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Counterintelligence guide - July 24, 2025 Introduction Counterintelligence is a new mode for The Demon Rush: Legends Corrupt, where the player chooses a character to lead their nation, and they will also choose their soldier type, religion and ruling approach to try and conquer the most territories (or all territories) within a span of 10 years of ingame turns (1 month is 1 turn). The player can try and approach victory through their military, economy, spies and alliances -- though they will likely be relying on a combination of the four to varying degrees based on their character and nation composition. About this guide This guide focuses on approaching Counterintelligence on Legend Plus difficulty, and should apply to all lower difficulties as a result. Many combinations of characters, nation powers, soldier types, religions and ruling approaches have been able to clear Legend Plus difficulty, and this guide is based around those clears. The first part of the guide focuses mainly on Counterintelligence's rules and mechanics, as well as general strategies for those rules and mechanics. The second part focuses on the more customizable parts of Counterintelligence (Characters/Nation Powers/Soldier Types/Religions/Ruling Approaches). Basics In Counterintelligence, the player's nation leader is placed on a world map, where they can move their nation leader (and/or their spouse if they are married), enter their own territories, invade enemy territories, add soldiers to their own retinue or to defend borders, add scouts for recon and easier invasion, add spies to sabotage the enemy, and more. A game of Counterintelligence takes 10 ingame years, with each "turn" consisting of 1 month, for a total of 120 turns. To win, the player will either need to conquer all 64 territories on the world map OR own the most territories when the 10 years are up (draws do not count -- the player must have more territories than any other enemy to win). Turns Like the other two Strategy Modes, Conquest and Heist, the player can take their time on the world map to make decisions as needed. However, when out on the field (through entering the player's own territory, invading an enemy territory or defending a territory while the player's leader and/or spouse is present), every 60 seconds of ingame time will cost the leader or spouse in that territory another month/turn. When it comes to combat, this means that stalling for time in bigger battles can leave the player's nation leader unable to conquer more territory or return to their own territories for a number of turns, which means that the player will need to exercise judgement when deciding what territories to attack or how long to hunt down spies or bandits. There are other instances that can lead to a loss of turns -- a player attacked by an aggressive spy that they could not detect in their own territory will cost them 1 turn (for whoever is present in the territory at the time, be it leader and/or spouse), and failing to prepare proper defenses against spies trying to assassinate them at their own wedding will cost the nation leader and their spouse 3 turns apiece. Enemy AI nation leaders will be killed permanently in these circumstances rather than lose turns. Entering or invading a territory will end the turn for that nation leader, regardless of how much movement they have left. If the player wishes to have their spouse accompany them to a destination or invade a territory, they are able to attach their spouse to their leader from the World Map menu if they occupy the same territory, though both their turns end together when entering/invading. When the player's leader and/or spouse are finished their turns, the player is able to end the month. Doing so will cause the other AI nations to take their turns. When the AI nations are finished their turns, the player will receive a month end report. Territory types There are 4 territory types in Counterintelligence -- Castles, Towns, Farms and Mines. Mines are also divided into 4 subtypes -- Limestone, Magnetite, Corundum and Obsidian. Though the Limestone Mine's appearance is that of a quarry, it is functionally the same as its other Mine cousins. Towns, Farms and Mines function primarily as resource factories, where each nation leader will gain resources on month end from these territories (Mez, Food and the mineral of the Mine's subtype respectively). Spies can sabotage these territories and decrease their production while they are active in an individual territory (and start destroying that nation's Food/Mineral surplus if the total sabotage power of the Spies exceeds that territory's output). At base, Towns will produce 200 Mez per month, Farms will produce 100 Food per month, and Mines will produce 20 of their mineral type per month. Castles function as the home base of nation leaders, and are needed for various functions (such as sleeping for the well-rested bonus, performing religious ceremonies and more based on other factors). Castles are also required for a nation leader to get married and have a child. Nation leaders can own more than one Castle if they acquire the territory (be it through combat, killing the enemy nation leader or marrying the nation leader who owns the castle). Each nation will begin a Counterintelligence game with 1 Castle, 3 Towns, 2 Farms and 2 Mines of their choice. Regardless of which Mine Type the player picks for their starting territories, 2 of each Mine Type will be represented evenly among the 8 nations' starting territories. Resources There are 6 types of resources in Counterintelligence: Mez, Food, Limestone, Magnetite, Corundum and Obsidian. Mez is primarily used for hiring soldiers, scouts and spies, and can also be used to invest in Towns, Farms and Mines for greater resource output from that individual territory. The primary method of gain for Mez is from Towns each month, though high Crime Rates in each individual Town will reduce Mez gained. Food is used to prevent food shortages, and to allow soldiers in a nation suffering from a food shortage to defect to the player's side. Every month end causes 20 Food per Territory to be taken away from a nation's Food reserves. If the nation's Food reserves were to go below 0, a food shortage will occur for the month for that nation, which causes decreases in Castle Morale and increases in Crime Rate in each Town. The primary method of gain for Food is from Farms each month, though Spies sabotaging a Farm will heavily decrease that individual Farm's Food output. If too many Spies are weakening a Farm territory at the same time, it can lead to a nation's Food surpluses being destroyed. Minerals is the collective term for Limestone, Magnetite, Corundum and Obsidian. Each mineral is used for different purposes, and the player can choose what Mine Type their nation's starting territories will have on New Game. The primary method of gain for Minerals is from Mines each month, though Spies sabotaging a Mine will heavily decrease that individual Mine's mineral output (with too many Spies destroying Mineral reserves, similarly to Farms and Food). Limestone, Magnetite and Corundum can also be used for the Landslide ability (gained by upgrading Mines to Level 5) outside of Mines. Limestone is used to permanently boost defense of a nation leader and their soldiers through raising the nation's Fortification level, to a maximum of 10. Each level of Fortification will reduce damage taken by 5% (7.5% if the leader and/or soldiers are defending a Castle territory). Boosting a nation's Fortification level costs (100 x (Fortification Level + 1)) Limestone. Magnetite is used to permanently boost offense of a nation leader and their soldiers through raising the nation's Blacksmithing level, to a maximum of 10. Each level of Blacksmithing will boost damage output by 5% (7.5% if the leader and/or soldiers are defending a Castle territory). Boosting a nation's Blacksmithing level costs (100 x (Blacksmithing Level + 1)) Magnetite. Corundum is used for the Alliance Formula, and is primarily used to make a nation look better to other nations. As high Alliance Formula values are useful for securing higher Alliance Level gains with other nations, gaining Confidence Boosts for 10% higher soldier damage, and for Caesara to gain more free soldiers when conquering territory through combat, simply having high Corundum reserves has useful passive benefits. Obsidian is used to temporarily boost the damage of the nation leader, their spouse and their soldiers by 50% for 1 month, at the cost of 200 Obsidian. Useful for both invading enemy territories or for securing the nation's own territories if it looks like an enemy leader is prowling along the nation's borders. Obsidian cannot be used for Landslide. World Map When on the World Map, the player is able to access the World Map menu in order to view the abilities of their leader and spouse, view their soldier type/religion/ruling approach/resources, hire/place/recall units, change up the actions of spies in individual territories, view and make use of their alliances with other nations, attach/detach the spouse from the leader, and set Minerals for Landslide (when Mines are at Level 5 or higher). By default, a leader can only move 1 territory away on the World Map each month. The only methods of boosting movement each month on the World Map are to gain the well-rested bonus from sleeping at one of the nation's Castles and/or by obtaining horses from a Farm. Note that the centermost territories of the World Map can access all other centermost territories with 1 move, as well. Moving the cursor over a territory on the World Map will reveal what the territory contains (what nation leaders are present, how many soldiers are accompanying them, how many soldiers are guarding the territory, the territory's investment level, whether or not a child or Pantheon Priest is present). Visible territories are determined by any territories adjacent to territories owned by that nation and by any Scouts that nation has deployed (Brooks as nation leader and/or Scouts Level 5 allows for further territories to be made visible). Nation leaders and territory types will be displayed directly on the World Map, as well. Nation leaders are only able to be seen if the territory is visible, but territory types will remain on the World Map if they were visible at least once in the current Counterintelligence game. Field The player enters the Field by entering one of their own territories, invading an enemy territory, or defending their own territory. In all of these instances, the player will have 60 seconds to either defeat the enemy army in combat or conduct their business and find the exit back to the World Map (which is typically located where they came in from, with the exception being the Castle, where its exit is at the far end from where the player starts). If they do not, every 60 seconds that pass will cause any player-controlled nation leaders in that territory to lose an additional turn for every 60 seconds that had passed during that territory visit. In terms of what the player can do on the Field, invading and defending territories are straightforward -- the player must kill the enemy soldiers and any enemy nation leaders accompanying them. On doing so, the player returns to the World Map on victory. If entering their own territory, the player will have different goals to complete on the Field and will be specific to each territory. In Castles, the player will typically head to either their own room, where they are given a number of options -- sleeping alone, sleeping with a companion or spouse, have a baby if married, performing a religious ceremony, changing Dissental Soldier origins or shutting down religious functions if Alberto is present. Optionally, if the player has a child, they can opt to go to their child's room instead (the only other light door next to the player's room) to spend time with their child for a buff which has a duration based on the child's age. In Towns, the player's aim can be to seek out a merchant to invest in (every investment of 500 Mez boosts that Town's Mez gains each month by 5% per level to a maximum investment level of 100 -- this can be done repeatedly in one Town visit). Merchants are at random stalls on each visit to a Town. If Crime Rate for the current Town is at 1% or higher, bandits will be present in the city as well. Defeating them will lower Crime Rate across all player-owned Towns by the Crime Rate of the Town that the player is currently in. In Farms, the player can seek out the head farmer to invest in (every investment of 500 Mez boosts that Farm's Food gains each month by 5% per level to a maximum investment level of 100 -- this can be done repeatedly in one Farm visit). The head farmer is always located inside the barn. Horses can also be obtained from the head farmer, which will provide horses to the nation leaders currently in that territory for 6 turns, which provides 1 extra movement on the World Map and allows Stampede to be used outside of Farms. Tara is also able to invest 1000 Food with a farmer to permanently boost the power of Stampede for her nation. In Mines, the player can seek out the head miner to invest in (every investment of 500 Mez boosts that Mine's mineral gains each month by 5% per level to a maximum investment level of 100 -- this can be done repeatedly in one Mine visit). In all territories, the player may also hunt down Spies from other nations that have infiltrated the player's territories. The player can encounter 2 types of Spies -- aggressive and passive. If the player has Allisara in their party, if the enemy spy actions for that territory are set to Weaken Territory or Assassinate Soldiers, or if the player's current territory level (Castles/Towns/Farms/Mines) is equal or higher to the enemy nation's Spies Level, the spy can be detected through a pulsing red arrow that points in the direction of the spy as the player gets close, and the spy is fully revealed to the player when they get close enough to the spy. As an example for non-Allisara party requirements to detect Spies, if the enemy's Spies level is 4 and the current territory is a Town, the player's Towns level will need to be 4 or higher to successfully detect a Spy that is not using Weaken Territory or Assassinate Soldiers. Passive spies are Spies that have been assigned to Gather Information, Weaken Territory, Assassinate Soldiers or Disrupt Wedding. If passive spies are able to be detected, they will not change up what they are currently doing and making contact with them will trigger a battle with all passive non-player Spies that were able to be detected -- killing them will remove those Spies from the game. If passive spies are not able to be detected (Allisara is not in the party, or spy actions are set to Gather Information or Disrupt Wedding while territory level is too low), then they will be impossible for the player to find and will not appear at all. Aggressive spies are Spies that have been assigned to Ambush Nation Leader. In every instance, they will act the same way -- make a beeline for the player and attempt to kill them. If the aggressive spy is detectable, the fight begins normally and behaves like the fights with passive spies (though the number of spies fought and removed are based on the number set to Ambush Nation Leader). If the aggressive spy is NOT detectable, the player will still get into a fight with the aggressive spies, but they will automatically and unavoidably lose 1 turn on the world map from the ambush. As such, if the player is in one of their low-level territories, they will need to be wary of possible ambushes (especially if a Spy-focused nation leader like Claire is present). There may be times where it is best to avoid entering territories if the player has no need for doing so. Aggressive spies appear less randomly depending on their territory. In Towns and Mines, they will appear randomly, similar to passive spies. However, in Castles, they will always be one of the castle staff walking down the hallway, and in Farms, they will always be inside the barn with the head farmer (they are the only NPC aside from the head farmer to be in the barn, so aggressive spies on Farms are very obvious). Castle Morale and Crime Rate Castle Morale is used for two things in particular -- the cost of hiring units and having a successful wedding (0% morale on wedding day makes the wedding a very easy failure for Spies attempting to disrupt the wedding). By default, Castle Morale will decrease by 11% per month (each level in Castles will reduce this decrease by 1%). The primary method of restoring it is by performing an activity on the Field in the Castle where the nation leader stays the night (sleeping, performing a religious ceremony, spending time with their child) -- these will restore Castle Morale by (50% + (5% x Castles Level)). When Castle Morale drops under 50%, the cost of hiring units will increase by (100% - Castle Morale%), which ends with double the hiring costs of units at 0% Castle Morale. Crime Rate is a Town-specific stat that by default rises 4% every month in every individual Town. When Crime Rate rises to 1% or higher, bandits will appear in that Town and approaching them will start a battle. The number of bandits present are 1 bandit for every 5% Crime Rate that the Town has (minimum of 1 at 1% to 9% Crime Rate), to a maximum of 16 Bandits (80% to 100% Crime Rate). When bandits are defeated in a Town, all Towns owned by that nation leader will decrease their Crime Rate by that Town's current Crime Rate. If the Town where bandits were fought had a 65% Crime Rate, the current Town will decrease Crime Rate to 0%, another Town with 45% Crime Rate will also reduce to 0% and another Town with 80% Crime Rate will drop to 15%. As such, it is often best to visit the Town with the highest Crime Rate in order to reduce all Crime to 0%. When Crime Rate goes over 50%, that Town will begin producing 2% less Mez for every percent of Crime Rate over 50%. Towns with 100% Crime Rate will produce 0 Mez for a nation. Food Shortages Food Shortages occur when a nation does not have enough Food output from their Farms to match the needs of their nation. On month end, if a nation's (Food reserves + Food gains from Farms - Food Decreases) is negative, that nation will suffer a food shortage for the rest of the month, even if they gain or trade for more Food during that food shortage month. By default, all territories require 20 Food each per month and Farms at base will provide 100 Food per Farm every month, so each nation will start with some gains on Food at the start of the game with 8 territories and 2 Farms. While a nation may suffer a food shortage through having too many territories and too few Farms, the most common cause of a Food shortage is due to an enemy nation taking over a Farm or Spies sabotaging a Farm's output through the "Weaken Territory" action. When a food shortage occurs, Castle Morale will decrease by 22% instead of 11% base that month, and Crime Rate in every Town will rise by 8% instead of 4% base that month. Food shortages will also nullify the Castle Morale decrease/Crime Rate increase preventions of Pound's Unifier passive and the Child Interaction buff from spending time with the leader's child. Food shortages can also cause problems for a nation's military -- nations suffering from a food shortage have 50% less invasion offense/defense in invasion formula calculations, and they have 30% less HP and Attack in actual battles. Nations suffering from food shortages also provide the player (and not other AI nations) with the ability to offer soldiers that are stationed in that food shortage nation's territories large amounts of Food to defect to the player's nation. For 500 Food per soldier (300 for Tara), the player can choose Soldier Defection to steal soldiers stationed in that food shortage nation's territories (not soldiers accompanying a nation leader) in the Alliances Submenu on the World Map when selecting a nation. Soldiers will be taken one at a time from the territories that have the highest soldier counts. Soldiers that defect to the player's side will be converted to the player's Soldier Type. While Soldier Defection is very useful for acquiring free Soldiers while not spending Mez, keep in mind that the 2:1 trade deal ratio for Mez:Food means that it is not as cost-effective to gain soldiers in this manner (500 Food per Soldier converts to 1000 Mez in terms of trade deal ratios, whereas Soldiers normally cost 200 Mez to hire at base). While Soldier Defection can reduce border guards of the food shortage nation, it cannot replace Spies using Assassinate Soldiers unless the player has very large amounts of Food to cause most or all Soldiers in the food shortage territories to defect (which will typically only be something that Tara or a nation built around Farms or economy can do). Food shortages and Soldier Defection should still be kept in mind as viable strategies, though, regardless of nation composition. Some well-placed Spies causing a food shortage can weaken an enemy's miitary so that they are easier to invade, are less likely to attack other nations, and can suffer soldier losses if the player causes soldiers to defect for Food. Though free soldiers are an obvious benefit for military-focused nations, espionage-focused nations will appreciate Soldier Defection so that they can gain more Soldiers while saving Mez for Spies, and economy-focused nations will also be able to benefit by having more Mez to invest in territories. Alliances The Alliances submenu on the World Map will allow the player to reach out diplomatically to other nations, and plays a major role in a successful Counterintelligence game. A nation's Alliance Level with another nation will affect what actions they can undertake with other nations, while the Alliance Formula is a calculation used to measure a nation's influence against all of the other nations. If the player has a Spy in a nation that is using the Gather Information action with no delay, the player is able to view more detailed information about the nation, which includes general stats such as Nation Powers, Alliance Levels with other nations, Soldier Type, Religion, Ruling Approach, resource counts, Fortification/Blacksmithing Levels, Castle Morale and child age, as well as more niche information, such as what leaders of the nation are well-rested or have a horse, how long ago was the nation's last religious ceremony performed, if the Child Interaction Buff is active or if an Obsidian Boost is active. The player has multiple potential Alliance Action options in the Alliances submenu: correspondence with another nation to either form an alliance or raise the alliance level between both nations, enact a trade deal to exchange resources, invite another nation to dinner, and propose marriage to another nation leader under the right conditions. With the exception of soldier defection and marriage proposals, each of these options consumes 1 of the player's available Alliance Actions. Alliance Actions will refresh every month, and each nation leader has 1 Alliance Action per month at base. If the nation does not have an alliance with the target nation, correspondence to form an alliance and soldier defection are the only options available. An alliance cannot be formed if the nation is at war with the player (which occurs when the player invades a nation that they have an alliance with) or if the nation is the only other nation left on the World Map. The Alliance Formula is as follows: (Number of territories owned x 3) + (Mez / 200) + (Food / 100) + ((Non-Corundum Minerals + (Corundum x 2)) / 20) + (Total Soldiers / 10) + (Negotiation Level x 3) - ((100 - Castle Morale) / 5) - (Highest Crime Rate / 5) In order for a nation to have a high Alliance Formula value, they must appear presentable to other nations -- more territories, more soldiers, a strong supply of resources (especially Corundum), low Crime Rate, high Castle Morale and skill in Negotiation all play a role in boosting Alliance Formula values. The Alliance Formula affects Alliance Level gains with other nations -- if a nation has the highest Alliance Formula Value, they gain an extra 3% on all Alliance Level gains. The nation with the 2nd highest Alliance Formula Value gains an extra 2% on Alliance Level gains, and the 3rd highest gains an extra 1%. This applies even if a nation with a low Alliance Formula Value triggers an Alliance Action with a higher Alliance Formula Value nation -- essentially, it is difficult for low Alliance Formula Value nations to quickly gain solid Alliance Level gains with other low Alliance Formula Value nations. Also note that these values do not stack and use only the highest extra gain -- the 2 highest Alliance Formula Value nations do not gain 5% extra Alliance Levels total, but 3% (the highest extra gain between the 2 nations). The Alliance Formula also applies a Confidence Boost. If a nation has the higher Alliance Formula Value of the two (not a tie), then that nation's soldiers gain 10% more Attack in combat and 10% more invasion offense/defense in the invasion formula. At Negotiation Level 10, the Confidence Boost raises from 10% to 25%. As a character-specific bonus, Caesara's World Passive and Marriage Passive allows her nation to gain more free soldiers when conquering a territory if her nation has a higher Alliance Formula Value than the defending nation. AI nations also use the Alliance Formula when proposing marriage, and makes the higher Alliance Formula Value nation the leader of the marriage. Once an alliance is formed, correspondence will result in boosting Alliance Level between both nations by 1% (3% if at Negotiation Level 5) and trade deals become available as a possible Alliance Action. Once Alliance Level reaches 50% and the player still owns a Castle, the player can invite the friendly nation to dinner. When Alliance Level reaches 90% and if the nation leader still owns a Castle, and the target nation is a potential marriage candidate (while both nations are not married), that nation leader can propose marriage. Trade Deals and Scarcity In general, performing a trade deal with another nation is straightforward. Once an alliance is formed, a nation can expend a monthly Alliance Action to trade resources with their ally nation at a rate of 10 Mez to 5 Food to 1 Mineral. The ally nation will trade any resource for any different resource if they have it, so the player should try and use trade deals to gain what they want. However, the player will need to be aware of the other nation's Ruling Approach when doing so. While the player can get whatever resources they want, trading with a Mercantile nation will give them 100% more resources for free (200% if Castles Level 10). While the extra resources cost nothing for either nation (the extra resources are gained out of nowhere), trading with a Mercantile nation too frequently can grant them a resource advantage over the player (though this can be a benefit if the player is engaged to the leader of the Mercantile nation, as the nations merge their resources on marriage). Using a Spy to Gather Information on a nation before conducting trade business to view their Ruling Approach is recommended. Another item of note regarding trade deals is scarcity -- if the AI nation that is being traded with considers the player's resource for trade to be scarce for them, they will willingly offer 50% more resources than normal (a value that still gains the free 100% or 200% resource bonus if the player themselves has a Mercantile Ruling Approach). Trading a resource that is considered scarce by the ally nation will also raise the Alliance Level between both nations by 3% base (5% at Negotiation Level 5). This value is much higher than Correspondence's Alliance Level gains, so it is ideal to frequently aim for scarcity trades over standard correspondence to build up Alliance Levels faster for Pound's Unifier passive or for pursuing marriage faster. Determining if a resource is scarce is different for each resource type: Mez -- if the nation's current Mez is under 1000, their Castle Morale is under 50% and their highest Crime Rate Town is over 50%, then Mez is considered scarce by that nation. The player will need to trade a minimum of 1000 Mez to the other nation to trigger scarcity. Food -- If a food shortage will occur that month (the total Food supply and Food gains against the Food requirements of each territory is 0 or less), then Food is considered scarce by that nation. The player will need to trade a minimum of 500 Food to the other nation to trigger scarcity. Minerals -- If Mineral gains of the specific Mineral type is 0 and the specific Mineral type amount for that nation is under 100, then that Mineral type is considered scarce by that nation. The exceptions are Limestone and Magnetite, which will not be considered scarce under these conditions if the ally nation does not have Mines Level 5 (for Landslide) and if their Fortification/Blacksmithing levels are already 10 for Limestone/Magnetite respectively -- in this case, the nation will have no use at all for Limestone/Magnetite and will not care if it is scarce. The player will need to trade a minimum of 100 of the specific Mineral type to the other nation to trigger scarcity. Since scarcity in trade deals is useful for both gaining more resources and boosting Alliance Levels between nations more quickly than normal, it is important to note that the player can use Spies to force scarcity in resources of other nations without breaking alliances to go to war (where going to war with a nation defeats the point of building alliances with them). To make Mez scarce, both Castles and Towns will need to be targetted by Spies at the same time, so that the Castle Morale and Crime Rate conditions can be fulfilled. However, with each Spy at base contributing only 2% Castle Morale decreases and 2% Crime Rate increases, the player will need a lot of Spies to make Mez scarce. Unless the target nation's Ruling Approach is Tyrant and/or the target nation is suffering from a food shortage (both of which decrease Castle Morale and increase Crime Rate further), it may be best to avoid aiming to make Mez scarce deliberately outside of niche strategies with Alberto (who is capable of building up more Mez than any other nation leader). To make Food scarce, targetting Farms is the way to go. Having Spies use their Weaken Territory action on Farms to decrease Food gains (especially in all of a nation's Farms at one time) will make Food scarce easily -- be careful not to trade too much away and risk a food shortage of your own (though if no enemy Spies are present in the player's Farms and the player has enough Farms for their territory total, this should not be an issue). To make a specific Mineral type scarce, the player should focus on finding the nation that has Mine Types that matches theirs, and either invade militarily and capture all of their Mines or have Spies use Weaken Territory on those mines. Since each Counterintelligence game starts with all Mine Types divided up so that 2 of each Mine Type belongs to a specific nation, targetting the nation with the player's matching Mine Type and succeeding in taking away or neutering their Mines will help ensure that the player has a monopoly on that Mineral type -- if the player is the only reliable source of a specific Mineral, this can help to ensure more frequent scarcity trade deals, as other nations will have a harder time acquiring that mineral from other sources. Having dinner with other nations When two nations reach an Alliance Level of 50% with one another and the player owns at least 1 Castle, the player can invite the other nation to their Castle for dinner at the cost of 1 Alliance Action and the turns of the player's leader and spouse (if married). If the player's leader and/or their spouse have already expended their turn(s) for the month, dinner cannot be triggered. Only the player can trigger dinner -- AI nations will not invite one another to dinner. Once the player invites a nation to dinner, they will be presented with 2 options: Have a nice dinner -- This will raise the Alliance Level between nations by 5% base (8% if either the player or the dinner nation has Negotiation Level 5), and the dinner event comes to an end. Though it costs the player turns, this is the fastest way to raise Alliance Level between nations, even moreso than trade deal scarcity, and as such, it can be useful for beating another nation in a race to marry the dinner nation's leader. Poison the wine -- Poisoning the wine at dinner is a very powerful option with very strict requirements. It can only be done once per playthrough, if 2 other nations are still in play aside from the player nation and the dinner nation, and if the player has at least 50% Alliance Level with all nations currently in play (this requirement is dropped to 25% Alliance Level requirements at Negotiation Level 10). When selecting this option, the dinner nation leader and their spouse are instantly killed. As it is with all nation leader deaths, the killer will claim all of their territories and gain 1 Nation Point per territory added. This "dinner nuke" can instantly turn a Counterintelligence game in the player's favour heavily if used effectively, when timed to use with only 3 nations remaining and targetting the biggest or most troublesome nation (such as Allisara, who cannot be killed in assassination attempts through Ambush Nation Leader) with the wine poisoning. However, this powerful option will likely be too difficult for nations that do not have a focus on alliances to access. Nations focused more on military, economy or espionage will likely have other priorities aside from Negotiation Level 10, so only characters who will likely invest Nation Points in Negotiation, such as Pound, Caesara or Allisara, will be able to make use of it. Marriage Marriage is the primary goal of nearly all nation leaders for the mid-game (except for Pound), as a nation's gains on a successful marriage are enough to heavily shift the current state of the Counterintelligence game in their favour. To marry another nation leader, a nation will need to reach 90% Alliance Level with the nation leader they wish to marry and the marriage leader will need to have a Castle to get married in -- the marriage leader will always be the player if they are getting married, and the marriage leader for AI nations marrying AI nations will be the nation that has the highest Alliance Formula value at the time of proposal. The conditions for marriage are as follows:
