Player Guide

This game is under active development and may change on a daily basis.

Quick Start

Visit the game list and join a game.
Claim one unowned land tile. You can only claim a normal land tile, not water or mountains.
Your claimed land becomes your home land and starts with a few units to get you started.
Use the land page to rename your land, change unit types, split or merge units, move, transfer resources, adjust distribution, and queue actions.
End your turn when ready. The turn processes when enough players are ready or when the turn timer expires.

Map Basics

Movement: Units can only move one land/water hex per turn at the moment. This might be expanded in the future so some units can move two turns at a time.

Tile Types
Land	Deeper green means more productive farms and forests.
Water	Deeper blue means better fish restock rate (fertility). The stock value itself is separate and can be depleted/replenished over time.
Mountain	Impassable. Units cannot move onto mountain tiles.

Map filter layers:

Layer	Shows
Resources	Trees, copper, tin, gold, or fish amounts.
Population Chips	“Chips” display the total population owned by each player, not individual units. Armies appear as their own chip with a small sword icon.
My Units / Other Units	Quickly switch between your own and other populations to visually identify them.
Land Name	Switch land names on and off.
Kingdoms	Switches colours, emblems, borders, and population chips from local owner identity to kingdom identity. NOTE – population chips within the same kingdom will merge when this filter is selected.

Tip: If you’re scouting for expansion, use Resources + Kingdoms together to find high-value border lands quickly.

Turn Order and Processing

Each unit can have multiple queued actions so you can program them for multiple turns ahead, but only one queued unit action runs per unit per turn.

Resource transfers and distribution settings are immediate actions, and will be processed immediately instead of at the end of the turn.

When a turn processes:

Pending actions are loaded (only the earliest pending actions), except for end-turn votes.
Conquests resolve. If an invading military unit is already standing unopposed on enemy land, it has the initiative to conquer before the defender can reorganise units that same turn.
Other non-movement actions resolve next, such as waits and shelter changes.
Diplomacy resolves after conquest and other non-movement actions, because diplomacy depends on current land ownership and kingdom relationships.
Unit reorganisation – this includes type changes, splits, and merges.
Moves and attacks then run. The phase order is randomised each turn: sometimes attacks happen before movement, and sometimes movement happens before attacks, giving units a chance to escape.
Failed unit actions are cancelled. As a precaution, the remaining queued actions for that unit are also cancelled so the unit does not carry out later plans under conditions the player did not intend.
End-turn votes are cleared.
Unit work is done: wall building, siege work, woodcutting, fishing, mining, bronze smithing, and farming.
Feeding, population growth or starvation are resolved.
Resource distribution runs.
Land resources such as trees and fish are updated, and automatic experience gain is applied.
Game statistics, victory checks, notifications, and the next turn state are updated.

Type change, split, merge

Type changes:

A queued type change changes the existing unit into the selected type before production.
The unit produces or acts as its new type in that same resource phase, assuming the new type is valid for its land/water location and has the required inputs.
Experience is remembered by unit type where possible. The unit’s active experience becomes the experience stored for the new type.

Splitting:

The original unit keeps the remaining population and all other attributes.
Split experience can be reset to none or copied from the parent.

Merging:

The selected merge target is the surviving unit. The source unit (the one you’re creating the action for) merges into that target and loses its former identity.
The surviving target receives the combined population and all resources carried by the source unit.
The selected merge type becomes the surviving target’s type. If no type is selected, the target keeps its current type.
Because merging resolves before production, the surviving target produces as the selected merge type in that same resource phase.
Merge experience is combined by population-weighted average, so merging can “water down” down skills if one is higher and one lower.

Resources

Resource	Uses
Food	Fishing and farming produce food so your people don’t starve!
Wood	Tools, mining input, bronze input, boats for fishers and navy.
Copper	Tools and input to create bronze.
Tin	Bronze input only, cannot be used for anything else.
Bronze	Strongest tool for work and combat.
Gold	Victory scoring and strategic stockpiling. Gold is not part of automatic distribution. Gold is for things like trading and the glory of your kingdom!

