Practice games and online matches in Operation Overlord

Practice against bots

Practice runs the whole game in your browser tab, with bots in the other five seats. Once the page has loaded it doesn't talk to the server at all, so it works offline and sends nothing. You pick your seat and speed, and you can pause.

Practice games aren't limited on any plan. A practice game lives in your browser tab and ends when you close it.

The bots are basic. They fill seats and keep a match moving, but they won't outplay a careful human. Use practice to learn the controls.

Online matches

From https://operationoverlord.earthablaze.com/play/ you can join an open match from the list, or create your own and send the link round. When you create a match you're the host: people claim seats, and bots fill the rest when you start. You can also start straight away with bots in every other seat.

Online matches live on the match server. That means:

• Empty seats get a bot. A seat left empty for a minute (the default) is handed to a bot so the match keeps going. You can reclaim it when you come back.
• Rejoining needs the same browser. Your seat is tied to the guest id your browser keeps. A different browser, or cleared site data, means a new guest id, and you can't reclaim a seat you held before.
• Matches can be lost. A server update can end a match in progress, and there are no backups or replays.
• Finished matches are deleted 24 hours after they end.

Hosting limits

Free hosting is one online match at a time, at Blitz, Standard or Relaxed speed. The Commander plan hosts up to five at once, adds Campaign speed and lets you set cycle and combat-round lengths by hand. Joining a match is free on any plan. See Commander, cosmetics and tips.

When online play is down

If the match server isn't answering, the match list can't load and you can't create a match. Online matches can also be paused for maintenance. Practice still works in both cases.