Mechanics

Research and the tech tree

Research is not a separate resource or a separate queue: it is an item in your city's The production queue. It is funded by production, rushed with gold (Guild), and once it finishes the node belongs to the player, not the city.

Where to start it

The Research button among the panel buttons opens the tree without picking a city. The panel opens with a target city picker: the node you choose joins the end of that city's queue and is paid for with its production. The picker starts on the city, among those not in revolt, that contributes most to research (Madrasa); on a tie, the capital. The same tree also sits in the city panel — there, the node joins the queue of the city that is open.

The shape of the tree

The tree is a grid of branches × tiers:

• Doctrine branches: harp, muhafaza, imar. On top of these there is a doctrine-free common branch: iskan.
• Tier 4 is each doctrine branch's doctrine node, and it is exclusive — you can pick the doctrine of only one doctrine branch, and the moment you do, the others lock.
• Tier 5 is the mastery node, and it unlocks only in the branch of the doctrine you chose; you can never reach the mastery of the other doctrine branches.
• The iskan branch has no doctrine and no mastery: all of its tiers are open to everyone whatever your doctrine, and none of them binds your doctrine choice.
• Tiers open in order: researching a node requires already knowing the previous tier on the same branch.

Every node in the grid carries content — none is an empty tier. imar's nodes: Scholarship, Commerce, Endowment, Order (doctrine), Law (mastery). muhafaza's nodes: Banners, Healing, Fieldworks, The Hearth (doctrine), Household Troops (mastery — reached only by a player who chooses ocak). harp's nodes: Archery, Cavalry, Gunnery, Ghaza (doctrine), Mobilization (mastery — reached only by a player who chooses gaza). iskan's nodes: Agriculture, Exploration, Mining, Land Title, Prosperity — doctrine-free, open to everyone.

The repeatable node

There is one more node outside the grid: Wisdom. It has no branch, no tier and no prerequisite; it can be queued at any point in the match and taken again and again. The first completion costs 36 production, and the cost rises by 20 production after each completion; each completion grants a one-time 10 gold. It does not count toward your known nodes, and the cost brake below does not apply to it — its own increase takes the brake's place.

Cost

A grid node's price is its own base plus the number of known nodes × the brake. The brake is 1 production: every grid node you know makes the next one you open that much more expensive. The brake is a small tax on a player who widens across the tree; the tree's shape (doctrine exclusivity) already limits how much of it you can open.

The price is calculated the moment it is read, not the moment it enters the queue: if two cities are researching two nodes at once and one finishes, your known-node count rises and the other's remaining price goes up by the brake. You cannot dodge the brake by starting research in many cities at once.

Constraints

• The same node cannot be researched twice — if it is known, or waiting in another city's queue, it cannot enter a second queue. The one exception is Wisdom, which exists to be repeated.
• The prerequisite is measured against a known node, not a queued one: you must have finished the previous node on the same branch before queuing the next. A queued node is not yet finished; if the city falls, the queue resets and nothing can be built on top of it.
• The doctrine is a one-time choice: while one doctrine node is known or queued, a second branch's doctrine cannot enter a queue.
• Mastery unlocks only in the branch of the chosen doctrine; the other branches' mastery stays locked forever.

Conquest and research

Capturing a city resets its queue — including a half-finished research item — just like a half-finished building or unit. But a known node stays with the player, it does not travel with the city: it is the city that changes hands, not the tree itself.

When a rival is eliminated, the cities handed over to the conqueror count as conquered too: their queues reset the same way. A doctrine the eliminated rival left half-finished does not pass to you.

Visibility

You see your own tree in full. Of a rival you see only their doctrine: a "Doctrine: …" badge sits next to their name on the score strip. The badge appears once the rival has finished the doctrine node; if they have not chosen one, or their doctrine is still in a queue, you see nothing at all. The rest of their research stays a secret.

One limit only: a node that affects a fight becomes visible in that fight. A rival knowing Fieldworks shows up as a line in the preview and outcome of their fortified defense, and knowing The Hearth shows up as their infantry's discipline line — the node itself stays hidden unless it is their doctrine, but that does not extend to its share of that fight. The preview is the engine's own calculation (Combat) and no number that enters it is hidden from the screen.

The numbers on this page are read from the game’s balance tables.