You have been granted command of a mercenary unit or ship, based out of one of your nation’s Provinces, and gain some of the funding and resources earned by it as it goes about its business.
Military Units all start with your choice of one of the Military Unit Traits. You cannot change your Military Unit’s Trait once it has been selected. If you do not wish to make a choice immediately, your Military Unit will gain the Generalist Trait; you can then either email the game staff or come to Wheelhouse during an event to make a final selection of your Military Unit’s Trait.
Military Units all start at Level 10; a Military Unit’s effectiveness can be increased or decreased by changing its Level, whether permanently or temporarily. You do not gain any additional income from the Unit by increasing its Level; instead, the Military Unit’s effectiveness on the Strategy Layer during Downtime is increased, along with its odds of surviving dangerous situations.
Military Units all start at 100 Health, the maximum possible score. Engaging in conflicts during Downtime, whether on its own or Reinforcing an Army or Fleet, will deal damage to your Military Unit’s Health. The Patrol and Recuperate Actions, as well as some rituals or other special effects, will allow your Military Unit to regain some Health every Round. If your Military Unit ever reaches 0 Health, it cannot perform any actions other than Recuperate until it has more than zero Health.
You can pay in currency to recover your Military Unit’s Health. Every Ironmark or 50 Scales that you pay to Wheelhouse restores 20 Health to your Military Unit at the start of the next Round of Downtime.
<aside> 💰 The design of Military Units’ pay and the cost to heal them is intended to cause the owner of a Military Unit to earn a lot when their Unit is in the thick of it, but subsequently need to pay to heal their Unit up afterwards in order to keep it functional. The intention is for the average net income for each event, after paying for repairs, be slightly lower than that of a “normal” Enterprise that doesn’t interact with the Strategy Layer, though if you play your cards right and increase your Unit’s combat abilities you can likely make more than that on average. You are also encouraged to charge what you think is an appropriate fee to anyone who wishes to hire your Unit to perform a task, and to ask other PCs from your nation for help in repairing your Unit so that it can protect your nation most effectively.
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You can increase your Unit’s Level permanently (”upgrading” it) by bringing 3 Ironmarks, 5 Adamant, and 5 Healing Potions to Wheelhouse. You can only upgrade your Unit once per event, and the cost of Upgrading it goes up by +3 Ironmarks and +5 Adamant for every Level your Unit is above 10.
Some catastrophic events can permanently decrease your Unit’s level. Repairing the damage caused by such an event requires the expenditure of a flat 5 Ironmarks and 5 Adamant per Level you wish to restore.