I've re-enabled warfare, so if you choose to declare war again, you may
at this time. Many changes have been made to how warfare works though,
so be sure you understand them before jumping back in.

These changes are designed to address concerns with balance and fairness
that have cropped up during the course of the war on Ashtan. Warfare and
diplomacy are intended to give cities a way to resolve large disputes
forcefully, by application of economic strength and popular support. War
is NOT meant to serve as an outlet for thuggery, nor as a means to drive
people away from the game world. Many of these changes are designed to
refocus warfare's function in this regard. The changes are as follows:

- Supply lines can now traverse locations controlled by formal allies.
Your supply line must still extend back to your city's ruling council
chambers though, not your allies'. For example, if your ally controls
the length of a highway and you control locations at either end, your
supply line can span the length of that highway as if it were your own.

- Divisions may not move past enemy troops if the enemy controls both
the location they're in and the location your troops are trying to march
into. If you station your troops in a corridor and you control both the
location in which they're stationed and the location behind it, then
enemy troops must defeat your troops before moving past.

- Divisions may now be ordered to FORTIFY in locations you control. This
will cause them to 'dig in' and take up defensive positions, giving them
a defensive bonus against enemy troop attacks. Fortifying takes about
1/4 of an Aetolian day, during which they are more vulnerable, with a
defensive penalty. Once dug in, they cannot move from that location
until ordered to MOVEOUT, which also takes about 1/4 of an Aetolian day.

- Divisions receive an automatic defensive bonus when fighting in
locations they control.

- The defensive bonus for divisions fighting in their home has been
greatly reduced. However, this bonus and the previous two bonuses
mentioned all stack - so if your division is fortified in a location
within your home city that you control, it will get a huge cumulative
defensive bonus. (The bonus granted by the artifact battle standard of
Arion also stacks with these, and grants an offensive bonus as well.)

- The Minister of Occupation now has the power to oust members of the
conquered city's ruling council and appoint new members of the ruling
council. New members must be citizens and must meet the requirements for
challenging for a ruling council position.

- When a city is conquered, the war ends. All declarations of war
against that city are canceled, and the city loses its access to the war
ministry in addition to the previous effects of occupation. However,
approximately one Aetolian year after the city is conquered, the
occupation will end automatically, and all 'homeland' territory will be
returned to the possession of the city. Treaties may still be negotiated
and signed into effect before the year is up if the two cities wish to
come to some other arrangement. During the occupation, the conquering
city will continue to pay double conscript wages on all their
conscripts.

- Conscript wages are doubled during times of war (when you have
declared war).

- Most wartime acts now require that you have formally declared war on
the target organization. This and the previous item are to prevent
griefing exploits.

- Peace and ceasefire treaties now have different meanings. Members of
your militia will not be able to order divisions to attack other cities'
divisions if you have a peace treaty (or alliance, of course) signed
with them. If you are in a ceasefire, militia members can order such
attacks, and they will result in war being automatically declared. So if
you don't want a loose cannon to spark an inter-city war, you'll want to
have peace treaties with other cities. If you want a temporary cessation
of hostilities that your militia can end if necessary, then a ceasefire
is the way to go.

- A city can only surrender to an enemy who has captured at least 20% of
their home territory.

- Conscripts are no longer subject to critical hits. I may end up
reducing the efficacy of city guards if necessary.

- If you're in a militia, your militia rank will be automatically
prepended to your title.

- The maximum division size is now 100 troops. This was done to allow
more strategic deployment of troops, and to give unattended troops more
of a fighting chance.

- Conscript costs were completely re-balanced across the board. Nearly
all conscript commodity costs were adjusted. A few conscripts had their
strength adjusted. Before this, there was little correlation between
what a given conscript cost (in commodities) and how effective it was.
Now, all conscripts' commodity costs have roughly the same proportion to
their efficacy.

- Cities can now have custom militia rank titles. Contact your city's
patron to arrange this.

- Citizens who are idle, in news, dead, on another plane of existence,
or in mistform no longer count toward cities' max conscription rates.

- Divisions can no longer be merged such that a division smaller than
the minimum (20) would result.

- Divisions smaller than 20 members cannot capture territory.

- Minor bugs were fixed.

I welcome constructive comments and suggestions; please e-mail them to
me at varian@aetolia.com.

-Varian

Penned by my hand on the 9th of Chakros, in the year 128 MA.