Warfront

FIELD MANUAL

Rules of the match, then every unit in the catalog. Unit cards are read from the server each time this page opens, so a changed speed or a new battalion shows up here without rewriting the manual.

The server is the game

Unity and this site only display and send orders. Health, position, armies, battles, money, and research live on the server. The match ticks once a second. If the picture on the map and the server disagree, the server wins on the next pulse.

A match has a map ruler: two points and a number of seconds. Speed 10 crosses that ruler in those seconds. Each unit's sight and weapon are a percent of that same ruler. 100 is one full ruler. 50 is half of it. 150 is one and a half. The default pause between rounds is 15 seconds, unless the map file sets another roundSeconds.

Speed

Every unit has a catalog speed. Speed 10 crosses the ruler in the ruler's seconds. A higher number is faster by the same ratio. Speed 20 takes half as long. Speed 12 takes a little less than speed 10.

Land speeds are kept close on purpose. A tank is not several times faster than infantry. Aircraft are about twice a speed-10 unit. Helicopters sit between the two. Ships sit with the land band. The live numbers are on the unit cards, not in this paragraph.

A lone battalion moves at its own speed. An army moves at the slowest living member. That slowest speed is then multiplied by efficiency. Ten or fewer living members move and hit at 100%. Above ten, efficiency is 0.9^(n−10). Twenty members are about 35%. Efficiency cuts outgoing damage and movement. It does not cut hit points and it does not reduce incoming damage. The same cap of ten applies on land, at sea, and in the air. Ranged efficiency uses the whole army, not only the guns that fired.

Land marches on roads. Ships sail sea lanes between ports and sea points. Aircraft fly in a straight line to a map point. On a road or a lane you can continue to the next node or turn back. You cannot jump off the lane to a third node until you arrive.

Orders

Nothing on the right of the map until you click a battalion or an army. A battalion shows its own card. An army shows total hit points remaining over total, then the list of battalions.

• Go, then the map. Go arms the order. The cursor becomes a sight. The next click is the destination and the unit starts at once. Go again cancels. You do not pick the tile first.
• Stop halts a moving battalion or the whole army. Give Stop before a new Go if the whole formation is already marching. Stop is refused while anyone in the army is in battle.
• Land needs a neighboring territory. Ships need a neighboring port or sea point. Aircraft need a point on the map.
• Land cannot enter the sea. Ships cannot enter an inland city.

Training and city building are not on that panel. They stay in the City, Research, and Market windows on the top bar.

Battalions and armies

One living unit is a battalion. It has no army. Two or more units of the same owner and the same domain that occupy the same place become one army and share an army id. Hit points stay on each battalion. There is no fused health pool.

Domains never mix. Land, air, and sea do not join the same army and do not fight each other in melee. A tank and a jet on the same city stay two formations.

When a member reaches 0 hit points it dies and leaves. If one member remains, the army id is cleared and it is a battalion again. The open battle, if any, follows the survivors.

The magnet

Same owner and same domain on the same place always merge. Enemies never merge. The check runs after movement and before battles.

• Both standing on the same territory, or
• both on the same road or lane, with progress within 0.08 of each other, or
• both in the air and within battle range of each other.

A newly trained unit joins if it appears on that stack. A unit that arrives joins. Different domains never join.

If they join a fight that is already open, they are set to Fighting immediately and they do not reset the cooldown. They strike on the next blow, with the side they joined. Example: 5 against 5, a blow just landed, 15 seconds remain. Two more of the second side arrive during the pause. The next blow is 5 against 7, and only after the pause. If they arrive in the same second the cooldown is already due, they are included in that blow.

A third country on the same tile does not join a duel that is already open. It waits until that battle ends.

Aircraft that are returning to base, rearming, or flying back to their patrol are pulled out of the army so the magnet does not drag them home into the wing.

Split

You can detach 1 up to one short of the army. One leaver becomes a battalion. Two or more leavers become a new army. If one unit stays behind, it becomes a battalion too. The most wounded of a chosen type leave first. You can take only armor, only infantry, or a mix, down to a single vehicle.

