PLAYING
ONLINE.

What you need

• Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit, with a graphics card that runs DirectX 12 or Vulkan (any from the last ten years or so): FrontPlus.exe (or the one-file FrontPlus-Windows.exe).
• Or an Android phone or tablet, Android 10 or newer, 64-bit: the APK, FrontPlus-Android.apk (see "On an Android phone" below).
• No password and no account: anyone with the game may play.
• The same version as your friends: a lobby takes only players with its host's version of the game.

Start the game on a PC

1. Download FrontPlus.exe (a few MB) and double-click it.
   • The browser may say the file is not commonly downloaded. Choose Keep (in Edge: the ... menu, Keep, then Show more, Keep anyway).
   • Windows may say "Windows protected your PC", because the program is not signed with a paid certificate. Click "More info", then "Run anyway". It asks once.
   • If Windows says Smart App Control blocked it, this PC runs only signed or well-known programs: it cannot run the game.
2. FrontPlus.exe installs Front+ for you: into your own user folder (%LOCALAPPDATA%\FrontPlus), without administrator rights. It shows a small Front+ plate while it downloads the game, then starts it. Front+ is then in the Start menu and on the Desktop: start it there from now on. You can delete the file in your Downloads folder.
   • Your settings, name and replays stay in %APPDATA%\FrontPlus and carry over to new versions.
   • A new version later: the title says so ("Front+ 1.0.7 is out"). Click Update now: Front+ closes, downloads only the files that changed, and starts the new version. If a new version does not start, the one before comes back by itself.
   • To remove Front+: Settings, Apps, Front+, Uninstall. Your settings, name and replays stay.

• Without installing: the one-file FrontPlus-Windows.exe is the whole game in one file. Double-click it; it can stay in Downloads or go anywhere. Its first start unpacks the maps into %LOCALAPPDATA%\FrontPlus. It does not update itself: for a new version, download the new file. If an antivirus stops FrontPlus.exe, this file still works.
• Got the zip (FrontPlus-online-...zip) instead? Unzip it (right-click, Extract All) and double-click of_app.exe in the unzipped folder. It opens a black text window as well, the game's log: leave it open. It does not update itself either.

On an Android phone

The game for a phone is one file, FrontPlus-Android.apk (or FrontPlus-Android-....apk).

1. Open the download page on the phone and tap the download for Android, or copy the APK to the phone: over a USB cable, through a cloud drive, or in a messenger (send it to yourself). Chrome may say the file can be harmful: tap "Download anyway".
2. On the phone, tap the APK: in the browser's downloads, in Files, or in the chat.
3. Android may ask to allow "Install unknown apps" for the app you opened it from (Chrome, Files, the messenger): tap Settings, switch on "Allow from this source", go back, and tap Install.
4. Play Protect may warn once that it does not know the app. Tap "Install anyway" (it may be under "More details").
5. Open Front+ from your apps. The first start takes a little longer: it unpacks the maps.
6. Tap Multiplayer, then go on as under "Go online" below. Where this guide says click, tap.

• Phone and PC players meet in the same lobbies; the same code works for both.
• PC and phone must have the same version. The Multiplayer page says it under the name: "Front+ 1.0.6 (...)". Get the exe and the APK from the same page or person at the same time.
• A new version later: the title says so ("Front+ 1.0.7 is out"). Tap Update now: Front+ downloads the new version and checks it; then Android asks whether to install it: allow it. The first time, Android asks once whether Front+ may install apps: turn on "Allow from this source", then come back to Front+; it goes on by itself. Your settings and name stay. The old way still works: download the new APK and install it over the old one, as above.

Go online

3. On the title, click Multiplayer.
4. Name: what the others see, up to 24 letters. That is the only question: the server is filled in (wss://play.geilefirma.ch/), and Advanced, under the panel, is only for testing a server of your own.
5. Click CONTINUE, or press Enter. The game remembers your name for next time, on this PC only.

