Assume that characters can use the following skills to interface with the strategic scale mechanics:

Mission Statement

Create a set of rules that can formalize action at the national and economic level. Minimize complexity, maximize usability. Create some unambiguous book-keeping rules for writing down what these actions have accomplished.

Rules Brainstorming

Abilities

Bureaucracy

• Bureaucracy is the tool of forging efficient governance and economy.
• A big area is harder to enforce control over.
• A big area is harder to stay informed of.
• A big area is harder to transport taxes from.
• An efficient economy makes better use of natural resources.

Craft

• Craft is the tool of forging wonders and infrastructure.
• A strong industrial base allows a strong army.
• A strong industrial base allows a strong economy.
• Powerful public infrastructure can enhance every aspect of public life - but it's expensive and hard to maintain, and is vulnerable to enemy attack.
• Building infrastructure you can't defend when you're suffering the predations of enemies is an invitation to waste resources.

Larceny

• Larceny is the tool of understanding the underworld of black markets, crime, and forbidden behavior.
• A canny crookmeister can find rebellions before they begin.
• A canny crookmeister can know the activity of criminals within their society.
• A canny crookmeister can have their enemies discreetly dealt with by underworld elements under their thumb.
• A canny crookmeister can have many spies and assassins at their disposal, and know the activities of the spies and assassins of others.

Socialize

• Socialize is a tool for detecting motivation, manipulating social groups, and understanding their activity.
• A character with control over their society's culture has more power than one at the mercy of their culture.
• A character who understands how their society is perceived from outside can anticipate the actions of others.
• A character who can CONTROL how their society is perceived from outside can influence the actions of others.

War

• War is a tool for guiding combat between societies, integrating strategy, tactics, and logistics.
• A character who is a superb general can win a war with an inferior army by being in the right place at the right time.
• A character who is a superb general can win a war through having control on the terms in which he fights.
• A character who is a superb general can win a battle with an inferior force by using superior tactics to his opponent.
• A character who is a superb leader can send his citizens to die without fearing revolt.

Misc. Charms/Magic:

Summoning

• Summoning is a tool for acquiring supernatural slaves.
• A slavery-based economy is functionally equivalent to an infrastructure-based economy, except morally and security-wise.
• A slavery-based military consumes a great deal of energy and effort, and is deeply impractical on defense due to the expense involved except for defending very specific locations in very specific ways, but is very useful for supplementing an attack.

Training Effects

• Training is a tool for producing hordes of talented servants.

Travel (The very fast kind)

• Travel effects are a tool for ensuring logistic and mobility superiority.
• Travel effects assist in ensuring that you only confront the enemy on your own terms. This is useful for avoiding both military engagements and duels until you wish them to occur.
• Travel effects can assist in maintaining the economy of your nation by improving the shipping network. This requires more effort than it is generally worth.
• Travel effects can assist in maintaining your control of the government and culture of your nation by keeping in touch with far off regions. Normally, enormous nations are harder to control, due to the difficulties involved in encompassing their scope. Swift travel overcomes this.

WMD

• Weapons of Mass Destruction are tools of last resort that render other forms of conflict resolution moot.
• WMD can annihilate a city, nation, or army in a single terrible moment.
• The only meaningful defenses against WMD effects are:
  • Their scarcity - they cannot be trivially deployed, and creating them is a work of immense effort and expense.
  • Their deployment - most WMD effects require much effort to place at the desired target, or else require a powerful character to attend to the matter personally.
  • Their irrevocability - WMD effects rarely allow anything left to loot, steal, or inhabit.
  • Powerful, specialized defensive effects such as high end Celestial charms, artifacts such as the Amethyst Shield Projector, or powerful countermagic can also protect against weapons of mass destruction - but this almost always requires a defender to be at the target in question, which is a difficult thing to maintain.

Implied Book-keeping Requirements

• Geographic Traits
• Natural Resource Traits
• Cultural Traits
• Economic Traits
  • Economic activity.
  • Trade Relationships.
  • Tributary Relationships.
• Great People