Goal: knock down the other general's Command Tower. Nobody gets hurt. He will come over, bow, and shake hands.

On a tablet or phone: tap a man or building to select it. With men selected, tap the ground to walk there, a tree, rock, field or building to work there, an enemy to attack. Drag one finger on the paper to look around; pinch with two fingers to zoom. Long-press one of your men to select every man of his kind on the screen. "Box select" lets you drag a box over your men. "March & Fight" sends them to a spot fighting anyone on the way. To build, pick a building: its ghost appears in the middle of the screen; tap or drag it to move it, then tap the ghost again to build. "Deselect" clears your selection. The >> button hides the panel for a bigger map. Tip: on iPad or iPhone, Share then "Add to Home Screen" plays the game full screen. A keyboard, if you attach one, works as on a computer.

Start: drive your wagon (right-click) to a nice open spot and press H to build your Command Tower. The tower feeds 12 men.

Select: left-click a man or building. Drag a box to select many. Double-click a man to select all of his kind on the screen. Shift-click adds to the selection.

Order: right-click to walk there, to work in a building, to cut a tree or mine a rock, or to attack an enemy. Hold Alt with troops selected and the pointer becomes a sword: left- or right-click a spot and they march there and fight anyone they meet (double right-click does the same).

Modes: every soldier is in one of three modes, shown on his panel. Guard J: holds his spot, fights anyone who comes close, then walks back (default for foot and mounted fighters). Engage K: attacks anyone in sight and chases him. Skirmish L: shoots as soon as an enemy is in range, backs away if he comes close, follows if he runs (default for Archers and Rangers).

Groups: up to 5. Select some men and tap an empty group button (or press Ctrl+1..5) to remember them; tap the button (or the number key) to select them again, twice quickly to jump the camera to them. Long-press or right-click a group button to replace it with the men you have selected now. "All soldiers" and "Idle villagers" select those in one tap.

Gathering point: select your Command Tower and right-click a spot (or use its button): new villagers salute the general, then walk there.

Camera: WASD or arrow keys, or push the mouse against the screen edge. Mouse wheel zooms. Tab jumps to your tower. Click the radar map (top right) to jump anywhere.

Pause and speed: Space freezes the game and Space again continues. The speed slider (top right, also on the pause screen) goes from x0.25 slow motion to x4.

Build: select villagers and pick a building: Village V, Cutter House C, Mine M, Stable B, Spear Dojo Q, Sword Dojo E, Bow Dojo R, Church T, Watch Tower G, Workshop O, Catapult Tower P. Each costs 60 wood and 120 man-seconds of work. More builders = faster. A knocked-down building becomes a ruin; send villagers to rebuild it; that costs the same as a new building plus the full work, so repair it before it falls. A damaged building can be repaired: select villagers, press Repair F (hammer cursor) and click the building; each man mends 5 HP per second and it costs 1 wood per 10 HP, paid as the work goes.

Village: 6 houses with 6 fields. Each field adds 5 headcount. A man farming a field grows a new villager every 30 seconds.

Cutter House / Mine: build next to a forest or a rock deposit, then send men in. Each man makes 1 wood or 1 mineral every 15 seconds.

Stable: 6 hay fields; a man working a hay field raises a horse every 30 seconds (up to 30 horses). Send a foot warrior into the stable to make him a Lancer (10 wood, 5 mineral), Knight (10 mineral) or Ranger (5 wood, 5 mineral); each also takes 1 horse and 30 s.

Dojos and Church: send villagers in to train (30 s each, 6 at a time, the rest wait in line). Select the building and press X to call them off.

Watch Tower G: 20 wood + 5 mineral, 60 man-seconds. Send up to 6 men of any kind inside (right-click it). Each one shoots an arrow every second, twice as far as an archer, for 2-4 damage. Enemies cannot reach the men until they knock the tower down. X lets them out.

Workshop O: 60 wood. Send 3 villagers in; with 30 wood and 30 s they become engineers pushing a Catapult (defense 3, 120 HP, counts as 3 men). Every 4 seconds it throws a stone up to 630 away: 16 against a building, 10 against a stickman and everyone standing next to him - twice an archer - so it can knock down a Watch Tower from outside its reach. It is slow and weak up close: guard it.

Catapult Tower P: 40 wood + 20 mineral. A stone tower with a catapult on top; it needs 3 men inside to work. Same stones as a field catapult, but range 675 (2.25x an archer), so it out-throws catapults and watch towers alike. It cannot move: cavalry can rush it.

Supply Wagon: against New Bird, Easy, Medium and Hard, a little help can come. Its button (under the group buttons) lights up at 3:00 on the game clock. Press it and a wagon rolls in to your Command Tower; pick 120 wood, 120 mineral, or 60 of each. The next one can come 4 minutes later, the last one 5 minutes after that: 3 wagons a game. Grown-ups can switch it off on the title screen.

Your general's tips: now and then your general tells you a good next step. Tap the note to close it. Switch tips on or off on the title screen or the pause screen.

Fighting: damage per hit = attack - defense (at least 1), one hit per second. Archers and Rangers hit harder the closer the enemy is. Priests heal every friend within 240 (most of an archer's reach) 1 HP per second.

Other keys: X stop, Space pause / continue, Esc menu, F1 this help.