Difficulty Levels
Difficulty Levels set how strong the empires you compete against are, and Ironman mode determines how forgiving your own mistakes are allowed to be — both chosen once when a new game is created, and unchangeable for the rest of that campaign.
| Level | Description | Base Loyalty | Manpower / Horses / Stone / Grain | Support Equipment | Other Equipment (Armour / Melee / Ranged) | Birth Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Novice | The easiest difficulty. AI factions receive no bonuses at all — a level playing field from the start. | — | — | — | — | +0.00% |
| Warden | A solid challenge. | +2, all cities | +5% | +10% | +5% | +0.10% |
| Reaver | Aggressive and demanding — requires a lot from the player. | +4, all cities | +15% | +30% | +15% | +0.20% |
| Imperator | A truly epic challenge, not for the faint of heart. | +8, all cities | +30% | +60% | +30% | +0.40% |
The equipment and manpower bonuses are applied at the moment a settlement's monthly production is transferred into the Global Equipment Stock, rather than to the settlement's raw output directly — meaning these bonuses don't change how much a single hex produces, just how much actually ends up usable by the empire. The Birth Rate bonus is added directly to a settlement's effective birth rate each month, ensuring AI factions stay competitive in the opening months before their own grain production and infrastructure are fully established — see Population Growth for the standard growth formula this builds on top of.
The loyalty bonus is worth noting in particular: higher-difficulty AI empires don't just have stronger armies, their citizens are also measurably more content from the outset, which compounds into faster growth, faster assimilation, and lower crime over the course of a long campaign — see Loyalty for how base loyalty feeds into all three.
Observer mode: if you're watching a game rather than playing it directly, the "player" faction receives the same difficulty bonuses as every AI faction, rather than starting unbonused as it would in a normal campaign.
Choosing a Level
Novice is a comfortable place to start if you're still learning the game's systems — there's no rush to move up once you're winning comfortably. Warden is where most experienced grand strategy players will find their footing, and Reaver or Imperator are there for when you want every decision to genuinely matter, with no margin for a careless turn.
Ironman Mode
Ironman mode is a separate option, chosen alongside difficulty when a new game is created, for players who want their decisions to genuinely stick. Rather than maintaining multiple save slots you can return to, an Ironman campaign saves automatically into a single, auto-managed slot — there's no save-scumming a costly battle or a failed gamble. Whatever happens, happens, and the next autosave simply overwrites what came before.
A save created in Ironman mode is marked with a gold [I] badge in the Load Game screen, so it's always clear at a glance which campaigns are playing for keeps.
One restriction worth knowing if you also play with mods: the underlying rule already exists in the game's systems — Ironman runs are only eligible for achievements when no mods are active. Starting an Ironman game with any mod enabled still works exactly as normal either way. Achievements themselves haven't been added to the game yet, so this restriction has no practical effect for the time being, but it's worth knowing the rule is already in place ahead of that feature's eventual launch.
