Minor Factions

Each region will have between 1 and 3 minor faction villages. All villages in a region will be of the same minor faction. Villages begin hostile and are defended by an army. They will also occasionally spawn wandering armies that will attack player armies and occasionally siege cities in the same region. As the game progresses, the size and quality of these armies will increase.

Pacifying
Villages can be pacified in three ways: completing a quest given by one of the villages by taking the parlay action on them and then returning to the village, bribing them, or destroying and rebuilding the village. Both the quest and bribe require the Language Square technology. Completing the quest will pacify all villages in the region, but bribing and destroying must be done for each village.

Pacified villages will provide one population each (or two with Chapel of Auriga) on the city in their region, which will work in FIDSI production but does not count as population for the purposes of unlocking Borough Streets. Pacified villages will no longer produce wandering armies, although existing wandering armies will remain. A minor faction with at least one pacified village in a controlled region is eligible for assimilation by the controlling player.

Assimilation
A player may assimilate a minor faction with a one-time cost. Initially only one minor faction may be assimilated, but two more assimilation slots may be unlocked via technology. Assimilation slots may be swapped out by paying again.

The player gains a bonus for every pacified village of an assimilated minor faction in regions controlled by the player. The kind of bonus is dependent on the minor faction. Furthermore, the player may build the unit of an assimilated minor faction. These units may be upgraded like the player's "native" units.