Game rules
Map Lords is played in real time: the clock starts as soon as your castle is placed. Here is everything you need for your first game, in the order things happen.
The goal
You lead a noble House. A game lasts a fixed time (5, 10 or 15 minutes). When time runs out, the House holding strictly the most territories wins. If several Houses tie for first, there is no winner. One rule can end everything early: if your castle is taken, your House collapses and the game is lost.
Setting up
After choosing a map (France or Europe), you set three options: the duration, the AI level and the number of rival Houses (1 to 4 in solo). The level changes how enemy lords behave: on Easy they give you 3 minutes of peace at the start; on Normal, 90 seconds; on Hard only 45 seconds, with an economy 30% stronger than yours.
Picking your starting land
Next you tap the territory where your capital will stand, or let chance decide. Your capital starts with a castle, a village, a mine, 10 pikemen and 2 archers, plus 200 gold in the treasury. Rival Houses settle as far from each other as possible. A few territories, too small or isolated, cannot be chosen as a start.
The rest of the map is made of free lands, guarded by 2 to 4 pikemen, and barbarian camps (about 13% of territories), far better defended: 8 to 15 pikemen and 2 to 6 archers, gaining one pikeman every 10 seconds up to 30 soldiers. No barbarian camp is placed within two territories of a capital.
Gold and production
Every second you earn 0.5 gold per territory you own, plus 4 gold per mine (more once upgraded), plus the bonus of every region you fully control. Gold is spent on building and upgrading; there is no direct purchase of soldiers. Soldiers are produced automatically by the military buildings of each territory, as long as the garrison is below 250 men.
Sending an army
To attack, select one of your territories, press Attack, then tap a neighboring target. A window opens: you choose how many pikemen, archers and knights leave, or use Send all and Half. The bar below compares your strength with the defense expected on arrival (including production during the march) and shows a success percentage. In solo, time slows down while you prepare an order.
You can also send reinforcements to one of your territories, even far away: the army then follows a path that only crosses your own lands. And you can set a rally point: every 10 seconds, your inner territories (those with no foreign neighbor, capital excluded) send their surplus there, keeping 3 pikemen behind.
Battles
When an army arrives, its attack strength is compared to the territory's defense. Each unit has an attack and a defense value, adjusted by ±50% depending on the enemy's composition (counters). Defense is multiplied by the castle if there is one (×1.6 at level 1) and by 1.25 if the defender controls the whole region.
- If the attack is stronger, the attacker takes the territory. It loses a share of its soldiers that grows the closer the fight was.
- Otherwise the assault is repelled: the attacking army is destroyed and the garrison takes losses in proportion to the attack's strength.
Buildings in a conquered territory stay in place and now produce for you.
Diplomacy
Everyone starts at peace. You cannot enter the lands of a House at peace with you: first you must declare war from the Diplomacy tab. To end a war, you send an envoy (one every 20 seconds). An AI mostly accepts when it is weaker than you, or when the war has dragged on. It may also offer peace on its own when it is losing.
End of the game
Taking a House's castle makes it collapse: all its other territories become free with half their garrison, and its marching armies vanish. In solo, the game ends as soon as your castle falls. Otherwise it ends when the clock runs out and Houses are ranked by number of territories.
In solo you also get a score: 100 points per territory held, 300 per full region, 500 per castle taken, 25 per battle won, 50 per barbarian camp razed and 1,000 for a victory. The total is multiplied by 0.75 on Easy, 1 on Normal and 1.5 on Hard. Stars reward survival (★), a top-two finish (★★) and victory (★★★). Your best score is kept for each level.
Ready? The strategy guide gives you the right habits for your first games.