Manual

Turns

Almost everything costs turns. You get 3 every 10 minutes and can store up to 360. Each turn you spend, your empire collects taxes, fishes, harvests salt, builds troops, and pays upkeep.

Protection

For your first 150 turns played, nobody can attack you, and you can't attack anyone either. Use that time to explore and build.

Leagues and buildings

Exploring brings new leagues, and small empires find more land. Each building takes up one league. Villages house your people, trading posts earn gold, fisheries feed everyone, salt pans produce salt, shipyards build the fleet, watchtowers strengthen agents, and fortresses reinforce your defense.

Taxes and morale

High taxes earn more gold and lower morale. Low morale reduces your income, attack, and defense. If food runs out, people die and troops desert. If gold runs out, troops desert too.

Fleet and combat

Sailors defend well, corsairs balance attack and defense, bombards hit hard and defend poorly, and warships are expensive and strong at both. The numbers change with each age. A full assault sends everything, a surprise attack gains strength and costs more morale, and a raid risks only one unit type and takes less land.

Attack empires close to your own size: too far from it, some troops desert and the spoils shrink. Hitting the same target repeatedly earns less each time.

Agents

Agents spend salt and turns to spy, sabotage, incite, assassinate, ambush, or annex land. They can also generate gold or salt, raise a shield against operations, and open a secret route to reach empires in another age.

Ages

Every empire starts in the Age of Sail and can advance by paying gold and salt. Each age changes unit strength and speeds up the shipyards. By default, you can only attack empires in the same age.

Alliances

Alliances bring together up to 12 empires. Members can't attack each other, can send each other aid, and reinforce the defense of any member under attack. To join, ask the leader or a first mate for the invite code.

The leader can name first mates, who help keep order and can expel regular members, and can pass leadership to another member. If the leader leaves, a first mate takes over. Anyone expelled can't come back with the old code, because it gets replaced. Each alliance has a private council, with topics only its members can read.

Alliance wars

The leader of an alliance with at least two members can declare war on another of that size, for 30000 gold. A war lasts 72 hours, and each alliance fights one war at a time. Whoever takes the most leagues wins, and the result appears in the chronicles.

During a war, battles between the two alliances yield 15% more leagues and don't lose value with repeated attacks. The leader can surrender at any time, which gives the win to the enemy. Afterwards, the same alliances wait a day before fighting again.

Crown Market and Port Bank

The Crown Market buys and sells at any time, at list prices: buying costs more than selling pays, and the buying price drops a little when you keep shipyards. Agents are hired there too.

The Port Bank keeps gold in savings, which earn interest with each turn played, and lends up to a limit. Both limits grow with your leagues, and debt grows with each turn played until it is repaid.

Merchants' Wharf

At the wharf, empires trade with each other. Posting or buying costs a turn, and you can have up to 6 open offers. Goods leave your empire when you post. If you withdraw the offer they come back, minus 5% that the harbour keeps. The harbour also keeps 4% of each sale.

Prices stay between one and a half times what the Crown's Market pays and its list price. Each purchase has a limit that grows with your leagues, and you can buy from the same seller 3 times a day. That usually makes the wharf better for both sides, without letting anyone transfer wealth for free.

Lighthouse Raffle

There's a draw every day. Each ticket costs 1200 gold, and an empire can hold up to 50. More tickets mean better odds, and a single winner takes the prize, which grows with every ticket sold.

Account security

Under "My account", you can turn on two-step verification with an authenticator app. Keep your recovery code safe: it's the way back if you lose your password or your phone.

Rounds

Each round lasts 30 days. When it ends, the ten biggest empires enter the Admirals' Hall and everyone starts over. Your account stays valid.