If the above conditions are met and the proposal is accepted, the wedding will be held at one of the marriage leader's Castles in 5 months (which gives other nations time to place their Spies to potentially destroy the wedding). During this time, the other nations must try and sabotage the wedding -- either by trying to kill the nation leaders on the world map, taking over the Wedding Castle territory, or putting Spies in the Wedding Castle territory and setting their Spy Action to Disrupt Wedding (where the spies will attempt to assassinate both the bride and groom together on their wedding day). In the case of the Spies' Disrupt Wedding approach, the success of the wedding day assassination will use the following formula: If "(Number of All Other Nation Spies Set to Disrupt Wedding) > (((20 + Scouts Level) x Number of Total Scouts in Wedding Territory) + (5 x Number of Total Soldiers in Wedding Territory) x Castle Morale of Wedding Territory)", then the assassination is successful and the bride and groom are killed. In the player's case of their wedding getting successfully sabotaged by other nations, the bride and groom will lose 3 months of turns each and be forced to fight all of the assassins at their wedding rather than get killed. When the battle ends, the marriage will conclude as it normally would. AI nations whose weddings were successfully sabotaged are killed and removed from the game. From the formula above, it is important that the nation having the wedding moves or hires Soldiers and Scouts to defend the Wedding Castle, while all of the other nations plant Spies with the Disrupt Wedding action into that territory. However, the formula also shows that large numbers of Spies are needed to override the Soldiers and Scouts, who are weighted more heavily. The AI soon-to-be marriage leader will also prioritize returning to their Castle to maintain Castle Morale and kill whatever Spies they can find at the Castle, so simply throwing Spies into the Castle to lower Castle Morale by using Weaken Territory in large numbers before swapping to Disrupt Wedding is typically not enough. The player will need to make sure that their Spies Level is higher than the wedding nation's Castles Level, or else the wedding leader will detect the Spies hiding in their Castle using Disrupt Wedding and kill them early. To overcome this, the focus to destroy a wedding in this manner will need to be on both Spies AND Castle Morale. If Castle Morale is at 0%, then even one lone Spy can successfully assassinate the bride and groom. This is easier said than done, though, and doing so will require a lot of planning and work BEFORE the wedding even takes place. It would be best to place a Spy set to the Gather Information action in the potential wedding leader's nation BEFORE they get engaged, so that the player can better judge how much time they have to stop the wedding. If the player can determine that a nation leader will be getting married soon (their Alliance Levels with a marriage candidate are nearing 90% before any other nation can do the same) and will be the wedding leader (Alliance Formula Value is higher than the would-be spouse), an espionage-focused nation can start putting plans in motion to sabotage the wedding. In order to pull off a successful wedding assassination, a nation could hire a LOT of Spies to beat out the powerful wedding security consisting of Soldiers and Scouts -- this is typically only possible through Alberto (lots of Mez), Pound (strong early game economy) or Claire (more powerful Spies and her focus on Spies can lower their cost). Security could be reduced by having a lot of Spies in the Castle and Towns months beforehand, lowering Castle Morale for higher priced Soldiers/Scouts and raising Crime Rate to stop the nation from gaining Mez to hire Soldiers/Scouts. This "brute force" method will also need a lot of Spies in many places at once, so it is rather unwieldly, but the low Soldiers/Scouts counts for wedding security could end up requiring the player to hire less Spies for the wedding assassination. If the would-be wedding leader travels too far from their Castle before the wedding, the player can push to capture territories to form a "territory barrier", blocking the nation leader from returning to the Castle to maintain it (make sure to have Soldiers to guard those captured territories afterwards, or the nation leader could easily break through to return to their castle). From there, the player can use Spies in the Castle with Weaken Territory to drop Castle Morale faster before swapping actions to Disrupt Wedding for the kill after they get engaged. Do not take the Castle in this instance -- taking the Castle will just halt the wedding, while not allowing the player the double kill of bride and groom for multiple territories and Nation Points. This only works if the player has territories nearby to access the area near the wedding leader's Castle, though, and it will not work at all if the two nations getting married are neighbours (adjacent "pizza slices"). If the player does not have territories nearby, they can try and place Spies to Assassinate Soldiers in the wedding nation's territories, so that other nations can block the way back to the Castle in the player's stead. This may not work if the nations that take the "barrier" territories cannot afford the Soldiers to defend the territories that they took. This has a higher chance of working if the nation leader is strong economically (Alberto, Pound) or has access to cheaper/extra Soldiers (Cherry, Caesara). It could also fail if the nation leaders who can take the empty territories are too far away to capture them or are prioritizing other tasks. If taking territories to block the would-be wedding leader's return is too imprecise or has too many moving parts, food shortages started months before the wedding and maintained until the wedding can help. As food shortages lower Castle Morale and raise Crime Rate, this can keep wedding security in the form of Soldiers/Scouts in low numbers. If Castle Morale can hit 0% before the nation leader gets engaged, the wedding leader may have a hard time restoring Castle Morale quickly enough against the additional Castle Morale drops from the food shortage, which can lead to needing less Spies for the wedding kill. This is especially effective against nations with Tyrant as a Ruling Approach, as they have even higher Castle Morale drops. The issue with this approach is that there is nothing here to physically stop the wedding leader from returning to the Castle often to maintain Castle Morale throughout or from killing the Spies sabotaging Farms (which could get expensive). The above strategies have a lot of conditionals to trigger successful weddding assassinations, but the one thing to take away is this -- there is no one-size-fits-all approach to sabotaging a wedding. Being able to successfully do so will require recognizing opportunities and capitalizing on them, as well as making a judgement call as to when a certain strategic approach can be applied and when it cannot. If an assassination on the wedding day is successful, then the nation who supplied the most Spies will get credit for the kill and gain the territories and nation points that come with killing nation leaders. Claire's passives give her Spies more weight for deciding a winner, and in the case of a tie for the most Spies, the tiebreaker goes to the player. As it is with Ambush Nation Leader, successful assassinations will still permanently remove the Spies involved in the assassination, regardless of who the "winner" is, so take care not to use an overkill amount of Spies when attempting to disrupt the wedding (though some extra Spies are still useful for any last second Soldiers/Scouts hires that the wedding nation may do). Since the usage of Spies factors so heavily into this (for both the kill at the wedding and for lowering Castle Morale early), killing nation leaders at their wedding is a major part of playing an espionage-focused nation, and should be given strong focus and preparation by that type of playstyle even in the early game. If the player gets credit for the wedding kill, a small cutscene will show the bride and groom getting assassinated successfully by the player's Spies. If the marriage is a success, the spouse will adjust to their new nation -- the spouse will inherit the marriage leader's soldier type, religion, ruling approach, nation point distribution and alliances (the spouse's Nation Powers and Alliances do not carry over in any way). The two nations will also combine their territories and resources (Mez, Food and Minerals), and unlike killing a nation leader, the soldiers, scouts and spies that the spouse has in play will remain in their territories, so there is no need to rush to defend the giant batch of new territories that the spouse brings. As it is with killing a nation leader, the marriage leader will gain 1 Nation Point for every new territory that the spouse adds to the leader's territories. Both leaders will also gain access to their Marriage Passives, which will add new abilities and approaches. Both leaders' World Passives are available to the nation now, but Field Passives will still be separate per leader (with the exception of Allisara, whose Marriage Passive's purpose is to share and boost her husband's Field Passive). If an AI nation's spouse is killed after getting married, the remaining AI nation leader still has access to their spouse's applicable passives. Once married, a marriage leader and their spouse can invade together by using Attach Spouse on the World Map while they are in the same territory (the spouse's turn is used up when attaching), and similarly Detach Spouse can be used when it is time to work separately. Having two leaders for invasion is another big advantage to marriage -- territory can be conquered at a faster rate. Another niche (but valuable) use for Attach Spouse is if the spouse has lost a lot of turns from a long battle and has to wait in their current territory for several months. The marriage leader can walk to the spouse's territory and attach their spouse so that the spouse does not have to spend those months in one location. As the marriage leader is the only controllable one when using Attach Spouse, this does not work the other way around (the spouse cannot use Attach Spouse to move the marriage leader away from their current location). If both the leader and spouse are in the same territory, they will enter the territory together (and share any turns that get lost from overtime or undetected spies attempting assassination). If they are together in a Castle territory, the "Sleep with companion" option will be replaced with "Sleep with spouse" (which is functionally similar to "Sleep with companion", unless one of the leaders is Tara or Caesara, who will apply their Marriage Passives here). Being together in a Castle will also add the "Have baby" option if the leader and spouse do not already have a child, leading to the next big step in Counterintelligence from midgame to lategame. Children On choosing the "Have baby" option at the Castle, the female character in the marriage will be removed from play for 9 months (her World and Marriage passives will still function during this time) and when she returns, the baby will be born in the Castle that the leader and spouse had their baby in (or an alternate spare Castle, if the player has more than one Castle and the original was taken during the pregnancy). The wife will also appear at the Castle where the "Have baby" option was triggered or with her husband if that specific Castle was taken. If an AI nation is having a baby and the wife is removed from play due to pregnancy, killing the husband will count as the nation itself being dead -- military-focused nations can take advantage of an AI nation whose leaders are currently in a pregnancy scenario by targetting the husband to kill off the nation without having to deal with the wife. If there is no Castle at all for the child, either on birth or after they are born, the child will be considered "displaced" and its general and interaction bonuses will not apply until a new Castle is obtained for the child to live in. The child cannot be manually moved from Castle to Castle, so make sure to protect whichever Castle is their current home to keep their powerful bonuses going. If the child has a Castle to call home, a nation will gain access to the child's general bonus and interaction bonus. The general bonus gains power for every year of the child's age. That nation's leaders and soldiers gain 50% more damage in battle and 50% more invasion offense/defense in the invasion formula per year of age of the child, as well as 50% more resources produced from Towns, Farms and Mines each month per year of age of the child. If the player activates the door to the child's room in the Castle where the child lives (the new accessible room located next to the player's room), they can gain the interaction bonus when selecting "Spend time with child". Spending time with the child will boost the damage of the nation leaders by (50% + 10% per year of age) and prevent monthly Castle Morale drops and Crime Rate gains even if the leaders are Tyrants for (3 + Child Age in Years) turns (does not apply if a food shortage is active for the month). Overall, a child will power up a nation's military and economy very effectively, and the earlier that a nation can get married and have a child, the more of a military and economic advantage they will have over the others. If two AI nations get married, they will immediately try and meet up after the wedding at one of their Castles to have a baby. If the player knows that they will not be able to stop the marriage in any way, they can spend time during the 5 month wedding countdown trying to prevent them from having a baby afterwards. If the player can capture the territories and create a chokepoint between the 2 AI nations getting married, they will have a hard time trying to meet up to have a baby (and if planned around effectively, they may not be able to have a baby at all). Unit Types There are 3 types of units available to each nation -- Soldiers, Scouts and Spies. Soldiers are used to accompany a nation leader to invade territories of other nations, defend leaders in battle against Spies and Bandits in their own territories and to defend their nation's territories from invaders. Each nation will use one of eight different Soldier Types, which will greatly affect how a Counterintelligence game is played. Scouts are used to see distant territories to view the state of the territories and the presence of other nation leaders, as well as potentially nullify defense bonuses for Soldiers defending their territories, allowing for smoother invasions. Spies are a complex and versatile unit type, used for gathering information and for various forms of sabotage. Focusing a nation's customization on Spies can allow for outside-the-box strategies that cannot be replicated by any other unit type or customization. At base, Soldiers cost 200 Mez each and Scouts and Spies cost 500 Mez each. Each level in Scouts and Spies will lower the costs of those units by 5% per respective Nation Power level. If Castle Morale drops under 50%, the cost of Soldiers, Scouts and Spies will rise by (100% - Castle Morale%), causing their costs to double when Castle Morale is 0%. When the player is in battle with enemy Soldiers or Spies, the maximum enemy total in battle is 50. However, if a nation has more than 50 enemy Soldiers/Spies in that one battle, the Soldiers and Spies have their damage boosted by (1 + (((Enemy Total - 50) x 2) / 100)). For example, if the player is fighting a nation with 130 Soldiers, they will still only fight 50, but those 50 Soldiers will have 2.6x more damage output. Soldiers Soldiers are a necessary part of offense and defense in Counterintelligence, and they can be assigned to a nation leader, their spouse, or individual territories. Each nation is assigned one of eight different Soldier Types (the player is allowed to pick theirs on New Game), which can greatly affect the playstyle of each nation. Soldiers are a requirement for most leaders to successfully invade territory, especially in the late game. Going it alone will likely result in very long battles, which can lead to heavy losses in turns. Soldiers that fall in battle (through offense or defense, through direct battle or AI) are permanently killed, so it is best to ensure that the number of soldiers accompanying a nation leader to invade territory is suitable for the target territory. When conquering territory through either directly taking the territory or killing an opposing nation leader, soldiers must be left behind to defend a territory, or else other nations may try to take over the empty territory (even allied nations will take advantage of this to gain free Nation Points). Nation leaders and Soldiers gain access to a number of modifiers that can enhance offense and defense in both direct combat and the invasion formula (used when the player's nation leader(s) are not involved in combat). In both cases, these are handled through passives, nation powers, soldier type, religion, ruling approach, temporary bonuses (such as well-rested or child interaction) and more, and every boost that a nation gains will stack with each other multiplicatively (unless stated otherwise). The more of these boosts that a nation can obtain, the more powerful their military can get. In many cases, a higher quality of military through powerful passives/buffs can overrun a higher quantity of weak soldiers. Scouts Scouts play a few assorted but important roles -- recon, easier invasion of other nations' territories, better assassination protection at their nation leader's wedding, and small resource gains (from Scouts Level 10). By default, visibility is 1 adjacent territory away for nation leaders in play and whatever territories a nation owns. Scouts have a base sight range of 2 (which can be boosted to 3 at Scouts Level 5, and Brooks' Scouts gain 1 extra sight range). Having Scouts deployed can allow a nation to more easily track both the movements and actions of other nation leaders, as well as see what is occurring in far-off territories (such as the territories' soldier counts, investment levels, Crime Rate, etc.). Another notable advantage that Scouts bring is that they can nullify a nation's Soldier Defense Bonus if the invader's Scouts Level is higher than the enemy's Soldiers Level and the Scout can see the territory that their nation is invading. Normally, Soldiers gain 2x HP when defending their territory against an invading nation (a value that can go up to 3x at Soldiers Level 5 and 4x at Soldiers Level 10). Higher level Scouts, however, can remove this bonus altogether and make a territory much easier to conquer. A military-focused nation with Level 10 Soldiers cannot have this bonus nullified (as Level 10 Scouts cannot be higher than Level 10 Soldiers), but it is a strong advantage to have against military-focused nations in the early game and against nations less focused on military throughout the entire game. Scouts also weigh more heavily in the defense of a wedding if they are placed in the wedding territory. So long as Castle Morale is kept high, Scouts can do most of the heavy lifting in making sure a wedding is free of assassins. At Scouts Level 10, Scouts witnessing other nations fighting and conquering territory will provide their nation with small amounts of resources (Mez, Food and all 4 Mineral types) per Scout. Nations that focus on Scouts early on (especially with Brooks as a nation leader) and place them effectively can get some decent economic gains for little work. A couple things to keep in mind -- Scouts will be killed if they are in a territory that is conquered by an enemy nation, and recalling Scouts from a territory requires 1 month before they can be deployed again to a new territory. Spies Spies are an invaluable part of Counterintelligence, and are a unit that can reward outside-the-box thinking and creativity by creating openings and problems for other nations that could not be accomplished otherwise -- in many cases, their feats can go so far as to shift a losing game into a winning game for a nation. Basics of Spies Spies can be placed in any territory instantly, regardless of location or ownership. They will also require 3 months of time to be recalled if the player wishes to withdraw them from the territory, either to protect them from a nation leader who can hunt them down or to put them to use elsewhere, so think very carefully as to where and how they are deployed. This recall time is reduced to 2 months at Spies Level 5 or higher, and reduced to 1 month at Spies Level 10. Spies placed in a territory will allow that single territory to be visible to the player in the same way that territories adjacent to a nation leader or a nation's territories would (able to view number of soldiers stationed in that territory, the investment level, and so on). Spies can be detected by nation leaders in territories (visible to the player in their own territories by red Xs), making them able to be hunted down. To the player, aggressive and passive Spies will be detectable when entering the territory. To the AI, they will kill the Spies on making contact with the territory. Spies can be detected on the World Map and in the territory itself if any of the following conditions are met:
If the player wishes to have their Spies remain undetected to the enemy nation, they will need to place Spies in territories that the target nation has not levelled sufficiently with Nation Points, and the player's Spies will need to use Gather Information, Ambush Nation Leader or Disrupt Wedding for their Spy Action. The exception to this putting Spies in Allisara's territories -- she will alway detect them. In order to determine what territory levels the target nation has, and therefore what territories are safe for Spies to target, a Spy will need to be placed to Gather Information. On Legend Plus, where the nation leaders focus Nation Points on their personal strengths, the player may not need to rely on Spies for Gather Information if they are familiar enough with each opposing nation leader. For example, on Legend Plus, Tara prioritizes Farms and Castles, so Spies should be placed in her Towns and Mines to keep them out of sight. Alberto's Town focus will make it so his Castles, Farms and Mines are better targets. Someone like Brooks who has more of a focus on Scouts and Soldiers will have all of his territories typically safe for placement. Even against Level 0 territories of other nations, the player will need Spies Level 1 if they wish for their Gather Information/Ambush Nation Leader/Disrupt Wedding Spies to remain undetected. It may not be worth it just for Gather Information, though, as the 1 Nation Point is often more valuable than the cost of a new Spy (if detected and killed by the nation leader) or the 3 months of recall time needed to get the Spy to safety. Spies fully escaping detection with these actions is more of a bonus for espionage-focused nations rather than a goal for all nations. Spy Actions Spies are capable of 4 actions by default: Gather Information, Weaken Territory, Assassinate Soldiers, and Ambush Nation Leader. A fifth action, Disrupt Wedding, is available only on a Castle territory where other nations will be holding their wedding. All Spies within the same territory can only carry out one action type at a time. Gather Information Placing a Spy in any territory belonging to a nation and setting the Spy Action to Gather Information will provide the player with more in-depth information on that nation on the World Map Menu's Alliances submenu (after the 1 month delay period expires). The details that can be provided from Gather Information include:
The information above can be useful to determine what actions the player should take. If the target nation's territory levels for a particular territory type is equal or higher to the player's Spies levels, the player can know what territories their Spies can be detected in. Similarly, seeing that a nation leader has the well-rested bonus and/or horses can help the player determine if that nation leader's movement is high enough to reach a certain territory for the current month. Seeing Fortification, Blacksmithing and active Obsidian Boost will also help the player determine if they should hold off on invading enemy territories for that month or (in the case of Obsidian Boost) if they should defend their own borders even moreso. Seeing when the last religious ceremony was is useful for determining if an enemy nation's Galatelt Warrior Priests have lost their edge, if a Theite nation's borders have lost their defense buffs, or if a Centumvirate nation has their negative effects back (as well as which territory the player should target of that Centumvirate nation to weaken them economically, as the Spies' information will also include that nation's current Centumvirate Demand). Seeing a nation's Food supplies can help determine the ease and required time of causing a food shortage, and seeing a nation's resources in general can help see what scarcity deals can be made (especially useful for Mercantile nations). Even if the player's nation will not have a strong focus on espionage, it is important to try and aim for at least 1 Spy in each nation to Gather Information, if only to have a better understanding of what the opposing nations are capable of. One last thing to note regarding Gather Information -- placing Spies in an empty territory or switching from another Spy Action to Gather Information will require the Spies in that territory to wait 1 month before being able to give information back to the player, so the player cannot place a Spy and reload their save or swap to Gather Information every turn and back to another Spy Action to gain information for free. By default, Spies placed in a territory that has no Spies of that nation will have their default action set to Gather Information with 1 month delay. Weaken Territory Spies using this Spy Action will begin conducting sabotage, with results dependent on the territory type that they are in. If the Spies are in a Castle, they will begin decreasing Castle Morale at a rate of 2% per Spy every month. If the Spies are in a Town, they will begin increasing Crime Rate in that individual Town at a rate of 2% per Spy every month. If the Spies are on a Farm, that individual Farm's Food output will decrease by 100 Food per Spy every month. If the amount of Food being destroyed in that individual Farm is greater than its gains, any "leftover" Food gain decreases will start destroying that nation's Food reserves (for example, if 2 Spies each destroy 100 Food on a Farm that gains 143 Food a month, then on month end, that Farm will produce 0 Food and the target nation's Food supplies will reduce by 57). If the Spies are in a Mine, that individual Mine's mineral output will decrease by 20 per Spy every month. Like with Farms, any "overkill" Mineral gain prevention will start destroying reserves for that specific mineral subtype in the same way. If Claire is the nation leader, her World Passive doubles the effectiveness of the sabotage above (Claire married to Jimmy will triples the effectiveness instead). To properly reduce resource gains and destroy supplies, the player will need to put Spies in each of the target nation's Farms to try and bring about a food shortage. Similarly, if the player is aiming to zero out a nation's mineral gains and supplies (often to force scarcity in Trade Deals), they will need the appropriate number of Spies in each of the target nation's Mines. Using Weaken Territory will alert the player to the Spies in that territory regardless of territory level on the next month using a red X on the world map, and are always detectable to the player and AI nations regardless of territory level. Assassinate Soldiers Spies using this Spy Action will start killing soldiers in the territory at a rate of 1 Soldier per Spy every month (the assassinations occur as the nation who has the Spies using Assassinate Soldiers begins their next month). If Claire is the nation leader, her World Passive doubles the number of soldiers killed (Claire married to Jimmy will triples the number of soldiers killed instead). This Spy Action can be used not only to have Spies kill every single soldier to allow a nation leader to just waltz in and take the empty territory with no fighting, but Spies can Assassinate Soldiers along the borders between other nations, which can tempt other nations into invading that territory and can be a good way to weaken a big nation with a lot of territories without breaking up the player's own alliance with the target nation. Keep in mind, though, that this will mean another nation will be gaining Nation Points instead of the player for conquering territory, but there's few negatives to this strategy if the conqueror is to be the nation leader that the player's nation leader will marry (they will get whatever territories their spouse has and will gain 1 Nation Point per territory acquired in the marriage). Using Assassinate Soldiers will alert the player to the Spies in that territory regardless of territory level on the next month using a red X on the world map, and are always detectable to the player and AI nations regardless of territory level. Ambush Nation Leader Spies using this Spy Action will lie in wait for an opposing nation leader to come into the territory before attempting to assassinate the nation leader. This action can only trigger if the nation leader entering the territory already owns the territory and is not invading it. For the player, these Spies come in the form of aggressive Spies when entering a territory. Encountering them while they are unable to be detected by the player will result in an additional month/turn lost for the player's nation leader and/or spouse (whoever is present) on top of having to fight the Spies in battle. For AI nations, a successful assassination will completely kill the AI nation leader, with the nation that has the most Spies in that territory using Ambush Nation Leader getting the credit for the kill (which includes the territories and Nation Points). Each one of Claire's Spies count as 2 due to her passives (and being married to Jimmy will make them count for 3) when determining credit for the kill and for the assassination formula. Even then, the assassination will fail if the nation leader is able to detect the would-be assassins due to having a higher territory level than the assassins' Spies Levels. The formula for determining if an AI nation leader will be assassinated from this action is as follows: (Number of Undetected Spies) > (10 + (Number of Total Soldiers with Leader/Territory x 8)) Undertaking this will require a lot of Spies in a single territory set to Ambush Nation Leader. Even if the assassination is a success, all nations attempting to assassinate the nation leader will lose all Spies in the attempt, regardless of the assassination's "winner". There are automatic fail conditions for Ambush Nation Leader, as well -- if a nation's Spies Level is not higher than the target's territory Level in Nation Powers (Castles/Towns/Farms/Mines), the Spy nation's Spies will not count towards the total for "Number of Undetected Spies" in the above formula. This also means that a nation with Spies Level 0 will never have their Spies count towards this formula. Ambush Nation Leader will also fail against Allisara 100% of the time, even if the formula would count as a kill. This method of assassination will likely require a nation that has strengths in espionage (Claire as nation leader and/or Spies Level 10) and/or Mez gains (Alberto as nation leader and/or Towns Level 10) to offset the high costs of so many Spies. Other nations may wish to avoid using this Spy Action if they have a poor economy or low chances of pulling it off. Disrupt Wedding This Spy Action can only be performed on a Castle territory that is going to be used for the wedding of another nation. The formula, notes for preparation, and strategies for Disrupt Wedding have already been covered in the section on Marriage earlier. Like Ambush Nation Leader, Spies that participate in Disrupt Wedding will be removed from play after the wedding ends, regardless of success, failure or who the "winner" was. Stampede and Landslide Stampede and Landslide are learnable active abilities that can be acquired by any nation leader after investing enough Nation Points to hit Level 5 for Farms and Mines respectively. At Farms Level 5, a nation will have access to Stampede, which will call 4 horses onto the battlefield to charge forward with a dash attack until they hit a wall or boundary (similar to the Warbeast Aonbharret's Nightmare ability) where they will disappear on collision (similar to Barklord's Bark Raid). Stampede is on a 10 second cooldown, and Stampede itself can only be used when on a Farm or if the nation leader has a horse with them from a Farm. At Mines Level 5, a nation will have access to Landslide, which will summon 4 boulders onto the battlefield (no cooldown, but can only be used once per battle). These boulders can be hit and moved by anybody, and the boulders will deal damage to the opposing nation if they are hit by the boulder while it is rolling (the boulders will not harm the nation leader or soldiers who own them). Landslide can only be used when at a Mine or if a mineral was set to be used for Landslide on the World Map Menu using any Mineral except for Obsidian (the latter method will use up 200 of the chosen Mineral type, so caution for Landslide overuse should be considered if the player's nation does not have high Mineral gains). Stampede and Landslide can only be used in battles against other nation leaders and soldiers -- they cannot be used in battles against spies or bandits. Both Stampede and Landslide are powerful abilities that can make up for low quality soldiers, especially if Jimmy is the one who triggers Stampede or Landslide, the nation's Soldier Type is Sky Corps or if Farms/Mines are Level 10 respectively -- each of these will boost the damage of Stampede and Landslide. Tara also has the ability to visit a Farm and invest in horses, which will permanently power up Stampede for Tara and her spouse. How the enemy AI approaches Counterintelligence AI nation leaders are typically quite cautious in their approaches to invading other territories. They will not attempt to invade a territory if they will lose 40% of their soldiers in the invasion formula (which will be referred to for the rest of this guide as casualty limits), meaning that unless they have a lot of buffs and high quality soldiers, they will avoid military action. The lower the casualty limits a nation sets on itself, the less likely a nation will invade. If the AI nation goes to war with the player (due to the player invading territory to break an alliance), then that AI nation will prioritize going after the player over other nations and will allow 10% higher casualty limits when considering invading the player's territories. AI nations will only go to war with the player for 6 months only if they had an alliance to begin with, and they do not go to war with other AI nations that invade their territories (even if they had an alliance). The player is unable to reform an alliance until the 6 months of war has ended, so take care when choosing to break an alliance for territory. Having an alliance with a nation, as well as a high Alliance Level, will lower the chances of a nation invading their ally's territory (will drop the casualty limits to 37% for any Alliance, and will drop the casualty limits an extra 1% for every 10% Alliance Level the two nations have with each other), but it will not halt it altogether. Empty territories will be tempting to a nation regardless of alliance, as nations will heavily prioritize a lack of soldiers guarding a territory over most other conditions. If an AI nation has no Castle, they will prioritize getting back their starting Castle over other territories, since they need it for marriage, children, soldier costs, religious ceremonies and more. Under certain conditions, an AI nation may become desperate and will risk 100% of their soldiers to capture a territory (but will stop short if the invasion formula would mean the leader's death). An AI nation will become desperate under 1 of 2 conditions: if their total territory count is 4 or less, or if there are 12 or less months remaining in the Counterintelligence game and they are not currently in a position to be the winner. Desperation can be used to the player's advantage -- if a nation leader is willing to risk high numbers of soldiers to invade a territory, they may lose so many soldiers that they are open to an easier invasion kill from the player or an open to needing fewer Spies with Ambush Nation Leader for an espionage kill. On Legend Plus, some unique circumstances, such as a territory with resource scarcity they need or Centumvirate demands they can fulfill, will cause AI nations to prioritize that territory more and raise their acceptable casualty rate above 40% -- to the AI nation, the risk and loss is worth the prize. Some characters and soldier types on Legend Plus will cause the AI nations to be more aggressive and accept soldier loss more readily in general. Legend Plus Difficulty in particular will add many modifiers to an AI nation's approach to invasion, casualty limits and territory priorities. Nations will also prioritize certain Nation Powers when distributing Nation Points on Legend Plus, as well. Outside of Legend Plus, the Nation Point distributions will be random. AI priorities on Legend Plus
Difficulty Differences On Legend Difficulty, all AI nations start with alliances at 10% Alliance Level with one another, and in combat against the player, all enemies have 50% higher stats. On Legend Plus, all AI nations start with alliances at 20% Alliance Level with one another, and in combat against the player, all enemies have 100% higher stats. AI nations will also have their approach to Counterintelligence changed as described in the "AI priorities on Legend Plus" section above. Legend Plus provides 2 additional bonuses to AI nations -- they start with 8 Nation Points instead of 5, and their Spies cost half as much Mez to hire regardless of Spies Level. General gameplay flow Throughout this guide, there have been references to "early game", "mid game" and "late game" to describe the general approach that most nations will undertake in a Counterintelligence game. The general gameplay flow plan names its phases as "early game", "mid game" and "late game" for reference's sake. Though it is not an overly accurate way to describe the overall flow of the overall game (Pound can never get married, so is technically always "early game" from the above definitions, and Allisara is so fast at advancing the phases that she can hit "late game" while everyone else is still "early game"), the terminology is meant to be used to describe the progress of each nation, rather than the state of progress of the overall game. What each phase consists of is as follows: Early game Nations will try and capture territories from weaker nations for more Nation Points and resource gains early on, while also prioritizing building up Alliance Levels with their chosen marriage candidate to 90% so that marriage can be proposed (except for Pound, who cannot marry). When the player is pursuing marriage with other nation leaders, they will need to have Spies use Gather Information and view Alliance Levels to make sure that they are not going to be beaten to marriage by another nation leader. It is easiest to have the Spy gather information in the marriage candidate's nation to see who they have the highest alliance levels with. From there, if the player is falling behind in Alliance Levels with their desired marriage candidate compared to other nations, then they will need to either:
