WarGames is a turn-based strategy game. WarGames is quite similar to the popular game RISK, with notable exceptions
1. Since it is a continuous online game, turns are distributed at regular intervals to every player (3 per 30 minutes), not when the 'previous' player uses their turns
2. Due to the above, certain actions require different amounts of turns (i.e. attacking another country costs 5 turns, spying costs 1, etc.)
3. Instead of modeling just armies, WarGames strives to provide a much more accurate model of nations and their interactions -- you have a national treasury, food supplies, oil reserves, 'tech points' to make certain aspects (i.e. your troops, how many units you can produce per turn, etc) of your country more advanced, superweapons, etc. etc.
Land
Land, along with turns, is probably the most valuable resource in the game. With land, one can build buildings, which are the driving force of your country. There are seven types of buildings:
Houses house your population. The more people you have in your country, the more houses you need (and conversely, the more houses you have, the more people will move in). Since each person is charged tax, a higher population results in more revenue for your country (see 'Governments and Taxation').
However, every person needs food to live, and farms generate that food. The more farms you have, the more food per turn you produce. Every person needs a place to work, and shops are a great place to put them. Shops are the main revenue generator for your country -- the more shops you have, the more money you make.
However, if you build too many shops, you'll lose money (and you'll need to expand your population). You're a country, and countries inevitably go to war. To fight a war, one must own a military. To build that military (see 'Militaries and War'), you must have factories. The more factories you have, the more units per turn you can produce (keep in mind, however, that you need to pay these factories -- every factory must be adequately supplied with money to generate military units).
Fighting wars with tanks and jets, however, requires a lot of oil. Guess what? That's right -- oil rigs generate oil for your country. Again, the more oil rigs you have, the more oil per turn you can generate. Fighting wars also takes a toll on your population. How many units you lose in a war depends upon many things, but having more hospitals can reduce your casualty count. Last, but most certainly not least, are labs. Labs generate so-called 'tech-points' (TPs) for your country.
The more labs you have, the more TP per turn you can generate. Tech Points can be invested in the 'Tech' screen. Investing in an area (i.e. troops, tanks, unit production, tech point cost) gives you a favorable advantage. Think of it as research. For example, say you had 10,000 troops at Level 0.
You just happen to have 4 TP sitting around, so you invest those tech points in your 'troops' category. Now your modifier turns to 108% (from 100%). Your troops are now 108% as strong as the base strength, so in effect, you just added 800 troops to your army -- for 4 TPs. As you can see, tech points are a vital aspect of the game, and is one of the things that differentiates top-ranked players from the rest.
There are two ways to gain land:
1. Winning a war with another country, provided you are the attacker (see 'Miliatries and War')
2. Exploring for land
To explore for land, just click the 'Generate' tab, select 'Explore Land', and enter the number of turns you'd like to use.
To build a building, just click the 'Build' tab, enter in however many buildings you'd like to build, and click 'build'
Militaries and War
OK, so you have a strong army. Now what? Click on the 'Military' tab. Here, you can select a player from a drop-down list of players you can attack, enter in a player ID number if you know it, or click "Retaliate" to choose from a list of countries that have recently attacked you (if applicable). Now you can enter how many of each type of unit you would like to attack with (or just hit 'set max' at the bottom to use everything you've got). Now you press 'Attack'. Voila! You've just attacked.
Attacking uses 5 turns and is linked to army readiness, which is used as a limiting agent (essentially so that you can't just save up 100 turns and attack a country 20 times when they're not online and steal everything they have). Attacking uses up 10% of your army readiness (defending against an attack uses 1%).
Gaining back readiness points is easy -- just play more turns. However, a lower army readiness means your attack is less effective. If you attack a country two times consecutively, then your resultsing army readiness is 80%, while theirs is 98% -- the more you attack, the weaker you are and the less likely to succeed you are.
Winning a war means that you capture some of the losing country's land (some already-built buildings and some free land) and money from their treasury. Losing a war means you just lose some of the units you attacked with, but the attacked country can now retaliate for 24 hours.
Whether you win or lose or are attacking or defending, your 'War Generals' will gain experience -- the higher their level, the stronger and better your army is. Say you really want to win, no matter the cost. Well, that's possible, but it will come at a price.
You can select 'War Generals' from the 'Military' tab and enter in a percentage in 'Choose Force' -- a higher percentage gives you a higher probablility of winning a war, but at a higher casualty price. Similarly, a lower percentage means you take less casualties, but are weaker.
You can buy units, food, oil, and tech points from the market, but these take two hours before they arrive in your country, so don't depend on them to defend yourself in a crisis.
Superweapons
Superweapons are not an essential part of the game but they do give the user a HUGE advantage. superweapons can only be purchased after either Missile Technology or Space Program (uranium is used to augument missiles). They are primarily used to weaken the enemy forces before an invasion or as a tactical strike which removes them of income-generating buildings, thus crippling them heavily.
There are two types of Superweapons: Missile and Satellite. Missiles are one-use weapons, so if one launches, it can never be used again. Satellites are used as a defensive grid for your country, protecting it from attacks, spy ops, and missiles. However, there is also the spy satellite, which gives the user a one-a-day spy operation., It's more accurate than a usual spy operation, so use it wisely.
As I have said it before, Superweapons are NOT an essential part of the game, as anyone can become no.1 without them. but they give you an immense upper hand if you happen to possess them, which is why it is recommended to have one at your disposal, as you never know which annoying player deserves the ultimate retribution.
Spying
Spying uses one turn. You can perform many actions, such as gathering information on another country (to see what their numbers are, just like your 'General Info' page, but it has a plus or minus 15% accuracy), destroying some of someone else's jets, stealing money from their treasury, etc.
Spies operate much like normal military, in that you can retaliate, win or lose, etc. but currently have no 'spy readiness' like 'army readiness'.
Governments and Taxation
Different government types have different innate tech modifiers. These modifiers can be seen from the 'Click here to get a description of each government' from the 'Manage Country' page under 'Cabinet'. Changing from your initial 'Anarachy" is free, but each subsequent change will destroy 7% of your country (of everything). Each government type has its merits and you may find it best to start with one and switch to another.
Tax rate is an interesting feature -- you can tax your citizens at a higher rate, but then a bunch of citizens will leave. If you lower your tax rate, you'll make less per person, but more people will enter. Try to find the right balance.
Alliances
Alliances have benefits and drawbacks. When you're in an alliance, you generally share some attacking and defending army. So if you're attacked, you may use, say 10% of all your allies' military units (depending upon your alliance). This also goes for defending your country. Every alliance has an option for 'taxation per turn' -- if your alliance taxes 12% per turn, then every turn you give 12% of your profits to the alliance 'shared funds'.
These shared funds can be used to build alliance superweapons , or just saved up to give to countries as a stipend when they need some cash (i.e. to defend themselves, research tech, etc.). It all depends on the alliance leader, who has complete control over the alliance funds (note: stealing money from the alliance leader steals money from his or her alliance's shared funds).
You can join alliance in 4 ways:
1. You can create your own alliance (costs a fair amount of money)
2. You can request to join the alliance
3. You can accept an invitation to join
4. If you know the password, you can enter the password
You can leave alliances, but it will cost 20 turns. Alliance leaders may kick people out of the alliance, however, so you may request to have the leader kick you out (though he is not obligated to do it in any way).
