Ninelands

Game modes

Your Kingdom (alone)

  • Campaigns: fixed maps with star goals, one station after another – a station opens once the previous one has a star.
    • The first campaign (32 stations, 96 stars) teaches the game: each of the nine chapters adds one thing – a piece, a terrain, laws – and from chapter 5 on, a puzzle station.
    • The Storm of the Horde (orcs) and Freebooters of the Nine Lands (pirates): 36 stations and 108 stars each, all pieces from the start, bandits and fog later on, short stories per chapter. They open once you have finished the first campaign, and you play them with that faction's pieces.
  • Map of the day: the same map for everyone, every day. The ranking sorts by stars, then gold; with an account you can switch it to Friends to see just you and your friends (the challenge of the week too); after the map of the day the result also tells you how many friends played it today and where you stand among them. Once you have finished the map of the day yourself, Watch the best game replays the best game of the day move by move – anonymously. Play it on consecutive days to build a streak.
  • Custom game: choose map size, bandits, fog and the law – or let chance decide. Every map has a map code; share the link and a friend plays the very same map.
  • Free play: no goals, unlimited undo – just build.

Challenge of the week

One map for everyone from Monday to Sunday (UTC), with a twist that changes every week: a 12 × 12 map with bandit camps, fog without bishops, the large 15 × 15 map, bandit camps in the fog, bandits without knights, or 12 × 12 in the fog. It has its own ranking – stars first, then lands and gold – and its stars count for your renown like any other. Three stars in one challenge and stars in ten different weeks are achievements of their own.

Conquest run

A chain of maps, each a little harder than the last: plain lands first, then bandit camps, fog, both, and later the larger 12 × 12 maps. Every stage needs a number of stars – one at first, later two and three – and its goals grow with every stage: more gold, sometimes one land more. Clear a stage and you pick one of three boons for the rest of the run: cheaper knights or bishops, more gold per pasture or per treasure, a war chest of starting gold, more loot from bandit camps. Boons stack. Miss the stars and the run is over.

Leaving a run is no way out: the game remembers every move, and the run continues exactly where you left it. The best run of each account – stages cleared, then gold – goes into the ranking, after the server has replayed every stage with the boons you chose.

Puzzles

Hand-picked positions where a few pieces are already placed and you have only a few moves left. Three stars go to the best solution only. A puzzle of the day rotates through the collection. Stuck? Hint marks the next move of a best solution (or tells you how many moves to take back) – after a hint, that puzzle gives at most two stars.

Festivals and seasons

A card in the hub shows the season – and during a festival its dates and your progress. Festivals run every year: Easter (a week either side of Easter Sunday), Halloween (25 October – 2 November) and Winterfest (15 December – 6 January). Win at least one star in three games during a festival – maps, campaign stations or puzzles all count – and its board theme and banner are yours for good – Halloween: Pumpkin night and the Bat, Winterfest: Festive lights and the Snowflake, Easter: Blossom meadow and the Easter egg. Choose them in your profile. The board theme With the seasons changes by itself: during a festival it shows that festival's theme, otherwise Winter, Autumn or – in spring – Blossom meadow, as far as you have unlocked them (classic in summer and for anything still locked).

Duels

  • Against the computer – Easy, Medium or Hard (see How the computer plays).
  • Two players, one device – pass the phone.
  • Online – quick play (rated, changes your glory), invite links and challenges to friends (any settings, unrated).

Your account

An account is free and optional. With it:

  • Stars and campaign progress follow you to every device; results enter the leaderboards. With Appear anonymously in leaderboards in your profile, public leaderboards show Anonymous player without your name and picture; friends and duel opponents still see your name. Deleting your account deletes all its results, too.
  • Glory from rated duels and the hall of fame.
  • Friends: see who is online, challenge them directly. After an online duel you can add your opponent as a friend straight from the result.
  • Profile picture (19 to unlock), team colour (4 colours) and faction of your pieces – see the appendix.

Offline and apps

Ninelands can be installed as an app (Add to home screen). On Windows and Linux there is also a desktop app (download on itch.io): it offers new versions by itself a few seconds after start. On itch.io you can also play right in the page. Everything that runs on your device – free play, campaigns, puzzles, duels against the computer or on one device – works offline. Online duels, leaderboards and syncing need a connection.