The first time you press PLAY, Dot Conquest does not drop you into a free-for-all. It starts the campaign's first level, which teaches the controls, and the levels after it bring in one idea at a time. Ten levels in, you know the whole game and three more modes are open. This guide walks through those first ten battles so you know what each one is for.
Before you start: two things to know
You play against the computer. Every side you meet is an AI general with a name and a style of its own. Nobody is waiting on you, and you can pause at any time with Esc.
Nothing is hidden. The whole map and every dot is visible to everyone, all the time. If something changes how fast your side grows, it is drawn on the map and shown in the top bar. When you lose, the reason was on the board.
Levels 1 to 3: moving dots
The first levels are about getting your dots where you want them. The two rules to learn are these:
In a browser that means a left-drag to choose and a right-click to send; the mouse and keyboard guide has the full list. Practise taking a group, sending it, and taking a new group while the first is still walking. There are no Councils yet in these levels: the battle is only dots, cities and land.
What to practise:
- Send groups, not single dots. A city is taken by a crowd. See capturing cities.
- Watch the number under each neutral city. It is the city's guard, and it fights back.
- Fall back when a fight turns. Double right-click one of your own cities and the group runs home.
Level 4: your first Council
At level 4 the Councils arrive. At the start of a battle you pick a Doctrine, and then every 30 seconds the battle pauses and you pick one card of 3. The level gives you a Doctrine to begin with, so you can see what one does before you choose your own.
The top bar shows every side's countdown to its next Council, so you always know when one is coming. If choosing feels slow at first, that is fine: the battle waits for you. How to pick one of three has a simple way to decide.
Levels 5 to 10: the rest of the board
The middle of World 1 adds the ideas that make Dot Conquest more than a race to the most dots:
- Land and supply. Your dots paint land as they walk, and land has to connect to one of your cities or your dots on it wear down. See supply lines and attrition.
- Walling in. Surround an area with your land and everything inside flips to you. See flipping land by enclosure.
- New kinds of dot. The early levels bring in the five kinds one at a time, so you meet each before you have to fight it. The unit counter chart says who beats whom.
- Missions. Some levels ask for more than conquest: hold the flagged cities for a while, or survive until the clock runs out while a marked city stands. Later worlds add more, such as escorting a Commander. The level card says what wins and what loses before you start.
World 1 plays fair: your rivals get no advantages there. From World 2 on, a level may bend a rule for one side, and when it does, the level card says so in a line of its own.
Stars
Every level has three stars. Any win earns one; each level then has two goals of its own for the other two.
You do not need stars to move on. Come back for them once you know the game better.
What opens after the first levels
- The Daily opens after five levels: one shared battle a day, Today's Battle, the same for everyone. After ten levels it adds two personal cards, a Rematch and a Practice. See the Daily guide.
- The Gauntlet opens after ten levels: a run of battles that get harder, with a boss at the end of each act. See the Gauntlet guide.
- Skirmish: once the first level is cleared, PLAY starts a skirmish you set up yourself, against one to seven AI rivals.
If a level will not go your way
Read seven beginner mistakes. Most early losses come from the same few habits: sending dots one at a time, taking land you cannot supply, or fighting on a river.