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Exploration

You can expand your country's territory by war (see War help) or in a peaceful way. Here in the Exploration menu you can annex new territories to your existing land without war.

You need money and soldiers to explore new lands. The bigger your land, the higher the need for money and soldiers. You can calculate how many soldiers and money you need by using the formula below:

Soldiers needed: (territory / 100)²
Gold needed: soldiers needed * 100

Between 1500 and 3000 acres, you will need 225 soldiers to explore a new acre. After 3000 acres, the formula for calculating the soldiers needed is:

Soldiers needed: (territory / 100) ^ 1.6

Important! The "territory" in the formula above may not be the same as your country's actual size. Barren land, and buildings under construction count as more land, as follows:

1 acre with buildingequals 1 acre,
1 acre with a building under constructionequals 2 acres,
1 acre of barren landequals 3 acres.

Above 3000 acres, you can explore using a cheaper exploration rate, if you have this possibility. The cheap rate means you only need to pay as if your territory were below 3000 acres. You can read about cheap exploration rates below.

Your soldiers need 20 rounds to explore the new lands, so you annex the new territories 20 rounds after sending your soldiers to explore. Soldiers you send to explore, will settle down in the new lands, so you will not get them back as soldiers.

Only a maximum of 10% of your country's current size can be under exploration. To make sure the top players are active fighters, there is an exploration limit: you may only explore territory until your country reaches the number of acres the 4th largest country in the group has. The fourth largest country may or may not be in the 4th position on the scoreboard. Exploration limit is based upon acreage, not score. When the 4th country's territory changes this limit changes as well.

Elves have a lower exploration limit. The maximum land they can reach by exploration is the amount of land the country at the 10% of the group has. (If the group has 1,000 countries, the limit for Elves is the size of the 100th biggest country.)

When you explore new lands you will find quarries and barren lands, these can be built upon, as detailed in the construction help.

Important! You can only build specific mines on quarries!

If your intention with the exploration is to find quarries, you have the opportunity to send your soldiers on an aimed exploration. With the use of this special exploration, your soldiers will keep searching until they find quarries in at least 50% of the new areas. This special mission needs three times more money (except if dwarves live in your country, in this case only 1.5 times more money is needed).

In one round, you can only send your soldiers on one kind of exploration mission. If you sent them on a normal exploration mission then you cannot send them on a special one in the same round!

Numbers

Every country has a unique combination of chances for finding quarries. In most cases, there is one particular type of quarry that has a higher chance of being found than all others. When you level, the combination changes: you will have a higher chance for another quarry.



Role of races in exploration

Your chosen race may alter the needs for exploration. It can modify the needs of soldiers, money or how many quarries your soldiers will find. (See Races help.)

Cheap exploration rate

Above 3000 acres, you can explore using a cheaper exploration rate, if you have this possibility. The cheap rate means you only need to pay as if your territory were below 3000 acres.

To gain cheap exploration rate, you need to conquer land from other countries. For every 4 acres you conquer, you will gain 1 acre cheap exploration. You also get this if you aid your ally in a conquer. (Your country needs to be above the maximum land size of the previous group, and below the maximum land site of the current group.)

You can also lose this possibility, if others conquer land from you. For every 4 acres conquered, you lose 1 acre cheap exploration.

Use of the cheap exploration rate is automatic. If your country's territory is bigger than 3000 acres (using the formula you see above!), and you have this possibility, cheap rates will be used automatically.

Excavations

Dwarves have a racial speciality that allows them to find quarries on their existing land, without exploring new areas. This ability can only be used when the total of quarries and mines does not exceed 15% of their total area. To excavate, you need both soldiers and gold.

Once you have the soldiers and gold ready, you can start the excavations. Once started, the results will come in after 20 rounds: your soldiers will find different types of quarries. You cannot controll which quarries they will find.

Excavations require barren land. Once excavated, these lands will turn into quarries where mines can be built. If you do not have enough barren land at the end of the 20 rounds, your soldiers will only be able to do a partial job.

Numbers

Area
Soldiers needed
Gold needed
Less than 601 acres10010.000
601-1100 acres20020.000
1101-1700 acres30030.000
1701-2400 acres40040.000
Above 2400 acres50050.000