Each argument will be taken to be a specification of a player who will participate in the game. The format of a player spec is

    [name[,ai][/config]@]host[+advantage]

where host is the name of a host. advantage is a multiplier specifying how much more a player gets to start with, so a player at +3 in the standard game gets 3 cities and 15 towns instead of the usual 1 and 5.

-e[,ai][+adv] number
    sets the number of machine players (AIs) not attached to displays. If ai and/or adv are supplied, each of the machine players will get that AI type and advantage.

-h number
    creates number players that may have displays and waits for them to join the game (via -join, see below).

General options:

-c number
    sets checkpointing to occur every number turns.

-f name
    reads the file named name, interpreting as a game.

-g name
    reads the game named name.

-help, --help
    displays help information and exits.

-host game
    sets up a network game named game.

-join game
    connects to a network game named game.

-L pathname
    sets the location to search for game files to pathname.

-noai
    suppresses all AI creation when setting up the game.

-post form
    evaluates the GDL form form after reading all game modules.

-pre form
    evaluates the GDL form form before reading any game modules.

-r  suppresses the creation of the default player.

--version
    displays version information and exits.

-w  suppresses warnings.

Variant options:

-M width[xheight]
    generates a random map of the given size. The size must be at least 5x5, although some periods will impose additional constraints on the lower bound. In theory, there is no upper bound (but 200x200 would be huge).

-seq
    makes all the players move one at a time.

-sim
    allows all the players to move simultaneously.

-tgame number
    limits the total length of the game to number minutes.

-tside number
    limits the total time of play for each side to number minutes. Time is only counted while actually waiting for input.

-tturn number
    limits the time of play for each side to number minutes per side per turn. Time is only counted while actually waiting for input.

-v  makes the entire world seen by all players at the outset. This is useful if exploration is deemed to be time-consuming, or if the world is already known to everybody. Some games have this enabled by default.

-V  makes everything seen all the time. Some games have this enabled by default.

-vvariant-name[=variant-value]
    sets variants that are defined by the chosen game. The options "-g game -vhelp" will list the available variants.

Designing and debugging options:

-design
    enables designer mode, if available.

-D[-GM]
    enables debugging output, if available.

-R number
    sets the random seed to number, if available.

EXAMPLES

[xc]conq
    Standard game, one human on local display, one AI, 60x30 random world

[xc]conq -g crater-lake
    One human vs one machine, playing the "crater lake" game

[xc]conq -e 2 -M 40x20
    One human, two mplayers, 40x20 random world

[xc]conq -e 6 -g u-e1-1998 -V
    Seven players (6 mplayer, 1 human), all playing on a 360x140 map of the earth with present-day cities, with everything always visible. Major!

[xc]conq ,ai+4
    Standard game, one human and one mplayer, mplayer has advantage of 4.

[xc]conq joe@taurus:0.0 cirdan:0.0
    Three players in standard game.

[xc]conq -r -e,ai+3 2 stan@andros:0.0 dhw@skaro:0.0
    Standard game, two mplayers each at advantage 3, two humans, using displays on andros and skaro.