Occupation

What occupation is

An attack on a city sets out for one of two things, and you choose which when you give the order: Raid or Occupy.

Occupation is your army staying in the city after it wins. It is temporary military control, and the occupier decides how long it lasts.

Raid and occupation

When occupation begins

The occupying army

It stays: it does not come home by itself, it does not teleport, and the army screen's orders cannot send it anywhere else; sending it home and ending the occupation are in the occupation panel, and a sortie from the base is ordered in the target city's window. The army screen shows it as Occupying.

That army is committed — it cannot attack another city from the army screen, join another battle, or show as idle at home; the only way it can leave the city is a sortie from the base, below, which may be sent to raid another city or to occupy it. That is what holding a city costs.

Its ammunition and support capacity are whatever they were: occupation refills nobody and heals nobody.

Holding a city is expensive: from the moment the occupation begins the army pays the highest upkeep rate, drops back to the campaign rate when the occupation ends, and returns to normal only when it gets home. Occupation has no other standing cost (Army Upkeep). The occupation panel shows what that force costs you per hour. It is what actually leaves the treasury: if you have researched a cheaper army, the figure already reflects it.

An unpaid occupying army deserts too: while the treasury is empty, the soldiers holding the city leave at the same share and interval as those at home. A deserter does not die; he becomes a citizen of his own city.

If several players come to occupy and win together, the city is held by the one whose first force arrived first; if they arrived together, by the one who gave the order first. The others are not bound to the city: those who came to raid take their plunder and go, and those who came to occupy go home empty-handed.

Changing the garrison

What holds the city is every force of yours that came for this occupation. While it lasts, you can make that garrison larger or send part of it home.

A reinforcement is an ordinary move: open New order on the army screen and pick the city you hold as the destination on the Troops tab, or click that city on the island and choose Move troops. Only the player holding the city sends reinforcements to the garrison; your allies can send forces to help you hold it (Alliances). A reinforcement pays the campaign rate on the road and the occupation rate from the moment it joins the garrison. Reinforcements on the road are listed in the occupation panel with their arrival times. The city's owner sees a reinforcement coming towards their city too, like an attack, with its approximate size.

If the occupation has ended by the time a reinforcement arrives, it does not wait at the gate: it marches home the way it came, and loses nobody.

The occupation panel lists the garrison force by force. Send some home sends part of one force's soldiers home; they regroup and march back the way they came, and the rest go on holding the city. Across the sea the ships are shared out; if there are not enough to carry both those leaving and those staying, the order cannot be given.

You cannot send home the last fighting men holding the city, and a force that is in a battle cannot be ordered out. To let all of it go, end the occupation.

Raiding from a base

A city you occupy is a forward base, and it does everything your home city does for a land campaign. A sortie from it is ordered on the map: in the target city's window, press Raid from a base and choose under From which base and which garrison force go. The target may be on the base's own island or across the sea. On the What it goes for cards you choose Raid or Occupy. Before you give the order you see whose city the target is, the rate of the commission a raid pays the city's owner, what happens at the end of the sortie, whether the way goes overland or by sea, and where the column will return. The journey is measured from where the base stands. The soldiers stay your own city's soldiers and pay campaign upkeep on the road and in battle.

You may send part of the garrison or all of it: the city stays held with an empty garrison and the column comes back to it, but with nobody left holding it an uprising or a relief takes it without a fight. No raid can be ordered while the city is being fought for. A city whose owner is under beginner protection cannot be raided; the raid spends your own protection and you confirm it before the order. A refused order spends nothing.

Crossing the sea needs ships, and they are the force's own: a column that walked to the base cannot put to sea, because a base gives you no access to the harbour of the city it stands in. A city you take becomes the next base — the survivors stay there and the same city of yours goes on paying for them. Lose the battle and the survivors come back to the base they left; if that base fell while they were away the column scatters instead: for a while it cannot be sent anywhere, counted into a defence, or given to a transport, and then it gathers at the city that pays for it. Whoever died in the battle is dead. Occupying the same city again later does not save the column.

