Dynasties
Opportunist line
The Opportunist line raises the attack power of the Raider. It is chosen at match setup and stands for the whole match (Getting started).
Its effect
- Raider attack +1
The Raider's attack is 4; with the Opportunist line it is 5. The effect applies only to the Raider and only 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.
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 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.
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 went to it — the same 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.
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.