As the ruler of one of the local city-states, your goal is simple: conquer everyone else and create an Aerial Empire to last the ages. Unfortunately, everyone else wants to do the same thing.

CONQUEST
You start out with a small fleet of one or two ships. To select the fleet, click on the ship icon next to your home city. Once selected, you can send the whole fleet or parts of it to another city. Click on individual ships to add or remove them from the ships to be sent.

When your fleet arrives at an enemy city, it will attack the city's defensive buildings and any ships stationed there. After combat setup, where you can choose the initial position of your fleet, battle begins. You can flee at any time and retain any still-functioning ships.

If victorious, you are presented with a choice of how to treat your newly conquered city. The more brutal approaches are faster or more profitable, but will cause damage to the city that will take a while to repair. Each city has some unique bonus: cheaper materials, improvements, or the ability to build new modules. Once under your control, the city's bonus becomes available to you.

DEFENCE
When a city is under your control, you can see and edit its defences by clicking on it and choosing "Defences" from the menu. You can construct new buildings to bolster the defences of the city. Don't neglect to do this! Enemy spies in your city can report on your weakness, and you may find that badly defended conquests are quickly snatched from you. Consolidate your gains with good defences before taking on the next city.

ESPIONAGE
Click on an enemy city for the option to send a spy there. This lets you see the city's defences and any ships stationed there, and its bonus. Spies cost money, but they're a good way to find juicy targets, and you can always recall them if you don't need them anymore. Once a spy is established in a city, you can attempt to sabotage construction, destroy buildings, bribe away ships, and even foment violent revolt!

MONEY
Finally, we get to the most unexciting but nevertheless important matter: your empire's finances. Your cities constantly yield money - more if they haven't been damaged by war lately. This money goes to finance the upkeep of your city defences, your fleet, and your spy network. If your money runs out, fear not, there are always plenty of people willing to extend loans to such an exalted ruler as yourself. Your fleet will be fed, and your spies paid. But of course, you will be unable to build anything new until your debts are paid.
