New to Pact or Peril? This page gets you playing in a few minutes. For the full ruleset,
see Game Rules.
🎥 Looking for the video walkthrough? It's on the Home page.
You command an empire on a map made of connected territories grouped into continents
(groups). Win by one of four routes — the lobby picks which one is live:
- World Domination — own every territory on the map.
- World Domination % — own a set share of the map all at once (70% by default).
- Capital Conquest — own every capital on the map (from round 3).
- King of the Hill — everyone votes on one territory, the Hill, before round 1. From
round 3, holding it when a round ends scores a point; first to the points target wins.
In an online match there's one more, universal finish: whichever route the lobby picked, the
game ends the moment you're the last side still in it — you don't have to hunt down the
territories a quitter left behind.
See Win Conditions.
- Each territory you control produces armies and can attack or be attacked.
- Two territories can fight each other only if they are connected — by a shared land
border, a shipping lane, or an open portal.
- Continents (groups) give bonus armies every turn if you own the whole group.
Every turn runs through the same loop:
- 🪖 Reinforce — You receive new armies (more territory = more armies, plus continent
bonuses) and place them on territories you own. You can also trade in card sets here
for extra armies.
- ⚔️ Attack — Attack adjacent enemy territories with the dice. Attack as many times as
you like. Win a battle and you move armies into the conquered territory.
- 🏰 Fortify — Make one army move between two connected territories you own, then
your turn ends.
Capture at least one territory during your turn and you'll draw a card at the end of it.
See Game Rules → Turn phases for the details.
- Attack from a territory with 2 or more armies against a connected enemy.
- The attacker rolls up to 3 dice; the defender up to 2 (capitals defend with 3).
- Dice are matched highest-vs-highest. The defender wins ties.
- Roll more dice when you have more armies. With 4+ armies you can Full Send — an all-in
barrage that keeps rolling until you take the territory or run out of attackers.
Full details: Combat & Dice.
At the start of each turn you get:
territories ÷ 3 armies (rounded down), with a minimum of 3, plus- continent bonuses for every group you own completely, plus
- +2 per capital you own (Capital Conquest mode only).
Full details: Game Rules → Reinforcements.
If pacts are enabled, you can offer a non-aggression pact to another player. It's a
social agreement, not a wall — nothing stops either side from attacking. It does buy one
concrete thing: while the pact holds, you and your partner can see each other's total troops
and territories, even through Fog of War — though never where
those armies actually are. Use pacts to buy time, scout a fogged map, gang up on a leader, or
lull a rival. See Pacts.
An online match normally runs start to finish in one sitting. Correspondence doesn't: each
player gets a long deadline to take their turn — 24 hours by default — and the match plays
out over days, with nobody ever needing to be online at the same time.
Choose Correspondence on the mode select to open Your Games: a grid of your ongoing
matches showing whose turn it is and how long they have left. Take your turn, close the game,
come back tomorrow. It's casual play, so no rank is ever on the line.
Full details: Correspondence.
- Hold whole continents. A complete group pays a bonus every single turn — that compounds.
- Don't over-extend. Every territory is a border you have to defend. A smaller, solid
empire often beats a sprawling, thin one.
- Cards are tempo. Capturing even one territory a turn keeps cards flowing, and trade-ins
can hand you a huge reinforcement swing.
- The defender wins ties, so attacking at even odds is a slow bleed. Build an advantage
before you commit.
- Capitals defend harder (3 dice) and are worth +2 armies/turn — protect yours, hunt
theirs.