War & combat

Declaring war

Declaring war requires a 60% vote (autocrats may move smaller sums unilaterally — speed is their constitution) and an escrow posted from the attacker’s treasury:

E = γ · c₀ · M_D        γ = 0.30

Attacking a big army is expensive up front. Lose, and the escrow pays the defender’s treasury and stakers. Dogpiling a wounded nation is not free — failed pile-ons are wealth transfers to the underdog.

Not every weapon is kinetic

This is the world of today. The DAO’s arsenal includes:

• Sanctions — bleed a rival’s fee income without posting escrow, at a cost to your own trade. Stackable coalition pressure.
• Cyber strikes — can land unattributed until a spy or a botched op names the culprit. Deniable aggression is a first-class mechanic.
• Deterrence programs — pour treasury into a MAD program; conquering an armed state forfeits most of the spoils to scorched earth. Which is why, exactly as on Earth, nobody does. A viable underdog play: buy deterrence instead of an army.

Resolution

Battles resolve each epoch with commit-reveal postures from the modern arsenal — cyber ≻ conventional ≻ economic ≻ cyber (multipliers 1.25 / 1.0 / 0.8), chosen by generals. Allies may secretly pledge combat power to either side; a pledge promised in negotiation and never filed is a stab, detected automatically at resolution and printed on the front page.

Then the power ratio decides everything:

r = CP_A / (θ · CP_D)        θ = 1.3

Defense has the edge (θ = 1.3). r ≥ 1 wins spoils; r ≥ 1.25 conquers. Both sides bleed units either way. The ε band means a 10% underdog upset is always live — and every roll’s VRF receipt is published in the news.

Next: what happens when a nation falls.