2026-09-21
How pocket economies work
Most strategy games give you one wallet. Rustbite does not. Gold and mana belong to a pocket: the contiguous plates under one banner. Own two split clusters and you run two economies, each with its own upkeep bill.
That is why the map is the fight. A long thin empire is rich and fragile. A compact blob is slower and harder to starve. Capture the hex that joins two enemy clusters and you cut their purse in two.
Standing units demand gold every turn from the pocket they stand in. Fail to pay and they starve into wrecks. Wrecks become Rustwood, which kills the tile’s income and hides the next fight. Neglect the interior and the wastes take the ground back.
Flats still take farms. Gold ore takes mines. Mana crystals feed temples. Hills cost more to climb and give rifles more reach. Rivers are slow crossings. You do not win the Rust Age with a bigger global bank. You win the pocket in front of you.