General Info

This Game Guide is highly recommended for those who are playing Chroma Wars for the first time or have little knowledge of strategy games.

Chroma Wars is a turn-based strategy RPG.

To move the camera over the battlefield, use the arrow keys, WASD or mouse over and click the borders of the game screen.

For all other moves, use the mouse.

Headquarters: The Managing Phase

Before and after every battle, you will go through the Managing Phase which allows you to buy, sell, upgrade and resurrect armies.

• Increasing the experience level (upgrading characteristics and special abilities)

• Upgrading weapons (increasing damage)

• Upgrading armor (increasing armor protection and defense %).

Increasing of the experience level occurs only if the army has enough experience points and you have enough treasure to cover the cost.

When increasing an army's level you face two consecutive phases:

• Increasing the level of characteristics

• Acquisition of special abilities/spells (only at levels 2,5,10).

The increase of characteristics can happen either automatically, or by manually distributing the characteristic points you have received. You must assign all characteristic points in order to proceed.

The acquisition of special abilities/spells happens only at levels 2,5,10 and follows an abilities tree, where in order to obtain the next ability/spell, you must have previous knowledge of lesser abilities/spells.

Upgrading weapons and armor has a variable cost and is capped according to the experience level of the army (for example, a second-level army can receive no more than two upgrade in weapons and/or armor).

Upgrading your weapons increases the damage your army causes to enemies in battle.

Upgrading armor increases the protection values and the defense % against enemy attacks.

Think carefully about your choices in these phases because you won't be able to come back!

World Map

On the World Map, you can follow the geographical and narrative development of your military campaign.

The mission to accomplish is highlighted using a blinking red dot. Click on the box to select it.

The Battlefield

The first thing to do at the beginning of a battle is to place your armies . Click on an icon/face in the army box, and a white grid will appear on the battlefield (You can explore the battlefield using the arrow keys as explained in General Info). Select the square where you want to place the army by clicking on it.

A tip: try not to expose your flank or rear to your enemy.

To move the camera over the battlefield, use the arrow keys, WASD or mouse over and click the borders of the game screen. For all other moves, use the mouse.

Don't be afraid if the first move goes to your enemy, this will give you time to plan your strategy for victory.

As you can see, the game takes place over a gridded board containing the different types of terrain which make up the battlefield.

Each terrain has characteristics that affect the fight.

For examples: defending on a mountainous terrain is easier than on the plains, moving on a road with tanks is faster than through a forest.

The bases of these figures have different colors:

the armies of the HWD stand on a white base,
Hitland/Kaos armies on a black one,
the HWD General on a red base,
the Hitland/Kaos General on a green one.

At the centre of the base, a number indicates the remaining life of the army. At its sides are two spheres: the green one indicates whether the army can move, the red one whether the army can attack.

You can examine the characteristics of armies and terrain by clicking on the "info" button on the bottom right of the screen and then on the army/terrain you would like to inspect. To close this window, click on the "info" button again.

Every battle turn is composed of two action phases: one for you and the other for your enemy.
The order of execution of the phases is randomly determined at the beginning of the turn and is influenced by the "initiative" value of the generals on the battlefield.

During your action phase you can move, entrench, activate special abilities and/or spells, or fight with one, all or no armies.

Before the attack* you will see the “Battle Prediction”.
This will give you an estimate of the final result of that battle in terms of damages you'll cause to your enemy (Attack Damage) and that your enemy will cause to you (CounterAttack damage).

Remember that you can orient an army before or after movement (but not after an attack) using the orientation button at the bottom left of the interface.

Entrenching an army raises its defense abilities (the amount depends on the type of the unit; for example, infantry gets a larger defensive bonus than cavalry).
It's possible to entrenching a single army 5 consecutive times. You lose a level of entrenchment after every attack or defensive action. You completely lose the effect of entrenchment when you move. You cannot entrench if you are in an enemy ZOC (Zone of Control).

By activating a special ability, your armies will benefit from its bonuses for one or more turns. All armies acquire special abilities when they acquire a new level, some of them may have a special ability from the beginning. Activating a special ability is considered an "extra" action if it is performed before any movement or attack by the army with the ability. Activating a special ability cancels the effects of any other ability still in use. The effects of area special abilities available to generals sum with those of the single armies.

Chroma Wars is a game with straightforward commands, but it features many rules and tactical options.

In your battles and campaigns, try to remember these:

•Never forget the Primary Objective and the amount of turns at your disposal to achieve it.

•On the battlefield, Primary Objectives are labeled using names written entirely in UPPERCASE.

•On the battlefield, Secondary Objectives are labeled using names where only the first letter is in uppercase.

•Look at the briefing if you need to be reminded of the Objectives and the available battle turns.

•An army cannot move after the attack.

•An army that moves can subsequently attack.

•An army can be oriented only before an attack.

•An army can be oriented after moving.

•Melee Attacks: Try to attack your enemies in from the flank or the rear. Try to avoid being attacked from the flank or from the rear. From these angles, the target of an attack suffers a huge defensive penalty.

•Try to defend on terrain such as mountains, hills, or inside military bases and fortresses: you will receive a valuable defensive bonus. Avoid defending in open plains.

•Inside fortresses and buildings, armies usually don't suffer any penalty when defending against hand-to-hand attacks coming from the flank or the rear.

•Armies attacking units inside fortresses and buildings usually don't receive a bonus when attacking enemies on the flank or the rear.

•The defensive ability of every army progressively decreases every time it suffers an attack, even if the attack was not successful.

•In order to perform a ranged attack, you must have a fire line free of mountains, hills, towns, etc. (but there can be armies).

•Every army has a "ZOC" (zone of control) consisting of every square adjacent to the army's square

•The movement of every army stops as soon as it enters an enemy ZOC.