⚜ IMPERIUM ⚜

⚔ Objective

Two ancient civilizations face off on a 7×7 board. Win by moving any of your army groups onto the enemy capital, OR by annihilating their entire host. Lose under either condition and your civilization falls — until the next campaign.

♟︎ The Board & Armies

Each side has a capital at the center back rank (row 0 / row 6) plus two side cities on the flanks. You deploy 5 army groups: three around the capital (Left / Front / Right) and two ranged Vanguards stationed on the side cities. Each group is a Unit + Commander pair. You always see your own commanders; the enemy's commanders stay hidden until first contact reveals them.

🎯 Your Turn — One Action

On each turn, pick one of your living, unstunned groups and either move to a green-highlighted empty tile, or attack a red-highlighted enemy in range. Then it's the AI's turn. Horse Archers and Camel Cavalry get a two-phase turn — they can move AND attack in the same action (see Unit Types below).

⭐ Army Group — Unit + Commander Synergy

Each of your 5 army groups is a pairing of a military unit (the troops on the field) and a commander (the historical figure leading them). Both halves carry 4 stats each, and the way they combine determines how the army actually performs in combat.

• Military Unit stats: ATK (Attack), DEF (Defense), SPD (Speed), MOR (Morale), plus troop count. These are intrinsic to the unit type — Roman Infantry is always 8 / 9 / 6 / 9 regardless of who leads it.
• Commander stats: STR (Strength), STG (Strategy), LDR (Leadership), INF (Influence). These are personal qualities of the named historical figure.

During every combat, your commander's stats compare against the OPPOSING commander's stats. Each point of advantage becomes a bonus on your unit:

• My STR > opp STR → +ATK to my unit (each point of difference = +1 ATK)
• My STG > opp STG → +DEF
• My INF > opp INF → +MOR
• LDR doesn't apply directly to combat math — it gates certain historical narrative triggers and special events.

Example: Cretan Archers (base ATK 8) led by Scipio Africanus (STR 9) attacking Carthaginian Cavalry led by Mago Barca (STR 7) gains +2 ATK from the STR gap — effective ATK 10. The SAME Cretan Archers led by Marcius Rufus (STR 7) against Mago Barca would get NO bonus — effective ATK 8 only. Same unit, very different combat performance. Choosing which commander leads which unit is half the deployment game.

A handful of named commanders are Legendary — beyond stat comparisons, they carry signature abilities that fire under specific historical conditions. Two examples (one from each tier):

• Spartacus (Senator-tier Servile Revolt) — Rebel Leader: when he personally leads his namesake Slave Revolt Infantry, the unit upgrades from its standard "orthogonal move, 8-direction attack" profile to ALSO moving 8 directions — matching the Shock Infantry profile. The gladiator transforms his own troops by example.
• Crassus (Rome's late-Republic cohort, used vs Senator-tier opponents) — Probe & Confuse: when he attacks and the defender's DEF holds (no breach), the defender is left "confused" for 1 turn, unable to act. The triumvir's slow, cautious attrition warfare made mechanical.

Many other Legendary commanders exist — Hannibal, Scipio, Hasdrubal the Fair, Gannicus, Surena, Wei Qing, Li Guang, Kanishka, Orodes II, Masinissa, and more — each with signature abilities that range from minor stat boosts to campaign-altering historical mechanics. See the Codex PDF for the full per-commander reference.

♟ Unit Types — Movement & Attack Patterns

This is the heart of the game. Every unit has a distinct movement and attack range that defines its battlefield role. Below are all unit types in the base game:

• Line Infantry (Rome, Carthage, Han, Parthia, Bactria) — Moves 1 tile orthogonally (front/back/left/right). Attacks 1 tile orthogonally. Backbone of every faction. 4,000–5,000 troops, high morale.
• Shock Infantry (Spartacus' Gaulish Shock) — Moves AND attacks 1 tile in ALL 8 directions. 3,000 troops, hits harder than line infantry and far more mobile in close-quarters fighting. The pure brawler.
• Slave Revolt Infantry (Spartacus' signature) — Moves 1 tile orthogonally BUT attacks ALL 8 surrounding tiles. A hybrid that swarms in on cardinal axes and lashes out from any angle — perfect for setting up 2v1 flanks. 5,000 troops, low DEF. When Spartacus himself leads them, the unit ALSO moves 8 directions — the Rebel Leader's signature ability upgrades the unit to a Shock-Infantry mobility profile.
• Cavalry (every faction has at least one) — Attacks ALL 8 surrounding tiles. Moves 1 tile in any of 8 directions, OR up to 2 tiles in a cardinal direction (long stride for rapid repositioning). 1,000 troops typical (Roman cavalry is just 300 — historically authentic, mechanically a glass cannon). Cavalry has a unique charge-through mechanic: when an orthogonal enemy is at distance 1 and the path 2–3 cells beyond is clear, an orange ⚡ tile appears 3 cells past the enemy.
  • TRAMPLING CHARGE — if cavalry would win the head-on fight cleanly, the enemy is annihilated AND cavalry continues to the destination tile. Zero losses.
  • CHARGE-THROUGH ESCAPE — if cavalry could not win cleanly, both sides take zero losses and cavalry simply rides past the enemy line to reposition.
  Charge is BLOCKED if the enemy is fortified in their own city, or if the destination is on any city tile.
• Cataphracts (Parthia Wave-2 reinforcement) — Same movement & attack as cavalry, but armored to the teeth: ATK 10, DEF 9, MOR 9, 2,000 troops. The strongest single mounted unit in the game. Visually marked with a black scale-mail grid pattern on the card.
• Ranged (Cretan Archers, Balearic Slingers, Han Crossbowmen) — Moves 1 tile orthogonally. Attacks any of the 8 surrounding tiles PLUS 4 cardinal tiles at distance 2 (long shot). When attacking solo, ranged units strike first, the defender cannot counter, and the ranged unit takes zero losses. After a kill they hold position (do not advance). Devastating against low-defense / low-troop targets and ideal as 2v1 flank supporters — the 2-cell long shot threatens from far away.
• Horse Archers (Parthia's signature unit) — Move like cavalry (8-direction + 2-cardinal long stride). Attack with a SKIRMISHER ranged pattern.
  • Stationary: shoots 4 diagonals + 4 cardinal-2 long shots (a "ring with cardinal gap" — NO point-blank N/S/E/W shots).
  • After moving: shoots only the 4 DIAGONAL-1 cells. Accuracy drops after repositioning, so long shots are unavailable.
  The Horse Archer turn is two-phase: in a single action they can EITHER (a) stay-and-shoot from the full pattern, OR (b) move-then-shoot a diagonal-1 target (or skip the second shot via [End Turn]). Hit-and-run incarnate. Strike first, no counter, zero losses. Cannot charge-through enemy lines.
• Camel Cavalry (Kushan's signature unit) — Move like cavalry (8-direction + 2-cardinal long stride). Attack only the 4 DIAGONAL tiles at distance 1. Same two-phase turn as Horse Archers (move + optional diagonal-1 attack), but with a much more restricted attack pattern — no orthogonal shots, no long shots. 800 troops, SPD 8.
• War Elephants (Carthage, Kushan) — Moves 1 tile in the 4 CARDINAL directions only (forward/back/left/right — no diagonals). Attacks ANY of the 8 surrounding tiles. Displayed as 80 elephants = 1,600 effective troops in combat math (each head ≈ 20 men). Four signature effects make elephants utterly unique:
  • Intimidation — combat involving elephants inflicts -2 MOR on the opposing side, raising rout chance.
  • Trample Stun — attacking elephants STAMP 3 tiles (target + 2 flanking cells along the charge axis). Units in those tiles — friend OR foe — SKIP their next turn.
  • Attacker Invulnerability — when elephants ATTACK, they are never destroyed. If combat math would kill them, the outcome converts to a clean withdraw (trample still fires).
  • Effective Troops — the 80-head roster figure is misleading; combat math uses 1,600. Durable against small attackers but a clean breach by infantry can wipe them in one strike.

⚔ Combat Resolution

When you attack, both commanders reveal themselves. Stat boxes appear: ATK / DEF / SPD / MOR. Combat is fully deterministic — no dice, no randomness. The faster side strikes first; the strike compares striker's ATK vs target's DEF:

• ATK > DEF — BREACH: striker inflicts min(striker troops, target troops) casualties. If target wiped or routed → target destroyed; striker advances onto the empty tile (except ranged attackers, who hold position, and per the City-Walls Rule below).
• ATK = DEF — EQUAL CLASH: both sides take equal mutual casualties simultaneously. If both armies are wiped to zero → TRUE mutual destruction, BOTH units die. (Exception: elephant attacker invulnerability lets the elephant survive; the defender still dies.)
• ATK < DEF — DEFENDED: no losses. The defender chooses to hold (stalemate, both stay) or counter-attack with full retaliation damage = min(defender troops, attacker troops).

Multi-strike: when the faster side's SPD exceeds the slower's by more than 1, the faster side gets max(1, fastSPD − slowSPD) consecutive strikes on a breach. SPD diff 4 = 4 strikes. Decisive for Hannibal's cavalry and Surena's horse archers. Ranged attackers get multi-strike volleys with the same math, no counter possible.

Morale rout: after taking damage, the loser may rout if (losses > 50% AND MOR-gap ≥ 2 in striker's favor) OR (losses > 80%). A routed unit is destroyed regardless of surviving troops.

