Everything here follows the classic playbook: deterministic battles with no dice rolls, fought in a fixed order you can reason about. The headline mechanics are below, then the supporting changes grouped by system.

Highlights

Counter-intelligence  New #
Covert ops are now spy battlesEvery covert operation (lockdown included) is resolved as a battle. Your agent's infiltration is spent against the target's spy protection first, then against the owner's agent, then against each of their alliance-mates' agents on that target in descending infiltration order. Every point of the duel is mutual: defeated defending agents die, the surviving defender keeps the remainder, and if your pool runs dry your agent is discovered and eliminated. Bystander agents from uninvolved players never fight.
Risk  Changed #
Failed attempts are no longer freeAttempting an operation only requires the op's own infiltration cost, so you no longer see a hard "not enough" wall that quietly reveals the defense. Instead the attempt goes in blind: energy is spent, the target's protection burns by what your agent threw at it, and the battle decides the rest. Hit confirm and hope your intel was right.
Defense  New #
Your agents now defend your holdingsAgents planted on your own or allied colonies and outposts are no longer just future saboteurs. They stand guard. When an enemy runs a covert op there, your stationed agents fight in the spy battle, and both sides are notified of who fought, who fell, and what was absorbed.
Spy protection  New #
A parked spy builds protection every tickStation your spy on your own colony or any allied location and that location gains 1 spy protection per tick, outpacing the natural decay. Five ticks parked, five more protection, a steady counter-intelligence presence without burning energy.
Alliances  New #
Protect your allies at a reduced rateYou can now add spy protection to alliance-mates' colonies and outposts, not just your own. The exchange is 50 energy for 50 protection points, or 30 energy when your spy is stationed at the target, and the discount applies at home too.
Alliances  Fixed #
No covert ops against your own allianceCovert operations and lockdown can no longer be run against members of your own alliance. They're your spy battle's defenders, not your targets, and an attempt would only have burned your own side's spy protection. The action surface now disables the Covert Op and Lockdown buttons on alliance-mates with a clear reason, and the server rejects the attempt before any energy or infiltration is spent. Locking down your own outpost still works, and during havoc the block lifts if the realm's ruleset opts into alliance friendly fire.
Movement  Balance #
Spies travel at defender speedSpies now cross the map at the defender's pace: half the travel time of an attacking squad over the same distance, with oil costs scaled to match. A spy dispatched in response to an incoming attack can land before the attack does.
Relics  New #
Player-held relics can be infiltratedOnce a relic is in player hands, spies can plant agents on it and the holder's alliance can defend it in spy battles like any other holding. Relics under admin control remain off-limits to infiltration.

Everything in this update

Spy battles

8 changes

New Battle order is fixed and predictable: target spy protection first, then the target owner's agent, then owner-alliance agents in descending infiltration order. No randomness anywhere in the cascade. #

New Each stage is a mutual subtraction. A defender with less infiltration than your remaining pool dies and drains you by that amount; a defender with more survives with the difference and your agent is eliminated. An exact tie kills both agents. #

Changed Spy protection is consumed by every attempt, win or lose, capped at what the attacker actually brought. A 10-infiltration agent dying against 20 protection leaves the defender with 10, not 20. #

New Surviving the battle with less infiltration than the operation needs fails the op but spares your agent: only losing the battle itself gets an agent discovered and eliminated. #

Changed Lockdown fights the same spy battle as every other agent operation. A lockdown that loses the battle spends its energy and costs the agent, and no lockdown lands. #

New Everyone involved hears about it: the attacker gets an agent report with the outcome, the target owner is alerted when an attempt is defeated, and every defender learns whether their agent fought it off or died doing it. #

Changed The covert dialog now reports the battle result immediately: "your agent was discovered and eliminated in a spy battle" instead of a cheerful "operation launched" while your agent quietly disappears. #