On the base's own island load carts carry the plunder: take carts to the base with a reinforcement, across the sea too, and a raid that brings no carts brings nothing back. Against a target across the sea the plunder rides, as on an overseas raid from home, in the hold the soldiers do not fill (Raiding). A raid from a base takes no captives; you divide what it brings between goods and Gold with two sliders or one of three ready splits.

The raid returns to the occupation it left. If the base is still yours it joins the garrison and the plunder is divided there: from every resource and from Gold the city owner's commission is set aside, rounded down — goods to the city's stores, Gold to their treasury — the rest of the goods go into the base store and the rest of the Gold into your treasury. What does not fit is lost, and you are told. The division happens once. Allies of yours standing in the city may raid from it too. Their raids pay the city's owner a commission as well, not at your rate but at the higher one every raid from an ally's city pays; they pay you nothing (Alliances).

If the occupation ends before the raid is back — even if you have since occupied the same city again — the force carries on home from the base by a real journey and brings all of its plunder. A force from another island may only raid with enough of its ships to carry its soldiers and its carts' full load home, while those who stay can still sail; otherwise the order cannot be given. You can add extra ships for this when you reinforce the base. The rates are in the Raid Reference.

Defending and moving from a base

You can also march part of the garrison to another city on the base's island. Defend from a base sends soldiers to the defence of a battle being fought on the island: a stranger's siege, a siege of your own city, or an uprising or a relief at another city you hold. The column stands there with the other defenders and, when the battle is over, goes back to the city it left and joins its garrison again. If that city is no longer yours when it gets back — the uprising won, the city was freed, or you let it go — the column scatters and after a while gathers at the city that pays for it.

Move troops from a hold takes soldiers to the garrison of another city you hold, for good. When the column arrives it joins that garrison, and when it goes home one day it leaves from there. If that occupation ends before it arrives, it turns round at the gate and goes home.

Either way the soldiers stay your own city's soldiers, and that city pays their upkeep. Neither order can be given with a force that is fighting or while the city is being fought for. If you pick a city you hold from the city list while looking at an island, you stay on the island: that city stays chosen and the island's windows give their orders from it. Pick one of your own cities and orders go out from home again. The From list of the attack, relief and troop windows also holds the cities you occupy after your own, with the forces in them; pick one and the order goes out from that base. A relief can go out from a base too: win or lose, the column comes back to the base after the battle. Your forces in allies' cities are in the attack and troop windows' lists too, and can march on the same island or go to a defence (Alliances).

The base store

The base store is yours and separate from the city's own stores, with one limited capacity shared by all resources. The occupation panel shows what is in it, how much room is left, the commission rate and the commission paid so far. A base in an ally's own city has no such store; your ships carry your share of a raid from there home by themselves (Alliances).

You bring the store home with real ships: choose one of your cities with a Port and what to take, then Send Ships; how many ships are needed, how many are idle in that city and how long the one-way voyage takes are shown before the order. The ships load when they reach the base and unload when they are home; what your city's stores cannot take is lost. Goods you send ships for are set aside for that voyage and no other ships can be sent for them.

When the occupation ends — whether you end it or lose it — everything left in the store passes to the city's owner; what the city's stores cannot take is lost, and both of you are told how much passed over and how much was lost. The End Occupation button says so, with the amount in the store, before the order. Ships that reach the base after the occupation has ended come back empty.

The city's owner sees in the occupation panel the commission they have received while this occupation lasts: from the occupier's raids and from the raids of the allies helping to hold the city, together. They do not see the base store or the occupier's orders.

Surrendered troops

If the defender raises the white flag the battle ends without another round being fought, and the occupation begins. The men who gave up are not killed, not routed and not the enemy’s: they stay in their own city as their own player’s soldiers.

But they cannot be used while the occupation lasts. The army screen shows them as surrendered troops: alive, yours, and unavailable.

A city taken by assault

A garrison that was destroyed, or that broke and left, is not on the field any more. Occupation takes the result of the battle exactly as it stands and raises nobody: the only troops held are the ones who actually surrendered.

