User Guide

Overview

This guide describes the Command Under Attack remake as it exists right now, not the 2005–2018 original. Where a rule below is quoted from the recovered 2008 User Guide, it’s the design target — and anything not yet playable is marked Not yet implemented.

Registration and activation

1. Register with a username, your chosen country, and an email address. There is no password field at registration — you choose your password after activating.
2. We email a one-time activation link, valid for 48 hours.
3. Follow the link and set your password. That activates your account and creates your army.
4. Log in with your username and password from then on.
5. Forgotten your password? Request a reset link from the login page.

Factions and their bonuses

Every commander picks one of four countries at registration:

Only America’s income bonus is active today, because income is the only one of these systems that exists yet. Oceania’s defence bonus, Asia’s covert bonus and Europe’s attack bonus are real numbers, waiting on the attack, defence and covert systems they modify.

The 30-minute turn

“Turn: The basic unit of time in Command Under Attack. Currently 30 minutes long.” — the original User Guide

Every 30 minutes an automatic tick runs for every army: it credits your income, charges your upkeep, and grants you 1 attack turn (up to a cap). Your Command Center shows a live countdown to your next tick. Attack turns accumulate for now, but there’s nowhere to spend them yet — see the four ranked stats below.

Clones and income

Clones are your untrained population, and the only thing that earns you gold — the more clones you have, the more income you get each turn. Once a day, your clone production rate (shown on your Command Center) adds new clones automatically. That rate can be raised for gold on the Training page, just as in the original.

Upkeep and the bankruptcy spiral

Training a clone into a soldier trades that clone’s income for ongoing upkeep — a deliberate trade-off, not a penalty. If your upkeep ever outruns your income and your gold hits zero, recovery is automatic: mercenaries desert first, since they cost the most and earn nothing, then trained soldiers slowly revert to clones until you’re solvent again. Spies never revert — per the original rules, covert training can’t be undone.

You can trigger this yourself today — train more soldiers or hire more mercenaries than your income supports on the Training and Mercenaries pages, and the next tick will start unwinding it automatically.

Training and mercenaries

Two pages already let you reshape your army with real gold, not just watch the tick run.

Training

Spend gold to train clones into attack soldiers, defence soldiers, or special ops, at a flat cost per unit. Attack and defence training can be undone for free at any time; special ops training is permanent. You can also upgrade your spy level and your daily clone production here, each at a rising gold cost per upgrade.

Mercenaries

Hire attack specialists, defence specialists, or all-purpose mercenaries for immediate gold. Mercenaries are capped at 25% of your total army, earn no income, cost upkeep every turn, and can never be retrained once hired. Only a limited number are available to hire each turn.

The Armory

Buy attack and defence weapons for gold. Weapons take damage in battle and can be repaired, priced per point of strength across a whole stack of that weapon type. Per the original rules: a stack at 60% condition or better can be sold back for 70% of its price at full condition; below 60%, scrapping is the only option, for no refund.

Siege technology and fortifications are separate upgrades that boost the strength of every attack or defence weapon you own, not just new purchases. The Armory shows your resulting attack and defence strength numbers — there’s just nothing to use them against yet.

Recruiting, messages and the shoutbox

Your Command Center shows a personal recruit link. Anyone who visits it becomes your officerand adds a soldier to your count — the same visitor can only be credited once every 24 hours. Your army size is your own recruits plus a fraction of each officer’s army, and officers are kept even when the world resets.

Messages lets you send and read private notes to other commanders. The Shoutbox is a public chat, visible to everyone and postable once you’re logged in.

The four ranked stats

“...the aim of the game is to achieve the highest overall ranking - worked out by taking a combination of your attack, defence, covert (special ops) and nuclear rankings - whoever has the lowest combined ranking will be 1st in the overall rankings.”

• AttackNot yet implemented
  Strength for attacking other players to steal gold. Attacks use 1-15 attack turns at a time; more turns risk more casualties for more gold.
• DefenceNot yet implemented
  Strength for resisting attacks against you, protecting your gold and clones from raiders.
• CovertNot yet implemented
  Special-ops strength for reconnaissance and sabotage missions against other armies, and for defending against theirs.
• NuclearNot yet implemented
  Nukes have a percentage chance to impact, based on the defender's nuclear defence. Three impacts landing within 7 days triggers Armageddon and ends the Age.

You can already train soldiers and special ops toward these roles on the Training page, and see attack/defence strength numbers on the Armorypage. What’s still missing is an overall rank, and anything to use that strength against — your Command Center says as much: “Rank and combat strength are not tracked yet.”

What’s live today

Live

• Registration, activation, log in, log out and password reset
• Choosing a faction
• The automatic 30-minute income and upkeep tick
• Daily clone production
• The bankruptcy spiral (mercenary desertion, soldier demotion)
• Viewing your army on the Command Center
• Training clones into attack soldiers, defence soldiers or special ops
• Upgrading spy level and clone production
• Hiring mercenaries
• Recruiting officers via your recruit link
• Private messages between commanders
• The public Shoutbox
• The Armory (weapons, repair/sell/scrap, siege and fortifications)

Not yet implemented

• Attacking other players
• Covert operations (reconnaissance and sabotage)
• Nuclear weapons and Armageddon
• Overall rank
• Alliances between players
• Rankings and leaderboards
• Ages (round resets)