Dynasties
Opportunist line
The Opportunist line raises the attack power of the Raider, lowers its production cost, and has you build an Inn in place of the Market. It is chosen at match setup and stands for the whole match (Getting started).
Its effect
- Raider attack +1
- Raider cost -1
Both effects apply only to the Raider; the gold the dynasty brings comes from the building (below, Inn).
Attack
The Raider's attack is 4; with the Opportunist line it is 5. The effect applies only to attacks against units:
- The other units (Pioneer, Spearman, Siege, Scout, Janissary, Archer, Sipahi, Artillery, Forlorn Hope) are untouched — the Sipahi shares the same Horse prerequisite as the Raider, but the attack step does not carry over to it.
- The Raider's attack vs. city value (2) does not change. Against a city a unit's
attackvalue is never used (Combat), so this dynasty does not make taking cities any easier — that is the Siege's job. - Defense, HP, movement and vision stay the same.
Production cost
The Raider's base cost is 6 production; under the Opportunist line a Raider you put in the queue comes to 5 production. The discount is 1 production and never brings the cost down to zero or below. It changes only the cost of a Raider you put in the queue:
- Any other unit's cost stays the same.
- The upgrade cost between the Raider and the Sipahi is not affected by the dynasty either (Economy).
The dynasty does not lift the prerequisite
The Opportunist line makes the Raider stronger, but it does not give you one: building the unit requires an Horse pasture inside your territory (Raider). So this line's first move is not an attack but finding a pasture — on a start without one the dynasty sits idle until you claim horses.
The attack effect looks at a unit's owner, not at where it came from: a Raider you buy out of a bandit camp (Bandit camp) carries the same step the moment it becomes yours — and that gate is also the only way an empire with no pasture acquires a Raider at all. While the same bandit still belongs to the camp it hits with the base attack: the neutral side has no dynasty.
Inn: in place of the Market
When a seat of the Opportunist line goes to build a Market, the Inn enters the queue. The Inn carries the Market's location share (caravan road and water hex) as it is, while its fixed gold income is higher than the Market's. Its cost is 7, the Market's cost is 5. Details: Inn.
The Inn's extra gold is the third part of the dynasty and is not tied to the Raider: the gold goes to every job on the board — it speeds up the queue, buys hexes, pays for a truce (Market).
Why the Raider
The Raider is already the game's opportunity unit: fast, middling HP, and it advances after a kill. That is why the attack step and the cost discount went to it — the same attack number on a Spearman would combine with the ×2 defense multiplier the Spearman carries against Raiders (Combat) and flip the type triangle on its head.
The type triangle still holds under this dynasty: a Spearman still gets its multiplier against a Raider. What the Opportunist line does is not remove that multiplier but raise the damage a Raider deals the moment it hits an unprotected target, and bring it out cheaper.
What changes on the board
In the combat formula attack power also sits in both the denominator and the numerator (Combat):
Attack power = attack × (HP ÷ max HP) × shore multiplier × morale multiplier
Defense power = defense × (HP ÷ max HP) × terrain multiplier × foothill multiplier × type multiplier × fortify multiplier × morale multiplier
Type multiplier = the pairing's multiplier when the defender has the edge over the attacking type (Spearman against Raider ×2, Spearman against Sipahi ×2, Raider against Archer ×2, Janissary against Archer ×2, Archer against Spearman ×2, Sipahi against Pioneer ×2, Sipahi against Siege ×2, Sipahi against Archer ×2); 1 for every other pairing. The edge only applies on defense.
Fortify multiplier = 1.5 for a dug-in unit, 1 otherwise.
Morale multiplier = 0.75 for a unit at morale 2 or below (shaken), 0.5 for a unit at morale 0 (routed), 1 otherwise. It reads the morale before the fight.
Foothill multiplier = 1.25 for a unit defending on a tile next to a mountain, 1 otherwise. Shore multiplier = 0.85 on the attacker's power against a unit on a tile next to water, 1 otherwise. Both read the tile the defender stands on, not the direction of the attack, and neither applies to a city.
Damage to the target = attack power × 4 × attack power ÷ (attack power + defense power)
Counter damage = defense power × 2 × defense power ÷ (attack power + defense power) × counter share — only if the defender survives. In an adjacent attack a unit always strikes back in full (share 1) and a city never does. In a ranged attack a unit strikes back in full if the attacker is within its own reach and it can fight; a city strikes back with a share of 0.5.
Results round to the nearest whole number, halves up. There are no hidden variables: the preview is the real calculation.
So one step of attack power both raises the damage you deal and lowers the counter-damage you take. Because the Raider's defense is low (1), the second effect does more work in practice than the first: a Raider making the same trade survives it more often — and because it advances after a kill, it takes the hex as well.
Fortifying and terrain are still on the defender's side
The effect does not touch the defensive side. A fortified defender still defends at ×1.5 (Combat), and a defender in forest still gets the terrain multiplier (Map and terrain). The Opportunist line does not say "attack a protected target" — it raises the profit of hitting an unprotected one.
The numbers on this page are read from the game’s balance tables.