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Fronts

This page owns the Front as Valenar's Crown-scale grouping of military and reclamation effort across multiple Provinces. Fronts become available at Act 6 (Crown) and provide the strategic-coordination layer above ProvinceDefensePlans.

Role​

A Front is a Crown-level construct that groups multiple ProvinceDefensePlans, Forces, Territories, Routes, Sites, and Threats under a single strategic objective. The Crown player commits Front campaign goals; the underlying ProvinceDefensePlans and Forces execute the goals through their existing automation layers.

A Front is the largest player-facing strategic noun in Valenar. Above the Front there is no further automation layer — the player is the Crown and chooses the Fronts.

Design Reference: What This Is Not​

Rejected: HOI4 Continuous Front-Line Micro​

Hearts of Iron IV assigns military units to a painted continuous front line that subdivides into segments automatically. Units fill segments at density, counter-pushing happens along the whole line, and the player micromanages which divisions hold which segment. This is explicitly rejected for Valenar Fronts. Reasons:

  • Continuous painted-segment geometry has no good representation across multiple Provinces with passes, bridges, ward-line Sites, and supply depots scattered as named nodes.
  • The player cannot causally trace a continuous-segment outcome back to a specific Force assignment, doctrine choice, or supply commitment.
  • Unit-density micro at the multi-Province scale would require constant attention from a player who is meant to operate at strategic cadence.

Valenar Fronts are node-and-corridor: they group Territories, Routes, and Sites; they do not paint map segments and they do not auto-fill at density.

Rejected: Victoria 3 Opaque War-Bar Abstraction​

Victoria 3 reduces multi-nation wars to invisible attrition comparisons between abstract pools. The player has no causal visibility into why one side is gaining; outcomes are decoupled from the world. This is explicitly rejected for Valenar Fronts. Front state is always causally readable: the player sees which Sites have been taken, which Routes have been severed, which Forces are committed where, and which Province plans are executing which goal.

Positive Reference: Node-And-Corridor Fronts​

The positive reference is node-and-corridor strategic Fronts. The Front is a list of named campaign goals (each anchored to specific Sites, Route endpoints, or Threat sources), a named HQ Territory, an assigned Force pool, and explicit supply lines. The player reads the Front as a roster of named commitments, not as a moving abstract bar.

Positive Reference: Paradox-Style Macro Readability​

Paradox grand-strategy titles (CK3, EU4, Vic3) present multi-region strategic commitments as Crown-scale icons or arcs spanning the affected regions: a coalition's contested border, a great war's theater, a crusade's targeted region. The macro presentation summarizes the strategic picture at a single zoom level; the player drills in only when campaign-step decisions matter. This is adopted as the readability anchor for Valenar Front presentation.

A Front in Valenar shows on the Crown-scale strategic map as an arc-of-pressure indicator spanning the assigned Provinces, anchored at the named HQ Territory and labeled with the Front name, current Campaign Goal, and assigned Force pool aggregate strength. At Crown scale the player reads the Front roster as a small set of named arcs and HQs, each carrying its goal and rough state — drill-in surfaces the assigned ProvinceDefensePlans, the per-goal progress, and the cross-Province threat priorities. The Crown player operates on the Front-roster macro view; the Province-by-Province plan reading is for direct intervention when it matters.

Positive Reference: Open-World Strategy POI Clustering​

Open-world strategy and 4X UI patterns cluster point-of-interest markers as zoom-out aggregates: at low zoom a cluster medallion stands in for many underlying POIs; at high zoom the cluster fans out into individual markers. Valenar's Front HQ marker map UI is informed by this pattern.

Front HQ markers and Front-anchored POIs (Front HQ Territory, Front-level supply depots, named campaign-goal target Sites, Crown-reserve Forces under direct Front command) cluster on the Crown-scale strategic map per the same medallion / cluster / fanout-ring pattern as Site and Force markers: at low zoom an HQ Territory hosting the Front HQ plus its Crown-reserve Force pool plus its named campaign-goal targets collapses into a single cluster medallion summarizing the Front commitment density; at high zoom the cluster fans out into one marker per HQ, depot, target Site, and reserve Force. The cluster medallion is presentation only — the Front data row (carrying HQ Territory, assigned ProvinceDefensePlans, assigned Forces, Campaign Goals, supply lines, threat priorities, casualty tolerance) remains the authoritative Front-configuration surface. The arc-of-pressure indicator is also presentation: it is rendered from the Front's member-Province list and HQ anchor, never painted by the player. Cluster geometry and arc geometry are never gameplay-authoritative; commit, conclude, fail, override, and goal-edit all operate on the individual Front data row beneath the visuals.

