The premise
Clausewitz had it that war is the continuation of policy by other means. This game runs the other direction.
Four superpowers hold the corners of a hexagonal world. Between them lie fifteen neutral minor powers, and the only thing on the board that scores a single point is an Embassy standing in one of them. Not armies. Not money. An embassy is a diplomat who walked there and was spent raising it — and it is the most fragile thing you own.
Influence is the only currency of victory, and the buildings that produce it are the ones your rivals can reach.
The economy
You open on $12 and an income of 2. Trade hubs, trade missions and domestic investment grow it; every military base charges you $3 a turn to keep.
When growth is too slow there is the tariff: cut a rival's income permanently, cut your own by the same amount, and take the cash today. Against a rich power it's a scratch. Against a poor one it's half of everything they earn. And the less game left to run, the better that trade looks.
The politics
Popular Support sets your tempo — as few as one action a turn, as many as five — and it never drifts back. A band you climb into is yours to the end. So is a hole you dig.
Aggression costs you at home, unless your own public already counts the victim an enemy. Which is a problem with a solution: stage a false flag, blame a third power, and the war you wanted becomes the war your people demand. Or spend a diplomat in a rival's capital to sour their population, and quietly take an action a turn off them.
Relations are directional and permanent. What they think of you is not what you think of them, and nothing is ever forgotten.
The military
Tanks advance and fire, and are the only thing that can leave a building wounded rather than gone. Bombers pass over everything and level an embassy in one run.
A military base is a gun as well as a doorway: it reaches two or three hexes, can never touch a structure, and gets one action a turn — open for a unit, or fire, never both.
Razing a rival's embassy stops their scoring dead. It also hands them a grievance they will carry to the final turn.
Doctrine
Commit to Warlord, Negotiator or Industrialist and the discounts are real — but you may hold only one, and only from neutral. At Level 2 it pays influence outright and grants a free activation every turn.
It is also the one advantage a rival can strip from you: a diplomat at your door talks it down a level at a time.
Winning
The first power to 100 Global Influence starts the clock. Everyone finishes the round, everyone collects once more, and the highest total wins — which means being first past the post and being the winner are not the same thing.
The computer
Every corner you don't hold is played by the computer, in five temperaments: Standard, The General, The Economist, The Peacemaker, and The Wildcard — which picks a different one for every decision it weighs.