their names on their maps anyway so if the maps are particularly popular they'll get all the credit they deserve without my intervention. (Besides, no one reads these THANKS pages anyway.)
And of course to anyone who has read this far for caring enough to spend that much time reading this thing! Seriously, the game has been a great hobby for me and will continue to be, but without people willing to spend their time to PLAY it the thing is useless. I do appreciate it!
This is my own opinion of some strategy tips, don't hesitate to drop me more hints if you want to give them away!
First, remember that attacking with less than 4 armies decreases your odds tremendously. I NEVER attack with less than 4 armies unless the prize is REALLY worth the risk.
Second, the continent bonus is valuable but some continents are almost impossible to hold. Australia is my favorite. It has only 1 way in, so if you defend Borneo or even Siam heavily you can hold Australia till the end of the game. South America has only 2 ways in so it's a good alternative if you can't get Australia early. Asia and Europe are for losers unless the player has one helluvalot of armies to defend with.
Third, use the Fortify move wisely, esp. in Standard games. If one of your countries is surrounded by other friendly countries, lighten it's armies in favor of countries where attack is immenent. If they break through, you're toast but they are less likely to break through a heavily defended country. Remember, in Standard games you get only ONE Fortify move!
NEW! Some players use "deadbeat" players as a defense. If you are playing in a game and you notice that another player does not take his turns, you can use that player's countries as an added defense against other active players!
Another strategy I've seen successfully used is the massive attack. Here, a player will attack all the countries he can. This leaves large numbers of countries with only 1 army and essentially defenseless, but if no one bothers to take those countries they still count toward the bonus. It's risky but it can work. Advisable only if you cannot reasonably try to take a continent. Another strategy (perfected by adamaustin!) is Politics. Don't hesitate to use the Chatter function to create alliances, make threats and point out how incredibly dangerous another player is. This strategy is the single BEST strategy to win games. TALK! Two losing players who band together can defeat the best tactical player any day! There is a STRATEGY Forum available with more suggestions. Drop in and read up on how the best players think!
LIMITATIONS:
The number of armies on any one country can never exceed 255!!! I cannot stress this enough. If you are coming close to exceeding that maximum amount, don't do it. If you attempt to place army # 256 on a country, you will end up with 0 armies on that country! I don't recall ever playing a game with that many armies on any one country but it's possible. The reason is laziness on my part. There are 42 countries in each game and I didn't want to make 42 different fields in each table to hold the number of armies, though that would have been the proper way. Instead I created string field of 84 characters, each pair of characters representing the hexidecimal value for that country. If I HAVE to, I can fix it with one 126 character string with each 3 characters just being a number between 000 and 999 for a max of 999 armies on each country (which is also the limit on how many characters can be displayed on the countries).
OBLIGATIONS:
Although I am VERY proud of this game, I must give proper kudos to those without whom I could never have got it this far. First, to Wyndo who let me host it at Prowler-Pro a few years back, and has given me ENORMOUS amounts of help and suggestions. thanks! If you click the "LOGOUT" button, you'll be taken to his games page. (He runs quite a few games of his own design).
Also thanks to Leperflesh who has stuck with it since it was first hosted at my own site and has stayed with it through it's many frustrating times. A BIG thanks to the F.I.R.E. RISK players who supplied the Ranking technique as well as the War Fog and Paranoia Variants and continue to provide great imaginative ideas for improvements, modifications and new game variants. I also would like to thank some of the regulars, many of whom put their own creativity on display in designing new maps and coming up with some of the options that you now can try out! Prussian in particular has designed quite a few gorgeous maps and deserves a special thanks. I won't name ALL the map makers, they usually put their names on their maps anyway so if the maps are particularly popular they'll get all the credit they deserve without my intervention. (Besides, no one reads these THANKS pages anyway.)
And of course to anyone who has read this far for caring enough to spend that much time reading this thing! Seriously, the game has been a great hobby for me and will continue to be, but without people willing to spend their time to PLAY it the thing is useless. I do appreciate it!