Land has a resource store with unlimited space. You cannot manage the resources of lands which have not been claimed by a player.

Units have an inventory with limited space, default 10 resources per population. Boats can carry unlimited resources while on the water, but after landing cannot move unless they launch back to the water.

Transfers move resources between units within the same land, and the land itself.

Strength, Tools, and Experience

Most work and combat uses the same strength formula.

Base strength starts from the unit population number: 1 population = 1 strength. Each worker then uses the best tool they have available:

Bronze: +3 strength.
Copper: +2 strength.
Wood: +1 strength.

So if a unit of 10 population has 2 bronze, 6 copper and 10 wood, the unit will make use of the bronze and copper for 8 workers. The remaining 2 workers will use 2 wood, and 8 wood will go unused.

After tools are counted, strength is multiplied by a random factor from 80% to 120%.

Experience then adds a bonus. Each experience point adds 2%. A unit can hold up to 10 experience in one skill and 20 total experience across all skills. This means a unit can achieve up to an extra 20% strength from experience alone.

Tool decay:

After a strength calculation, 5% of the used bronze, copper, and wood is removed.
Decay is rounded down. For example, using 19 wood loses 0 wood; using 20 wood loses 1.
Players can disable automatic use/allocation of wood, copper, tin, or bronze per unit.

To avoid using certain resources, go to Resource Distribution -> Request materials for work and select which resources you would like that unit to avoid using or requesting from other units/lands. For example, you may want to conserve your bronze – unselecting it here will mean you don’t use any bronze and don’t suffer tool decay.

Experience gain:

Units automatically gain 1 experience per turn in their current type until the automatic cap is reached.
Military and navy units can also gain 1+ experience from battle. This means 2 experience points can be gained in a single turn.
Changing type remembers experience by unit type when possible.
Splitting can create a new unit with no experience, or copy the parent unit’s experience – so both the parent unit and the new one will have the same XP.
Merging combines experience by population-weighted average. The result is still capped at 10 per skill and 20 total.

Population and Food

Each unit has population and fractional growth – although you may see a very small unit not grow in size after a turn, in the background they are raising babies who enter the workforce later!

Military (army and navy) are the only units who do not grow in population size.

Food rules:

Each population consumes 1 food per turn.
If a unit has enough food to feed all its population, it will grow by 5% of current population.
Growth is fractional. Whole people are shown and used, while fractions remain stored on the unit for later turns.
If a unit does not have enough food, population shrinks proportionally to available food.
If population reaches zero, the unit is marked dead. Dead units remain for one full turn so resources can be looted by others nearby, then are removed.

Terrain, Trees, Farmland, Rain, and Fish

Land tiles have 100 spaces. Trees occupy spaces; non-tree spaces are farmland and cleared land.

Trees:

New land starts with 20 to 90 trees.
Woodcutters harvest 1 tree, which produces 1 wood.
The number of trees harvested will depend on the strength of the woodcutter unit.
Trees regrow after harvesting.
Tree growth is based on rainfall and the current tree count – the more trees exist on a land, the more trees will appear each turn, and the smaller the forest, the less will grow – like the growth of real forests.
This means you will be able to find a land with many trees, you will be able to harvest a larger number sustainably, and when you harvest from a small forest, it can quickly vanish.
If a land has no trees but neighbouring land has trees, then 1 tree will be reseeded.
If there are no trees in any neighoburing land, the land will remain barren of trees.

Farmland:

Farmland can only exist on land which has been cleared of trees.
More trees means more wood, but less farming space.
If a land is completely full of trees, some will be automatically cleared when a new player joins and claims the land.

Fish:

Fish stock is capped at 100.
Fishing units harvest 1 fish into 2 food.
More fish will be harvested with stronger units.
Fish restock depending on water fertility.
Empty water can be reseeded by neighbouring water that still has fish.
Similar to trees, there will be a sustainable level of fishing you can manage, but going beyond that will deplete fish stocks quickly.

