战争

战争是扩张角色领地最直接的途径，侧重于在战场上以武力夺取头衔。角色负债时不能宣战。

Warfare

Combat phases

Battles start when two armies enter the same Barony. At the start of any battle the terrain's Combat Width that decides how many troops are able to fight each other at the same time. Each battle goes through 4 phases:

• Maneuver Phase: The armies prepare for battle and the Commanders make their initial Advantage rolls.
• Early Battle Phase: The armies fight inflict damage upon each other each day and cannot retreat. If an army is defeated in this phase all Routed Casualties become Fatal Casualties.
• Late Battle Phase: The armies keep fighting keep inflicting damage upon each other each day until either all soldiers on one side run out of Toughness or one side decides to retreat. If an army retreats all remaining soldiers become Routed Casualties.
• Aftermath Phase: The winning army attempts to turn Routed Casualties into Fatal Casualties. When the phase ends the defeated army moves into an adjacent Barony with all Routed Casualties and cannot be given orders until if finished traveling a couple of Baronies away but will travel slightly faster than controlled armies.

The advantage modifier

When combat starts the Advantage, a modifier that lasts the entire battle and increases the damage of all troops on either side, is calculated for both sides. Advantage can come from traits, terrain, buildings or the Martial skill of the Commander. Each Commander will also make a roll every 3 days in an attempt to increase their Advantage, and the roll can be affected by various modifiers and traits. Each point of Advantage increases an army's damage by +2%. Starting Advantage can be affected by the following:

• +30 if army is defending across a strait
• +20 if army is defending across a large river
• +10 if army is defending across a river
• +5 if liege is leading the army
• -10 if realm is in debt
• -10 if army is gathering
• -10 if army is low on supplies
• -25 if army is out of supplies
• -30 if army is attacking across sea

Siege

A Siege takes place when an army attacks a Fortified Holding and outnumbers the Holding's  Garrison and is the main way of gaining War Score. In order to occupy a County all Fortified Holdings have to be occupied. Castles and County Capitals are all fortified by default. How difficult it is to besiege a Fortified Holding is determined by its  Fort Level, which can be increased by certain buildings and modifiers. Each  Fort Level increases the amount of Siege Progress needed to occupy the Holding. Siege Progress is gained every tick, especially if the attacker heavily outnumbers the garrison or brings siege weapons.

Being attacked while besieging a Fortified Holding will make the besieger the attacker of the battle, making them lose any terrain defensive bonus.

Each siege will keep track of the defenders' supplies, average health and fortifications. During sieges certain events can happen by default every 20 days, which can lower one of those. Walls can only be damaged if the attacking army has Siege Weapons.

Asset	Stage 1 effects	Stage 2 effects	Stage 3 effects
Garrison Supplies	None	+10% One-Time Siege Progress	+30% One-Time Siege Progress
Garrison Health	None	+10% Daily Siege Progress	+20% Daily Siege Progress
Walls	None	-10% Time Between Siege Events Can assault the Fort	-30% Time Between Siege Events Can assault the Fort

Assaulting the Fort will add a large amount of daily Siege Progress at the cost of casualties.

War score

War Score is a measure of which side is winning a war. It ranges from -100 to +100, each point added to one side being subtracted at the same time from the other side. War Score is gained by winning Battles, occupying Holdings, taking prisoners and especially having control of the Casus Belli's Objective. Capturing the enemy ruler grants +100 War Score, capturing the enemy heir grants +50 War Score and occupying the enemy capital grants +10 War Score.

At +30 War Score the winning side can call for White Peace and at +100 What Score the winning side can force the losing side to accept defeat.

War contribution

Wars where either the attacker or the defender has allies keep track of the percentage of War Score that was provided by each ally's armies. When the war ends a certain amount of  Gold,  Prestige or  Piety is shared among all allies based on their War Contribution.

If a war lasts at least 2 years and one of the allies has 0% War Contribution it will lose -20  Opinion with the war leader and have to pay  Gold or  Prestige or promise to earn War Contribution within a year. Breaking the promise will result in losing a Level of Fame as well as -50  Opinion with the war leader.

Ending wars

Wars can end in two ways: victory for one side and defeat for the other or with a White Peace.

If the attacker achieves victory it achieves the effects of the used Casus Belli. If the defender achieves victory the attacker is forced to pay a large sum of Gold to the defender and will lose  Prestige or  Piety.

White Peace can be proposed at any point by one of the two sides and requires the other side to accept it. In case of White Peace the attacker will lose a small amount of  Prestige or  Piety.

After a War the allies of both sides will gain  Prestige regardless of who was the victor.

When a War ends the attacker will gain a Truce with the defender for 5 years. If the former attacker declares war again while the Truce is active it will lose 250  Prestige and one Level of Fame and gain -50 General Opinion for 3 years.

Offensive war opinion

After 6 months since the beginning of a war have passed the attacker will start to gain negative  Opinion with all Vassals. Every two months afterwards their  Opinion will decrease by -1. After the war is over the penalty will decay with the same speed. Civil Wars and Great Holy Wars do not cause  Opinion loss. Faiths that have the Warmonger tenet also do not suffer this penalty.

Holy wars

Holy Wars are wars started with one of the Holy War casus belli. Unlike other wars Rulers of the same Faith as the defending Ruler can join the war without requiring an Alliance. A Ruler targeted by a Holy War gains a character interaction to convert to the attacker's Faith in order to end the war in White Peace at the cost of 100  Piety and 3 Levels of Devotion.