Find a lobby, or open one

• The list shows the open lobbies, live: the name, the host, the mode ("Doomsday · 2 teams"), players and the most it takes, the map, waiting or playing. A lock means it has a password; OTHER VERSION means its host has another version, and the line under it says which, and whether to update.
• Join joins it (a locked one asks for the password first).
• A friend's private lobby is not listed: type the 5-letter code they give you under Join by code, with the password if it has one.
• Create lobby opens your own: a name, Public (listed) or Private (only the code finds it), a password if you want one, and how many players.
• The MODE strip on the Create page chooses what the lobby plays: Classic (the normal game) or Doomsday, Whiteout, Capture the flag or Tour de Suisse. A mode names the lobby after you and it, and sets the room's size (Doomsday 2 to 8 players, Capture the flag and Tour de Suisse 2 to 6). Once the lobby is open the mode cannot change. The greyed cards marked "coming later" cannot be chosen yet.

In a lobby

• The code is at the top, with Copy: send it to your friends.
• The host sets the match with the same controls as Singleplayer: map, nations, tribes, difficulty, cultures, SIDES (Free for all, Teams or Humans vs AI), EXTRA WIN in Classic (Off or Hegemony) and under Advanced the detail, options and the clock (Classic only). Everyone else sees each change at once. In a mode the lobby shows the mode's card with its rules; the host still chooses the map (only the mode's own) and the sides.
• Teams: the host sets 2, 3 or 4 teams. A row of colours (Red, Blue, Green, Purple) stands under your own name: tap one to join that team, or Random. Teammates start together, never fight each other and may send each other troops and gold; a team wins at 75% of the land. The host can move anyone (tap their colour) or press Shuffle to deal everyone again; "AI joins teams" or "AI on its own" says where the nations go (in Whiteout the AI is always on its own). Uneven teams ask the host once at START: "Red 3 · Blue 1, start anyway?"
• Humans vs AI: every human is one side against all the nations, which attack in waves the plate announces 30 s ahead. The humans win at 60% of the land together, or when no nation is left.
• A short chat, and Leave lobby (or Esc) back to the list.
• The host presses START when everyone is in. Then come three short waits: the match waits until everyone has loaded (20 seconds at most; the screen shows who is ready and who is loading); with cultures on, everyone then has 10 seconds to choose a culture (you see who has chosen, not which card; with none chosen, your game takes the card you had last time, or a random one); then everyone's culture shows for 3 seconds. A click on the map does nothing in these waits.
• Test players (the host only): "Add test player" starts the game's own AI in a seat, from this PC, as from Germany, the US or Egypt (a slower line, with stalls). Marked BOT for everyone. Remove takes it out.

The modes

Each mode plays its own clock and goal; the gauge on your realm plate shows it, and "How this mode works" in the menu has its three rules.

• Doomsday: everyone starts with a silo; the biggest realm when the bell rings wins. Atom bombs cost a tenth and need no warhead; no launches in the last 15 s.
• Whiteout: snow closes in from the edge one ring a minute; the last realm with land outside the snow wins. Starts are dealt on the middle ring. Switzerland, Greece and Yugoslavia.
• Capture the flag: hold the Pass for five minutes in total; first clock to 5:00 wins (6:00 with 5 or 6 players). The Pass changes owner after enemies besiege it 2:1 for 20 seconds; your clock stops while it is under siege. Switzerland, starts dealt, Free for all.
• Tour de Suisse: five cities light up one after another, 2:00 each; own the most of the lit city when its bell rings; three stages win. Switzerland, 2 or 3 teams allowed.

