War Declarations
A war declaration creates a timed conflict between two countries. Congress decides whom to fight, how long the war lasts and which regions may become permanent prizes. Individual battles determine who controls a region during that conflict.
Two rules to remember
- Capturing a region is not the same as keeping it permanently. Only the winner's declared goal regions are awarded as victory prizes.
- A defender without purchased war goals must hold out until the deadline. Recaptures alone do not give it an early strategic victory.
At a glance
| Choice or rule | What it means |
|---|---|
| War duration | 8, 14, 21 or 30 days, counted from enactment of the declaration. |
| Attacker's goals | Choose 0, 1 or 2 regions. Choosing none is allowed, but gives no permanent territory prize. |
| Defender's goals | The defender may purchase 1 or 2 offensive goals through Congress, if eligible. Otherwise it defends until the deadline. |
| Victory | Meet the conquest requirement and hold every declared goal before the deadline. |
| Normal post-war protection | A seven-day non-aggression pact (NAP) follows victory or expiry. A voided declaration has different rules. |
How to declare war
- Open your Country page and its Congress section. The President or a Congress member can propose Declare War.
- Choose the target country, one of the four durations and up to two goal regions.
- Review the country's Gold cost and submit the proposal for Congress to vote on. Treat the proposal as public information: the opponent can see your political preparations.
- Wait for the bill to pass and be enacted. The standard voting window is 24 hours; server fast-law settings can allow earlier resolution. Use the bill's displayed voting deadline.
- After enactment, the President, Vice President or Minister of Defense can open eligible regional battles. The declaration starts the conflict; it does not automatically capture a region or win a battle.
Before submitting:
- The target must own contestable land, even if other countries temporarily occupy all of it. Your own country may own no land.
- An active alliance, existing war or NAP between the countries can prevent a new declaration.
- Named goals must be distinct, visible, contestable regions owned by the target. A third country may temporarily occupy them; regions already controlled by your own country cannot be selected as new goals.
- Eligibility is checked again when the vote resolves. If the proposed goals become invalid before enactment, the bill can be denied and its fee refunded.
Server administration can temporarily disable new declarations, invasions or revolutions independently. Follow the availability shown in the game.
Opening battles
A complete nine-round battle must fit before the declaration's deadline. Exact round timing follows server settings, so new invasions become unavailable when too little time remains.
If attacker initiative is enabled, the declaring country has first-battle priority for up to 24 hours after approval. That restriction ends once the first battle starts; afterwards either side may launch eligible invasions. Check initiative and battle availability when planning the first attack.
For the full rules on first-battle priority, loss delays and simultaneous attacks on occupied regions, see Invasion Initiative.
Gold cost and duration
The base proposal cost is:
Base Gold cost = (10 + 0.2 × combined fully active civilians of both countries) × war duration ÷ 8
The proposing Congress's ideology can modify this amount. Eligible first-proposal exemptions apply only to the 8-day tier. Use the in-game quote for the final amount payable from the country treasury. “Fully active civilians” is the game's population measure, not the number of registered accounts or players currently online.
| Duration | Duration multiplier |
|---|---|
| 8 days | ×1 |
| 14 days | ×1.75 |
| 21 days | ×2.625 |
| 30 days | ×3.75 |
A longer declaration provides a longer objective window and costs more. It does not increase the maximum number of goal regions or guarantee victory.
Goals and the conquest requirement
Goals are the regions your Congress names as possible permanent prizes. The conquest requirement is how many qualifying regions your side must capture and still hold to win.
The normal requirement is the smaller of the opponent's contestable owned region count when the declaration is enacted and the cap below. Temporarily occupied regions still count as the owner's land, including regions held by other countries. That starting count is frozen; it is not recalculated after every battle. Permanent ownership is separate from a region's original geographic country.
| Your side's declared goals | Normal conquest cap | Permanent victory prizes |
|---|---|---|
| No goals (attacker only) | 6 regions | None |
| Exactly 1 goal | 3 regions | That goal region |
| Exactly 2 goals | 6 regions | Those two goal regions |
| Your own rightful capital as your only goal | 1 region | Recovery of that capital |
Every named goal must be among your qualifying captures and still be held by your country. Adding a second goal to a capital-recovery war restores the ordinary two-goal cap.
Examples
- Against a country owning 10 contestable regions, naming 1 ordinary goal normally requires 3 qualifying captures, including the goal. Only the named goal is a permanent prize.
- Against a country owning 4 contestable regions, naming 2 goals normally requires 4 qualifying captures, including both goals.
- Naming only your own rightful capital can make recovering and holding that capital sufficient for victory.
Which captures count?
- Your country must make a qualifying capture during this declared war and still control the region when victory is checked. Losing it removes it from your held progress.
- A region counts once, even if it changes hands repeatedly.
- Capturing the opponent's land can count. Recovering your own land from that opponent can also count.
- A third country's captures do not contribute to your country's progress. Capturing unrelated third-country land does not automatically count against this opponent.
There is also a limited wipe route: a side eligible for offensive victory can complete the count requirement if it holds all contestable land the opponent still owns, with at least one qualifying retained conquest. All named goals remain mandatory.
