Rivalz glossary
Every term that turns up in a game of Rivalz, in plain English. New here? Read the rules or browse the strategy guides.
- Asynchronous play
- Players take their turns over hours or days rather than all at once. Rivalz notifies the next player instead of running in real time.
- Turn
- One player’s go, in three phases: Place reinforcements, Battle adjacent territories, then Fortify by moving armies once between connected lands.
- Reinforcements
- Armies you receive at the start of your turn — one for every three territories you hold (minimum three), plus the bonus for any continent you fully control.
- Nudge
- A friendly reminder another player can send when it’s your turn and you’ve gone quiet, to keep the game moving.
- Card
- Earned by capturing at least one territory in a turn. Each card is an Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery, or Wild type.
- Trade Set
- Any three cards that are all the same unit or all different units. Trade a set during Place or Fortify to bank extra armies.
- Wild Card
- A card that stands in for any unit. There are three in the deck, so any three cards including a Wild always form a valid Trade Set.
- Board Capture
- A win condition: own every territory on the map.
- Last Standing
- A win condition: outlast everyone — win once every rival has surrendered or been defeated.
- Mission Completion
- A win condition: complete your secret mission for an instant win. Active only when the host enables Mission Cards.
- Mission
- A secret objective only you can see, usually capturing a set of continents. Revealed when you win, are defeated, or the game ends.
- Surrender
- Bowing out voluntarily on your own turn. Your cards return to the deck for anyone to draw again.
- Defeat
- Losing your last territory in battle. You’re eliminated and your cards pass to whoever conquered you.
- Spectator
- Anyone watching a public game once it has started. Spectators get a read-only, redacted view — no secret missions or card hands.
- Public game
- A game the creator opens for anyone to spectate after it starts. Share the link and people can watch; private games stay between the players.
- Bot
- A non-human player that fills a seat and plays with the same information as everyone else, across Easy, Medium, and Hard difficulty tiers.
- Autopilot
- A per-game setting that lets the game temporarily play an idle player’s turn once it has been open past the idle window. The player reclaims their seat by taking their next turn.
- Airstrikes
- An optional rule that lets you attack non-adjacent territories by spending a Territory card.
- Fog of War
- An optional rule that hides everything beyond your frontier and recent sightings. It forces the game to be private.
- Trade Cost
- An optional rule that makes each successive trade across the game worth progressively more armies, instead of a flat reward.
- Mission Cards
- An optional rule that deals each player a secret mission and enables winning by Mission Completion.