Fracle

Goal

Hold all the land. You play against 1 to 5 computer players on a globe of hex regions.

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. Pick your side: a colour and a symbol.
2. Tap a free region to make it your capital. It gets troops and shows your symbol.
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 new troops.
2. Attack, annex or build: tap your region, then a target. Take a neutral region to annex it. Tap "Done" to go on.
3. Move: tap your region, then one of your neighbouring regions, to send troops. Tap "End turn".

There is no limit on attacks: each region with 2 or more troops attacks once a turn, and troops that win may attack on from the land they took. Each region also sends troops once in Move. One troop always stays behind. Your regions 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 regions are worth more than small ones.

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.

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 regions help their neighbours defend. With 10 troops and two neighbours of 100, a region 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 regions, but not their troops: each region drops to 1 troop.

Ports

Build a port on a coast region you hold: select it in the attack phase, tap ⚒ Build, then ⚓ Port. (⚔ 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 region much harder to take: + % defence. Select your region in the attack phase, tap ⚒ Build, then 🛡 Fort. Building uses that region's action for the turn (it cannot attack), but your other regions attack on. A fortified region has a light stone wall along its edges and a 🛡 on its troop count. When the region 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 region you hold: select it in the attack phase, tap ⚒ Build, then 🔥 Campfire. Troops gather at it: + troop on that region at the start of each of your turns. A region 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 region's action for the turn, but your other regions attack on. When the region falls, its campfire is destroyed.

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, the water and the region size.

Made maps: in New map, set Map to Earth for the real world: hexes, real coastlines, and real regions: the states and provinces of the big countries (United States, Russia, China, India, Brazil, Canada, Australia, Indonesia, South Africa) and whole countries elsewhere. Regions 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 region (Shetland, the Aleutians) are left off, and so are the Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey. The attack card names the region 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.