PvP Combat

Player encounters happen on "front lines"; that is, when your territory reaches that of another player.

You can try to capture another player's territory, just like you do neutral land at the start of the game.

Everyone is incentivised to set up defenses by deploying items and building structures on their territory, to protect themselves from other players advancing into it.

Similarly, everyone is incentivised to attack and advance into other territories, in their attempt to play towards the game's overall objective: eliminating the other players.

Digits

Every player-owned tile will show a Minesweeper-like Digit, to indicate the total number of Items on adjacent tiles not owned by the player.

Further, an Asterisk (*) will be displayed with the digit, if there are any Decoys. The player can use this hint/information to figure out where decoys might be and decide if they want to try and risk stepping on those tiles.

The game client can provide a feature to switch digits to "enemy preview" mode, where the other players' digits are displayed instead, to allow the player to visualize how their defensive item formations would be seen by others.

Defensive Play Overview

When you own territory, you do not want to leave it undefended and easy to capture. Also, remember, if a player clicks on a "known safe" tile (with no digit), they can capture large swaths of territory in a single click!

Therefore, as you gain new territory, you want to set up formations of defensive Items to protect it. The presence of items will stop an invader's expansion and force them to solve a Minesweeper digit puzzle.

It is very important to use creative and clever formations of defensive items (mines, decoys, traps), and empty tiles, in order to create a challenging Minesweeper puzzle for the other player. The more variety, the better. For example, using too many items without leaving empty tiles will make the digits very easy to figure out. Ditto for not using decoys.

At the front line itself, you need to be especially careful. Deploying some additional items in real-time can be helpful to confuse the opponent, if they are actively trying to invade.

You can use Smokes to conceal specific digits for the enemy. This gives you an opportunity to deploy your items without immediately giving away information about what you are doing.

If you have a large territory, you might have multiple fronts, possibly with multiple other players. You need to keep an eye on all of them.

Further, you can build Structures within your territory. Barricades allow you to make use of geography (mountain clusters) to limit mobility and make it difficult for a future invader to advance into key locations. Watch Towers will give you visibility in case you lose the surrounding territory.

Offensive Play Overview

At the front line, you might decide to attack and advance into enemy territory.

To do this, you need to solve the Minesweeper puzzle. Use the digits to figure out where enemy items are, and determine what tiles are safe to step on.

You want to avoid dangerous items, and step on tiles that are safe). Decoys make the puzzle more challenging: you need to account for them when you mentally parse the digits + asterisks.

If you need to advance quickly, you can use the Reveal action (which costs a lot of money), to immediately learn what is on an enemy tile. Or you can strike.

If you think you know where dangerous items is located, you have options for dealing with them:

• Strike the tiles (offensive action), causing explosions that destroy the item and the land it stands on. Costs money.
• Carefully surround the items by stepping on adjacent safe tiles, capturing them. Rewards you with money.
• Just step on the tile anyway and suffer the consequences. ;) Probably best reserved for dire situations.

This presents an interesting tradeoff:

If you value your time and have money, you can play quickly and recklessly, striking enemy tiles to destroy items. You can be even more reckless and just strike enemy tiles, regardless of whether you think there is an item there, and not even bothering with the Minesweeper puzzle. This costs even more money and will destroy a lot of land, removing valuable natural resources.

On the other hand, if you want to take your time to play carefully and methodically, solving the Minesweeper puzzle can allow you to capture the enemy items. This way, you don't spend any money on your invasion. In fact, you gain money as a reward for the items you find. You also do no damage to the natural resources on the map. You may use the Reveal action to get hints, when in doubt.

Explosions

Stepping on a mine, and strking tiles, cause explosions.

Explosions are visible to everyone, even behind fog of war. Causing them will reveal your activity to 3rd-parties.

Explosions convert tiles to Destroyed Land, causing them to produce no more resources for the rest of the game.