Unit Reference

Unit Type	Main Role	Requires	Produces or Does	Notes
Farming	Food production	Land, cleared farmland	Food only	Will not produce any food when sheltering behind city walls.
Woodcutter	Wood production	Trees	Wood	Harvest is limited by available trees.
Fishing	Food production	Water tile, fish stock	Food	Each fish gives 2 food. Can move on water and can be attacked by navy there. Inventory is unlimited until moving onto land.
Copper/tin/gold miner	Mine and process ore	Wood	Copper/tin/gold	Burns 1 wood per worker, and 5% tool decay is in addition to that.
Bronze smith	Bronze production	Wood, copper, and tin	Bronze	Workers are limited by input from wood, copper, and tin – consumes 1 of each input per worker.
Wall	Fortification building	Land	Adds wall strength	Walls cap at 100.
Siege	Fortification breaking	Land with walls	Removes wall strength	Siege units slows break down walls, and can be attacked by military from inside the walls at the same time.
Army	Land combat and conquest	Land target	Attacks, defends, conquers	Population does not grow.
Navy	Water combat and transport	Enough wood capacity	Moves on water, attacks navy and fishing units on water, can transport other units.	Cannot attack on land. Population does not grow.
Envoy	Messaging and diplomacy support	Brains	Enables messaging	Envoys do not require tools, and gain no advantage from experience.

Production Details

The resource phase currently runs this order on each land:

Wall and siege units change the land wall value.
Carried food that local same-owner units will eat is reserved depending on resource distribution rules.
Woodcutters harvest trees.
Fishing units harvest fish on water.
Miners produce copper, tin, or gold, and bronze smiths produce bronze.
Farmers produce food.
Trees regrow.
Produced food is made available to units/land stores.
Feeding and population growth/starvation are applied.
Excess resource distribution runs, depending on options selected by players.
Land and unit resource changes are saved.

Tool wear and production inputs such as mining wood or bronze-smithing materials are consumed before that unit’s production output is credited. Units can hold more than their inventory capacity, but an over-capacity unit cannot move until its carried total is reduced to capacity or below. Food released from land stores can also feed a unit with full inventory because it is consumed during the same phase rather than kept as carried inventory.

Movement and Water

Normal movement is one neighbouring hex per turn.

Movement restrictions:

Units cannot move onto mountains.
Only navy and fishing units can move onto water.
Units must move to an adjacent hex tile.
Any unit above inventory capacity (aside from water units on water) cannot move until its carried total is reduced to capacity or below.

Water entry:

To enter water from land, a navy or fishing unit needs boat capacity.
Default embarkation cost is 2 wood per total head.
Entering water consumes the required wood and marks the boat as built.
Once marked as boat-built, the unit can keep moving on water without paying the embarkation cost again.

Boarding:

Non-water units can board a navy from coastal land.
The passenger must belong to the current player.
The navy can belong to any player in the same kingdom.
The navy and passenger must be on the same land.
Boarding requires the land to be coastal, meaning adjacent to water.
Navy and fishing units cannot board another navy.
Passenger capacity is based on the navy’s carried wood.
Disembarkation is only allowed on land.

Walls

Wall value belongs to the land and ranges from 0 to 100.

Building and breaking:

The same rules apply to both building and breaking down walls, except one build and one destroys.

Sheltering:

A unit can enter or leave walls only if the land has wall value above 0.
The unit must belong to the same kingdom as the land.
If a sheltered unit attacks a target outside the walls, it is moved out of the walls before the battle.
FARMERS CANNOT FARM WHEN INSIDE CITY WALLS.

Wall combat bonus:

The wall value is added to defender population for strength calculation – this means it can add up to 100 points to base strength!
Attackers do not receive wall bonuses.
Walls themselves are not damaged by a normal attack; only siege units reduce walls.
If both units are inside same walls and belong to the same kingdom, there is no wall advantage.
- Same kingdom, defender inside, attacker outside: defender gets wall advantage
- Attacker inside, defender outside: no wall advantage
- Both outside: normal battle

Combat

Only military and navy units can start attacks.

