We’ll be posting new content and changes here as they happen. Check back to see what’s new since you last looked!

November 8 — Strategy Layer Update

• Stability Damage streamlining: A sentence has been added clarifying that any action/event that deals damage to the Security and/or Economy AND to Stability doesn’t also deal 10% of the Security/Economy damage to Stability; that damage is already baked in.

  • This rule change has been applied to the Summer 25 → Spring 26 Downtime actions.

• Military Unit Orders

  • Counter-Insurgency & Guerrilla Warfare: a line has been added that inflicts additional damage on the targeted cultist cell if it uses Infiltrate after the Military Unit attacks it. This won’t completely prevent cultists from hiding, but it will stop weak and badly wounded ones from fleeing out of simple self-preservation.
  • Patrol: The temporary Security granted by this action now protects the Region’s Economy and Stability, in addition to its Security. Half of the damage that the Military Unit prevents with this action is dealt to it, which will trigger the higher income clause for its owner at their next Confluence, even if the Unit doesn’t directly fight a Cultist Cell.

• Force Actions

  • Inquisition: The Inquisition action has been extensively overhauled. Instead of dealing a straightforward percentage of the Force’s Effective Combat Strength, it now involves a “battle” against the cultist cell, with the cultists getting scaled up to a constant Combat Strength of 1500.
    • This allows for other effects such as Advantage and Terrain Traits to be added into the equation, as well as the sheer randomness of the Tactics Roll.
    • This is overall a significant buff for allied armies fighting against the cultist forces.
    • IMPORTANT NOTE: this rule change has been applied to the Summer 25 → Spring 26 Downtime actions. Allied armies will have taken damage from performing the Inquisition action, and they have probably dealt more damage to the cultist cells than you expected them to.
  • Scout: Added a line preventing cultist cells from spawning in Regions where the force has revealed cultist cells during that Downtime. This rule change has been applied to the Summer-Spring Downtime cell spawns, so any Regions that have been Scouted will not spawn any cultist cells.

• Military Unit Traits

  • Inquisitors: Added a line significantly increasing the Military Unit’s power when assisting a Force in performing the Inquisition action.
  • Commandos: Added a line significantly increasing the Military Unit’s power when assisting a Force in performing the Inquisition action, and a line increasing the Advantage that the Unit grants to an allied Force when performing the Plucky Heroics action.
  • Knights: Doubled the bonus that the Unit gains when performing the Reinforce action, and added a line increasing the Advantage that the Unit grants to an allied Force when performing the Plucky Heroics action.
  • Engineers: Significantly diversified their bonuses. They now increase the speed at which a Force can perform the Fortify and Construction actions, and can heal the Security and Economy of a Region via the Patrol action.
  • Mage Cadre: They now enable a Force they’re Reinforcing to perform the Ritual Warfare action, acting as ritualists to empower the whole army or fleet.
  • Guardian Cadre: The bonuses granted to Patrol and Counter-Insurgency have been increased significantly. The Military Unit gains a significant bonus when Reinforcing a Force that is on the defensive. If the Military Unit Patrols in a Region and doesn’t engage a cultist cell, it heals the Region’s Security score.

• Force Traits

  • Army & Marines Coastal movement: Armies now cannot enter Coastal Regions without a land route to do so, and Marines have had their embarkation rule significantly streamlined into simply letting them ignore that new rule while traveling into/through/between Coastal Regions. Basically, if they’re a Marines Army they can freely hop between islands, but if they aren’t they need a land route or a friendly Fleet to act as transport to their destination across the water.
  • Spectral: the trait’s protection is now also pierced by a Force benefiting from the Ritual Warfare action, even if the attacking force doesn’t have the Mage Corps trait.
  • Ritual Warfare: The bonus granted by this action has been modified so that it doesn’t go away if the Force moves into a different Region.
  • Resupply: The requirement that the Force not have engaged in combat during the Round has been removed, allowing a Force to attack an enemy and then retreat to heal during the same Round of Downtime. A Force using this action is still prevented from healing if it takes damage between using this action and the Recovery phase.
    • This has been applied to the Summer 25 → Spring 26 Downtime to allow various national Forces to resupply after squashing cultist armies.
  • Defend: The temporary Security granted by this action has been increased from 1% to 5% of the Force’s ECS, and the temporary Security it grants to the Region now also protects the Region’s Economy and Stability. 20% of the damage prevented by Defend is now dealt to the Force that used the action.