If and when the player hits 90% Alliance Level with a marriage candidate, they can propose marriage without needing an Alliance Action to do so -- since there are no other requirements, the player should propose marriage the moment the Alliance Level hits 90%. Aside from aiming for marriage, the player should try and have a good balance of military, economy and espionage in their gameplay, regardless of their chosen nation leader and nation composition. Committing entirely to one area may provide its own set of strengths, but it leaves the player open to a lot more weaknesses, especially with 7 other nations often chaotically doing their own thing. Mid game Once marriage is proposed and the mid game begins, the player will be required to provide security at their wedding Castle using Soldiers and Scouts to protect from their wedding being sabotaged and losing 3 months worth of turns. Maintaining Castle Morale is important for achieving this, as well, so the player will likely need to return to the Castle for multiple months in a row (unless the player has high Castles Level to maintain Castle Morale). After marriage, the player should prioritize having their leader and spouse meet up at a Castle to have a baby. It would be best to make whatever preparations are needed before the wife becomes inaccessible, such as the "Sleep with spouse" option using Tara or Caesara to trigger their powerful bonuses for when the husband is alone. An exception to having a baby immediately would be if Cherry is one of the nation leaders that the player has -- her Marriage Passive (triggers when married with no children) provides such a powerful boost to military invasion and border defense that it could be valuable to hold off on having a baby for a short while (or maybe even for the remainder of the game, if the player has managed to put themselves in a strong enough position). When it comes to the AI nations, the player may wish to focus on using Spies for Disrupt Wedding. The player should only aim for this if they have good espionage focus, as a low Spies Level may end up with their Spies being detected and killed before the wedding. If the player is unable to kill nation leaders at their wedding due to being unable to separate a leader from their Castle before the wedding or due to weak espionage focus, the player can prioritize blocking nations from meeting up after the wedding to have children. This will not work if the nation leaders getting married are neighbours that share borders, but if they are not, taking over their territories in the center of the map can create a chokepoint that prevents them from meeting up (depending on the territory layout, of course). Late game Once the nation's child is born, that nation can be considered to be in the late game. By this point in the Counterintelligence game, it can be more difficult to lay out a specific plan, as it will consist of choosing a method to wipe out the remaining nation leaders in play. Military-focused nations should focus on conquering territories and killing nation leaders in direct combat, while economy and/or espionage focused nations should focus on turtling and killing the remaining leaders with Spies using Ambush Nation Leader. Nations that do an effective job of merging military with economy and/or espionage can choose whatever method looks to be most useful based on who they are up against -- the player may not want to engage in direct combat with Brooks unless they have a VERY powerful military and Stun/Knockdown on their nation leaders and/or soldiers, and Spies using Ambush Nation Leader are useless against Allisara. Alliance-focused nations have a trickier late game, though -- they will need to focus on maintaining alliances and ensuring that 3 other nations are still alive, so that they can poison the wine of the biggest nation. This can be slow if they are still waiting on 2 nations to get married, and if a small nation starts getting beaten down by a bigger nation, they may need to provide aid through "bad" trade deals (trade a lot of Mez for a tiny resource so that the weak nation can resupply their soldiers and not get wiped out by the stronger nations). They also cannot invade, as it will reset the Alliance Level to 0% and prevent a new alliance from being formed for 6 months. If not planned properly, an alliances-focused nation can be slow and limiting in the late game. Once the alliances-focused nation is able to poison the bigger nation at dinner (or Allisara's nation, since she cannot die from Ambush Nation Leader), they should be able to finish off the remaining 2 smaller nations through military or espionage (whichever is the better approach based on their nation composition and the enemy nation). Characters The player's choice of character will heavily affect what their playstyle for the Counterintelligence game will be. The available characters have varying degrees of focus in military, economy, espionage and alliances, and combining the character's strengths with different Soldier Types, Religions, Ruling Approaches and Nation Powers will greatly affect the nation's aptitude in these playstyles. Before considering going straight for min/maxing a specific playstyle, it should be noted that versatility is important. For example, a nation with a focus solely on military might run wild on the other nations in the early game, but if they fail to use the fruits of their battling and conquering for a long-term plan (no resources to keep up with the other nations economically, no marriage due to putting no efforts into alliances), they may stagnate by midgame or lategame IF they are not used in an effective manner in the early game. On the flipside, a nation with a focus solely on economy will likely not be able to grow very effectively to be a lategame powerhouse if they do not put forth at least some effort in capturing territories for Nation Points with their military. Specialization can be done, but it needs to have consideration and planning like all approaches. All that said, the information on the characters below will not list Soldier Types, Religions, Ruling Approaches and Nation Powers as necessary for a character to function -- the character themselves could be what rounds out a player's vision for the nation, as opposed to building the nation around the character. For example, a nation with a good mix of military (Xystedon Berserkers for offense, Theite religion for border defense) and economy (Mercantile ruling approach and Nation Powers focused on Towns/Farms/Mines) could use Claire as a nation leader to bring a focus of espionage to the nation, even if they are not what Claire would typically make use of for a Counterintelligence playthrough. Nations leaders getting married to one another may also require a shift in strategy (for example, Cherry will typically not be reliant on Scouts, but if she marries Brooks, she may want to consider it for his strengths). Many of the strategies listed below for the characters, Soldier Types, Religions, Ruling Approaches and Nation Powers are intended to be examples of what can be done, rather than what is required to be done. Cherry Field Passive -- Operating on Foreign Lands When Cherry is in battle, she and her soldiers deal 20% more damage and suffer 16% less damage for every territory that separates her from one of her own castles (maxes out at 5 territories away for 100% more damage dealt and 80% less damage received). When the invasion formula applies, Cherry and her soldiers gain 30% more offense/defense for each territory that separates her from one of her own castles if she is present for the invasion in the territory (also maxes out at 5 territories). If Cherry has no castle, the max of 5 is applied. World Passive -- Commander Soldiers cost 25% less to hire. Marriage Passive -- Career Focus If Cherry and her husband do not have a child, Cherry, her husband and all of their soldiers deal double damage and take half damage. When the invasion formula applies, Cherry, her husband and their soldiers gain 150% more offense/defense when Cherry is married and does not have a child. Playing as Cherry Cherry is a heavily military-oriented nation leader with strong early game and mid game focus, as can be seen from all 3 of her passives revolving entirely around her Soldiers and general military strength and size. Her Marriage Passive providing double damage dealt and half damage received for herself, her husband and her soldiers is what allows her to really shine in a Counterintelligence game and lets her wreak havoc in the mid game. However, if her military strength is not wielded effectively and/or plans to branch out and build up other strengths are not considered carefully, Cherry will languish in the late game, as she brings no true advantages in the other fields of economy (despite cheaper Soldiers), espionage or alliances. Cherry and Nation Powers Notable main focuses for Nation Powers -- Soldiers, Mines When it comes to choosing what Nation Powers to invest Nation Points into, Cherry is going to want to invest points into Soldiers, to really have her military dominate the early game -- the more territories she can take early on, the more Nation Points and resources she will be able to make use of to focus on diversifying her customization into economy, espionage and alliances. Soldiers will also be valuable for increased border defense to keep the territories that Cherry captures, especially when Cherry gets access to her Marriage Passive for even better border defense. While Scouts and their ability to nullify defensive bonuses on enemy Soldiers seems like it would be a good match to push Cherry's military into overkill territory, Scouts will not be useful against other militaries with Soldiers Level 10, and Cherry's military should be able to handle Soldiers that are already weaker than hers easily enough. Spies will not be overly helpful since Cherry's economy is too poor to hire a large number of Spies (though she may at least want some for Gather Information), and she will not be overly reliant on Negotiation, since her Soldiers and conquered territories should help impress other nations sufficiently to at least form alliances (with her weaker economy, she likely will not make use of Trade Deal scarcity as much as other leaders to boost Alliance Levels through scarcity deals, so this is only useful if she is trying to race other nation leaders for a specific husband). Where Cherry may want to invest Nation Points once she hits Soldiers Level 10 will be the territories. Mines in particular provide a lot of versatility -- resources to trade, Limestone/Magnetite for even stronger border defense, Obsidian for boosted damage and border defense, and Landslide to add more power to her invasions. Cherry's mobile attacks and her Tornado can also be useful in getting the Landslide boulders to move more often. Cherry can appreciate Towns to ensure she has the Mez for Soldiers for border defense and to replace any of her own that fall when she fights closer to her own Castle or her Marriage Passive is not active, though if she is playing as a Tyrant, it may be harder to maintain Crime Rates for the Towns Level 5 bonus. Castles can also be a good focus, but might have diminishing returns. Imperialism will gain more resources and Tyrants will gain more military power, but as a Tyrant, Cherry's military is already incredibly powerful to the point where the boost in Soldier power may be harder to notice, and under Imperialism, Cherry's weak economy will be better corrected with Mines and Towns -- Castles can still be nice to round off with if Cherry already has Soldiers, Mines and Towns maxed out, though. Farms can also be a decent Nation Power investment when all other options are exhausted, if only to gain Stampede for more invasion power. Cherry and Nation Setup Notable Soldier Types -- Force Fighters, Dissental Soldiers Notable Religions -- Centumvirate Notable Ruling Approaches -- Tyrant, Imperialism With strong military focus, Cherry can make good use of most Soldier Types. Force Fighters are a type that Cherry can naturally make good use of -- her World Passive provides her with cheaper soldiers so that Force Fighters can trigger their boosts and her Field and Marriage Passives combined with investing Nation Points in Soldiers levels will help keep them alive so that her Force Fighters do not lose their strength-in-numbers buffs. Dissental Soldiers can be useful for providing immediate economic rewards for invading territories, which Cherry desperately needs, especially if she intends to use a lot of Landslide for combat -- however, as these rewards are dependent on Dissental Soldier origin, she will need to return to the Castle to set the appropriate origin to invade the appropriate territory. If planned around effectively, though, it can give Cherry some early game economic strength, especially when the rewards are based on the number of surviving soldiers (where her Field and World Passives will help her out like with Force Fighters). Sky Corps are a Soldier Type that is more of a "pay off later" type for Cherry -- she likely will not be reliant on Stampede/Landslide boosts early on, but she may want them when investing Nation Points in Mines after hitting Soldiers Level 10. This can be useful, but will still need a lot of planning to use effectively, due to the high Mineral costs associated with Landslide. Aeldanact Guards and Xystedon Berserkers work great with Cherry for defending and invading respectively, but Cherry already has strong military prowess and needs more versatility in her nation setup. Galatelt Warrior Priests are similarly powerful in Cherry's hands, but will require her to cut short frequent invasion to return to her Castle to hold religious ceremonies. However, all three can be useful if Cherry makes use of specific religions or ruling approaches (notably Centumvirate for Xystedon Berserkers and Galatelt Warrior Priests to more easily complete demands, and Tyrant for Aeldanact Guards for a better mix of invasion power and border defense). Peacekeepers can be nice for keeping Crime Rate more manageable if Cherry is a Tyrant and focusing on Towns, though this may be more of a niche for Cherry. It can be useful if Cherry intends to marry Alberto, who will appreciate the combination of Towns and Peacekeepers when he brings his strong economy alongside Cherry's strong military. Pael Army is a Soldier Type that Cherry may want to avoid all together, though. If she is at the point where she is reliant on the Pael Army's underdog buffs, especially in the early game, it means that her military -- her sole strength -- is getting outclassed by someone else's military and that is a point where Cherry is likely already at risk of losing the game. If anybody should be frequently invading and holding captured territories effectively, it should be Cherry. While Cherry can handle the Theite religion effectively (Cherry as a Tyrant can use Theite to help offset the Tyrant's negatives by conquering non-Theite territories and the ceremonies to better maintain Crime Rates in Towns) and the border defense boosts will be helpful early on when she does not have the economy for Limestone/Magnetite/Obsidian defenses, Cherry's early game does not really rely on needing more defense -- whatever she loses territory-wise in the early game, she can regain easily in most cases. Her defenses can also be more easily bolstered through her cheaper Soldiers, so a different religion may provide more value and versatility for her. Pantheon is a bit hard for Cherry to use, as she has a poor economic base to work off of. The extra Mineral gains can be valuable if Cherry plans to focus on Mines after Soldiers and starts with Limestone or Magnetite mines for boosted combat/invasion power and for Landslide usage, as Centumvirate may not always give her Mines as a demand. All else being equal, though, Centumvirate is likely best suited to Cherry for a religion -- gaining economic rewards through conquering specific territories is right up Cherry's alley, plus she can keep her own demanded territories safe from invasion pretty easily with cheap soldiers and high Soldiers Level. Though Xystedon Berserkers and Galatelt Warrior Priests were not Cherry's more notable Soldier Types, Berserkers can mesh very well with invasion and Galatelt Warrior Priests can gain power when Cherry returns to the Castle to boost the effectiveness of the Centumvirate demand rewards by 50%. If going Centumvirate for Cherry's religion, prioritizing all Centumvirate demands at every earliest opportunity can give Cherry a decent economy early on. As far as Ruling Approaches go, Cherry is not cut out for Mercantile, unless the player's aim is to focus on bulding an economy and/or alliance focused nation and is using Cherry as a nation leader solely for the military boosts. If her nation is built differently with some focus on economy, she may be able to pull this off, but she likely will not have the resources to use it as effectively as others. Cherry can function effectively under Imperialism, since she can conquer more territories early on to provide more economic gains. Since she will likely will be able to capture a lot of territories easily in the early game and mid game, this can pay off in the late game as a "savings account", when Cherry's effectiveness drops off in the late game. The extra Minerals gained through Imperialism can give a Mines-focused Cherry more Landslide usage, as well. Cherry makes for a fantastic Tyrant, since it emphasizes her military focus and she can override some of the weaknesses of low Castle Morale through her cheaper soldiers (she will definitely need to return to her Castle very early to restore it for her wedding) and Crime Rate through capturing the nearest Town and stamping out bandits there when Crime Rate gets too high (her powerful Soldiers should be able to deal bandits effectively, even on Legend Plus). Combining Cherry's Field Passive, high Soldiers Level and eventual Marriage Passive will allow her to power up the strength of Aeldanact Guards so that she can have both skyhigh military offense and border defense. This will require the player to have to go unendingly aggressive, though -- if Cherry loses momentum as a Tyrant (for example, too many Soldiers losses, being unable to afford Soldiers due to bad economy, no marriage partner to balance her out, Castle Morale/Crime Rate makes Soldiers too hard to purchase), she will probably burn out almost immediately in the early game, since she has no other strengths to draw from. Though versatility has been emphasized in this guide as incredibly important in Counterintelligence, Cherry is capable of going all in with military might effectively, due to her giant offense and defense bonuses for herself and her soldiers from her Field Passive and Marriage Passive. If looking for a smash-everything-in-sight type of nation leader, fully committing to Cherry's military can work, as for every territory that the enemy takes from Cherry in the late game, Cherry could take one of theirs with lower soldier loss due to her defense and with good time due to her offense. General Gameplay Flow for Cherry In the early game, Cherry should immediately focus on invading other nations. To make the best use of the Operating on Foreign Lands passive to keep her Soldiers strong, it would be best if Cherry heads to the middle of the map to pick a nation to invade at that point, so that she is farther away from her Castle (at minimum, avoid aiming to conquer potential marriage candidates). The more territory she captures and the more Soldiers she hires/keeps alive, the more her Alliance Formula value will rise, which will result in marriage candidates being impressed by her smashing skills -- this is probably the only feasible way that a nation built around Cherry can make her nation stand out to the others in the Alliance Formula. From there, Cherry may want to hire a few Spies to Gather Information on her possible marriage candidates -- she may have a harder time competing with Negotiation-focused leaders like Caesara or Allisara or those with enough economic skill who can pull ahead with some trade deal scarcity every now and then, like Tara. Cherry is typically not going to win a race of Alliance Levels (unless she is able to get a monopoly on her starting Mine Type through conquering with some lucky Centumvirate demands for Mines), so she is better off taking an alternate approach -- prioritize invading and wiping out any potential marriage rivals as soon as possible, which will also let her pull ahead in terms of Nation Points and will likely give her a good lead for most of Counterintelligence. If Cherry is unable to get married, she may not survive past the early game -- she needs an additional leader on the World Map to help her invade other nations, she needs a husband for her very powerful military Marriage Passive and she needs a husband to better branch out into other strengths besides military. If Cherry is able to get engaged and make it to the midgame, she will likely need to put invading on hold to clean house by ensuring she has enough security for the wedding and enough Castle Morale to prevent any issues -- the latter being especially important if Cherry is a Tyrant. In terms of security, her Soldiers will likely be more cost-effective than Scouts, so she will need to reorganize Soldiers from her territories to prepare for the wedding. If the wedding is successful, it will be time for Cherry to consider 2 important factors for the mid game: 1. How long (if at all) should she put off having a child 2. What are her husband's strengths Cherry's Marriage Passive powers up herself, her husband and all of their soldiers on offense and defense -- until she has a child. Cherry and her husband's heavily boosted military power is very powerful and Cherry can really devastate (and remove) a few nations through conquest with it. However, those that do survive, get marrried and have children could eventually overpower Cherry in terms of both military and economy, if her enemies were able to have a child early enough. It should be noted, though, that her Marriage Passive stays active on her husband and all of her soldiers while she is pregnant, so he can do a little invading in the meantime. Whatever decision is made here, try to get some conquering done -- one of the big reasons to play Cherry is her powerful mid game, and it would be a shame if it was given up too early. Since the mid game to late game transition involves having a child (and therefore the loss of Cherry's Marriage Passive), Cherry's contributions in the late game are essentially based on her husband's strengths. If she marries Knight, she will likely have to base things off of her nation's religion. If she is Theite, she may want to invest in Towns thanks to Knight's ability to keep Crime Rate under control with it. If she is Pantheon, she may want to lean on Farms and Mines (but especially Mines to keep up border defense alongside Landslide's boost in invasion power). If she is Centumvirate, she can choose whatever territory types she wishes -- if she was fortunate with economic rewards from Centumvirate demands, Cherry can pick based off of whatever area she is lacking in (even if not Towns, Farms or Mines). If Cherry marries Alberto, she can invest Nation Points into Towns to take advantage of Alberto's incredible ability to earn Mez. If Cherry marries Cook, she could focus on Castles -- if she is a Tyrant, she could increase Cook's invasion power in capturing Castles for economic rewards, and if she has Imperialism, Cook's Marriage Passive can amplify their child's economic gains better off of it (to say nothing of the military boosts that the child provides). If Cherry marries Jimmy, she may want to focus on Farms or Mines, as Jimmy's Marriage Passive will decrease Mez costs for Soldiers even further (causing less reliance on Towns Levels) and Jimmy can use his powered up Stampede and/or Landslide. If Cherry marries Brooks, she may want to invest in Scouts for his sake. In particular, this can be helpful for Brooks to continue invading territories successfully on his own while Cherry is pregnant. Whatever choices are made for her late game, Cherry will want to return to invading territories far away from her Castle to make the most of her Field Passive. Unless she is married to Cook, she may want to avoid capturing Castles where possible, to keep her Field Passive in play at a higher level more often. Playing against Cherry on Legend Plus An AI Cherry will play as expected -- a powerful Soldier-focused invader who will give Castles less priority for invasion. She can be frightening in the early game, especially if she is a Tyrant and/or has powerful invaders, like Xystedon Berserkers. Make sure to post a lot more Soldiers (at least 3-4x, taking into account Cherry's Field Passive and high Soldiers Level) in territories that share a border with Cherry. Spies weakening Cherry's Farms and causing food shortages can also be an excellent way to slow her down, as it will weaken her Soldiers while raising Crime Rate and lowering Castle Morale can reduce her already low amounts of Mez for hiring soldiers. Having enough Food to cause Cherry's soldiers to defect can also be valuable for invading her before she can do the same to the player. The more Cherry can be punished in the early game, the less of a threat she will be. Since she is not great with alliances, she will not be able to build Alliance Levels for marriage quickly if her military is unable to capture territories and improve how she looks to other nations. If Cherry cannot access her Marriage Passive and use it to dominate the mid game, Cherry becomes a non-issue for the remainder of Counterintelligence. In terms of combat, AI Cherry uses Line Overdrive and Tornado, so she has a quick dash attack and a persistent Knockback area. Her Soldiers will likely be very powerful on Legend Plus, as will Cherry herself -- it is likely a bad idea to engage Cherry in combat in most cases, since her soldiers will be stronger than most in the early game, her mid game gives her her powerful Marriage Passive, and her late game will should have her at Soldiers Level 10 at least. In many cases, even if suffering from a food shortage, Cherry will still likely have stronger soldiers than the player in most cases. If possible, avoid direct combat with Cherry -- it would likely be better to try and hire a lot of Spies to use Ambush Nation Leader, even if it means saving a lot of Mez and investing some Nation Points in Spies. If avoiding battle is out of the question, the player should ensure that they are as prepared as possible (food shortage on Cherry, high Fortification/Blacksmithing, Obsidian Boost) and try to be at Mines Level 5, if possible. Cherry's Line Overdrive and Tornado will likely have her hit the player's own Landslide more often than normal so that the player can spend more time evading and letting Landslide damage Cherry instead. Try and have the fight as close as possible to one of Cherry's Castles (not in it, as Fortification/Blacksmithing with Soldiers Level 10 will stack too well) -- if Cherry does not have a Castle, the player can consider emptying out of their own and have Cherry capture it, so that the player can fight her from 1 territory away and ensure that her Field Passive is weak. Knight Field Passive -- Bandit Raid When Knight invades a territory, he and his soldiers deal 50% more damage and take 50% less damage. When the invasion formula applies, Knight and his soldiers gain 100% more offense when invading a territory if Knight is present for the invasion. World Passive -- True Believer Religious ceremonies performed by Knight are also boosted in the following ways: Theite -- Crime rate is reduced by 50% rather than 25% and soldier defense/soldier invasion defense when defending a territory becomes 50% less damage/100% more invasion defense rather than 25%/50%. Pantheon -- Farm/mine production is boosted by 35% for 4 turns rather than 20% for 3 months. Centumvirate -- Negative effects are removed for 8 months rather than 5, and resources gains from capturing demanded territories are boosted by 100% rather than 50%. Marriage Passive -- Spread The Word Religious ceremonies performed by Knight are boosted in the following ways: Theite -- Lowers Crime Rate in all cities by 75% (as opposed to 50%) and soldier defense/soldier invasion defense when defending becomes 75% less damage/150% more invasion defense rather than 50%/100%. Pantheon -- Boosts farm/mine production for the next 6 months by 50% (rather than 4 months for 35%). Centumvirate -- Random conditions lose their negative effects for 12 months rather than 8, and resource gains for capturing demanded territories are 150% greater. Playing as Knight Knight is a military/religion hybrid nation leader, as his World Passive and Marriage Passive focus heavily on powering up religious ceremonies, while Knight's Field Passive gives him and his soldiers a powerful boost in battle when invading other territories. Since Knight's playstyle is heavily reliant on whichever religion is picked for his nation, he has 3 different main ways to play a Counterintelligence game. Due to Knight's religion focus, unlike most nation leaders, a nation will likely not be built around Knight, as he will likely be used as a nation leader more to round out a nation. However, one weakness is his contradictory nature as a military invader that needs to pull back frequently to return to his Castle to perform frequent religious ceremonies. Knight and Nation Powers Notable main focuses for Nation Powers (Theite) -- Soldiers, Towns Notable main focuses for Nation Powers (Pantheon) -- Soldiers, Farms, Mines Notable main focuses for Nation Powers (Centumvirate) -- Soldiers Knight's Field Passive will benefit from focus on Soldiers for stronger invasion, regardless of his religion choice. Like Cherry, Knight is going to want to leverage his military strength to score some extra territories early -- this will go well with satisfying Centumvirate demands by conquering specific territories, grabbing some extra Farms/Mines for Pantheon to get a very strong start on a good economy, and for combining the Theite border defense boosts to make Knight's territories less likely to be invaded. If Knight picks the Theite religion, he may wish to consider investing in Towns, since the Theite religious ceremony (especially from Knight) will do an excellent job in keeping Crime Rates low across the entire nation without needing to visit a single Town to fight bandits. Even without Peacekeepers, Knight should be able to use Towns Level 5's big Mez gains effectively, since he will need to return to the Castle often to perform the religious ceremonies. Keep in mind that in most cases, Knight should not try to play as a weak military/strong economy nation leader, even with a Theite religion. Alberto already does this and he does it much better by making triple the Mez that Knight can under the same conditions -- if this is the player's goal for their nation, Alberto would be a better choice as nation leader. Knight could function better as a military/economy hybrid in this scenario, as Knight's military power is an important part of his playstyle. If Knight picks the Pantheon religion, he may wish to look into Farms and Mines. Since Knight will likely be visiting Farms often for horses (to return faster to Castles for religious ceremonies), investing Nation Points into Farms for Stampede and more Food makes for a solid follow-up to Soldiers. Mines under a Pantheon religion will also have similar advantages -- more military power from Landslide and very large mineral gains from the religious ceremonies will give Knight further advantage for border defense (Limestone/Magnetite), for alliances (Corundum and possibly having trade monopolies on a mineral type) or for temporary boosts to invasion and border defense (Obsidian). If Knight goes for Centumvirate as a religion, Knight has more freedom in picking his next Nation Powers, since he is mostly just reliant on invasion and will be less reliant on territory Nation Powers with all of the extra resources he gains from demanded territories. If using Galatelt Warrior Priests, Knight may still wish to consider Farms, if only to combine his need of horses to return to his Castle with the addition of Stampede. Though Centumvirate ceremonies last a very long time under Knight, Galatelt Warrior Priests are still reliant on frequent ceremonies, so Knight may want better mobility for their sake. In terms of the other Nation Powers, Castles may seem like it would go well with Knight's frequent return to his Castle to perform religious ceremonies, but Knight's priorities when unmarried would be better spent making use of his religious bonuses before they expire, and spending two months in a row staying at the Castle in order to perform a religious ceremony bonus and get the well-rested bonus slows down Knight's invasion capabilities too much (though marriage to Tara or Caesara for their well-rested focus could be a good reason to invest in Castles). As far as Spies and Negotiation go, Knight may not be overly reliant on them. Negotiation likely will not be needed, since all three religion choices for Knight gives him strong resources for trade deal scarcity (Theite allows Towns to thrive better, Pantheon has Farms and Mines, Centumvirate can help give Knight monopolies by invading the right Mines) and Knight will likely be able to gain high Alliance Formula Value for marriage through constant conquering. Similarly for Spies, Knight may not want to focus Nation Point investment in them, as Knight's invasion power will likely make him less reliant on espionage. Scouts can be useful for finding distant territories demanded by the Centumvirate, but they are a bit redundant for Knight otherwise -- his military power is already strong enough when invading weak militaries that he does not rely on Scouts as much to take away defense bonuses from defending Soldiers, and the Scouts cannot stop any Soldiers Level 10 militaries that would give Knight's military trouble, anyways. The economic bonuses from Scouts Level 10 will likely not be a focus for Knight, who would need to spend more Mez on Scouts and can get good resource gains through Pantheon/Centumvirate anyways. Knight and Nation Setup Notable Soldier Types -- Galatelt Warrior Priests, Dissental Soldiers, Xystedon Berserkers Notable Religions -- Any Notable Ruling Approaches -- Any Galatelt Warrior Priests are an obvious shoe-in for Knight for Soldier Type, as they gain 2x HP/Attack if a religious ceremony has been performed in the last 5 months. However, for lengthy religious ceremony bonuses like Centumvirate (8 to 12 months), the Galatelt Warrior Priests will need the player to return to their Castle before the religious bonuses end to keep the Galatelt Warrior Priests' stats up-to-date. They are still one of Knight's best options, regardless of religion choice, though. Dissental Soldiers work nicely with Knight, since he can change their origin often enough when returning to the Castle to perform religious ceremonies. Dissental Soldiers can be helpful with any religion -- Theite religion may have Knight focus on Towns (where Knight can use the Renald origin to better capture them), Pantheon can focus on Merik and Alster origins to go after Farms and Mines respectively, and Centumvirate can allow Knight to pick whatever origin matches his current Centumvirate demand. Xystedon Berserkers are notable, as well, since Centumvirate demands only really matter when invading territories, and they combine nicely with Knight's own invasion bonuses from his Field Passive. They can stand out over the Galatelt Warrior Priests for the Centumvirate religion, due to their invasion bonuses not being conditional, and Knight's unconditional invasion power boosted by the Xystedon Berserkers' unconditional invasion power can be a very powerful combination, especially if making a nation where the player does not want to rely on Tyrant and its negatives for a high-power nation. Peacekeepers and Sky Corps can be good for Theite and Pantheon respectively, but since Towns and Farms/Mines are not as high a priority for Knight as his Nation Point investments into Soldiers, their usefulness may be delayed somewhat. Aeldanact Guards and Force Fighters can also be useful with the Theite religion -- Aeldanact Guards and Theite religious ceremonies will give border defense strength similar to Galatelt Warrior Priests but, with no condition on their defense, will always have their border defense boosts active. Force Fighters can be useful if Knight focuses on Towns to earn enough Mez to hire many soldiers, but it could be a while before he has the economy for it. Pael Army, as it is with most military-focused leaders like Knight, are often one of the last choices for Soldier Type. Since Knight should be invading often and securing more territories, Pael Army's bonus