How to play

The field and the formation

The field is a grid of several columns and several rows. The enemy stands in the top rows and you stand in the bottom rows. Your formation is the choice of which soldier stands on which square. You can only place soldiers in your own deploy zone, the highlighted rows at the bottom. On a phone, tap a soldier in the Roster, then tap a square. On a computer, pick a soldier and click a square, or use the arrow keys and Enter on the field.

The wave

A wave is one group of enemies. Wave 1 is the first, wave 2 the next, and so on. The next wave is drawn as faded figures on the enemy side before you start, so you can plan for it. Some waves have walls you cannot cross. Every chapter, a stretch of ten waves, also has a rule that changes how the field works. The rule is written above the field and marked on it.

March and orders

March starts the fight. You do not control a fight. Your soldiers move, attack and use abilities on their own, following the order you gave each one. An order tells one soldier how to choose its target or where to stand: pick a soldier, then pick one of the orders shown for it. The fight is played back for you and you can skip to the result. If neither side wins within the time limit, the fight counts as a defeat.

Coin, Works and the yard

Coin is the money. Winning a wave pays Coin. The first win of wave 1 pays a small amount, and later waves pay more. Losing pays nothing and costs nothing else: your soldiers are whole for the next fight.

A Works is a building that earns Coin every second, even while you are away. Each copy costs more than the last, and a Works can be upgraded. The yard is the fort itself: the Barracks makes Recruits, the Armoury raises how many soldiers stand on the field, the Muster Hall how many you keep, the Drill Yard adds deploy rows and faster playback, and the Quartermaster buys Works for you.

Muster and Recruits

To muster is to call up a soldier. Each soldier costs Coin and Recruits. Recruits are people willing to serve, and they build up over time. Each extra copy of the same kind of soldier costs more than the one before. There are many kinds of soldier, and they open as you clear waves.

Company tags and Seasoning

Every soldier belongs to a Company, such as Wardens or Fenfolk. Two or three different kinds of soldier from the same Company on the field give bonuses to that Company. The panel in the Roster column lists the bonuses that are active, the ones one soldier or one square away (with a button that shows the square on the field), and the ones you cannot reach yet. Some bonuses depend on shape, for example one soldier standing directly behind another.

Soldiers who fought gain Seasoning, which is experience. Each level makes that one soldier a little stronger. A card shows the level as small bars and the Seasoning count under the name. Drill is different: it trains every soldier of one kind, for Coin.

Hold the Line

Hold the Line fights the last wave you cleared, again and again, without you pressing March. Each fight pays a share percent of the first-clear bounty (the Coin for beating a wave for the first time). The setting to fall back one wave after a defeat is on by default.

Being away

When you close the page, your company keeps patrolling for up to a number of hours, and your Works and Barracks keep working. A patrol only fights a wave it usually wins, and it never fights a boss or clears a wave for the first time. When you come back, a report says how much of your time away was counted, which wave was patrolled, how many fights were won, what you earned and anything that stopped early.

The Road

The Road is the run of waves from wave 1. It is split into chapters, each a run of waves with a rule of its own: the Mire Road (Bog slows the two rows nearest the enemy), the Burnt Orchard (Embers set cells on fire), the Ford (the Current pushes anything in the middle column toward the left edge, again and again), the Ruined Abbey (Hush silences the first heal or shield a support gives), the Fen Keep (Walls block cells for good, the same ones every time) and the Hollow Hill (Dusk shortens long-range attacks). After the last chapter comes the Siege, which has no end: each wave is harder, and your score is how deep you get.

The Oath, Honours, Heirlooms and Trials

Once you have cleared wave a set number you can take the Oath. The Oath sends the whole company back to wave 1 and gives you Banners. A Banner is the money of the Oath. The screen shows how many Banners you would get before you confirm, and the amount you see is the amount you receive.

Banners buy Honours, permanent bonuses in branches: Drill, Stores, Tactics and Memory. Each Honour needs the one before it in its branch. An Heirloom is a soldier you mark to keep through the Oath. It comes back with part of its Seasoning level, and you start with a single Heirloom slot. A Trial is the Road again with one handicap, such as no Wardens or only three soldiers on the field. Clear it for a reward that stays. Giving up a Trial puts your own Road back as you left it.

Daily Muster

The Daily Muster opens once you have cleared wave a few on the Road. It is a puzzle, the same for everyone on the same day (the day changes at midnight UTC). You get a levy: a fixed number of points, a menu of soldiers that each cost points, a field with walls, and a fixed number of waves. Place a squad and submit it. The server plays the waves in order with your squad healed between them, and scores waves cleared, then points left over, then soldiers still standing. You get a few attempts a day and the best one counts. You can watch your own run afterwards.

Boards and seasons

Three boards list players by name: Daily Muster (score), Bare Road (the fastest time on the Bare Banner Trial, which gives no Honours or Heirlooms, so a new player and a veteran start level) and Siege (the deepest wave, which rewards progress). A season lasts about a month days. When it ends the boards start again, the old ones stay readable, and your Honours are kept. For the best Daily scores of a finished day you can open and replay the squad.