Fracle

Goal

Hold all the land. You play against 1 to 5 computer players on a globe of hex territories. The game ends after round : if no one holds it all by then, there is no winner.

Take a player's capital and that player is out: all their land becomes yours. Lose your own capital and you are out.

Computer players

Each computer player has a personality (on its player card): how aggressive, defensive, growth-minded and naval it plays. It keeps a garrison where enemies could attack, guards its capital, and sends only the troops above that garrison.

Start

1. You play with the colour and symbol in your profile (Menu › Profile).
2. Tap a free territory to make it your capital. It gets troops. A capital shows as a thin star on the globe, with a gold edge on its troop counter.
3. The computer players choose their capitals by personality: a Warlord near many targets, a Turtle far away with few neighbours, a Merchant with room to grow, an Admiral on a coast. Each picks one of its best few at random, so the starts differ each game. All other land is neutral.

A turn

1. Reinforce: tap your land to place your reinforcements. Undo takes back the last one, until you attack or build.
2. Attack, annex or build: tap your territory, then a target. Take a neutral territory to annex it. Tap "Done" to go on.
3. Move: tap your territory, then one of your neighbouring territories, to send troops. Tap "End turn".

There is no limit on attacks: each territory with 2 or more troops attacks once a turn, and troops that win may attack on from the land they took. Each territory also sends troops once in Move. One troop always stays behind. Your territories that can still attack (or move) have a thin white ring; when none is left, tap Done (or End turn).

In round , then every rounds, your turn starts with a choice of power cards (see below).

Land and reinforcements

Your land is the number of hexes you hold (see your player card). Each turn you get 1 troop for each hexes, and at least . Big territories are worth more than small ones.

Playing first is an advantage, so the later seats get extra troops early on: the second player gets +1 troop, the third +2, and so on. This lasts for rounds 1 to with 2 or 3 players, and rounds 1 to with 4 or more. You play first, so you get none.

Battles

Tap a target once to see the strengths, the win chance and the factors. Tap it again, or tap "Attack", to attack. ¼ ½ ¾ All sets how many troops go; it goes back to All after each attack.

Win chance = A² ÷ (A² + D²): A and D are the attack and defence strengths after the factors. One roll decides:

• Win: the survivors move in and may attack on, a little tired. A close win costs many troops.
• Overwhelm: at 5 : 1 or more, a sure win with few losses.
• Loss: most attackers fall; the rest go back.
• Stalemate: rare (at most 6 %). Both sides lose about half.

Power cards

In round , then every rounds (, , , …), each player starts their turn with power cards and keeps one for the rest of the game. The cards come at random from one pool for all players; the cards not kept go back into it. Copies of a card add up. Every player's cards are on their player card.

Each card has a tier, shown by its frame colour: white (Common), green (Uncommon), blue (Rare), purple (Epic) and gold (Legendary). Rarer cards are stronger and come up much less often: Epic cards are very rare, and each Legendary card is one of a kind and almost never comes up. The Cards sheet shows the chances. Every copy has a serial number: 01/03 is the first of three.

The cards come in four kinds: Offence (stronger attacks), Defence (stronger defence), Economy (more troops each turn: by land, by territories, while you hold the least land, and more) and Naval (ports and the sea).

Every card is in the menu under Cards, as cards or as a table.

Capitals

Allies: your territories help their neighbours defend. With 10 troops and two neighbours of 100, a territory defends with 10 + about 30 + 30. The allies do not take losses.

Your capital is hard to take (×1.5 defence, and its neighbours get a bonus too). When a capital falls, its player is out. The attacker takes all their territories, but not their troops: each territory drops to 1 troop.

Ports

Build a port on a coast territory you hold: select it in the attack phase, tap Build, then Port, and tap it again to build. ( Attack is the default.) A port shows as an anchor on the water, and its coast's sea takes your colour. From a port, troops reach every coast on the same water: the sea or lake its coast touches, wherever that water goes, but not a lake or sea that does not connect. A long crossing goes by boat. Defenders get ×1.5 against an attack from the sea.

A port is expensive, and building one ends your attacks for the turn. The cost goes up as the game goes on:

Forts

A fort makes a territory much harder to take: + % defence. Select your territory in the attack phase, tap Build, then Fort. Building uses that territory's action for the turn (it cannot attack), but your other territories attack on. A fortified territory has a light stone wall along its edges and a on its troop count. When the territory falls, its fort is destroyed.

A fort is cheapest on your capital and costs more the further it is from it (land steps; over the sea counts as far):

Campfires

From round , you can build a campfire on a territory you hold: select it in the attack phase, tap Build, then Campfire. Troops gather at it: + troop on that territory at the start of each of your turns. A territory with a campfire has a on its troop count.

A campfire is cheap: troops for your first one, for the second, and more for each one after that. Building uses that territory's action for the turn, but your other territories attack on. When the territory falls, its campfire is destroyed.

The ring round the globe

The dots show the land share: an arc in each player's colour, as long as their share of the land. The ticks are the round clock: one for each round, read clockwise from the top, bright when played. The last ticks are red: the game ends after round .

The map

Each map has a code (tap it in the menu to copy it). The same code always gives the same map. New map sets the size (Small to Large, the size of the Earth map), the water (0 to 80%) and the territory size.

Made maps: in New map, set Map to Earth for the real world: hexes, real coastlines, and real territories: the states and provinces of the big countries (United States, Russia, China, India, Brazil, Canada, Australia, Indonesia, South Africa) and whole countries elsewhere. Territories under hexes grow into the sea if they are on a coast (Belgium, Taiwan, Malta), but never so far that they touch new land; small land-locked ones join a neighbour. Small islands of a larger territory (Shetland, the Aleutians) are left off, and so are the Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey. The attack card names the territory you attack.

Snow, grass, forest and desert show the land's biome. Today they change only the look.

Controls

• Drag to turn the globe. Pinch or scroll to zoom. North is always up.
• Tap the FRACLE logo for the menu. Tap a player for their card. The number on each player is their power score: points for each territory, 1 for each hexes of land, 1 for each troop, and points for each power card by its tier.
• Tap any land for its card: owner, troops, land in hexes, biome, capital, port or coast, and its allied troops. In Attack and Move, your selected territory shows on the left, and the target (or other land you tap) on the right; your selection stays. In a battle preview, a strip shows the troops you send and your chances, and ¼ ½ ¾ All and Attack sit in the turn bar. Tap the strip (▴ Details) for the cards: the attack factors stack above the left card with your effective strength at the bottom, and the defence factors above the right card with the defender's. Tap a card's land again, or the sea, to close it.
• The camera follows the computer players. Your turn starts where you last acted.

Winning

You win when no other player holds land. Your fewest rounds for each map code is kept on this device.

If round ends with more than one player left, the game ends: warfare is outlawed. There is no winner. The standings go by land (with the same land, more troops rank first). The game counts as neither a win nor a loss in your Stats.

When the game ends or you are knocked out, the recap opens: your place, who took your capital, your numbers (battles won, troops beaten and lost, most land, longest blitz, best upset, builds, cards), a chart of every player by round (power, land, troops or territories; tap it to read a round) and the standings. Recap in the turn bar opens it again.