One season at a time, every move counts

Goal & victory

• Hold 75% of all cities to unify the realm.
• At the deadline (40 seasons in Red Cliffs) merit decides: cities × 10 + prestige + troops ÷ 2000.
• Lose every city and you fall. Completing Objectives grants gold and prestige.

A season

Everyone orders at once (WeGo); at season's end: diplomacy → stratagems → domestic → marches and battles → supply, income and loyalty.

The top-bar steps show what's left to do; the number on End season counts armies without orders.

Governing cities

One action per city per season, needing an officer there; effect scales with the officer, ×1.5 with Administrator.

• Farming (100) — agriculture, your autumn harvest.
• Commerce (100) — gold every season.
• Walls (150) — defensive bonus in sieges.
• Recruit (250) — garrison up, loyalty down (less with Benevolence).
• Drill (60) — garrison morale. Pacify (80) — loyalty.
• Seek talent (50) — recruit hidden free officers (when a rumor appears).

Armies & troop types

Muster from a city: a leader, up to two deputies, troops and type. Cavalry needs a city in Liang, Bing, You or Ji; navy needs a riverside city.

• Counters: cavalry › archers › infantry › cavalry (×1.2 / ×0.85).
• Navy ×1.35 on rivers, ×0.8 ashore, and fast along them. Cavalry ×1.1 charging on plains, more movement.

Marching & battle

Click a banner: green hexes are marches, red ones attacks with odds. Movement: plain 1, forest/hill 1.5, river 2, mountain 2.5, pass 1, 0.75 along roads.

Odds depend on troops and morale, the leader's leadership and war, deputies, counters, terrain (defender: hills ×1.2, mountains ×1.35, passes ×1.4), walls, flanking (+12% per adjacent friendly army), supply and skills. Below 1,200 troops or broken morale an army routs, and officers may be captured.

When two armies march to the same hex the larger wins; a city falls only when its garrison breaks.

Supply & grain

• Autumn brings the big harvest; upkeep each season = all troops ÷ 7.
• Out of grain: every army −10% troops, −10 morale, loyalty drops.
• Armies must connect through friendly land to a friendly city or go unsupplied: losses each season and ×0.8 power.

Diplomacy

• Truce (4 seasons) and alliance (8) are answered by their JK Move AI at season's end.
• Tribute raises trust; breaking a treaty means war, a trust crash and −10 prestige.
• No attacks under truce or alliance, and no entering a truce partner's land. Alliances against a common stronger foe renew.
• AI lords send envoys too — answer them in Diplomacy.

Stratagems

Up to 2 per season at 200 gold each, the agent within 6 hexes (spies: any range). Success = intelligence contest + skills (Mastermind +20%, Eight Trigrams +15%, Firebrand fire +25%).

• Spy: instantly reveals the enemy AI's real posture, front and diplomacy this season, and their territory.
• Fire: burn 12–20% of an army (easier in forests and rivers). False orders: an army sits still this season.
• Rumor: a city's loyalty and morale fall. Discord: an officer's loyalty falls; too low and he deserts.

Officers

Stats: leadership, war, intelligence, politics, charisma. Personality shapes AI behaviour (brave, cautious, cunning, benevolent, heroic). Disloyal officers may desert; the defeated may be captured and switch sides.

Officer skills

Multiplayer & spectating

• Host a room: pick “Host a room” and a turn timer (1 minute to 1 day) to get a room code and invite link; friends take Wei, Shu or Wu, and JK Move AI holds any empty seat.
• Simultaneous turns: the season resolves once everyone is ready; on timeout your saved orders stand and the AI fills the gaps; offline for a minute and the AI plays your seat — the chronicle says so.
• Diplomacy & council: truces and alliances offered to a person are answered by them next season; the Council panel is live chat (spectators listen only). Each seat's orders, councils and reports stay secret from the others.
• Live spectating: “Live battles” in the lobby lists the broadcast and public games; room spectators watch the board one season late, so nothing leaks as intel.
• Slow games & notifications: 1-hour or 1-day turns suit busy lords; turn on notifications to hear when it is your move, when time is short, or when someone writes to you.
• JK ID & the hall of heroes: sign in with JK ID to resume on any device; every finished game counts toward the Elo leaderboard.

Fog of war & objectives

You see friendly land and its edge, and 2 hexes around your armies; the rest is hidden. Objectives list scenario goals, such as Shu's Pacify Southern Jing and the Longzhong Plan.

Controls

Interface

• Top bar: season and deadline, resources, steps, Forces / Advisor / Diplomacy / Stratagems / Objectives / AI lab, theme and language.
• “Forces” lists idle armies, ungoverned cities and every officer (sortable by stat) — click to jump there; the red number counts what still needs orders.
• Banners: the seal is the leader's surname, the number is troops, the bar morale, the corner badge troop type; pulsing = no orders yet, dashed = unsupplied.
• The colour bar under a city name is its owner, ★ a capital; a glowing capital with “⋯” is deliberating.
• Click chronicle events to jump to them; “What they were thinking” reviews last season's AI councils.

Questions