Notice Only the target owner and their alliance defend. A third party's agent sitting on the same target neither fights nor gets hurt. It just watches. #

Spy protection

3 changes

New Passive protection gain is presence-based per location: one friendly spy is enough, and stacking more spies on the same target doesn't stack the gain. #

New Placing protection on an alliance-mate's colony or outpost only requires alliance ownership access. A stationed spy lowers the energy cost. The protection belongs to the location's owner, exactly as if they'd bought it themselves. #

Changed Add Protection now unlocks with the Spy Center (Scan & Covert Ops level 2) instead of the Shield Generator. If you have initial spy access, you can defend against covert operations. #

Agents

2 changes

New Agents can be removed from the target card with one click, free, no energy. The agent's accrued infiltration is forfeited, freeing one of your ten agent slots for somewhere that matters more. #

New Agents can be planted on player-held relics. Admin-controlled relics reject infiltration outright. Wait until someone claims it. #

Spy travel

1 change

Balance Defender-speed travel applies to every spy move: toward friendly, allied, or enemy targets alike. Gate travel is unchanged (still instant, still energy). #

Squad command

2 changes

Changed Hovering a pile of squads parked on a colony or outpost now lists every squad in the stack by name with its unit count, instead of showing just one. Enemy stacks stay redacted, and unit composition is never revealed, only totals. #

New Shift+click a colony, outpost, or a parked squad to grab every one of your stationed squads there at once and jump straight to the move order: pick a destination and send. No more clicking in, opening the squad list, and choosing "all" first. #

Alliance & combat fixes

9 changes

Fixed Squads sent to an alliance-mate's outpost now actually station on it when they land. They used to arrive as loose parked squads, invisible in the outpost's garrison list, even to their own commander. #

Fixed Same-alliance forces can no longer fight each other. Allied squads meeting on the same tile (including at a friendly outpost) now coexist or reinforce the defense instead of materializing a battle, and an attack order that lands after an alliance-mate has taken ownership of the target stands down. #

Fixed Alliance-mates' squads stationed on an outpost now defend it alongside the owner's garrison when an enemy attacks, matching how endgame objects already resolve their defenders. #

Fixed Alliance visibility now shares parked member squads, not just moving ones: garrisons on member outposts and field deployments show on the map for the whole alliance, and your own squads parked on an ally's outpost are visible again. #

Fixed Squad merge works away from home: two idle squads parked on the same tile (fresh reinforcements refilling a depleted garrison on an outpost, for example) can now merge. Previously only stationed squads at the home colony qualified. #

Fixed Jam rings clear the moment the jam expires. The jammed badge on colonies and outposts now counts against the live tick clock (like the lockdown dome) instead of waiting for the next data refresh. #

Fixed A squad sitting on an enemy outpost now presses the attack every tick instead of idling on top of it. If the garrison leaves, the parked squad takes the outpost on the next tick rather than waiting for a fresh attack order. #

Fixed Launch from one of your outposts, lose it to an enemy mid-flight, and your squad now fights to retake it the moment it lands back, instead of parking harmlessly on the captured tile. #

Map & UI

1 change

New Colonies you've conquered now glow a deep conquest blue on the map, so your holdings read apart at a glance from enemies (red) and friends. An explicit personal colour mark still overrides it. #

Counter-intelligence finally has teeth. Plant defensively, keep your protection topped up, and think twice before throwing a fresh agent at a hardened colony. If something feels off or breaks, tell us in-realm.

RealmConquest is a free-to-play, turn-based browser strategy MMO in the lineage of the classic persistent strategy games. It is an independent project, not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any third-party game or its publisher. Trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Spy Battles: Counter-Intelligence Gets Teeth

Highlights

Covert ops are now spy battles

Failed attempts are no longer free

Your agents now defend your holdings

A parked spy builds protection every tick

Protect your allies at a reduced rate

No covert ops against your own alliance

Spies travel at defender speed

Player-held relics can be infiltrated