TunaWars

Overview

TunaWars is a turn-based strategy game about commanding an ancient coastal nation across a hex-based world of city-states, islands, farmland, forests, hills, mountains, harbors, lakes, and open sea. The game combines territorial conquest, resource management, army movement, naval logistics, diplomacy, trade, seasonal hardship, AI rivals, and both local and online multiplayer.

The game is built around simultaneous turn resolution. Players issue orders during their turn, then the game resolves movement, battles, sieges, production, trade, omens, diplomacy, victory checks, and summaries together at the end of the turn. This gives the game a campaign-board feeling: players plan, commit, and then watch the consequences unfold.

Main Menu and Saved Worlds

The opening screen presents saved games as world cards. Worlds are grouped by status so the player can quickly see which online games are ready for their turn, which games are waiting on someone else, which campaigns are completed, and which worlds are local games.

Each world card shows a thumbnail of the map, the world name, the game mode, the map size, the creation date, the current turn or season label, and the player’s nation where available. Completed games are marked as victories or defeats. Online games show whether it is the player’s turn, whether the game is waiting for another player, or whether sync status is unavailable.

From the main screen, the player can create a new world, open online matches and invites, read the About information, open the in-game rules handbook, toggle sound, inspect world settings where custom settings exist, and delete worlds. Deleting an active online world also forfeits the online match.

The app also handles Game Center sign-in, pending invite counts, app badge updates, incoming turn notifications, and short banners when remote turn updates are received.

Game Modes

TunaWars supports several distinct ways to play.

God Mode gives full visibility and direct control over any nation. It works as a sandbox mode where the player can switch nations and optionally mark selected nations as AI-controlled.

Alkibiades mode has the player lead one nation, but with a built-in twist: if the player dominates for long enough, they are exiled from their current nation and must take command of a rival. This prevents a runaway lead from becoming routine and keeps the campaign unstable.

Solo Player mode has the player control one nation with fog of war, aiming to conquer the world.

Local Multiplayer supports hot-seat play on the same device. Multiple human players each control a nation and take turns locally before the world resolves.

Game Center mode supports asynchronous remote multiplayer. Each player takes turns on their own device, submits orders through Game Center, and receives the match again when it is their turn.

World Creation

The world generator allows the player to create custom campaigns. Players can name the world, choose a game mode, choose from map sizes, set or randomize a seed, and adjust core world characteristics such as map width, height, sea coverage, city count, lake count, resource density, and movement pace.

The game also includes hand-authored Aegean presets inspired by the Peloponnesian War, including a larger, more detailed version. These maps use recognizable city-state geography while still participating in the normal nation, resource, army, economy, and multiplayer systems.

Advanced setup options allow deeper customization. Worlds can enable or disable fog of war, movement previews for other nations, movement-based conquest, omens, AI narration, random nation traits, turn limits, water-restricted city placement, and more. Economy and combat settings can be adjusted through presets such as standard, scarcity, and abundance, with further tuning available for players who want a custom rule set.

The generator can also train new AI strategies on the device before starting a world. Trained strategies can be saved and used in later games, while bundled strategies are available by default.

Map Experience

The main game map is a pannable and zoomable hex grid. It shows terrain, ownership, cities, resources, armies, movement arrows, selected hexes, reachable destinations, danger zones, supply risks, battle locations, capture effects, and fog of war.

The visual presentation includes multiple map aesthetics and a detailed parchment-inspired interface. Terrain has seasonal color changes, with the world shifting visually across spring, summer, fall, and winter. The map includes animated movement previews, capture flashes, floating labels, and battle or siege feedback.

Fog of war can hide unexplored hexes and dim areas that have been explored but are not currently visible. In multiplayer, fog can be maintained separately for each player so that each person only sees what their own nation has discovered.

The map supports tap, click, drag, and zoom interactions, along with accessibility support so individual visible hexes can be reached through assistive technologies.

Nations, Cities, and Territory

The world is divided among nations centered on city-states. Cities can be Hellenic or Tribal, and that cultural identity determines what units can be recruited there.

Territory is tied to land ownership, city ownership, resources, and victory score. Armies can capture non-city hexes by occupying them, while cities are harder to take and may require sustained siege. Some worlds can also allow armies to conquer every hex they move through rather than only their final location.

Cities may be capitals, harbors, walled settlements, or ordinary inland cities. Harbor cities are important for fishing, fleets, naval recruitment, blockades, and coastal strategy. Cities can grow over time, becoming more productive. Players can also foster development by investing resources to improve a city’s future growth chance.

Walls matter. Cities can begin with walls, have walls upgraded with stone, and resist conquest until attackers breach or reduce them. Newly captured cities and besieged cities interact with wall repair and starvation rules.

Resources and Economy

The economy uses six resources: Metals, Grain, Cattle, Wood, Fish, and Stone.

Resources come from terrain, cities, population, fishing, and special events. Metals are tied strongly to hills and sometimes plains, grain to cultivated fields, cattle to plains, wood to wooded terrain, fish to water and harbors, and stone mainly to city-based production and defensive improvements.

