Cyberwars

Cyberwars

The world and its environment have been devastated. Mega corporations run the world, and the work gets done by mercenaries on contract.

You command one of those companies. Helix Dynamics has hired you to shut down Synapse Global's AI program before it comes online and hands Synapse an undisputed military and economic advantage. Synapse keeps developing while you are deployed, so every week you spend fighting is a week closer to their project finishing. Take their research stations, push into their Black Site Data Centers, and capture their HQ before the AI wakes up. 

Combat

Cyberwars is a turn-based tactics roguelike. You move infantry, vehicles, helicopters, naval units, and aircraft across hand-built maps, capture cities and factories for production, hold airports and ports to control the air and sea, and use terrain and fog of war to break the enemy line.

Your company

Your army is a deck. Every unit card is a specific soldier or crew that gains XP and survives across contracts, so your veterans carry their experience from one deployment to the next. Between contracts you operate from your base, where you line up the next job, repair and upgrade your units, draft new cards, add economic and production buildings to your HQ Zone, and develop your Commander.

Alongside your unit cards you can equip:

Implants, one-turn stat boosts for a unit that needs an edge in the moment.

Field Hacks, single-use powerful abilities like scouting a region or reshaping the battlefield by building a new factory.

Firmware, passive effects that apply for the whole run.

Commanders

You lead your company with a Commander, and your Commander is the heart of your identity. Each one has a combat specialty and fights on the field with you rather than directing from off-map.

In battle your Commander deploys into one of your units and projects an augment zone over the ground around it, strengthening nearby allies. Keep that carrier alive and the augment zone travels with it across the map. Lose it and your Commander is out until you redeploy them, at a cost, so where and when you commit them is a real decision.

Every Commander also carries an always-on bonus that shapes how their whole army fights, plus two powers that charge as a match goes on. When a power is ready you pick the moment to spend it, and firing one raises the cost of the next, so your big swings have to be earned and timed.

Across a run your Commander grows. They earn XP from how well you fight, level up, widen their augment zone, take upgrades to attack, defense, movement and more, and unlock passive perks that last the whole run.

The roster spans every way to fight:

• Halsey, infantry, who keeps a line alive with repairs and combat stims.

• Raven, infantry, who pushes hard with forced marches and a bayonet charge.

• Pike, land vehicles, who drives armored breakthroughs.
  Vander, land vehicles, an elite force that hits and holds but costs more to field.

• Quill, artillery and indirect fire, trading range for a concentrated barrage.

• Rook, helicopters, throttling up for speed or deploying from a forward base.

• Mirage, fixed-wing aircraft, with recon runs and instant airfield refuels.

• Dr. Iris Kade, reconnaissance, with deep scans that light up the map.

• Caspian, navy, with flank speed and heavy broadsides.

• Halloran, economy, skimming funds from every building you hold.

• Victor Slate, economy, producing cheap and compounding a lead.

• Tully, an all-rounder who swings between reckless attacks and a full-army overrun.

The campaign

Synapse's AI program is on a deadline, and your contract runs against it. Every combat turn costs a week of development time you cannot get back. Finish a contract quickly and you set their schedule back. Contracts come in three tiers that escalate in difficulty, and you can move between them freely. The run ends when you capture Synapse's HQ, and you lose if the clock runs out first. Synapse fields its own commanders against you, building to a final assault on their headquarters.

Online and Ranked

Take your skills online and prove it against other commanders. Ranked play comes in two speeds. Speed matches are fast, live games found through matchmaking, for when you want to sit down and play a whole match through, right now. Async matches also have skill based matchmaking, but are "play by mail", so you take your turn whenever you have a minute and your opponent does the same, which lets a full match fit around real life.

Every ranked result moves your rating. Climb the ladder, watch your standing rise on the leaderboard, and push for the top. You can also spectate live matches in progress to study the best players, scout an opponent, or just watch a good game play out.

Community

Build your own battlefields in the Custom Map Editor and publish them for everyone. Browse and download maps other commanders have made, then play them in Custom Match against friends or AI. You can also pull up the official ranked map pool and play those same maps in Custom Match to learn the ground before you take it to the ladder.

Modes

Roguelike: the campaign. A persistent company, escalating contract tiers, time pressure, and a final assault on the Synapse HQ.

Custom Match: 2 to 8 player skirmishes with drafted decks and a chosen Commander. Play against AI, hotseat, or online.

Ranked: Speed and Async competitive matches with a skill rating, a ladder, and a leaderboard.

Custom Map Editor: make new maps, publish them, and play the maps the community makes.

Tutorial: a guided intro to the combat systems.