for having less territories than an enemy nation either will not be in play often enough or may be too little to be worth picking Pael Army over other soldier types. For ruling approaches, Imperialism is a reliable go-to -- it combines the benefits of Knight's strong military (conquering often to gain more territories) and his potentially solid economy (as he will likely be investing in Towns for Theite, or Farms/Mines for Pantheon). The more that Knight conquers early on, the more resources he can start gaining early, and the better prepared he will likely be for the late game. With the bonus resources from Pantheon and Centumvirate religious ceremonies (and to a lesser degree, the focus on Towns he may have for Theite), Knight can make Mercantile work effectively, though he will have to be a lot more deliberate in what territories he captures to aim for trade deal scarcity. This ruling approach may work better for Pantheon than Centumvirate, since the Centumvirate demands may not match up with what is needed for scarcity and/or monopolies. Tyrant can work very effectively when combined with Knight's Field Passive, Xystedon Berserkers, and the Centumvirate religion. So long as the player does not mind being demanded where to go by the Centumvirate, this can be a very profitable ruling approach with short battles using a powerful military. If planned out VERY carefully, a Theite Tyrant that could keep Crime Rate under control (through religious ceremonies and bandit hunting) and could combine a powerful military with high Mez gains while not needing to target specific territories. However, if Knight already has a powerful Soldier Type for invasion (such as Galatelt Warrior Priest or Xystedon Berserker), he could forgo Tyrant for a more balanced approach to nation building, as Knight with a strong invasion Soldier Type will have enough power to deal with most military scenarios (except for maybe direct combat with Cherry or Brooks). General Gameplay Flow for Knight In the early game, Knight should trigger a religious ceremony on his first turn, then set about invading wherever he can (preferably while visiting a Farm along the way for horses for mobility purposes). If Knight is Theite, he may wish to forgo the well-rested bonus -- a duration of 3 turns from sleeping alone may be a waste of turns, given that Knight has to also spend a month performing ceremonies. Depending on his religion, Knight will likely want to focus on capturing Towns if he is Theite, Farms/Mines if he is Pantheon, and whatever territory type is demanded if he is Centumvirate. Targetting the nation that shares his Mine Type can also be an option, since he can try and use that monopoly for trade deal scarcity with his potential wife to build up Alliance Levels faster. Knight's reliance on his religious ceremonies will require him to aim for marriage, since his Marriage Passive amplifies his religious ceremony power further. In the mid game, when Knight is engaged and ready to marry, he will want to return to his Castle to raise Castle Morale and stay there -- if the player has been going back and forth between the Castle and invading territories using horses, Knight should likely be in the rhythm of making it back in time to prepare for the wedding. If done right, Knight should have no problem having a successful wedding, even as a Tyrant. The late game for Knight (marriage and children) will be heavily dictated by Knight's religion and his wife's strengths. As Knight's Marriage Passive only amplifies his religious ceremony strength, his approach to the late game will not really be any different than his early or mid game approach. As such, focusing on what new advantages his wife brings to the nation will be the likely approach for Knight's late game. Playing against Knight on Legend Plus An AI Knight should be treated similarly to an AI Cherry -- treat him as a powerful military invader and add extra soldiers along any territories that border Knight's (3-4x more, as Knight will have high Soldiers Level on top of his Field Passive). One notable difference with Knight compared to Cherry is that his frequency of invading is a little lower, as he will prioritize returning to his Castle to perform religious ceremonies. If an AI Knight happens to be a neighbour to the player on New Game (their starting "pizza slice" of a nation is adjacent to his), they can wait for Knight to head out, then invade and take his Castle if they are able. The sooner Knight loses his Castle, the more his power drops, as he cannot perform religious ceremonies and gain the bonuses that make up the bulk of his character. Since Knight has powerful invasion capabilities and AI nations will prioritize re-taking their old Castle if they have no Castle, make sure to put far more Soldiers defending the Castle than normal (as in 3-4x what the player has on average in their territories -- take the Soldiers accompanying the player if needs be). So long as Knight has no Castle, his overall economic power will drop if he is Pantheon or Centumvirate and his borders will be weaker if he is Theite. In actual combat, Knight has Power Drive, which is more easily telegraphed than other AI nation fights. Knight's military is less powerful on defense than on offense, though his focus on Soldiers Level give his soldiers good power, still. While Knight may fall easily, the soldiers he leaves behind in direct combat or tougher. If Knight and his soldiers are too difficult, consider making Knight desperate -- capture his territories until he has only 4 territories or less, then fill up the territories that he can reach with as many Soldiers as possible. While desperate, Knight will more willingly sacrifice soldiers to take back territories, and will therefore be more likely to lose enough Soldiers to make fighting him easier. Alberto Field Passive -- Soldier's Duty When Alberto or his soldiers defend a territory, he and his soldiers deal 50% more damage and take 50% less damage. When the invasion formula applies, Alberto and/or his soldiers gain 100% more defense when defending a territory. World Passive -- Nonbeliever Alberto has the option of choosing to shut down religious functions for the next 6 months rather than perform a religious ceremony, which removes the religious advantages/disadvantages and boosts month-end Mez gains from Towns by 200% for the next 6 months that religious functions are shut down for. Performing a Religious Ceremony ends the shutdown of religious functions. Marriage Passive -- Always Arguing When Alberto and his wife have spent between 5 and 8 months apart from each other in different territories, Alberto, his wife and all of their soldiers deal double damage and take half damage. When the invasion formula applies, Alberto, his wife and their soldiers gain 150% more offense/defense if Alberto and his wife have been apart in different territories for 5 to 8 months. Playing as Alberto Alberto is a Mez-focused economy-heavy nation leader with skill in border defenses. Alberto's World Passive will allow him to temporarily remove his religion from play to have his Towns produce triple Mez, while his Field Passive and Marriage Passive will allow his borders to remain strong, giving him the capability to create a lot of money while turtling without the need to invade other territories often. If Alberto is played effectively, he can build up immense amounts of Mez that he can use to add more Soldiers to boost his defense even further, purchase whatever extra Food and Minerals he needs from other nations, and can invest in a lot of Spies to be effective in assassination attempts against enemy leaders in the late game. However, in order to do so, Alberto will need to spend a lot of time returning to his Castle to shut down religious functions every 6 months to keep his Mez income high (which is not too different from Knight's constant need to perform religious ceremonies), will need to visit his Towns often to wipe out Spies and Bandits to keep Crime Rate under control (especially to keep the constant Mez gains from Towns Level 5 going), and will need to meet up with his wife every 8 months to reactivate his Marriage Passive as needed. As a result, playing Alberto will often make it so the player will be too busy maintaining the nation to invade territories frequently. Alberto and Nation Powers Notable main focuses for Nation Powers -- Towns, Spies Alberto should naturally focus Nation Point investment on Towns to start with -- the primary reason to pick Alberto as a nation leader is for his ability to earn Mez hand over fist. So long as he keeps shutting down religious functions every 6 months, uses some of that Mez for Soldiers and/or Spies to invade enough territories to raise his Towns to Level 10 early on, and uses the rest of that Mez to invest heavily in his Towns (where he can also go after bandits and Spies to keep his Crime Rates under control), Alberto can quickly earn himself a fortune in Mez early on -- probably more Mez than all of the other nations put together by mid game, if he gets to Towns Level 10 and invests in his Towns as early as possible. Alberto's military offense is not great -- his Marriage Passive can give him and his wife some invading power, but it requires marriage, comes only in 4 month bursts and needs to be refreshed often. Alberto himself will likely have not time to use his military to invade often, since not managing religious shutdowns and Crime Rate will be devastating to his Mez gains, especially if his Towns lose their low Crime Rate streaks from Towns Level 5. This sounds as though Alberto will not be able to win a Counterintelligence game, since the conditions for winning are owning all 64 territories or owning the most territories on game end. However, Alberto can leverage his sky-high amounts of Mez into other methods for victory. After investing fully in Towns, Alberto's next priority is Spies. Since his military might for invasion is not great, Alberto will have limited opportunities to gain more territories through invasion (most of his early Nation Points gains will likely be acquired through marriage) and will need to rely on Spies more for killing nation leaders -- though if Alberto has to face down Allisara in the late game, he will likely have to muddle through in combat, since Ambush Nation Leader will not work on her. All the same, Alberto will still benefit from Spies, since the combination of Alberto's giant Mez gains with Spies Level 10 having Spies cost 25% of their base hire price means that Alberto can easily purchase hundreds of Spies to kill leaders from the safety of his own very rich, high border defense nation. In terms of the other Nation Powers aside from Towns and Spies, Alberto is not overly reliant on the rest, as his actual approach to Counterintelligence, as effective as it is, is a lot more inflexible and lacking in variety compared to other nation leaders. Alberto could work effectively with Negotiation, using poison wine as an alternative to both Ambush Nation Leader and combat to kill off Allisara, but this also means that Alberto will need to invest in Negotiation before Spies to have the Nation Points to quickly build up to Negotiation Level 5 for quicker Alliance Level gains to access poisoning the wine and to Negotiation Level 10 for the looser Alliance Level requirements. This requires changes in Alberto's plans and a lot of work due to the need to build up alliances with everyone and keep the other weaker nations alive (something Alberto is not too bad at, since he has a lot of Mez to "give away" in trade deals meant to supply the weaker nation to stay alive) just to poison Allisara at dinner, but it is still an option if the player feels that Allisara is going to be too much of a pain to deal with (alternatively, Alberto could spend the early game trying to invade Allisara's territories with the aim to kill her before she gets married). Soldiers can work decently with Alberto -- it powers up his border defense further and gives Alberto better invasion capabilities by making his soldiers higher quality. However, Alberto has the Mez to go quantity over quality, and can make up for any shortcomings in his military offense and defense by just hiring more Soldiers. Soldiers can be useful if Alberto already has Towns and Spies at Level 10 and/or his wife is more military focused (like Cherry or Caesara). Alberto may not be overly reliant on Farms and Mines, as Alberto can spend the early game trading a lot of Mez for Food and Minerals, and his lack of focus on invasion means he might not get much use out of Stampede and Landslide. He can also use his Mez to invest heavily in individual Farms and Mines, which will allow him to get the resource gains he needs without the Nation Point investments. Alberto may not particularly care to focus on Castles, either (unless his wife has Castles focus, like Tara or Caesara). Even though Alberto will return to his Castle often to boost Castle Morale, Alberto does not really care for maintaining Castle Morale outside of his wedding -- double costs for units at 0% Castle Morale will be negligible against triple Mez gains from heavily invested Towns. His limitations on using ruling approaches effectively also puts a damper on Castles Level 10. Investing Nation Points up to at least Scouts Level 5 (+1 Scout vision range) could be useful for tracking enemy movement for Spy kills better, but by the time Alberto can afford points in Scouts, he will likely have enough territories that his base Scouts can likely be placed as is and see nearly the whole map. Even then, Alberto does not really need to see the nation leaders that badly, as he can just leave his Spies in place for as long as is needed for the nation leader to wander into the assassins' ambush. Alberto and Nation Setup Notable Soldier Types -- Peacekeepers, Aeldanact Guards, Force Fighters Notable Religions -- None (Alberto's should always have religion shut down throughout a Counterintelligence game) Notable Ruling Approaches -- Mercantile Alberto does not have a lot of variety for nation setups, and he has a somewhat fixed playstyle in this regard. His selection of religion does not matter, and his turtling approach makes Imperialism and Tyrant less effective. Tyrant is only useful when invading (which Alberto will do less of) and it interferes too heavily with Alberto's Crime Rates. Imperialism is only effective when gaining more territories, which is something that Alberto also lacks in, especially in the early game and mid game. He may be able to afford a lot more Spies for assassinations in the late game (which will net him a lot of territories), but if Alberto is in a position where he can unleash hundreds of assassins in one location, he has pretty much won the game at that point and the benefits of Imperialism on his over-the-top powerful economy will be short-lived by his upcoming victory. Mercantile ends up being the only viable Ruling Approach for Alberto, and being an economy-focused leader, he can get some very frequent strong trades in the early game to take full advantage of Mercantile's advantages. If Alberto trades a lot of Mez frequently for large amounts of resources, he may be able to get some good alliance gains out of mineral scarcity if he keeps buying up the minerals of every nation. For Soldier Types, Peacekeepers are a natural choice for Alberto -- more strength for invading Towns and they keep Crime Rate under control more effectively. Even when invading non-Town territories, Alberto can use his large amounts of Mez to buy more Peacekeepers for a powerful invasion force. Peacekeepers synergize very nicely with Alberto. Aeldanact Guards will heavily turn off military focused characters (like Cherry, Knight, Cook, Brooks and Caesara) from invading in the early game -- the combined border defense powers of Alberto and Aeldanact Guards (especially if Alberto's starting Mine Type is Limestone or Magnetite) will make invasion of Alberto's territories look far too costly or even impossible to invade, and even without Soldiers Levels, Alberto's border defense will still be powerful against Scouts nullifying the Soldier Defense Bonus, as Alberto's Field Passive and the Aeldanact Guards' defense bonuses are not affected by Scouts. Aeldanact Guards can be a nice way to save Mez on border defenses and focus more Mez on Spies in the late game. If the player is able to keep Crime Rate under control and still invade Towns effectively early on to gain enough Nation Points to hit Towns Level 10, Aeldanact Guards can be a viable alternative to Peacekeepers. Force Fighters work effectively with Alberto's high amounts of Mez -- he can hire large numbers of Force Fighters for easier invasion or for better border defense than Aeldanact Guards. However, if Alberto captures too many territories in spread out areas, he will have to hire a lot more Force Fighters to cover a lot more outer territories susceptible to invasion. If Alberto invades territories in tight clusters attached to his nation, he can make Force Fighters work very well, and he can make use of the Force Fighters' no-ceiling invasion power. Pael Army is a bit more situational, but can work well with Alberto's turtling focus. Alberto's lack of invasion power will likely lead to other nations having the territory advantage over him, which can trigger Pael Army's underdog bonuses. They rely on external threats, but Alberto can make up for any lack of underdog buffs by hiring more Pael Army easily enough when he is doing well. Alberto will likely get little use out of Sky Corps, due to his lack of focus on Farms/Mines and invading. Xystedon Berserkers and Dissental Soldiers also face a similar lack of synergy due to being better for invasion-focused leaders and builds. Galatelt Warrior Priests are an obvious "no" for Alberto -- they only gain boosts if a religious ceremony was performed in the last 5 months, and Alberto is reliant on keeping his religious functions shut down across the entirety of a Counterintelligence game. General Gameplay Flow for Alberto Alberto's early game should have him immediately invest in Towns Level 5 and enter his Castle to shut down religious functions on his first turn. From there, he will want to capture 5 other territories to hit Towns Level 10, then spend the rest of the early game investing Mez in his Towns and shutting down religious functions. If Alberto is constantly doing trade deals, he might be able to get good amounts of resources through Mercantile and scarcity -- in particular, the more resources he buys from nations and trades to other nations that cannot naturally gain that resource (they do not have the matching Mine Type for a mineral), the more he can force scarcity to build alliance levels to get married sooner than normal. Alberto's mid game should be straightforward enough -- he does not stray far from his Castle to begin with, so he can return to his castle to keep Castle Morale high. He has the Mez for Soldiers and Scouts for security, so his weddings are typically very safe from assassination attempts. He and his wife can have a baby immediately, since Alberto will likely spend time turtling (and maybe using his Marriage Passive and his high soldier count to get a territory or two while his wife is away). If needed, Alberto can invest Mez in any Farms or Mines, if he is lacking in those areas -- if not, he should continue investing a lot of Mez in his Towns. By this point, Alberto's Town investments should have scored him incredibly large amounts of Mez if Crime Rate is kept under control, and he should use that Mez to boost Town investment further, so that he can eventually hire hundreds of Spies for very easy assassinations in the late game. If Alberto has effectively built up his economy and Town investments in the early game and mid game, his late game should be overwhelmingly powerful. He should have the Mez to hire enough Spies to assassinate any nation leader in play, and even if it still is not enough, Alberto's child will eventually pump up his Mez to where it needs to be as the child gets older. Playing against Alberto on Legend Plus There are two main ways to approach dealing with Alberto -- go after his Towns or Castle to prevent his giant Mez gains, or keep Alberto's economy going strong so that the player can use him like a trade deal ATM by trading large amounts of their own Food and/or Minerals for large amounts of his Mez. If aiming to interfere with Alberto's economy, taking his Castle is the most straightforward option -- preventing Alberto from having a Castle to return to in order to shut down religious functions will effectively reduce his Mez income by two thirds and essentially tears down his biggest selling point as a nation leader. This only really works if the player's "pizza slice" starts adjacent to Alberto's -- otherwise, the player will have to wade through Alberto's powerful border defense to reach his Castle, which is not really worth it. If Alberto's Castle cannot be reached, taking his Towns through military force and/or using a lot of Spies to raise Crime Rate in his remaining Towns to prevent Mez gains and to bring his Towns Level 5 bonus for that Town to zero can be just as effective, but very time-consuming to invade his higher defense territories and very expensive to get the Spies needed to inflict 51% to 100% Crime Rate in a Town in one month (unless playing as Claire and/or using high Spies Level). If leaving Alberto as a source of Mez to trade for, be aware that he will be difficult to invade militarily in the late game, as Alberto will have had the time to raise enough Mez to add many Soldiers to his border and to accompany him and his spouse. If the player is invested in Spies, then they can use the huge amounts of Mez they trade for to hire Spies to use Ambush Nation Leader on Alberto to override his powerful military defenses. When it comes to direct combat, Alberto is a lot more dangerous than he seems. As combat against him will most likely end up being the player invading Alberto, he and his soldiers will get their damage/defense bonuses for being on defense (Alberto's Field Passive), meaning Alberto will already be stronger than normal. On top of that, he bring System Shock (large AoE Stun) and Thunder Storm (very powerful high frequency lightning bolts that strike randomly over an area), and his Thunder Storm is powerful enough to instantly kill most characters and is more likely to hit when they are held in place by System Shock. So long as the player spends time blocking/dodging until System Shock is triggered and the player moves out of Thunder Storm's area of effect, they may be able to take down Alberto, but it is often better to avoid direct combat with him in most cases. If the player must fight Alberto, bringing Stampede and Landslide to a Town and fighting Alberto there can be effective, since Towns have a smaller combat zone. Though it is a double-edged sword (the smaller arena of the Town makes System Shock and Thunder Storm cover more of the total battlefield area), the smaller arena size will allow for Stampede to hit more reliably and Landslide to hit more often while the player stays on defense to block Stun from System Shock and evade Alberto's Thunder Storm. Tara Field Passive -- War Horse When Tara is fighting at a Farm, she and her soldiers deal 50% more damage and receive 50% less damage. When the invasion formula applies, if Tara is present for the invasion and the contested territory is a Farm, Tara and her soldiers gain 100% more offense/defense. When Tara triggers Stampede, her horses inflict Knockdown. If Tara visits one of her Farms, she can invest 1000 Food for 1 level of Horse Power to permanently boost Stampede damage by 10% per Horse Power level (for Tara and her spouse). World Passive -- Irrigation Expert All Farms in Tara's territories produce 25% more Food and food decreases on month end are reduced from 20 Food per territory to 15 Food per territory. When Tara obtains horses from a Farm, she can keep them for 12 months rather than 6 months. When another nation is suffering from a food shortage, Tara only needs 300 Food per Soldier instead of 500 Food to get them to defect. Marriage Passive -- Unnecessarily Loud When Tara and her husband both stay the night with each other in the castle, the well-rested bonus for spending the night with a spouse is boosted from 3 turns extra to 9 turns extra, gains 1 additional movement on the world map, and the damage bonus is boosted from 50% to 150% (100% to 300% for Castle Level 5) for both Tara and her husband. Playing as Tara Tara's skillset in Counterintelligence makes her a Farm-focused jack-of-all-trades with a number of niche strengths. Tara's Field and World passives provide her with better farm invasion, higher monthly Food gains, lower monthly Food decreases, longer horse ownership times, the ability to invest in horses at a Farm by spending Food to power up Stampede (for Tara and her spouse), Knockdown when Tara triggers Stampede, and lower Food requirements for Soldier Defection. Combined with her Marriage Passive's big power and movement gains for Tara and her spouse, Tara can do well in many scenarios. Tara is very reliant on her Farms and Food for most of her playstyle, so losing Farms, getting Farms sabotaged by Spies and not capturing enough Farms can be a problem for Tara. Tara and Nation Powers Notable main focuses for Nation Powers -- Farms, Castles Farms are practically a necessity for Tara to invest in, as her Field and World Passives revolve entirely around Farms and Food. Similarly, Castles will be better suited for Tara's focus in the mid game and late game when she is married and can apply a longer duration super-powered well-rested bonus to herself and her husband when spending the night together at a Castle, and is a good choice to follow up on her Nation Points investment of Farms. Tara has no major priorities after getting Farms and Castles to Level 10, but Mines can be another good focus for Tara, since she will likely have Sky Corps as a Soldier Type, which can naturally make Landslide more valuable. If Tara is not using Sky Corps, then she might be better off focusing on other Nation Powers after Farms and Castles. While Tara could benefit from Negotiation by causing food shortages and then trading away her Food for Negotiation Level 5-powered trade deal scarcity to raise Alliance Levels faster, this is still a lot of work for her. It can pay off, though, as Tara should constantly have large amounts of Food for very frequent trades against multiple food shortages (if Tara does not have a lot of Spies destroying Food surpluses, it will take time/require another trade to get the remaining Food back to fully bring that one food shortage back -- multiple food shortages in play can let Tara build Alliance Level through trade deals every turn with her food supplies). With Negotiation Level 10 and trade deal scarcity every turn, Tara might be able to speed her Alliance Level gains up enough to gain late game access to poisoning the wine, though this also means that Tara cannot invade other nations if trying to set up to poison the wine. With Tara's access to a more effective Soldier Defection alongside her naturally high Food reserves, Soldiers can be a good focus for Tara, as it lets her put all of the Soldiers that she got to defect to her side to work for both invasion and border defense. Putting Nation Points into Spies could be more cost-effective for inflicting multiple food shortages across all nations, but Tara can trade her scarce Food for Mez to fund her Spies without needing to invest Nation Points. Similarly with Towns, Tara is less reliant on Mez gains when she can trade scarce Food away for it. Scouts can help level the playing field for invasion for militaries with strength roughly on par with Tara's, though since she will likely have other Nation Point investment priorities, this might be less effective in the late game. Tara and Nation Setup Notable Soldier Types -- Sky Corps Notable Religions -- Pantheon Notable Ruling Approaches -- Any Sky Corps will likely be Tara's go-to -- if she focuses on Farms (which is likely), Sky Corps can gain more HP/Attack in Farms and can power up her Stampede and eventually Landslide, to give her extra power for invasion. Aside from Sky Corps, though, Tara's ability to use other Soldier Types effectively will depend on the player's approach and who Tara marries. As an alternative to Sky Corps, Dissental Soldiers with Merik origin can provide HP/Attack bonuses for Farms, but no Stampede bonus. However, their origin can be changed up as needed to better invade other territory types, and Tara's focus on higher movement (especially when married with Castles at Level 5) can make it easier for Tara or her spouse to return to her Castle to change up origins. Galatelt Warrior Priests are a bit of a niche for Tara, but if she is putting emphasis on high movement early on (such as high Castles Level), she can return often to her Castle to perform religious ceremonies to power up her Galatelt Warrior Priests while gaining the religious bonuses (which in Tara's case, will like be Pantheon for more Food output). Beware, though, if Tara marries Alberto, his need to shut down religious functions will be a problem for the Warrior Priests. Force Fighters can work effectively if leaning on Tara's ability to create food shortages and follow up with her cheaper Soldier Defection. Using both Mez and Food to recruit a large number of Soldiers can give Tara strong invasion and border defense capabilities with Force Fighters if done right. Xystedon Berserkers can be helpful for nation builds based more around invasion, and Aeldanact Guards can be useful for less military-focused nation builds by providing more border defense. Tara's military capabilities are not standout, but not poor, either, so she can benefit from either. Peacekeepers are not very standout for Tara -- she is not overly reliant on Towns in most cases, as she can gain a good amount of Mez through creating food shortages and trading her large amounts of Food for Mez in most cases. Pael Army may not be the best option for Tara, either, as her Farm invasion and Stampede capabilities will likely keep her at least in the middle for overall military power, which might make Pael Army a harder sell for her. As far as religions go, Theite can be useful for border defense and Crime Rate, but if Tara can get Mez through Food trade deals against other nations' food shortages, Theite may not be particularly standout. She can also make up for any weaknesses in her border defense through food shortages, which can lead to weaker militaries from the food shortage nation and the ability to cause soldiers to defect to guard Tara's borders. Centumvirate can work with Tara's solid Stampede capabilities, but outside of Farms, she may struggle against stronger militaries. The extra bursts of resources can be worth it (especially if it is more Food for Soldier Defection to replace any soldiers Tara may lose against more powerful militaries), so this can work for Tara if she uses Galatelt Warrior Priests or Xystedon Berserkers for her Soldier Type and Tyrant for her Ruling Approach. Pantheon is an easier religion for Tara to pick -- the extra Food gains fits her builds effectively and give her more for trade deals/Soldier Defection. The extra Soldiers gained from Soldier Defection can go towards protecting any wandering Pantheon Priests in border territories, as well. Since Tara will likely focus on Castles (including for some early game builds), she can work well with any ruling approach. Mercantile is an obvious go-to, since she should be aiming to create food shortages and trading Food for alliance gains through scarcity and for large amounts of resources. Imperialism can work nicely with Tara, as well, if she is putting in reasonable effort to capture Farms early on. The increase in Food gains stacks well with her high Farms Level and Pantheon as a religion. Tyrant can work for Tara, but ONLY if she is willing to lead off with Castles Level 10 focus and branch out to Farms afterward (Xystedon Berserkers or Galatelt Warrior Priests as Soldier Type would be helpful here, too). Tara can keep Crime Rate under control with the increased movement from Castles Level 5 to Crime Rate heavy Towns, she can keep Castle Morale in good shape by returning to the Castle often, and she can get good military invasion power in territories other than Farms (while being incredibly powerful when invading Farms). If Tara can last until marriage as a Tyrant, her Marriage Passive's increased damage/movement for the well-rested bonus can do very well for invading and keeping Crime Rate/Castle Morale under control, especially when she and her husband can split the tasks needed for maintaining Castle Morale and Crime Rate. General Gameplay Flow for Tara In the early game, Tara will want to prioritize capturing Farms, as well as investing Mez in Farms and investing Food in horses. The large amounts of Food that Tara can earn can allow her to gain a lot more Soldiers than normal with her already-cheaper Soldier Defection, which lets her put more Mez towards Spies for food shortages and investing in Farms for more Food. Investing Food into horses will allow Tara's invasion power to improve just that much more, so Tara's focus on Farms and Food can translate into improved military, economic and espionage capabilities. Tara will most certainly want to use Spies to Weaken Territory to create a food shortage in the nation of the leader that she wants to marry. By purposely causing a food shortage for her future husband, Tara can quickly gain Alliance Levels through scarcity with him by coming to the "rescue" by giving him the Food that he so desperately needs. It might not be the most honest way to get married, but it is certainly a quicker way. Keep in mind that Tara may need to have her Spies focus on food shortages across the world map, so that her future husband's food-deprived military is not in danger from the nations with food and so that the other nations will be less likely to have Food to trade Tara's future husband in her place. In the mid game, Tara should be able to prepare for the wedding easier thanks to Soldier Defection -- she may not need more than the Soldiers from this if she has been working with her Farms and Food effectively. Before having a baby, Tara and her husband should sleep at the Castle together so that the husband can use her Marriage Passive while she is away for 9 months. In the late game, Tara and her husband should return to the Castle at least once a year together to make use of Tara's Marriage Passive and Tara should still focus on capturing Farms. Aside from that, Tara's late game handling will likely be based around her husband's needs -- if she has Farms and Castles (and maybe Mines) at Level 10 and if enough Food has been stored up, Tara will likely have completed all she needs to complete for herself. Playing against Tara on Legend Plus While an AI Tara could end up with periods of time where she has low Food (likely due to trading too much of it away in one trade deal), it is not recommended to try and use Spies to inflict Food shortages on her -- unless Claire is the nation leader, it will take too many extra Spies to zero out her Farms' outputs, and even then, Tara will likely have a good surplus of Food stored up. Aside from that, AI Tara does not have many standout strengths -- so long as extra Soldiers are added to any Farms that border her nation (try for at least double the usual border defense), Tara will likely stay out of the player's hair. She could even be a good trade partner for the player to get a lot of Food from, ensuring that the player has a surplus of Food to perform some Soldier Defection of their own. In terms of actual combat, AI Tara can be a rather worrisome opponent. She uses Backhand and Kill Chop, the first of which causes damage and Stun, the second of which is high damage -- the combination of the two will likely kill the player straightaway. To top it off, Tara will bring Stampede into battle due to her Legend Plus AI prioritizing Farms. To deal with Tara's Stampede, try and avoiding fighting Tara in the smaller arena of Towns and try and stick to the side of the arena that the player started in -- Stampede triggers from the user's side, so staying on the player's "half" of the arena gives more time to prepare to evade the horses. Being ready to dodge Tara's Backhand and Kill Chop (evading into and past her may get her to use her abilities and miss) will go a long way, as well. Pound Field Passive -- Scrap Diver When Pound is fighting in a Mine, he and his soldiers deal 50% more damage and receive 50% less damage. When the invasion formula applies, if Pound is present for the invasion and the contested territory is a Mine, Pound and his soldiers gain 100% more offense/defense. 