Faction Actions — Wiki — Atomic Rivals

A faction action is a deliberate move a country makes toward one faction. It is the third political lever, alongside reforms and national focuses. It is also the sharpest one short of war, because it acts on a single group instead of on the whole country. Most actions target your own factions. Two reach into another country's politics, and one works either way.

You find faction actions in the detail pane of the Factions screen. Selecting one of your factions lists every action you can take against it, with its requirements, a summary of its effects and its cost. Opening a foreign faction from the Factions section of that country's panel shows only the actions that work abroad.

Domestic actions

Action	Target	Cost	Cooldown	Effect
Rally Party Base	Your ruling party	25 political capital	180 days	Raises the party's influence and adds government support
Subsidize Party Apparatus	Any legal party	15 political capital plus money	240 days	Raises the party's influence
Court Opposition Party	A legal opposition party that is not near revolt (agitation below 70%)	30 political capital plus money	365 days	Sharply lowers its agitation, adds government support, and raises its influence slightly
Smear Opposition Leadership	A legal opposition party	25 political capital plus money	180 days	Lowers its influence and makes it more agitated
Outlaw Faction	Any faction except the ruling party and co-opted groups	40 political capital	180 days	Bans it: lowers influence, raises agitation, and applies Outlawed
Lift the Ban	An outlawed faction	15 political capital	none	Legalizes it again and calms it
Bring Inside the Tent	A non-party interest group with at least 20% influence	30 political capital plus money	365 days	Co-opts it: calms it, raises its influence slightly, and applies State Co-opted
Crack Down	A faction other than the ruling party with at least 30% agitation	25 political capital	120 days	Puts it Under Surveillance, at the price of a little more agitation
Purge Corrupt Leadership	A Corrupt faction with less than 75% influence	35 political capital	365 days	Removes the Corrupt trait, cuts its influence and angers it

Cooldowns are counted separately for each faction, so you can rally your base once every six months but crack down on several different movements in quick succession.

Foreign actions

Funding, arms, propaganda and election organizing for a faction abroad are not faction actions. They are Diplomatic Missions run by your Diplomats, and they are how you become a faction's backer in the first place (see Foreign Backing). Once you have a stake, two faction actions open up:

Action	Requirements	Cost	Cooldown	Effect
Incite Uprising	A non-party movement you back, with at least 40% agitation, in a country whose Legitimacy is below 40%	60 political capital	365 days	Opens a revolution flashpoint with you as the movement's patron, and stirs it up further
Back a Coup	A faction where you are the leading sponsor (largest stake), with at least 40% agitation, not barred from plotting	50 political capital	365 days	Opens a secret coup plot through the faction

A coup plot is secret: only you, anyone who joins and anyone who uncovers it can see it. What happens next, including how the armed forces choose sides and how the government can uncover the plot, is covered under Coups and Power Struggles and Flashpoints and Crises. If the faction already leads a live flashpoint, either action makes you a committed backer of that flashpoint instead.

Universal action

Demand It Sever Foreign Ties (25 political capital, 180-day cooldown) presses a faction to break with its leading foreign sponsor. You can use it against your own factions or against another country's, but not against a faction you back yourself. The faction gives in when the pressure outweighs its reliance on that sponsor. A government pressing its own faction brings its legitimacy to bear. A foreign power brings the regard the faction's government has for it, at half weight if it is not a great power. If the faction complies, the sponsor's backing ends and the faction loses standing. If it refuses, it becomes more agitated and its patron is publicly named.

Faction modifiers

Several actions leave a lasting faction modifier on their target:

Modifier	Effect
Outlawed	The faction cannot endorse any party, and its agitation rises month by month as suppression breeds resentment (Monthly Agitation)
State Co-opted	+10% influence and a seat at the table; its agitation falls year after year
Under Surveillance	It cannot take part in a coup. In a power struggle, it fights at half strength
Foreign Backed	Applied automatically while the faction has a foreign backer. Its influence grows slowly (Monthly Influence)

A co-opted faction cannot be outlawed until it is let go. An outlawed one cannot be co-opted. Each tool locks out the other.

Counterintelligence

Meddling abroad is harder against a country with strong counterintelligence (Counterintelligence). It raises the political capital and money cost of foreign actions and makes the AI less willing to try them. Political Police, Secret Police and Mass Surveillance all raise it, and so does Autocracy. A country that has recently survived a coup attempt is Coup-Wary, with sharper counterintelligence for five years.

The AI

Each month, every AI country weighs every action it could take: against its own factions, and against factions in a limited set of countries that matter to it diplomatically. It takes the single best option, but only if that option clears a minimum score. The weights are low when things are calm and rise several times over when a faction is genuinely dangerous: highly agitated, weakly governed, or already backed from abroad. An AI government in a power struggle cracks down on its rivals far more readily. The AI backs coups only within its own camp, mostly against governments with low legitimacy, and never against a great power.