What the owner may still do

How it looks in your city

When you enter your city it says Under occupation, with who is holding it. Click it and the card that opens tells you that the city is still yours, lists your surrendered troops, shows what is left of the civilian allowance, and says what goes on and what stops; the order to rise is on this card too. The city map shows the occupier's army as well: its camps outside the town, a guard post beside the agora, and soldiers marching down the road to the harbour. The Occupying forces tab on the Land side of the army screen lists the units of the army holding your city one by one; the Rise up button is there too.

On the island, the occupier's tents stand on the city's square and the name of the player holding it is shown above it; how many soldiers they hold it with is not. Every other player with a city on the island is told too: whose city, and who occupied it.

Seeing a city you hold

Cities whose streets you occupy or whose harbour you hold appear in your city list below your own cities, under Your bases; each row says "occupied" or "harbour held". Tap one on the Army screen and the screen turns to that city and shows your forces there (The Army Screen). Tap one anywhere else and you see the city as it stands: its buildings and their levels, its god, its monument. Its stores, production, building queue and soldiers are its owner's; they are not shown there, and nothing on the map opens.

The top of the same screen says whose city it is. Below it, each place you hold has its own row: the streets or the harbour, the day you took it and how long ago that was. End occupation… at the right of the row gives up the streets and Let the harbour go… gives up the harbour. Press one and that row turns into the warning, listing point by point what will happen; if you do not confirm, Cancel puts the row back as it was. Both are the same orders as on the army screen. When you give up the last place you hold there, you are taken back to the army screen.

The civilian transport allowance

Your occupied city keeps trading, but not without limit: resources leaving the city and arriving at it share one civilian transport allowance. The allowance holds a fixed amount of cargo and refills by a fixed amount per game hour by itself; the values are in the Raid Reference. There is no midnight reset — waiting is enough.

Only your own orders use it: resources you send from this city, resources you send to it from another of your cities (if both are occupied, both allowances are charged together), deliveries of your market orders in this city, and a colony fleet leaving it. The occupier's base store and commission deliveries do not use it. A gift from any other player — the occupier included — to this city is refused before it sails; nobody is asked to approve anything.

The allowance is charged when the cargo is dispatched, never again on arrival, and a dispatch that fails charges nothing. Shipments already at sea when the occupation starts are not affected. The order form shows what is left, the full allowance, the refill rate and when this cargo could go; a cargo larger than a full allowance cannot go in one piece.

An open market order reserves no allowance. When it matches, if an occupied end cannot cover all of it the order fills as far as it can, the rest stays open and fills in later matches as the allowance refills; the market screen says so. The allowance belongs to the city: ending and quickly restarting an occupation does not hand it back full. Production, construction and training go on as usual.

All of this holds for your capital too: occupying the capital carries no extra penalty — no escalating timer, no empire-wide production penalty, no forced change of government and no forced relocation. The one further consequence concerns colonies: a colony fleet leaving a held capital draws on the civilian allowance like any other cargo. The minimum founding package fits inside a full allowance, so a colony can still be founded while the capital is held; load the settlers with more and you wait for the allowance to refill, and a manifest larger than a full allowance cannot sail at all.

Freeing the city

No ordinary attack can be sent at an occupied city — not even by the player holding it, and not by anyone in that player's alliance. The server refuses the order. An army sent to raid or occupy that finds the city held when it arrives (or finds itself allied to the target) turns back without fighting: nothing is plundered and no host's commission is paid. Raiding OUT of a base you hold is a different rule and is allowed; what is forbidden is aiming a raid AT a held city. There are two ways to free it, and both fight the force holding the city — not its owner.

Uprising. The city's owner orders the city's free troops to rise: those on no mission and not surrendered. The order is on the Under occupation card in your city; the card says who would fight if the city rose, and the battle opens when you choose Rise up and confirm. You can call the uprising off with the white flag; call it off before the first clash and nobody dies. Troops trained during the occupation join the uprising at later rounds. Neither side has a wall in an uprising. Surrendered troops stay bound, and do not fight, until the city is free. Troops you moved into the city from another of your cities do not join the uprising; they are on their own cities' books.

