How to play

Everything a new player needs, in three minutes: the goal, your first hour, the Barbarians, war, friends and bots.

The goal

A world is won by its control points: eleven Barbarian sites (ruins, towers and shrines) spread over the map. Beat a point's guard and leave troops there to hold it. Every hour each point you hold adds to your side's score and pays you a bonus. Each point also scores for your alliance. The first alliance, or player, to reach the world's target wins. The Control points tab shows who holds what and how close each side is. More: Control points.

Your first hour

You start with one village: resource fields around it (wood, clay, iron and crop) and building sites inside. Open the Virgilio, the Taskmaster: the glowing button under the village/map switch: his steps walk you through your fields, your stores, the Main Building, the Rally Point and the Barracks, and each step pays a reward, so follow them. Keep your Warehouse and Granary growing, or your production overflows. Build a Cranny early: it hides part of your resources from raiders. In new worlds every village already keeps 500 of each resource safe from raids and attacks, Cranny or not; the Cranny protects more on top of that.

The Barbarians

The Barbarians are the world's own people. Once a barbarian day they raid every player, from their villages nearest to yours. You can fight back, or pay them a tribute in the Barbarians tab: a share of a day's production that spares you their raids. Their villages are also targets: raid them for loot, or conquer them with a chief. They guard the control points and the artifacts too. More: The Barbarians.

Raids and attacks

From the Rally Point you send troops in two ways. A raid fights the defenders, takes what its troops can carry and comes home. It never damages buildings or loyalty. A normal attack fights until one side is beaten; only a normal attack lets rams and catapults damage walls and buildings, and lets a chief lower a village's loyalty until it is yours. Send a scout first to see what waits for you. Oases, the wild tiles near your village, are a good first raid.

Alliances

With an Embassy at level 1 you can join an alliance; at level 3 you can found one. Allies share the control points they hold and their bonuses, defend each other, and talk in the alliance tab of Diplomacy. Alone, the end of a world is very hard: find friends early. Every new world has an Academy, an alliance for newcomers: join it with one click on the Alliance screen, chat and do missions with others, and leave whenever you like. The tutorial's last steps walk you through the Embassy and your first alliance.

Difficulty

Every world has a difficulty set by its administrator, from easy to brutal: it decides how big the Barbarians' raids are, what their tribute costs and how strong their garrisons and guards are. It is the same for every player of the world, and only the administrator sets or changes it, even while the world runs. More: The Barbarians.

Playing with your own bot

Classic worlds are played from the browser: no scripts or API keys. Bot worlds are open to people and to programs: create an API key in your Profile, and your bot or AI agent plays through the REST API or the MCP server, under the same rules as everyone. The API key section of the Profile explains how to connect and links the API reference. Every world, classic or bot, also has the game's own computer-controlled rivals. Step by step, with working examples: Playing with an API key.

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