Advertisement
Overview
The Battle of Polytopia, developed by Midjiwan AB and released on Steam in August 2020, is a turn-based civilization strategy game set on the Square, a flat, square-shaped world drifting in an alternate dimension. Players take control of one of 16 distinct tribes and compete to dominate through exploration, city-building, technology research, and outright warfare. The premise sounds familiar, but the execution strips away the bloat that makes most 4X games feel like homework.
The Square's auto-generated maps mean no two sessions play out the same way. Five map sizes (tiny through massive) and six configurable terrain types, including Archipelago and Water World, create wildly different strategic conditions from one game to the next. That procedural variety is the engine keeping the experience fresh after hundreds of runs.
The Battle of Polytopia content image
Gameplay and mechanics
Polytopia runs on classic 4X principles, eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate, but packages them into a format that fits a lunch break or a four-hour session equally well. The core loop involves:
The Battle of Polytopia content image
- Expanding territory by capturing neutral villages
- Researching tech trees to unlock units and buildings
- Farming and building to grow city populations
- Deploying stealth units with Invisible Cloaks and Daggers
- Negotiating peace treaties and constructing embassies
Three distinct game modes shape how a session unfolds. Perfection tasks players with maximizing their civilization score within 30 turns, Domination removes the turn cap and demands total conquest, and Creative gives access to free building for players who just want to tinker. Each mode plays to different instincts.
The Battle of Polytopia content image
How different are the 16 tribes?
The tribe selection is where Polytopia does something genuinely interesting. Each of the 16 tribes carries unique starting bonuses, unit aesthetics, and thematic personalities that influence strategy from the first turn. The Xin-Xi are cautious traditionalists suited to defensive play. The Bardur thrive in frozen terrain. The Vengir, rhino-pig-riding warriors with an affinity for swords and the Kithkga Boneyards, lean aggressively into early military pressure. The Hoodrick favor forest terrain and ranged combat.
The Battle of Polytopia content image
These aren't cosmetic differences. Starting biome, tech affinities, and unit bonuses mean that picking the Bardur on a Water World map is a fundamentally different challenge than running the same tribe on Pangea. Mirror matches, where the same tribe appears multiple times in one game, are supported for players who want to test tribe matchups head-to-head.
Multiplayer and replayability
Polytopia supports online multiplayer for up to 16 players on PC and Mac, with matchmaking and online leaderboards tracking the top civilization builders globally. The cross-platform availability across Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Nintendo Switch, and the Epic Games Store means the player pool stays active across devices.
Replayability comes from the combination of procedural maps, 16 tribes, variable map configurations, and three game modes stacking on top of each other. A player chasing a perfect Perfection score on a tiny Dryland map with the Vengir is playing a completely different puzzle than someone grinding Domination on a massive Archipelago as the Hoodrick. The number of meaningful combinations keeps the turn-based strategy loop from going stale, which is the real reason Polytopia has held millions of active players well beyond its initial launch window.