Front Structure​

A Front consists of:

  • HQ Territory — the Front's command and supply headquarters; the named anchor for all Front-level supply Routes and the surface where Front-level intelligence aggregates
  • Assigned ProvinceDefensePlans — one or more Province-level plans whose Forces and DefenseZones fall under this Front's strategic command for the duration of the Front campaign
  • Assigned Forces — individual Forces under direct Front command, separate from the Province-assigned Forces (these are Crown reserves, expeditionary Forces, or Front-specific assault Forces)
  • Campaign Goals — explicit named objectives such as "secure these three key Sites", "establish a ward line along the named ridge", "reclaim this Territory cluster", "seal the gate scar at this Site", or "destroy this hostile Force"
  • Supply Lines — explicit Route designations connecting the HQ to Province supply depots and forward Force positions
  • Threat Priorities — cross-Province ranking of active Threat sources the Front is committed to containing or eliminating
  • Casualty Tolerance — Crown-level rules about acceptable Force losses per goal; biases doctrine across all Province plans within the Front

Campaign Goals​

A Campaign Goal is a named, causally-readable Front-level objective. Committed Campaign Goal kinds:

  • Secure Sites — bring named Sites under Crown control
  • Establish Ward Line — hold a named line of ward Sites long enough to cleanse and seal the corridor between them
  • Reclaim Territory Cluster — execute ReclaimArea Operations across a named group of Territories
  • Seal Gate Scar — execute SealGateScar Operations against named demonic Sites
  • Destroy Hostile Force — execute InterceptForce and follow-up Operations against a named hostile Force until it is annihilated
  • Hold Line — defensive Front goal; hold a named line of Territories and Sites against expected hostile pressure
  • Open Route — clear and hold a named Route corridor between two distant points

The Front's assigned Forces and Province plans execute Campaign Goals through their existing Operation and DefenseZone automation. The player intervenes at the Goal level and overrides Province plans only when required.

Automation Ladder​

The game scales control automation with polity rank. The committed ladder:

  • Act 4 (Banner Network) — Direct player control of individual Forces and Operations per Territory. No DefenseZones, no Fronts.
  • Act 5 (Province) — ProvinceDefensePlans and DefenseZones let the player set policy and let the Force allocate detachments automatically per assigned doctrine. The player drills down to specific Operations when needed.
  • Act 6 (Crown) — Fronts let the player set Campaign Goals and let Province plans execute automatically. The player intervenes at the Front-Goal level and overrides Province plans only when needed. Drilling down to individual Force assignments remains possible but is no longer the default play move.

This automation ladder means micromanagement becomes optional at scale — the player can still drill down to individual Force assignments and individual Operations, but the default Crown-tier player move is to set Front Campaign Goals and let the lower layers handle execution.

Front Lifecycle​

A Front has these lifecycle states:

  • Forming — the Crown player has named the Front and assigned an HQ Territory but has not yet committed Province plans or Forces
  • Active — Province plans and Forces are committed; Campaign Goals are being executed
  • Paused — the Front exists but is not currently executing; resources return to their home Provinces while the Front HQ remains designated
  • Concluded — Campaign Goals have been met; the Front is dissolved and its assigned resources return to home Provinces
  • Failed — Campaign Goals could not be met; the Front is dissolved with explicit Crown-level acknowledgement that its objectives are abandoned

Front lifecycle transitions are deliberate Crown player decisions. A Front is not auto-concluded by the game when its goals are met; the Crown player must acknowledge conclusion (or failure) explicitly so the dismissal of assigned resources happens under Crown control.

Quest Hooks​

Front Campaign Goals and Front lifecycle transitions (Active, Failed, Concluded) are inputs to the dynamic quest pressure system at Crown scale. A Front failure or an unmet Campaign Goal can surface mission candidates, Journal consequence entries, or urgency signals. The generator contract is documented in gd-dynamic-quest-pressure-model.md under "Pressure And Escalation Triggers".