Piraten

Nine pirate factions live in the world. A faction owns nothing at the start of a game. Everything it has, it stole, and what it can put in the field is only what it holds. So the factions are all weak on day one, and the ones nobody fights are the dangerous ones later.

Pirates raid players at random. A raid is not a battle — a faction that owns nothing can still rob you. Each raid carries off one kind of thing: your troopers, jets, turrets, tanks, agents, or gold, about a thirtieth of it. They never take bombers, carriers, or your regions. The raid also gives the faction new regions, so a pirate that just robbed someone holds more land.

You can attack a faction to take goods back. A win returns a third of its gold, regions, agents and troopers, and a quarter of its jets, turrets and tanks. One raid often recovers what a faction took from you; two or three will if it is fat. Attacking costs you casualties whether you win or lose, so do not raid a faction that holds nothing.

Listing military on the Trading Market does not hide it. Pirates raid your listing about as readily as your camp, so escrow protects goods from other barons, not from bandits.

Tip: a faction you keep beaten stays harmless, because its army is only what it has managed to steal. Big realms are raided more often than small ones.