100 of the Mine's mineral type is gained if a battle using Pound is won at a Mine. World Passive -- Metallurgist Pound uses 20% less Limestone for Fortification levels, 20% less Magnetite for Blacksmithing levels, and 20% less Obsidian to boost damage by 50% for 1 month. Corundum is 25% more effective in the Alliance Formula. Marriage Passive -- Unifier This ability is always active on Pound. Pound cannot get married or spend the night with a companion, but every territory that an Alliance member at 25% or higher Alliance Level has boosts Pound's Town/Farm/Mine income by 5% per territory. If Pound stays the night at a castle for the well-rested bonus, he stops Castle Morale from dropping and Crime Rate from rising on month end for (Number of Alliance Territories at 25% or higher Alliance Level) turns, even as a Tyrant, if there is no Food shortage (Spies weakening Castles/Towns will still affect Castle Morale/Crime Rate). Playing as Pound Pound is an early game economic powerhouse with focus on alliances and Mines. By establishing alliances with nearly every nation on the World Map (except for those whom Pound wishes to rob of their Mines) and keeping those alliances active throughout the game, Pound can heavily boost his resources gains, as well as keep Castle Morale and Crime Rate under control for very long periods of time. However, the early game is all Pound has -- he is unable to get married, which means no wife and no children, which puts him at an extreme disadvantage in the mid game and late game. To survive and come out on top in a Counterintelligence game, Pound is going to need to leverage his early game strengths in economy and alliances, especially converting his strong early economy into high quantities of soldiers, using his strengths in Mines to boost the quality of his soldiers, and working alliances effectively enough to poison the wine of a big nation in the late game. The more Pound gets his act together in the early parts of Counterintelligence, the better he can control the board. Pound and Nation Powers Notable main focuses for Nation Powers -- Mines (up to Level 5), Negotiation In most cases, Pound will want to start with Mines up to Level 5, then focus on Negotiation up to Level 10. For the very early parts of Counterintelligence, Pound is going to want Landslide and to prioritize invading Mines -- he can use Landslide for free in Mines and gain free Minerals to use Landslide outside of Mines. While a triple damage Landslide looks like a good idea to work towards (especially with it needing only 5 more Nation Points instead of 10 for a new Nation Power), Pound's ultimate goal is to hit Negotiation Level 10 as soon as possible, as he wants access to poisoning the wine, but will have a harder time earning 20 points for both Mines and Negotiation Level 10 with his weaker military, inability to get married and need to attack as few nations as possible for his Unifier Passive. Mines Level 10 can be a good option for Pound after he gets Negotiation Level 10, and Pound's Unifier Passive should boost his Mineral gains better than the extra levels in Mines can. When Pound is done with Mines and Negotiation, he is free to pursue whatever options he wants -- his main goals of high economic gains, maintaining as many alliances as possible and Negotiation Level 10 for the "dinner nuke" (especially if against Allisara) should be achieved. What comes next should be based off of player preference and/or what the current Counterintelligence situation demands. Soldiers can be solid for both better invasion and turtling -- if it looks like Pound might need to dive into combat in the late game (if there are 2 troublesome big nations, of which poisoning the wine can only take care of one of them), then having Soldiers Level 10 with Mines Level 10 can give Pound some notable military power, especially if the final confrontation is in a Mine. Towns can be a good alternative to Soldiers for Pound. With his already strong economic gains, Towns should allow Pound to earn the Mez to afford a higher quantity but lower quality of Soldiers for border defense -- though, it should be noted that higher quality soldiers from Soldiers Level 10 will be better for faster invasions so that less or no turns are lost in bigger battles. Spies Level 10 might be the most cost-effective approach for Pound to get kills -- if Pound has set up his economy and border defenses correctly, he should be able to hire as many Spies as he wants to assassinate all remaining nation leaders. This will not work on Allisara, though, so Pound will either need to save the dinner nuke for her or find a military alternative. Pound is not so reliant on Farms for Food, as his Unifier Passive should supply him with more than enough if he did a good job with Alliances. However, Stampede from Farms Level 10 can mix nicely with Pound's Mines Level 10 if he has Sky Corps as a Soldier Type. Castles and Scouts will likely be the lowest priorities for Pound. For Castles, his Unifier Passive can maintain Castle Morale (even as a Tyrant), Pound's inability to even sleep with a companion means an always-short well-rested bonus, and even if he goes Imperialism or Mercantile, he will likely not be reliant on their Castles Level 10 bonuses for economic gains in the late game. Pound as a Tyrant may appreciate the military gains from Castles Level 10 for the late game, but that might be it. By the time that Pound is able to invest in Scouts, the remaining nations will likely already have high level Soldiers for the end game, which diminishes their usefulness in Pound's hands. No marriage also means they cannot double as wedding security for Pound, either. Pound and Nation Setup Notable Soldier Types -- Pael Army, Aeldanact Guards, Force Fighters, Sky Corps Notable Religions -- Pantheon Notable Ruling Approaches -- Mercantile, Tyrant Pound's choice of Soldier Type will likely vary based on what stage of the Counterintelligence game that they feel they will have the most trouble with when using Pound. Aeldanact Guards will be valuable in the early game for Pound for the added border defense, but will be harder to use in the late game when Pound may have to get involved militarily against nations that have had time to develop their own militaries further. He might be able to get by with Aeldanact Guards in the mid game if his Towns Level and/or Mez gains through trades can afford him more Aeldanact Guards, but Pael Army will likely be a better option for Pound's mid game. Since Pound is unable to get married, Pael Army will give him an advantage in both offense and defense in the midgame against the other large nations of married couples -- if they have 16 territories together and Pound has 8, Pound's invasion and border defense will be much better off compared to his use of Aeldanact Guards (especially invasion, as Pael Army in this scenario has 5x invasion defense, whereas Aeldanact Guards have 2.5x invasion defense). As most nations in the mid game and late game will probably have more territories than Pound, Pael Army can be viable all the way up until Pound unleashes his dinner nuke and secures the vast majority of territory. If the player plans around their approach for dealing with the remaining nations after poisoning the wine carefully, the loss of Pael Army's underdog buffs should not be an issue for Pound. When it comes to the late game and Pound is likely dealing with the final nation(s), he may appreciate having Force Fighters if he was able to get his Towns Levels and investments to a good spot in the mid game, as their strengths-in-numbers buffs can be used when Pael Army's underdog buffs are no longer present. Sky Corps are a good early game choice for Pound, due to his reliance on Landslide and focus on invading Mines for territories early on. They may be less useful for the mid game and late game, where Pound will more likely end up turtling, but the goal of Negotiation Level 10 is an important one for Pound, so Sky Corps can be a good choice. Xystedon Berserkers can be useful for Tyrant Pound, though Sky Corps' bonus damage to Landslide may make them more of a priority for Tyrant Pound -- they are not a bad consideration for Soldier Type for Pound, all considered. Galatelt Warrior Priests can be effective, as well, since Pound will most likely be turtling in his nation and have time for religious ceremonies often (especially with the Theite religion). Pound can also leverage this for solid invasion power in the early game when working towards Negotiation Level 10. Peacekeepers and Dissental Soldiers may be less useful for Pound. His Unifier Passive can keep Crime Rates under control in place of Peacekeepers, and Dissental Soldiers are better off for nations that could use a boost economically and/or has a spouse at the ready back home at the Castle to change origins more easily -- Pound will also likely not be invading many Castle or Towns to take advantage of the more unique traits of Dissental Soldiers, either. So far as religions go, Pound could appreciate Theite's border defense gains early on, but he also does not rely on the Crime Rate reduction, either. Unless going as Tyrant, Pound will likely be turtling as much as invading, which makes Centumvirate's usefulness diminish somewhat. Pantheon is likely the best option for Pound, playing on his economy focus and giving him more resources for trade and Landslide. For Ruling Approaches, Pound will likely not be invading enough in the early game and mid game to take advantage of Imperialism to its fullest. Mercantile will be Pound's default approach, since he will be focused heavily on both economy and alliances, and will especially be relying on trade deals. Pound can make a good Tyrant, thanks to his Unifier Passive removing Tyrant's negatives. Tyrant can also be useful for Pound's early game need to hit Negotiation Level 10, and can help lead into more military-focused options for the late game. General Gameplay Flow for Pound In Pound's early game, he will need to focus on leveling up Negotiation to Level 10 as soon as he is able -- the option to poison the wine for the late game is important for Pound. Find a nation to pick on (likely one with the most accessible Mines that Pound can conquer, and maybe retreat from and reconquer to gain the Nation Points he needs) and make friends with the other 6 nations. Keep border defense high and trade as much as possible to gain as many resources as possible for the mid game -- the end of the early game is where things will get tougher for Pound. In the mid game, everyone else is likely getting married -- if Pound made friends with all the nations leaders that are to become the marriage leaders, his economic gains will likely still be fine. If Pound invested in Spies after maxing Negotiation, he can use them to better create resource shortages to trade for Mez to hire more Soldiers and invade weaker nations for more Nation Points. If Pound invested in Towns after maxing Negotiation, he will be able to hire more Soldiers to turtle more effectively and invade weaker nations for more Nation Points. If Pound invested in Soldiers after maxing Negotiation, he can invade more effectively and spend Mez elsewhere (since his soldiers should be surviving more at Soldiers Level 10). Any of these approaches should work fine for Pound -- it would be best to choose one based on the current Counterintelligence scenario (such as avoiding Spies if Allisara is present and the dinner nuke is used/there are not enough nations present to poison the wine). When Pound has poisoned the wine in the late game and taken the biggest nation's territories, he should be prepared to deal with the remaining nations militarily or through assassination -- in most cases, assassination will be quickest and easiest with Pound's economy. If Pound was not able to poison the wine (unlucky nation leader deaths caused by other nations to reduce the number of nations remaining to under 4), he will need to advance more slowly and rely on Spies and invading Mines to take territories until he can afford enough Spies to assassinate nation leaders. Playing against Pound on Legend Plus An AI Pound will aim to target the Mines of other nations more than anything else, so double border defenses in any Mines that share a border with Pound. Aside from that, Pound's military is not overly threatening unless he happens to be a Tyrant or use strong invaders like Xystedon Berserkers or Galatelt Warrior Priests. Since Legend Plus starts off all AI nations with 20% Alliance Levels with one another, Pound's Unifier Passive will trigger strong bonuses very quickly (since he only needs 25% Alliance Level per nation), especially since AI Pound prioritizes Negotiation. This will give Pound access to more soldiers, both accompanying him and on border defense. He will most likely have the highest Alliance Formula Value of all nations due to these giant early game economic boosts, so his high quantity of soldiers will also have boosted damage from Confidence Boost. Pound will also be a strong source of resources for all nations for trade deals -- while the player can benefit, so will all other nations. Nation leaders like Tara or Claire who rely more on causing food shortages may need to put in extra work if Pound is standing by at the ready to come to the other nations' rescue with more Food. Whether or not the player should let Pound live with his powerful economy is more of a judgement call -- will Pound's presence help the player or the other nations more? If the player does decide to try and take out Pound, he is likely an easier takedown than most other nation leaders. Pound has slow melee attacks and his slow moving Aura to fight with, and both can be easily handled due to their slow speeds. If AI Pound was able to take over 7 territories, he will have enough points for Landslide, so the player may need to deal with that. If AI Pound does have Landslide, then it is best to fight him in a Castle or Farm -- Pound is stronger in Mines, and Towns have small arenas which work in Landslide's favour. Cook Field Passive -- Usurper When Cook is fighting in a Castle, he and his soldiers deal 50% more damage and receive 50% less damage. When the invasion formula applies, if Cook is present for the invasion and the contested territory is a Castle, Cook and his soldiers gain 100% more offense/defense. On victory in a castle, Castle Morale becomes 100%, Crime Rate in all of Cook's Towns drops to 0%, and he gains 3000 Mez, 1500 Food and 300 of each mineral type. This can only be done once per specific castle (losing and re-capturing the same castle will not regain these benefits) and only if Cook is present for the battle. World Passive -- Shadow Network If Cook's Scouts can see his Spies, his Towns/Farms/Mines produce 1% more for each of his own Spies that that Scout sees (each individual Scout will add to this when checking for the same Spies) to a maximum of 100% more. Marriage Passive -- Heir To The Throne Damage formula and invasion formula boosts are boosted to 100% per child's age in years (as opposed to 50%) and all Towns/Farms/Mines produce at base 100% more per child's age in years (as opposed to 50%). Playing as Cook Cook is a late-game focused nation leader with strength in capturing Castles. Cook has a lot of niche strengths, but calling him a jack-of-all-trades would probably be an inaccurate way to describe him. All of his passives provide him with economic gains of all resource types, but they have difficult conditionals to them -- requiring captures of different Castles, needing a lot of Mez to hire Scouts/Spies, and having a child at 1 year of age or older. The same can be said of Cook's military boosts -- Cook must be fighting in a Castle (the least common territory type) and/or have a child at 1 year of age or older to see any damage boosts for himself and his soldiers. In most cases, Cook has no advantages active for large parts of a Counterintelligence game. In order to make Cook pay off and stand out, he will need to ensure that his hardly-active advantages are active for as long as possible -- he will need to focus on invading Castles from the outset and using the economic gains from that to use Mez for more Soldiers for invading more Castles and Scouts/Spies for Shadow Network/removing soldier defense bonus/assassinating soldiers to save Cook on his Soldiers, and Food/Minerals for trade deal scarcity to build Alliance Levels faster so that Cook can get married and have a child sooner for the boosted damage/resource gains. Cook's niches can make him a bit complicated, but the more that the player captures Castles, the sooner that Cook can more frequently make use of all of his other niches. Cook will need to properly balance all 4 main fields of Counterintelligence -- military, economy, espionage and alliances -- but, the payoff can be worth it when done effectively. Cook and Nation Powers Notable main focuses for Nation Powers -- Soldiers (at least Level 5), Scouts (at least Level 5), Spies Cook's first priority in Counterintelligence is to capture Castles as soon as possible, so that he can gain the resources he needs to supply his Shadow Network with Scouts and Spies, which he can use to trigger food shortages or create mineral monopolies for trade deal scarcity for faster Alliance Level gains. The most straightforward option is to start with Soldiers Level 5 -- Cook is going to want the power to invade a Castle from the outset as quickly as possible and to hold on to as many Soldiers as he can for the next invasions. When Cook captures his first Castle, the player can decide from there if they feel they need stronger Soldiers, or if they can move onto Scouts Levels to make better use of Shadow Network. When Scouts hits Level 5, Cook will likely want to switch to Spies, as he will want to keep deploying Spies as much as possible to sabotage the enemy and keep Shadow Network strong at the same time. Decreasing the costs and recall times for Spies can be very valuable, and at Spies Level 10, there is little problem with Cook leaving low-cost Spies deployed in his own territories to keep his Shadow Network active -- 10 Scouts seeing 10 Spies or 5 Scouts seeing 20 Spies will max out Cook's Shadow Network gains. Before Cook hits Spies Level 10, he may not have the Spies counts to effectively leave many Spies "on break" in his own territories, when they could be out pulling double-duty by sabotaging territories/killing soldiers while contributing to the Shadow Network. When Cook's Shadow Network feels properly established and he has hit Spies Level 10, Cook can optionally finish getting Soldiers to Level 10 for more Castle invasions or Scouts Level 10 for free resource gains due to his large number of Scouts. It is also helpful that Cook should have Spies Level 10 and a lot of Spies by this point to assassinate soldiers in distant territories so that he can watch other nations invade each other while Cook's Scouts gain him more resources based off of this. From there, Cook's next choices will likely be based around player preference and his wife's strengths -- Cook needs little else aside from capturing Castles, setting up his Shadow Network, getting married and have a child, all of which should be covered with Soldiers, Scouts and Spies. Towns can be a decent follow-up (even if a bit late in the game), since Cook's large number of Soldiers, Scouts and Spies are costly enough that Cook may have to sacrifice some spending on Soldiers for Scouts and Spies, and Towns can help make up for these differences by allowing him to get more of his Soldiers back for more Castle invasions. In terms of the others, Cook could go for Farms and Mines, but in terms of resource gains, he is likely getting enough from Castle captures, Shadow Network, Scouts Level 10 and his child, if Cook has made it that far. If Cook does not have his child yet, Stampede and Landslide can add some bonus military invasion power against other Soldiers Level 10 nations outside of Castles (where Cook is more lacking in military power). Negotiation could be valuable, too, with Cook's need to get married and have a child quickly, as well as his high resource counts, but with Soldiers/Scouts/Spies being higher priority, this might come too late. Despite his Castles-focused Field Passive, Cook himself does not rely on Castles as much as others might -- the bonuses are handy (Imperialism with Castles Level 10 stacks nicely with Cook's Shadow Network, Mercantile will take better advantage of his spoils from Usurper, Tyrant will give him better military bonuses before he has a child and outside of Castles), but there are other priorities that will likely be more worth the investment. Cook and Nation Setup Notable Soldier Types -- Xystedon Berserkers, Dissental Soldiers Notable Religions -- Centumvirate Notable Ruling Approaches -- Tyrant, Mercantile Cook's nation customization for Counterintelligence can be a bit rigid, as his main goal is to be as aggressive as he can in the early game to access his benefits for the mid game/late game. Xystedon Berserkers are a solid Soldier Type for Cook, since he has to be very aggressive from the onset, and Berserkers always mix well with Centumvirate as a religion and Tyrant as a Ruling Approach, both of which work well for Cook. Dissental Soldiers with Lensia origin can be better than Berserkers for invading Castles, since they bring Spiders into play, which not only adds their Stun darts into the mix, but brings a total of 8 NPC allies for the player into battle at one time. The issue with Dissental Soldiers (Lensia origin) is using them outside of Castle territories, as they will have no advantages there. The other choices for Soldier Type are less useful for Cook -- Peacekeepers are Towns-specific, which is not a priority for Cook. Sky Corps and their focus on Farms/Mines/Stampede/Landslide are also something that Cook will likely not pursue, unless not building a nation around Cook. Aeldanact Guards can be good for border defense when Cook has access to Spies for assassinating soldiers after capturing a Castle or two, but might be harder for the initial invasion if Cook is not a Tyrant. Galatelt Warrior Priests have the invasion power that Cook wants, but needing to return to the Castle for religious ceremonies might cut down on Cook's need for aggressive momentum. Cook may want to stay away from Force Fighters and Pael Army altogether. Force Fighters may suffer from Cook's early invasions and his possible need to focus Mez hires on Scouts/Spies after capturing Castles -- Cook may not be able to provide the Force Fighters' need for large numbers, depending on how the player approaches Counterintelligence with Cook. Pael Army, as usual, is less useful invasion-heavy nations. Cook's choice of religion may be a bit limited, as Cook may want to focus on well-rested bonuses in the early game rather than religious ceremonies, to better help his personal invasion power and to not waste too much time at the Castle. Theite's border defense and Crime Rate is a lower priority for Cook, and Theite's dislike of sleeping with a companion would mean shorter well-rested bonuses or suffering from higher cost units with lower Mez gains from the Castle Morale/Crime Rate penalties. Pantheon would mesh well with Shadow Network/Heir To The Throne, but Cook would benefit more from early game bonuses rather than mid game/late game. Centumvirate is Cook's best choice for religion, as it suits his invasion focus and gives him resources in bursts, similar to his Usurper passive. Centumvirate's gains from demands always being active also means Cook will not need to care about returning to Castles for religious ceremonies as much in the early game (though when the mid game/late game arrives and Cook is married, this is less of a concern). For ruling approaches, Imperialism stacks nicely with Cook's mid game/late game economic gains, especially after he has invaded a lot of territories and/or got married, but Cook wants early game bonuses to make up for his lack of early game strengths in his passives. Tyrant is great for strong early game invasions, though if the player does not want to deal with Tyrant's negatives, Mercantile could start proving its usefulness after Cook conquers his first Castle. Cook may lose more Soldiers when conquering that first castle without Tyrant, but he can make Mercantile pay off more economically afterwards to make up for it. General Gameplay Flow for Cook Cook's early game will consist of him invading Castles at nearly any cost -- so long as he is not invading the Castle of his future wife, the more that Cook can keep up the momentum of capturing Castles, the better his resources will be. Of course, if Cook invades TOO far, he may find his return back to his own Castle cut off when nation leaders prioritize the re-taking of their Castle when they have no Castle. If the player feels that they are in a good position resource-wise to start setting up their Shadow Network, they can start cooling off Cook's aggression a bit, return Cook to his own main territories, and invade whatever territories the player wants from there (which should likely be Centumvirate demands). If Cook has made it to the mid game and got engaged, wedding security should be easy -- he should already have the Scouts for it. So long as Castle Morale is maintained, Cook should be through the hardest parts of his Counterintelligence game. He and his wife should have a baby immediately, even if it is Cherry with Career Focus -- Cook can still use Cherry's Career Focus while she is pregnant, so it is not a big deal compared to the advantages that Cook's late game will bring. The extra Nation Points from marriage will also let Cook progress more with his Soldiers/Scouts/Spies as needed and let Cook finish his Shadow Network. When Cook's child is born and the late game begins, the payoff for Cook should stand out more. The combination of Shadow Network and Heir To The Throne should give Cook's nation incredible military and economic power, to say nothing of what Spies Level 10 can add for espionage. If played VERY effectively, though, Cook may end up overrunning the enemy before he can show off his Heir To The Throne boosts. Playing against Cook on Legend Plus An AI Cook in Legend Plus will not function much differently from most military invader nations -- he is more aggressive than normal, and he invests in Soldiers Levels early on. The one early difference is that Cook may deploy more Scouts than normal for his Shadow Network, but he is mainly a strong military early on. Like most military nations, try and deploy more soldiers than normal (more than double, at least). The point to worry about Cook is if he is married with a child for too long -- the marriage will give him more Nation Points for his Shadow Network to be more effective (Scouts/Spies) and his child will boost his military and economy further. If it comes down to a long Counterintelligence game, the player may wish to consider preparations for poisoning the wine or assassination through large numbers of Spies (which will require at least Spies Level 1), as facing down Cook militarily may get to be too difficult. If AI Cook is fought in direct combat, it should be noted that his only ability is Far Shot (throwing his ranged weapon). Cook does have higher stats for combat than all other nation leaders, so that should be taken into account, too -- Cook's bulk could make a fight take many more months, depending on how late in the game the fight is. Avoid fighting Cook in a Castle, as well (though that should not be too difficult, given how uncommon Castle territories are). Cook's Far Shot may not have a high base damage, but depending on Cook's bonuses, it could get worrisome in the late game. Pay attention to Cook's facing in combat and try to keep away from where he is facing, as that direction is likely the direction he has thrown his ranged weapon in. Having Landslide in play could be helpful if Cook's ricochets knock the boulders around (especially in a small arena like a Town). Claire Field Passive -- Shadow Games If Claire is fighting in a territory that has one of her Spies, Claire deals 3x damage for that battle. When the invasion formula applies, Claire gains 100% offense/defense in a contested territory that has a Spy from her nation in it (this bonus does not apply to her soldiers). World Passive -- Cloak and Dagger Claire's Spies kill 1 extra soldier each when assassinating soldiers and double the effects of weakening territory (2x Castle Morale loss in Castles, 2x Crime Rate rises in Towns, 2x more Food/Mineral prevention in Farms and Mines). Claire's Spies also count as double for attempts at assassinating leaders and disrupting weddings, as well as for determining whose Spies count for the assassination/wedding kill. Marriage Passive -- Silent Understanding When an enemy leader kills any of Claire's Spies, that leader's nation loses 500 Food per Spy killed belonging to Claire (occurs before Allisara's Food gains for killing Spies). Playing as Claire Claire is a heavily espionage-focused nation leader, and all 3 of Claire's passives are dedicated to this field. Not only do her Spies have double the effectiveness of everyone else's, but she even gains a unique ability for her Spies after getting married -- heavy destruction of a nation's food surplus on Spy death (even if not using Weaken Territory). However, Claire could easily be considered the weakest character in terms of military, economy and alliances. Not one of her passives aids Soldiers in any way, boosts her resources gains, or helps with Alliances -- in fact, her focus on Spies will decrease her Alliance Formula Value (since Spies do not count towards the Alliance Formula, but the Mez they cost and the Soldiers that Claire will focus less on hiring do), making her likely to be among the slowest to build Alliance Levels. Rather than focus on improving these areas for herself, Claire's skillset has her destroying military, economy and alliance values for everyone else -- if Claire can weaken other nations in these areas moreso than she is weak in them, she still comes out on top. Claire's dedication to Spies might prevent her from effectively pulling off common Counterintelligence strategies when building a nation around her, but she has her own set of strategies to use in their place. Claire and Nation Powers Notable main focuses for Nation Powers -- Spies, Towns It probably goes without saying, but Claire will want to prioritize getting Spies to Level 10 -- getting them down to 25% of their original cost as soon as possible will allow Claire to spread a lot more chaos across the board very early on. The recall times being shortened to 1 month are essential for Claire to keep her Spies safe while getting them back out into play quickly, and the lower cost will hurt Claire less if she needs to have a Spy sacrifice themselves for keeping a necessary sabotage in play as long as possible. Towns are a good follow-up after reaching Towns Level 10, as Claire wants more Mez for more Spies. There really is not a lot more to this as a choice for Claire, since it focuses on playing more to her strengths. Scouts can be useful for keeping an eye on the comings and going of other nation leaders, but Claire may not want more than Scouts Level 5 for the boost in vision range. However, Soldiers may be a better follow-up than Scouts -- even though Claire would be better off fighting alone through using Assassinate Soldiers to either zero out a territory of Soldiers or lower the amount of Soldiers, the boosted border defense that Soldiers Levels would bring would still be valuable. Aside from that, Claire will likely not benefit from the other Nation Powers as heavily. Castles Level 5 can provide a boost to the well-rested bonus, which can be useful with how often Claire fights alone, but by the time she is able to afford investing in Castles, it will likely be the late game, where it will be harder to solo territories, especially when other nations will have the economy for a lot of Soldiers and Claire should be in a position where she can afford enough Spies to zero out the soldiers in a territory (unlike the early game where her Spies and Mez are more limited) and use Ambush Nation Leader to kill the enemy nation leaders when she can afford even more Spies than that. Mines could be useful for building up border defense for Claire, but once again, will come too late compared to her higher priorities -- if Claire was good at sabotaging Food and Minerals in the early game, she will likely have been able to have traded for what she has needed already through trade deal scarcity. Farms are in a similar lower bracket for Claire for the same reasons. Claire's skill with alliances and Alliance Formula Value are so poor, that she will likely not need Negotiation at all for a nation built around her. Claire and Nation Setup Notable Soldier Types -- Aeldanact Guards Notable Religions -- Centumvirate, Theite Notable Ruling Approaches -- Mercantile, Imperialism Claire's Spy-heavy approach will likely leave her without much need to use Soldiers to help her invade -- since she can just use Spies to kill off most or all of the Soldiers on the turn before she invades, Claire will likely be a lot more reliant on Aeldanact Guards and their powerful border defenses. Galatelt Warrior Priests with Theite religion can be a powerful border defense alternative to Aeldanact Guards and can help with invasions, but will require Claire to return to her Castle to perform religious ceremonies every 5 months. If this conditional can be maintained constantly, then Galatelt Warrior Priests could be even better than Aeldanact Guards, since they can help Claire in any moments where she may wish to invade militarily. However, the number of instances where Claire may want to focus on military invasion may not be worth the cost of maintaining the religious ceremony conditional. Peacekeepers can be useful for keeping Claire's Crime Rate under control while she invests in Towns Level 5, but as she will likely be turtling more than invading, Claire can handle most of the Crime Rate personally, either through taking on the bandits in Town or by performing Theite religious ceremonies (which also help with border defense). Dissental Soldiers can be useful for supplying Claire with extra resources for her weak economy, but Claire may prefer border defense over the Dissental Soldier gains, which require a good number of soldiers to pay off -- Mez that is better spent towards Spies. Pael Army can be useful for any nations that might grow faster than Claire, which for the early/mid game, will likely be all of them, as heavy espionage-focused builds are not as quick as other builds in getting married. Nations with alliance focus will make it to marriage faster, nations with economy focus can build up alliance levels quickly with trade deal scarcity, and military-focused nations could gain enough Alliance Formula Value through successful conquering and holding of territory. Claire will likely not have the Mez for a lot of Pael Army for border defense in the early game when nations are on more even terms, so while they can be useful if Claire (likely) falls behind in the mid game, they may take away focus on Spies in the early game. The remaining Soldier Types -- Force Fighters, Sky Corps and Xystedon Berserkers -- are too invasion-focused for Claire. Xystedon Berserkers might be the most useful of the three for Claire in the early game when Claire might not have the Nation Points for high Spies levels, but Claire's border defense will be too vulnerable as the game goes on. Force Fighters will require too much Mez away from Spies for Claire to really care about them, and Sky Corps are a harder recommendation for Claire, especially with Farms/Mines being on the low end of her Nation Points focuses. As far as religions go, Claire can work well with Centumvirate, since it translates into easy resources once Claire has cleared the territory of soldiers using her Spies. In the early game, when she does not have the Mez for many Spies or the Nation Points for Spies Level 10's shorter recall times/lower costs, she can use the recall time to return to the Castle to perform religious ceremonies to get more resources/loss prevention for the next time she sends out Spies to assassinate soldiers. Since Claire will likely be on the defensive, especially in the early game, Theite's border defense will work well with Claire, especially when combined with Aeldanact Guards. The Crime Rate reductions from Theite ceremonies will also be helpful if Claire invests in Towns Level 5 for more Mez for Spies. Pantheon can be useful for giving Claire's weak economy some gains, but it is harder to recommend precisely BECAUSE she has a weak economic base. It is not bad, but Claire could probably benefit more from Centumvirate combined with Assassinate Soldiers or Theite's border defense/Crime Rate control over the course of a Counterintelligence overall. For ruling approaches, Imperialism or Mercantile would work well for Claire, depending on the player's strategy. Imperialism will not be overly powerful early on with weak territories and Claire's weak economic focus, but it could be valuable if Claire has Centumvirate for a religion, as she will likely be capturing often. If Claire can obtain a wide range of resources through Centumvirate conquering or successful monopolies in minerals/food shortages through Spies, Mercantile can work well in Claire's favour by gaining her a lot of much-needed resources and Alliance Level gains in the early game. Claire makes for an awful Tyrant -- she is not