戎机 (Afar To War)

100 Meters per Hex, 15 Minutes per Turn
Afar To War is a historical hex wargame of ancient battles. Every hex on the map is 100 meters across and every turn is 15 minutes; a unit's strength is its actual headcount, and bows and crossbows reach only a hundred or two hundred meters. You don't command a pile of abstract numbers, but battalion after battalion of ancient troops at their true scale.

Launch Series: "Rise of the Tang"
Our launch series, "Rise of the Tang," is set in the early Tang dynasty and follows the era's most famous battles, from Li Shimin's wars of unification to Su Dingfang's far-flung campaigns. Terrain, cities, troop strengths, generals and reinforcements are recreated from historical sources as closely as possible. Every battle has its own victory conditions and key objectives: you win not by wiping out the enemy, but by holding what matters when time runs out.
"Rise of the Tang" is only the beginning. More historical series, from China and around the world, will follow, taking you to the great battlefields of other eras and civilizations.

Land Battles: Formations, Morale and Command
Every formation has its trade-offs: line delivers the heaviest fire but struggles to maneuver; column marches fast but fights poorly hand to hand; the square stops cavalry charges; open order and skirmishers are nimble but dread close combat. Cavalry can charge mounted or dismount to fight on foot.

Morale and rout: disordered units fight at a third of their strength in melee, and routing troops flee on their own, throwing nearby friends into disorder as they go.

Command and supply: units that stray beyond their general's command range slip out of control. Supplies only move at night, and an army whose supply line is cut soon falters.

Fog of war, day and night, weather: you can't even aim at an enemy you haven't spotted; visibility collapses after dark; the wind decides where a fire will spread.

Siege Warfare: Five Ways Into a City
Gate, breach, ladder, tower, siege tower: without one of these five, no army gets over the wall. Catapults batter breaches from afar, rams smash the gates, sappers undermine the walls turn by turn, ladders go up against the battlements on the spot, and siege towers carry troops right onto the wall. Defenders shoot down from the heights and save their burning oil for whoever makes it to the top. Wall tops hold only so many men, so attacker and defender alike must weigh every wave they commit.

Fire and Flood: Reshape the Battlefield
Fire: weather and wind decide whether a fire catches and where it goes, spreading downwind hex by hex. Forests, villages and granaries go up in a flash, while bare rock won't burn. Troops caught in the flames keep taking losses, and burning the enemy's supplies and siege engines is often deadlier than any head-on clash.

Flood: dam a river, let the water build turn by turn, then breach the dam and send a flood sweeping downstream across the land.

Terrain that changes: battered walls collapse into rubble-strewn breaches, forests burn to scorched earth, and bridges can be built or burned. The battlefield is not a static map; it changes with the fighting.

See every river's flow: water on the map is in motion, so upstream and downstream are plain to see. Where a flood will surge and which stretch of river to dam is clear at a glance.

Naval Warfare: Wind, Sail and Steel
Tower ships, war junks, armored assault boats and light skiffs, each with its own size and armament. Ram enemy hulls, grapple and board, loose volleys from shipboard catapults and ballistae, send fire ships downwind, or chain your fleet together. The wind pushes your ships around, and only dropping anchor holds your line. A single shift in the wind can decide the whole battle.

The Depth of a Wargame, the Ease of a Tactics Game
We built a hardcore wargame to play like a tactics game. Every rule is resolved automatically by the engine: the hexes you can reach and the targets you can hit light up right on the map, and one click carries out the order. Hover over a button you can't press and it tells you why. Command range, supply, line of sight and zones of control can all be shown on the map with one click. No need to study a thick rulebook first: jump straight in, and discover the depth as you play.

Online Battles and Spectating
Play solo against the AI, or take on other players online. Open your matches to spectators, learn by watching, and go over every victory and defeat together.

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