Players maintain stockpiles. These stockpiles fund recruitment, ships, wagons, wall upgrades, city development, and trade. Production and upkeep are shown in the interface so players can understand what their nation gains and spends each turn.

Food supply is important. Armies need to be fed, and different units have different upkeep demands. If a nation cannot support its army, forces can suffer attrition. Wagons can help feed armies in the field, making logistics part of campaign planning rather than a background detail.

The game also has a seasonal economy. Fall and winter are harsh seasons. Armies in the open suffer extra losses, movement can become costly, and planning around the calendar becomes important. Once a year, a tuna migration may benefit coastal cities that are not besieged or blockaded.

Marketplace and Trade

The marketplace offers turn-based barter. The player can accept visiting traders’ offers, queue trades for end-of-turn settlement, and cancel queued trades before committing.

The player can also create their own barter proposal, offering one resource in exchange for another. The offered goods are reserved until turn resolution. If an NPC accepts, the trade completes; if no one accepts, the goods are returned.

Trade is competitive. Multiple nations may want the same offer, and the game resolves who actually receives it during turn settlement. Failed trades are reported in the turn summary.

Diplomatic grudges affect trade. Nations that deeply resent another power may refuse to trade with it, so conquest and betrayal can damage economic relationships.

Armies and Units

The game includes land, naval, cavalry, infantry, transport, and supply units.

Hellenic cities can recruit Hoplites, Peltasts, Psiloi, Light Cavalry, Medium Cavalry, Triremes, Merchant Ships, and Wagons. Tribal cities can recruit Tribal Infantry, Light Cavalry, Pentekonteres, Merchant Ships, and Wagons.

Each unit type has its own battlefield role. Hoplites are strong in open ground and good in cities. Peltasts are flexible. Psiloi and Tribal Infantry excel in rough ground. Cavalry are fast and dangerous on open terrain. Warships dominate at sea. Merchant ships carry troops but are poor combatants. Wagons support supply but do not fight meaningfully.

Players can recruit units, create new armies, reinforce existing armies, split armies, merge armies, form armies from loose units, add units to armies, disband armies for partial resource refunds, and use ships to transport land forces.

Naval transport is a significant system. Land armies can embark into fleets, fleets can carry troops according to capacity, and armies can disembark onto adjacent land. Embarking and disembarking cost movement time, and impossible transport orders are rejected during turn resolution.

Movement and Command

Armies receive destinations and move according to a turn movement budget. Different terrain types cost different amounts to cross. Cavalry can move faster, while wagons slow armies down.

Movement can span multiple turns. The interface previews the route and indicates how long it will take. Reachable hexes can be highlighted, and risky destinations can be marked with danger or supply warnings.

Zones of control are important. Strong enough armies project control over nearby hexes. Moving into an enemy zone can halt movement and threaten supply lines. The Defend Area order extends this influence, making positional defense meaningful.

The game supports tactical orders such as defending a city, defending an area, attempting an ambush, attempting a skirmish, and attacking a city. These orders affect how armies behave in battle and how they influence nearby territory.

Combat

Combat resolves when opposing forces meet. The result depends on army strength, unit types, terrain, tactical orders, walls, naval involvement, coastal penalties, ambushes, skirmishing, cavalry pursuit, and random variation.

The game distinguishes between land battles, naval battles, shore engagements, city assaults, ambushes, standoffs, and battles where city walls hold. Defenders benefit from terrain and walls. Attackers may suffer penalties when fleets try to fight on coastal land. Cavalry can pursue defeated enemies, increasing losses unless opposing cavalry cover the retreat.

Battles can destroy units, weaken them, force retreats, create standoffs, or allow captured ships and wagons to fall into the victor’s hands. Combat previews estimate the relative strength of attackers and defenders before a player commits.

Battle summaries explain what happened in plain language, show who fought, where the battle occurred, who won, what was lost, and whether special tactics mattered. Battle reports can include an inline map preview and a way to jump back to the battlefield when visible.

Sieges and Blockades

Cities are not captured like ordinary land. Walled cities require siege pressure, breached walls, or sustained occupation. A besieger may gradually reduce wall levels, but if the besieging army is destroyed or driven away in the same turn, the city’s walls can remain intact.

A city under strong enough enemy pressure can begin starving after a delay. Starvation weakens the garrison over time, making long sieges viable.

Harbor cities can be blockaded by warships. Blockades can cut fish production, interfere with seasonal tuna migration benefits, and help impose siege pressure on coastal cities. Merchant ships and badly weakened warships are not enough to hold an effective blockade.

Diplomacy, Allies, and Revolts

Rival nations remember what happens to them. AI nations develop grudges when ancestral territory is taken, when they lose battles, or when submission offers are rejected. Some grudges fade over time if no fresh injury occurs, while ongoing conquest deepens resentment.

The enemy-of-my-enemy idea is also present. If a nation strongly resents another nation, it may soften toward a power that defeats that hated rival.

