The catalogue opens this month with Chess and Rubamazzo, a few apps at a time after them. See the release plan.

This Means War app icon

This Means War — aiOrion GamesSkill game · Flagship event

Expected December

This Means War

A calm war room where plans move the front.

Seven wars in one strategy game: a nine-level Command School, the race for the bridge, a limited war for cities, the fight for the central city, a timed war, total war, and an asymmetric attack-and-defend where the two sides field unequal armies. You command through AI officers you build and train; online you still face a real person commanding through theirs, so the army and instincts you shape are the edge you bring. Conversational command is being completed for launch.

7 games in one2 sidesApple OS 27iPhone Duo readyNo adsOn-device play
Coming soonRead the rules
This Means War game artwork

Learn

Learn the game before you play it.

An illustrated, animated walkthrough of the rules, plus a short read on what the game asks of your mind. Both open here in your browser — no download, no account.

How to play This Means War

A guide for every variant

The rules

How it plays

  1. Every match opens at a declaration-of-war border with garrisons and a mobile reserve.
  2. Choose an offensive, defensive or balanced plan and issue advance or hold orders to named objectives.
  3. Ground forces control territory and cities; drones see and strike but never hold ground.
  4. Cities inside controlled territory fund new units, while forces outside their HQ command radius halt.
  5. Win by taking every enemy HQ, taking every city or holding a city majority long enough.
Availability note. This Means War arrives as a flagship event. Quick orders, doctrines and officer reports play now; conversational officer command is being completed for launch.

The family

Command · The AI is your staff.

You talk; your officers plan, propose and act. The staff you build and train is the army you bring to the table.

What the AI is to you, across the catalogue

Ways to play

7 games for the price of one.

Every variant here is a game of its own — its own rules and legal-move checking, its own tables, its own illustrated guide, its own daily challenge, its own achievements and its own taught first game that walks you in. One purchase brings all 7. Each option below changes the table while keeping the engine's legal-move checks in charge.

Command School

Nine levels: seven lessons from first command to total war, then two missions.

  • Learn the war one decision at a time. Seven authored lessons on seven hand-drawn fields: take a city in mass with your guns behind you, meet each threat with the right arm, force a river crossing, press, break off and come again against a dug-in town, hold a ridge, race for the middle ground, and finally fight a total war on the grand field.
  • Then two measured missions test what you have learned: guard the open flank, and answer two problems at once.
  • Each level brings its own way to win; play them in order and you will have used every tool the game has.

Arena

  • Graduation — Arena2 players · solo

Tournaments

  • Graduation Cupknockout of 8 · 2 a table · solo

Take the Bridge

First to seize the central crossing wins.

  • One crossing in the middle of the map is the prize.
  • The first side to put a formation on it, uncontested, wins the war.
  • A sharp, tactical objective — race for the bridge, screen the approaches, and deny it to the enemy.

Arena

  • Take the Bridge — Arena2 players · solo

Tournaments

  • Take the Bridge — Cupknockout of 8 · 2 a table · solo

Limited War

First to hold the agreed cities wins.

  • A war with a stated aim rather than a fight to the finish: the first side to hold the agreed number of cities has won, and the war stops there.
  • It rewards a fast, focused grab and a firm grip on what you take, instead of grinding the enemy down.

Arena

  • Limited War — Arena2 players · solo

Tournaments

  • Limited War — Cupknockout of 8 · 2 a table · solo

Take the City

First to seize the central city wins.

  • A single, simple aim: one city in the middle of the map decides the war.
  • The first side to take and hold it wins — no need to conquer everything.
  • A clear, fast, easy-to-learn goal: mass toward the objective, take it, and hold it against the counter-attack.

Arena

  • Take the City — Arena2 players · solo

Tournaments

  • Take the City — Cupknockout of 8 · 2 a table · solo

Timed War

Be ahead when the war ends.

  • The war runs for a fixed length and stops. Whoever holds the most cities when it ends has won; if that is level, the side with the most surviving strength takes it.
  • A bounded match, so it always finishes in a known time.

Arena

  • Timed War — Arena2 players · solo

Tournaments

  • Timed War — Cupknockout of 8 · 2 a table · solo

Total War

Fight until one side is finished.

  • The classic war: you win by taking every enemy command centre, by owning every city, or by holding more cities than the enemy long enough for the outcome to be beyond doubt.
  • No match clock and no shortcut — the war runs until it is decided, and if it never is, an armistice ends it and whoever holds the most valuable ground wins.

Arena

  • Total War — Arena2 players · solo

Tournaments

  • Total War — Cupknockout of 8 · 2 a table · solo

Attack & Defend

One objective, two unequal sides.

  • An asymmetric war: one side attacks a single objective, the other defends it, and the two do not field equal armies.
  • As the defender you begin in possession of the objective with a small, dug-in force — hold it until the attacker runs out of time.
  • As the attacker you bring an overwhelming force and must seize the objective before the deadline.
  • Choose your side and your test: your attack or your defence.

Arena

  • Attack & Defend — Arena2 players · solo

Tournaments

  • Attack & Defend — Cupknockout of 8 · 2 a table · solo

Every online table is a ladder. Each Arena table and each tournament above comes at four entry levels — Challenge 10 GC, Contest 50 GC, Championship 200 GC, and a Friendly 1 GC table that returns the coin to everyone who finishes. The higher the entry level, the more places share the reward; aiOrion keeps 10% of a paid table's entries to pay for running the online game, and nothing from a Friendly one.

Make it yours. Start from any of these, adjust the settings the game allows, and save it as your own template. Online tables start the same way: copy one of the Arena tables, then set the entry, the rewards and who may join.

aiOrion events

Events in This Means War.

aiOrion's own tournaments in this game, read live from the game server: when the next ones are and how many places are taken. You enter from inside the app; the entry pays for the online game, and winning earns a reward.

Times are shown in your time zone.

Loading the events

Reading the event calendar from the game server…

All eventsAdd the aiOrion calendar

What is inside

Built around the game, not the grind.

01

A living front in real time

The war never freezes on your turn — orders play out on a front that keeps moving, yet resolves by fixed, fair rules.

02

Command in seconds

Send forces to a named city or line with a single tap — no fiddly micro-management.

03

Shape your army's doctrine

Press the attack, dig in, or hold the balance — you decide how your whole force behaves.

04

Build and train your own AI officers

Create AI officers, tune their personality and doctrine, and let them learn from each battle and grow sharper across your campaigns. They are your instrument of command — never opponents.

05

Your officers, into online battles

Online is always you against another person: you command through the AI officers you trained, they command through theirs. No AI opponents — just two people, each with the army and instincts they built.

06

Pause, speed and auto-pause

Slow the war down, speed it up, or let it auto-pause the moment something needs you.

07

Cinematic film-view map

Watch the battle as a clean, living map of cities, units, mines and shifting front lines.

08

Conversational command (at launch)

Natural-language orders — talk to your officers in plain words — are being completed for launch.

Next move

Follow the releases.

Explore every title now; the month labels are approximate, and each release waits until the one before it has settled in. The same rules and identity run on iPhone, iPhone Duo, iPad, Mac and Apple Vision Pro.

Coming soonSee all 21 apps
Private local playOn-device AIConfigurable templatesCalm by design