Highlights

• Supply and isolation — Naval Landings now build visible yards and supply routes. Cut-off territory attacks at half strength and is twice as easy to capture until reconnected; threatened routes can be recovered before they collapse.
• Capitals matter more — Three upgrade tiers bring stronger defence, wider protection, and 6/8/10-second occupations. Land attacks no longer stall at the old ward delay, while Cavalry and Naval actions still respect Capital protection.
• Learn by commanding — Two guided battles teach expansion, buildings, attacks, Naval Landings, Cavalry Charges, and Palisades without touching campaign saves. Skip, replay, and keyboard navigation are supported.
• Richer campaigns — Selected battles can be won by holding territory or defeating every major rival. Next-battle briefings preserve your legacy choice and explain special rules and available actions; authored starts strengthen each theatre's identity.
• Sharper opposition — Hardened and Relentless rivals reconsider stale wars and pressure exposed player frontiers under the same rules as the player.
• A clearer war table — Campaign cartography, cleaner menus and HUD, readable overview buildings, exact Gold-shortfall feedback, reduced motion, and a dedicated Escape menu make commands easier to read and recover.
• Stronger private multiplayer — Join by code or lobby ID, invite Steam friends in game, reconnect safely, moderate and lock lobbies, see connection state, and play same-lobby rematches with stricter start checks. Linux launch, shutdown, and cross-runtime determinism are substantially hardened.