Beaten AI nations can offer submission when their situation becomes desperate. If they are reduced to a weak position, besieged, outmatched, or deprived of walls and armies, they may offer to become an ally under the nation pressuring them. AI besiegers can accept automatically. Human players are asked whether to accept or decline such offers.

Allies keep their own land, fight on the same side as their sovereign, can reinforce nearby threats, pay tribute, and may allow the sovereign to recruit from allied cities. A sovereign and its allies do not fight one another.

Allies are not guaranteed to stay loyal. They can revolt depending on resentment, nearby enemies, the sovereign’s recent defeats, the pressure of a large empire, and whether the sovereign holds their capital with a garrison. If a sovereign falls, its allies are freed.

AI Opponents

The game includes AI nations with pre-trained or player-trained strategies. AI players recruit, move, trade, defend, attack, raid, reinforce, build walls, foster city development, use fleets, embark and disembark troops, answer blockades, and respond to raiders.

AI behavior is influenced by strategic priorities, ruler character, grudges, supply, city threats, terrain, enemy locations, and whether the nation is independent or subjugated. Allies behave differently from sovereign nations: they defend home territory and nearby threats rather than launching independent wars of conquest.

The player can train new AI strategies on-device, save them, clear saved strategies, or rely on bundled strategies. God Mode allows the player to choose which nations are AI-controlled.

Rulers and Nation Traits

Rival nations have named rulers, and those ruler personalities influence how they fight. Some are bolder, some more cautious, and some have stronger or weaker command ability. The game does not simply reveal these traits; players infer them from behavior over time.

Player nations can also have special nation traits. These include skilled sailors, fierce warriors, takers of cities, and successful traders. Traits can improve naval fighting, land fighting, city assaults, or resource income.

In Alkibiades mode, the player’s nation trait is tied to the starting nation rather than freely following the player after exile.

Omens and Narrative Events

Omens are optional random events. A nation may receive prosperity, divine wrath, combat favor, or dread. These can add or remove resources or modify combat strength on the following turn.

AI nations can also receive resource omens silently, so omens are not only a player benefit.

The game supports AI-written prose for chronicles and battle reports when enabled. When narration is disabled or unavailable, the game still provides plain deterministic text. Narration is cached so the same battle or chronicle keeps the same wording when revisited.

Turn Summaries, Chronicles, and History

After turns resolve, the game presents summaries showing what happened. These summaries can include production, fishing, current stockpiles, supply and attrition, recruitment, disbanding refunds, trades, failed trades, battle outcomes, sieges, rankings, omens, nation trait effects, alliances, revolts, eliminations, and tuna migration events.

The game stores turn chronicles so players can revisit past summaries. It also stores battle history, including local battle records and battle browsers. Battle visibility respects fog of war where appropriate, so players do not automatically learn everything happening in hidden parts of the world.

Rankings show the relative standing of nations, including city counts and battle records. Victory score is based on cities, population, army value, battles won, resources, land, stockpiles, and penalties for lost ancestral land.

Victory, Defeat, and Spectating

Players can win by holding a majority of the world’s cities or by leading when the turn limit expires. The game records campaign results, including victory or defeat, nation name, turns played, battles won and fought, peak city count, and final city count.

Players who lose their cities may receive a grace period to recover before final defeat. If the player is defeated while the world continues, the game can enter spectator mode with a different visual tone.

Completed worlds remain visible in the world list and are labeled according to victory or defeat.

Online Multiplayer

Game Center multiplayer is a complete asynchronous turn system. The host creates and seeds the match. Players accept invites, receive the current world state, issue orders, and submit their turn.

When the last active player in a round submits, the game gathers the submitted orders, applies missing-player handling, lets AI-controlled nations act, resolves the full turn, updates the world state, builds per-player summaries, and passes the match to the next participant.

The system handles stale local turns, Game Center participant alignment, version compatibility, crashed or interrupted submissions, invite state, match completion, quitting, and active match refreshes. If players repeatedly miss turns, their nation can be taken over permanently by AI so the game can continue.

Remote multiplayer preserves per-player fog locally and avoids revealing hidden information through summaries. The match data carries the authoritative world state while device-local presentation details remain local.

Audio and Presentation

The game includes a persistent sound toggle. It plays bundled sound effects or music for events such as opening a map, generating a world, ending a turn, battle summaries, and dramatic combat targeting.

The visual style is strongly themed around parchment, seals, engraved text, mosaics, banners, and ancient campaign-table presentation. Sheets such as the marketplace, rankings, battle summaries, AI settings, world settings, and rules handbook share the same visual language.

The game also includes an About sheet with copyright information and a feedback link.

In-Game Rules Reference

The Strategika handbook explains the rules inside the app. It covers turns, movement, supply, recruitment, city growth, seasons, combat, tactical orders, sieges, omens, diplomacy, allies, rulers, nation traits, and victory.

When opened from inside a world, the handbook uses that world’s actual settings, so custom economy or combat values are reflected in the explanations.