Military & War
The Military Career is a job like any other, but with 1-hour duty shifts instead of 3-hour civilian ones, requires an equipped weapon, and (for the state army) is only usable in your home (passport) nation until age 70. Taking or leaving the job itself carries no penalty — it just pays a wage and builds military experience.
| Rank | Military experience required |
|---|---|
| Private | 1 |
| Corporal | 10 |
| Sergeant | 25 |
| Lieutenant | 50 |
| Colonel | 100 |
| General | 200 |
Military wage: default $500, law-adjustable up to $3,000. Weapon durability costs 10% per training shift, plus another 10% for a soldier's first order of the year (changing target afterward is free). A training shift always lasts 1 hour: an equipped car does not shorten it and uses no Fuel. Rank sets a soldier's victory prize (rank × $100); private militias run a parallel 6-tier track (Recruit 1 · Mercenary 10 · Veteran 25 · Raider 50 · Warlord 100 · Overlord 200) that never mixes with state experience.
Leaderboard points. Both tracks feed your dynasty's Military score on the leaderboard. Reaching Sergeant, Lieutenant, Colonel or General adds 1 / 2 / 3 / 5 points, and the militia ranks of the same level score the same: Veteran 1 · Raider 2 · Warlord 3 · Overlord 5. A militia rank pays once per character — changing militia resets your rank, not the points already earned, so climbing back to it earns nothing new. Points stay with the dynasty for good; an heir starts the climb again from the bottom.
The war map
War plays out on a persistent 21-territory map (a 5×5 grid with 4 holes) that never resets. Each of the 3 nations starts owning its own capital circle and the 3 territories around it; the centre territory is contested by all three nations and the militias' free zone; a fourth circle, the neutral W circle, belongs to no nation and is the home ground private militias expand from. A territory stays under its owner's control indefinitely until another side takes it.
Orders, not votes
There is no nation-wide vote. Every soldier (state or militia) who has taken the field individually orders one territory bordering ground their side already holds to be attacked or defended (a side may always order an attack on its own capital, and a militia with no territory yet may only strike the W circle or its 3 neighbours). Orders are secret until year-end resolution and can be changed freely until then.
At resolution, a territory's owner defends automatically only by virtue of ownership — if nobody actually orders a defence there, an attacker with real soldiers takes it uncontested. When two or more sides field real soldiers on the same territory, whoever has the higher total military experience of everyone deployed there wins it; a soldier's own nation's capital circle adds a flat +200 to that nation's side on top, whether attacking or defending. Winners get the territory, rank × $100 each (nations pay this from the treasury, pro-rated if funds run short; militias mint it), and −5 health; losers get −15 health and −10 happiness and nothing else. A tie leaves the incumbent owner in place.
Those losses can be fatal. Health reaching 0 is death, so a soldier who takes the field with 5 health or less on a win, or 15 or less on a loss, does not come home — see Food, Health & Death. Check your health before you order an attack or a defence.
After battles resolve, any territory a nation holds that is no longer connected (through owned ground) to its own capital is freed automatically — and losing the capital circle itself frees every territory that nation holds, all at once. A militia's disconnected territory groups are pruned the same way, keeping only its largest contiguous cluster.
Territorial income (paid at year-end)
- Nations: $10,000 for every 3 territories held (rounded down), plus a flat $5,000 for holding the centre territory.
- Militias: $3,000 per territory held, no threshold.
- The W circle pays $10,000/year to whoever holds it and is never subject to theft.
- Holding an enemy nation's capital circle drains $30,000/year directly from that nation's treasury into the occupier's.
Private militias
Any player may found a militia for a $5,000 fee (burned, not banked) or join an existing one; membership is open regardless of nationality or passport. A militia has its own commander (with an optional deputy for succession), treasury, training wage (commander-set, up to $3,000), rank track and territory, and operates independently of any government. Holding the state Military Career job and belonging to a militia are mutually exclusive.
Taking the field (a soldier's first order of the year, for either side) enlists that player for the remainder of the year — they may stand down and stop fighting, but cannot switch between the state army and a militia until the year closes. Voluntarily leaving a militia (or being its last member when it disbands) triggers a 2-year stand-down: no joining, founding or training with any faction until it expires. Expulsion by a militia's commander carries no such penalty for the expelled player.
War Incentive
A government can put money behind one specific territory each year. It works in two halves, deliberately kept on different clocks:
- The amount is an ordinary law (
war_incentive, default $0, up to $1,000 per soldier) — proposed and voted like any other, so it changes as rarely as a tax rate. - The target territory is decided fresh every year by an automatic ballot among that nation's sitting MPs. It opens the moment the year turns and closes 6 hours later. Only territories the nation can currently attack or defend are on the ballot — no MP can waste the vote pledging money on ground out of reach. It's a simple majority of whoever actually votes, no quorum required; a tie between the leading territories incentivizes nothing that year.
At year-end resolution, every one of that nation's own state soldiers deployed on the chosen territory — attacking or defending, win or lose — is paid the full amount from the treasury, on top of any separate victory prize. Militias never receive it, the same as every other state payment. If the treasury can't cover everyone in full, every recipient gets the same reduced share instead of some being paid and others not.
The ballot itself is a Parliament matter: only sitting MPs see it, in the Politics tab, while it's open. Once it closes, the chosen territory and amount become public on the war map for the rest of the year — visible to every player, the same way ownership already is, while individual troop orders stay secret until year-end as usual.