How to play Attrition

Attrition is real-time strategy on the real world map. Every commander starts with one city. You build factories and barracks, raise an army of infantry, tanks, artillery, aircraft and ships, make and break alliances, and capture rival cities. At minute 45 the commander with the most War Points wins.

The goal: War Points

Points follow who holds what right now, so a lead can be lost until the last second.

• A rival starting capital under your control is worth 3 points, as long as its commander is not your ally.
• Any other contested city is worth 1 point.
• Neutral cities taken without a fight, and your own or your allies’ starting capitals, are worth nothing: expansion feeds your economy, not your score.
• You can win early by holding at least 15 points and 80% of the points of all surviving players for 60 seconds. The last commander standing also wins.
• Ties are decided by cities, then deployed units, money and finally the order players joined.

Your first minutes

Before the match you choose any named city on the map as your capital; bots and other players choose theirs. You start with a small army (4–5 infantry and 1 artillery) and some money, manpower and oil. Your capital has 4 building slots, a major city 3 and a minor city 2.

• Build a factory early: it raises income, although each new industrial city adds a little less.
• Build a barracks for infantry and artillery, then a tank factory, airfield or shipyard depending on your doctrine and your neighbours.
• Send your first troops at nearby neutral cities. Each city you hold adds income, manpower and supply (the number of units you can field, up to 100).
• Starting cities produce automatically. A conquered city starts on manual production: switch it to automatic or queue what you need.

Economy: money, manpower and oil

Money builds and recruits. Manpower limits how many soldiers you can raise. Oil is scarce: a few oil fields are placed on the map after the starting cities are chosen, a refinery doubles a field’s output, and tanks, aircraft and ships burn it. Tanks, aircraft and ships also cost upkeep, so a mechanized army that only sits at home slowly drains you.

Cities and sieges

Cities have integrity. Units sent against a city besiege it; when its integrity falls to 15% the besiegers walk in. Fortifications add integrity and defense, artillery opens them, and a captured city produces at a reduced rate for its first seconds. You can demolish a building to free its slot.

Armies and the general staff

You can move every unit yourself with free movement on the real map, or give an army a standing mission and let your general staff handle it: guard a city and the area around it, patrol to a point and back, or expand into free cities nearby (and enemy cities once you are at war). Troops cross the sea in convoys by themselves; enemy destroyers hunt them.

Combined arms

No unit wins alone. Tanks crush infantry and artillery in the open; infantry holds cities and closed ground; artillery opens fortifications from range; fighters hunt bombers; bombers punish tanks, artillery and ships; anti-aircraft batteries guard cities; destroyers sink convoys and bombard coasts; carriers are mobile airfields. See every unit in the unit guide.

Air range and the sea

Aircraft fly sorties within the range of an airfield, one of your cities or a carrier, then land to rearm. Shipyards build destroyers, carriers and missile submarines and act as ports for convoys. Islands and coasts change everything: in the World and Oceania scenarios the sea is the main road.

Diplomacy

Every pair of commanders is at peace, at war or allied. You can propose peace, war, alliances and trades of money, manpower or oil (up to 1000 at a time). Each commander can hold up to 3 alliances. A peace signed after a war binds you for 120 seconds; breaking it marks you as a traitor and weakens your cities’ defense for a while. Bots remember how they were treated.

Doctrines and abilities

At the command table, when the match begins, you choose one of four doctrines: Blitzkrieg, Deep Front, Air Power or Naval Supremacy. Each has a passive bonus and three abilities that unlock as you earn command points from captures, kills and oil (80 · 200 · 360).

Strategic weapons

Missile silos, mobile launchers and missile submarines strike buildings and troops in an area anywhere on the map. Each missile costs 350 money and 80 oil. Fixed and mobile missile defenses intercept flights within their coverage and need 20 seconds to reload.

Ways to play

• Public matches leave on a timetable shown on the cover: register for one and the free seats fill with bots when it starts.
• Against AI: pick a scenario and four difficulties of bots (Cadet, Standard, Veteran, Elite).
• Private matches: create a room and share its link with friends.
• Tutorial: a guided practice match that teaches the controls.

After the winner is announced you can keep playing in free play for up to 60 minutes; the result no longer changes. Choose a map in the scenario guide, or read the FAQ.