The rules of World Order

The full reference. New to the game? Start with How to play.

All times below are for the longest game, Genesis, where one game hour is one real hour. Faster games scale every timer by their speed, except attack travel times, which are set per game length so defenders always get a fair warning.

Game lengths

There are no turns. Any player can act at any time, and every action takes time to finish. No action can start if it would finish after the game ends. During peace time nobody can attack or launch air strikes, but building, trading, alliances and every covert mission work as usual.

The map

Eight countries share a map of forty regions. Each country starts with a capital and four outer regions. Everyone always sees the whole map: every region, its owner, its borders, whether it is coastal, and its main resource. The sea is one connected ocean. Capitals are inland, so they can't be invaded from the sea.

Resources

• Energy and Wealth pay for building units, upkeep and war costs, and both count toward winning.
• Intelligence pays for covert missions and counter-intelligence. It doesn't count toward winning.

A country earns about 2,000 per hour in all, flowing continuously. The capital makes about 30% of that and each outer region 10% to 25%. Every country is clearly short of energy or wealth: the weaker of the two is 25% to 40% of its energy and wealth income. Intelligence is 10% to 20% of income. Countries start with about twelve hours of income saved. Resources can't be exchanged for one another and there is no storage limit; shortages are fixed only through deals.

Units

Every strength point costs the same, so no unit is simply better value. You pay when you order, every unit in an order finishes together, and cancelling refunds half. A standing order can keep building the same units while you can pay for them.

Upkeep is about 2% of a unit's build cost per hour, paid in the same mix of energy and wealth, for every unit you own, wherever it is. If you can't pay, the unpaid part of your army is unsupplied: it fights at half strength and counts at half on the leaderboard until you pay again. Units can be disbanded at any time, without a refund.

Movement

• Moving between your own regions takes about 1 hour to a neighbour and at most 2 hours anywhere. Land armies travel over your land or an ally's, or by sea on your own ships.
• Land armies attack regions that touch your land, or cross the sea on ships to coastal regions. One ship carries eight armies.
• Ships attack any coastal region. Planes strike any region anywhere; beyond your borders they pay double the energy part of their war cost.
• Attacks take about 12 hours to arrive for land and sea, and about 4 hours for planes. Everyone sees every attack while it travels: the attacker, the target, the arrival time and its rough size.
• Reinforcements sent to a battle already on its way travel three times faster than an attack. An attack still travelling can be called back, but its war cost is not refunded.

Battles

• There is no luck and no defender bonus. Both sides strike at once, and each destroys enemy units worth half of its own strength. The side with more strength left wins; a tie goes to the defender.
• A region is captured only if the attacker wins with land armies left. The loser's survivors return home at once.
• Inland regions are fought over by land and air. Coastal regions add ships firing from the sea. Sea invasions fight a sea battle first; armies are never lost at sea.
• Sending a unit into battle costs 10% of its build cost, for attackers, defenders and supporters alike. Defenders who can't pay fight weaker.
• A captured region gives the attacker half of its savings share and its production, at 75% while held by a country that didn't own it at the start. War damage halves a region's production, which recovers over about a day.
• Attacks from different countries arriving at the same time fight the defender together, and losses are shared by strength brought.
• A country that loses its last region is knocked out and goes into exile, from where it can fight to return.

What you can see

You see everything about your own country. For other countries you see the map, their Reputation, the leaderboard and their armies as a range per unit type (for example “Navy: 5 to 15”), within about 20% of the truth. Exact numbers come only from spy reports, shared vision with allies, or the Gazette.

Deals

A deal is a set of terms that the game carries out automatically. One side can offer: resources now, a payment every hour, a penalty if it breaks the deal, a reward for capturing a region, joining an attack, carrying armies by sea, spying on a target, liberating a former region, defending the other side, letting its armies through, or sharing intelligence reports. Both sides can agree to a peace promise or to found an alliance.

Deals last 48 hours by default and at least 6. Each country can have five open offers at most. Breaking any part of a deal breaks all of it, takes effect at once, and the other side is told immediately. Acting against a deal, for example attacking a country you've promised peace to, asks you to confirm first. Land and units always stay with their owner; they can't be traded.

Reputation

Every country starts at 70 out of 100. The labels are Trusted (80 to 100), Reliable (60 to 79), Neutral (40 to 59), Doubtful (20 to 39) and Treacherous (0 to 19). Reputation never recovers on its own. It falls when a country breaks a deal (−15), leaves an alliance without notice (−15), attacks a fellow alliance member (−30 in total) or is exposed running a covert operation, and it rises when a country keeps its deals.

Alliances

An official alliance has two to four members. Every member gets a peace promise, shared vision and military access with every other member. Defence pacts are separate deals. A new member needs more than half of the current members to agree. A member can leave with notice, which costs no Reputation, or leave at once, which counts as breaking a deal.

Covert missions

A country can run at most three operations, and at most one against each target, per Gazette edition. Counter-intelligence catches operations against you, and you choose whether to make them public.

The Gazette

The World Order Gazette publishes 24 editions a game, with a news cycle every four game hours. It reports public events, breaking news (a country knocked out, a new leader, peace time ending, a capital captured, an alliance splitting) and what players choose to publish. Messages between players are never reported as fact. The Final Edition awards Honours such as The Loyal Friend, The Great Betrayer and The Kingmaker.

Victory

• A country dominates an area (territory, military, energy or wealth) when it ranks first with at least 30% of the world total.
• Territory counts regions held out of forty. Military counts the strength of every unit owned, with unsupplied units at half. Energy and wealth count exact savings at the end, including gifts from deals.
• Each country has three secret missions, themed tasks of two to four steps. Each completed mission counts like one extra dominated area, with partial credit for steps done.
• Score is areas dominated (0 to 4) plus mission credit (0 to 3), out of 7. Ties are broken by total share across the four areas. A country in exile can't win.
• The game ends when time runs out: no early wins, no overtime. Only one country wins.

Fair play

Every country starts equal in total strength, income and difficulty of missions; the map generator checks this before a game begins. Every action is checked by the game's server, so the app can't be used to cheat. Computer players fill empty seats and follow the same rules as people.