invasion-focused due to being less reliant on Soldiers, and she wants low Crime Rate for Towns Level 5 eventually. Spies are also quite expensive to begin with, and Castle Morale/Crime Rate interfering with costs will put a damper on that. Unless the player is building a military-focused nation and is only using Claire as a nation leader for her Field Passive (Claire deals 3x damage when her Spy is in the battle territory) and espionage skills for a military/espionage hybrid, steer far away from Tyrant Claire -- it's mostly negative for nations built around her. General Gameplay Flow for Claire Claire's early game should focus on hiring some Spies and using them to cause food shortages, mineral shortages for the nation that shares Claire's starting Mine Type, and to assassinate Soldiers for territories that she intends to take. Given how expensive Spies are, it may be best to focus on taking Towns first -- they are a better way of cutting off Mez income for a nation in the early game, as Spies cannot stop Mez gains outright like they do with Food and Minerals. Also keep in mind that Claire's 1st turn for Spy placement should be territories that are 2 or 3 movement away from the enemy Castle -- the enemy will not have more than 1 movement right out of the gate, so Claire's Spies will be safe there for 1st turn. Since watching enemy movement is essential for keeping Claire's expensive Spies alive, she may want a Scout to start with, too. If she can use the Scout to keep an eye on enemy movements and have one Spy use Gather Information to keep an eye on well-rested and horse movement bonuses, as well as if the opponent's territory levels are high enough for Spies to be detected, it can be easier to keep Claire's Spies safe and recall them as needed. While making use of Claire's Spies, keep in mind both recall times and that Allisara will detect any Spy she finds, regardless of her own territory levels. If needs be, Claire should try and kill a nation leader early on as soon as possible -- maybe Allisara (who has counterspy capabilities), who could also be a potential marriage rival. Claire badly needs the Nation Points for Spies early on, and hitting Spies Level 10 alongside levelling Towns early on will be to her advantage, even if she cannot afford to keep all of the territories safe with Soldiers and other nations take over and gain Nation Points from it. Claire's mid game is rough, as she will be extremely busy trying to take on multiple complex tasks at once. For one, Claire will need to work harder than other nation leaders on average to get married -- she has fewer marriage candidates (cannot marry Cook, so has only 4 options instead of 5) and her lack of skill in military/economy/alliances and her purchasing of Spies keeps her Alliance Formula Value low, which makes her Alliance Level gains slow. If she performed well in the early game with inflicting food shortages and gaining mineral monopolies (and used that for trade deal scarcity for Alliance Level gains), as well as invaded territories successfully and consistently thanks to her Spies assassinating Soldiers (Mez gained from conquered Towns and Mez saved from needing to hire less Soldiers), she could overcome her Alliance Formula shortfalls and pull ahead. Another major factor of Claire's mid game is everyone else getting married -- if Claire has hit Spies Level 10, she should be able to afford a lot more of her powerful Spies to assassinate the bride and groom at their wedding, provided that she has sabotaged the potential marriage leader of the Mez to hire security (capturing Towns and using Spies well before the wedding to lower Castle Morale and raise Crime Rate, as well as food shortages to cause issues for Castle Morale/Crime Rate and weaken their military so that they lose more Soldiers early on). Getting the marriage leader to 0% Castle Morale is the best way to ensure wedding assassinations, and Claire will most likely be the winner who claims the Nation Points and territories if she does -- this will need a lot of work in advance, though, so ensure that Claire has Spies with Gather Information to let the player know when nations are approaching marriage and who the marriage leader will be to determine the target for Spies. If Claire killed another nation leader early on, the extra Nation Points should help ensure Spies Level 10 for low-cost Spies and maybe Towns for more Mez to hire the required Spies for wedding kills and the preparation months ahead of time for the wedding to fail. Given how much work and early preparation goes into stopping a wedding (or more than one wedding, if the player was able to successfully gather information and estimate who would marry who and who would be the marriage leader), it is best if Claire aims to kill a nation leader early on. Do not worry too much about aiming to stop every wedding in sight -- whatever weddings Claire can stop should put her at an advantage through her large gains in Nation Points. If Claire has managed to make it to the late game with either some early game success (built up some resources from trades or conquered enough territory) or mid game success (successful wedding assassinations), Claire might be able to relax a bit in the late game. Her husband can add to and round out her nation with some much needed military/economy focus, Claire's Spy passives allow her to still function as the spymaster that she is while she is away and pregnant (she would likely be turtling around this time, anyways), and she gains a new tactic for her Spies on marriage through her Marriage Passive -- the ability to sabotage enemy Food surpluses through them killing Claire's Spies. If Claire's economy is not good enough to hire enough Spies for kills or she is facing Allisara (cannot kill her with Ambush Nation Leader), this can help cause easier food shortages for military invasion/soldier defection. If Claire is able to afford the Spies (more Mez from Alberto, more Spy potency from Jimmy) and is not against Allisara, then she can set about finishing Counterintelligence using Ambush Nation Leader. Playing against Claire on Legend Plus Claire on Legend Plus will not play noticeably different from any other nation leader from lower difficulties, save for her heavy focus on Spies. She may not appear as a standout threat, but she can start spreading a lot of Spies around to cause chaos if she gets married and has her husband's military and/or economic might to back her up. In combat, AI Claire uses Throwing Knife and Rainfall. Throwing Knife is a basic projectile, and unless Claire has a Spy in the territory that she is fighting in, it will likely not inflict a lot of damage. Rainfall is a bit more worrisome, as it is a large area Knockdown ability that can knock down up to 4 of Claire's enemies at once. Blocking Rainfall and then dodging away should help keep the player safe if they can predict when Claire use Rainfall (at the start of the fight, at minimum). So long as the player blocks a lot against Claire, they can rely on their soldiers to take care of her easily enough. Jimmy Field Passive -- Converse with the World When Jimmy triggers Stampede or Landslide, those abilities deal double damage that fight. If Jimmy's nation has a religious ceremony active, the damage of Stampede and Landslide is multiplied by (2 + (0.1 x n)), where n is the number of months since the last religious ceremony was performed. Performing a new religious ceremony resets n back to 0. World Passive -- Outdoorsman If Jimmy ends the month on a Farm or a Mine, the religious ceremony duration for his nation will not decrease for that month. Marriage Passive -- Casual Approach Jimmy boosts the World Passive of his wife: Cherry -- Soldiers cost 50% less to hire (instead of 25%) Tara -- All of Tara's Farms produce 50% more Food (instead of 25%) and food decreases are 10 per territory Claire -- Claire's Spies kill 1 extra soldier and ambush/weaken territory/disrupt wedding by 3x instead of 2x Caesara -- When territory is acquired, 5 free soldiers are added (10 if combat and higher Alliance Value) Allisara -- Allisara gets 1 extra Alliance Action per month and 1% more Alliance Level gains Playing as Jimmy Jimmy is a religion-based jack-of-all-trades with access to high-powered Stampede and Landslide. Since Jimmy will likely be focusing on Farms and Mines for Stampede and Landslide, he will likely end up with good non-Mez resources due to his focus on Nation Powers investments. His Stampede and Landslide can grow to such power levels that, if used effectively in battle, can do more than their share of damage in place of a stronger military. His Marriage Passive also powers up his wife's World Passive and lets his nation lean a lot more heavily into his wife's strengths, which can consist of military, economy, espionage or alliances-focused enhancements. Where Jimmy lags behind is his awkward approach to his super-powered Stampede and Landslide. Jimmy relies on not visiting Castles or Towns to keep Stampede and Landslide increasing in power, which is too difficult on him before marriage in maintaining Castle Morale and Crime Rate. Early on, he may not be able to keep Stampede and Landslide at high power. Even after marriage, Jimmy will need to permanently live in the Farms and Mines of his nation to avoid ticking down the religious ceremony -- which means that his wife will need to return to the Castle to keep Castle Morale high and spend time with their child, as well as maintain Crime Rate in Towns for him. This also means that Jimmy will be reliant on his wife doing the invading for Castles and Towns, so Jimmy's invasion can be spotty. Not returning to the Castle also means that Tara and Caesara's Marriage Passives will see little to no use, so Jimmy needs some heavy long-term planning to use effectively. Jimmy and Nation Powers Notable main focuses for Nation Powers -- Farms, Mines Jimmy should immediately invest in Farms and Mines on New Game, given his heavy focus on Stampede and Landslide. Farms should come first, so that he has a high-powered Stampede for the early game that he can use immediately. Jimmy's Mines Level 10 Landslide is incredibly powerful for an ability that remains in play for an entire battle, but Jimmy may not have the minerals on-hand to abuse it for the early game -- Stampede can suffice until Jimmy uses Spies to create food shortages and trade Food for more minerals for more frequent Landslide use outside of Mines. Once Jimmy has Farms and Mines maxed out, Jimmy will have the main Nation Powers that he wants, and he should shift his focus for Nation Powers towards his wife's needs -- Cherry as a wife will want Soldiers, Claire will want Spies, Caesara will want Soldiers and Negotiation, and Allisara will want Negotiation (if the player is able to set up strong enough alliance levels with other nations to have poisoning the wine at dinner as an option). Tara will not need much more from Jimmy -- he should already have Farms built up, and it is hard to recommend Castles as an option if Jimmy will not be returning with Tara to the Castle much (if at all). If Jimmy is unlucky enough to not get married or his wife does not need much else from him, his next options will likely be Soldiers or Towns -- Jimmy's Stampede and Landslide will be great for invasion, but stronger Soldiers will still make a difference and give Jimmy much needed border defense. If married, Towns will give Jimmy the Mez that he needs for late game military and border defense, and he will either count on his wife to maintain Towns or will already be needing to sacrifice his Stampede/Landslide power to maintain Castle Morale/Crime Rate if unmarried (Jimmy may as well commit here -- unless he is Theite and conquering non-Theite territories regularly, he will need to visit Castles and Towns to be able to have Mez to purchase more Soldiers). Spies can be a good runner-up afterwards, since Jimmy can put them to use by evening the odds against stronger militaries by causing food shortages and assassinating soldiers. By the late game and once the above is settled, Jimmy will have little use for Castles, Scouts and Negotiation. By the time that he is able to start putting Nation Points into these Nation Powers, Scouts will likely not be useful for the small resource gains and the enemy militaries will likely have high Soldiers Levels at this point. Negotiation levelling will have little use in the end game unless Jimmy's nation can gain Confidence Boosts regularly. Castles could be useful for some resource boosts under Imperialism and some added invasion power under Tyrant, but Jimmy will likely not be useful as a Tyrant for a nation built around him and the Imperialism bonuses may come too late to pay off. Jimmy and Nation Setup Notable Soldier Types -- Sky Corps Notable Religions -- Theite, Pantheon Notable Ruling Approaches -- Mercantile, Imperialism It is difficult to recommend a Soldier Type for Jimmy other than Sky Corps -- Sky Corps boost Jimmy's Stampede and Landslide damage further, and Jimmy's investment in both Farms and Mines will give the Sky Corps 100% invasion defense in Farms and Mines when Jimmy bulids up those respective territories to Level 10 in Nation Powers, which allows Jimmy to have surprisingly strong border defense for half of the territories on the map. In terms of the other Soldier Types, Jimmy will likely not have the Mez to make Force Fighters feel as useful they could be, he will stay out of Towns too much to benefit from Peacekeepers, he will likely be invading too much to need Pael Army's underdog buffs, and he will likely not rely on Dissental Soldiers for their resource gains (and due to needing to avoid Castles and Towns, he will likely not use them as much for Spiders and Scorchedarm abilities, nor will he be able to return to the Castle to change their origin frequently). Galatelt Warrior Priests might look like they will be useful for Jimmy, being a religion-focused leader, but Jimmy is actually one of the worst users of them -- since Jimmy will avoid returning to the Castle often to perform religious ceremonies and tries to stretch the duration of his ceremonies as long as he can, the low frequencies of ceremonies make Galatelt Warrior Priests incompatible with Jimmy's playstyle. Xystedon Berserkers can be useful for invasion, but if Jimmy is going to be invading Farms and Mines primarily, then Sky Corps will be useful for that, as well, while providing better defense of those Farms and Mines. It could be said that lack of compatibility with different Soldier Types is a weakness of Jimmy's -- it is mainly Sky Corps or bust. If Jimmy really must work with a Soldier Type that is not Sky Corps, Aeldanact Guards are probably the best alternative overall. The added border defense is useful, and the poor invasion power of Aeldanact Guards can be offset by the power of Stampede and Landslide. For religions, Jimmy would likely benefit the most from either Theite or Pantheon. Jimmy's World Passive can stretch the Theite religious ceremony's short duration for a very long time, giving Jimmy free long-lasting border defense, and keeping Pantheon's Farm/Mines bonuses going for a long time stacks nicely with Jimmy's strong focus in both Farms and Mines (making him able to likely perform even more trade deals with scarcity). Centumvirate looks good on the surface when combined with Jimmy's Outdoorsman passive, with the negative penalties essentially completely removed and Jimmy using his Stampede/Landslide to invade frequently for boosted resources, but Centumvirate becomes an issue when Jimmy is required to invade a Town before he is married with a child -- Jimmy will likely not have the military or economic strength early on for invading Towns reliably, he will likely lose his built-up Stampede/Landslide power in the mid game if he goes for the Town invasion at that point, and waiting until the late game when Jimmy is married in order to use Centumvirate at its best makes it a harder sell than Theite and Pantheon's more straightforward bonuses for Jimmy. Jimmy can make good use out of both Mercantile and Imperialism for ruling approaches. He will likely have either the non-Mez resources for frequent scarce trade deals to build up a good economic base under Mercantile, and he will likely be able to benefit well enough from Imperialism early on if he consistently conquers territories with Stampede and Landslide. Jimmy should avoid Tyrant -- his need to stay out of Castles and Towns is already hard enough on both his Castle Morale and Crime Rate, and the boosted military power he gains is needed less when he has his high-powered Stampede and Landslide to aid him in battles. General Gameplay Flow for Jimmy Jimmy's early game will require him to put points into Farms Level 5 to gain early access to Stampede, perform a religious ceremony, and visit a Farm to get horses. Once Jimmy does so, he can start invading territories with his high-powered (and likely Sky Corps-powered) Stampede to start gaining territories for more resources and Alliance Formula Value to better speed up the journey to marriage. Best of all, Jimmy can lean on Stampede (and eventually Landslide when he conquers enough or gets married) over hiring Soldiers, so he may be able to invade with smaller forces early on and can either put his Soldiers towards border defense or use the Mez for other things. Despite his need to stay in Farms and Mines for a more powerful Stampede and Landslide, Jimmy would be better off invading Towns in the early game -- the smaller arena lets him win more battles early on, and Jimmy will not be reliant on maintaining high values for Stampede/Landslide until he is married and his wife is pregnant. Early on, Jimmy will have too much on his plate and will need to return to his Castle to maintain Castle Morale for his wedding, so do not worry too much about Jimmy's early game Stampede/Landslide power. During the mid game, when Jimmy's wedding finishes, he should still hold back to trigger Tara or Caesara's Marriage Passive buffs (if Jimmy married one of them), choose the option to have a baby, THEN perform a religious ceremony to start the Stampede and Landslide power-up process all over again. Jimmy should not return to any of his Castles or visit any of his Towns when he reaches the late game -- one of the primary reasons to play as Jimmy is for his extremely powerful Stampede and Landslide, and not focusing on powering it up during the late game defeats the point of playing Jimmy. His wife will need to handle the Castles and Towns, while Jimmy keeps focus on invading -- if he is married to Allisara, she can share his high-powered Stampede/Landslide while boosting its power and gains even further, and she is able to use it in Castles/Towns without the religious ceremony duration decreasing. If Jimmy maintains his Stampede and Landslide and focuses on invading constantly, he should be able to win the Counterintelligence, even with smaller numbers of soldiers. Playing against Jimmy on Legend Plus While Jimmy's World Map game on Legend Plus is not overly different from his approach on lower difficulties, facing him directly in battle can be brutal when he has Stampede, Landslide or both available. If he is fought, remember what side of the battle map your leader(s) and soldiers entered from, so that Stampede can be more easily dodged (as the horses start on Jimmy's side). If the player must fight and take out Jimmy directly, using a Spy to Gather Information as to his Farms/Mines levels, if Jimmy has a horse for Stampede when not on a Farm, and if Jimmy has sufficient non-Obsidian minerals for Landslide outside of Mines can be useful in revealing to the player if they are in a spot where they might catch Jimmy unaware. Alternatively, the player can focus on capturing his Farms (so Jimmy cannot get horses) and having Spies sabotage his Mines with Weaken Territory (so that he cannot get Minerals) to force the combat situation in their favour. In combat, AI Jimmy uses Twister and Shuriken. While Shuriken is a standard projectile and Jimmy does not have much for military boosts for himself in combat, Twister can be dangerous, as it is rapid-hit and mobile -- be at the ready to block and dodge it, as well as be ready to keep away from Jimmy so that he will likely prioritize using it on the player's soldiers rather than the player's nation leaders. Brooks Field Passive -- Sniper Sight If Brooks is fighting in a territory that one of his Scouts can see, Brooks deals 3x damage for that battle. When the invasion formula applies, Brooks gains 100% offense/defense in a contested territory that a Scout from his nation can see (this bonus does not apply to his soldiers). World Passive -- Watchman Brooks' Scouts can see a distance of 1 extra territory away. If Brooks' Scouts are in a territory that is being invaded by another nation, Brooks' Scouts enhance the Attack of each Soldier (but not nation leaders) by 20% per Scout in that specific territory. If the invasion formula applies, the Soldiers gain 20% invasion defense per Scout in that specific territory. Marriage Passive -- Castle Doctrine If Brooks and his wife have a child, battles in the Castle with the child and any of their territories up to 3 territories away from the child's Castle have the Soldiers deal double damage and take 50% less damage in all combat. When the invasion formula applies, Soldiers belonging to Brooks' nation gain 150% more offense/defense if they are in a territory up to 3 territories away from the Castle that Brooks' child is in. Playing as Brooks Brooks is a Scout-based nation leader with a good balance of military offense and border defense. Brooks' Scouts are so powerful in terms of sight range, that starting with Scouts Level 5 and placing 1 Scout in the center of the map (the "tip" of the pizza slice in terms of starting territories) will allow Brooks to see the entire world map immediately -- it can be very useful to know where all nation leaders are at all times, and any fighting between other nations will grant Brooks small resource gains if he has Scouts Level 10 and a large number of Scouts in play. Brooks' early game invasion potential is very strong against weaker militaries. Starting at Scouts Level 5 will ensure that all but the nations focusing on high Soldiers Levels from the start will not have HP buffs for their Soldiers when Brooks invades, and just having his Scouts see into a territory that he is fighting in will triple Brooks' damage for the fight. In many ways, Brooks is as good at early game military invasion as Cherry and Knight are. His border defenses can surpass even Alberto's, if Brooks has enough Scouts -- just 5 Scouts in a territory will match Alberto's border defense from his Field Passive, and going beyond that will boost it past Alberto's. When Brooks gets married and has a child, a wide area of territories (up to 3 territories away from the Castle that Brooks' child is in) gain even greater border defense at a level on par with what Aeldanact Guards provide. Brooks is likely the strongest nation leader for border defense during the late game and, as a result, can power up even poorly guarded territories very effectively using Scouts. However, the mid game and late game is also where Brooks begins to stumble -- like Cherry, he has a weak economy by default, but unlike Cherry, his military invasion power starts to fade away as the other nations invest more in Soldiers Level 10 to prevent Brooks' Scouts from taking away the Soldiers' HP buff. Brooks' personal triple damage is still nice to have, but it might not feel like enough as both Soldiers and nations get stronger, and Brooks' soldiers only gain bonuses when they are fighting within range of Brooks' child. Brooks' generally weak economy also puts his border defense in danger. Unlike Alberto's simple all-territories-gain-double-border-defense passive, Brooks' powerful border defense comes on a per-territory basis, and his Scouts will only power up the territory that they are in, which means that Brooks will need to spend a lot of Mez on Scouts, which may be tougher to do if he cannot secure good sources of Mez to do a lot of hiring. Unlike Soldiers, who can be moved at any time on any turn, Scouts are harder to reposition, needing 1 month of recall time. His Marriage Passive is restricted to the area around his Child's Castle, so his border defense is also more fixed in terms of location. For Brooks to succeed in Counterintelligence, he will need to use his powerful early game military to build up a strong defense and a strong reserve of resources. He will also need to plan what territories he will conquer carefully, so that he can make use of his Marriage Passive's area of effect to give him more invasion power, even in the late game. Brooks and Nation Powers Notable main focuses for Nation Powers -- Scouts, Towns Scouts will always be a priority for Brooks, given his improved recon abilities, his personal damage boost and his increased border defense. Scouts Level 10 should be Brooks' immediate priority, and should be quick to achieve given his strong early game military. Once he hits Scouts Level 10, he can start gaining bits of extra resources from watching the other nations fight, if he uses Scouts properly for enough border defense to make other nations' territories into more appealing targets than his own territories. Towns can be a good follow-up priority for Brooks, as he will need a lot of Mez for both Soldiers and Scouts, and he does not have any passives that contribute to his economy. While Scouts can be an excellent border defense buffer for Brooks' Soldiers, having too few Soldiers will make his territories easy to invade if enemy Spies are set to Assassinate Soldiers, so having the Mez for both unit types is important. Soldiers can be useful for Brooks, though his early game is easily handled even with Soldiers Level 0. By the mid game and late game (or Legend Plus AI Cook early game) when enemy nations may be investing in Scouts levels more heavily, Brooks can use Soldiers Levels to bolster his border defense and regain a bit of his early game military power. However, early focus on Scouts and Towns will give Brooks cheaper Scouts and the Mez to buy a lot of Scouts -- even if enemy Scouts remove the Soldier Defense Bonus, Brooks' own Scouts can supply their own more powerful defense if deployed properly. Farms and Mines can be useful for Brooks to help give him more resources and invasion power with Stampede/Landslide. In particular, boosted Limestone/Magnetite gains from Mines can add nicely to Brooks' strong border defense. Spies can be nice for Brooks, since the lower costs of high Spies levels will let him assassinate soldiers in place of military invasions for the late game, but this may also come too late in a Counterintelligence for Brooks to really make use of this. He could appreciate causing food shortages to weaken enemy invasion power further against his powerful border defense, but by the time Spies would have points for investment, Brooks will likely be able to afford a lot of Soldiers/Scouts for defense, anyways. Negotiation can similarly be nice for Brooks' Alliance Level (which may be lower than others due to Scouts not factoring into the Alliance Formula), but may come too late -- the higher damage Confidence Boosts can be nice for both border defense and invasions, though. Castles are probably the one Nation Power that Brooks will get the least use out of. Tyrant may be good for invasion, but Brooks' focus on border defense and reliance on his Towns for Mez will make Tyrant itself a harder sell. Mercantile is unlikely for Brooks, too, since he has little skill in economy or alliances in the early game where Mercantile will be of most use. Imperialism's bonuses could work with Brooks' frequent early game invading, but Brooks has other priorities early on. Brooks and Nation Setup Notable Soldier Types -- Galatelt Warrior Priests, Xystedon Berserkers, Dissental Soldiers Notable Religions -- Any Notable Ruling Approaches -- Imperialism Brooks can be pretty flexible with his Soldier Type, given his strong focus on border defense and early game invasion. Galatelt Warrior Priests are a strong go-to for Brooks, since they provide high offense for late game invasions when Brooks' invasion power stands out less and they can be useful for defense in the early game. Since Brooks is likely going to apply a turtling approach through a Counterintelligence game, he (or his wife) should have plenty of opportunity to return to the castle to perform religious ceremonies. Xystedon Berserkers are useful for Brooks' late game where his invasion power does not hold up as well, and they can be helpful for quicker invasions early on. As it is with Cherry, Dissental Soldiers can be useful for Brooks' weak economy, and the combination of Dissental Soldiers with Centumvirate and Scouts Level 10 can help Brooks gain a decent supply of resources through invasion. Aeldanact Guards are useful for Brooks' turtling strategy, but they may provide diminishing returns in the late game when Brooks is able to hire many Scouts to guard territories for increased border defense that surpasses what Aeldanact Guards can provide, and as such, they may be considered overkill. They can still be useful early on when Brooks cannot afford Scouts, so if the player has a plan to enhance their invasion power in the late game through other means, Aeldanact Guards can ensure that no enemy will want to invade Brooks' territories at all. Peacekeepers can be helpful for keeping Crime Rate under control, since Brooks will likely focus on Towns after he reaches Scouts Level 10, and Peacekeepers can help keep his Towns Level 5 buffs intact. Their boosted power in Towns can also help Brooks conquer some extra Towns easily to better boost his Mez gains. Sky Corps will likely only be useful for Brooks once he reaches a point where he can invest in Farms/Mines and gain Stampede/Landslide. While this means that Brooks will not get use out of them until the late game in most cases, this also means that the Sky Corps under Brooks' command can be treated similar to the Xystedon Berserkers, as they both help Brooks in the late game and the Sky Corps will trade more soldier damage and more territory types they work in for boosted Stampede/Landslide power. Force Fighters are tougher to recommend for Brooks, as he will likely be putting more Mez into Scouts for defense and his Scouts will amplify border defense multipliers better than Force Fighters will. Pael Army will also be less useful for Brooks in most cases -- between marriage, his early game invasion power, and his mid game and late game turtling, Brooks will more than likely be in a strong spot in terms of territory count. Brooks can make good use out of any religion. Theite's border defense is useful early on, but may be redundant later -- the Crime Rate reductions through conquering non-Theite territory and religious ceremonies are good for Brooks' Towns, though. Pantheon's boosts to Limestone/Magnetite gains will be useful for securing border defense early on. Centumvirate is a strong pick for Brooks, and one that gives him some variety outside of border defense. With Brooks' high early game invasion power, he can gain extra resources for his weak economy, and his high border defense later on will help protect his territories and his resources from loss. Brooks is not particularly flexible when it comes to ruling approaches. Mercantile does not go well with Brooks' low resource base gains for a nation built around Brooks, and Tyrant does not work well with a leader that will focus on turtling and Towns Levels as the game progresses. This leaves Imperialism as Brooks' only strong option for ruling approach. It is not a bad option, though, since it enhances Brooks' weak resource gains and his early game focus on invasion should help provide more territories for it to show dividends. General Gameplay Flow for Brooks When playing as Brooks, the player should immediately start forming a gameplan as to what nations to avoid until marriage. Brooks' Marriage Passive will provide an area of territories that grants boosted offense and defense for Brooks' soldiers if he has a child, and as a result, the adjacent "pizza slices" to Brooks' starting pizza slice of territories will be much easier to capture in the late game when Brooks and his wife have a baby, since most of those territories will be in his Marriage Passive's area of effect (assuming Brooks and his wife have the baby at his starting castle and not hers). Waiting until the late game to capture these territories may be beneficial, as Brooks and his wife will have more invasion power at a point where it weakens for Brooks. Brooks' early game should have him focus on invading as much as possible for Nation Points and resources. If Brooks is fast and effective in his invasions, he can hit Scouts Level 10 to gain cheaper Scouts and extra resources from his Scouts watching other nations fight. The center of the map will be best for the majority of Brooks' Scouts to be in the early game, since with Brooks' boosted Scout vision range, they can see all territories and gain more resources from watching. Brooks also should not neglect putting Scouts into his other border territories in the early game -- the more that the other nations feel that Brooks' territories are too much trouble to invade, the more territories Brooks can keep and his Alliance Formula Value for marriage will stay strong as a result. Brooks' mid game should be relatively straightforward -- if his border defense has been maintained effectively, Brooks should be able to maintain Castle Morale easily for the wedding, and his cheap Scouts will not only be useful for wedding security, but can also be shifted around for Scouts Level 10 resource gains and better border defense when the wedding is done. The late game is where Brooks may start to have some trouble -- as enemy nations gain more Nation Points, they will more likely have Soldiers Level 10 to prevent Brooks from removing their Soldier Defense Bonus. When only one nation is left, Brooks' Scouts cannot gain him extra resources and the vision range of his Scouts has less value at the end of the game. Since all Brooks has left as a standout advantage against giant militaries is his border defense from his World Passive and Marriage Passive and he brings no economic/espionage advantages to the table, Brooks will be reliant on his wife's abilities and his soldier type/religion/ruling approach. Focus on Soldiers Levels for more military power and/or Farms and Mines for Stampede and Landslide can help Brooks' invasion capabilities stay competitive at the end game -- at the very least, his border defense should be strong enough that the remaining nation(s) will have a hard time gaining ground against him. Playing against Brooks on Legend Plus Brooks will hire more Scouts than usual as an AI nation for added border defense, which can make invasions against his soldiers and territories difficult. Spies with their action set to Assassinate Soldiers is an easier method for getting past Brooks' border defense, as is having Spies use Weaken Territory on his Farms to causes food shortages to weaken his Soldiers' HP and Attack. In most cases, it is best to avoid challenging Brooks if the player is not deploying Spies or taking advantage of a food shortage. Brooks will also be difficult to deal with when he is on offense -- he will prioritize levels in Scouts, and will frequently be able to nullify the Soldier Defense Bonus of nations whose Soldiers Levels are lower than his Scouts Levels. If the player does not have high or max Soldiers Levels, they may wish to consider at least doubling their soldier counts on any territories that borders Brooks'. Engaging Brooks in direct combat is the last thing the player should do -- Brooks' Field Passive gives him giant personal damage with his long-range hitscan attacks, and he will use Blastback if anyone gets too close to him. Unless the player has a powerful military, brings their spouse to hold off Game Over for as long as possible, and has access to status ailments (Alberto System Shock, Tara Backhand, Claire Rainfall, Force Fighter Knockdown, Peacekeeper Stagger Grenade spam), AI Brooks will very likely win any fight the player challenges him to, especially with his Soldiers gaining border defense bonuses from Scouts. Caesara Field Passive -- Street Patrol When Caesara is fighting in a Town, she and her soldiers deal 50% more damage and receive 50% less damage. When the invasion formula applies, if Caesara is present for the invasion and the contested territory is a Town, Caesara and her soldiers gain 100% more offense/defense. When lowering Crime Rate across Towns from fighting bandits, Caesara lowers it an extra 25% for all Towns. World Passive -- Empire's Advocate When a new territory is acquired, 2 free Soldiers are added to that territory. If the territory was acquired through direct combat (and not through marriage or killing a nation leader) and Caesara's nation had a higher Alliance Formula Value before the battle than the nation that lost its territory, 5 free Soldiers are added to that territory instead of 2. Marriage Passive -- Insatiable If Caesara and her husband spend 