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This update follows the schedule outlined in the 2025 recap, and finally delivers exciting parts of the Major Milestone you voted for.
Its main focus is the long-awaited Claim System overhaul and the foundations of Occupation mechanics, alongside several war-related improvements (focusing on Companies, "swarming" and pathfinding), plus a wide range of fixes and tweaks across other systems.
Please don't forget that since quite a few core systems changed under the hood, bugs are very much possible. Please don’t hesitate to report anything odd you run into. You can do this directly in-game: click the small yellow cloud icon in the bottom right, then hit the Bug Report button in the panel that pops up.
Thanks again, and happy skirmishes!
[Note: This post was originally published on February 7. While preparing the February 14 patch notes, I accidentally overwrote it. Unfortunately, I couldn’t revert the changes — so the original date is no longer accurate, and one paragraph has been lost.]
Async bidding for claims
The old, simple command-based claiming is gone. Claims are now handled through a more flexible, semi-hidden bidding system where only the top contender's identity and progress is known. Tiles are contested over time: once a claim starts, bids are evaluated at the end of each tick, and the highest bid pushes the claim forward. Physical presence or adjacency is required to initiate a bid, but any house can join the contest. Active claims are now visible both on the map (as a token) and on the tile card (with a dedicated indicator). Bid strength depends on many factors (including adjacency bonuses for your already owned tiles) — don’t skip the tooltips and hover new layout elements for info!
Occupation.
Lost a claim contest? No worries, you still have options! Occupation is a new command that lets Companies exert continuous pressure through military presence. In Cold War, it allows you to seize tiles in another house’s Wasteground (note: normal claims now also allow that!). In War, it also enables occupation of Feudum tiles. Both use the same bidding logic and indicators, but here your Company generates ongoing bids, based on its Tile Blocking value as long as it maintains control.
Liberation
If a tile that belongs to you or an ally is getting contested, other than indirectly helping by attacking the invaders, you can use the full scale of the bidding system to reclaim it — by mixing military presence or standard claiming. General tile blocking rules apply though: if an opponent maintains presence on the tile, it'll prevent you to execute commands on it. Successful liberation returns the tile to its original owner. Reclaim partially occupied tiles for their original owner — or, if you’re neither the original owner or an ally, exploit the chaos and take the tile for yourself.
Disconnected tiles now matter
Tiles cut off from their Manor fall out of the Feudum (into Wasteground if there’s room, otherwise becoming abandoned). Strategic layout isn't just about garrisons and economy anymore.
Smarter labour policies
Rulebooks now ship with several moddable default seasonal labour policies, just like in a classic 4X, each focusing on different production goals. You can switch built-in policies per Feudum with a single click.
As requested, policies can now also be copied/pasted via clipboard using a human-readable format— perfect for sharing with friends, the community - or me. :) Feel free to post your best setups on Discord!
Gossips Everywhere! The existing Rumour & Gossip system now posts notable world events to the community Discord’s game-world forums. You can follow wars, regional growth, noble expansion, and market shifts even when you’re not logged in.
The old Guard (Patrol) command is now integrated into movement, with more options and more than 2 waypoints possible, so you can fine-tune the patrol path. Movement itself has also received some more options (e.g. you can ask your Company to avoid trespassing or moving through garrisons if possible). You can now also rearrange waypoints in the order.
In the company command queue, company command slots now honor the command type (movements go into the 1st slot, management commands to the 2nd slot).
Hovering a movement command in the command queue now shows the next waypoint instead of the company. The "go to" button also moves to the next waypoint instead of the company.
Additional Rumours related to claim bids and territorial contests.
Military claims issued through the Pacify stance no longer has grace period when the company moves or changes tactics, but does not immediately fail when the company is in battle after the command has started.
Companies can now pass through multiple friendly Companies or Garrisons if they have enough AP. Requires the Shared Logistics / Free Passage diplomatic clause.
Post-Battle placement logic improved and made more consistent. After battles, the winners choose first in the order of maneuverability (descending}, then comes the losing side. On draw, it is defender then attacker order.
Treasury badges now show an auto-trade indicator when relevant—hover for details.
Labour Assignment UI readability improvements (still WIP, but better than before).
Foragers are now all-year, but still seasonal workers, with a bountiful main and a harsh alternate season.
Games from now on will either allow one more feudum or one more tile per feudum, so you can find new economic strategies, or can use the extra capacity to, well, annex tiles from others.
Several other tweaks to the default rulebook, from commands to labourers — the community Discord always has the up-to-date changes!
The following bugs have been eliminated, so brand new ones can be deployed:
Fixed movement commands showing extra lines when 2 waypoints or waypoints and company position were on the same tile.
Fixed future paths sometimes rendering under past paths.
Fixed diplomacy commands getting stuck in queues in a specific case.
Fixed negative Company power values under extreme attrition.
Fixed damage modifier being ignored edge case for badly injured units.
Fixed morale regeneration edge cases related to edge handling (e.g. if the company regen + tactic regen would be 0 or negative, the edge can still offset it)
Fixed pathfinding for "Avoid" encounter strategy to correctly avoid the any known enemy AoC.
Fixed edge-only regeneration logic for morale.
Fixed traversal edge case: when the last terrain-enabling unit dies and the company is placed on a new tile at the end of movement, the new tile will be used for attrition, trespassing, labour blocking and other checks.
Fixed Company stat clamping with tactic modifiers.
Multiple fixes to communication-related issues.
Additional server-side and backend fixes.
As always, thanks for testing, reporting, and pushing the game forward with me.
- Mat
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