Cinderfall — gameplay and systems

Strategy begins before the battle

Cinderfall never hands you a fixed army. Your strategy starts when you assemble your forces and continues as you expand your base, unlock new technology tiers and respond to the battlefield.

Every match revolves around four essential actions: build, manage, explore and fight. Their balance keeps changing with the available resources, the map’s geography and the pressure created by your opponents.

Build and expand your base

Deploy the infrastructure that supports your game plan, secure resources and advance through three technology tiers, from T1 to T3. Every building represents a strategic choice: production, defense, upgrades, support or access to new units.

The economy uses gold, wood and oil alongside one faction-specific resource. Gold and wood support general expansion, while oil becomes essential for selected advanced units, including vehicles and naval forces.

Command massive battles

Battles can grow beyond 100 units versus 100 and take place simultaneously across land, sea and air. You must anticipate enemy movements, defend your production lines and coordinate groups with complementary roles.

Every unit can be controlled individually. Almost all of them have passive and active abilities that sharpen their role: auras, regeneration, buffs, debuffs, area damage, support or crowd control. Active abilities can be automated for smoother large-army management or triggered manually for complete tactical control.

Factions and forces

Humans — coordination and battlefield control

Humans field a balanced army combining cavalry, defensive troops, artillery and elemental magic. Their strength comes from coordination and positioning.

The player can appoint one unit as an Officer. The Officer projects an aura whose effect depends on the selected Directive and strengthens nearby allies. Officers also generate Faith, the Human-specific resource used for active abilities such as temporary enhancements, war cries and coordinated arrow volleys.

Gameplay identity:

• versatile, organized army;
• an Officer at the center of support and positioning;
• configurable Directives;
• Faith spent on decisive actions;
• strong defense, artillery and elemental magic.

Orcs — pressure, Rage and Totem control

Orcs favor offense, raw strength and constant fighting. Ogres, heavy infantry, destructive artillery and powerful spellcasters form an army capable of turning a battle through sheer force.

The Rage Meter rewards aggression. Every elimination generates Rage, strengthening the army, accelerating production and improving Totems. Inaction causes Rage to decline over time. Rage can also be spent on powerful temporary effects such as area damage, life steal or speed bonuses.

Defeated enemies also provide War Trophies. These are used to place Totems that create permanent area bonuses and reinforce territorial control. Two Totems can be active at the same time.

Gameplay identity:

• durable, offensive army;
• Rage Meter fueled by combat;
• global bonuses and active powers that spend Rage;
• configurable Totems for territorial control;
• a relentless pace that punishes inactivity.

Cinderfiends — souls, possession and Ash

The Cinderfiends are a demonic faction currently controlled by the CPU. Their army relies on heavy creatures, powerful spellcasters and air units, balanced by weaker infantry and more limited naval options.

Deaths near a Cinderfiend presence can release wandering souls. Once collected, they attach to a unit or building, alter its abilities and generate Ash. This resource powers faction abilities such as creature summoning, mana drain, recalling fallen units and opening temporary passages.

The faction still needs additional units, buildings and strategic variations before player access can be considered.

Nature — a shared strategic pool

Nature units do not form an exclusive faction. They can be included in the compositions of different peoples, enabling hybrid armies or filling a role absent from the main faction roster.

Customize your army

Army composition and technology tree

More than 160 units and buildings can be selected to create an army suited to your playstyle. The choice is not only about quantity; it defines the functions you can access during the match.

A farm can focus on food, improve nearby building production or regularly summon wolves. An arsenal can unlock catapults, trebuchets, ballistae or cannons. Each configuration changes your economy, pacing and available tactical answers.

Runes and stats

Every unit and building can hold up to three runes, one for each technology tier. Activated during a match through forge upgrades, runes change individual stats and can reshape an element’s role: tougher, more offensive, faster or hybrid.

The system borrows the freedom of RPG builds and applies it to an entire RTS army. You must optimize your own composition while reading and countering the opponent’s choices.

Faction abilities

Customization also applies to the defining systems of each people:

• Orcs choose their Totems and Rage abilities;
• Humans select their Officer Directives and war cries;
• CPU-controlled Cinderfiends use souls, Ash and dedicated summoning or movement powers.

These choices are made before the match and become part of your strategic identity.

Game modes

Campaign — 40 story missions

Twenty Human missions and twenty Orc missions tell two sides of the conflict. The campaign gradually introduces the units, buildings and systems of each faction before combining them in increasingly complex objectives.

Each mission also includes a completion-time leaderboard for players interested in optimization and speedrunning.

Survival — hold out under growing pressure

Increasingly powerful waves threaten your base. Your score rises with every elimination and gains a multiplier when kills are chained quickly. That multiplier decreases over time and when buildings are lost.

The mode tests your ability to grow an economy while micro-managing units under constant pressure.

Quick Match — classic RTS battles

Configure a single-player match with or without CPU-controlled opponents. Maps support several formats, including free-for-all, teams and one-versus-all.

Depending on the map, up to ten participants can enter a match: one human player and as many as nine CPU armies. This maximum capacity is available only on selected maps.

Procedural Match — a new battlefield every time

Generate a map from your own settings:

• participant count;
• biome;
• symmetrical, rotational or random layout;
• rivers, lakes, islands or land-only terrain;
• natural and contested expansions;
• strategic choke points.

Procedural generation refreshes the geography, front lines and economic opportunities without changing the fundamental RTS rules.

Develop your own way to play

Cinderfall is not built around one correct answer. The combination of asymmetric factions, configurable units, runes, abilities and maps asks you to form a plan, read the opposing strategy and know when to change course.