3 months in a row in the castle sleeping together, Caesara and her husband inflict double damage and take half damage for the next 12 months (Insatiable Buff). When the invasion formula applies, the Insatiable buff gives Caesara and her husband 150% more offense/defense. While Insatiable is active, the number of soldiers added when acquiring a territory increases by 5 (10 extra if conquering a single territory through direct combat with a higher Alliance Formula Value than the target nation). Playing as Caesara Caesara is a jack-of-all-trades nation leader with a focus on Towns and gaining free Soldiers through conquering. If Caesara's Alliance Formula Value is higher than the enemy nation that she is invading, she gains more free soldiers than normal when conquering territories directly. Caesara's free soldiers bonus also applies to killing enemy nation leaders or getting married -- rushing to the altar is a viable way to use Caesara, since the nation that she marries gains free soldiers in all of their old territories (if Caesara is the marriage leader). The free soldiers allow Caesara to keep her military strong and allows her to spend less Mez on Soldiers -- which can give her a lot of Mez for Spies to grant her a good angle on espionage, as well, which means that Caesara can be effective in her own way in the 4 primary fields of military, economy, espionage and alliances. However, where Caesara begins to fall behind is her need to already be doing well and be ahead of others in the first place. If her Alliance Formula Value is not higher than her target's, she will get less free Soldiers, which means that she will need to spend more Mez on Soldiers and her subsequent increase in Alliance Formula Value will be a lot lower as a result. Since Caesara only gains her free soldiers through gaining territory, her military must always be ready to strike hard and often, though her only military boosts come from her Field Passive for more power in Towns. Caesara's abilities are less straightforward if she is in a bad spot. She relies on having a high Alliance Formula Value (more soldiers when conquering territory directly), on killing or marrying big nations (more territories for more free soldiers), and finding the time to spend 3 months sleeping with her husband at the castle instead of invading for her Marriage Passive buff. In order to play Caesara at her best, the player will need to constantly target nations weaker than Caesara to build up her military and Alliance Formula Value, while possibly aiming to marry the strongest possible marriage candidate in terms of territory count rather than abilities/passives. Empire building is Caesara's aim in Counterintelligence. Caesara and Nation Powers Notable main focuses for Nation Powers -- Negotiation, Castles In general, Caesara is effective and flexible with nearly all Nation Powers -- this versatility can allow the player to customize Caesara in a number of ways or switch up to another focus as the situation demands it (if a particular enemy nation needs a different response or if Caesara's husband can benefit from a particular skillset more). As someone who relies on high Alliance Formula Value, Caesara will want to prioritize Negotiation for Nation Powers, regardless of the overall plan that the player has for Caesara. The early levels in Negotiation will help keep Caesara's Alliance Formula Value high so that she can gain more free Soldiers on conquering territories and help her get married faster -- getting married before everyone else will help ensure that Caesara's Alliance Formula Value is higher than most of the unmarried nations, and should be considered a very high priority. The increased damage from Confidence Boosts will also be useful for invasions, and the dinner nuke (poisoning the wine) can be an effective backup plan if Caesara is outmatched by another more powerful nation in the late game. From there, Caesara may generally wish to consider Castles. Caesara's Marriage Passive buff will require her and her husband to return to the Castle often and for long periods of time, and a Tyrant Caesara (if played properly) synergizes well with her reliance on conquering territory. Caesara's Insatiable Buff also stacks with the well-rested bonus, meaning that a high Castles Level will really boost the power of Caesara and her husband. Caesara's Field Passive falls in line with capturing Towns and keeping Crime Rate low, so Towns can be a solid follow-up Nation Power to Negotiation. Soldiers would be another obvious strong focus -- outside of combat in Towns, Caesara's soldiers are typically high in number, but low in quality. Boosting the quality of her Soldiers will help her conquer more effectively and defend her borders better (thereby protecting her Alliance Formula Value). Farms and Mines can contribute effectively to Caesara's economy and provide her with extra conquering power through Stampede and Landslide -- if these abilities help reduce Caesara's casualties, she can keep more of her invasion momentum going. Scouts can be useful if they are made a focus early on -- removing the Soldier Defense Bonus of opposing nations will make conquering go a lot smoother in the early game, but will be less effective in the late game when more nations are likely to have Soldiers Level 10. The added resources from Scouts Level 10 can be a nice bonus, since Caesara's only true economic focus is less Mez needed due to free Soldiers. Spies are useful if Caesara has been playing effectively -- if territories are conquered often with little to no casualties, Caesara is obviously not reliant on Soldiers Levels, nor will she need as much Mez to hire more Soldiers. The Mez and Nation Points can instead go to Spies, which among other things, can be used to Assassinate Soldiers to give Caesara more casualty-free conquering of territories and a surplus of Soldiers just for taking empty territories. Caesara and Nation Setup Notable Soldier Types -- Peacekeepers, Xystedon Berserkers, Force Fighters Notable Religions -- Centumvirate Notable Ruling Approaches -- Tyrant, Imperialism Caesara can work well with a number of Soldier Types, but Peacekeepers are probably the most synergistic for Caesara -- their added power in Towns combined with Caesara's Field Passive gives them great survivability to continue conquering other territories (especially more Towns), and their Crime Rate reductions are useful if Caesara focuses on Towns, especially if Tyrant Caesara is trying to maintain Crime Rate for Towns Level 5 while spending 3 nights at the Castle with her husband for her Insatiable Buff. If unsure about what Soldier Type to give to Caesara, Peacekeepers are likely her best overall option. Xystedon Berserkers are also great for Caesara. Since Caesara is reliant on frequent invasion and conquering, Berserkers will help Caesara's invading soldiers stay alive, though her territories will have weaker defense to be conquered in return. This is not the negative it appears to be -- Caesara re-conquering a territory means more free soldiers alongside the Nation Point if the enemy did not leave enough Soldiers to guard the recently captured territory, and in some cases could end up being a net positive in Soldier gains. Force Fighters can work really well with Caesara's free soldier gains, but the combination of Caesara and Force Fighters is a doubling down of "needing to do well to begin with". Force Fighters fight better in high numbers, for which they need Caesara to already be doing well to gain more free soldiers, of which Caesara needs to rely on her Force Fighters' reliance of already fighting together in high numbers -- a bit of a circular requirement for strength here. If Caesara has already gotten past the point of Negotiation investment and is up to Towns Level 5, Caesara may be able to benefit by having the Mez to hire greater numbers of Force Fighters for invasion. Or, as a more risky approach, Caesara can grab Force Fighters off of border defense for more invasion power -- even if her territories are conquered, taking them back can mean more free Soldiers. Dissental Soldiers are a nice option for Caesara's economic prospects, but may rely on returning to the castle far too often to change origins, which can slow down Caesara's rush for conquering. Even outside of the resource gains, Dissental Soldiers that focus solely on Renald origin for Towns can be a powerful invasion alternative to Peacekeepers, as they gain the Scorchedarm ability when fighting in Towns, adding a flamethrower attack that gains heavy power thanks to Caesara's Field Passive and the Renald origin bonuses in Towns. Sky Corps also have their niche with Caesara, if the player is opting for a Farms/Mines focus after Negotiation, as Caesara can take less Soldiers with her for invasions if she has Farms and/or Mines Level 10 -- less Soldiers dying means a higher Alliance Formula Value, which can mean more free Soldiers with less risk, though with Caesara's need to focus on Negotiation Level 10, this may come too late for Caesara to reasonably use Sky Corps throughout a Counterintelligence game. The remaining Soldier Types -- Pael Army, Aeldanact Guards and Galatelt Warrior Priests -- are harder to recommend for Caesara. Galatelt Warrior Priests will require frequent returns to the castle for religious ceremonies, which not only interferes with Caesara's constant need for invasion, but is also harder to fit in time for against Caesara's Insatiable buff, and Xystedon Berserkers will supply Caesara with the same invasion power and no conditionals for the boosted power. Galatelt Warrior Priests may have added border defense with their religious ceremony time buffs, but Caesara also does not mind re-conquering old territories for more free soldiers. Aeldanact Guards are too defensive and do not bring any invasion power to the table, which goes against Caesara's overall playstyle. Pael Army may seem like it could be good for getting out of a tight spot if Caesara runs into trouble against bigger nations, but when Caesara is doing well and needs to maintain that, Pael Army will likely not be providing anything to help there against smaller nations. For religions, it is difficult to recommend a religion other than Centumvirate when building a nation around Caesara -- it synergizes too well with her frequent invasion and provides extra resources. Beware of playing TOO recklessly, since losing a demanded territory type means losses for Caesara's resources, but it also means that Caesara can retake it and gain the resources back along with free soldiers. Better safe than sorry, though -- make sure that Caesara defends territories of the demanded type with more Soldiers than usual. Theite seems like it could be good for Caesara through her conquering (Castle Morale rises and Crime Rate lowers when conquering non-Theite territories) and the ceremonies lowering Crime Rate/raising border defense, but Caesara is already skilled at maintaining Crime Rate and she can play more loosely with border defense than other nation leaders. Theite is not a bad religion for Caesara, but Centumvirate's advantages outshine Theite's, as Caesara makes Theite a bit redundant. Pantheon is nice for general resource gains, but Centumvirate will probably benefit Caesara more if the player is not taking early levels in Farms or Mines after maxing Negotiation. If the player plays Caesara a bit loosely in terms of border defense, the Pantheon Priest may be a big risk -- ensure that Caesara earns enough free Soldiers to guard the Priest whenever he appears. For ruling approaches, Caesara can make a VERY effective Tyrant, and can even do so synergistically with Towns if she uses Peacekeepers and reaches Towns Level 10 quickly enough. Caesara's Field Passive for weakening Crime Rate will help maintain her Mez gains from Towns, her likely focus on Castles Levels will also help with Castle Morale problems, and even if she loses Mez from Tyrant, the free soldiers from effective conquering can make up for those losses. If the player does not want to deal with Tyrant's negatives, Imperialism can be effective for Caesara, as well, since she will be conquering frequently and gaining a lot of territories as a result. The added gains to Food in particular can help prevent food shortages if Caesara conquers too many territories, but not enough Farms. Mercantile is niche for Caesara, but can still be effective -- Caesara wil be reliant on Centumvirate gains and causing food shortages through conquering Farms and/or monopolies from conquering Mines, but this also means that Caesara will be focusing less on conquering Towns, which she is better at. Still, one of Caesara's goals is to marry quickly, and trade deals with scarcity can go a long way to assisting with that, so a Caesara built around a Mercantile nation is not a poor choice by any means. General Gameplay Flow for Caesara Caesara's early game will focus on frequent invasion and keeping her Alliance Formula Value high -- though, really, this is what Caesara's primary focus will be throughout a Counterintelligence game anyways. Caesara will benefit by ensuring that she always invades nations with Alliance Formula Values that are lower than hers -- if she is able to achieve this, then she can continue to maintain or pull ahead with her Alliance Formula Value. Caesara can focus less on border defense, since reconquering territories means free soldiers, but she may wish to ignore this approach for Towns once she hits Towns Level 5. Caesara's mid game will require her to return to her Castle to maintain Castle Morale, especially if she is a Tyrant. Her free Soldiers can be used for added wedding security, and if she has focus on Scouts Levels, she can hire a few extra for the wedding security, as well. If Caesara is fast enough at getting married and if she conquered enough Towns in the early game, other nations may not have enough Mez for Spies to disrupt the wedding. Once Caesara is married, she should forgo having a baby right away so that she and her husband can sleep together 3 months in a row for the Insatiable Buff, and THEN have a baby -- this way, Caesara's husband can focus on conquering and gaining even more free soldiers while she is off pregnant, and the buff lasting 12 months means that the husband should not lose it during Caesara's pregnancy. Caesara's late game is hardly different from her early game -- invade a lot and keep Alliance Formula Value high. She and her husband will need to return to the castle every 12 months for another 3 months of time regaining the Insatiable Buff, but other than that, there is little difference from the early game. If another nation is too large and overshadows Caesara's Alliance Formula Value, she can use her high level Negotiation to poison the wine and wipe out the bigger nation, provided that there are enough nations left over to do so, though this will mean ensuring enough nations are present to allow for poisoning the wine and that Caesara has 25% Alliance Levels with each of them. Playing against Caesara on Legend Plus Since Caesara's strength is in conquering territory, the player will need to make sure that their borders are secure so that they do not benefit Caesara at all with free soldiers. In terms of dealing with Caesara invading other nations for free soldiers, some Spies using Weaken Territory on her Farms may cut down her resolve to invade more often, as the food shortages will weaken her invasion power. Some Spies with Assassinate Soldiers can help weaken her Alliance Formula Value, as well, slowing down Caesara's road to marriage and further weakening her free soldier gains. If Caesara's Alliance Formula Value has weakened for a long enough period of time in the early game, she may not recover from this -- being unmarried against other married nations is already enough of a disadvantage, but Caesara's reliance on having higher Alliance Formula Values over other nations may not be achievable at this point. In direct combat, Caesara just switches between her Full Plate and Claw Hands stances. She retains the auras (which allows Full Plate to take half damage), but she does not have the HP Regen from Full Plate aura or the HP decreases from Claw Hands with no aura. So long as the player keeps away from Caesara during Claw Hands, Caesara may not be that difficult to fight directly, especially if the player stays out of Towns, which boosts Caesara's military power. Allisara Field Passive -- Psychic Powers Allisara will always detect any Spies in range that she encounters regardless of enemy Spy Level, and the range for detecting Spies in the field is doubled. Spies caught with Allisara in the party suffer 4x damage for the whole fight. Allisara gains 100 Mez, 50 Food and 10 of each mineral for each spy killed if Allisara is in the party against Spies. Allisara can detect Spies on the World Map even if their actions are not "Weaken Territory" or "Assassinate Soldiers". "Ambush Nation Leader" attempts from Spies against an AI Allisara will always fail. World Passive -- Always Knows What To Say Allisara gets 1 extra Alliance Action per month and all gains to Alliance Levels with other nations are boosted by an additional 1%. Marriage Passive -- In Perfect Sync Allisara gains her husband's Field Passive and boosts that Field Passive for the both of them: Knight -- When invading, Knight/Allisara and their Soldiers deal 100% more damage (instead of 50%) Alberto -- When defending, Alberto/Allisara and their Soldiers deal 100% more damage (instead of 50%) Cook -- When fighting in a Castle, Cook/Allisara/Soldiers' damage is 100% and Usurper gains are 50% higher Jimmy -- Jimmy and Allisara's Stampede/Landslide deal 3x/(3 + (0.2 x n))x damage rather than 2x/(2 + (0.1 x n))x Brooks -- If fighting in a territory that their nation's Scouts can see, Brooks/Allisara deals 5x damage Playing as Allisara Allisara is a nation leader that is heavily focused on alliances and counterspy abilities. Starting the Counterintelligence game with an extra Alliance Action and higher Alliance Level gains means that Allisara will likely be the first nation leader to make it to the wedding altar, even in Legend Plus when the player has to deal with all nations starting with alliances at 20% Alliance Level. This extra Alliance Action/Alliance Level gain alongside Negotiation Level 10 also lets Allisara gain access to poisoning the wine very early, allowing her more control as to when she can destroy a larger, more threatening nation instantly. Her counterspy powers are reliable for the mid game and late game, and also provides bonus resources for each Spy killed while Allisara is in the party. The gains from killing 20 Spies is equivalent to a non-ceremony Centumvirate demand fulfilled 6 times (1 in a Town, 1 in a Farm, 4 for each type of Mine), so the resource gains are not insignificant. The damage boost against Spies also allows Allisara to finish off larger groups of Spies quickly and reduce the chance of losing months while spy hunting in territories. However, where Allisara runs into trouble is her lack of military, economic and espionage skill in the early game -- aside from her focus on alliances (and possibly the Confidence Boosts they grant), Allisara will not bring anything in the other 3 main fields, which means that she will be operating at a disadvantage aside from her ability to get married and ready the dinner nuke at a much faster pace. Even though killing Spies can provide some nice resource gains, they also come in bursts and many nations will likely not have the Mez to hire many Spies early on for Allisara to gain resources off of. Allisara and Nation Powers Notable main focuses for Nation Powers -- Negotiation Like Jimmy, Allisara will have little need for other Nation Powers once she gets her main ones, where the focus on Nation Powers afterwards will be reliant on what her spouse requires. Since Allisara only really needs Negotiation, she should bank her remaining Nation Points until she is married -- which, given her speed at gaining Alliance Levels, should be much sooner than normal. If Knight is Allisara's husband, she may want to focus on Soldiers after getting married. For Alberto, Towns is a good focus. Cook will want Soldiers, Scouts and Spies for his Shadow Network. Jimmy will want Farms and Mines, while Brooks will want Scouts. If the player's plan has them picking out a husband well in advance, Allisara can use any extra Nation Points after Negotiation Level 10 to start early on her would-be husband's focuses (especially if going for Alberto and Towns -- it would be more beneficial to start on Towns Level 5 gains as early as possible). Allisara and Nation Setup Notable Soldier Types -- Dependent on husband Notable Religions -- Dependent on husband Notable Ruling Approaches -- Dependent on husband The above is not very descriptive compared to the nation setups of other nation leaders, but there is not really a better method of describing Allisara's approach to nation building. Since she can speedrun her way to a husband with little effort and her Marriage Passive enhances her husband's Field Passive and grants it to Allisara, the player can pick a husband in advance, build a nation around the future husband, reset New Game until the husband is present, and then marry him while leaving all other suitors for the husband behind in Allisara's dust. Allisara's lack of skill in military, economics and espionage also means that until marriage, she will need to play as though she is rounding out a nation, rather than how most characters can get a nation built around them. This means that if Aeldanact Guards are the Soldier Type, Allisara will need to turtle more to match their playstyle. If Xystedon Berserkers are her Soldier Type, she will need to invade more to match the Berserkers' playstyle. If going Pantheon, Allisara may want to invest more Mez into Farms and Mines, and so on. Regardless of nation build, it would not hurt for Allisara to invade territories for more Nation Points early -- hiring a few Spies to Assassinate Soldiers and relying on Confidence Boosts (especially at Negotation Level 10) for slight advantages can be useful for gaining some extra Nation Points at a time where the other nations are still trying to get organized in the early game. Allisara's skill with alliances should be able to mend things quickly enough with the nations that she targets so that she is able to access poisoning the wine again with little delay. General Gameplay Flow for Allisara Allisara's early game is essentially ensuring that she has the highest Alliance Formula Value of all -- not higher than other nations like Caesara, but the highest. Allisara's advantage in the early game is making it to marriage before everyone else, which allows Allisara's nation to have considerable advantages over everyone else, and therefore more control over the Counterintelligence game early on. Whether it be through military invasion, trade deals, Spies weakening territory or having Spies Assassinate Soldiers along the borders of two other nations, Allisara must do whatever is needed to ensure that she and her future husband have the two highest Alliance Formula Values to weaken the Alliance Level gains of all of the other nations. Allisara's biggest strength is speeding past everyone to the mid game, and the longer that she can keep the other nations unmarried, the longer she holds her advantage over the other nations. It may be best for Allisara to weaken Pound's nation heavily or take him out of the picture altogether, as he gains a very high Alliance Formula Value very quickly on Legend Plus. For the mid game, Allisara's wedding will likely not need a lot of security. Most nations will not be able to afford Spies so early, and for those that do, the Spies' deaths will become free resources for Allisara ("Thanks for the wedding gifts") both before and during the wedding (if the Spies break through wedding security). Still, better safe than sorry -- do not be lax on security even if Allisara ends up being able to handle most of it herself. Allisara should immediately have a baby after getting married -- having a baby before other nations are even engaged shows what Allisara can do effectively in Counterintelligence, by pulling ahead of the others extremely quickly. Allisara's late game will be based around her husband's abilities primarily, and since Allisara shares her husband's Field Passive, she will be able to benefit from the Nation Powers built around her husband. If the player was able to have a baby very early, Allisara's nation will likely be ahead of other nations in terms of military and economy boosts (unless against Cook, who can catch Allisara's nation after a few years). Use Allisara's dinner nuke against the biggest, most threatening nation (ideally after that biggest nation gets married, so that 2 leaders can be taken out at once) and play to her husband's strengths, and Allisara will show just how easily she can rushdown and dominate a Counterintelligence game. Playing against Allisara on Legend Plus Allisara is probably one of the biggest threats to a player in Counterintelligence -- she will pull ahead extremely quickly when most nations are barely getting started, and if her Alliance Formula Value is high enough, she will not only likely get married before everyone else, but she will likely finish having her baby before other nations even get engaged, so she and her husband will start being able to make use of their child's evergrowing military and economic bonuses that they provide. Sending in Spies to sabotage her soldiers and territories will not work for long with her ability to detect all Spies regardless of Spies Level versus Territory Level, and AI Allisara is immune to Ambush Nation Leader, so assassinating her out of the question and removes an option from late game economy/alliance focused characters. On top of this, Allisara will get free resources for killing Spies, so any attempts to get to her through espionage will actually back fire on the player. Since economy, espionage and alliance focuses are out and Allisara is typically stronger than most nations as time goes on (most of her husband's Field Passives boost damage output and/or military power in some manner), the only real option to deal with Allisara before she becomes too large of a threat is to immediately head straight for her and take her out in military combat as the game begins -- just beeline straight for her and fight her. Allisara has a weak military by default, so she should be able to be taken out easier than most nation leaders. Of course, expending so many resources and so much energy to take out Allisara immediately will leave the player in a weakened state early on if they are not playing a character with good early game military, like Cherry, Knight, Brooks or Caesara (if Caesara is able to keep her Alliance Formula Value higher than Allisara's), so it should only really be considered as an approach if the player either feels that they cannot handle late game Allisara (reliant on late game assassinations, like Alberto, Pound and Claire) or if playing a female nation leader and Allisara is going to marry the husband that the player wanted to marry. When engaging Allisara in combat, her only ability is Flowspike, which is low cooldown but requires Flow Clouds from evasion to trigger. If fighting Allisara early enough, Flowspike should be low damage despite the large area it covers and Allisara should not be overly difficult to fight. If Allisara is married, however, her personal damage output and/or her soldiers' power will likely be much higher, and she can be a legitimate threat. If fighting a married Allisara, try and pick a territory type that the player's leader/soldiers have an advantage in (if applicable) and try to cause food shortages to weaken Allisara's military power (though this can tricky with Allisara's spy detection and Food rewards on killing Spies -- the player may need to cut off Allisara from her Farms, if possible). Marriage pairings Cherry and Knight Cherry and Knight both have a lot of invasion power, especially before they have a child and Cherry's Career Focus passive grants them and their soldiers heavily boosted offense and defense. Depending on the scenario, Cherry and Knight might be better off not having a child, if it means that they can dominate the board through their military might alone. If such a scenario is not feasible, Knight with Pantheon or Centumvirate can help make up for Cherry's economic shortfalls, and can provide her with much needed resources. Knight with Theite as religion will likely focus on Towns afterwards, and the combination of military might of Cherry/Knight and the Mez bonuses from Towns Level 5 can make for a military where Soldiers are high in quantity and quality. Cherry and Alberto Cherry and Alberto synergize nicely in a lot of ways -- Cherry provides Alberto with the invasion power that he does not have, Alberto provides Cherry with the economic gains that she does not have. Alberto's border defense works well with Cherry's Soldiers focus, and they are not a bad duo for Cherry to have an early baby with -- though it is more bursty in its timing, Alberto's Always Arguing can be a decent replacement for Cherry's Career Focus (even though both passives stack nicely), and the early child can amplify Cherry's military damage past the loss of Career Focus and boost Alberto's Mez gains to even higher levels. Cherry and Cook In some ways, Cherry and Cook can be considered completely incompatible with one another -- Cook relies on having a child as early as possible, while Cherry benefits from delaying or avoiding a child altogether. Cook wants to capture Castles for his Usurper Passive, while Cherry wants fewer Castles for her Operating On Foreign Lands passive. Cook wants Mez spent on Scouts and Spies for his Shadow Network's economic gains, while Cherry wants more Mez for Soldiers. However, Cherry and Cook can do very well together, with the right timing and approach. If Cherry and Cook have a baby early, Cook can utilize Cherry's Career Focus passive while she is pregnant to invade Castles for more resources, and so long as the Castle targets are chosen carefully, Cherry can use both her Operating On Foreign Lands combined with Cook's more powerful child military/economic gains to make up greatly for her loss of Career Focus once she returns from having her baby. Cherry's cheaper and powerful Soldiers should also let Cook save some Mez for Scouts and Spies for his Shadow Network in this scenario, too. Cherry and Jimmy Cherry and Jimmy are harder to find advantages for from a standard approach. If having a child, the only benefit their marriage brings is even cheaper Soldiers for hire (though Force Fighters as a Soldier Type works very well here). This benefits Cherry more than Jimmy, though, as Jimmy is reliant on Stampede/Landslide for invasion more than Soldiers. Despite this, the combination of powerful and inexpensive Soldiers with Jimmy's personal high-damage Stampede and Landslide can make for a powerful and varied military, with Cherry engaging in more standard combat and Jimmy using a mix. Cherry and Brooks A powerful military duo that runs into some problems in the late game, as that is where Cherry loses her Marriage Passive when having a child and Brooks' Scouts become less useful for invading militaries that have Soldiers Level 10. Both of them having no strengths in economics or espionage further limits their options. Even deciding if they have a child can be an issue -- Cherry loses Career Focus if having a child, while not having a child causes Brooks to lose his Castle Doctrine passive and the nation loses much needed economic gains that a child brings at 1 year of age and up. However, it can work out -- it would be best if Cherry and Brooks have a child for economic bonuses, and they can save a lot on Mez if Cherry can use her cheaper Soldiers to invade while not conquering Castles to make as much use of her Operating On Foreign Lands passive as she can. If she can save Mez through her Soldiers surviving more, Brooks can use that extra Mez for Scouts for more border defense. Depending on the territory layout, Cherry and Brooks could delay having a child for a few months to capture some territories with Career Focus, then relying on Castle Doctrine after the child is born to attack the neighbouring "pizza slice" territories. Knight and Tara Not a bad duo -- they can work very well together with Pantheon as a religion, so that Tara can gain more Food for investing in horses and for soldier defection. They do not have a set way of working together and are reliant on the player finding ways to make them work based on the situation, as Knight's strengths vary based on religion and Tara has many niches to work with. Knight and Claire Knight and Claire function very differently, and the player's approach and nation build will affect how the player approaches this marriage. They can either round each other out nicely, or they can operate too differently and pull the player in different directions with focusing on either Knight's military, Claire's Spies, or possibly the economy based on Knight's religion. Knight's military is not good on defense, and his economy is religion-dependent (which Claire will want to be strong to hire more Spies), so there are a lot of factors that can make a Knight/Claire marriage work out or fail. Knight and Caesara Knight's invasion power complements Caesara's focus on invasion nicely, and if the nation is focused heavily on military, this can be a good duo to gain free soldiers reliably. Centumvirate as a religion will go a very long way here, especially with Knight's religious ceremonies granting them large amounts of resources frequently thanks to the amount of invading Knight and Caesara will do, where the large resource gains will in turn keep Alliance Formula Value high for Caesara's World Passive to gain more free soldiers for the nation. Knight and Allisara Knight's playstyle depends on religion, and Allisara's playstyle depends on her husband, so this duo is essentially built around the player's choice of religion. Knight/Allisara does have strong invasion capabilities, though, since Allisara enhances Knight's invasion power and gains that ability herself, so at minimum, it would be best to double down on the invasion focus. Alberto and Tara A strong economic turtling duo -- Alberto provides the border defense and the Mez, Tara provides the Food gains and cheaper soldier defection for increased border defense. While Tara's Marriage Passive and focus on Stampede can be useful for invasion, Alberto and Tara are better off following a standard Alberto strategy of turtling, building up lots of Mez, then sending hundred of Spies at once to assassinate nation leaders in the late game. Alberto and Claire Alberto and Claire synergize very effectively in the late game. Alberto builds up lots of Mez for Spies, while Claire's more powerful Spies will more reliably kill nation leaders earlier and with fewer Spies, so Alberto/Claire can assassinate all of the leaders on the world map in record time. Alberto and Caesara One of the strongest marriage duos in Counterintelligence. Both function very effectively with Towns and Peacekeepers, Alberto's Mez gains helps keep Caesara's Alliance Formula Value high and allows for more Spies to be hired for non-Towns, and Caesara's free Soldier gains work great for adding to Alberto's turtling strategy and strong border defense. Since Alberto/Caesara play defense well, there is little downside to returning to the castle for 3 months to gain the Insatiable Buff. If focused on Negotiation, either from Caesara as the player's nation leader or from Alberto investing in it later after marriage, the player should be able to build up Alliance Levels enough to poison the wine, which can be an excellent way for Alberto to deal with Allisara, since his approach of sending hundreds of Spies at her will backfire on him badly. Alberto and Allisara Alberto and Allisara can be very effective together, as Alberto's border defense is enhanced through Allisara's Marriage Passive, and Allisara can detect and take out any Spies that try to destroy Alberto's turtling strategy from within. Allisara's focus on Negotiation and poisoning the wine can provide Alberto with an additional option to assassinate an enemy leader without needing to rely large amounts of Spies. Another notable advantage of Alberto marrying Allisara is that he does not have to worry about his Spies being unable to assassinate her -- their marriage removes her as an opponent for that, though with how quickly AI Allisara marries another AI nation, this will likely only be a possible option if the player picks Allisara as their leader. Tara and Cook Tara and Cook both employ separate sets of niches, and needing heavy focus on Soldiers (for Castle invasions), Scouts/Spies (for Shadow Network), Farms (for all of Tara's focuses) and Castles (Tara's Marriage Passive bonuses) can be especially difficult to juggle. If they stick to primarily Spies, Farms and Castles, let their Soldier Type do the heavy lifting over Soldiers and hiring more Scouts to make up for not having the Scouts Level 5 vision range, Tara/Cook will likely