• Cultist Cell Actions

  Currently the best and most “correct” action that a cultist cell “should” take is Recruit, at least until it has had time to increase in size substantially. To make the other actions somewhat strategically viable, additional effects have been added to various cultist cell actions to increase their effectiveness and give them different effects depending on what traits the Region they are acting in has. Keep an eye on your nation’s Aether Conflux and Logistics Hub regions, in particular!

  • Pillage, Recruit, Terrorize, Sabotage, and Despoil have all had a number of effects added based on the Regional Trait(s) of the Region which the cultist cell is operating.
  • Sabotage now deals 5% of the cell’s ECS in damage to the Region’s Security. It still needs the Security to be less than 50, and this damage does not cascade and harm the Region’s Economy or Stability if the Region’s Security is reduced to 0.
  • Despoil has had its effects significantly enhanced, but has been restricted to only be usable if the Region has a Security score less than 70.

• Regional Traits

  • The Mountain, Forested, and Swamp traits have been updated to give a bonus to cultist cells defending against the Inquisition action unless the Force performing that action has the matching terrain-familiarity Trait.

November 7

• Master Alchemist & Master Enchanter have had lines added granting +1 additional formulae list from their respective crafting lists. If you already had Master Alchemist, you get to pick a new list to learn!
• Death & Respawn has had a new line added at the bottom of the page, detailing how, If & when your character dies permanently, your next character will start with more than 3 CP.
• Alchemical Formulae Lists: The pages for Greenshear’s Warming Potion, Vetch’s Touch Of Glass, Just The Fink, Ogluchor’s Bane, and Detaya’s Gift have been added to their appropriate formulae lists.
• Rituals:
  • The rituals that grant a Force Trait to an army or navy have been tweaked, with some traits being swapped out and all of them gaining a fourth option to choose from. (Hold Fast Against The Dark, Ride Forth To Glory, Veil The Hunters’ Steps, Secrets Wrought In Stone And Ruin, & Ancient Hymn Of Bloody Kings)
  • Chart The Threads Of Corruption has had its effect amplified; it now allows the targeted unit to immediately attack a cultist cell if it discovers one via using the Reconnaissance action.
  • The Speed attributes of the armies summoned by the five Strategos summoning rituals have been adjusted down significantly; they were originally written when the “standard” Speed was 100, instead of the current 10, and hadn’t been adjusted yet. While it would have been funny watching the angels fly around at mach 10, or the treants run around faster than the fastest horse, it wouldn’t have been very balanced.

August 4

• Rituals: The Arcanum Anathema has been filled out and added to the Ritual Lists page! If you want to smite an area the size of Texas, this is the ritual list for you. Many of them are kiss/curse, as well, offering cheaper strategic options than the Arcanum Strategos rituals but at the cost of doing something nasty to one of your allies or innocent bystanders.

July 29

• Rituals: The Arcanum Prismatica has been filled out and added to the Ritual Lists page! The rules for Prismatic Rituals have also been modified to accommodate the fact that mages can now assist with any ritual no matter what deity or specialization they have. Now, Prismatic Rituals each belong to two different deities’ ritual lists, and you get some kind of bonus from having ritualists who have mastered both of those lists taking part in the ritual. There are some diverse and powerful effects that you can get from these rituals, so give them a look!

July 4

• Rules patches are (we think) complete for this Downtime. Check the Winter-Summer 2025 Patch Notes for the complete listing.