🔋 Influence -

All House banners will be ranked for influence by the lead House in their alliance. By default the order of influence in the alliance is chosen by the lead House of that alliance at the start of the game and onward through any changes to their membership or favour. The lead House has the discretion to change this order in their alliance at any time, which is usually represented by the line order of the alliance's table banners by proximity to the lead House's own banner when placed at their War Council. When ordering banners, those ordered most distant from the alliance's lead banner, (That is; the highest ranked player in the Lead House) when forming a council, have the least influence in that alliance. The lead House of an alliance is determined by support from the other members of the alliance. The Lead House then decides the order of each of the Houses below them, based on privilege, power, or whim. A council may not proceed in a round until this order is established.

At the beginning of the game House Raieth for the Loyalist Trust and House Fedis for the Union, will be the lead Houses of those factions, as they are the initial claimants to the throne and Tribunate. The Governor (or, Lead) Player in each of these Houses start the game with two table banners over the other Player’s initial, one for their home regions. This is a one time starting bonus which stops if those Players ever lose primacy in their respective factions and cannot be reclaimed even if they regain that position later. Further into the game, teams may choose to support a different House or Player for leadership, or they could choose to break away entirely.

The Babayaga can resolve her preferences for initiative order as she so wishes, usually playing a shell game of priority and punishment amongst her acolytes, as they are seen more as individuals, distinct from their Houses while under the Baba’s roof.

Influence in an alliance is normally assigned, House by House, not Player by Player. That being said, there is nothing stopping a particular Player from breaking away and declaring for a different House. The number of banners in a particular House in the alliance will affect that faction’s initiative in conflict but does not affect their standing within an alliance. To make it clear; the lead House has carte blanche to decide the alliance's influence order, regardless of force distribution or numbers of banners owned by the subordinate Houses. If a Player or House doesn’t like where they sit in the influence order of their alliance, well; That is where politics comes in.

Houses may also send different members to different councils to which they are invited, however; The optics of this can be complex and a House leader should be very confident in the loyalty of their own family if they choose to empower another member of their House in such a way.

Mechanically, influence order primarily determines the order by which Gambits will be resolved. If two Gambits conflict within an alliance, then the Gambit of the House with more influence will be prioritised. The alliance with more Houses, not banners, overall will gain priority in a case where any gambit may conflict between two alliances. Alliances with the same number of banners will share initiative for the purposes of resolving Gambits. If councils in conflict contain memebers from the same House, both councils will count as having the support of that House. In cases where simultaneous resolution is impossible, Control will make the call which best supports an interesting narrative.