have strong options for military, economy and espionage, as well as a variety of approaches for it. The only issue is that opting to focus only on Farms, Castles and Spies from the start would mean needing to know that Tara and Cook are the ones who will get married, which is fine from Tara's perspective (as Farms and Castles are her main focuses), but Cook will have more trouble with such an approach, as he would need to forgo Soldiers Level 5 for invading his first Castle, which is less feasible if the player does not know who they will have Cook marry right on New Game. Tara and Jimmy Tara and Jimmy as a duo have the most powerful Stampede in Counterintelligence, and should be strongly considered just for that. Jimmy's Marriage Passive boosts Tara's Food production further and lowers Food decreases, and the combination of Jimmy's Stampede boosts from an active religious ceremony and Tara's ability to invest Food for horses to permanently boost Stampede power for herself and her husband can lead to very high damage from Stampede. Tara and Brooks Tara and Brooks can make for a solid duo. Thanks to Brooks' strong border defense, Tara/Brooks can focus on hiring Spies to cause food shortages for soldier defection for more Soldiers, which gives Brooks more Mez for Scouts to boost border defense further. Tara's boosts to Stampede give Brooks a bit more invasion power, even if their soldiers do not gain boosts from it. Cook and Caesara Cook and Caesara both have strong focus on military invasion, and so they can work effectively together based off of that alone. Used effectively, Caesara's free Soldiers can save Mez for more Scouts/Spies if Cook's Shadow Network is not complete (or if it was originally not a focus if Caesara is the marriage leader) and Caesara's need for Negotiation/addition of poisoning the wine can allow Cook/Caesara to be strong in military, economy, espionage and alliances. Cook and Allisara A very strong duo -- Cook functions very effectively by having a child as soon as possible, and Allisara is the master at speedrunning marriage. Allisara herself only requires Negotiation as a Nation Power, and even then, after marriage that is essentially just for poisoning the wine -- if the player is not intending to poison the wine or is able to use Allisara's already powerful alliance focus to hit the non-Negotiation Level 10 Alliance Level requirement of 50% rather than 25% for everybody, then the player might be able to forgo Negotiation altogether for more focus on Cook's Soldiers/Scouts/Spies. Claire and Jimmy Claire/Jimmy have the most powerful Spies in Counterintelligence, having triple the power of anyone else's Spies. While Claire is using their nation's Mez for Spies for assassinations, Jimmy's powerful Stampede and Landslide can be used to take on other nations using fewer soldiers than normal, and can be useful for fighting Allisara, who Claire's Spies cannot take down. Claire and Brooks A very solid pair. Brooks' strong border defense works well with Claire's espionage focus, since most espionage-focused nations do not care about invasion quite as much. In the case of Allisara, Brooks' personal invasion power and "keepaway" moveset can be an advantage against a married Allisara if he must engage her in direct combat (especially if Attach Spouse is used to have Claire/Brooks invade together and Claire can use her Rainfall to knock down Allisara while Brooks attacks from a distance). Jimmy and Caesara Jimmy and Caesara have some issues together -- Jimmy cannot return with Caesara to the Castle for the Insatiable Buff without losing his current Stampede/Landslide progress, so that will need to be factored into the player's strategy. However, Jimmy provides even more free Soldiers for Caesara's World Passive, so focusing entirely on keeping Caesara's Insatiable Buff active over Jimmy's Stampede/Landslide power-ups can be very rewarding if the player can maintain a very high Alliance Formula Value (and the very large numbers of extra soldiers gained will only cause the Alliance Formula Value to skyrocket faster). Jimmy and Allisara Jimmy and Allisara will both boost each other passives heavily due to their own Marriage Passives -- in Jimmy's case, he and Allisara can both gain access to very high powered Stampede and Landslide. Allisara's own passive getting boosted is overkill, as Negotiation Level 10 is already more than enough for hitting 25% Alliance Level with all nations to poison the wine. On the other hand, this also means that if the player picked Allisara and knows they want to marry Jimmy, then they can ignore investing Nation Points into Negotiation and immediately start on Farms and Mines to get Stampede and Landslide's triple damage boosts at Farms/Mines Level 10 sooner. Brooks and Caesara Caesara's free Soldiers helps free up Mez for Brooks to focus on border defense with Scouts. Caesara's focus on Negotiation helps make poisoning the wine an easy way to remove a big nation from play while using Brooks' high border defense and Caesara's free soldiers to defend it quickly. The combination of Brooks' Field Passive, Caesara's Insatiable buff and Castles Level 5's well-rested bonus can give Brooks exceptional personal damage. Brooks and Allisara Similar to Brooks/Caesara due to the Negotiation focus, but with no free soldiers. However, Allisara powers up Brooks' Field Passive and gains it for herself. Though Castles is not a Nation Power that Brooks or Allisara would typically focus on, they may wish to focus on it as a married couple, at least for the giant boosts in personal damage when combining Brooks' Allisara-powered Field Passive with Castles Level 5's well-rested bonus. Nation Powers Castles Description Castle Morale's monthly decreases are 1% less per level and Castle actions boost Castle Morale 5% per level. At level 5, being well-rested allows for 2 additional movement rather than 1, and the damage boost for being well-rested is 100% rather than 50%. At level 10, Ruling Approach is enhanced. Imperialism gains 4% per territory instead of 2%, Mercantile gains 200% rather than 100%, and Tyrant gains 3x HP/Attack and 400% invasion formula instead of 2x and 150% respectively. Analysis Notable Nation Leaders -- Tara, Caesara Having a high Castles Level can make it so that the player has to return to their Castle less to maintain Castle Morale, and at Castles Level 5, the well-rested bonus is powered up, allowing the player's personal damage to raise much higher. This bonus is amplified further in power, movement and duration for Tara and her spouse if they trigger it together, and Caesara's Insatiable Buff stacks with the well-rested bonus, making this useful for both of them. Castles Level 10 is very dependent on the player's strategy moreso than it is for supporting an actual nation leader, but it allows a player who wishes to lean more heavily into their Ruling Approach to gain a lot more power out of it -- getting solid amounts of all resource types from Imperialism, relying heavily on trade deals for resource gains for Mercantile (especially for Allisara as leader and/or Negotiation Level 10, where more trade deals can be done per month), and much higher Soldiers power for Tyrant (especially deadly when stacked with Soldiers Level 10). Towns Description Towns earn 5% more Mez per level. At level 5, the longer an individual town stays at or under 50% Crime Rate under a nation's control, the more Mez it earns by a multiplier of (1 + (0.02 x Number of Months at or under 50% Crime Rate, excluding current month)). At level 10, Crime Rate's raises per month are 1% rather than 4% (5% rather than 8% during a food shortage) and when capturing a Town, Crime Rate gains are 10% rather than 40%. Analysis Notable Nation Leaders -- Alberto Towns Level 5 provides gradually increasing Mez gains from an individual Town, at a rate of 2% for every month where the territory has not switched owners and has had Crime Rate stay at or under 50%. Though Alberto is listed as the only "Notable Nation Leader", this is due to his strong focus on Towns and Mez gains from his passives -- any nation that can keep Crime Rate under control can benefit from this, since Mez is needed for hiring Soldiers/Scouts/Spies and investing in territories. Towns Level 10 is nice to have for maxing out Mez gains and for keeping Crime Rate under control. Though most nations may not have many issues with Crime Rate if they keep on top of it (killing bandits in Towns, Theite religious ceremonies, fulfilling Centumvirate demands), Tyrants may wish to consider this if the player is going for a military/economy focused build. Farms Description Farms produce 5% more Food per level. At level 5, the Stampede ability can be used while blocking to call 4 horses to trample enemies (can only be done on a Farm or if the nation leader in combat currently has a horse with them, can only be used in battles where the player invades or is invaded, 10 second cooldown). At level 10, Stampede deals 3x damage. Analysis Notable Nation Leaders -- Tara, Jimmy Investing Nation Points in Farms ends with more Food being gained and the Stampede ability for battle (damage tripled at Level 10). For nations that focus less on invasion, they will not care much for Stampede. Nations that are not intending to cause food shortages using Spies for the purpose of trade deal scarcity will also likely not benefit much from Nation Points being put into Farms. Tara, on the other hand, has her whole playstyle revolve around Farms and Food, so she will want this. Jimmy's passives power up Stampede as he spends more time in Farms/Mines during a religious ceremony, so he will want this, as well. In pretty much all cases, Stampede from Farms Level 5 can be a helpful tool for early game invasion for nation leaders with less skill or focus in military. Mines Description Mines produce 5% more minerals per level. At level 5, the Landslide ability can be used while blocking to add 4 boulders that can be hit into enemies (can only be done on a Mine or if a Mineral has been set for Landslide on the World Map, can only be used in battles where the player invades or is invaded, once per battle). At level 10, Landslide deals 3x damage. Analysis Notable Nation Leaders -- Pound, Jimmy Mines Levels will boost mineral gains for the player, the actual benefits of which will vary based on their starting/available Mine Types. Limestone/Magnetite for permanent border defense and combat damage/defense gains, Corundum for Alliance Formula Value, and Obsidian for more frequent boosts to invasion power/border defense. If the player is able to secure a monopoly on a mineral type (capture or Weaken Territory for any other nations that share the player's Mine Type), they can use the extra mineral gains for trade deal scarcity -- though be careful what minerals are traded for and for how much. If the player trades fewer than 200 Obsidian or not enough Limestone/Magnetite to level up Fortification/Blacksmithing, then those minerals will not see use and will likely not be scarce on the next month or next trade deal. Corundum is harder to make use of with trade deal scarcity, since AI nations typically do not get rid of it in large numbers. Even then, the player may not wish to save minerals for trade and either use it for their own purposes or for Landslide. Pound can use this effectively, as he gains more Minerals when fighting in Mines personally and he requires less Minerals than other nations (which means more for Landslide). Jimmy powers up Landslide when a religious ceremony is active, and is a major part of his military invasion power. Soldiers Description Soldiers gain 10% more HP and Attack stats per level and 15% more offense/defense per level in the invasion formula. At level 5, defending soldiers gain 3x HP/invasion defense instead of 2x when defending a territory (higher level enemy Scouts can remove this if they can see the defending territory when their nation invades). At level 10, defending soldiers gain 4x HP/invasion defense instead of 3x when defending a territory. Analysis Notable Nation Leaders -- Cherry, Knight, Cook Investing Nation Points into Soldiers means stronger invasion power and border defense for a nation's soldiers -- especially for border defense, where if the invader's Scouts Level is not higher than the defender's Soldiers Level, the invasion defense for non-combat and the Soldier HP for combat is boosted by 2x, 3x or 4x, depending on Soldiers Level. Fighting nations with Soldiers Level 10 in combat also means that the player is at risk for the fights going on too long and the player losing turns if they do not have a powerful military to overcome the tankier enemy soldiers that do not lose their Soldier Defense Bonus due to Soldiers Level 10 being unable to be affected by Scouts. While any nation will appreciate Soldiers Levels (even those with non-invasion focus will want border defense), some like Cherry and Knight revolve their gameplay focus around invasion and Cook requires high aggression from the outset to capture Castles. Other military-focused nation leaders, like Brooks or Caesara, benefit greatly from high Soldiers Levels, but can ultimately prioritize other areas for greater variety in capabilities (Brooks' Scouts focus boost his personal damage and border defense, while Caesara can work with higher quantities of Soldiers). Scouts Description If the Scouts level is greater than the opposition's Soldiers level, the opposition's Soldiers do not get their "defending territory" bonus if the Scout can see the territory. Scouts cost 5% less per level. At level 5, Scouts can see 1 additional territory away (3 over the default 2). At level 10, Scouts can gain 20 Mez, 10 Food and 2 each mineral if they witness a battle between two other nations in a territory that they can see (each of these gains is per Scout that can see the contested territory). Analysis Notable Nation Leaders -- Cook, Brooks A Scouts Level that is higher than another nation's Soldiers Level will make the target nation easier to invade -- a nation with Scouts Level 1 will remove the 2x HP/invasion defense bonus of all Soldiers Level 0 nations, so that can be option for player nations with weaker militaries to consider (though chances are that Nation Point could be better used towards a different goal, if the nation has a weaker military in the first place). Scouts Level 5 provides boost vision range, which can be nice for most nations to keep track of nation leader movements and place Spies more easily/effectively, but it is not essential for them, either. Cook can use the increased vision range for his Scouts to better watch over his Spies for his Shadow Network. Scouts Level 10 is a nice bonus for nations that deploy a lot of Scouts, as it can supply a nation with all resource types from watching other nations fight each other, which includes minerals that the nation does not have the mines for. Of course, for this to really benefit a nation, the commitment must be early to get as much resources as possible and the nation must focus on hiring a lot of Scouts to get better multipliers on those resources. Brooks is likely the only nation leader that should pursue Scouts Level 10, as he has the increased vision range to make it trigger on more territories, as well as the need to hire a high number of Scouts for border defense to gain better multipliers on Scouts watching other nations fight. A player using Allisara could also consider Scouts Level 10 for her, though, if they intend to have her marry Brooks -- Allisara's weaker military could have smoother invasions of other weak nations at the same time in the early game, and Allisara's alliances focus could have her hold off on Negotiation until Scouts Level 10 and marriage. Spies Description If the Spies level is greater than the opposition's Castles/Towns/Farms/Mines level (whichever territory the Spy is in), the Spy's presence will not be known unless they are weakening territory/assassinating Soldiers. Spies cost 5% less per level. At level 5, Spies take only 2 months to be recalled instead of 3 months. At level 10, Spies take only 1 month to be recalled instead of 3 months, and cost of Spies is reduced by 75% total. Analysis Notable Nation Leaders -- Cook, Claire High levels in Spies focuses on significantly lower Spy costs and shorter recall times. For most nations, this is not a primary focus for them, as nations that need Spies for a few things (some soldier assassination here, some food shortages there) will not have an issue with cost and recall times, especially given the required Nation Point investments. Even economic nation leaders like Alberto or Pound in the late game that rely on sending out Spies for assassinations only need Spies Level 1 at minimum and Spies Level 10 for them is a benefit (but not necessary) for getting higher Spy numbers faster and having more territories that they can Ambush Nation Leader in. Claire's entire approach to Counterintelligence revolves around Spies, so she is going to want Spies Level 10 as soon as possible. Cook will also want Spies Level 10, as he needs cheaper Spies for his Shadow Network, and in order to make them more effective by making them actively sabotage other nations and not just hanging back entirely in his own territories, he will need the shorter recall times to keep them safe and to get them back into play for sabotage and Shadow Network again. Negotiation Description Each level in Negotiation adds more weight in the nation leader's favour in the Alliance Formula. At level 5, correspondence boosts Alliance level with that nation by 3% instead of 1%, trade deals with scarcity boosts by 5% instead of 3%, and dinner with a nation's leader by 8% instead of 5%. At level 10, the nation gets 1 extra monthly Alliance Action, Alliance requirements for poisoning leaders become 25%, and Confidence Boosts from higher Alliance Formula Value boosts Soldier Attack/invasion from 10% to 25%. Analysis Notable Nation Leaders -- Pound, Caesara, Allisara Negotiation can be used for a number of focuses -- higher Alliance Formula Value and more frequent/stronger Confidence Boosts, higher Alliance Level gains, and more trade deals per month (especially useful for Mercantile nations with Castles Level 10). Being able to poison the wine with lower requirements can allow a Negotiation Level 10 nation to squeeze some territory invasion in there for more Nation Points before poisoning a nation, provided that the player plans around the 6 months of war and the time needed to build the alliance back up to 25% Alliance Level. Pound is reliant on gaining 25% Alliance Level with all nations to give himself the best economic gains he can have -- the fact that this matches Negotiation Level 10's requirements for poisoning the wine gives Pound more reason to invest in Negotiation. Caesara wants Alliance Formula Value more than anything, so focus on Negotiation is important for her. Allisara's main focus is on alliances, so Negotiation is her best option in most cases, though if the player knows who they want for Allisara's husband in advance, they can shift her focus elsewhere -- they will still likely want Negotiation for quicker poisoning of wine, though. Soldier Types Force Fighters Description When in standard combat, Force Fighters gain 5% more HP and Attack for each Force Fighter in the current territory and/or currently accompanying the player character. When the invasion formula applies, Force Fighters gain 8% per Force Fighter in the current territory and/or currently accompanying the nation leader (if the nation leader is present). Analysis Notable Nation Leaders -- Cherry, Alberto, Pound, Caesara Force Fighters function effectively through large numbers -- their invasion power and border defense increases with no ceiling, making them effective for nation leaders that can get soldiers for cheap (Cherry), for free (Caesara), or will likely have the economy to support hiring large numbers of soldiers (Alberto, Pound). In battle, Force Fighters bring the largest variety of abilities -- group heals (which includes their own nation leaders), Knockdown and power attacks. The healing helps keep soldiers from dying (which is very useful to prevent the army size from decreasing and the Force Fighters from weakening) and allows the player to not have to rely on blockhealing when the going gets tough. The Knockdown from Force Fighters can also be useful when up against powerful AI nations leaders, like Brooks, which is a great boon for invasion-focused nations. Sky Corps Description When in standard combat, Sky Corps gain 50% more HP and Attack when fighting in any Farm or Mine, and the Stampede and Landslide abilities from their nation leaders are doubled in power. When the invasion formula applies, Sky Corps gain 50% more offense/defense in the invasion formula if the contested territory is a Farm or Mine. This value is boosted to 80% with Farms/Mines Level 5 in the appropriate territory type, and that condition is boosted to 100% if Farms/Mines Level 10. Analysis Notable Nation Leaders -- Tara, Pound, Jimmy Sky Corps are used primarily for their double damage bonus for Stampede and Landslide, but also gain boosted invasion offense/defense when the nation's Farms and Mines Level increases, making them increasingly effective for any nation that invests in Farms and/or Mines from the start -- which is primarily Tara, Pound and Jimmy. Tara having bonus damage/defense on Farms and Pound having bonus damage/defense on Mines also helps Sky Corps synergize better with them. In battle, Sky Corps are not overly strong. Aside from their basic melee attacks, their only ability is a very potent defense buff, which is great for survival. The Sky Corps are essentially relying on their leader's powered-up Stampede and Landslide to do most of the damage in actual combat. Peacekeepers Description When in standard combat, Peacekeepers gain 2x HP and 2x Attack when fighting in any Town. When the invasion formula applies, Peacekeepers gain 150% more offense/defense in the invasion formula if the contested territory is a Town. Peacekeepers stationed in a Town also reduce that Town's monthly Crime Rate gains by 3%. Analysis Notable Nation Leaders -- Alberto, Caesara Peacekeepers are great for invading/defending Towns and maintaining Crime Rate more effectively. Alberto will appreciate Peacekeepers for ensuring that his Towns keep their Towns Level 5 bonuses, and Caesara can combine Peacekeepers with her Field Passive for an incredibly powerful Town invader, even with low Soldiers Level. In combat, Peacekeepers have a very low cooldown Stagger grenade that can rapid-fire lockdown an area very effectively and prevent enemies from fighting back. These constant area-of-effect explosions can cause problems for Landslide, though, as they can keep knocking the boulders away from the center of combat, and the Peacekeepers spend more time throwing grenades than they do fighting normally, which can open them up to big attacks often. Pael Army Description Pael Army gain 25% more HP and Attack for each additional territory the opposition has over the Pael Army nation's territory count. When the invasion formula applies, Pael Army gain 40% more offense/defense for each additional territory the opposition has over the Pael Army nation's territory count. Analysis Notable Nation Leaders -- Pound Pael Army are a bit of a conundrum as far as Soldier Types go. They can be the most powerful and easy-to-use soldier (especially on border defense), but only if the player is already doing bad to begin with -- and picking Pael Army implies that the player's strategy includes a part where they will end up doing badly in terms of territory count for a large part of the game. Pound can make use of Pael Army effectively, since he is likely going to be behind on territory count when everyone else is getting married and he is unable to. Another consideration for picking Pael Army can be a more niche one -- if the player picks Pael Army, then they do not have to worry about another AI nation having Pael Army when the player is doing well. If the player has Pael Army, then the biggest threat to the player's big nation is removed from play at the start of the game. In combat, Pael Army are pretty straightforward -- they use a standard grenade as their only ability. Dissental Soldiers Description Dissental Soldiers gain different abilities and 75% offense/defense in the invasion formula if their origin matches the current territory type (can be changed when entering own Castle): Merik -- HP/Attack + 50% at a Farm and gain 25 Food per surviving Soldier on victory Lensia -- HP/Attack + 50% at a Castle and 4 ally Spiders are added if a Dissental Soldier is in that battle Alster -- HP/Attack + 50% at a Mine and gain 5 minerals of that Mine per surviving soldier on victory Renald -- HP/Attack + 50% at a Town and gain the Scorchedarm ability Analysis Notable Nation Leaders -- Cherry, Knight, Cook, Brooks Most invasion-focused nations can appreciate Dissental Soldiers, as their origin system allows them to provide a number of benefits, such as Food/Mineral gains (Merik and Alster), a flamethrower attack for use in a small arena (Renald) and adding Spider allies to the player's side on top of the player's existing soldiers (Lensia). Cook, in particular, will appreciate the Lensia origin Dissental Soldiers when it comes to invading his first Castle for his Usurper passive. The main problem with Dissental Soldiers is also needing to adjust their origin every time the player has a new objective, which means having to return to the Castle often to have origin match the territory destination. If planned effectively, though, Dissental Soldiers have a lot to provide to invasion-focused nations. In combat, Dissental Soldiers have a short-range leaping slash and fight like standard soldiers in most cases. Dissental Soldiers with the Renald origin in Towns have the Scorchedarm ability, which allows them to dominate Town battles due to the small arena size and the large area of the Scorchedarm flamethrower attack. Aeldanact Guards Description Aeldanact Guards gain 2x HP and 2x Attack in standard combat when defending a territory. When the invasion formula applies, Aeldanact Guards gain 150% defense when defending a territory. Analysis Notable Nation Leaders -- Alberto, Pound, Claire Aeldanact Guards are primarily used for border defense, which they excel at with no conditional attached. As such, they are going to be beneficial to nations that focus more on turtling (Alberto, Pound) or nation leaders that are less reliant on soldiers, like Claire (who can use Spies to assassinate soldiers in place of an actual military invasion for a territory). In combat, Aeldanact Guards have a leaping spear sweep attack that does damage and Stagger. They are not particularly strong in combat and mainly just run interference for the player, but their stats are a lot higher when they are defending against an invader. Xystedon Berserkers Description Xystedon Berserkers gain 2x HP and 2x Attack in standard combat when invading a territory. When the invasion formula applies, Xystedon Berserkers gain 150% offense when invading a territory. Analysis Notable Nation Leaders -- Knight, Cook, Brooks, Caesara Xystedon Berserkers are excellent for nations that prioritize invasion over all else -- Knight's already-high invasion power stacks with Berserkers effectively, Cook can rely on their aggression for early game Castle invading, Brooks can count on them for better late game invasion (his border defense is already strong with Scouts and his Marriage Passive) and Caesara will appreciate them for staying alive long enough for a fast invasion win to secure more free soldiers. Cherry is the only other military-focused character who is left out here -- she is still good with Berserkers, but she has other Soldier Types that would be more of a priority (Force Fighters with her lower soldier costs, Dissental Soldiers for the economic bonuses). In combat, Xystedon Berserkers have a rapid-fire wild swing attack that moves forward and deals high damage with multiple hits. Even on defense, this can be a powerful ability, so the player is going to want to be on their toes and ready to dodge at all times if they are the one facing down Berserkers. Galatelt Warrior Priests Description When in standard combat, Galatelt Warrior Priests gain 2x HP and 2x Attack if a religious ceremony was performed in the last 5 months. When the invasion formula applies, Galatelt Warrior Priests gain 150% offense/defense in a contested territory if a religious ceremony was performed in the last 5 months. Analysis Notable Nation Leaders -- Knight, Brooks Galatelt Warrior Priests are one of the most powerful Soldier Types in Counterintelligence, so long as a religious ceremony was performed in the last 5 months. They excel at both invasion and border defense under this condition, and are excellent for any nation leader that returns to their Castle often. Knight will likely be returning often for his religious ceremonies, while Brooks will likely be turtling as much as he is invading. Alberto and Jimmy will want to avoid Galatelt Warrior Priests altogether, and any female nation leaders that end up with Alberto or Jimmy as a husband may find themselves stuck between their husband and their Soldier Type. Despite the high overall power of Galatelt Warrior Priests, there are nation leaders that can have difficulty using them. A small note for Galatelt Warrior Priests -- they are powered up at the start of the game without needing a religious ceremony (as the game starts with 0 months since the last religious ceremony), so that can be taken into consideration when trying to lead off with an aggressive invasion approach (such as for Cook). In combat, Galatelt Warrior Priests have a power attack as their only ability, and as a result are straightforward in combat. Religions Theite Description Capturing a territory from a non-Theite nation (not through marriage) will boost Castle Morale by 10% and drop Crime Rate in all that nation's Towns by 10%, but the party leader staying the night with a non-spouse companion drops Castle Morale by 60% and Crime Rate in all Towns rise by 10% if they have no spouse. If married and either the nation leader or their spouse spends the night with a non-spouse companion, Castle Morale will instead drop 80% and Crime Rates across all Towns will rise by 25%. Analysis Theite is a straightforward religion, where its only negative is achieved through the player's own direct action in a Castle by sleeping with a non-spouse companion. This could interfere with nation leaders needing heavy aggression, such as Knight or Cook, but the well-rested bonus can still be obtained, albeit at 3 turns instead of 6. The negative consequence from sleeping out of wedlock aside, Theite focuses a lot on maintaining Crime Rate and border defense, making it good for keeping a nation stable. While invading non-Theite nations helps with Crime Rate and Castle Morale, the religious ceremonies are the main reason to play Theite, especially for nations with weaker militaries. On Legend Plus, the bandits in Towns can be quite strong and the Crime Rate reductions help take care of them with no risk, and the boost to border defense for 4 turns is something that more non-invasion-focused nations would prioritize. Pantheon Description Farms and Mines produce 10% more. Pantheon Priests will randomly visit Farms and Mines of their nation leader, and if the Farm/Mine that the Priest is visiting is captured by another nation, Castle Morale will drop by 50% and Crime Rate will rise in all Towns by 50%. Analysis Pantheon is a religion for gaining small resource gains -- on its own, it is not much, but combined with the religious ceremony boosting the gains from 10% to 20% for 3 turns, Imperialism as a Ruling Approach to boost it even further, and other resource bonuses (Tara as nation leader, high Farms/Mines Levels), Pantheon can contribute effectively and with little work needed to a nation's economy. Most economy-focused nations will appreciate Pantheon. The Pantheon Priest that pops in and out of territories for a number of months needs to have his territory guarded better, but most of the time, is not an issue if the player ensures their border defense is kept strong in all territories. The religious ceremonies for Pantheon lasting only 3 turns is a more notable weakness, though, but is less of an issue for turtling nations. Centumvirate Description The Centumvirate will demand the capture of a territory with a Town, Farm or Mine. Successfully capturing the demanded territory (only through direct takeover, not killing a nation leader or through marriage) raises Castle Morale by 50% and reduces the Crime Rates of all Towns owned by that nation by 50%, while demanded Towns add 2000 Mez, demanded Farms add 1000 Food, and demanded Mines adds 200 of that Mine's mineral. If another nation captures the Centumvirate nation's territory of the type demanded by the Centumvirate, that nation will lose the above Castle Morale/Crime Rate/resources rather than gain it. Analysis Centumvirate is a religion that is a great choice for invasion-heavy nations, as most military nations do not do well with economy, and Centumvirate takes care of that by giving them free resources for fulfilling their invasion demands. Tyrants will also greatly appreciate Centumvirate, as it maintains their bad Castle Morale and Crime Rate for them through invasion. One of the downsides to Centumvirate is that Castle Morale and Crime Rate can be worsened easily for the Centumvirate nation if a territory demanded by the Centumvirate belonging to the Centumvirate nation is captured. On top of the Castle Morale/Crime Rate negative, the Centumvirate nation will also lose resources. Performing religious ceremonies will remove this negative for 5 months, so keep border defense high and keep performing religious ceremonies to prevent problems. Centumvirate has another downside, where it loses steam in the mid game and late game. In the mid game, the nation is more likely needing to prepare for their wedding (especially Tyrants), so they will not have as much time to invade for resources. In the late game, nations will likely have enough Towns and Farms to not need the Mez/Food from capturing demanded Towns/Farms, which means there is a 1 in 3 chance that the Centumvirate will demand Mines for the player to gain more scarce resources that they can use. Depending on the map layout of the final nations and the location of the player's child (who can maintain Castle Morale and Crime Rate for Tyrants better than capturing demanded territories can), Centumvirate demands will also be less likely to be filled in the late game, due to less frequent invasions (especially if the nations have time to build up better border defense for the end). Centumvirate is strongest in the early game when military-focused nations need bursts of economic resources that they do not have good access to -- so long as this is handled effectively, Centumvirate can give those military-focused nations the boosts that they need. Ruling Approaches Imperialist Description Towns, Farms and Mines produce 2% more per territory owned by the nation. Analysis A very standard Ruling Approach, and will likely be the default for most nations. More territories adding more resources is something that most nations will appreciate, with the exception of Pound, whose inability to marry will likely have him with lower territory counts to take advantage of this for larger portions of the game. Mercantile Description Gain 100% more from trade deals with other nations (the actual amount given or taken in trade deals does not change per nation -- those with this ruling approach gain the free 100% resources out of nowhere). Analysis A good Ruling Approach for nations that focus on economy and/or espionage. Having the resources to make frequent good trades can allow a nation with a strong economy to benefit even moreso from their economy. Espionage-focused nations that focus on causing scarcity through Spies using Weaken Territory will also benefit, since they not only get the 50% scarcity bonus in trade deals, but the free resources from Mercantile will gain that same additional 50% resources again. Tyrant Description When accompanying a nation's leader, Soldiers gain 2x HP and 2x Attack. When the invasion formula applies, Soldiers gain 150% more offense/defense if their nation's leader is with them. Every month, Crime Rate rises an additional 10% in all Towns and Castle Morale drops an additional 10%. Analysis A good Ruling Approach for any nation that wants stronger invasion power, but will need its negatives addressed -- more Castle Morale decreases and Crime Rate increases means that if left unchecked, the Tyrant nation will have a harder time hiring more Soldiers for both invasion and defending the territories that they capture. Towns Level 5 will also be harder to make use of, but Towns Level 10 and Peacekeepers will help keep Crime Rate under better control, and Pound's Unifier passive and the Child Interaction Buff (from the nation leader spending time with their child in their Castle) will halt Tyrant's negatives unless the nation is suffering from a food shortage. |