Split is refused while any member is Fighting or an open battle still names that army. Move and Stop of the army are refused for the same reason.

The button does not send them. Choose who leaves and press OK. Only that part stays selected, and it waits. Then Go, then the destination. Only that part moves. The order is one request, split and march together, so the magnet cannot glue them back before they leave. Click the army icon again to select the whole army and drop the detachment.

Without a destination they would be the same stack and the magnet would merge them again. That is why OK only selects them.

Lines of fire

The unit card says which line that battalion stands in. The usual layout is below. A card can place a unit somewhere else, and the card wins.

If a line is missing, its share is split equally across the lines that are still alive:

Inside a line the share is equal. If a battalion cannot absorb its part, the rest spills to the others in that line, then to the next living line, front then middle then rear. Anything still left after the rear wraps back onto the living lines. Damage is thrown away only when nobody on that side is alive.

Each living shooter rolls its own damage at ±10%, then a 10% chance of a critical hit between one and a half and double. In contact, artillery and air defense are already the smaller numbers printed on the card. The roll is then cut by efficiency if the army is over ten.

That shot is split across the enemy lines, 60 / 30 / 10, then equally inside the line. The number that lands is the contact damage on the card for that kind of target. A tank in front takes the armor figure. Infantry behind it takes the infantry figure. If a battalion cannot absorb its part, the rest spills to the next living battalion as plain damage. It is not looked up again.

Who shoots first

Contact is any pair of members in the same domain who are in contact: same territory, or the same road within 0.08 progress, or aircraft within battle range. One army fights one enemy army.

If one side was already idle and the other was moving, the idle side strikes first. If both were idle or both were moving, the first striker is random, and it is rolled again each round. Then both wait the round pause, default 15 seconds, and strike again. Reinforcements do not reset that clock.

After a kill the battle stays pinned to the living members. A dead lead battalion does not drop the rest of the army out of the fight.

Ranged fire

Ranged fire is separate from contact. The shooter must be idle, not already in contact, and off cooldown. It fires only as far as its weapon number, and only at a target some friendly unit can see. The shooter does not have to see the target itself. A spotter with a longer sight can aim a gun that cannot.

The card lists the ranged damage against each kind of target. A zero means that gun does not shoot that kind of unit. Aircraft and helicopters fire, then return to base to rearm. Everyone else reloads for one round.

The efficiency of a ranged shot uses the full size of the army, even if only the guns fired.

Air

An air order is a patrol point, not a city. The wing flies there and patrols. An attack order sends them in until they are inside their own weapon reach, then they fire when idle. After a ranged shot they fly home, rearm for one round, and return to the patrol. During that cycle they are not part of the army.

Air does not capture territory.

Capture

Only a unit whose card says it captures can take a territory, and only while it is idle there. Not while fighting and not while moving. Today that is infantry. Tanks, guns, ships, and aircraft do not capture. The territory changes owner on the tick the infantry is standing there.

Cities, training, research, economy

Each player picks a doctrine when they sit down. That doctrine is a nation. The match roster is that nation's units.

Infantry is ready at once. Every other unit must be researched in that match before it can be trained. The research cost is printed on the card as resources, not as a multiple of the train cost. Research, the market, and city building are the top-bar windows, not the unit panel.

Training spends the category's resources and spawns the battalion in a city you own that has the right building at level 1 or higher. If the city already holds your units of the same domain, the new battalion joins that army.

Buildings have five levels. The costs live in the balance file and are what the City window shows. Buildings themselves have no upkeep.

Every second, each owned territory pays its money, manpower, and resource, plus any industry bonus, and each living unit charges its upkeep. The wallet can go down. The stockpile is match-only. Gold in the lobby is a different currency, used on the parts market outside the match.

The match market posts offers and demands for resources at a price in match dollars. It is not the lobby gold market.

Victory and elimination

A player is still in the match while they own any territory or have any unit that is not dead. Lose both and they are eliminated. When fewer than two players remain in an active match, the match ends.

Units

Click a nation, a type, or a card. Speed, health, sight, weapon, damage by target, train cost, research cost, and upkeep are read from the unit catalog each time this page opens.