The income loop.

Turns

Almost everything you do costs at least one usable turn. Turns regenerate on a fixed cadence — you don't have to be online for it. Above the cap, additional accrual goes into a stored reserve. You can convert stored turns into usable ones only when there's space to receive them, so don't let stored turns sit forever.

Land

Land is the foundation of everything. You acquire land by spending turns on the Explore action. Each turn of exploration gives you some unused acres — the exact amount depends on your government, technology, and how much unused land you already hold.

Unused land sits idle until you build something on it. Every building you construct consumes one acre. You can also gain land by attacking other countries.

Diminishing returns

Exploring scales down the more land you already have. Early in the season, exploration is cheap and fast. Once your country is large, further exploration is a slow grind — at that point, conquest or ghost-acre attacks become more efficient.

Buildings

Buildings turn unused land into productive capacity. You'll choose among eight types in the Construction screen:

• Residences — house population, which drives every other economic output.
• Enterprise zones — increase your maximum income per citizen.
• Industrial complexes — produce military units when you spend Build Military turns.
• Military bases — reduce military upkeep and improve private-market regeneration.
• Research labs — generate technology points each turn.
• Farms — produce food.
• Oil rigs — produce oil.
• Construction sites — buildings under construction occupy this slot until complete.

Construction takes time. You don't get the benefit the moment you click — it shows up as construction sites first, then becomes the finished building after a few turns. Build Planner (a supporter tool, see the Supporter Tier page) lets you simulate projected costs and unused-land budget before you commit.

Tax and population

Population pays taxes — that's your cash income line. Your tax rate is a knob you control. Raising it gives you more cash now but reduces population growth and creates unrest. Lowering it grows population faster, increasing your long-term ceiling.

Population grows naturally based on your housing capacity, food supply, and tax rate. If you run out of food, population starts dying. If you run out of housing, growth stalls.

Food and oil

Every tick, your country consumes food (mostly by population) and oil (by military). Farms produce food; oil rigs produce oil. Surplus accumulates; deficit eats your stockpile, then your population, then your readiness. Letting food go to zero is one of the fastest ways to wreck your country.

Technology

Research labs generate technology points. You allocate those points across eleven research tracks: military, weapons, medical, business, residential, agricultural, warfare, military strategy, industrial, spy, and SDI. Each track improves a different system — more attack strength, more defense, better economy, missile production, spy success, missile interception.

Each track has a per-government cap. You can't be best at everything. Pick two or three tracks that match your strategy and push them.

The actions hub

Every productive action lives under Actions: explore, cash, build, demolish, train military, research, switch government, market, find target, spy. The two most-used moves — Explore and Cash — sit at the top as quick-spend buttons. Pick a number of turns, hit go, see a per-turn breakdown of what changed.