Relief. A relief is sent from the map: click the city on the island, choose Send a relief in the window that opens, and pick which of your cities it sets out from. A relief is an attack: it spends your beginner protection, and you confirm that before the order goes; a refused order spends no protection. The city's owner may send one from another city, and so may players in the owner's alliance and players with a friendship agreement with the owner; members of the occupier's alliance may not. When a relief reaches the city somebody inside opens the gate: nobody faces the wall and the occupying force does not stand behind it, so no siege engines are needed. Once the gate is open the city rises, and your free troops in the city fight beside the relief; this holds even when an ally sent the relief. A relief is sent against one occupation: if that occupation has ended it turns back at the gate and attacks no other. Beginner protection does not protect an occupation from being freed. An army of yours that was away when the city was taken becomes a relief of its own when it comes home: it fights the occupier at the gate. If it wins the occupation ends and the army goes in; if it loses the survivors scatter and after a while gather in the city, and they do not fight at the gate again.

A city has one battle at a time. A relief that arrives during an uprising joins it and takes the field at the next round. The battle a relief opens is an uprising too: the gate opens even if the city has no free troops at that moment, and troops that become free while it is fought join in the following rounds. So no uprising can be ordered while a battle for the city is under way, because the city has already risen. If a relief arrives at the very moment an uprising is ordered, the relief arrives first and opens the gate. Reinforcements that were in the garrison when the battle opened fight in it; those that arrive while it runs join from the round after they arrive. Every force in the garrison fights on its own city's books; its dead are taken from that city.

If a battle you are not a side of is being fought for your city, open it from the Under occupation card in your city with Watch the battle. You see its kind, its round, the next clash, how many forces each side has and how many have withdrawn, and in the end the outcome; the armies' strength and make-up are not shown to you.

If it is won, the occupation ends, the surrendered troops are released, and the occupying force's survivors regroup and march home. Nothing is plundered, nobody occupies the city, and the city keeps its owner. If it is lost, the occupation goes on and the surrendered troops stay bound. While the battle lasts the occupier cannot end the occupation by order or send troops home from the garrison; the way out of the battle is the white flag.

How occupation ends

The occupier ends it, and nobody else can. End Occupation, once confirmed, closes it, releases the surrendered troops — the same men, the same numbers, nobody healed — and the city may raise armies again. Whatever is left in the base store passes to the city's owner.

An occupation also ends when not one soldier who can fight is left holding the city. Siege engines can hold a city too, but support units such as the Iatros, the Mantis and the Mechanikos, load carts and ships cannot hold one by themselves; if only they remain, the occupation ends and they march home. Emptying it by your own order is a different thing: if you send the whole garrison out on an operation the occupation stands, because the column needs somewhere to come back to.

An occupation also ends when the occupying force loses a battle fought to free the city. Here too the surrendered troops are released and the surviving occupiers march home.

The occupying army does not teleport. It regroups first and then walks home the way it came; the army screen shows that wait as Regrouping. If the city is on another island it also boards ship after regrouping, then sets sail. The moment it gets home the army can be used again.

The occupation report

The report of an occupying attack answers two questions separately: was the occupation ESTABLISHED — that is the battle's result and never changes — and is the city STILL HELD today. The second is today's state; when the occupation ends that line changes and the battle's result does not.

How it was established is written too: because the city was taken, or because the defender surrendered. If it does not say established, the force set out to occupy and never held the city; such a report has no plunder section at all, because an occupying attack brings none.

What occupation is not

It is not conquest, not a raid and not a tax. The occupier takes no share of the city’s production, its treasury or its stores.

It is not intelligence either: an occupier cannot see the city’s resources, its Gold or its hidden buildings; whoever wants to see them sends a spy. It cannot build there, demolish anything, or use the warehouse or the barracks.

Nor is it holding the harbour. The army holding the streets does not hold the city's water, and the city's warships go on putting to sea. Holding the harbour is a separate control set up by a separate order, and a city can have both at once: Port Occupation.