Goal. Wreck 95% of the other town, or kill off its people, to win. Blow yourself up and you lose.
Money. Every citizen earns money. Factories bring in more citizens, so build them first. Financial districts (skyscrapers) add 25% each to your income.
Your turn. You get 60 seconds. Pick artillery, a tank or a bomber, aim with the arrows, set the power and press FIRE. Tanks and bombers stay where you leave them.
Build menu. Barracks make soldiers who march on the enemy town in groups. They cross by the bridges, or by slow boats if the bridges are bombed. Anti-aircraft sites shoot planes down. An airfield lets you fly a bomber and sends planes out on its own.
Data centres. An AI builds tough robot soldiers that march with your army and choose their own targets, and sends a swarm of 5 drones every round to dive-bomb random buildings. A drone hits like a mega bomb. Missile defence silos shoot down about 9 in 10 of them.
Missile defence. Silos shoot incoming artillery shells and bombs out of the sky. Each has a 25% chance and they stack, but they cannot stop soldiers or tank shells.
Intel. The pass screen and build menu show a rough count of what the enemy has built.
Nukes. A nuclear lab researches tactical nukes, then thermonuclear bombs. Research only runs during turns. More labs make it faster. You can only build or fire a nuke while you have a standing lab, so if yours are destroyed you must build another.
Orders. In the build menu you can send soldiers now, choose how many, and pick any kind of building to attack. You can also tell your soldiers to defend a kind of building, such as labs or anti-aircraft sites, which makes attacks on them harder and repairs them slowly. Damaged buildings can be repaired, and wrecked ones rebuilt cheaper.
PC. Tick PC mode on the start screen for a wide layout. Keys: arrows or WASD to aim, Q / E or the mouse wheel for power, Space to fire, B for the build menu, Enter to end your turn. Nukes play a short cutscene; click to skip it.
Controller. Plug in or pair an Xbox controller and press any button. Left stick or d-pad aims, drives or flies; right stick up and down sets power; RT or A fires; LB / RB change weapon; X opens the build menu; Y opens ships; Back switches tank drive and aim; hold Start to end your turn. In menus the d-pad moves the highlight, A presses and B closes.
Maps. Boom Boom River has a wide river: soldiers cross by bridge or slow boat, and tanks cannot swim. Canyon Coast is a desert with a deep canyon: only bridges cross it. When the last bridge falls nothing can get across, soldiers turn back, and a tank that leaves a bridge falls to its doom.
Aircraft carriers. Build one on the sea, then use SHIPS (Y on a controller, F on PC) and pick which type of building to hit. Cruise missiles cost £500k, hit 75% of the time and silos can shoot them down. Hypersonic missiles cost £2M, never miss, hit like a mega bomb and cannot be shot down. With nuclear research and a standing lab, intercontinental tactical (£3M) and thermonuclear (£5M) missiles launch from the ship with their own cutscene.
Pillboxes. A cheap bunker (£150k) on your side of the river. 5 gunners with machine guns hold it and 5 more patrol, charging enemy soldiers and tanks that come into your town. Dead soldiers come back next turn unless the pillbox itself is destroyed.
Saving. The game saves each time the phone is handed over. Use Continue on the start screen.