Great holy wars

Great Holy Wars can only be declared by a Head of Faith whose faith has the Warmonger, Armed Pilgrimages or Struggle and Submission tenets and can only target Kingdoms ruled by a character of a different Faith. If victorious all Titles within the targeted Kingdom are seized and divided between the attackers based on their War Contribution. Great Holy Wars can be Directed or Undirected. Great Holy Wars do not cause Vassal  Opinion loss no matter how long they last.

During Great Holy Wars there is no option for White Peace and capturing and imprisoning the opposing war leader or its Heir will not grant War Score. If the attacking Faith wins its Fervor will decrease by -30 while the defending Faith's Fervor will increased by +25%. If the defending Faith wins the attacking Faith will lose -25 Fervor.

Characters who contribute to a Great Holy War will gain the Crusader trait if Christian, Mujahid trait if Muslim or Warrior of the Faith trait if their Religion is any other. In addition if the character had the  Excommunicated trait it is removed.

Directed great holy wars

Directed Great Holy Wars can be declared by Temporal Heads of Faith. If victorious the Kingdom is granted to the Head of Faith. Rulers of the same Faith can join forces with the Head of Faith and based on their War Contribution may gain Piety or Titles in the conquered Kingdom if victorious.

Undirected great holy wars

Undirected Great Holy Wars can be declared by Spiritual Heads of Faith. When declared a preparation phase starts, during which Rulers of the attacking and defending Faiths can either donate gold or pledge military support to their side.

Each Undirected Great Holy War will have a War Chest, to which characters of the attacking Faith can donate  Gold in order to receive  Piety equal to half of the amount donated. Donating significant amounts will also grant bonus  Opinion with the Head of Faith. When the preparation phase ends 20% of the War Chest's value will be divided among all rulers who pledged military support for the attacking Faith. The rest will be divided among all rulers who pledged military support if their Faith wins.

During the preparation phase characters belonging to the Faith of the attacker or the defender can pledge military support. Characters who pledge military support may gain a share of the War Chest's value and will end all wars against characters who also pledged military support. Characters of the attacking Faith who pledge military support can also choose a Beneficiary, a character of their Dynasty who will receive titles in the targeted Kingdom proportional to their War Contribution. Upon pledging characters of the attacking Faith will gain Piety and the War Chest will gain Prestige and Piety depending on their Primary Title rank:

Rank	Piety	War Chest Prestige	War Chest Piety
Baron	30	250	75
Count	60	500	150
Duke	90	1000	300
King	120	1500	600
Emperor	150	3000	1200

A character can withdraw their pledge military support after making it but doing so will cause them to lose one Level of Devotion.

In addition during the preparation phase characters who pledged military support can spend Piety to change the targeted Kingdom.

Once the Preparation Phase ends the war starts. If the attackers are victorious the Kingdom is granted to the attacker that had the most War Contribution. During both war and the preparation Phase attackers may donate Gold to the War Chest.

Raiding

Raiding is the process of attacking the Holding of another character without requiring to be at war with them in order to gain Loot. In order to Raid a ruler must be of either Pagan religion or Tribal government. Once a ruler has been Raided it cannot be Raided again by the same enemy for 5 years. Holdings that have been Raided will have a torch icon above them.

Raiding is done via Raiders, armies raised in owned provinces for the purpose of Raiding that can carry loot based on the army size. Raiders cannot embark unless their culture has unlocked either the Longships or the West African Canoes Innovation. While Raiding the army cannot move, allowing the attacked character to raise an army against the raiders if possible. If a Raider army is defeated all Loot will be recovered.

If a Commander has raided at least 20 times each raid has a chance to grant them the Raider trait equal to the amount of times they raided.

If the raided Barony is a Ruler's Realm Capital raiding may capture or kill courtiers or family members.

If the Liege is the army's Commander after the Holding is raided there is a 30% chance they will gain the option to sack its County. The chance is increased to 50% if the Liege has the Raider trait. Sacking the County will grant additional  Gold and  Prestige while the County will gain -40  Development Progress. It will also give the County the Recently Sacked modifier for 20 years, which prevents any Holding inside from being sacked again and gives it +20 Popular Opinion. Sacking a County will grant +10  Stress if the character has the  Compassionate or  Forgiving traits.

Maintenance cost for armies raised as raiders is reduced by 50%.

Terrain

Each Barony has a dominant terrain. The terrain determines the movement speed and combat width in the Barony and can affect the supply limit and development growth in its County.

Terrain	Movement Speed	Combat Width	Defender Advantage	County Supply Limit	County Development Growth	Other effects
Desert	70%	100%	0	-30%	-50%
Desert Mountains	50%	50%	+12	-60%	-50%	-30% Defender Retreat Losses
Drylands	100%	100%	0	0	-5%
Farmlands	100%	100%	0	+50%	+20%
Floodplains	100%	75%	0	+35%	+20%
Forest	80%	90%	+3	-10%	0
Hills	80%	80%	+5	-10%	-10%
Jungle	50%	70%	+6	-25%	-40%
Mountains	50%	50%	+12	-50%	-25%
Oasis	100%	100%	0	+10%	+10%
Plains	100%	100%	0	0	0
Steppe	100%	100%	0	0	-50%
Taiga	80%	80%	+4	-20%	-5%
Wetlands	70%	60%	+5	-25%	-25%	+25% Retreat Losses +20% Fatal Casualties