🤝 2v1 Flanking — Auto-Win

When you attack, the engine checks whether you have a second friendly group in position to also threaten the defender (able to legally attack them next turn). If yes, the attack wins automatically regardless of stats — the defender is encircled and destroyed. Two cavalry or two ranged on opposite sides of a defender = inescapable trap. Ranged units make excellent supporters (their 2-cell long-shot range threatens from far away). Exception: Gannicus is immune to 2v1 flanking on defense — the legendary rebel gladiator reads the field and refuses to be encircled.

Civilizations vary widely in raw unit power — some boast war elephants, others heavily-armored cataphracts, others mass crossbows or skirmishing horse archers. 2v1 flanking is the great equalizer. When you're playing a careful, deliberate game — thinking ahead one or two turns and arranging your pieces with patience — the 2v1 encirclement is the surest way to bring down a strong enemy unit. No matter how powerful the defender's stats, an encircled unit cannot survive. Plan the trap, walk them into it, win the exchange you "shouldn't" win on raw stats alone.

🏛 City Rules — Three Stacked Effects

• Fortification — Standing on a friendly city: +2 DEF (capital) or +1 DEF (side city). No ATK bonus. Enemy cities give no bonus.
• City-Walls Rule (universal) — When the defender stands on ANY city (capital or side city), killing them is NOT enough to take the city this turn. The attacker stays at their original tile; the city stands EMPTY. The attacker (or any other allied unit) must walk in on a subsequent turn to occupy it. This gives the defending side ONE chance to rush another unit into the empty walls. Storming a city always takes at least 2 actions.
• Manipular Formation (Rome only) — When two Roman infantry stand orthogonally adjacent on OPEN FIELD (not on a city), they form a manipular bond marked by a glowing gold strip. The formation grants +1 DEF and +1 ATK to both units. Formation breaks if either steps onto a city or moves apart.

🚩 Reinforcements

Capturing an enemy side city — or recapturing one of your own that the enemy has seized — summons a reinforcement army to the outer flank of the captured city. Each side receives at most 2 reinforcements per campaign.

Each reinforcement brings a fresh legendary historical figure who was NOT among your starting 5 commanders — a different name, often a different unit type. Wave 1 is typically a line unit; Wave 2 is the faction's signature elite (the exact roster, troop counts, and abilities are tuned during balancing and may shift between releases).

Reinforcements have a notably higher chance of triggering historical-event popups than the starting roster. The names that arrive in the field tend to come with their own stories already attached — some of the most dramatic narrative moments in the game fire only after a reinforcement has landed.

🌍 The Civilizations — Base & Senator Tier

The base game ships with the two Mediterranean civilizations available to every player. Four additional civilizations are unlocked at the Senator tier, each with mechanics, units, commanders, and historical narratives not found in the base roster.

🏛 ROME — Base Civilization

Backbone of the Mediterranean world. Line infantry with the unique Manipular Formation (+1 DEF / +1 ATK when two Roman infantry stand orthogonally adjacent on open field), Cretan Archers (600 troops, 2-cell long-shot ranged), balanced cavalry (only 300 troops — historically authentic, mechanically a glass cannon). The Roman command cohort shifts depending on the opponent: vs Carthage you lead Scipio Africanus and Fabius Maximus from the Punic Wars era; vs Senator-tier opponents Rome shifts to the late-Republic cohort. Capital: Rome. Side cities: Capua, Ariminum.

⛵ CARTHAGE — Base Civilization

The Mediterranean's first imperial rival to Rome. Hannibal's diverse army: balanced infantry, Numidian and Carthaginian cavalry (+1 SPD under Hannibal), Balearic Slingers, and the iconic War Elephants with their four signature effects (intimidation, trample stun, attacker invulnerability, 1,600 effective troops). The most flexible offensive roster in the base game. Capital: Carthage. Side cities: Carthago Nova, Utica.

Rome vs Carthage is the recommended first campaign — the Second Punic War covers every core mechanic (infantry, cavalry, ranged, elephants, fortification, legendary commanders, reinforcements, charge-through, multi-strike, manipular formation, 2v1 flanking) without the more exotic units and mechanics of Senator-tier civilizations.

🔒 Senator-Tier Civilizations — Four Unlocked Powers

Unlocking Senator membership opens four additional civilizations. The descriptions below are deliberately incomplete — each Senator-tier civilization carries signature mechanics, unique unit types, and commander abilities best discovered in play.

⛓ THE SERVILE REVOLT — Spartacus

Lead the gladiator who nearly toppled the Roman Republic from a base at Capua, 73–71 BC. The roster has no ranged units at all — this is a pure-melee insurgency that lives and dies by close-quarters maneuver. Three infantry types you'll meet nowhere else, including one with a movement-and-attack profile unique to this civilization. Spartacus himself carries the highest Strength stat in the game, and when he personally leads his namesake troops something changes about how they move. One of his lieutenants carries a defensive ability that breaks a rule every other unit in the game obeys. Discover the rest in the field.

