Off the Page, Into a Prototype, and a Mark That Stuck

Conquest has left the page. It’s now on step two, Systems, which the world page calls Prototype: the maths and logic are close to locked, and they’re running rather than being confidently described in a document.

A little more of the shape. You pick a civilisation before you see the map: you know the region’s character and who you’re up against, not its layout. A familiar scout heads into the unknown while you lay your first foundations, and what it finds decides where your first road goes. Not long after, you commit to a doctrine. One branch, no take-backs, and raised as a building every rival can see. Subtlety is available elsewhere.

Armies are formations, not swarms, and the map is the interface. Supply, influence and control all read straight off the board, and nothing fails without showing you why. Which means a single formation on the right road can starve a siege it could never win. We find that very satisfying. Your rivals won’t.

Being frank: it’s a prototype. The rules hold together, the balance is provisional, and the economy has opinions we haven’t finished arguing with.

Finally, the marks. It came down to two hexagons drawn from the same idea, and the one with a road running through it won, which on reflection was never much of a contest. It’s live across the site now. The runner-up is below, for the record.