Land combat:

Army can only attack on land.
The attacker can only target one enemy or friendly at a time per turn.
Yes, friendly fire is allowed – you can intentionally reduce your population by killing or starving them.

Water combat:

Navy units can only attack on water.
They can attack both navy and fishing units.
Other non-navy combat on water is not valid.
Navy casualties can destroy boat capacity by removing wood proportionally to casualties.
If surviving navy and passenger population exceeds remaining boat capacity, additional navy/passenger population is lost at sea.

Strength and casualties:

Attacker and defender strength are calculated the same way all other work is calculated: population, tools, experience and some luck.
If a military unit attacks a civilian target, the military strength is doubled.
- The civilian defender is reduced to 20% of their strength.
Casualties are based on relative attacker and defender pressure – the larger the difference in strength, the more damage is caused by the stronger unit.
Destroyed units are marked dead and can be looted for one full turn before they disappear.

Combat tips:

Don’t queue an all-in attack assuming movement resolves first; move/attack order is intentionally random each turn.
If you expect to defend, keep some top-tier tools (especially bronze) on defenders rather than over-distributing them.
Before conquering, check for hidden risk from enemy military arriving next turn; conquering is validated when processed, not when queued.

Conquering lands:

Conquer is a queued action after military control is established.
There must be one military unit on the land, with no opposing military units remaining alive.
Conquering adds the land to your kingdom, and you can now control resources and message your vassal without the use of envoys.
Capturing a capital can trigger capital-level kingdom outcomes such as annexing or dismantling a realm.

Diplomacy and Kingdoms

Every player can own land. A kingdom is formed through lord-vassal relationships:

A sovereign land has no lord, or is its own capital.
A king is the ruling player for a kingdom.
A vassal is a land/player submitted to another ruler, either voluntarily or by force.

Diplomacy actions are queued land-level actions that change kingdom relationships:

Action	What It Does	Main Conditions
Join Kingdom	A sovereign player with no vassals joins another ruler’s kingdom.	Your selected land must be yours, you must not already serve another lord, and you must not currently have vassals.
Submit Kingdom	Your whole kingdom submits to another ruler. Your lands and current subjects become part of the target ruler’s kingdom.	Your selected land must be yours, and you must not already serve another lord.
Disband and Submit	Your kingdom is dissolved first, releasing your subjects, then your own lands submit to another ruler.	You must be sovereign, and the selected land must be yours.
Disband Kingdom	Dissolves your kingdom and releases its members so they become sovereign.	You must be sovereign.
Claim Sovereignty	Breaks your land away from its lord.	The land must be yours, you must currently have a lord, you need a living military unit on the land, and your lord must not have a living military unit there.
Release Vassal	A lord releases a subject kingdom from service. The released player becomes sovereign.	The target land must belong to one of your vassals.

Only one pending diplomacy action can be queued for the same land at a time. Diplomacy actions can fail at processing time if ownership, kingdom status, or military presence changes before the turn resolves.

Kings can manage resources across their kingdom and can message kingdom members more broadly than normal envoy rules allow.

Resource Distribution

Distribution happens after feeding and population changes. It exists to move food and materials automatically without requiring manual transfers every turn for routine tasks.

There are three related systems:

Unit-level distribution preferences – how and where to redistribute resources from the unit.
Per-unit material policy – whether to use certain resources and require more.
Land-level distribution preferences – how and where to redistribute resources stored in the land.

Unit-Level Distribution

Default unit-level preferences:

Option	Default	Meaning
My units	On	Excess carried resources can feed or equip your units on the current land.
My land	On	Excess carried resources can go into your own land store when the current land is yours.
Kingdom units	Off	Excess can feed or equip units from your kingdom on the current land.
Kingdom land	Off	Excess can go into the current land store when the land is in your kingdom.
King’s units	Off	Excess can feed or equip the king’s units on the current land.
King’s land	Off	Excess can go into the king’s land store when applicable.

Resources covered by automatic distribution:

Food
Tin
Bronze
Copper
Wood

Gold is excluded from automatic distribution.

