Mechanics

Replay and score curve

When a match ends the screen shows two things: the score curve and a Watch replay button. Neither stores a new record — the game already keeps the whole match as a seed, a setup and a command log (Getting started), so the replay rebuilds the match by replaying it from the start.

A replay opens from two places. The second is the main menu: when you have an unfinished match, Watch replay sits next to Continue and plays back the turns you have taken so far. Watching does not consume the save — close the box and the menu is unchanged, so you can pick the match up where you left it.

A finished match cannot be watched later. The save is cleared when the match ends (that slot is the unfinished match record, Getting started), so the replay on the end-of-match screen is that moment's window.

The score curve

The curve carries one point per turn: whatever the scoreboard said at the end of that turn. The numbers come from the same place as the end-of-match breakdown (Territory and score), so the score you see on the chart is the score the engine scored — there is no second calculation.

• The horizontal axis is turns, the vertical axis is points. The axis top is chosen from the highest score, so two different matches' charts cannot be laid over each other directly.
• An eliminated player's curve is not cut. The scoreboard keeps reporting eliminated seats (Victory conditions); stopping the curve at the moment of elimination would make "when did they pass me" harder to read.
• Your own curve is drawn thicker; the legend spells out each seat's id and final score, so the distinction does not rely on colour alone. In a match played in turns on one device, the thick curve belongs to the person still standing who played last (Hotseat: taking turns on one device).

Before the match ends

The curve is not only on the end-of-match screen; it opens during the match too: the Standing tab of the turn report panel shows the same curve, with the current standings written out below it, and touching the score bar or pressing Enter on it opens the panel straight on this tab. The bar does not open the panel while the opponents' turn is being played back. The last point is the turn in progress. This data is not written to the save either: the game accumulates it as turns are played. In a match loaded from a save the history is missing at first — as soon as loading finishes, the game replays the match from the start to build the curve while idle, in small chunks, so play does not stall. If you open the tab before it is done, a loading indicator appears; in long matches the computation can take seconds.

How the replay plays

The step unit is a turn, not a command. The reason is the turn order itself: one turn carries every seat's move (The turn cycle), so "the middle of a turn" is not a readable place on the board. This way a point on the chart and a turn in the replay show the same moment.

You can step forward and back, jump straight to a turn, and change the playback speed. When the replay reaches the end it stops on its own; it does not loop back to the start.

During a replay the board is read, not played: no tile selection, no unit selection, no moves. When you close the replay the end-of-match screen comes back untouched — the "replay same seed" and "change setup" choices are still there.

Fog: a replay reveals nothing new

A replay is shown through a single seat's fog, and that seat does not change during playback: in your match it is your seat. In a match played in turns on one device it is the seat drawn thick on the score curve (Hotseat: taking turns on one device), and the screen always says which seat it is. So moves your opponent kept hidden from you stay hidden in the replay — fog is a rule there too (Fog of war).

That sounds like a limitation but it does not break what a replay is for: a replay answers "what did I do, and where", not "what did my opponent do". The opposite would also be inconsistent — opening the same record twice and seeing everything in one of them would strip fog of its meaning in the game.

Reduced motion

If your operating system's reduce motion preference is on, the replay does not start playing by itself; you step through the turns and the screen says so in a line of text. The Play button still works: motion you start yourself is not motion the page forces on you.

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