How to play Operation Overlord

What the game is

Operation Overlord is a real-time WW2 strategy game for six players on a world map. Germany, Italy and Japan play against the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States. Whoever holds the USA seat also gives orders for China. There are no turns. Everyone plays at once on one shared clock.

It's free, and you don't need an account. You type a display name and your browser keeps a random guest id so you can rejoin your seat.

Start with the tutorial

The tutorial at https://operationoverlord.earthablaze.com/play/tutorial/ takes about five minutes. You play Britain in North Africa: move a column, build, take Tobruk, start research and see why supply and victory cities matter. After that, start a practice game against bots from https://operationoverlord.earthablaze.com/play/.

How a war plays

• Income. Every economic cycle (90 seconds at Standard speed) each power collects income from the territories it holds.
• Building. Production units (PU) pay for everything. Some units also need oil, steel or manpower, which come from specific territories and only reach you along an unbroken supply line.
• Moving. Select a stack, split off what you need and click a destination. You'll see the path and an arrival time.
• Fighting. Hostile units in the same space start a battle. A round of dice resolves every 6 seconds at Standard speed, and the attacker can retreat between rounds.
• Research. Put up to 30% of your PU income into research. One project runs per branch, and a tech a teammate has finished costs you half.

How you win

Both sides win by holding victory cities. The Axis need to hold enough of them for several cycles in a row. The Allies can win on cities (including at least one Axis capital) or by taking all three Axis capitals. If the time limit is reached, the side with more victory cities wins.

The full rules, with every unit's cost and stats, are on the rules page at https://operationoverlord.earthablaze.com/how-to-play/.

Match speed

The host picks a speed. Blitz takes about 30 minutes, Standard about 75, Relaxed two to three hours, and Campaign runs for days, for checking in on a phone.