Antholm 2War

Getting started

You rule a colony of real ants. You never steer a single ant. You paint orders onto the land with a round brush, set how the colony divides its work, and hundreds of ants carry it out. The goal is to kill every rival queen before yours is killed.

1. Tap Forage and drag over food your species can eat. Workers go and collect it.
2. Tap Scout and drag into the dark. Scouts walk there and clear the fog.
3. Tap Defend and drag where soldiers should patrol.
4. Tap Attack and drag over an enemy. Paint over a rival nest to besiege it.
5. Open Orders to set the roster: nurses, scouts, diggers, foragers, guards and defenders.

A season lasts 135 seconds and a year is 9 minutes. Brood takes about 30 seconds to grow up. A nest can hold up to 20 chambers.

Species

Every species is a real ant. The numbers below are the ones the game uses. Hit points and bite are for a worker; a soldier has twice the hit points, and a major has 4.5 times.

Black garden ant. The all-rounder. Tends aphid herds for honeydew and takes whatever else it finds.

Harvester ant. Seed collectors with a granary that does not spoil. Slow on the trail, steady through winter.

Meat ant. Fast, numerous and quarrelsome. Strips carcasses quickly and picks fights over ground.

Leafcutter ant. Vegetarian fungus farmers. Individually weak, but the queen lays fast and the colony grows huge.

Red wood ant. Sprays formic acid from a short distance, so a line of them hurts before the enemy can bite.

Red bull ant. Very large, sharp-eyed hunters with a sting. Few in number and slow to breed. Adults drink nectar; the brood needs meat.

What each species eats

Each unit of food carried home gives the amounts below, shown as food / protein. Food feeds the adults. Protein raises the brood. A dash means that species cannot use it.

Food sources and seasons

Predators

Spiders, beetles and mantises stay near their own hunting ground. After a kill, that ground stays quiet for 70 seconds. Skinks roam the map in the warm seasons and leave after about a minute. People, mowers, spray and birds strike marked areas after a warning.

Carcasses

A dead predator or insect is a body lying on the map. Paint Forage over it. The ten nearest free ants take it, and no more than a fifth of your defenders will leave their patrol to help. One ant can move any body, very slowly; each extra ant speeds it up. Protein is added when the body reaches the nest, and it falls with age to 30% after about four minutes.

Bodies of size 150 or less are carried whole. Larger ones (skinks) are cut up and carried piece by piece.

Lands and difficulty

Land and the nest

The Land card shows the share of the whole map your colony controls. Ground goes to whichever colony has the strongest presence there, from colony size, distance to a nest or outpost, and soldiers standing on it. The ground you hold near your nest sets how many chambers you can dig, so a squeezed colony loses chambers.

Invaders who get past your surface soldiers go down the tunnels. The queen's guard meets them there. Recall brings your workers inside to fight.

Amber, upgrades and achievements

Amber is earned by surviving years, killing rival queens, winning wars and achievements. It buys species, permanent colony upgrades, reinforcements and food.