Distribution respects per-unit inventory targets. If a unit has an inventory target for food, wood, copper, tin, or bronze, distribution tries to keep that reserve before moving excess away.

Inventory Capacity

Unit inventory holds 10 total resources per population, counted across all resource types. A unit with population 10 can therefore hold 100 total resources in any mix of food, wood, copper, tin, bronze, and gold. Fishing units on water are the exception: they have no inventory limit while they remain on water.

Manual transfers, automatic production, and distribution can push a unit above capacity, but that unit cannot move while it remains over capacity.

Fishing units on water can receive and produce without a storage limit. If a fisher moves onto land above its normal capacity, it keeps its resources but cannot move again until inventory is reduced to capacity, or the unit returns to the water.

Inventory targets may be set above capacity. This can intentionally reserve a large stockpile on a unit, but it can also leave that unit unable to move until the carried total is reduced.

Material Policy

Each unit can allow or disallow automatic use/allocation of:

Wood
Copper
Tin
Bronze

These settings affect whether the unit can receive those materials automatically and whether those materials count as production inputs/tools for that unit.

Land-Level Distribution

Land stores can auto-release resources.

For non-king lands, the default auto-release target is:

My units: on.
Kingdom units: off.
King’s units: off.
Feed all envoys: off.

Feed all envoys lets stored land food support every envoy on the land, even when the envoy belongs to another kingdom.

Messaging

Messaging availability:

Envoys enable local messaging to the owner of the current land and other local envoys.
Kingdom membership also enables kingdom messaging.
Kings can message lands within their kingdom more broadly.

Victory Conditions

Games can be created with different victory conditions:

Victory Type	Meaning
None	No automatic victory condition, players ranked by gold held in their capital. Gold carried by units does not count.
Own N lands	First player to own the target number of lands wins.
Reach N gold	First player to reach the target gold amount wins (again, held in capital only).
Control entire map	Control all eligible lands.
Turn limit	At the limit, the player with the most gold in their capital wins.

At game end, player scores are awarded by final rank and appear in player rankings.

Leaderboards, Scores and Ranking

Each game has its own leaderboard. Players with the same leaderboard value share the same rank. Ranks use skipped ranking, so if two players tie for first, the next player is third.

Example where players are ranked by gold:

Gold	100	100	60	20
Leaderboard Rank	1	1	3	4
Score	4	4	2	1

When a game finishes, players are awarded score points based on their final rank. The score is based on the number of players in the game – the higher your rank, the higher your final score:

Score = total players - (rank - 1)
Minimum score = 1

Players can receive the same score and rank, and there is no rule against conspiring to achieve this in the game.

The overall player rankings combine scores from completed games. A player’s overall score is the total of all points they have earned from finished games.

Practical Strategy

Feed population first. Starvation directly reduces unit size and strength.
Keep wood moving. Wood powers mining, smithing, tools, boat capacity, and water entry.
Farmers need cleared land. Heavy forest limits farming until woodcutters open space.
Bronze is the strongest tool and combat material, but it needs a supply chain: wood, copper, tin, and bronze smiths.
Mine high-multiplier lands early, but remember mining slowly degrades multipliers.
Use inventory targets for units that must keep food, boat wood, or battle tools.
Use land stores for strategic reserves, especially food and bronze.
Build walls on important lands before they are threatened.
Siege is the direct answer to strong walls.
Do not rely on move-before-attack order. It is intentionally random.
Keep envoys alive if diplomacy and messaging matter.
On water maps, navies can attack fishers as well as other navies, and need enough wood for every head aboard; damaged boats can cause extra losses after battle.
Use notifications as your battle log: review pre-battle strength and casualties before planning the next turn.

Uploading an emblem

Emblems can be uploaded from the settings page. Upload format must be in .SVG vector file – no jpg, png or any other kind of image. It also must be a very small file size, so keep the design simple.

You can download Inskscape for free from https://inkscape.org/ to create your own .svg, or use any other application which supports the format such as Adobe Illustrator.

Final note

Please remember, Terra Dominus is still in active development and features may change without notice. This is being built by one person in his spare time with zero budget.