Playing

• After the waits you have 30 seconds: click land to choose where you begin. Click again to move. Nobody can attack you for 10 seconds after that. In Capture the flag and Whiteout your start is dealt ("Your start: Jura") and the match starts after 5 seconds; in Teams and Humans vs AI you may start anywhere.
• Then click land next to your border to spread. F1 shows every control.
• To pause, ask everyone: Esc, then Ask to pause (or press Space). Everyone who is still playing must say Yes within 15 seconds; one No, or no answer, and the match goes on. Players who left, or who are away and gave no order for 5 seconds, are not asked. Each player can ask 3 times a match, and 30 seconds after a failed ask. While the match is paused nothing moves; anyone who plays presses Resume, and the match goes on after 3, 2, 1. A pause ends by itself after 10 minutes. An order you give during the pause is dropped: the feed tells you, so give it again. There is no speed control online.
• Esc opens the menu; Quit to home screen leaves the match for good and takes you to the title. Your realm is given up (a lost connection or a closed game keeps it: see below).
• Lost the connection? The game dials again by itself at once and for up to five minutes, then runs what you missed quickly and you play on.

Connection marks

In a match, top right under the clock, every player has a dot, their name and their round trip to the server in milliseconds:

• green — a good line;
• amber — a long or uneven line: their orders land a little late;
• red — a poor line: their game waits for turns now and then;
• grey — away (not connected); their realm is kept for them.

Nobody waits for a slow player: a poor line only makes that player's own game late. If yours is poor, a red line says so. What helps: a cable instead of Wi-Fi, and pausing downloads, updates and video calls while you play.

• The game itself closed? Start it, go to Multiplayer and press CONTINUE again. The server puts you back in your realm, and the game replays the match to catch up.

What the banners mean

• Connecting — dialling the server.
• Waiting for players — you are in a match about to start.
• Starting — everyone is in; the first turn is on its way.
• Catching up — the game is replaying turns it missed. Your orders wait until it has caught up.
• Connection lost — it is dialling again by itself. The match goes on meanwhile.
• Out of sync — your game and the others' no longer agree. This match cannot be trusted: leave it and say so.
• Match over — the match ended; the reason is under it.
• Not connected — the game gave up; the reason is under it.

Most wins: the board of online wins

The title shows MOST WINS: who won the most online matches, by player name (a plate on the right on a PC; the Most wins button or chip opens the top 10 on a small window and on a phone).

• Every player of a match that counts gets a game. Every player on the winning side gets a win: in Teams, every member, also one who fell or left. In a free-for-all, only the winner. When an AI wins, nobody does.
• A match counts when its players played on two sides at least and it was decided 3 minutes or more after the 30 seconds to place your start (5 seconds where starts are dealt). Humans vs AI does not count, nor a match with a test player.
• The server counts a result only when at least two players who are still connected at the end, and more than half of them, report the same winner. So a player who quits early keeps a two-player match off the board, and one game cannot invent a win.
• Names are not owned: anyone may type any name, and two players with the same name share one row.
• The game asks the server for the board once when it starts and once after each online match, and only after you opened Multiplayer once. "The board is not on this server yet" means the server does not keep one; the game plays there as before.

When something goes wrong

• "This lobby plays Front+ 1.0.7. Update to join.", "This server needs Front+ 1.0.7 or newer", or "Your game is older than the server": update. On the title, Update now does it; a game that cannot update itself (the one-file exe, the zip) says Download instead.
• "This lobby plays Front+ 1.0.5, an older version.": its host must update, not you.
• "Someone joined or left just now": nothing started. Check the teams, then press START again.
• "This server runs an older version": tell whoever runs the server.
• "Could not reach the Front+ server": check your internet, or try again in a minute.
• The game closes at once: it says why in a box when it can, and in its log, %LOCALAPPDATA%\FrontPlus\logs\FrontPlus.log (paste that into the address bar of a File Explorer window). Send the log to whoever gave you the game. With the zip's of_app.exe the reason is in its black text window instead.

The maps are built from public data (ETOPO 2022, Natural Earth, swisstopo and the Koppen-Geiger climate): see maps\LICENSE.txt, in the zip's assets folder or, for the exe, under %LOCALAPPDATA%\FrontPlus.

This copy of the game: Front+ 1.0.12, build ac1c8b8