The Light and the Dark:

The light and dark empires are identical matches. They are symbolic of allied and axis powers or any two warring nations. When a user is aligned with the light or dark, he can not attack a member of his own empire without switching sides. Both sides can attack the rebels. People who join these sides will be working for imperialism and will often enjoy powerful alliances.

The Rebels:

The rebels are free to battle each other. Any alliance is fragile and can be disrupted at any moment. The main intention of the rebels is to destroy one or both of the warring empires. Since the rebels are typically fewer in number and their alliances are fragile, they are easy targets. However, there is a tremendous advantage afforded to the rebels. Since they use guerilla warfare, they may attack a square that is two units over horizontally or vertically or even one unit diagonally. This added reach provides a hit and run style fighting which is very effective against the sluggish empires.

Objective:

The objective of the simulation is to take over and conquer as much land as possible, or conversely, to liberate as much land as possible if the user is a rebel. For each piece of land conquered the user earns points. The money and score accumulated during the use of the simulation will be saved and the user can log back in at any time, provided he remembers his user name and password (case-sensitive!) and retain all of his score and half of his money (to keep things fair).

Interface:

Land is represented by squares. Each square will produce money and armies for the occupant.
You can use the money to build new things like:

Moats - Cheap, but efficient defence.
Castles - Better defence but more expensive.
Cities - Generate income but are very vulnerable to attack.
Barracks - Create more armies.

Any of these can be placed on top of each other on the same square; all of the benefits will accumulate.

Armies are used to take over other squares. The more squares the user controls, the more money he makes and the more provisions he can build. The higher the score, the more likely the user is to appear on the high score list.

Note: As with real life, if something gets too big it becomes difficult to look after and maintain. This translates into a lot of lag time and altogether sluggish play.

The status area at the bottom is very important; it reports failed attacks and error messages (such as when a user might attempt to attack from too great a distance). It also is where War Tips are displayed. War tips are historically proven strategy techniques, many of which have hyperlinks to pages within World Domination. For instance, if the user receives a tip about strategy that Alexander the Great used, he can click on the underlined name and the browser beneath the Dominate window will go to the biography of Alexander the Great.

Attacking:

To attack something, the user must first click on the square he wishes to attack (When a square is selected, two asterisks appear: one on either side of the owner's name). Then he clicks on the attack button, and then on the square he wishes to attack. Unless the user is a rebel, the square must be adjacent to an already occupied square. Attacking diagonally is not an option unless you are a rebel. The rebels, since they travel in small groups and use guerilla warfare, have the power to skip one horizontally or vertically adjacent square when attacking. If the attack goes well he will see the colour of the square change to his own colour. If not, then he will receive a message explaining what happened. The attacking square must have more armies than the defending square. Here is how to work out how many armies would be needed do attack a square with 13 defence and 100 armies:

10
*
13 (The amount of defence on the enemy square)
+ 100 (The 100 armies that must be left on the enemy square)
= 230

Thus, the user would need 230 armies to take over a square with 100 armies and 13 defence. Remember that castles and moats increase defence. Taking over the same square with a castle on it would require 300 armies.

Moving:

It is only possible to move all the armies from one square to another. A good strategy is to move all armies to the borders of the empire. Having the armies stranded in the center would be pointless. Moving is just like attacking. First the user selects the square he wishes to move the armies from and then clicks on the move button. Then he clicks on the square to which he wishes his armies to move.

Back Stabbing (Changing sides):

To change sides, the user must click on the back stab button. A drop down box will appear. From the box, the user selects which side he wishes to join. The user is now a member of the selected empire.