🏹 PARTHIA — Empire of the Horse Archer

The Iranian power that humiliated Crassus at the Battle of Carrhae, 53 BC. Master of mounted skirmish warfare. Two mounted unit types found nowhere else, both with a two-phase turn that lets them move AND attack in the same action — and a Wave-2 reinforcement that is, by raw statistics, the strongest single mounted unit in the entire game. One Parthian commander carries an ability that does something no other ability in the game can do — its name will be familiar to anyone who has read Plutarch. The price of glory in Parthia is also paid in two ways. Discover the second.

🛕 KUSHAN — The Silk Road's Iron Heart

The Indo-Greek-Buddhist synthesis that ruled Bactria, Gandhara, and the northern Indian plains, ~30–240 AD. Bactrian Foot soldiers, war elephants (and possibly a second elephant unit), and a unique mounted skirmisher with a movement profile inherited from cavalry but an attack pattern restricted to just four cells. The Kushan king's Influence stat is the highest in any roster — a defense few civilizations can crack when he sits in his own capital. The full implications of facing Kanishka behind walls are best learned the hard way. Capital: Purushapura (modern Peshawar).

🐉 HAN DYNASTY — Heavenly Mandate

The eastern empire that built the Silk Road's terminus at Chang'an, the dynasty Sima Qian chronicled. Line infantry with the highest morale stat in the game, cavalry led by a steppe-campaign master, and crossbowmen under the legendary 飛將軍 "Flying General". Two of these Han commanders carry signature abilities, neither found in any other civilization. Discover what happens when the Flying General falls but his son still lives — one of the most dramatic historical-narrative triggers in the entire game waits for that moment. Capital: Chang'an.

🎭 Historical Event Easter Eggs

The engine fires cinematic historical popups at moments that mirror real ancient history. Base-civilization events you'll see in any Rome vs Carthage campaign:

• HANNIBAL MEETS SCIPIO — Hannibal's and Scipio's groups end a turn within 2 cells of each other. The clash that decided the Second Punic War, finally face-to-face.
• AN ELEPHANT FALLS — the first Carthaginian War Elephant destroyed (echoes Hannibal's catastrophic Alpine losses and the elephant graveyard at Zama).
• MASINISSA DEFECTS — Masinissa's Numidians move within 8 cells of Scipio Africanus. The Numidian cavalry permanently switches sides — re-enacting the strategic pivot that won Zama for Rome.
• CAPITAL FALLS / DEFEAT NARRATIVES — cinematic endgame popups (one per civilization × victory or defeat), tied to that civilization's real historical sackings, recoveries, and afterlives.

Many additional historical triggers fire only when Senator-tier civilizations enter the campaign — when certain commanders meet across the field, when famous lieutenants die in specific orders, when reinforcements arrive at the wrong moment. Names like Carrhae, Capua, the Flying General, and the Jealous King are all attached to triggers in the engine. Find them by playing.

⚔ Senator Multiplayer — Invite Your Own Opponents

Senator membership also unlocks private multiplayer rooms: create a sealed campaign room, invite a friend by link, and play head-to-head with any civilization combination either of you has unlocked. Take the Servile Revolt against Rome and rewrite the Third Servile War from the gladiators' side. Stage Parthia against Kushan in a fight for the iron heart of the Silk Road. Match the Han Dynasty against the Xiongnu once the steppe confederation arrives at the Senator roster — or set up clashes history itself never allowed: Carthage against Han, two classical empires whose envoys never met across the Eurasian distance. Each cross-civilization pairing generates historical-event combinations that the single-player AI campaigns rarely produce. (Multiplayer rooms ship as part of the Senator package; specific launch window listed on the Senator subscription page.)

🔮 Future Senator-Tier Civilizations

Beyond the six civilizations available today (Rome and Carthage at the base tier; Servile Revolt, Parthia, Kushan, and Han at the Senator tier), the Senator roster continues to grow. Two additional civilizations are currently in development:

• 🐺 The Huns / Xiongnu — the steppe confederation that pressed BOTH the Han Dynasty in the east and the late Roman Empire in the west across multiple centuries. A pan-Eurasian power whose riders linked the two ends of the known world.
• 🦅 The Dacian Kingdom — Burebista and Decebalus's mountain confederacy in the Carpathians, the realm whose conquest gave Trajan the longest war of his reign and the gold to build his Forum.

Senator membership unlocks all current and future civilizations as they ship — no additional cost per civilization. New civilizations are added on an ongoing basis as the game evolves.

🏆 Victory

You win the moment one of your armies steps onto the enemy capital, OR eliminates every enemy group. Lose under either condition and your civilization falls — until next campaign. Roma invicta. Punica fides.

Begin the Campaign