No board in this file. Every frame is recomputed from the seed and
the recorded orders by the same engine that played the match —
which is why a whole game fits in one string, why an edited one
cannot reproduce itself, and why this scrubber lands on the exact
board, not an approximation of it.
The line under the scrubber is a READING of those boards: what
moved this turn, by how much, and what caused it, with buttons
onto the turns the match hinged on. Every figure in it came off
the two boards either side of the turn, so you can step back one
and check it. It is not a judgement of how either side played —
nothing here knows what a player could see, what they were trying
to do, or what the alternative would have cost.
WHICH SQUARE ATTACKS?—
MORE
THE ARBITER · THE THIRD PLAYER NOBODY COMMANDS
STRIKE ONE TEMPLATE OUT
Ten things the mountain is allowed to do. Take one off the table for the whole match.
—
THE DROWNED ATLAS · A LIVING STRATEGY WORLD
BANNERFALL
Claim the fire. Outlast the changing world.
Every match raises a different island ring. Build a path, break the rival line, and hold the Banner while the Arbiter reshapes the sea around you.
EMBERWARD · your hostTIDEBOUND · the rivalTHE ARBITER · the world responds
THREE COMMANDS. ONE BANNER. NO TWO BATTLES ALIKE.
THE WORLD
The map remembers how you fight
Beneath the Drowned Atlas, an ancient forge-mountain builds islands and takes them back. The Emberward guard the inner fields. The Tidebound arrive with the sea at their backs. Both need the same vanishing ground.
01
THE RING CHANGES
The match seed chooses the coastline, approaches, and chokepoints.
02
THE BANNER CALLS
Hold its living flame at the end of a turn to earn a Banner Point.
03
THE ARBITER ANSWERS
It reads the battle, warns you, then alters the world when play grows still or lopsided.
✦
YOUR OBJECTIVE Reach 10 Banner Points, erase the rival’s ground, or hold the most land when turn 25 ends.
THE DROWNED ATLAS
HOW TO PLAY
01 / 06
Expand your frontier
Spend one Command to claim empty ground touching your territory. New ground arrives at your current Levy strength.
READ THE COASTExpansion is fastest along connected shorelines. Do not stretch so thin that one cut isolates your frontier.
EMBERWARD
TIDEBOUND
YOUR TURNChoose the glowing coast
COMMAND BANK
1 / 5
Three Commands a turn, the ones you keep, and one comparison
1THREE COMMANDS A TURN
Each side is given three Commands a turn, however much land it holds. Only one may be a raid: one Strike a turn.
EXPANDclaim empty land next to yours, at Levy strength1
FORTIFYadd your Levy — and brace the square this turn1
RAIDattack an enemy square next to yours — once a turn1
2WHAT YOU DO NOT SPEND, YOU KEEP
Commands you decline to give are banked, up to five. Play two for three turns and the fourth turn can be a six-Command blow.
A bank is public, and so is theirs. Watching the other side's bank fill is the read: pre-empt them while they are still saving, or spend a Command bracing for what is coming.
3COMBAT IS ONE COMPARISON
ATTACKstrength of the square you attack from + your Levy
DEFENCEstrength of the target + its height+ 2 if braced
Higher attack takes the square — it arrives holding half your Levy, rounded down, and never less than 1 — and the square you attacked from loses 2. Otherwise the attack fails and the defender loses 1.
BRACING. Raids land before fortifies, so a square you Fortify this turn takes +2 defence against Strikes arriving this turn. Guess where the blow falls and one Command turns it away.
No dice, no unit types. All of the surprise in this game comes from the mountain, not from luck here.
4SUPPLY IS YOUR LEVY
A square only counts if you can trace a path of your own land back to your capital. Cut-off squares earn nothing and lose 1 strength a turn until they are empty.
The land you can still reach sets your Levy, 1 to 5 — the weight every Command lands with. Cut a supply line and every Command the enemy gives that turn lands lighter.
5THE GROUND IS NOT THE SAME TWICE
The board is built from the match's seed, and the seed also chooses the shape of the ground. Where the chokepoints are — or whether there are any — changes what supply, bracing and the Banner are worth.
The shape is named in the top bar and in the ORDERS panel, and it rides on every replay: the same seed rebuilds the same ground in anyone's browser.
6THE MOUNTAIN ACTS
Every 3 turns the Arbiter reads the match and has the Atlas do one thing to the world: an eruption, a sinking coast, a new island, the fire moving, the high ground going cold.
It always warns you one turn early, and it always says what you did to deserve it. You are never surprised by a disaster you had no chance to prepare for.
7WINNING
Reach 10 Banner Points — one for each turn you end holding the Banner — or hold the most land after 25 turns.
8CONTROLS
Pick a tool with 123 and the board lights up every square that tool may be used on. Click one. Click a queued order to remove it, or right-click the square. ⏎ ends the turn.
When more than one of your squares could carry a raid, you are asked which — with the attack against the defence for each.
Both sides give orders at the same time, in secret, and everything resolves together. The MATCHES panel plays the same game against a person.
