Field Manual
One map, 195 nations, every commander on it. Territory is held in percentages rather than flags, so ground is taken gradually — and lost the same way.
01 // The world
There is one world and everybody plays in it. The nations you see on the map are the same nations every other commander sees, in the same state, at the same moment.
Ownership is fractional. A country is not a flag you either hold or do not — it is a percentage, and several commanders can have a stake in the same nation at once. Contested ground counts for nothing until it actually falls, which means a war is a campaign rather than a single roll.
The map
Every nation carries a dossier: who holds it and by how much, its population and infrastructure, and what an approach would cost you. You can read the whole picture before spending anything.

02 // Geography
You cannot march an army through a country you do not hold. Land routes may only cross your own territory or an ally's — everything else has to go by sea, and sealift is priced on distance and the size of the force.
That single rule is what turns the map into a strategy rather than a list of targets. Taking a neighbour does not just add territory; it opens a land route to everything behind them. A campaign is planned in the order the borders allow.
03 // War
04 // Intelligence
Scouting a rival returns an approximation, not a readout. Enemy strength is reported as a rough figure that varies between looks, and activity is shown as a band rather than a timestamp.
Both are deliberate. Exact counts would make war arithmetic instead of judgement, and an exact last-seen time would let anyone build a profile of when a real person is at their desk. You get enough to decide, and no more.