Mechanics

Hotseat: taking turns on one device

Several people can play Regnarium on one device by taking turns (hotseat). It is not a separate game but a mode of the match: every rule in this guide still applies, and the only thing that changes is whose eyes the board is shown through.

Setup

The first field on the setup screen is Players (on this device). If you pick more than one:

• People take the first seats, opponents come after. Seats are shown with the same names as on the score strip: a mark plus a readable name (● Player 1, ▲ Player 2…). A person who picks a dynasty appears in the match under the name of the dynasty they picked; if two people pick the same dynasty, the name is completed with the seat number, so no two seats ever share a name. Telling seats apart never relies on colour alone.
• The number of seats at the table is at least 2 and at most 4. The opponent count narrows to fit; with two or more people you can also play with no opponents.
• Each person picks their own dynasty (Getting started). Playing with no dynasty is a first-class option here too.

The turn order is the same rule as in a solo match: the seating is fixed, and the seat that opens the turn shifts by one every turn (The turn cycle).

The curtain

When the turn passes to another person the board is not shown; a curtain appears instead: the next seat's name and an "I'm ready" button. The board is not built at all until the button is pressed — it is not covered up, it is absent. That way each player only ever sees their own fog (Fog of war).

• The curtain also comes down when the match opens: when you continue a saved match, nobody knows who is holding the device.
• If the same person plays twice in a row, no curtain. In a two-seat match the seat that closes one turn can also open the next; a curtain in between would be a pointless tap.
• Opponents take their turns in between two people; the screen moves to the next person only behind the curtain. End-of-turn sounds also wait until the curtain lifts.
• The playback of the opponent turn also starts when the curtain lifts, not before (The turn cycle). What plays is what the player behind the curtain can see: the other human's moves are played with the new viewer's vision, and anything behind that viewer's fog does not play.
• When the curtain lifts, the previous player's selection and open panel are cleared.
• When the match ends there is no curtain: the result is for everyone.

The turn report

The turn report that opens behind the curtain covers everything since that player's own previous turn ended. An attack the other player made on you during their turn is included — as a "You were attacked" line.

The report only lists what concerns you; the other player's production, buildings and battles you were not part of stay out of it (The turn cycle). Playback steps through the same window: the moves within your vision since your own previous turn ended. Skip or Esc cuts it short; the report still says the same thing.

Each line that is a rival's doing also says who did it. A line that has a tile is a button: pressing it closes the report and centres the camera on that tile. While playback runs the report is not open yet and the camera belongs to the playback, so lines can only be clicked once playback is over.

Fog applies in the report too. If you could not see the tile where a rival founded a city, revolted or routed, the report does not tell you who did it or where: the actor reads "unknown" and a line without a tile is not a button. An attacker that hits one of your units or cities from a tile you cannot see also reads "unknown"; the line's tile is still your own unit or city that was hit. The report does not leak what the fog hides.

Public news is the exception: a city changing hands, a truce and a player's elimination are heard through the fog as well, and the line always names who is involved. Only a city changing hands has a tile, and it is given only if you could see that city or you are one of the sides; truce and elimination lines never become buttons.

The Journal tab next to the report lists every report since the start of the match, turn by turn, newest first. The journal is kept in memory and is separate for each player: it is not written to the save. When you load a saved match, the journal is rebuilt while the saved moves are replayed, in the same form it had while the match was played live; so a loaded match also shows every report since the start.

Elimination

A player who loses their capital is eliminated and their turn never comes back; the other people keep playing. The match ends in two cases:

• When only one seat is left — conquest (Victory conditions).
• When no person is left standing. The winner is the surviving opponent with the highest score.

End of the match

• The end-of-match screen names the winner by seat ("Winner: ▲ Player 2").
• It is not recorded in your stats. Win rate and matches played measure solo matches; this match never enters them.
• No result code is produced. A code describes a solo match: pasting it resets the setup to one person.
• Replay same seed and new seed start a new match with the same number of players; change setup opens the setup screen with its defaults.
• The end-of-match screen opens through the eyes of the last person still standing to have played; if nobody is left standing, the first person's seat (● Player 1, or the name of the dynasty they picked). That is the seat drawn thick on the score curve and the seat whose fog the replay shows; the replay screen names it (Replay and score curve).

Good to know

• The guided first match does not open in this mode: its steps advance from the match's command log, and that log carries every player's moves.
• Web only. The mobile app's setup screen does not offer a player count.
• No online matchmaking. The game has no server; sharing the screen is the only way.

The numbers on this page are read from the game’s balance tables.