The economy of War Footing is the heart of the game, even more so than the combat system. A majority of the game's turns will likely be the lead-up to conflict. Income can be increased by lobbying for more revenue, and naturally scales as tension gets higher and your government allocates more money to defense.
Domestic production and licensing
This is an area that has developed a lot since the initial designs. While domestic arms production is still important, relationships with other countries and sourcing arms deals has become more and more prominent in the design. Beyond a few very basic domestic pieces of equipment, other equipment needs to be licensed for a fee before you can produce it domestically. The advantage is that it costs half as much to produce domestically, but it takes time and licensing.
Formalized arms deals
The newest change to the economy is the addition of formalized arms deals. Rather than the spot buys that purchases relied on before — which are still there, but more limited now — arms deals take multiple turns, provide a slight discount per unit, and improve the relationship with the supplier. The goal of all of these changes is to encourage and reward the player for planning ahead and making decisions about how they will equip their forces, rather than panic-buying as needs arise.
Next time, we'll talk through some of the different unit types available in the game. Stay tuned!
Filed under: War Footing · dev blog · 5 Jun 2026