Waste Regions

Waste is a region ruined by a nuclear or chemical strike. You cannot buy it or drop it; an enemy gives it to you.

Waste stays on your books. It counts toward your territory, it costs the same upkeep as any other region, and it earns you nothing. A realm that takes several strikes and ignores them ends up paying for regions that do no work.

Cleaning it up is called decontamination, and it is offered during maintenance whenever you hold any. Two limits apply:

• You can clean a fifth of your waste each turn, but never fewer than 10 regions and never more than you actually hold. A big mess takes several turns to clear no matter how rich you are.
• Each cleaned region costs half the going price of new regions. A high technology level cuts that further, down to a quarter.

Paying part of the bill cleans part of the waste.

Cleaned regions have no type until you give them one. You are asked to share them out across region types, the same way you share out regions you have conquered.

Strategy: decontaminate early. You pay upkeep on waste every turn, and you can clean only part of it each turn.