Empires beginner's guide: how to win a world conquest game
RetroGM Empires is a free grand strategy game on a real world map: you pick one of 200 nations and try to rule the world, in real time with pause. Most new rulers lose their first game the same way: a war against a neighbour that was stronger than it looked. This guide shows how to get through the first years, pick the right wars and win.
Before you start: pick a nation that can grow
Every nation on the start screen shows its difficulty. For a first game, choose one marked Normal with at least two neighbours, or press Suggest a nation for a first game and the game picks one for you. A small island is safe but slow; a big power is easy to defend but has rivals everywhere.
- Game difficulty: Easy, Normal or Hard. Easy forgives mistakes, Hard ends the game the moment your homeland falls.
- AI aggression: how often the other nations go to war. Lower it for a calmer first game.
- Victory: the standard victory (45% of the world economy or about a quarter of the territories) or World conquest, where only every territory of the map wins.
- Guided first year: when the game starts, choose it. For 365 days no computer nation declares war on you, and the assistants are turned on. It ends early if you start a war yourself.
The first year: economy first, army second
Your daily budget pays for everything, so the first job is to make the economy grow. Keep taxes moderate and spend on infrastructure, education and research: GDP is the base of your army, your industry and your research. Keep the daily balance green.
Then build an army that can defend your borders. The army assistant keeps it at the size you choose (2, 5, 10 or 20% of GDP) and builds every kind of unit. Weapons are made from goods in the army reserve: steel for everything, fuel for tanks, planes and ships, chips for planes. If you lack them, an order buys them on the World Exchange, and the industry assistant builds steelworks, refineries and electronics plants for what you import.
Tip: Watch the threat badge on the top bar. It compares the strongest army around you with your defence. Green means time to grow; red means a neighbour could beat you, so build up or find an ally first.
Diplomacy: make friends before you make enemies
Send envoys to improve relations, then sign pacts. Pacts are binding: nobody can attack an ally or a non-aggression partner without breaking the pact, and breaking one costs relations and infamy. A non-aggression pact with your strongest neighbour is the cheapest defence in the game.
- Guarantees: guarantee the independence of up to three weaker nations. Whoever attacks them fights you too.
- Research agreements: with a friend (relations 30 or more), both of you research 10% faster, up to three partners.
- Direct deals: tap a nation and choose Deal to buy or sell a resource every day at the price you name. If they refuse, they tell you what they would take.
Choosing a war you can win
Before you declare, the war window shows both sides with their allies and puppets, your odds (strong, even, weak or hopeless) and whether they can strike back harder than you can hold. If the verdict is weak or hopeless, it often suggests a weaker neighbour to fight instead. Most lost games start with a war that was marked weak and declared anyway.
- Fabricate a claim first. It takes about 40 days and halves the infamy of the war.
- Check their allies. A small target with a big ally is a big war.
- Conquest or limited war. A limited war costs half the infamy and takes no land: occupy the enemy homeland and it becomes your puppet, paying reparations.
- Across the sea you need a navy: 3 squadrons for a landing on a nearby coast, 10 or more for any coast of the world (at -40%).
Fighting the war
Tap an enemy territory and launch an offensive, choosing how much of your army to commit. Terrain, forts, research, morale and air power decide each battle. Airstrikes can destroy enemy factories, and out of fuel, armour, planes and ships fight worse, so a blockade (a navy 50% stronger than theirs) can win a war before the battles do.
When you win a battle, your troops occupy the territory. Then open the Wars panel and make peace: spend the war score on annexations or a puppet, or occupy everything for a total capitulation.
When a war goes wrong
Losing a war is not the end. Offer land, reparations or a smaller army for peace; the button What would they accept? suggests the least the enemy will sign, and your capital is never on the table. An ally can leave with a separate peace, and an enemy that is stuck will offer you peace too.
If your homeland falls on Easy or Normal, you get a last stand of 90 or 45 days to strike back or make peace. When a game does end, the end screen tells you who took your land and what to try next, with a button to try again with the same nation.
After the conquest: infamy and the coalition
Conquered lands have resistance that fades with time. Every annexation raises infamy, and above about 48 the world may form a coalition against you. Keep it down with claims, limited wars, puppets (they count for victory and cost less infamy) and Statecraft research, and give the world time to forget between wars.
Research, industry and the long game
Five fields of ten technologies each take you through five eras: Modern, Digital, Automation, Fusion and Orbital. Technologies marked with a star unlock richer mines, stronger industries and better gear (Mk I to V), and at level 7 of three fields the wonders, megaprojects that give a bonus to the first nation that finishes them. What much of the world already knows costs up to 40% less, so a nation that falls behind catches up faster.
Every land produces food, oil, coal, iron, timber or rare earths in real-world amounts. Taking a land that produces what you lack makes its output yours, and making your own goods keeps the army supplied in a blockade.
Quick checklist
- First year: grow GDP, keep the budget green, build a defensive army.
- Sign a non-aggression pact with your strongest neighbour.
- Declare only wars marked strong or even, after a claim.
- Prefer puppets and limited wars while infamy is high.
- Losing? Ask what they would accept and make peace early.
- Controls: drag and zoom the map, Space pauses, 0 slow motion, 1 to 3 speed.
Play it now
RetroGM Empires is free in your browser, on a phone or a computer, with no account and no download. Your save stays on your device and the game works offline.