Temporary occupation and permanent conquest have different effects:
- If several countries temporarily occupy all the opponent's regions between them, the opponent still owns that land. Having no regions left under its direct control does not, by itself, end every declaration.
- If a third country wins its own declaration and permanently receives a region, the opponent no longer owns that region. Your side can then win by holding all the opponent's remaining contestable land, even below your original conquest quota, provided you hold all your own named goals. Wars can therefore finish one after another.
Selecting goals on occupied land: You may name a region that a third country temporarily occupies, provided the country you are declaring war on still owns it. You do not need a separate war against the occupier to contest your common enemy's territory, although normal invasion requirements still apply. The target cannot offer land it only temporarily occupies from another owner. Regions your own country already controls are not eligible as new goals. The same ownership rule applies to purchased defender objectives.
Example: competing for a common enemy's regions. Country A temporarily occupies five of Country B's six regions. Country C may declare war on B and name two of those occupied regions as goals, because they still belong to B. Country C must capture and hold both goals itself; A's captures do not complete C's objectives. If A and C temporarily occupy all six regions between them, each declaration still resolves under its own victory conditions.
Example: six owned regions, five temporarily occupied. Country B owns six contestable regions. Country A temporarily occupies five of them, while B directly controls the last one. If Country C declares war on B now, B still owns all six. Country C therefore needs 3 qualifying captures for 1 ordinary goal, or 6 qualifying captures for 2 goals, including every named goal.
Capturing B's last directly controlled region gives C only one capture. To meet its requirement, C must also take B-owned regions from A and hold them, including C's goals. C does not need a separate declaration against A to contest B's land; normal invasion requirements still apply. A and C temporarily occupying all six regions between them does not automatically win either declaration.
Only a permanent award changes who owns a region. A third country's temporary occupation cannot reduce B's owned-region baseline for a new declaration.
Defending and buying offensive goals
The defender can fight, recapture regions and prevent the attacker from completing its objective. Without purchased offensive goals, the defender cannot end the declaration early through conquests, recaptures or a wipe. It succeeds defensively by lasting until the deadline; expiry awards no permanent victory prizes.
To pursue an early offensive victory, the defender can propose Add War Objective in Congress, once per declaration:
- Select 1 or 2 eligible regions of the attacking country.
- The objective uses the existing declaration deadline. It does not restart or extend the war.
- There must be enough time remaining for a complete battle. An objective cannot be bought against a declarer that owned no contestable regions when the declaration was enacted.
- Its cost uses the same population formula and the declaration's original duration, rather than only the remaining days, with applicable ideology adjustments or exemptions.
- Once enacted, the defender must satisfy its own conquest requirement and hold its named goals within the remaining window.
The attacker and defender can therefore have different goals and different requirements. Check your own side's progress.
Occupation, taxes and buildings
A battle victory can create a temporary occupation. The occupier controls the region during the war, while permanent ownership and war settlement remain separate questions.
- Work tax: the default occupied-region split is 80% to the occupier and 20% to the recorded owner before occupation. The server can configure this split.
- Temporary occupation: occupying a region does not itself reduce its regional building levels.
- Permanent ruler change: when a conquest becomes permanent, each regional building above level 0 loses one level, once for that transition. A battle recapture that ends an occupation can also be a permanent transition.
- Release at settlement: returning a temporary occupation causes no additional building damage. Construction orders belonging to a displaced ruler can be cancelled when control is settled.
How a declaration ends
| Ending | Territory and protection |
|---|---|
| Objective victory | The winner receives its declared goal regions as permanent prizes. Other provisional occupations governed by that war are released. A seven-day NAP follows. |
| Deadline expires | No victory prizes are awarded. Occupations governed by the ending war are released and a seven-day NAP follows. Holding out does not award the defender permanent territory. |
| Agreed peace | Congress can pursue peace terms. An armistice requires both congresses, releases occupations and signs a seven-day NAP. Territorial concessions depend on the accepted terms. |
| A mandatory goal is permanently awarded in another war | The affected declaration is voided without prizes or a new NAP. Goals are not silently waived. |
If another active declaration still governs an occupation, its release can wait for that conflict to end. Ongoing battles can also delay final territorial settlement. Use the declaration's actual status and remaining time rather than assuming every region will change at the exact deadline second.
If a third country takes a goal
A third country temporarily occupying your goal does not remove that goal from your declaration. Opponent-owned land can remain attackable under the war against its owner, with the current occupier defending the battle.
If another war instead permanently awards a mandatory goal, the affected declaration is voided as described above. Temporary control and permanent ownership have different consequences.
Planning checklist
- Choose goals you can reach, capture and hold before the deadline.
- Budget for the declaration and the campaign; declaring war does not pay the costs of every battle.
- Check first-battle initiative and whether a complete battle still fits before the deadline.
- Watch both the conquest count and the mandatory goal regions.
- If defending, decide whether to hold out or purchase an offensive objective while enough time remains.
- Remember: winning with no goals grants no permanent territory, and ordinary extra captures are released at settlement.
Interface reference
Rules reviewed against the game backend on 12 October 2026. Server settings and deployed updates can affect availability, prices and voting speed; always check the current in-game proposal and declaration readout.