Notes for power players, content creators, and design-curious readers. This page summarizes the balance audit material in _divers/ — culture uniqueness analysis, unit balance, epoch progression, and the design fix log.
Caveat. Balance is a moving target. The notes below reflect the state of the audit as of 2026-04-25. Active rebalances are tracked in
docs/audit_report.mdand_divers/design_fix_status.docx. Players should treat any specific balance claim here as a snapshot, not gospel.
The 10 cultures are designed to be mechanically distinct, not numerically homogeneous. The audit (_divers/culture_uniqueness_evaluation.md) checks each culture against three uniqueness axes:
Cultures that score high on all three: Cairnveil (omen play), Thunder Lodge (adoption), Condor Crown (elevation), Ironpeak (deep mines + sulfur).
Cultures with one or more uniqueness gaps:
The audit recommends each culture have at least one signature mechanic that no other culture has. This is the rule that drove the Phase-2 mechanic-tightening.
The unit balance audit (_divers/unit_balance_spec.md, 63K) evaluates:
Notable findings:
_divers/epoch_balance_analysis.docx (27K) checks:
Findings: epoch progression is balanced. Empire-age culture-specific capstones do feel meaningfully different. Some Era II units feel slightly too long-lived (skirmisher class), planned tweak.
_divers/design_fix_status.docx (17K) tracks:
The audit is regenerated periodically. See docs/audit_report.md for the full close-out narrative.
_divers/mechanics_evaluation_and_culture_match.docx (26K) checks per-culture:
Findings:
Active player meta (informal, not canonical):
Note: the actual win rate per culture is balanced within ~5% across the 10. Apparent "tiers" are skill-curve effects, not absolute power.
The 10-culture roster is locked for launch. Four expansion candidates are queued for a later expansion pack:
| Priority | Working name | Mechanical gap fill |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Steppe Horde (Sky-Kin Ordu) | Mobile capital, horse archers; fills horse-supply gap. |
| 1 | Dharmic / Elephant Empire (Thousand-Temple Mandala) | War elephants as a distinct unit class, monsoon rice economy. |
| 2 | Mesoamerican City-State (Jaguar Sun Alliance) | Pyramid astronomy, flower-war doctrine, cacao currency. |
| 2 | Classical Mediterranean (Olive Crown Republics) | Legion / phalanx + road logistics. |
Lesser candidates: Japanese / Korean (split out of Jade Lotus), Slavic / Rus, mainland SE Asia (likely merge into Dharmic).
Expansion roster is final — no further candidates planned.
Sources: _divers/culture_uniqueness_evaluation.md, _divers/unit_balance_spec.md, _divers/epoch_balance_analysis.docx, _divers/mechanics_evaluation_and_culture_match.docx, _divers/design_fix_status.docx, docs/audit_report.md, docs/design_library_status.md.