Move Order

This article is about the sequence that orders follow within a single phase. For information about all of the phases in a turn, see turn phases.

WarLight will always execute your orders in the order that you supply them, mixed in with the orders from the other players. In the Orders list in the top-right, you can re-arrange your orders by clicking on them and using the up and down buttons.

Sometimes it is advantageous for your orders to happen early in the turn, other times it is better for your orders to happen after your opponent's orders.

When you want an order to happen after your opponents, often it is useful to execute "dummy" moves first (simply moving armies around within your own territory) so that your important moves happen later in the turn rather than sooner. At least one army must actually move. If no armies move, it won't delay your orders at all. For example, if you execute a transfer only order to a spot you don't control, this won't result in any armies moving and therefore won't delay your later orders at all.

Types of Move Order

Players can specify one of two ways that the move order will work for their game when they create it: Random or Cycle. You should check the Settings panel of a game to see which mode it's in.

Random Move Order

When a game is configured to randomize the move order, WarLight will randomize the move order on each turn. Each player's first order is executed in this random order, then each player's second order, and each player's third.

This means that in 1v1 games you always have a 50% chance that your first order will happen before your opponent's first order.

For the next round of attacks, the order is reversed so the last player in the first round gets the first move in the second round. It then reverses again for the third round, and so on. This process continues until all orders are executed.

In team games, WarLight ensures that teams are first randomized into their own move order, and then the players within each team. For example, in a 2v2 game, it's not possible for both of team A's players to get to move before any of team B's players.

Cyclic Move Order

If the move order setting for a game is set to "Cycle", the move order works a bit differently. The first turn of a game is randomized just as it would be in the Random Move Order system presented above, but subsequent turns just cycle through that same order. For example: ABCD becomes BCDA for the next turn, followed by CDAB, and finally DABC before starting back at ABCD.

There's no way to see the cycle for a game. You must deduce it by observing the sequence that attack orders happen in.

This works well for 1v1 games, since one player will get first move on all of the even numbered turns while the other player gets the odd numbered turns.

In games with manual distribution, the order in which territories are distributed is considered part of the cycle. For example, in a game with two players (A and B), if player A gets their first pick, player B will get first move on the first turn.

See also

• Turn phases