Codex — Glossary

Short definitions of core Red Age mechanics.

Action Points (AP): The resource spent to build roads, produce units, and activate technologies each turn. Base 5; modified by city levels, stability, and techs. Hard cap: 20.
Attack AP cost: Attacking an enemy unit or city does not cost AP directly — movement to the attack tile costs movement, and the attack itself consumes the unit's action for that turn. AP is spent on producing units, building infrastructure, and researching technologies.
Capital: The first city a civilization controls; it cannot be upgraded through the standard city-level system and serves as the anchor for the highway network. Losing your capital does not immediately end the game but severs all highway bonuses until it is recaptured.
City integration timer: The per-city countdown (in ticks) between capture and full integration. During this period the city contributes nothing to income, science, or victory thresholds. Default: 2 ticks; Eurasia: 1 tick.
City level (L1–L4): Non-capital cities can be upgraded from Level 1 to Level 4 by spending Action Points. Higher levels increase income, science output, and the city's contribution to stability and AP generation. Maximum level: 4.
Coastal vs. island civilization: A coastal civilization has cities on both land and sea-adjacent tiles, enabling port construction and naval unit production. An island-dominant civilization controls cities reachable primarily by water, making naval and amphibious units essential rather than optional.
Economic victory: A victory condition triggered by sustaining very high income per turn, holding five Level-4 cities, researching Economic L5, and maintaining the threshold for 5 consecutive ticks. Note: disabled in the current MVP build — VictoryConfig.militaryOnly is active.
Encirclement: A combat penalty applied when an attacking unit is surrounded by enemy units on multiple sides, reducing its effective damage output. The Eurasian Union's Operational Armor Corps (code: HeavyTank) ignores this penalty.
Fog of war: Tiles not currently within sight range of any of your units or cities are hidden. Enemy units outside your sight range are invisible; city ownership in unscouted regions may be unknown.
Highway network: The single connected road graph linking your cities to your capital. Only the network connected to the capital generates income bonuses, capped at 40%.
Integration: The period after capturing a city during which it produces no economic output and does not count toward victory conditions. Default: 2 turns. Eurasian Union: 1 turn.
Military victory threshold: The fraction of all cities on the map that a civilization must control (as integrated cities) to win by Military victory. The threshold scales with map size: 30% on micro maps, 22–25% on larger maps; some factions have a faction-specific override.
Overstretch: Stability penalty for holding more than five integrated cities. Each city beyond five reduces stability by 3, limiting how aggressively any faction can expand.
Stability: A 0–100 metric that modifies income, action points, and morale. Drops when you hold more cities than your logistics can support; rises with upgraded cities, ports, and roads.
Tech victory: A victory condition triggered by researching Science L5 (Tech Breakthrough), starting a countdown timer. If the civilization holds all its integrated cities for the duration, it wins. Note: disabled in the current MVP build — VictoryConfig.militaryOnly is active.
Territory: The 3×3 tile area centered on a city tile; this is the zone the city "owns" for resource harvesting and garrison coverage purposes. Territory does not expand with city level.
Tick: One civilization completing its turn (END_TURN). Used in integration timers and victory countdowns. Eight players = eight ticks per round.
War declaration: The formal state of conflict between two civilizations, enabling attacks on each other's units and cities. Note: in the current MVP build, all civilizations begin the match at war with every opponent — there is no neutral or peace state at game start.