Game Modes and Options — FFA, Teams, Difficulty

Win conditions differ by mode: 80% of the land in Free for All, 95% combined in Teams. The difficulty setting does nothing to humans — it only changes AI Nations.

Two modes

Mode	Win condition
Free for All (FFA)	80% of the land
Teams	95% combined

The team threshold is higher because several players fill it together. In practice team games run considerably longer.

Teams reduce the diplomacy load but add a judgement call: when to send troops and gold to teammates. A teammate sitting at their cap is wasting production, so moving it is a net gain.

Three kinds of player

Type	Notes
Player	A human
Nation	AI nation. Subject to the difficulty setting
Tribe	A bot. Unaffected by difficulty

Attacking a Tribe costs 30% fewer troops (for Human and Nation attackers). Early on this is the single biggest factor in choosing a direction — expand toward tribes.

Conversely, tribes pay half as much as humans to take wilderness. That is why bots appear to spread so quickly in the opening.

Difficulty — Nations only

This is the most misunderstood setting. Raising it does nothing to tribes or to other humans. Only AI Nation stats change.

Difficulty	Nation starting troops	Nation cap multiplier
Easy	12,500	×0.5
Medium	18,750	×0.75
Hard	25,000	×1.0
Impossible	31,250	×1.25

Hard is exactly human terms. Humans also start at 25,000 with a ×1.0 cap multiplier.

So Hard is the fair fight; Easy and Medium hand the AI a handicap; Impossible gives it a 25% higher cap than you.

Why starting troops matter so much is covered in The 1-Minute Build Order.

Public lobby modifiers

Public lobbies attach modifiers that vary per match. They are shown in the lobby list, so check before joining.

Label	Meaning
4min Peace	No player-versus-player attacks for the first four minutes
Random Spawn	Spawn positions assigned randomly
Crowded	More players than usual
Compact Map	Smaller map
Nukes Disabled	No nuclear weapons
SAMs Disabled	No SAM launchers
Ports Disabled	No ports
Alliances Disabled	No alliances
Hard Nations	Nations at raised difficulty
xN Gold Multiplier	Gold income multiplied
NM Starting Gold	Everyone starts with gold
Doomsday Clock	Forced end pressure over time
Water Nukes	Nukes can target water

Three of these change strategy sharply.

Ports Disabled removes trade income entirely. Gold gets tight, so lean harder on cities and factory rail income.

Alliances Disabled means everyone is an enemy. Defense posts get much more valuable and tidying your line comes before expanding.

4min Peace turns the opening into a pure expansion race. Holding a low attack ratio across several fronts matters even more, and the territory gap when peace ends usually decides the game.

Maps

Maps are grouped by category.

• Regions — World, Asia, Europe, Africa, North America, South America, Oceania, Antarctica
• Other — Continental, Countries, Fictional, Arcade, Cosmic, Special, Tournament, New, Featured, Favourites

What actually matters is not the name but terrain and chokepoints.

• Plains-heavy maps — fast expansion, defense posts worth less
• Islands and peninsulas — ports and boats carry more weight
• Maps full of narrow necks — one defense post can decide the game

Press Space for the terrain view as soon as you load in. The rest of the keys are in Every Keybind.

Single-player only

• Pause (P)
• Game speed (. / ,)

Both are blocked in public games. Practising a build order or checking a calculation is easiest in single-player at reduced speed.

More

• The Game Interface — panels and icons
• Every Keybind — all 36 defaults
• Opening simulator — compare early strategies